"Where did the shells come from?!" In Filtov's words: It is obvious that the shells fired by the German 150 mm heavy guns, but the German 150 mm howitzers have a range of 14 or 5 kilometers, and it is impossible to fire them from the town of Kaulnovaya, which is 9 kilometers away. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

From a military point of view, in the current situation none of the commanders would have deployed heavy artillery positions in Kolynovaya. The front was all plain terrain, and if heavy artillery was deployed, it was vulnerable to retaliatory shelling unless it was in the forest - the range of the Germans' 150 howitzers was inferior to the ZIS-3 on their side.

What about in the forest? There were already reconnaissance detachments lurking in the area, and no artillery positions were found in the German army.

According to the current situation on the battlefield, aerial reconnaissance could not be counted on, but many observer scouts sent by both sides became the most reliable eyes, and the heavy artillery positions that were firing in the wilderness were easy to detect.

After a round of shells exploded, the entire factory area seemed to fall silent.

"There are only six shells, and a battalion seems to have hit a few shells." Pavlov finally cleared the mud from his mouth and muttered.

"Prepare to continue to be bombed." Saying that, Filtov shouted loudly around him: "Observe and hide!" ”

It was supposed that the second round of shells would soon come down, but after waiting for more than half an hour, a violent explosion sounded, but the explosion point moved back for almost a kilometer, about the location of the train station!

"I think the Germans are harassing us."

How could there be such a cover for the attack of the troops - not to mention tanks in the wilderness in the field of vision, not even the shadow of an infantry.

At this time, Ilyushchenko, who was originally in charge of only guarding his precious mortar on the side, said: "Company commander, I don't think it's a German howitzer, it may be a train gun." ”

"It's not a big caliber?!"

Of course, Pavlov's meaning is only for the "train gun" that has always been in his mind, and for the infantry, 150 mm is an out-and-out heavy artillery.

If you are on flat ground, a shell will come and the absolute kill radius can reach almost 15 meters, and within this range, even if there is no shrapnel hit, even in the trench will die from the shock wave!

And its fragmentation killing radius can even reach 50 meters, and within this range, at least one shrapnel is distributed on an area the size of a human body!

Although the first battalion had the same solid reinforced concrete ruins as cover as its own side, a few shots were fired in the center of the position, and it was estimated that the casualties of the troops were enough to choke.

"It is said that the Germans loaded some naval guns and cannons used by the navy and army heavy artillery units on the trains, and the range was very amazing. I heard that the sound was different from the howitzer shells I had received before, it was sharper! ”

"We can't care so much, we only have to be bombed anyway."

Filtov said a little helplessly: he has seen similar train guns, and the Red Army also has them, that is, the flatbed car is equipped with army artillery, 150 mm plus brakes, and it is estimated that there is no need to put a stationing hoe when firing on the railway. In this way, you can target a city, and you can transfer it after a few rounds, and there is nowhere to find it!

Sure enough, the news came from the first battalion that those shells caused them to lose 17 people, of which 8 were killed and 9 were seriously injured! Among the seriously injured, except for two who were smashed by the blasted masonry, the other seven were suffering from internal bleeding and severe shock injuries.

In the next few hours, one or two large-caliber shells would fall every few minutes, and the actual losses of the troops in the city who were reinforcing the fortifications and arming them were not large, but they made people nervous a little at first.

Fortunately, it doesn't matter when you get used to it.

Filtov and the others considered themselves lucky, and if the Germans had smashed all the shells on the factory area in an hour, it would have been enough to harass them every few minutes.

Probably, the Germans also understood the reaction of people to the shelling, and did not want to waste shells, and the heavy artillery shelling of Kazatin stopped. Thinking that the Germans would be quiet for a while, a few shells flew in and out, but they were replaced by medium-caliber ones.

This really the commanders of the Red Army: Panfilov gave orders to several 122 howitzers in his artillery regiment to fire a minute at the town of Kolynovaya, 9 kilometers away!

In addition to the town of Kaulnovaya, the Germans were looking for a settlement in the wilderness where they could lay enough troops, and that was Berdichev, 25 kilometers away from Kazatin.

Both sides ceased until dark, and there was no such harassing shelling.

At night, the entire factory area fell silent.

Filtov came to the makeshift kitchen more than 30 meters behind the front-line position, where the comrades in charge of catering had already prepared dinner for their company and anti-tank artillery detachment.

Saw that the trainee political instructor of the 1075th anti-tank destroyer group of the 4th company of the 4th infantry regiment Klochkovtiev was here, leaning against a position near the door to eat.

Filtov took his share and walked over to Klochkovtiev and sat down.

The artillery group was placed on the right flank of the factory, where there was a wide field of view, where the position was higher than the railway embankment, and there was a collapsing wall as cover for the front: it was easy to shoot at a target a kilometer or two away from behind a concealment more than a dozen meters away, but it was extremely difficult to turn it around, and so was it.

"How's our food?" Filtov took a bite of hard bread and asked Comrade Trainee Political Instructor.

"It's okay, it's just less meat."

"Hehe, we don't have the same treatment as your artillerymen, eating beef makes the cow strong."

Now Klochkovtiev and some other artillery comrades laughed - the two cannons they brought were deployed in a place without a ceiling, and everyone except the officer on duty used the kitchen as a rest room.

As for eating beef to make the cow stronger, that is a joke often heard by artillerymen.

、、、、、、

Around midnight, a train left Berkichev. The occupants were dressed in German artillery uniforms, and their expressions were serious in the night, and they slowly looked south, and could hear the roar of vehicle engines and the neighing of people and horses on the nearby road.

At the same time that the Germans were moving on a large scale, and at the same time, several reconnaissance platoons sent by Panfilov from the 1075th Regiment of the divisional reserve arrived at a wooded area about 2.5 by 3 kilometers north of the Kazatin factory area.

At 2 a.m., most of the Red Army soldiers in the factory area, who were recuperating with their eyes closed, were awakened by the sound of dense gunfire and short explosions in the distance.

There was clearly a skirmish in the woods: Panfilov had no intention of occupying the woods, where it seemed possible to build a defensive line, but under the artillery fire on both sides, and in this damn season, not a single commander wanted to stay there for weeks with his troops.

Panfilov now wanted to defend only the woods, although the woods were good as offensive outposts, so only reconnaissance units were sent as precautions, lest the Germans would not know about the artillery into the woods.

Soon, the telephone connecting to the headquarters rang, and orders were given that a small number of their reconnaissance troops would retreat from the woods, and in five minutes, all the artillery within reach of the woods was to carry out a covering bombardment of the southwest side of the woods!

At a quarter past two o'clock in the morning, as soon as the order to open fire was given to several artillery positions in Kazatin, the first round of shells flew out of the muzzles, and Filtov and others in the factory area felt as if the end of the world had come to them!

Dense shells fell on the factory area, and the whole thing was covered!

"Damn, it's rocket artillery!" Filtorf hysterically shouted to a few people on the side who were nesting in the bunker together!

No more harassment, the real prelude to the offensive of the Germans began! (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )