Vilnius Railway Station is located in the southern part of Vilnius City, with Railway Station Street to the north of the station, the railway interchange to the south, and Chopin Street to the northwest, which connects to Kaunas Street. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 The main building is a row of three-story buildings seventy or eighty meters long, but it looks very sturdy

-- The main position is located on the south side of the station building: due to the topography, the railway is south of the main building, and the seven or eight tracks further south of the country are all suburban green spaces, except for a few buildings, and a large field of savanna forest with a depth of more than 2 kilometers.

They are mostly deciduous trees, and they can be seen far away from the eye and do not obstruct the view of the troops, and of course the same is true for the German troops who will attack from this direction.

On the slightly undulating hills in the distance, the Red Army had already built a simple defensive line, but the defensive line was not strong because the height of the hill was extremely undulating. In the event of an attack by a German tank group, there was little defensive value. Moreover, for the Red Army artillery in the vicinity of the railway station, the hills, which were not even hills, did not block the view much, and the terrain on the side of the station was also higher, so the superiors fixed the first real line of defense of the city on the line south of the railway station railway.

By the time Tozic's unit arrived at the railway station, a small number of troops were already being erected, which had been withdrawn from the defensive force two kilometers away - the superiors had agreed that their commanders should retreat if the situation warranted, and the loose line of defense would not last much anyway.

As soon as the team arrived, the fighters immediately dug their positions, and the mixed formation commanded by Tozić was counted as two platoons to defend an area about 100 meters wide north of the left flank of the railway transfer station. A little higher behind them was a group of four cannons commanded by Shuklin, with a distance of only about forty meters between the two sides.

By the time the cannons fired, the sound behind the heads of the comrades in the trenches must have been earth-shattering, but fortunately, due to the difference in altitude, the muzzle flame and shock wave did not harm the infantry.

Shuklin chose this position because the terrain was very suitable - less than 10 meters behind him was a cement road for the interchange, and more than 30 meters on the northern edge of the road was a dry sewer trench.

There was a large pile of mud walls covered with snow and ice, presumably from the excavation of the sewer a few years ago. In this way, the artillerymen only had to dig a few gaps in the mud wall almost a meter high, and they could obtain an anti-tank gun position with an open firing range and a certain defensive ability in the front.

If you dig and pile up all around, this position will be safe enough.

The sewer ditch in front of it will become the best "rough trench" for the infantry, as long as a little rest, dig out a little more soil from the bottom and pile it up on the south side of the trench to become a very practical trench. The trench traversed the south side of the railway line from east to west, slightly crooked and almost a kilometer long, which saved the Red Army a lot of time in deploying positions.

All the tools in the railway station storeroom were removed, and the troops needed to rest the trenches were insufficient, and the biggest problem in this regard was the two mixed formations commanded by Tozic.

With those big pickaxes and shovels, everyone is doing their lives desperately!

Since one trench alone was not enough, almost all the infantry commanders also rested on the second line of defense, including mixed units - the terrain was suitable, and Kodelinkov led 12 infantry and 30 volunteer militiamen to build positions behind the mud walls on both flanks of the artillery position, so that the two platoons could form two rows of fire without interfering with each other.

Benjamin led three infantry soldiers to dig his own territory on the edge of the cannon position, digging the position nearly fifty centimeters down, circular depression, and enclosing the excess earth on both wings into an arc-shaped mud wall more than half a meter above the ground, leaving only a small opening behind him. In this way, the gunners have a cover with a height difference of more than a meter, and when the battle breaks out, the gunners can avoid most of the threats.

The Jewish artillery commander couldn't do any physical work, he was basically in command, and the other three were playing with their heads and sapper shovels.

"Lieutenant, that old comrade is an expert!" Valekin and the others had already dug their positions, and Granov and he had just measured the distance to several notable landmarks ahead.

"It's supposed to be an old artilleryman, and everything is to the point." Shuklin sat on a wooden shell box and fused the high-explosive shells, and could clearly hear the old comrade directing three able-bodied infantrymen in his not-so-standard Russian.

"Old comrade, did you fight a war?" Glebov leaned closer, saw the man sitting down to dismantle the shell box, threw over a small pry bar pinned to his waist, and asked in passing.

Benjamin pried open the somewhat jammed seal, opened the box and saw five round paper tubes lined up inside, so he took out one. When you open the lid, you can see mortar shells inside.

By the light of the campfire next to him, he raised his head and smiled at Glebov, who was 5 meters away, and said, "It is much more elaborate than the packaging of the last war, when the German mortar shells were fixed with wooden frames in the box, and they were not so clean."

"Mortars?"

"Well, Western Front, Second German Reich Dragoon Mortar Unit, Corporal Squad Leader."

Benjamin's words startled the Red Army cannon artillery fighters who heard it from a dozen meters away - "German veterans?!" ”

It's a bit dizzy! A few approached, wanting to satisfy their curiosity.

Benjamin, however, didn't care, and used the pry bar to open another smaller box, took out the ring ****** from the paper bag, and took four pieces and clamped them to the front of the tail behind the shell.

"This is a bit unreasonable, I used to worry about not being able to find ******, and after twenty years, the Germans still haven't put ****** and shells in a box, trouble!"

When he looked up, he saw several Red Army soldiers looking at him, smiled and said: "I am a Lithuanian Jew, and I used to have German nationality, but all Jews have to go into the quarantine area." ”

This laughed a little helplessly - he used to serve Germany, but now the German fascists almost killed him, isn't it the sorrow of history?

Ignoring the eyes of the cannons, he got out of the circular bunker and assembled the mortar.

The two fighters moved the shell boxes to the side and loaded the ****** under Benjamin's guidance.

"Sergeant, I need to test fire three shots." Said to Kodhelnikov.

"Yes, remind the troops on both sides." The sergeant, carrying ammunition, replied.

"Test firing mortars, three shots!"

The mortar will need to be test-fired, and this gunner is a little strange! However, the comrades of the nearby unit understood very quickly, because the people in the mixed unit told them that it was a German mortar with no aiming equipment.

The gunner who can use a German mortar is a multi-talented person, and whoever dares to use no sights is either blind or a master!

Basic charge, No. 3 charge, strong charge, three shots! Benjamin's test launch was to shake the wheel high and low and in the direction of his own wheel, and with the first launch, an explosion point was formed 250 meters away, which was only about 10 meters away from his own prediction.

He took a stone and made a mark on the barrel of the gun, and only he understood what it meant. The last strong-charge shell was fired, and the shell whistled and flew about three or four hundred meters in front of the flank of the infantry position on the distant hill, which startled the people in front!

"The mortar test firing didn't hit the head, did it?!" The cursing of the officer in front of him came from the field phone, and the comrade who answered the phone here hurriedly explained, "The captured German mortar has no sights, and our old comrades are testing it." ”

"I didn't hit my own head! Let that guy take it easy! The scolding man hung up the phone, and he was relieved.

Tozic came to the back of the mud wall and asked Benjamin, "How is it?" Can you get it right? ”

"It's okay to spread 100 meters from a distance of one kilometer, and if you're lucky, you can be more accurate. Within 500 meters, it is guaranteed not to be used only to scare individual soldiers. ”

Hearing his confident answer, Tozić was relieved - he could ensure that he could spread within 100 meters within a kilometer, which was already very good, at least he could beat the German stragglers.

It's just that there are fewer shells, and the dozen or so boxes on the carriage are removed, plus the ones brought on the back, adding up to more than 70 shells, otherwise Benjamin will test a few more rounds, and now he is reluctant.

The mortar mount is engraved with the inscription Granatwerfer 34, a Type 34 80-mm mortar developed by the German company Rheinmetall in 1932. The barrel is 1143 mm long and weighs 57 kilograms, and after Benjamin counted the shells, they found that there were two different shells, the lighter one was the 3.5 kg 34 mortar shell, with a muzzle velocity of 172 m/s, a maximum range of 2400 meters, and a maximum dispersion diameter of 65 meters.

However, Benjamin didn't know what the muzzle velocity was, he was aiming at the angle and the approximate energy provided by the charge (don't underestimate this skill, this is a real skill that has been practiced in war!). ）。 However, with the help of the cannon artillerymen, he already knew that the approximate maximum range of this mortar was about 2,400 meters.

Each charge has its own energy, and since there is no exact data to refer to, Benjamin decided to aim in battle according to the standard procedure for rapid/defensive firing of mortars: the range is generally determined by the increase or decrease of the charge.

"Just a few more shots." He was prepared for how lighter shells would be fired, but Benjamin was unsure about the special mortar shells with a long-rod fuse marked with the word Wurfgranate 38.

There are only 15 rounds of that kind of artillery shell at hand, and they are reluctant to test fire, so it is estimated that the range will be closer, and we will talk about it when it starts. However, it is certain that this shell will be much more lethal against infantry than ordinary artillery shells - it is heavier, weighing 7.5 kg. The use of this long-rod fuse is obviously to allow the shell body to explode at a certain height above the ground, causing an air explosion effect.

(It's a little busy today, it's three thousand, and tomorrow it's going to explode.) (To be continued.) )