It's hard to say goodbye when you're together, and this is especially true of a brutal war. Familiar faces were vivid a few seconds ago, but in the blink of an eye they were a thing of the past, people on the battlefield had more or less experienced such painful experiences, and Lynn, who was new to war, had witnessed the departure of many of her companions in just five days—death was not the only way to part, but none of them were gratifying.

Knowing that there might never be a chance to see each other again, Lynn didn't even have the time to sigh for a long time. He turned his head, not wanting the "butcher" to see the tears that slipped from the corners of his eyes. Although the time to really get along with him is very short, it is an out-and-out friend of life and death. If it weren't for the help of this irascible SS sergeant, Lynn, who appeared as a rookie, would have already turned into a wreck in this strange place, and it is no wonder that the friendship between comrades is as deep as the sea. This battlefield of blood and fire is like a melting pot, and all false and hypocritical things will be burned to ashes, leaving only the true feelings of gold.

At Yankel's urging, the five soldiers he selected simply packed up their belongings, including personal belongings previously stored behind the position and military blankets rolled up in the shape of horseshoe, which were usually left untold. Lynn wanted to give his assault rifle to the "butcher", but he shook his head with a wry smile, his injured left hand was barely able to control the light and easy-to-use MP40, and it was difficult to shoot accurately with the MP44. What's more, on this battlefield with artillery and chariots as the core force, the role that a single gun can play is minimal.

Picking up the rucksack she had brought with her and slung her loaded assault rifle cross-body, Lynn once again walked among the squad led by Yankel. Before his doubts were answered, he cursed viciously in his heart: You said that you, a Wehrmacht lieutenant, are so unstylish, too unreliable, and too bad to deal with a small SS soldier like me! When we were fighting bloody battles on the front line, you didn't see anyone, and you finally repelled Maozi's attack, so you jumped out to choose people, did you take the lives of these soldiers instead of human lives, and desperately tried to please your superiors, right?

Despite Lynn's sarcasm in his mind, the burly Wehrmacht officer still held his head high and straightened his body, which really looked like the former Bayern Munich and Germany center forward Carsten on the pitch. Yankel. However, all but four of the soldiers he selected were wounded—and those who could stay on the front line were not too badly wounded. It's just that the spirit of the wounded horn is often not very good, and the sun above their heads is warm, but they are like wheat that has not been irrigated by rain for a long time, even if they straighten their waists, they still look like they are gray-faced.

The weapons of the soldiers chosen on the eve of the "Yankel" were not very uniform, but at least they were submachine guns. This time, the five soldiers were armed with five very different firearms, German-made Mauser 98K, MP40, MP44, Soviet-made "** Sand", and a Mosin Nagant rifle with a fixed scope, in addition to two pistols stuck in their belts. Lynn's Mauser pistol was a rarity among the German [***] team, and another soldier's Mosin Nagant M1895 was a rare trophy. It belongs to the old-fashioned double-action revolver, which became the standard weapon of the Russian army from the end of Tsarist Russia, and continued to the period of the Soviet Red Army, the overall number of equipment is actually not a lot, but according to the size of the army, its distribution ratio is far lower than that of the American and British armies and even the Germans, and its reputation is not as loud as Browning, Webley, Ruger and Walter.

After leaving the position, the small group of miscellaneous German soldiers walked along the road in the direction of the town of Holgen. The distance between the two is less than two kilometers, and even at a sluggish pace, a quarter of an hour is enough to arrive. However, the daylight here belonged to the Soviet Air Force, and in the interval between the heavy bombing of large aircraft groups, Soviet fighters appeared near the river bank from time to time. Whether it was harassment or provocation, the German fighters basically ignored them, and the extremely limited anti-aircraft fire on the defending positions was difficult to drive them away, so that the German ground forces had only one way to choose when they encountered the Soviet fighters, and that was to hide. Lynn and the others retreated into the woods twice along the way to avoid air raids, and it took them more than half an hour to reach the town.

Compared to what Lynn first saw at first, this quintessential Eastern European town was now unrecognizable. The traces of the battle are everywhere, and the astonishing power of shells and bombs destroyed most of the buildings on both sides of the river, even the church that stands in the middle of the town; The small circular square has become a natural accumulation of all kinds of "war waste", and large and small wood, cement blocks, stones and glass shards have completely covered the gravel paved ground; The winding alleys of the town are no longer visible from end to end, and they are either cut off by collapsed houses or disappear into the rubble one by one.

Buildings can be rebuilt, towns can be rebuilt, but time can never go back to the way it used to be.

Following Yankel from the entrance of the town to the north, and inadvertently catching a glimpse of an arm hanging from the edge of the pile of debris, Lynn's mood suddenly fell to the icy bottom.

It was a terrible war, and there was a terrible enemy!

The main body of the town is located on the slope of the north bank of the river, and the high point is less than 100 meters above the river. The group rounded the center of the town and soon reached the ridge, and Lynn looked back condescendingly, and the stone bridge across the river was only half of the pier and a small section of the bridge near the riverbank, and the wreckage of Soviet tanks and fighting vehicles and the remains of soldiers who had not had time to be transported were scattered on the opposite bank. The scene under the riverbed is equally shocking, the once white snow has been dyed mottled with water, and the originally clear water is mixed with scarlet blood.

On this side of the riverbank, the German soldiers defending along the river took the broken walls and sandbags and gravel as their positions, and the wisdom and fearlessness of the battle were vividly reflected: some fought on their own, piling up several guns, whole chains and long-handled grenades; Some work in pairs, with both "Iron Fist" or "Tank Killer", as well as submachine guns for infantry melee combat. Behind a house that had not yet completely collapsed, Lynn also found a No. 4 tank with a long-barreled cannon, and the Panzers had camouflage nets, sandbags, and even a few pieces of furniture on its body and turret.

Walking across the ridge, the first thing that catches your eye is a dozen spire houses scattered on the north side of the hill. They all look like houses of similar size in wood and stone, some on the edge of the woods, some on flat ground. Some of them are just alone, and some of them have wooden houses such as firewood houses and stables attached to them. Immediately after looking up, beyond the hill was an extremely open white: a field the size of dozens of football fields was covered with white snow, and a few black lines snaked from the foot of the mountain into the distance, and the woods were either naturally separated from each other or next to each other by crony horns. There are also occasional grayish-brown walled houses in the woods, which do not form compact villages, but in the woods and fields, wooden stakes about half a man high are like stitches on a large curtain, separated from each other but connected by dots, meandering to outline the outlines of horse farms.

The natural scenery and the traces of human activity are almost perfectly blended here, and after only two glances, Lynn suddenly felt much more cheerful. However, the open terrain is full of simple and harmonious beauty, which also means that once the Soviet tanks break through the defense line along the river, they can gallop through the fields with impunity. Lynn narrowed her eyes and saw that the defenders had built small positions on some hills or woodlands that could control the surrounding area, and there were really no line fortifications in this area to stop the Soviet advance. As for the far end of the line of sight, the faint gray-blue is already the shore of the Baltic Sea?

"Hey, soldier, keep up!"

"Yankel", who was walking in front, finally realized that he had a subordinate who had fallen behind, and he walked sideways to the side of the road, letting the other four soldiers continue to line up, and turned his head sideways to look at Lynn. Although it was still that cold and arrogant expression, there was no obvious arrogance and extremism in the tone, and it even seemed to be communicating softly. Lin Enchu was stunned, and hurriedly quickened his pace to follow. As he passed by Yankel, he saw the guy smiling at him, as if he had some bad intentions.