Chapter 11: Nothing to hide
A beautiful ambush battle was fought in an extreme predicament, which not only relieved the embarrassment of stomach and ammunition, but also opened up the situation to a certain extent, and the German soldiers marching northwest along the road recovered a lot, and these big ears were talking and laughing and eating along the steel helmets. Among them, Lynn was probably the only one who was downcast, and he couldn't figure out a lot of things, and he had a lot to worry about—if he were to become a prisoner of war in the Soviet army one day, would he be killed after surrendering, as he had just done, and would he be able to return to his original world after dying, or would he be able to wander forever in the endless void?
The chirping of tracks still rings in my ears, and one of the two half-track armored vehicles that participated in the battle is now left, the assault model with the turret. During the battle, it was almost annihilated by the fire of Soviet tanks, but it still narrowly escaped, but the body was full of large and small breaches, and the original crew of the crew also killed one and seriously wounded. In order to maintain combat effectiveness, it was necessary to temporarily draw people from among the infantry to replenish them.
At the moment, this temporary combat force of retreating personnel is advancing along the march route of the previous Soviet armored units, and the officers seem to want to encircle the Soviet combat units in front of their own deep defensive line, so that they can take advantage of the chaos to withdraw to their own defense line, even if they cannot completely annihilate the other side. The plan itself looked good, but the failure to capture a few trucks was probably the biggest regret of the previous ambush. With the tired bodies of these soldiers, a constant "rapid march" is not to be thought of, and it is quite good to be able to maintain a normal marching speed of four to five kilometers per hour.
Half an hour after leaving the battlefield, the soldiers in charge of the "aftermath" got some gasoline from Soviet armored vehicles and cars, and poured them on the prisoners of war who had been shot intensively, the guns that had been collected together, and the ammunition boxes that had been piled up around the artillery. The destruction of Soviet equipment and supplies can indirectly reduce the pressure on their own operations, but the explosion of ammunition and the smoke of burning also provide guidance for Soviet aircraft.
Sure enough, two small dark dots soon appeared in the eastern sky, their fly-like buzzing sound was more effective than bugles and leather boots, and hundreds of German soldiers greatly increased the speed of their march, and even tended to move from walking to trotting - fortunately, the ground was wet, so that no choking dust was raised, but after leaving the previous woods, the vegetation along the road was sparse and sparse, and could not provide shelter for a team of several hundred people.
Lynn had regained some strength as he chewed wax and ate some bread, but after walking briskly for some distance with two guns and a bulge bag on his back, the heavy tiredness spread from his legs to his whole body. His life was at stake, so he could only grit his teeth and persevere, using his willpower to drive this body that was already able to control freely to move forward!
The humming sound became clearer, and when I turned my head, I could see the dark green livery of the two Soviet planes. In silhouette, they were not supposed to be the Il-2 fighters, known as the "Black Reaper", but this was not something to be thankful for the German soldiers, as they were surrounded by rockets under their wings. When they swooped down on the nose, the propellers whined the air and let out a low whimper, and the hum of the engines had a powerful penetrating force, which could make people feel oppressive and nervous at great distances. Seeing the two Soviet planes in a posture ready to attack, the German officers shouted to the soldiers to disperse on both sides of the road.
The surrounding soldiers rushed off the road, and Lynn lost the "butcher" and had to run desperately away from the road in the middle of a group of unfamiliar faces. At this time, I can only hear the sound of swishing and whistling from the air, how dare you look up and see the spectacular scene of rockets flying in unison? He instinctively bowed his head and waist, and he didn't dare to slack off in the slightest. Suddenly, violent explosions followed, and at the moment of hearing the roar, Lynn learned the movements in the movie and fell forward, but many of the soldiers behind did not have time to stop, and were hit by a strong wave of air, and suddenly staggered and fell, and one of them fell straight on Lynn. If the body is heavier, it may crush him into shock!
There were more than a dozen powerful explosions, and judging by the intervals, they were divided into two batches. The loud roar rattled people's ears, so much so that Lynn didn't hear the sound of two Soviet planes pulling up and flying overhead, and by the time her hearing had regained some of it, the familiar and close sound of machine guns came into her ears. The soldier who fell on top of him rolled and rolled down, muttering something in his mouth, Lynn took a long breath, turned his head to look, the smoke gradually cleared, the only remaining armored car was burning with raging flames, and the large area centered on it was charred and debrised, and the people around him did not know whether they were dead or alive.
On both sides of the road, several machine-gun battle groups improvised the role of air defense units: one soldier carried the two-legged carriage of the machine gun on his shoulder, another soldier was aiming and shooting with a cat waist or half-crouching, and a soldier helped to grasp the chain belt, the sound of the MG34 or MG42 short fire sounded like a crow making a hoarse cry, and the golden shells of the bullets continued to jump out of the barrel like a miniature waterfall, but these "infantry killers" did not seem to pose much threat to the Soviet fighters. Soon, a Soviet plane roared again, passing from a height of less than thirty meters above the ground. At such a close distance, every detail of the lower part of the plane could be clearly seen by the people on the ground -- the size, composition, main equipment, and state of the German army, and other details of the state of disarray, I am afraid that at this time it was also in the eyes of the Soviet pilots.
The machine guns were still roaring, and a moment later, a second Soviet plane also dived in. When the two machine guns on its wings opened fire at the same time, the crisp sound of fried beans burst overhead, and two bullets immediately stirred up strings of mud on the ground, and one of the German machine gun crews was strafed, and several soldiers who were crawling on the ground did not escape. A cursory observation shows that this short round of strafing has caused nearly 10 casualties.
With the roar of the engine shifting, the first Soviet plane climbed to an altitude of 100 meters and flew directly to the east, while the second climbed only about half the altitude, made a large circle and dived from the north about a minute later. When it was lowered to its lowest altitude, the wind whipped up by the propellers could almost blow the sand on the ground, and such a brazen display of low-altitude skills, Lynn felt that this not only fully demonstrated the absolute air supremacy of the Soviet army on the Eastern Front at this time, but also showed the strong confidence of the Soviet officers and men.
Passing at an ultra-low altitude like a haircut, the Soviet fighters strafed for a longer time this time. The German machine guns chased the "green-skinned eagle" and opened fire fiercely, and the huge recoil made the shooter and the soldier on the shoulder stand take a very strange and awkward posture, and many German soldiers who scattered to avoid the air attack also fired into the air with the submachine gun in their hands, but the Soviet fighter plane flew away as if nothing happened. I saw it climb to a height of tens of meters again, circled sideways gracefully, adjusted its posture and swooped down from a small angle to the east, and opened fire several hundred meters away. This time, the plane's cannon in the middle of the propeller also fired, and the rain of bullets that fell to the ground seemed to be drawn in a straight line by an invisible hand, and the interval between the middle bullet points was more than twice as wide as the two on the side, and each bullet point exploded like a small grenade. The three lines stretched rapidly in the direction of the plane's flight, and when they touched the area where the German soldiers were scattered, the scene of mud and debris turned into a mixture of mud and blood and rags, and the shrill sound of machine guns could not hide the wails of pain. The German soldiers desperately fired upwards with their weapons, and the naked eye could even see that many of the flying bullets hit the Soviet plane, but once again it flew away as if nothing happened.
Astound! Lynn was completely shocked by what she saw. Although the bullet power of ordinary machine guns is small, then the Soviet aircraft will not be so invincible!
Three successive ultra-low-altitude "performances" did not seem to satisfy the pilot of the Soviet fighter, who piloted the fighter plane to climb without hurrying, and this time it circled for a little longer, basically turning most of the circle with this German unit as a circle, and then launched a dive strafing from the south.
Hearing the characteristic whimpering sound of the Soviet plane diving down, Lynn's heart couldn't help but pick his throat. Especially when the two bullets just swept the stones and mud debris on the ground, he felt that he was hovering on the edge of life and death - the plane swept down heavy machine gun caliber bullets or machine gun shells, if he was hit, it was estimated that he would not only lose his life, but also end up with no body.