On a snowy hill shaped like a hill, Lynn reaches the ground on one knee to add to her concealment. In the Soviet camp ahead, the siege of the night combat units of the Imperial Guards was affected by the enemy's artillery fire and changed its speed abruptly, and the experienced veterans showed as calm and capable as ever in this transition between attack and defense, and on the ice field to the west of the camp, the movement of four tracked combat vehicles was already faintly recognizable. According to the intelligence detected by the reconnaissance unit before, the Soviet landing force was equipped with about ten T-34/85 tanks, and there were no common KV, IS series heavy tanks and powerful self-propelled guns, so it can be basically judged that those four are the most familiar old opponents on the Eastern Front. On their side, there were more than 20 snow-painted Leopard tanks engaged in a frontal attack, and the first few in the platoon also came into sight. In the first fierce battle on the Eastern Front, the German armored forces were fighting with fewer enemies most of the time, and now it is rare to change the situation in the past, plus many Leopards are equipped with infrared sights and can get strong support from infantry, winning the victory is logical, the only suspense lies in the time of the end of the battle and their own losses.

Suddenly, a man wearing a snow helmet skied in: "Sir, all the units of the company have arrived at the battlefield, and the current battle for attacking the camp is affected by Soviet tanks and artillery......"

As the direct commander of the night combat camp for the first time, Lynn was not afraid to seek moderation, and the report of his subordinates lacked nutrition, so he listened to it patiently and interrupted: "Hey, man, relax, I'm watching!" Lo and behold, our soldiers have organized new fronts on both flanks of the camp, and their performance is completely dominant on the battlefield. ”

The night company commander named Serranott was stunned for a moment, he may have subconsciously thought of himself as Lorenc. Bach's powerful idol commander actually had very different styles from the two, and when he turned his head to look at the battlefield, he realized that this snow mound was actually a very ideal viewing position. Risking being hit by a stray bullet to see the situation here requires not only the ability to breathe, but also the ability to have quick and keen insight.

After observing the telescope for a while, Lynn said, "There are still 500 meters to go...... Major, I think our soldiers will be able to take out at least two T-34s before the tanks on both sides exchange fire, you say? ”

Serranott nodded hurriedly: "Of course, the combat group in charge of fire support is equipped with a number of 'long sticks', and it is not a problem to use the terrain to deal with these Soviet tanks, but the Soviet artillery behind is very accurate, and they must have been guided by real-time calibration." ”

The "long stick" was not bread, but a joking term for the 88mm anti-tank bazooka of the Year 45 by the officers and men of the Imperial Guard, which further improved the power plant of the rocket, so that the launcher no longer had to use a shield to avoid tail burns. The shape of the tubular launcher is very similar to that of the US military's "Bazooka", and the effective range is still between 150 and 200 meters. According to the test results, this weapon is effective against tanks of the same class as the Leopard, and the T-34 is among them.

"Well, the phone line...... Hopefully, our special operations detachment will be able to locate and cut their phone lines as soon as possible. When Lynn said this, his eyes deliberately glanced upward, except for the small group of reconnaissance personnel who used the terrain to conceal in the combat area in advance, and the task of disrupting the opponent's communication was entrusted to the second group of paratroopers who landed on gliders, and they needed to judge the ground situation from the air, so as to find areas where the enemy's strength was weak and make a quick descent, find ways to cut off the communication between the enemy's various camps, and ambush the enemy's traffic officers and small forces. On the whole, their combat intensity is not inferior to that of frontal night combat units, and for all considerations, they are neither equipped with infrared night vision weapons, nor have they are specially trained to use night combat weapons.

As he spoke, the four Soviet tanks that had been advancing towards the camp fired one after another, some of the shells landed on the edge of the camp, some crossed the camp and smashed in front, the flames of their explosions were bright and dazzling, but the damage caused to the attacking side was minimal. Seeing this scene, Lynn immediately judged that they were completely interfered with even if they were equipped with radios, and it was impossible to use wired telephones to communicate with the infantry.

"Major, organize your troops to attack from the left flank, try to storm the enemy camp as much as possible, and continue to fire guns and use grenades even if all the enemy is eliminated, do you know what I mean?"

Hearing Lynn's command, Serranott stared at the young boss's eyes for two seconds, then nodded, "Understood, disturb the judgment of the Soviet tankmen." ”

Lynn did not praise his subordinates too early, and he hoped that after this battle, he could continue to serve as the commander of the night battle unit, so that he could help him realize his strategic ambitions step by step, and he could be regarded as continuing to preserve this highly effective special force for Bach. He turned his head to look ahead: "Execute!" ”

Serranott rushed straight down the snow mound with the help of his snow poles, and the wind generally went towards the left flank of the attacking troops.

Lynn's telescope was still dominated by dark and yellow, and on this clear night, the moonlight was not enough, and in the distant ice field, half of the enemy's four tanks were in a state of stationary or slow motion, and two of them slowed down as they continued to advance towards the camp, and after about two minutes, the first two stopped and poured ammunition with their artillery and machine guns on the right flank of the attacker, the north side of the camp, and the last two started and followed at a faster speed. As the distance increased, Lynn could faintly see someone poking their heads behind their turrets, and the use of tank-loaded infantry on the battlefield was a first-of-its-kind tactic of the Soviet army, and the combat effect was diametrically opposed to the damage to the personnel. Seeing their own tanks, some Soviet soldiers who felt they were in a bad situation evacuated the camp and ran towards them, although they kept their center of gravity as low as possible as they moved and occasionally took advantage of the natural ravines in the snow dunes and ice fields to hide, but the night shooters using infrared night vision devices were simply a group of ruthless hunters, they were like rabbits in the woods, knocking down the Soviet officers and soldiers who exposed their backs to them one by one.

At a distance of 300 meters from the camp, perhaps less than 300 meters, four staggered Soviet tanks slowed their advance. In this way, the Soviet tankmen were instructed only to relieve their trapped comrades in the camp rather than to fight back, and in the absence of adequate infantry protection, hasty approach meant the danger of being attacked by enemy anti-tank weapons at any time. As a result, they continued to suppress the attackers on the periphery of the camp with artillery and vehicle-mounted machine guns, and the Soviet infantry accompanying them also began to organize defensive shooting with the "** Sha" submachine guns in their hands. From a distance, it looks as if the Russians have added additional fire output points to these T-34 hulls.

On this uneventful snow hill, Lynn unhurriedly followed the battle ahead. In the initial offensive, the Imperial Guards concentrated more forces on the right side of the Soviet camp, so the Soviet tanks that came to support also concentrated more fire on that side, which was the basis for his judgment that Serranott had to go forward to strengthen the attack on the left flank. The order was apparently faithfully carried out, and the snow on the left side of the camp was like a white sugar cake that attracted more and more ants, and a black dot quickly detoured towards the camp in Lynn's sight, and when they approached to a certain extent, the corresponding defensive fire appeared in the camp, and the front of these black dots burst into a burst of flames, and then merged into a rather wonderful scene.

Seeing that the troops of the first company on the left flank were attacking the Soviet camp with swiftness and decisiveness, Franz, who had been watching around, squatted down beside Lynn and suggested in a humble voice: "Sir, did you inform the follow-up troops of the second and third companies to make a detour?" ”

Lynn lowered his binoculars unhurriedly, the battle in front of him seemed to take some time, and the previous combat route deployed according to the terrain was that the three companies and one armored combat company of the battalion rushed through this ice field and then lined up, advancing 20 kilometers to the coast in unison, like a sharp machete sweeping away the scattered camps and troops of the Soviet army. Combined with the reinforcement of the 2nd Guards Regiment, the frontal assault force was close to 2,000 men, which was equivalent to the total number of Soviet landing troops, and the sudden surname, fire support, night combat superiority, and the mobility of the attack were all practical bonuses. Since the offensive should be fast, accurate, and ruthless, and avoiding any form of delay for any reason is a major key, from this point of view, Franz's suggestion is very correct, but he does not know much about the night battalion of the Guards Army, formerly known as the "Vampire" commando, this elite combat unit is best at small-scale special operations, and every company, platoon, and squad has excellent reading combat ability. Knowing that the forward troops were stuck in the camp and could not be resolved quickly, the commander of the night battle unit that followed would have to maintain the speed of the attack.

"You're right, the follow-up troops should make a detour. Here! Look at the far end on the right! ”

Franz took the telescope in disbelief, and as Lynn's new assistant, he was hardly absent from the recent operational decision-making meetings, nor did he miss the battle plan drawn up by Lynn, which did not specify the countermeasures to deal with such a scenario. He cast his gaze to the northeast, where rolling snow hills and barren ice fields were a night unit in boreal camouflage as it quickly passed through an area out of sight of four Soviet tanks, with their swords pointed straight at the coast.

Without waiting for Franz to express a little bit of surprise, a group of four Leopard tanks in boreal livery drove past the north side of the dune with a rumbling roar, their heavy bodies leaving deep marks on the snow, but they were obviously much faster than they were moving through the mud, and the sound of artillery in front of them had already alerted them to the presence of their opponents. Because the vast majority of the German armored forces before the end of the war were on the front line to resist the offensive of the Allies in the east and west, and there were not many full-time armored troops participating in the "Aryan Ark Project", so in today's Imperial Guard, tankmen and pilots are relatively scarce personnel, so many infantry are transferred to armored and air forces. In terms of actual combat experience, the armored units transferred from infantry are certainly lacking, but in order to ensure combat effectiveness, the scale of armored units has not been expanded to match the number of equipment, that is, there are still many unopened armored vehicles and self-propelled guns in the arsenal of the base.

From the side, the four Snow Leopards have no obvious changes from the wartime Black Panther-G in terms of body shape, and the front and last tank turret is equipped with a vehicle-mounted infrared sight with an effective range of 400 meters, which not only uses the mode of action of the remote control in the car, but also is connected to a set of FG1250 image converters, and the driver, gunner and commander can observe the infrared imaging picture through the night vision screen in front of them - this sounds like a time ahead of the times, but in fact in the last year of the war, The Germans had already developed this system and tested it in batches on the Panther tank, and the results achieved were satisfactory, but unfortunately a small number of technical weapons could not change the course of the war. In today's post-Third Reich era, expensive infrared equipment is still being manufactured in batches, and its main components are produced by factories in South America, and finally transported to the base for assembly and commissioning, thus ensuring the supply of equipment for night combat troops.

Before reaching a distance of nearly 400 meters, the four snow leopards gradually transformed from marching columns to staggered battle columns, slowing down slightly, like a low-key, focused and invisible murderous aura towards the leopards approaching their prey. The Soviet tanks on the other side of the camp were unaware of the approach of the sworn enemy, and their firepower, along with the vehicle-mounted infantry, was still used to suppress the attacking forces, and the tank guns were also targeted from the right flank of the camp to the left flank. In response to them, a group of Soviet infantry withdrew from the camp, but in the face of the oppressive attack launched by the attacker from the left flank, the situation of these Soviet soldiers was obviously worse, and their panicked figures became a good target for the opponent's shooters to sharpen their marksmanship. Amid the sound of gunfire, few people eventually crossed the ice field to take refuge from their tanks.

With no sound of the "long stick" firing at all, Lynn saw the bright yellow tail flame of anti-tank rockets rising from the snow and the gray-black smoke that formed and spread in the cold air. Night combat units are good at night combat environments, and all kinds of weapons they are equipped with night vision equipment are equipped with night vision equipment as much as possible, so the "Long Stick" became the first anti-tank rocket launcher with a red sighting device. It also uses a knapsack battery as the energy source, the infrared searchlight is located above the middle of the bazooka, the infrared sight is on the left side, which is the shooter's side, and the trigger is also in the same circle. In Lynn's eyes, the 88mm anti-tank rocket launcher was somewhat similar in appearance to the shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles of later generations, looking a little more complex and clumsy, and much heavier than the night vision assault rifle. This system needs to be divided into two during the march, the shooter carries a rocket launcher and spare rockets, and the deputy carries a knapsack power supply, infrared searchlight, and sight, and the two can complete a simple assembly and use within 30 seconds, but in a strict sense, it is no longer a "single weapon" but equipment that must be made by a two-person team.

With the aim of infrared night vision equipment, the rocket found the Soviet tank in the ice field very accurately, and the explosion scene of the hollow charge warhead was different from ordinary artillery shells and grenades, and the sputtered spark was like a firework in the sky, which also meant that it hit a certain part of the tank. With the first rocket as a guide, the anti-tank shooters of the night combat unit who had been constantly moving towards the Soviet tanks opened fire one after another, and in just ten seconds or so, Lynn saw the dazzling tail flames of three rockets, and several groups of soldiers were detouring towards the flanks of the Soviet tanks. The Soviet tanks did not retreat at full speed after such a threatening attack, and the gunfire in the camp made the tankers feel that they still had their comrades working hard, so they did not smash the shells into the camp for a long time, and Lynn's small plan bought time for the snow leopard to advance. With almost a cigarette in time, all four snow leopards had arrived near the camp. The burning tent provided some light, and at least one of the crew members of the Soviet tank noticed the presence of the opposing tank, and it quickly turned its gun to fire first. From Lynn's position, the shell landed less than 5 meters in front of the first snow leopard on the right, and it stopped, observed, aimed, adjusted, and opened fire in the blink of an eye. Since it was not equipped with a muzzle brake like the Tiger and later model IV, the Leopard did not fire with a strong flare, as did the smoke and sound. At a distance of about 400 meters, the first gun was slightly off target - almost grazing the turret of a Soviet tank. After about 5 seconds of silence, the hull of the car trembled suddenly, and with the roar of artillery, another shell flew towards the Soviet tank on the other side of the camp with an extremely high muzzle velocity. This time, Lynn felt like he heard the hard and crisp sound of an armor-piercing bullet hitting a steel plate, but at the same time, the last name told him that it was impossible to hear that kind of relatively subtle sound in such a battlefield environment and viewing distance.

Whether a target has been shot or not is difficult for long-distance observers in a night combat environment to directly tell. During this period, the other three snow leopards were still looking for the ideal attack position, and the Soviet tanks did not show similar tacit cooperation with their opponents, although some of their companions found out that the enemy opened fire and then were attacked, they still seemed to be aware of the fact that they were under the dual threat of the opponent's tanks and anti-tank infantry, and the Soviet tankers finally gave up their plans to rescue the camp and began to reverse. In addition to the first snow leopard, there was another tank on the Soviets that did not move, and judging from the white smoke rising from its tail, it was either damaged in the power system or damaged by the rockets of the night fighting troops. Lynn was hard to determine, and it was clear that the advantage of the snow hill had faded as the battle progressed.

The battle in his sight was only gradual**, so Lynn handed the telescope to Wolfrum, put on his windproof glasses again, tightened his gloves, and shouted in a steady mood: "Keep going!" ”

Franz looked at Wolfrum curiously at the wolf-like summons of his boss, and the veteran still put away his binoculars without hurrying or impatience, and calmly looked at the young offspring, casually leaning on his ski poles, and indulging himself in the wind along the snowy slopes......

(To be continued)