Chapter 27: Civilian Staff Officers
Boom Rumble...... Rumble...... Rumble......
The power of the "combo" bundled with explosives and grenades was undeniable, except that the sound it made when it exploded was different from anything Lynn had heard before. Seeing the tree trunk that exploded at waist height immediately falling to the side of the road, the last trace of worry in Lynn's heart also disappeared: whether it is a professional blaster or a non-professional, as long as these big trees are on the road, her idea is half successful!
The aftermath of the explosion was still wafting through the woods, and the scumbag-faced German ensign raised his Luger 08 and fired three shots into the air, shouting "Furloer" was the correct command. Although the fallen tree failed to hit a Soviet tank, the suddenness of the incident did not widen the distance between the vehicles in the Soviet tank column in advance, and the fallen round trunk was the thickness of an adult's waist, and the T-34 was difficult to cross in a hurry. As a result, several tanks in the front row invariably chose to brake sharply, and the armored target that lost speed was undoubtedly the most pleasant for the anti-tank fighters. The first tank, which was blocked by the trunk, was immediately fired by two German anti-tank rocket launchers, and the violent explosion killed the tankers and the hitchhikers almost instantly, and the second Soviet tank was also killed: the German infantry carried the "tank killer" and fired at a distance of less than 50 meters, and the moment the rocket hit the tank hull, the fate of the T-34 was already announced.
Under the impact of the violent explosion, the whole forest seemed to tremble, and the remnants of snow on the branches fell one after another, along with the fragile dead branches, and a sudden "snow" fell in the forest.
With the power of the anti-tank rocket launchers, the German soldiers also rushed to roar with all kinds of guns, and the bullets were fired intensively at the Soviet infantry on the road and in the forest, and dozens of unlucky people who had no time to hide suddenly fell. Although ordinary bullets were not enough to threaten the tank's armor, because the first few tanks in the platoon were destroyed by German anti-tank weapons one after another, the Soviet tanks behind could not find a suitable angle of attack for a while. The shells hit the trees in vain, the broken trunks helped the Germans block the road, and the machine-gun bullets flew blindly at the height of the branches.
Unexpectedly, the German army would ambush here, the Soviet officers and soldiers were in a mess, the infantry was so pressed that they couldn't raise their heads, more than a dozen tanks were crowded on the highway and couldn't move their bullets, and the tanks and self-propelled guns behind were completely unable to help in this state, and the German army was in a very good fighting situation. However, Lynn, who had indirectly influenced the course of the battle, was not busy shooting, and he calmly observed and analyzed the battlefield: although the Soviets were passive, they were far superior to the improvised German rearguard units, and the German anti-tank fighters had little spare ammunition left, and the limited range of the "Iron Fist" and "Tank Killer" made it difficult for them to directly attack the Soviet tanks further behind.
Thinking about the way back, Lynn hurriedly shouted to the "butcher" who was lying prone on his side: "Rookwotz!" Rook Watts! โ
In German, this means retreat, and Lynn had heard it twice before. One was when the "butcher" shouted at him before the loss of the forward position, and the other was from the officers when the whole line retreated more than half an hour ago. On both occasions, Lynn was completely passive in accepting orders, and this was the first time that Lynn tried to exert his subjective influence at the level of combat command.
"The butcher" heard Lynn's shoutโthe pronunciation may be out of tune, but the meaning should be unmistakable. Retreating in such a situation, the SS sergeant looked puzzled, he also pulled his throat so that Lynn could hear his words clearly, but his speech was very fast and urgent, and he was interrupted by a cannonball that fell in the distance, Lynn had no way to communicate with him at this time, but the gesture was too busy, he had to blush, and shouted "retreat" several times.
At this moment, it was the scumbag-faced ensign who heard Lynn's shouting, and he turned to look at the two of them. Clearly, because Lynn's previous advice had a subtle effect on the battle, the second lieutenant was clearly concerned about the foul-mouthed soldier. In order to figure out the situation, he actually ran over at the risk of being hit by a Soviet bullet.
"Rook Watts! Rook Watts! โ
Lynn hurriedly shouted, and seeing that the second lieutenant was also eager to figure out the situation, he had to force himself to calm down, and simply drew a picture on the snow with gestures to explain: The blocking battle on this side of the road has achieved results, and the next step should be to continue to retreat along the road and find an opportunity to fight another blocking battle further behind!
The lieutenant thought about it and seemed to understand what Lynn meant, but still looked at Lynn with hesitation. Seeing that Lynn's eyes were unusually sincere, and he was still nodding his head, he made up his mind and shouted to the soldiers who were temporarily under his command: "Rookwotz!" โ
The commander's words were better than Lynn's shouting, and the soldiers conveyed the retreat orders to each other. The Soviet soldiers in the woods and on the roads were now out of a state of panic, relying on tanks, trees and terrain to evade attacks, the German side of the short machine-gun fire replaced the previous continuous long fire, the crackling of rifle fire sounded exceptionally crisp, and the sound of submachine guns only rang out from time to time.
Seeing that most of his companions had already gotten up and retreated, Lynn took cover and fired two shots forward, and as the distance between the two sides increased, the sound of gunfire and explosions gradually weakened, until finally it was sparse to only a few sporadic sounds.
After walking hundreds of meters, the scumbag-faced second lieutenant officer came up from behind to speak to Lynn, and Lynn had to "repeat the old trick" - patting his ear to show that he could not hear anything, but the second lieutenant did not give up, he took out a notebook and pen from his pocket, and this action almost made Lynn vomit blood. In desperation, he snatched the pen and paper from the second lieutenant's hand, drew a sketch on the notebook against the trunk of the tree, wrote the words "4000m" between the two ambush points, and marked the deployment location of the anti-tank rocket launcher with a small triangle.
Looking at this simple and clear diagram, the second lieutenant suddenly realized, he stared at the notebook and pondered as he walked, as if he felt that the distance of 4000 meters was not enough to hide the actions of the troops, so he wrote a "5000? โ
Four or five thousand meters was acceptable to Lynn, and the road in the woods seemed far more than five or six kilometers. So, he gave the second lieutenant a thumbs up.
The lieutenant nodded, and gave Lynn the same thumbs up gesture. Putting away his notebook and pen, he began to beckon the soldiers around him to speed up, although this was still within the range of the tank guns, but the Soviet tanks blocked behind did not shell - the sudden retreat of the German blocking forces was obviously unexpected.
The rapid march through the woods was about as fast as a normal march on the road, and after about an hour of walking, the second lieutenant stopped to watch, and gave Lynn an inquiring look. Lynn looked around, the area was relatively densely wooded, with a slope from the side of the road to the depths of the woods, and rows of cedar trees guarding both sides of the road like giant guards. If they were all blown down, the Soviet tank units would have spent hours here without directly blocking them, but this loose rearguard unit would have been a problem, not to mention knocking down a row of trees, and blowing up one or two trees: the non-commissioned officers had been busy for a while to collect a dozen or so grenades and two small mortar shells from the soldiers, and if there were any less, the anti-tank men would probably have to contribute their precious anti-tank rockets!
With previous experience, the soldiers were very quick to choose targets and tie explosives, and in order to reduce the risk of detonation, some soldiers simply found ropes to tie grenades to pull the controls from a distance. Under the personal arrangement of the second lieutenant, three "Iron Fists" and two "tank killers" were roughly deployed in the positions marked by Lynn. Seeing this situation, the "dog-headed military division" was a little weak-minded, and the distance and position were all sketched out by his own imagination, and he had no actual combat experience as a basis at all. But seeing that the second lieutenant was so serious, the soldiers around him were also full of confidence, and he almost wanted to open his mouth, but in the end he didn't make a sound.