Chapter 9: Bravery
Crouched behind a small bush, Lynn's eyes were fixed on the Soviet combat unit slowly moving along the road, four T-34s, three BT tanks, three wheeled armored vehicles, seven trucks towing artillery, and hundreds of Soviet troops marching on foot beside the convoy, which was the weakest of the three Soviet units that passed by here, but it was still stronger than the German side of the German army, which consisted of two armored vehicles and four or five hundred infantry on the improvised basis. What's more, most of the people here have retreated from their positions in front, not only lack heavy weapons, but also have little ammunition left in the hands of the soldiers.
Lynn, who had already run out of bullets, only got another 10 rifle rounds under the coordination of the "butcher".
As the Soviet vehicles approached, the German soldiers in the woods were making final preparations. Several MG-34 or 42 machine guns had been set up in the best firing positions, and the machine gunners carefully pulled the bolts and waited for a single order to fire; Two 80mm light mortars were arranged in the middle, but the remaining ammunition did not support their long-term use; Soldiers with infantry anti-tank weapons and light mortars were grouped in the ranks ready for the attack, and a few large men guarded the only "Doll" anti-tank rocket launcher - the 100-kilogram piece of equipment that they had struggled to keep during the panic retreat, and the merit of these soldiers was fully worthy of an Iron Cross.
At this moment, two German armored vehicles, covered with a large number of branches and foliage and almost "moving bushes", were still lying in ambush on the western side of the woods. Since the trees formed an arc at a distance of about 500 meters from the three-way junction, they could not be directly observed by Soviet troops marching northwest along the road, and they would have to move about 100 meters forward to gain a firing angle if they wanted to attack the Soviet troops. So, when the German infantry was ready to open fire, they started ahead of time and rumbled forward, the sound of the machinery heard very clearly in the quiet woods. Fortunately, the Soviet soldiers were distracted by the roar of their own tanks and vehicles, completely oblivious to the danger lurking on this side of the woods.
"Poheik Zum Kemp!"
The officers suppressed their voices to remind the soldiers to be ready for battle, and the sound of pulling the bolt suddenly converged. Immediately afterwards, some of the leading non-commissioned officers, including the "butcher", once again told their soldiers their combat deployment - fortunately, the "butcher" not only used gestures but also used branches to draw a minimalist battle map on the dirt floor, and Lynn knew that his small group would rush out of the woods and outflank the Soviet troops after the battle began. Needless to say, this is a rather dangerous job, in the past, Lynn may have complained that her boss didn't know how to shirk, but in this battlefield full of blood and fire, if everyone is afraid of war, the side that is at an extreme disadvantage can only wait to be killed!
The battle was about to begin, and Lynn, who had already experienced six battles herself, was still nervous, and the oppressive atmosphere even made him almost hold his breath. In the previous positional defensive warfare, what he did most of the time was to dodge artillery fire and keep firing, this will be the first time in his life to participate in a field battle, the unknown prospect makes him inevitably apprehensive, but there is a kind of germination of war in his heart.
Rumble!
The deafening sound of cannon rang out almost without warning, and the shell hit the rear body of the T-34 that was driving to the fork in the road in an instant, and the timing and position were just right! Lynn didn't have time to cheer up his armored men, and the machine-gun sound like "tearing linen" rang out intensively, and the 80mm mortars were also booming - their normal range was 2,400 meters, and the shortest distance from the edge of the woods to the kilometer was about 500 meters.
The sound of the cannon was the clarion call for the attack, and the "butcher" jumped up, shouted "Angel River" in his mouth, and rushed out of the woods with his submachine gun in hand, without the slightest hesitation! Following the other soldiers in the squad, Lynn quickly got to her feet and strode forward with her Mauser rifle with her bayonet removed. They had already rushed out of the woods in a blink of an eye, and the sunlight outside was so brilliant and dazzling, and when Lynn's eyes adjusted to the change of light, he found that there were many soldiers around him who were also running at full strength, like a marathon of 100 people. The soldiers did not rush straight to the Soviet convoy, but at the tail of the Soviet convoy, and ran about 200 meters into a depression parallel to the road, its slope was very gentle, the most recess was less than a meter from the road, about 40 meters long, about 5 meters wide, the only natural terrain outside the woods that could be used. The German soldiers in the front arrived at the hollow and faced the side of the road, and opened heavy fire with rifles, submachine guns, and machine guns at the Soviet soldiers who were organizing their defenses on the spot, while the soldiers in the back, including the squad led by the "butcher", quickly dispersed to this hollow front, and fired with their weapons at the Soviet infantry, which was only about 300 meters apart.
By the time the German infantry had brought two 50mm light mortars and the only "Doll" to the hollow, the German armored vehicle with its 75mm gun had fired four times in a row, and all but the first attack was on the T-34, and the other three were fired at the less heavily armored BT tank. Another German armored vehicle rushed out with great courage, maneuvering at full speed in the open field while firing at the Soviets with its 80mm mortars and machine guns on board.
The Soviet unit in front of them was not a novice on the battlefield, and even if they were suddenly ambushed, they did not fall into confusion, and the tanks, armored vehicles, and accompanying infantry quickly began to return fire, but they did not appear to be too inconsistent in the direction of their fire - this was the only opportunity for the Germans to take advantage of!
With only 10 rounds, Lynn was careful with each shot, aiming, holding her breath and holding the rifle with all the strength of her body so that it fluttered as little as possible when firing. Just fired two shots like this, and suddenly heard a strange "boom" behind him, and a strange smell of gunpowder smoke followed, and when I looked sideways, it turned out to be the "doll"! In his memory, this heavy anti-tank rocket launcher was able to penetrate the armor of the T-34 at an effective range, but due to the high cost, complex technology, and the serious damage to the German military industry by Allied bombing in the later part of the war, the number of equipment was relatively limited.
300 meters was exactly within the effective range of the "Doll", and the officers who wanted to come to the German army had already calculated it. The first rocket accurately hit a BT tank in the rear of the Soviet convoy, and Lynn couldn't tell the specific model, but seeing it instantly shrouded in the flames and smoke of the explosion, there was an indescribable joy in his heart.
Two 50mm light mortars had also been transported to this hollow, and the terrain provided them with an excellent firing position, and after the first shot, the German lieutenant wearing black leather gloves loudly reported the correction parameters, and after adjustment, their second shot smashed the mortar shells into the convoy, and the Soviet soldiers who were relying on the vehicles and roadbed to shoot were instantly blown up.
Lynn continued to pull the bolt, aim, shoot, and so on three times as he stepped back into the hollow to reload, and another soldier with a rifle quickly filled his place. After loading the bullets, Lynn was able to observe the situation on the battlefield for a while waiting: four of the seven Soviet tanks had been blown up, and one armored vehicle had also been hit and caught fire, and the firepower on the Soviet side suddenly weakened a lot, but the German armored vehicle that was intended to attract enemy fire was also hit, and it was burning in the wilderness at the moment, and the remaining three Soviet tanks were still destroying the hiding place of the German armored assault vehicle with artillery fire, and several large trees were broken by the waist, The flickering firelight and the smoke of gunpowder couldn't help but make people sweat for the assault vehicle.
"Ang River!"
Suddenly, a loud slogan sounded, and the German soldiers lying on the edge of the depression suddenly burst into a majestic shout, and quickly got up and charged forward. Lynn was only a little lagging in reacting, and was actually thrown down more than ten meters by the "butcher", hurriedly crawled out of the depression next to the machine gunner who was still shooting, and then rushed forward with his rifle - he was suppressed by the enemy's attack for two days, and one day became an attacker, and the grievances in his heart were suddenly much more relaxed.
Under the joint strangulation of various weapons of the German army, although the Soviet infantry on the opposite side suffered heavy casualties, they were still shooting with all their might, and they were heavily equipped with Dzhegarev light machine guns and "** sand", and their firepower in close combat was also quite strong. Although the German infantry who were engaged in the attack were carrying combat equipment, it was only about a minute to run 300 meters. The short road was full of danger, bullets flew past her, and the density was increasing, Lynn panicked, but she didn't feel scared at all, and just took the "butcher" as the only benchmark and rushed forward.
Finally, the "butcher" stopped, only to see him straddle forward with his left leg, press down with his right leg, bow his upper body slightly, and start firing with his submachine gun in his hand.
Like the "butcher", experienced German soldiers opened fire at the first opportunity. In the face of such a rapid onslaught of the German army, some Soviet troops were still shooting on the north side of the roadbed, some hurriedly got up and turned to deal with the German soldiers who had rushed to the side, and some people lost their direction in a panic and retreated to the front of the convoy in a panic. In such a situation, the German soldiers who had the upper hand launched a close-range "massacre", MP38/40 sang happily, the officers in the hands of the Ruger P08 and Walter P38 also played their role to the extreme, and the few infantry using MP44 shot those Soviet soldiers who tried to retreat with terrifying efficiency in a semi-automatic firing state.
Risking his life through the battlefield, Lynn couldn't find a reason to "give up halfway", he quickly searched for the target with a gun, and in just a few moments, the surrounding battle had become a one-sided situation. On two occasions, he raised his gun to shoot, but the other German soldiers took the lead. However, watching a bullet hit the human body at a distance of about ten meters, the visual and auditory effects are n times more powerful than CS, CF and the like! Before she knew it, Lynn was making the transition from a civilian to a soldier - far from what it was like to be a good soldier, but many psychological hurdles had already been overcome.