Yes, that's just the beginning. The German paratroopers had a lot of experience in infantry against armored forces, but they were still overstretched in the face of the Soviet armor torrent. The density of Soviet tanks was about the same as that of Germany, or they were forced by German armored forces to maintain such a density, so this also allowed German paratroopers to collide head-on with a "German-level" armored attack.

The anti-aircraft gun, which opened fire on the Soviet tank from the side, turned its muzzle and destroyed the second T-34 tank that accompanied the Soviet attack, and the Soviet tankmen opened fire and destroyed the troubled anti-aircraft gun. The good news is that after such a mess, the Soviet tanks began to disconnect from the infantry, and the Germans had more opportunities to attack, and the bad news is that a second wave of Soviet attacks followed.

"Boom!" a 75-millimeter anti-aircraft gun that accompanied the paratroopers suddenly opened fire in the concealed fortifications, and a T-34 tank that was too close was pierced by the shell and exploded into a brilliant flame. Smoke rose from its wreckage, obscuring the view of the other Soviet tanks, and the German artillery began to reload quickly, waiting for the other tanks to come up and die.

As the night drew nearer, the battle became more bloody and intense, the German positions were being compressed little by little, and more and more positions were reoccupied by the Soviets. However, the Soviets suffered heavy casualties, filling the foxholes and trenches dug by the Germans with corpses, and paying for the lives of many soldiers for almost every inch of advance.

On the German side, the battle was not smooth, and even Borol has now begun to plan how to blow up the railway bridge behind him. Within 40 minutes of the start of the battle, the German soldiers were forced to use individual anti-tank tactics, in other words, to destroy the behemoth by using soldiers close to the tank. The losses of this tactic were enormous, and the number of German casualties skyrocketed.

At the beginning, it was able to effectively curb the attrition, and many wounded soldiers could even be sent across the bridge to the field hospital opposite for treatment. But in the increasingly fierce fighting, the German army gradually ran out of extra energy to waste on such trivial things as transporting the wounded, so the wounded soldiers of the German army on the entire battlefield were basically ignored.

Many of the wounded soldiers were forced to fire their grenades and die with the approaching enemy, while others simply lay quietly and were stabbed to death with bayonets or shot to death by the Soviets who rushed up. In short, there were no prisoners in the battle here, and everyone was fighting for that important bridge with a life-or-death attitude.

Borol's battalion had lost 77 soldiers, and in proportion to casualties, he had already lost a seventh of his troops, and his troops would have collapsed long ago. But this paratrooper battalion still held its ground, using their bodies to meet more and more Soviet tanks.

Compared with Damanhur, the bridgehead of this bridge is the real hell, after all, there is still a certain gap between the quality of the US tanks and the Soviet Stalin's tanks, and the US army is not as desperate as the Soviets, so overwhelming and crazy attacks.

The mortar shells at the battalion headquarters had run out, and even more desperately for the anti-tank squad had run out of ammunition. The two towed 75 mm caliber short-barreled anti-aircraft guns have also been destroyed by the Soviets, and they have fewer and fewer weapons in their hands that can deal with tanks.

"Phew!" pulled the bolt, Borol stubbornly fired back with the rifle in his hand, the Soviets on the opposite side didn't seem to care about casualties at all, or they had been blinded by the sea of corpses and blood in front of them, forgetting the unnecessary feeling of fear, everyone fought desperately, and from time to time saw the German soldiers who had run out of ammunition with sapper shovels and scuffled with the Soviet soldiers who rushed up.

Farther away, more than two dozen Soviet tanks were on fire, and the German paratroopers had finally blown three attacking Stalin tanks to scrap metal, and the battlefield was littered with the wreckage of tanks and the mutilated corpses of German soldiers.

"Battalion commander! battalion commander!" one of the paratroopers jumped into the foxhole in Borol with a steel helmet in his hand, apparently running all the way, and began to gasp for air when he jumped into the foxhole. After he had calmed down a little, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva before he hurriedly reported: "Good news! Battalion commander! Good news! Reinforcements from the division headquarters have arrived, a whole battalion! They are crossing the bridge, we only need to hold on for a few more minutes, and we can withdraw to rest." ”

......Hearing the news, Borol finally relaxed his tense mood. His battalion was on the verge of collapse, and if this reinforcement didn't come again, he really had to consider a plan to blow up the bridge. After all, he was just a battalion, a paratrooper battalion that didn't even have much heavy firepower. Resisting the 2 main armored divisions of the Soviet army is really powerless.

It was getting dark, and Borol eventually withdrew from his position with the only formed squad in his hands as a rearguard. The Soviet offensive continued, but because several paratrooper tanks arrived one after another, the Germans still had the upper hand in the entire bridgehead position.

On the bridgehead on the other side, Borol counted his troops, and found that the retreat alone had cost him another 20 good paratroopers - his battalion had three companies of troops, and now almost one company had died on the ground.

There was no very good food, and everyone ate the boiling water in their hands to brew potato flour as quickly as possible, because just as they were having dinner, news came from the front again, because the Soviet soldiers began to attack overnight, and their battalion had to go up again to prevent the Soviet troops from taking advantage of the numerical advantage to occupy the bridgehead position.

This is not good news for everyone, after such a high-intensity battle, the paratroopers need to rest. They weren't future devil terminators, and many of the soldiers hadn't closed their eyes for a day.

Unfortunately, orders are always orders, and when Borol finished eating what he had in hand, he led his men to the two trucks that had brought ammunition to collect the ammunition they needed to hold their positions. Helping the machine gunners carry bullet chains, and others helping the anti-tank squad carry ammunition boxes, the group of paratroopers, who were no different from beggars, once again walked with a messy step across the bridge they had crossed not long ago.

As he walked, Borol heard Donner humming the paratroopers' anthem, which they sang whenever the paratroopers were in trouble, like a group of pious children, praying to their gods. So he also hummed along, not loudly, but with a hint of determination:

"Ah, who is marching in enemy territory.

And singing the Devil's Song?

A soldier stands on the bank of the Oder River,

Humming silently.

Whistling, we walked back and forth.

And the whole world may,

Curse or praise us,

Do as they please......"

With this song, the messy steps of the paratroopers began to be neat, and they no longer walked together in groups of three or five, but began to actively line up a horizontal queue. Row by row, it began to be neatly organized, as if it was being reborn little by little, gradually fading away from the original ugly shell, and feathering into butterflies.

And in the direction they were advancing, the German soldiers were firing fiercely, and the bullets were flying in a bright straight line in the already dim environment, flying towards their target. The Soviet soldiers on the opposite side were also shooting desperately, and bullets were flying all over the position, like raindrops. Every now and then, a cannonball falls, setting off a huge wave of air that tears apart the people and weapons around them.

Occasionally, a flare is raised, illuminating the entire battlefield as if it were daylight, and then many soldiers are hit and fall to the ground. The screams continued, the scorched earth was no different from the surface of the moon, the trenches were filled, the craters were craters to craters, there was mud everywhere, and there was bright red blood under the feet, which was constantly flowing and coagulating.

......

"Your Excellency, you never thought that if the other side broke through the paratroopers' defenses, the battle would continue to be deadlocked?" a staff officer put on his coat for Guderian, who was nervously looking at the map, in the command headquarters.

"I thought about it. Guderian smiled bitterly, then shook his head again, and replied, "But I am convinced that they can win the war under the most difficult conditions...... Because they are the best soldiers I have ever met, apart from them, we put in special forces created by the Führer himself, use ace flight squadrons on the Eastern Front, dispatch the most advanced helicopters, and even our best tank crews rushed over......"

Speaking of this, he paused, looked at the already dark sky outside, and continued: "They, they are the best. So we have no reason to fail, we are determined to win this battle!"

......

Under the same starry sky, in the cold wind, Wren also looked up at the starry sky above his head. He leaned against the canopy of his rickety tank, enjoying the last bit of peace. His troops now only have 5 tanks left, and just now another tank broke down, and finally the repair vehicle and another tank were left behind for cover.

"There are still 20 kilometers to go, and we can get there in the stipulated time. The commander of the No. 114 tank, who was at the head, said with a breath in his headphones.

"Arrived on time and then prepared the defensive ring there. In fact, we have to defend against incoming enemies in two directions, and there is no safety behind us. Wren withdrew his gaze from the sky, looked in the direction of the railway bridge in the distance, and said: "Is there any problem with the 3 tanks defending the bridgehead in front and the remaining 2 tanks defending the bridgehead in the rear?"