A small snowflake fell from the sky, and the temperature had unconsciously dropped to the point where it made people feel biting cold, and the exhaled breath formed a shallow white mist on the side of the mouth, and the cold steel helmet buckled on the head was no longer stuffy, but on the contrary, there was some coolness.

Germany's M35 steel helmet has been distributed to the Wehrmacht in the 20s, this kind of steel helmet has produced two models, one is a cheap export model woven into a lining with rope, mainly exported to the surrounding client countries, the early products have only one sales channel, that is, distant China;

However, as the pace of German military expansion became faster and faster, steel helmets became a stearful commodity, and some non-front-line combat units in concentration camps were even only issued with a set of steel helmets for patrol soldiers to wear temporarily, and the rest could only wear cloth soft hats, so the distribution of steel helmets became chaotic.

On the current German front line, the delicate M35 early steel helmet is only qualified for use by platoon commanders, and the vast majority of soldiers use the "new model" without ventilation holes. As it turns out, new cars aren't necessarily better, and new equipment isn't necessarily better.

When winter came, the Germans on the Eastern Front made very meticulous preparations, including a white camouflage cover wrapped around a steel helmet, and a windproof hood to protect against the cold. However, this set of equipment is not very comfortable to wear, and the function is not perfect, at least the gray-green multi-kinetic tactical vest of the German army can only be worn outside this blouse.

Of course, something is always better than nothing, at least these things gave the German troops on the front line a reasonably acceptable camouflage camouflage after the first snowfall, which gave the grassroots soldiers a better chance of winning than the famous gray-green iconic military uniform.

Now another snow is coming, and the sky on the entire Eastern Front is overcast, and the cold current passes through with a fierce cold wind, blowing on the muzzles of the steel-cast cannons, making a whirring sound. There was silence on the battlefield, as if holding their breath, waiting for that terrible time to come.

"Whew!" a German soldier of about 35 years old, pressed his left hand against his assault rifle, holding a half-smoked cigarette in his right hand, and spewed out a puff of white smoke that I don't know whether it was a haze or smoke, and his eyes sunk deep into his sockets stared at the muddy ground not far in front of the position, and farther away was a forest with no edge in sight, which was an area frequented by the Soviets.

There was an MG42 machine-gun emplacement, and about 100 meters to the right was a bush, where a 75 mm long-barreled anti-aircraft gun was cleverly hidden, capable of destroying most of the Soviets' tanks at a distance of 1,000 meters - except, of course, the monsters of the KV-2 tank.

The trench also had a protruding position that stretched a short distance ahead, where it was intended for the occasional sniper and the anti-tank group in the event of a large-scale operation, all carefully camouflaged, and most of them were crouched with soldiers armed with iron fists and bazookas, also waiting for the battle.

The order for the highest level of combat readiness has been issued, and half an hour ago, all platoon-level units on the front line have received more base ammunition, and everyone has been asked to stay in cold combat positions, and the squad leader and platoon commander are repeatedly emphasizing the precautions during the operation, as well as the combat tasks that need to be completed in each position.

The smoker was a veteran, who was identified by the fact that he could be equipped with a valuable assault rifle, and as a non-commissioned officer he was the backbone of a combat squad tasked with stabilizing the entire cover position near the machine gun. Smoking was not allowed, but because the squad leader was on the other side of the position, the recruits around him did not dare to stop him from acting like a death.

In front of the entire position, the snow and mud were mixed together because of the slight warming up ten days ago, and frozen because of the cooling of these days, and then covered by the new snow, which did not look snow-white, but mixed with a lot of black mottles. Many places had been mined months ago, and now there is no trace of it, and the reserved passages can only be distinguished by following the map, and there are no markings or signs at all.

The sky was still overcast, the snowflakes were falling very slowly, and there was not much wind around, so when the falling snowflakes fell on the white steel helmet little by little, it gave people the feeling that time had been slowed down.

However, the speed of the bullet was not slowed down by the slow fall of the snowflakes, and just as the German veteran was swallowing the clouds, a bullet flew from the distant woods and hit the chest wall of the trench less than 30 centimeters away from him, splashing a white snow and ice.

The German veteran was so frightened that he quickly threw away the cigarette in his hand, and retracted into the trench as soon as his knee weakened, and he touched the steel helmet above his head with his hand to make sure that he had not been hit by a bullet, and then he was slightly relieved. But before he could raise his head, more gunfire came from the woods, and the Soviets began to attack without warning.

The veteran changed positions, bared his head and glanced into the distance, only to see about a few hundred Soviet soldiers rushing out of the woods, some waving guns in their hands, others holding guns and firing. It's definitely the largest in two months, and it doesn't look like a tentative attack.

"Hold on! Don't fire with automatic weapons! Rifles start firing back!" the veteran shouted, and then several German recruits in the German position who had been aiming at Mauser 98K rifles for half a day opened fire. The sound of gunfire rang out sparsely, and the battle had just begun, far from reaching its most brutal peak.

For the soldiers on both sides, this level of exchange of fire was similar to an appetizer, the machine guns did not fire, and the heavy artillery did not roar, so the whole scene was not very hot, only the occasional bullet on the dirt of the trench reminded everyone to pay attention to safety, and the rest of the things were just to test whether everyone's usual shooting training could not reach home.

Obviously, the German soldiers have a deeper shooting skills, and the accuracy of the German Mauser 98K is slightly better. After all, Germany's machining is much stronger than that of the Soviet Union, and the relocation of the Soviet military-industrial production enterprises has also directly affected the quality of Soviet gun production, which is not superb. Of course, the accuracy of the two weapons is actually about the same, and the main thing that affects the battlefield performance is the post-maintenance and other aspects.

The German soldiers' shooting was very efficient, some resembling a three-stage shot, some stood up and aimed and fired, others crouched down and pulled the bolt to complete the feeding action, and they had cover from the trench position, so at least a dozen Soviet soldiers had been killed with almost no casualties.

As time went on, the Soviets got closer and closer to the German positions, and one of the hapless Soviets ran forward when they came across the trigger of an S-shaped mine, which was known in the Wehrmacht as the "Bouncing Betty", which immediately sensed the shock from the outside world and undoubtedly worked.

With a small bang, the jumping thunder flew up from the cold earth and exploded in mid-air at a distance of about 1.5 meters, shooting out dense metal balls. So immediately set off a violent storm of metal formations around the area, more than a dozen Soviet soldiers were hit by these metal balls, the close ones were already bloody and fleshy, and the far ones also covered their wounds and collapsed, screaming endlessly.

With the explosion of this mine, a German machine gun position began to roar violently, quite a smell of taking advantage of the fire, the sound of tearing linen made the Soviet soldiers desperate, although they were very close to the German position, but suddenly could not take a step forward.

The bullets swept like hail towards the Soviet Red Army, and some of the Soviet Red Army soldiers in long cotton uniforms who rushed to the front were shot and fell into the snow, and the blood stained the snow-white ground and also flowed into the black cracks of the earth. The withered grass trembled back and forth in the wind, slapping the cheeks of the Soviet Red Army, which had fallen to the ground, but unfortunately the open eyes on this face could never be closed.

The second mine exploded, and the Soviets apparently realized the danger of breaking into the minefield, and they began to slow down their charge, but they did not seem to be willing to retreat in disarray, so they cautiously moved forward, hoping to reduce the casualties caused by the mines.

"Bang!" another S-shaped mine flew up, and with a "boom" explosion, many more Soviet soldiers fell in pools of blood. Eventually, the gunfire began to thin out, and instead of advancing, the Soviets retreated as they fired. It didn't take long for a seemingly tragic battle to be repulsed by the German troops, and even some of the German army's firing points did not have time to open fire.

"Boom!" Before the German soldiers could begin to celebrate their victory, a large-caliber shell smashed on a position not far from them. Everyone squatted in the trench according to the training, holding their steel helmets, and kept praying that the shells would not fall right in the middle of the trench.

Explosions began one after another, and the Soviet shelling seemed to have no end at all, and with the sound of explosions, black plumes of smoke rose up over the entire position, which could be clearly seen from a kilometer away.

In a concealed and sturdy observation post not far away, next to the two artillery mirrors, a German officer grabbed a telephone and loudly reported the situation of the battle to the military headquarters in the distance: "Yes! There is heavy artillery bombarding our positions! The scale of the Soviets' attack is larger than expected! We don't need support for the time being, but please prepare the assault artillery unit, I guess it should be able to use it." ”