81_81266A German soldier wearing a dusty shoe bent over and jumped into a pile of rubble. He held his steel helmet in one hand and a G43 rifle in the other. When he slid into the bottom of the pit, he brought up a cloud of dust.

"Sir, there are some British soldiers in the building opposite, and they have machine guns in their hands. The soldier in charge of reconnaissance saw his company commander and platoon commander in the crater. In the vicinity of this crater, about 70 German soldiers were scattered.

The company commander carefully looked at the map near the block, and then looked at the deputy beside him: "The enemy has set up defensive positions here and here, and we will suffer losses if we attack head-on." Either wait for those rocket launchers from the 'demolition brigade', or go back in and try to attack and attack once. ”

"Wait a minute, the news from the battalion headquarters says that in the afternoon, we will have some powerful support weapons. The deputy looked at the map, gestured twice, and said, "It's not worth it to be such a shabby neighborhood." ”

There was a rumbling sound around the corner, and a gray behemoth appeared at one end of the street, followed by another strange tank, but the black and white iron cross on the tank body reassured the German grenadiers.

At the beginning is a German No. 3 assault gun, this tank is nothing special, but looking at the dozen or so records on the barrel, you know that this assault gun is definitely the best in the infantry. And the strange hull of the car in the back, which is also the site of the No. 3 tank, made the soldiers a little unfamiliar.

On the hull of Tank No. 3, there is a large-looking round semi-open turret, and the front of this turret is not a single cannon, but four imposing-looking small cannons. That's right, this is a German quadruple self-propelled anti-aircraft gun combat vehicle of 30 mm caliber. Normally, these special vehicles are part of the divisional air defense forces, but they have now been transferred to participate in street fighting as a hot "superweapon" in urban warfare.

"Hey, I said, that's what the battalion headquarters said about support?" a grenadier swallowed his saliva and asked a few of his comrades and the company commander who were stunned. He'd heard that this thing was even more powerful than the "building demolition" in the hands of those sappers.

"I don't know......," the grenadier's company commander shook his head, but there was clearly a smile in his eyes. The support he expected was nothing more than some rockets and other weapons, but he didn't expect such powerful equipment to arrive. It seemed that the attack would be extremely easy for a while, and his troops would be able to lose a few fewer soldiers.

Soon a new round of German attacks kicked off, this time the No. 3 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, the muzzles of the four black holes were aimed at the high-rise buildings garrisoned by the British ** team, and then sprayed dazzling tongues of fire at a terrible speed.

"Bang, bang, bang!" The shells easily pierced through the thick concrete building, breaking the furniture inside into shattered powder, carrying gravel and broken steel debris, and these metal torrents pierced the bodies of the people inside, and then flew everywhere with blood and broken stumps. In just a dozen seconds, a building guarded by dozens of British people was a debris full of bullet holes, and the only thing left was the occasional sound of falling rubble except for the groans of despair.

"Bah!" a crisp gunshot rang out. The British defenders finally began to return fire, but compared to the overwhelming firepower of the German ** team just now, the sound of this gun was as weak as a groan.

"Ding!" the bullet hit the gun shield directly in front of the No. 3 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, creating a spark, but this bullet was obviously tantamount to scratching the boot for the heavy shield on the anti-aircraft gun, and soon the huge turret of the anti-aircraft gun began to rotate and aimed at the window where the fire had just been fired.

"Bang, bang, bang!" The four anti-aircraft guns roared again, and the shells directly smashed the window into a thousand holes, and the entire window frame fell into the street, and the originally rectangular window opening was simply beaten into an oval shape by the dense shells of the anti-aircraft guns. The German grenadiers watching from the back had no doubt that the people in this room were absolutely dead and could not die again.

Self-propelled anti-aircraft guns because the elevation angle is high enough, and there is a relatively comprehensive armor protection, in this kind of street fighting, it is simply an artifact, because it has to deal with targets such as aircraft, so this weapon adjusts the turret angle very quickly, and the relative reaction time is shorter, so it is more rapid to deal with threats from all directions.

After a long period of use, the Germans also mastered the use of this weapon in street fighting. For example, arrange assault guns to accompany the battle to deal with possible enemy tank threats, for example, let the infantry cover the rear, protect the rear open battery of the anti-aircraft guns, and so on. In short, this weapon is very easy to use in street fighting, and it is simply the most terrible weapon of assault.

With an order, the German grenadiers began to leap out of the trenches and charge the British position from several directions, but the British defenders who were supposed to return fire did not arrive, and it was not until the Germans stormed the building that the sound of gunfire could be heard from inside.

Ten minutes later, a German platoon commander with a cigarette in his mouth walked out of the building and came to the company commander leaning on the fender of the self-propelled anti-aircraft gun: "That's it, there were 45 British soldiers inside, and when we went in, there were 17 left, and after stubbornly resisting for a while in several rooms, 2 of us were killed and 4 were wounded." ”

"When are you leaving?" the company commander asked the sergeant standing on the hull of the anti-aircraft gun.

The commander smiled slightly, pointed to a street corner not far away, and said in a thick Ruhr accent: "We were ordered to help you take that side, and then we will go back to the division headquarters to replenish ammunition and fuel." ”

So the engines of the chariot were started, the exhaust pipes shook and spewed black smoke, the German offensive continued, and the British began to retreat from the surrounding area. Just half an hour later, the Germans occupied half a neighborhood and took control of two bomb shelters, and annihilated about 200 British soldiers.

The company commander of the grenadier sent off the armored vehicles that supported them, walked down a British bomb shelter that smelled of decay, and saw the disgusting sight inside.

It may have been abandoned for a few days, and it was littered with corpses, and although it was only March, you could already see deworming and swarms of flies. Because the ventilation fan was turned off, the temperature was very high, so the corpses here also began to decompose and deteriorate.

Among the corpses were civilians, about dozens of people, and it was clear from the tattered clothes that there were children and old people, as well as men and women. Of course, the faces of these corpses have long been unrecognizable, and it is unbelievable that judging from the scene, many people were killed by grenades, and in the center of this bomb shelter, several grenades exploded, ending the lives of these bodies in this bomb shelter.

And, of course, the bodies of a dozen British soldiers, apparently moved from behind. It was a soldier who was killed by the nearby British defenders, and was used as a huge morgue when it was still being used by the British.

From some details, it can be seen that this place was also used as a hospital and headquarters, and later it was abandoned because of the power outage. The bodies of the two wounded British soldiers, apparently still rescued, were littered with bandages and maps on the ground, which looked to be covered in dust.

"Tell the men from the engineer battalion to come and take care of it. The company commander covered his nose with his hands and frowned and said, "Tell everyone, don't stay here overnight, and try to stay away from here after disinfection." ”

Glancing back at a wristless corpse lying not far away, judging from the traces, it was the British soldier who exploded here with a grenade. It is unknown why he made the move to die with these civilians, but apparently many people were not killed, but left the once crowded bomb shelter.

The German grenadier company commander walked out of the dugout and returned to where the sun could reach, and he turned back and asked his deputy: "Has another bomb shelter been checked?"

"It was very clean and there were only a few dozen panicked British refugees. They handed over their grenades and were very cooperative. The deputy replied as he lit himself a cigarette.

The company commander nodded, suddenly remembered something, and continued to ask, "Are there any prisoners?"

"Yes! Two wounded soldiers. The deputy replied, "Their men did not take both of them when they left, they were both seriously wounded, and it is estimated that it is useless to carry them away." ”

"Hmm. The company commander also lit a cigarette, then threw the empty cigarette case at his feet, smiled bitterly and said, "Give them a good time, we don't have any extra medicine to waste for them." Let the brothers hurry up and have something to eat, and at 3 p.m. sharp, we'll try to attack again. ”

This is war, when you see dozens of corpses lying in front of you, you have no other special feelings except disgust, you no longer pity or grief, there is only indifference, people can't tell the difference between good and bad indifference.

There is no longer the slightest sense of guilt when ordering the execution of the wounded soldier of the other side, because it is just a matter of course, and the next second it is possible that those saved drugs will save you yourself - of course, whether these drugs can save your conscience at the same time, only God knows.

On 21 March, street fighting continued in London