Trenches were a good way to cover the infantry, and the first person who thought that digging a pit could win was definitely a genius, and he reversed the ancient city walls to achieve today's turtle trench defense tactics. After decades of evolution and development, the trench became a perfect defensive system, able to resist heavy fire such as artillery fire, and was simply a difficult fortress.

As long as the shell does not directly hit the trench node, it will not be effective in killing the infantry inside, which is definitely good news for the infantry, especially the infantry of the defending side. Huddled in the trenches like a gamble, the only hope of surviving is that the various bombs and shells that fall do not directly hit themselves - this is modern warfare, this is the brutal Soviet-German battlefield on the Eastern Front.

On an unnamed high ground on the front line, Soviet soldiers are fighting with the Germans to decide who has the right to live in the future. The smell of gunsmoke filled the trenches, and the cries of wounded soldiers and the sound of crackling shots were muffled by a series of explosions.

The positions were littered with corpses of various shapes, and German steel helmets tumbled up and down the slope with the sound of artillery, eventually falling next to the young corpse of a Soviet Red Army soldier. In the distance, a dazzling tongue of fire erupted from the machine-gun emplacement, and tracer bullets intertwined with each other, making it look extraordinarily beautiful.

Before the hidden Soviet machine-gun position on the high ground could run rampant for long, a huge shell landed on this machine-gun position. Not small-caliber mortars, not infantry field guns, but 270-mm standard railway artillery shells. The power of this huge shell was amazing, and it made the positions of the Soviet troops dumb by more than half at once.

The vibration can be felt even on the German position, this railway gun is the latest successful development of the Krupp factory to destroy the position, relying on a high rate of fire and stable reliability and good maneuverability, this artillery was approved by the Führer, as one of the standard weapons of the German heavy artillery, mass production.

In fact, one of the biggest attractions of this weapon for the German army is that it can rely on coal-burning trains to propel and save a lot of fuel. And in terms of long-range support firepower, the later it was, the more the Germans realized that they needed a large-caliber artillery as a fire support weapon at the army group level.

After all, air support was not too timely, and the Army, which overemphasized mobility, did lack a large-caliber weapon to take out the permanent fortifications that stood in the way. The caliber of the towed artillery was too small, although it could accompany the German army to maneuver quickly, but in the face of more and more solid Soviet trench defensive positions, the German army helplessly found itself in an endless battle for trenches.

Therefore, the German army also put forward requirements for its own weapon production, and the weapon of erecting a naval 270 mm caliber cannon came into being as a large-caliber support artillery at the level of the German Wehrmacht army group, which was quickly put into the battlefield.

Against this kind of defensive position, the wind and clouds did change color after one shot, and the earth was swept away in all directions, and the entire mountain was shrouded in a cloud of black smoke. With this huge explosion, the German infantry began to shout and rush to the Soviet positions, which had little power to fight back.

A No. 3 assault gun slowly crossed a trench, its tracks rolling up dirt and its wheels bouncing up and down with the undulating potholes of the terrain. This assault gun is a modified long-barreled 75 mm gun universal version, which can cover infantry in assault missions while also having some anti-tank capabilities.

In order to make the No. 3 assault gun, which was originally designed to be very lightweight, more defensive, the crew hung everything they could find on the front armor plate. There were now spare load wheels and additional steel plates, a mess that made the assault gun look scruffy. On top of these steel parts, dirty sandbags filled with stones and sand, people on the battlefield tried everything to survive, and no one was lazy.

Along with the assault gun, there was also a half-track armored vehicle, in which German soldiers were firing wildly with their machine guns in an attempt to suppress the Soviet infantry who were firing sporadically on the opposite side.

The armored car was followed by a group of German soldiers hunched over, some carrying rifles, others holding submachine guns in both hands, cautious with every step forward. As the vehicle moved forward, the cautious soldiers saw the Soviet trench at their feet, which was littered with corpses.

"Go in, go in!" shouted the order to one of the infantry officers, and then jumped into the trench with enough blood to cover the top of his feet. As he jumped, one German soldier after another jumped into the trenches, and spread like a virus along them.

A Soviet soldier returned fire from a trench, and then was beaten into a hornet's nest by a submachine gun in the hands of a German soldier. The rest of the Soviet soldiers surrendered with their hands raised, only to be defeated by the Germans who did not cease fire, and the rest were finally able to survive.

The German assault guns and armored vehicles began to advance in depth, and a Soviet soldier pointed a huge two-meter-long anti-tank rifle at the German armored vehicle, squinted his eyes, and then pulled the trigger. The huge recoil caused his shoulder bones to seem to break, as if he had been punched in the chest by a giant, and it took him a long time to realize that he had finished shooting, but the pain in his shoulder made him give up the idea of firing more.

He sat back in the trench, not knowing what he was thinking. There were dozens of comrades he knew on this position, and there were thousands of Soviet soldiers in the distance, but now there were burning flames everywhere, and the rest of them were waiting for their end, and hope was no longer there for them.

The bullet from the anti-tank gun hit the engine compartment of the German armored car, and a second later the German armored vehicle stopped moving forward with light smoke, but in front of the side of the armored car, the German assault gun No. 3 was still firing fiercely, and the German soldiers passed the damaged armored car and continued to attack forward.

A young German soldier jumped into the foxhole with his G43 assault rifle, and then looked in amazement at the Soviet gunner, who was still sitting on the ground gasping for breath, the huge anti-tank gun still lying on the ground, and the Soviet rifleman who was in charge of covering next to him had been killed for a long time.

The German infantryman raised his rifle and aimed it at the enemy in front of him, who had just opened fire and hit an armored vehicle just a dozen seconds earlier, and he had to shoot the damned Soviet enemy.

But looking at the same young face, the German soldier was a little shaken, and he didn't know whether it was better to open fire or capture a prisoner. But soon he didn't have to think anymore, because the Soviets sitting on the ground began to draw the pistol at their waist.

"Phew!" the German soldier fired sharply, and a shot hit the man's chest, the opponent's body trembled because of the huge force, the hand that drew the gun hung weakly to one side, and the immature face also drooped weakly.

The second German infantry jumped into the foxhole, then the third, one of the two German soldiers neatly stepped on the corpse of the Soviet soldier and set up the G42 machine gun, and the other spread out the ammunition box and stuffed the chain inside into the body of the machine gun.

The machine-gun position was quickly set up, and then the sound of tearing linen came out, and under the cover of machine-gun fire, the momentum of the German attack became more violent, and the Soviet soldier, who was still open-eyed, became an insignificant stepping stone under the feet of the Germans.

"Dang Chang...... When the ...... "With the sound of metal clashing, the heavy tracks swept over the foxhole, and the second covering assault gun drove past here, and the German soldiers who followed behind the assault gun did not look at the place, bent over and cautiously continued to walk.

The young soldier held on to his steel helmet and burst out of the foxhole, followed behind the unit, and continued on his way. The bullets hit the dirt at their feet, sending puffs of green smoke. The rubble and dirt from the explosion fell on the steel helmet with a clanging sound, and the thing hit the face with a burning pain.

Two hours later, on the top of this high ground, more than a dozen German soldiers erected a huge flagpole next to a damaged 76 mm anti-tank gun, a huge national flag with 100 characters, fluttering in the billowing black smoke, and the dense bullet holes on the flag, telling people the tragedy and heroism of the battle here.

On the frontal position, near another high ground in the distance, a Soviet regiment commander grabbed the phone in his hand: "The Germans did not use tanks, it was the German infantry units that attacked the frontal positions...... Yes! There is no mistake in the observation! They don't have tanks! It's all armored vehicles and assault guns...... Yes, I will hold my ground until the very end. ”

The call went straight to the high command of the Soviet army, and the chubby General Vatutin's eyes narrowed. It seems strange that the main armored forces of the German army did not appear on the frontal battlefield, after all, this is still a battle for defensive positions in the field, and even if the Germans avoid losses, there is no reason to keep their tanks in this situation and not enter the battle.

"Germans...... Damn the Germans...... This situation does not use armored forces...... What are you planning?" muttered Vatutin, but in his heart he imagined what the Germans were playing. Suddenly, his eyes widened, and he said to himself in fear: "No, ......?"