The German bombing had just ended, and the smoke shrouded on Mamayev's hill had not yet dissipated. The German ground troops launched an attack on the Nangang position under the cover of more than a dozen assault guns.
As soon as the enemy's attack began, Sokov received a report from the observation post. After he put down the phone, he asked Cidolin: "Chief of Staff, how many explosive packs do we have?"
After the battle every day, Sidolin had to personally count the number of explosive packs. When he heard Sokov ask, he replied without hesitation: "There are more than fifty left."
"What, that's the point?" Sokov asked in surprise when he heard this number: "The explosive pack can only be launched at most two or three rounds. Have you contacted the Red October factory to let them continue to provide us with explosives?"
"Comrade Commander, I talked to Director Peter about this before you came back yesterday." Sidolin replied with a wry smile: "Manager Peter said that the amount of explosives in the factory is not infinite. We have received thirty tons of explosives from the factory during this period and cannot provide us with more explosives."
After saying this, Sidolin found that Sokov's eyes were always staring at the phone on the table. He guessed that he might call Peter and talk about collecting explosives. He quickly added: "Comrade Commander, you called Director Peter a few hours ago and asked them to imitate 20,000 German grenades for us. I'm afraid that a lot of explosives will be needed. Even if you call him now, he may not provide us with explosives."
There was not enough explosive packs, and it was impossible to continue to deal with the enemy with the tactics of the previous two days. Therefore, after a brief consideration, Sokov ordered Cydolin: "Chief of Staff, I think the circular position on the top of the mountain has been beyond recognition under the bombing of the enemy planes. You immediately call Lieutenant Colonel Starchar and order him to push the position to the ridgeline position on the right slope and fight the enemy's attack from a high point."
After receiving the order, Lieutenant Colonel Starcha immediately ordered the commanders and fighters who had just emerged from the tunnel to build a new defensive position on the edge near the front incline. However, a complete trench had not been dug, and the attacking enemy had rushed to the foot of the mountain.
After seeing the uniforms worn by the enemy at the foot of the mountain, the Soviet company commander on the position was secretly surprised, because this was not the Romanian army who was blown by thunder cannons two days ago, but the long-lost German army. They blew the whistle desperately and issued a shooting order to their soldiers.
With a sharp whistle, the Soviet soldiers who entered the position opened fire on the enemy who was rushing up the hillside. The condescending soldiers poured downwards and blocked the enemy's way forward. However, the German soldiers on the hillside were all experienced veterans. The machine gunners quickly chose the right terrain, established a machine gun position, and used dense firepower to cover other soldiers' charges.
The German soldiers used the cover of machine guns, and the cat lowered their bodies and quickly rolled from one crater into another, using the terrain to gradually approach the position on the top of the mountain. In order to eliminate the enemies on the hillside, the Soviet commanders and fighters on the hillside had to poke out half of their bodies from the cover to shoot, and as a result, they became the target of German machine gunners' shooting.
As the firepower on the top of the mountain was suppressed, the German soldiers rushed to the Soviet position quickly, and a hand-to-hand battle began inadvertently. When they learned that the German army had rushed into the position, Starcha decisively ordered the other two companies to be put into battle and rushed to support the troops fighting against the enemy.
The Soviet army's level of stinging battles was far higher than that of the German soldiers. Although they were fewer than that of the Germans, they used their skillful stinging skills to make up for this gap. Just as the two sides were in a difficult situation, the reinforcements sent by Starcha arrived. The German army, which had already struggled to fight, saw that the Soviet army's new forces arrived, did not dare to fight, and hurriedly retreated down the hillside.
Assault guns parked at the foot of the mountain, as soon as their soldiers retreated, they immediately bombarded the Soviet positions on the top of the mountain. Although most of the shells fired by the assault guns did not hit the target due to angle problems, several shells were ready to fall into the Soviet trenches. The explosion of air waves pulled the soldiers near the explosion site from the ground, threw them high into the air, and then fell heavily to the ground.
Seeing the assault guns showing off their might at the foot of the mountain, the soldiers were a little anxious. The Soviet company commander quickly called Starcha and reported to him: "Comrade Commander, the enemy is parked several assault guns at the foot of the mountain, constantly bombarding our positions. Do you need to destroy them with flying thunder cannons?"
If it were two days ago, Starcha would definitely agree to the company commander's request without hesitation, but at this moment, he could only say helplessly: "Comrade Commander, our explosive packs are not large anymore. If we consume all the explosive packs in order to eliminate several enemy assault guns, then in the next battle, when the enemy's attack is even more fierce, what weapons will we use to deal with them?"
"I understand, comrade commander." After hearing what Starcha said, the company commander knew that the other party did not intend to use thunder cannons to deal with the German assault guns. He could only say with a tough bullet: "I will find a way to kill the enemy's assault guns."
After finishing the call with his subordinates, Starcha felt that he should report this matter to Sokov to see if he had any solution. Thinking of this, he immediately called Sokov's command.
"I am Sokov!" When Sokov's voice came from the receiver, Starcha immediately said to the microphone: "Comrade Commander, the assault cannons at the foot of the mountain are bombarding the top position, and the soldiers requested to use the thunder cannon to kill the enemy's assault cannons."
"No! Lieutenant Colonel Starcha, we cannot waste precious explosive packs in such meaningless places." Sokov said to Starcha on the phone: "You have used the thunder cannon and you should know that it has no accuracy. To kill an enemy assault cannon, it will cost at least seven or eight explosive packs. We have no way to get explosives to make new explosive packs at the moment, so the remaining explosive packs must be saved."
Seeing that Sokov was indeed not allowed to use the thunder cannon, Starcha sighed in his heart and asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, since you cannot use the thunder cannon, can I send someone to blow up the enemy's assault cannon?"
"Send someone to bomb?" Sokov couldn't help but sneer when he heard this, and then said: "Lieutenant Colonel Starcha, as long as the soldiers leave the position, they will be shot into sieve by the enemy's machine guns on the unblocked hillside. At that time, not only will the enemy's assault guns be unable to blow up, but will have an adverse impact on the morale of the troops."
"What should we do?" Starcha asked cautiously.
"The enemy's assault guns are prepared to deal with fortifications," Sokov said thoughtfully: "As long as the soldiers hide in the trenches, the assault guns cannot pose too much threat to us."
After receiving Sokov's instructions, Starcha immediately ordered the soldiers near the ridge line to hide in simple trenches. At the same time, he sent people to dig a new trench more than 20 meters behind, preparing to retreat to the place where the enemy rushed up the hillside again.
After the German assault guns bombed for a while, they stopped shooting when they saw that the top of the mountain did not retaliate, so they stopped shooting and let the infantry hiding behind the assault gun launch a new attack again. With the lesson of the failure just now, the German army was much more cautious in this attack. They first established more than a dozen machine gun fire points and started shooting at the top of the mountain with dense firepower. Only then did the infantry tilt their waists and carefully launch the attack.
Due to the suppression of German machine gun fire, the firepower on the top of the mountain was very weak, and it was impossible to stop the Germans from approaching the top of the mountain. German soldiers used the craters and corpses to cleverly approach the top of the mountain. When they were more than twenty meters away from the top of the mountain, they all stopped, took out a grenade, pulled the string and threw it up. Before the grenade could land, they had already jumped out of the crater and rushed towards the top of the mountain.
Dozens of grenades fell into the trenches and exploded, causing the Soviet soldiers hiding inside to miserably. As soon as the explosion stopped, the Germans had rushed to the edge of the trenches and fired at the Soviet soldiers in the trenches with submachine guns, causing them to fall in pieces like autumn rice.
The soldiers who came back to their senses were not willing to be outdone and raised their guns to fight back. The German soldiers hit by bullets either fell back and rolled down the hillside; or they fell head-on into the trenches.
The commanders and soldiers who were digging trenches behind saw that the Germans rushed into the trench near the edge line, they put down their engineer shovels and rushed up bravely with bayonets. They planned to use their skillful thorn-fighting skills to drive the enemy down the hillside.
In this way, the Soviet and German sides launched repeated tug-of-war around the ridge-line position close to the front inclined surface. As soon as the German army rushed into the position, they were driven out by the Soviet soldiers who were rushing up like a tide. Before the Soviet army could gain a foothold, the enemy rushed up again under the cover of breakthrough and machine gun fire.
In an hour's battle, nearly 500 people on both sides fell into this narrow area, and the trenches were filled with the bodies of officers and soldiers on both sides.
After finally waiting for the German army to retreat again, Starcha found that a battalion was deployed on the top of the mountain, with one-third of the casualties. He quickly withdrew the battalion back to the tunnel and re-allocated a battalion to replace their defense.
After the troops who were receiving the defense arrived, Starcha called the battalion commander to him and said to him: "Comrade Major, today the Romanian army attacked the high ground was not the Romanian army, but the Germans. You should not take it lightly."
"Don't worry, comrade Commander." Hearing Starcha say this, the battalion commander quickly stated: "Since other troops have never lost the high ground, as long as there is one person in our battalion, we will never let the Germans enter the position here."
According to the battalion commander's idea, since he could beat the attacking Romanian army here a few days ago, even if the enemy attacking today was replaced by the Germans, they could still beat them to flee in a panic.
However, his thoughts changed fundamentally half an hour later. The enemy who had just been driven away by friendly forces actually dispatched planes again and bombed the hills. In order to avoid the huge losses suffered by the troops during the bombing, the battalion commander decisively ordered the retreat of the tunnel.
As soon as the battalion commander returned to the tunnel, someone grabbed his arm. When he was about to shake off the other party's arm, he heard the familiar voice of the regiment commander: "Major, take everyone down, are there any observation whistles on the top of the mountain?"
Hearing that it was the voice of the regiment commander, the battalion commander quickly replied respectfully: "Report to the regiment commander, I left a squad on the top of the mountain to monitor the movements of the enemy. If the enemy is found to attack, they will send someone to report to us."
According to convention, after the enemy's shelling or bombing is over, the observation posts left on the position will use the whistle to notify the people hiding in the tunnel. Unexpectedly, the enemy's bombers have flew away for a while and have not heard the whistle from the top of the mountain. Seeing this, Starcha couldn't help frowning and asked the battalion commander: "Major, why is there no movement on the top of the mountain yet? Is something wrong?"
"No," the battalion commander said in an uncertain tone: "I have left a squad on the top of the mountain. No matter what, someone will always send us a signal."
"I think something is wrong." Starcha said with a straight face: "Send someone out to see what's going on outside."
The battalion commander had no choice but to send two soldiers to the top of the mountain to see why those observation posts have not sent any signals so far. Shortly after the two soldiers left, one of them ran back and reported to the battalion commander: "Comrade Battalion Commander, all the observation posts we left at the top of the mountain are dead."
"What, all died?" When the battalion commander heard the soldiers' report, his first reaction was that the other party lied: "How could all die if there were ten people in a squad?"
"It's true, Comrade Battalion Commander." Seeing that the battalion commander did not believe what he said, the soldier was a little anxious: "The fortifications on the top of the mountain were destroyed by the enemy's bombs. None of us left at the observation post on the top of the mountain could survive."
After confirming that the observation post had died, the battalion commander was a little panicked. He looked at Starcha and asked, "Comrade Commander, what should we do next?"
"What else can you do? Order the troops to enter the position immediately." Seeing his subordinate Liu Shen looked like he was so angry that he raised his hand and slapped hard on his helmet: "If you don't want to be killed by enemy shells or machine guns, as soon as you go out later, you will have to let the soldiers hurry up and repair the fortifications. Do you understand?"
"I understand, Comrade Commander." After the battalion commander agreed in a panic, he rushed to the soldiers squatting in the tunnel and shouted: "Comrades, the enemy's bombing has stopped, and everyone will enter the position immediately."
Hearing the battalion commander's order, the soldiers who were originally squatting or sitting in the tunnel immediately stood up, carried their weapons along the exit of the tunnel, and entered the position on the top of the mountain.
Chapter completed!