The German regiment commander hiding on the side of the carriage saw that the engineer who was detecting the mine was knocked down by a cold gun, turned his head and said to the engineer platoon leader who had just arrived: "Lieutenant, send someone up quickly. We must clear all the mines on the roadbed as soon as possible."
The engineer platoon leader looked forward and saw his five subordinates lying on the roadbed and rails, and suddenly felt a chill rushing up to his head along the spine. He knew that he would let his subordinates clear the mines under the gun of the sniper, and that would definitely die as much as they could.
Seeing that the engineer platoon leader had not responded for a long time, the German commander was a little angry. He shouted at the other party: "Lieutenant, you are deaf. Have you heard what I said to you?"
"Mr. Colonel!" said the engineer platoon leader tremblingly: "There are Russian snipers hidden in the forest on the north side of the roadbed. If I send someone to clear mines, they will definitely be killed by the sniper."
"Damn Russian!" The German commander cursed indignantly, called a captain and ordered the other party: "Immediately use machine guns and mortars to suppress the snipers in the forest, and they must not be allowed to stop the engineers from demining mines."
After receiving the order, the captain immediately bent down and ran out from the hiding place next to the carriage and assigned tasks to his subordinates. Unfortunately, those who fired cold guns in the forest were just guerrilla sharpshooters. Their level was higher than that of ordinary guerrillas at best, and they did not know how to choose important targets for sniping like those well-trained snipers in the army.
They lay in their hidden position and watched helplessly as the German captain commanded several machine gunners, using the rails as cover, set up two machine guns, and even set up a mortar on the other side of the track in the blind spot of vision. The German gunners were very quick to load them almost at the same time as the mortar was set up. With a "bang", a shell roared and flew towards the hiding position of the sharpshooters.
Because the gunners did not know the specific location of the sharpshooters, the shells fired were missed and landed more than 20 meters away from the sharpshooters, and did not cause any damage to them. Seeing that the situation was not good, the captain of the sharpshooters was about to order the sharpshooters to move. The German machine gun suddenly rang out, and countless bullets flew towards the hiding position of the sharpshooters like water. Although the machine gunner's shooting was very blind, many bullets still hit the trunks behind them, making a series of "bangbang" sounds.
The captain knew very well that if he organized the sharpshooters to transfer at this moment, they would definitely suffer heavy casualties under the fire of the German machine guns. He could only shout at the surroundings: "Everyone is lying in place and don't move. Without my orders, no one is allowed to move."
Seeing the ambush position of the Sharpshooter team, they were attacked by enemy machine guns and mortars, and their beards were a little anxious a few hundred meters away. He knew very well that if the Sharpshooter team was killed by the enemy, even if he filled in the remaining members, he would not be able to stop the enemy's advance.
Beard pointed at the middle-aged man with his hand and said to him: "Go there and inform the team leader immediately, tell him to let the Swordsman team move to another place and continue shooting the German engineers." The middle-aged man agreed, got up from the ground, held his gun, and bent down to run towards the hiding position of the Swordsman team.
As the middle-aged man left, Ina also asked Beard: "Comrade Captain, please allow me to go there too. The Sharpshooter Team was hit by enemy machine guns and mortars, and there will definitely be casualties..."
"I don't allow it." Before I could finish her speech, Beard interrupted her without hesitation, "Didn't you see how dangerous it is there? How can I let you, a future mother, take the risk? What will comrades say to me if something happens to you?"
After hearing what the beard said, Ina realized that she could not pass. At some point, women became the target of protection in the army. If women were asked to do some dangerous things, those who gave orders would usually be criticized by others. Although they could not rush to treat the wounded, Ina's eyes remained fixed on the location where they were hit by fire, and she was wondering how many people could be withdrawn from there later?
The sharpshooters immediately became silent after being suppressed by German machine guns and mortar fire. Although the German commander did not know whether the sharpshooters in the forest were eliminated or transferred, he was in a hurry and urged the platoon leader of the engineer: "Lieutenant, my man has suppressed the Russian snipers, you can send someone to clear the mines."
The engineer platoon leader nodded, called several engineers and sent them to continue to clear the mines. Perhaps because he was worried that his subordinates would be afraid of death, he personally picked up a mine detector and cleared the mines in the front. He plucked up his courage to detect mines while looking at the forest that was being suppressed by fire from time to time, worried that several bullets would fly out at some point.
This time they were lucky. After walking seventy or eighty steps forward, they found more than a dozen landmines. The platoon leader of the engineer handed over the mine detector to another engineer and asked him to continue to detect the mine forward, while he lay on the ground and carefully removed the landmine fuse.
Magrus stayed in his carriage and waited for a long time. Before he received a report from the leader of the 544th Regiment, he ordered the adjutant: "Immediately contact the leader of the 544th Regiment and ask where they are now?"
After receiving the order, the adjutant immediately contacted the radio station of the 544th Regiment by phone. After a brief inquiry, he reported to Magrus in surprise: "Sir, the 544th Regiment has only advanced less than three hundred meters so far."
"What, you only went less than three hundred meters?" Magrus walked to the phone, took the sender and headphones from the adjutant's hand, and asked loudly: "Col. I am Magrus. Explain me, twenty minutes have passed, why you have only been going less than three hundred meters. Are you learning to climb a turtle?"
"Master, Master!" Hearing Magrus's reproaching tone, the German commander quickly defended himself: "The damn Russians have buried a lot of mines on the roadbed, and there are snipers hidden in the nearby forest. Many of our engineers were killed by them when they cleared the mines...."
"Enough, you don't have to explain to me anymore." Magrus interrupted his words without waiting for the other party to finish his words. "The military headquarters only gives us an hour. If your regiment cannot reach the 564-kilometer station on time, you will lose the colonel's epaulette and may even be sent to the military court."
Hearing Magrus' threat to him, the German commander was anxious: "Sir, the division commander, although I have ordered people to use firepower to suppress the snipers in the forest, who knows whether they will move to a new position and continue to shoot our engineers. If the mines buried by the Russians are not cleared, it will be impossible to reach the designated position in such a short time."
"You idiot, a natural idiot." Seeing his subordinates chattering to him about the troubles they encountered, Magrus said with a suppression of his anger: "You never thought that the Russians would concentrate their forces to attack the station, so the ones that blocked us here must be small groups of troops. You just need to leave the roadbed and continue to move forward near the railway line. No matter how many landmines the Russians have, can they cover all the areas?"
Magrus's words made the German commander realize that he had entered a misunderstanding. Why did he have to eliminate all the mines on the roadbed before moving forward? He could completely let his subordinates leave the roadbed and march on the side without a forest on the south side of the railway. In this way, no matter how many Russians hid in the forest, it would be difficult to stop his troops from continuing to move forward. Thinking of this, he immediately issued an order to the troops, and everyone left the roadbed and marched on the south side of the railway line.
However, the troops entering the south side of the railway line marched less than a hundred meters and stepped on the landmines, killing four people and injuring eight people. As a result, the soldiers who were already frightened birds refused to continue moving forward. Seeing that the troops stopped again, the German commander jumped out of his feet. He cursed in anger: "Damn Russians, if I catch you, I will tie you together with these mines and blow you to pieces."
After the furious German commander cursed, he called the engineer platoon leader over and asked them to clear mines in front of him, so as to rush to the 564-kilometer station as soon as possible to eliminate the Russian guerrillas occupying there.
After the German commander who was in charge of the engineer platoon leader, he said carefully: "Mr. Colonel, we don't know how many landmines the Russians buried here and how big the area of ​​the mines are. If it was only one or two kilometers, the problem was not big, and we would definitely be able to eliminate them within two hours. But if they buried mines from here to the station 564, just by the few people under my command, even if they lined up for a day, they would not be able to clear them."
The German commander knew the consequences of delaying the opportunity, especially when the military headquarters only gave it one hour. If his troops were always here, he would not only be dismissed, but also might have the possibility of losing his head. Thinking of this, he said to the officers around him: "Order the troops to form a scattered formation and move forward. I don't believe it. The Russians can really bury landmines more than ten kilometers away."
The Chief of Staff of the regiment quickly reminded him: "Mr. Colonel, if I rush forward in this way, I am worried that the troops will suffer heavy casualties. When I arrive at the station, my combat effectiveness will be affected..."
"I can't care about that much." The German commander waved his hand and cursed, "I deserve it if I was killed by the bomb. Those who were not dead will continue to move forward. Whoever dares to rush..." He pulled out the pistol at his waist and raised it high above his head, "I will shoot him in one go."
Seeing that the regiment commander was fierce and blocked by landmines, the officers and soldiers of the 544th Regiment, who were blocked by landmines, began to move forward again. They formed a sparse formation and were carefully moving forward. From time to time, someone stepped on the landmines and was blown away by the explosion air waves. The flying shrapnel also cut down many soldiers close to the explosion point.
No one cares about the fallen companions whether they were injured or dead. They just continued to hold guns and walk forward with cautious subordinates. As for the wounded people who fell to the ground, the division headquarters will send health workers to treat them later.
Hiding in the forest, the bearded man couldn't help but feel anxious when he saw the Germans moving forward regardless of casualties. After all, there were only more than 100 mines buried by them, and they were distributed in such a wide area. As long as the Germans passed this area, they could rush to the 564-kilometer station without any obstacles.
Because he was too far from the station, Beard had no idea how the battle was going on there. He saw that the enemy was passing through the minefield he laid one after another, and was afraid that the attacking troops would be attacked from both sides, so he quickly ordered the radio operator next to him: "Immediately send a report to Captain Mixiga, saying that the enemy was passing through our blocking area and let them be prepared."
The telegram with Bearded warning arrived in Mixiga a few minutes later. After reading the telegram, he handed it to Tafflin who helped him fight: "Comrade Sergeant, the telegram from Bearded, he said that the enemy is passing through his blocking area one after another, so that we can do a good job of prevention as soon as possible."
After quickly browsing the contents of the telegram, Tavlin asked back: "Comrade Mixiga, why didn't he say how many troops the enemy has and what kind of equipment does it have? And, how did they block the enemy?"
When Mixiga heard Tavlin's question, she immediately realized that the report of Beard was too simple. She quickly ordered the operator to ask him to reply to Beard's telegram and let the other party report the battle in detail.
While waiting for the bearded call, Mixiga respectfully asked Tavlin: "Comrade Sergeant, how should we deal with so many supplies in the station?"
"I saw two warehouses containing German military coats and bedding." After occupying the station, Taflin sent a telegram to Guchakov, asking him for instructions on how to deal with the seized materials. Guchakov did not dare to make a decision without authorization, so he sent a telegram to Sokov. Since he had not received a call back for a long time, he did not tell Taflin how to deal with the materials. However, Taflin was a subordinate of Sokov, and he had some knowledge of Sokov's style. Although he had not received a reply from his superiors, he already knew how to choose: "Before we evacuate, put a torch and burn the military coats and bedding, so that the Germans could experience the coldness of Russia's winter."
Chapter completed!