Less than half an hour after the troops escorted the wounded, a German army appeared on the south side of the highlands. They had about a company of troops, and with them, five trucks traction with artillery.
Sokov stood in the observation center on the top of the hillside, watching the cannons to be pulled by the car, which had been turned over by the German artillery and pointed the gun at the high ground. He realized that a fierce battle was coming, so he put down his telescope and said to Saviev, who was standing beside him: "Comrade Lieutenant, the Germans are about to fire on the high ground soon. Except for leaving a few observation posts to monitor the enemy, the rest of the soldiers were hidden."
Fortunately, when the German army seized this position, the original telephone line of the German army was not damaged much. After repairs by the communication squad soldiers, Saviev could talk to each platoon without leaving the house. Saviev picked up the phone and said to the microphone: "The battalion commander ordered that everyone excluded the observation post and left to monitor the enemy, the rest of the soldiers were hidden to avoid the enemy's shelling."
After putting down the phone, Saviev looked up at the wooden roof above his head and asked with some concern: "Comrade Battalion Commander, we will stay in the observation center, there will be no danger, right?"
"No, comrade Lieutenant." Sokov said disapprovingly about Saviev's concerns: "The roof of the observation center has been reinforced, and the German shells cannot do anything to us." The reason why he was so confident was that there was a layer of water on the snow on the roof, which had been frozen hard at this moment. He did not believe that the German shells could blow up such a thick layer of ice.
Although Sokov spoke so confidently, Saviev still said worriedly: "Comrade Battalion Commander, according to my observation, the German army used 150mm howitzer. Can the ice on the roof of the observation center withstand the bombardment of German heavy artillery?"
When Sokov was about to comfort Saviev again, he suddenly heard a scream from the air. A thought came out of his mind: "The Germans fired!" A loud noise came from dozens of meters ahead, and a huge fire ball rose there, emitting dazzling light. Then, a hot wave of air rushed in from the lookout, causing him to take two steps back involuntarily.
"Comrade Battalion Commander, this is the enemy's test firing, and they will start shelling soon." Although the explosion point just now was dozens of meters away, Saviev still felt the ground under his feet tremble for a few times. He quickly advised Sokov: "I think the observation center can't withstand the German shelling, so let's go to the anti-cannon hole."
"Wait a little longer, Comrade Lieutenant." Sokov calmed down and said with a lucky chance: "The German shells hit the areas where we had not reinforced. I think the shells would not be able to blow up the shells."
But what happened next was to hit Sokov in the face. German shells fell one after another, shattering the civil fortifications protected by ice. Rounds of snow-powdered soil rushed into the sky like a fountain. With each explosion, Sokov's heart contracted and his body trembled.
Seeing the landing point of the shells getting closer and closer to the observation center, Saviev was a little anxious. He grabbed Sokov's arm and pulled him hard toward the outside of the observation center. What happened in front of him made Sokov understand in his heart that watering the snow to strengthen the fortifications was simply a joke. In ancient times, watering the city walls made the enemy's cannon to collapse the city walls, but can the shells made of large iron balls be comparable to 150mm howitzer shells? Therefore, when he discovered that Saviev pulled himself out, he did not resist, but obediently followed the other party out of the observation center and entered the anti-aircraft hole not far away along the traffic trench.
The German artillery lasted only half an hour before stopping. Hearing that there was no movement outside, Saviev drilled out of the anti-cannon hole and stood in the traffic trench and looked down at the mountain. He saw half of the German infantry holding guns and approaching the high ground carefully. He quickly retracted the anti-cannon hole and rushed to Sokov, who was sitting inside, and shouted: "Comrade Battalion Commander, the enemy has begun to attack!"
"Immediately order the soldiers into the trenches," Sokov stood up and said to Saviev, "You must defeat the enemy."
After a moment, whistles sounded one after another on the entire position, which was a signal to inform those soldiers hiding in anti-cannon holes or hidden departments that they should enter the position.
Sokov and Saviev were walking along the traffic trench and preparing to return to the observation center. When they approached, they found that half of the observation center had been blown up by artillery fire, and a crooked log was burning. Seeing this, Sokov couldn't help but take a breath and thought to himself that if Saviev hadn't forced him to pull him away, he would have been dead at this moment. He turned his head and looked at Saviev, who was standing aside, bit his lip, and said softly: "Comrade Lieutenant, thank you, you saved my life just now."
"Look at what you said, Comrade Battalion Commander." Unexpectedly, Saveev said with a smile: "Save your life, isn't it equivalent to saving my own life. If we had not left the observation center, we would have been killed by German shells." He looked around and then said, "Comrade Battalion Commander, the observation center cannot be used, so let's change the place."
The two climbed into a huge crater and used it as a new observation station to observe the situation of the battlefield. The terrain on the southern slope was steeper than the terrain of the Soviet army, but it was nearly half the distance. After the German infantry arrived at the foot of the mountain, they continued to briskly walk forward while shooting towards the top of the mountain.
When the German army entered a range of 100 meters, the machine guns on the position began to shoot first. The dense gunshots sounded like beans. They caught the German army, who were trying to climb upwards, and the soldiers who were rushing upwards fell into the snow. An officer walking in the front was hit by more than a dozen bullets and then turned two circles in the spot, and fell back into the snow. Although the soldiers in front were knocked down, the soldiers behind did not stop. They continued to climb up while shooting upwards.
Seeing that the Germans were still rushing forward, the gunshots on the positions became more dense. Not only machine guns were shooting, submachine guns, rifles, but also several pistols also joined in the shooting, killing the German soldiers rushing up to fall on the snow one after another.
Chapter completed!