It was always dark early in winter. As soon as the sky was getting dark, the team led by Bavel set off. In order to avoid being noticed by the German army, they had to advance eastward, walk five or six kilometers before turning south, and detour near the German artillery position. When the enemy was not prepared, they launched a sudden attack.
At night, he was marching in a forest with extremely poor visibility and snow. Bavel, who led the team, could not see anything. He could only occasionally turn on the flashlight and use the compass to distinguish the direction. The soldiers of the team followed him with deep and shallow feet. Occasionally, accidentally hit the trees next to him, and the snow on the branches would slide down, leaving the soldiers covered in snow powder.
I don’t know how long I walked, Christopher from the Second Company accelerated his pace and came to Bavelle. He said to him in a pissy manner: “Comrade Corporal, everyone has been so tired after walking so far, so let’s take a break first.”
Bavel, who had been walking in the snowy forest for a long time, felt tired. He heard Christopher's proposal and nodded and whispered to him: "Pause down, stop moving forward, and rest in place for five minutes!"
Soon his orders were passed down one by one, and the soldiers following behind stopped, leaning against the tree trunks on the side, gasping for breath. After walking for so long, Bavel felt that his pullover uniform had been soaked in sweat. At this stop, the cold wind blew, and his body felt cold and wet.
Just as Bavel was thinking, if he continued to stay, would he be frost-sick, he suddenly heard Christopher ask again: "Comrade Corporal, how far have we gone?"
Bavel quickly illuminated his watch with a flashlight and whispered: "We have been walking for more than two hours. According to the speed of the march, it should be about five kilometers."
"O my God." Christopher said sadly at the distance Bavel said: "I have been walking for so long and just halfway through the journey. I am worried that I will die of exhaustion."
Bavel said a little displeased about Christopher's complaints: "Christorf, if you feel you can't walk, you can go back the same way."
"Comrade Corporal, look at what you said." Although Christopher couldn't see Bavel's face clearly, he could hear his dissatisfaction from his tone and quickly explained: "I'm just a joke. Don't be angry when you see."
"Okay, the time is up." Bavel said, standing up and saying to the resting warrior: "Comrades, let's continue to set off."
After more than two hours of trekking, Bavel and his team finally arrived near the German artillery position. He was originally worried that he would not be able to find the enemy's artillery position because of poor visibility. But when he arrived at the place, he realized that he was worried. The Germans lit a lot of fires in the base, and the flames made Bavel and his friends discover the location of the artillery from afar.
Bavel carefully observed for a while and found that there were the same number of trucks with cannons parked near the five artillery guns. Two fires were burning near the trucks. Next to the fire, two German soldiers wearing steel helmets and military coats kept stomping their feet near the fire with guns. After another one or two hundred meters, there was a tent, which should be where the German infantry lived.
When Christopher saw this situation, he said to Bavel excitedly: "Comrade Corporal, have you seen it? The Germans only have two sentinels. We crawled over and killed them, and then blow up the cannons to complete the task."
"How do you know there are only two German soldiers? Maybe there are secret whistles." Bavel glared at Christopher and said in a stern tone: "No one is allowed to take action until the enemy's troops are clearly identified."
After repeated observations, Bavel finally figured out the distribution of the enemy's troops. The German artillery, except for the two sentries, basically stayed in the truck; and in addition to the double posts, the infantry also had two five-man patrols patrolling the camp.
After retreating to the rest of the team, Bavel whispered to the crowd: "Comrades in charge of each company, come to me for a meeting."
Soon, three soldiers, including Christopher, surrounded him, and they were all the leaders of the companies. Before arranging the orders, Bavel asked the soldiers to circle around him, so as not to notice the light of the flashlight when he was assigning tasks.
"Comrades," Bavel carefully turned on the flashlight, drew a simple picture on the snow, and introduced the situation to the three of them: "Look, this is the German artillery position. Except for the two posts, the rest are sleeping in the truck. The infantry camp is more than one hundred meters away.
The task given to us by the battalion commander was to blow up the enemy's cannons. Therefore, I decided that the comrades in the first company were responsible for clearing the sentries on the artillery positions and placing explosives on the cannons; the second company was responsible for monitoring the movements of the German infantry. If we were discovered during the bombing of the cannons and they came to reinforce, you must be responsible for blocking them..."
"Don't worry, comrade Corporal." Christopher said proudly after hearing the order given to him by Bavel, "I will never let an infantryman arrive at the artillery position."
Regarding Christopher's statement, Bavel nodded and said to the warriors of the machine gun company: "Your mission is to be responsible for receiving and responding. After the bombing is successful, you will be responsible for covering the first company and the comrades of the second company retreat. Do you understand?"
"I understand!" the three soldiers answered in unison.
"Since you understand, then act."
The soldiers of a company crawled towards the German artillery position. Everything seemed to be smooth at the distance of two or three hundred meters in front. But when the two sentries were still more than 30 meters away, a soldier accidentally cut off a branch in the snow because of his rush to achieve success. The sound of the broken branches alarmed the German soldiers who were keeping warm. The two quickly picked up their guns and asked loudly in the direction of the sound, "Who, who is where?"
The Soviet soldiers could not understand what he was calling, and even if they understood, they would not answer. The German sentry felt something was wrong and immediately pulled the trigger. With a "bang", the bullet hit the soldier who had crushed the branch. The collapsed snow powder made him feel a little panicked. He quickly held the submachine gun in his hand and shot the two sentries.
Amid the clear gunshots, one sentry fell to the ground, while another sentry lie down on the ground, firing desperately in the direction of the bullets. But he fired less than two shots, and a grenade flew from a distance would send him directly to see God. A company of soldiers lying on the ground jumped up and rushed towards the position of the cannon. They wanted to blow up the cannon before the Germans reacted.
But the German artillery soldiers who were sleeping in the truck had already been awakened by the gunshots. They didn't even have time to wear clothes. They picked up their weapons and fired randomly outside the vehicle. The dense firepower actually forced the soldiers in the company to lie down on the ground and shoot at them.
When the German infantry heard the dense gunfire sounds at the artillery positions, they knew that they must have been attacked. Two patrol teams rushed towards the place where the gunfire was heard. The German soldiers in the tent were also dressed and prepared to come out to support the artillery.
Christopher, who was in charge of monitoring the infantry, saw the enemy sentry rushing over and shouting: "Let's fire!" The second company's ten submachine guns opened fire together, knocking down half of the rushing patrol. The remaining German soldiers hurriedly found a place to hide and fought back at the second company soldiers who intercepted them.
Chapter completed!