Chapter 161: Openly repairing the plank road and secretly traveling to Chen Cang (middle)
Seeing the soldiers of the Second Company climbing up the tanks that had already been activated, Sokov nodded at Washok, who had half his body exposed from the turret, indicating that he could attack. Washok immediately shouted to the sending machine: "Tank Brigade, go forward!" With his order, more than 20 tanks that were ready to go immediately launched a battle formation and drove the soldiers to Popkovo in the distance.
Although the attack road was covered with snow, it was nothing for the T-34 tanks and KB heavy tanks with wide tracks. In just five minutes, the tank group rushed to less than 500 meters from Popkovo.
Seeing the Soviet tanks rushing towards the villages and towns, the German powerful artillery, regardless of whether the Soviet artillery bombardment had not stopped, came out from its hiding place and shot at the tank brigade from a high place.
The shells that occurred in the German attack artillery fell into the tank queue and exploded. The air waves mixed with snow-covered black mud were raised into the air, and then scattered down like flowers. A T-34 tank rushing in the front was directly hit by the German artillery and immediately caught fire. The soldiers sitting on the car were either dead or injured. Several soldiers sitting on the tanks were hit by shrapnel flying everywhere and fell from the car.
Sokov stood in the observation center, and used a telescope to look at the tanks rushing forward with the enemy's artillery fire in front of him, as well as the commanders and soldiers sitting on the body of the car. Seeing that soldiers were hit by shrapnel from time to time and fell from the body of the galloping tank, he couldn't help but feel like a knife.
Tanks of the Tank Brigade rushed to the slope one after another and entered the shooting dead end of the powerful artillery. The tankers adjusted the direction of the tank and rushed towards the villages and towns along the slope. German soldiers hiding in bunkers and fortifications hurriedly shot. The bullets fired by machine guns, submachine guns, and rifles were placed on the tank's turret, splashing a series of sparks, but did not slow down the speed of the Soviet tank tracks advancing forward.
The T-34 tank that rushed in the front stopped on the slope, slowly turned the turret, and aimed at the soldiers who were shooting wildly in the fortifications with a 76mm cannon. After a loud bang, the sandbag fortifications blocked the road ahead was blown up with a gap, and the German soldiers hiding behind were blown away and the flesh and blood were blown away.
After completing the shooting, the tanker continued to drive forward. The weapons in the hands of the warriors on the body of the car and the heading machine guns were shooting at the broken sandbags of the German army, knocking down the enemy who emerged one by one.
Seeing the Soviet tanks lined up along the slope, some of the German soldiers behind the sandbags saw that the situation was not good, throwing away their weapons and turning around to escape to the villages and towns. The soldiers who continued to fight were crushed by the high-speed rotation tracks.
At the end of the slope is a platform. Cherneshov, who was observing the battle situation in his own command, saw the tanks of the Tank Brigade and had arrived at the entrance of the village and town of Popkovo. He was afraid that continuing to bombard the artillery would accidentally hurt his people, so he quickly ordered the artillery to stop shooting.
After the tanks drove onto the platform one after another, they drove towards the villages and towns in a row. The soldiers of the Second Company also jumped off the tanks, followed the shooting corners behind the tanks, and followed the streets toward the villages and towns.
A German machine gun team hid in a building that had collapsed half of the collapsed building at the entrance of the village and town, trying to shoot at the infantry following behind the tank. But after they fired a few bullets, they were discovered by the tanks that opened the way in front. The three tanks stopped at the same time, turned the gun ports and aimed at the location of the machine gun, and fired a shot. Three shells hit the target at the same time. The brick wall that had been blackened by the smoke collapsed, and buried the machine gun team hiding behind them in broken bricks and tiles.
Seeing the Soviet artillery fire stop and the German soldiers who avoided the shelling came out of their hiding place. When they found the Soviet tanks driving along the street, they were shocked. But they were all veterans who had been through battle. After a brief panic, they returned to normal and immediately entered their own defensive positions and started to fight back with various weapons.
The three tanks that opened the road were successively destroyed by the German storm artillery hidden in the ruins of the building and stopped on the street to burn. Andre, the commander of the second company, standing at the entrance of the village, saw through the smoke of the burning tanks, a German tank was slowly driving over the other end of the street, followed by dozens of bent German soldiers behind it. The German storm artillery was constantly opening fire to this side, and he quickly shouted at the top of the throat: "Scatter, the infantry disperse, and hide in the ruins, and prepare to destroy the rushing enemies."
But his shouts were covered by gunfire, and few people heard what he was calling. Fortunately, the two platoon leaders of the first and second platoons rushed towards the entrance under the cover of shelling and tanks, and took the initiative to take their subordinates to the ruins to find a hidden place.
Under the attack of German strong guns, two more T-34s were shot and caught fire. Even the tank brigade commander Colonel Washock, also hit two shells in a row. But thankfully, the shells only made two white marks on the heavy tank he drove, and did not penetrate the front armor of the tank at all.
When the German gunners saw that they had hit the target, they were secretly proud of the smoke. The heavy tanks that were hit not only did not catch fire, but turned the gun to aim at them. Just as they were about to fire again, the tank where Washock was located had already fired first. The 152 mm heavy shell hit the German artillery unbiasedly. After a loud bang, a huge crater appeared on the spot. In addition to the broken artillery parts at the edge of the crater, several German artillery soldiers had been blown to pieces.
After completing the shooting, Washock continued to look for the target, preparing to eliminate the powerful guns hiding in the ruins and firing one by one, and then guide the infantry to charge in the town.
Belkin in the observation center from a distance, saw the Second Company charging with the Tank Brigade, and was at the entrance of the village and town, fighting a close-range battle with the German army. He hurriedly asked Sokov for advice: "Comrade Battalion Commander, are we going to put the machine gun company into battle as well?"
"Wait a minute, Comrade Battalion Commander." Although Sokov had long wanted to take the machine gun company to rush to the high ground to eliminate the enemies in the villages and towns, considering that the two companies that deviated to the German flanks had no news yet, he could only hold his troops temporarily: "When we see the signal from the first company and the third company, we will put the machine gun company into battle."