When Reichev himself saw this railway branch leading to the dark forest, he also made some analysis.
Under the scorching sun, the railway tracks also shone. The Germans obviously only used the railways and did not seem to make any further improvements?
"Shikaf, send some soldiers to observe closely and see if there are any abnormalities in the railway. Especially if there are any signs of replacement of the spikes and sleepers!"
"As you command!"
More than a dozen soldiers emerged from the ambush point next to the road. They bent down like railway inspectors. Their work was actually more careful, because it required good skills to judge whether the rails, spikes and the like had been replaced.
In eyes.
They checked for about twenty minutes, and finally some soldiers discovered the clues.
The soldier placed a handful of grass at the unusual location as a mark, and hurried back to report the information.
"Reporting to the battalion commander, I discovered something unusual. Where I put the grass, there is at least thirty meters of railway track, and the spikes there are completely different from other spikes."
"As expected!" Reichev became nervous on the spot.
"Batalion Commander? What happened?" Shikaf asked curiously.
"Stop talking nonsense and let me find out now!"
Reichev quickly arrived at the scene of the incident. He squatted down and found that new spikes were used here. They clearly looked like they were newly nailed, while the other spikes were rusty. If he looked carefully, it was not just the spikes.
Even the sleepers were new, Reichev had to suspect, and even the rails were new.
He raised his head, looked at the half-kneeling soldiers around him with guns on guard, and said to Shikaf: "Let's take a look at the soil in this area. It may be different from that in other locations."
"Soil, but a lot of gravel was thrown at the base of the railroad."
"Yes! We will definitely find something abnormal if we remove the pebbles."
Reichev ordered a few soldiers to do what they said. After they removed some stones, they discovered a serious anomaly. It was an area where the texture of the land was obviously different from other places. The paratroopers' noses were also very sharp. They sniffed
In addition to the earthy smell, there is another very familiar smell - the smell of gunpowder smoke.
The consciousness of the soldiers tells everyone what happened here, that is, there was an explosion here, which eventually caused the railway to be blown up. Then, the enemy must have repaired the railway!
This discovery was so shocking that the soldiers present immediately started talking about it.
Shikaf asked nervously: "Could it be that there are other troops besides us in this area?"
"It's probably a guerrilla group that we haven't come into contact with yet. It may be camped somewhere in the woods, or it may be just stragglers. I don't know what their strength is or what their weapons and equipment are.
They can blow up the railroad tracks, so maybe this unit is not weak in combat effectiveness."
"Then we must contact this guerrilla group and incorporate it in accordance with policy."
Reichev nodded: "Indeed, this is our responsibility."
Just when they confirmed that this place had been attacked by unknown guerrillas, a few clever paratroopers noticed the vibration of small stones on the railway tracks.
This was done intentionally by the soldiers. As long as the stones shook, it meant that a train was coming.
The soldier immediately informed Reichev of this situation.
"Damn it! They still have trains? How long have they been using this line? How come they are so skilled?!" Reichev cursed and stood up, shaking off the dust on his body.
Shikaf hurriedly asked: "Battal Commander, should we shoot the enemy with one shot? Our RPG has the ability to blow up the enemy's locomotive boiler."
"No!" Reichev quickly rejected this group of militant soldiers. "Today our mission is only to detect all valuable intelligence. We are simply observing. Now I will give your company a mission!"
The task given to more than 160 people in this company is to camp near this railway line to monitor and record train information on this line.
It didn't take long for the train that caused the stones to tremble to pass by the ambushing Soviet troops.
The paratroopers, whose camouflage nets on their helmets were filled with grass, lurked in the low shrubs under the woods one by one. Reichev saw the train passing in front of it again, and the distance between them was less than thirty meters.
He counted it with his hands and saw that the huge steam locomotive had pulled thirty trains. What was terrible was that the paint on the trains had not been wiped off, and there were still Russian characters on it! Obviously, the Germans had indeed used local materials.
, they are using Soviet equipment and plundering Soviet supplies.
Not all soldiers could suppress their anger. A few soldiers subconsciously raised their guns and aimed them roughly at the German defenders at the top of the carriage.
The squad leader immediately stopped the soldiers' stupid behavior so that no one was exposed after all.
The train passed by at a speed of about 40 kilometers per hour. No one could tell whether the thirty carriages were empty or full of supplies.
Some soldiers thought it was a lot of flour, others thought it was potatoes, and some even thought it was full of Jews.
"Haha! This place is going to be full of people. It would be too bad for us to attack rashly!" The company commander commented on the whispers of the soldiers.
Reichev hammered the ground helplessly and sighed: "If there are really Jews here and we attack rashly, they will all die after the train derails. However, if we let the train go, they will also be killed by the Germans. Unless, we
Stop the train. If we do that, it will be tantamount to disobedience and we will be court-martialed for disobedience."
"This is really a difficult choice. I hope the wagons are carrying potatoes!"
"Stop talking nonsense!" Reichev stood up and shook off the dust and grass on his body, "Remember my order! Leave some people to set up camp, and others, follow me to scout their bridgehead."
The distance from where the train was found to the railway bridge is nearly two kilometers. In fact, the cover in the forest is only the last kilometer!
Reichev led the group, which was almost covered with grass above their heads. They were well camouflaged, so they were confident that they would never be exposed.
They moved along the woods beside the railway and soon reached the edge of the forest.
Reichev personally picked up the fifteen-fold telescope and immediately began to investigate the bridge and pay attention to the situation in the city.
"As expected, the enemy was indeed prepared. At the exit of this bridge, the enemy built two forts."
Shikaf said along the way: "It is still an extraordinary fortress. They reinforced it with concrete! In this way, our 70mm recoilless rifle can't blow it up even if it uses high explosives that are more powerful than TNT!"
"
"Indeed, our rockets can complete the bombardment. It's a pity that it is a waste to use rockets to bomb those two piles of cement!" Suddenly, Rychev also had a flash of inspiration. "By the way, if the commander can provide a
A warhead that burns air can be destroyed by a small RPG missile."
"It's too bad. We are on the front line and will not be able to get this kind of weapon for a while. If we take the initiative to attack tomorrow, we will definitely have a head-to-head confrontation with these bridgeheads. Besides, battalion commander, look carefully, they also have a lot of simple machine guns.
, I saw a lot of shaking figures. Has the enemy already learned that we are going to attack?"
"Impossible!" Reichev retorted, "but they have reason to strengthen the defense here. If I were the German army, I would definitely think of the strategic value of Loev, and it must exist as a small train station. So I would
Increase the number of defenders here and protect it as much as possible."
With the help of very good telescopes, these paratroopers saw the basic layout of the east side of the city of Loev. They saw many buildings, most of which were three floors, and there were many wooden houses around the cement buildings. The most spectacular one was this one
The iron bridge spans the Dnieper River. The river here is three hundred meters long, so the length of the iron bridge is also amazing.
Reichev immediately realized that it would be very difficult to fully occupy this bridge in future battles. Besides, the enemy was making crazy use of this railway line.