Shulka took out a letter from the pocket of his long-legged jacket, a letter rolled into a ball and wrapped in a tarpaulin... If he didn't do this, the letter would not be preserved until it was sent.
This former comrade could not say anything now. Blood poured out of his throat and dyed his chest bright red. He just lay on the ground, and then everything was over.
Shulka always cared deeply about his comrades in the unit where he grew up, that squad, that platoon... even though he was now a company commander, with three platoons and more than a hundred soldiers under his command.
But this seems normal. For those who don’t know, the number of casualties is just a number.
Shulka did not dare to have too many thoughts, because he knew that a battle was taking place at this time, and the enemies were coming up like a tide.
Usually, the German infantry has more advantages over the Soviet infantry because the German mortarmen are better. Then the machine gunner is responsible for suppressing the enemy infantry's firepower, and then the infantry charges with rifles.
But this time, the German infantry attack did not go so smoothly.
The reason is that there are traps one after another in front of them, invisible traps.
Therefore, the charging infantry of the German army ran and then fell into the trap with a "thump". When they jumped forward, they fell into the pit with a "thump".
This seriously affected the speed of the German advance because they were not sure which piece of mud ahead was a trap.
What's worse is that if he falls into a trap, the rifle will soon be soaked by mud into the bolt, and even if he gets up, the gun will probably not fire.
This forced the German infantry to rush forward by bypassing a few routes with a limited concentration of pits... These routes proved to be safe because they left footprints.
But the result of this was that the Soviet army only needed a limited number of machine guns, submachine guns, and even rifles to block their offensive.
This situation was something Shulka didn't expect...these traps were actually dual-purpose. They could deal with both enemy tanks and infantry.
Admiral Schwepenburg on the other side was not surprised by this. From the beginning, he did not expect to be able to break through the enemy's defense line without the cover of tanks. If this was the case, then the enemies in front of him were not worthy of his use.
What tactics.
Seeing that the situation was almost over, General Schwepenburg waved his hand, and a tank unit that had been prepared for battle rushed forward with murderous intent... This tank unit had a total of forty-five tanks, and it was a heavy tank battalion.
, all composed of "Plank 3" and "Plank 4" tanks.
Driving in the front were five "Pzfk. IV" tanks.
This is a tank that was put into service by the German Army only last year.
Although it lacks defense...the armor thickness is only 30mm, not even as high as the 37mm of the Panzer III tank, but its 75mm-caliber short-barreled artillery is highly lethal to enemy infantry and fortifications when firing high-explosive shells.
More importantly, its cross-country speed can reach 40 kilometers per hour, which is much faster than the 23 kilometers cross-country speed of the Panzer III tank.
Admiral Schweppenberg hoped that these "Plank 4" tanks could use this advantage to break into the enemy's defense line at lightning speed along the railway and cause chaos, and then the "Pakshaft 3" tanks would follow them to fight.
And win.
As General Schweppenberg said to Captain Daniel, commander of the tank battalion: "The enemy will definitely target you with anti-tank guns. Don't worry about this or other things. Forget all dangers and tactics. What you have to do
There are only two things: put the gas pedal in and fire!"
"Yes, General!" Captain Daniel actually knew what to do, because he had done this before, more than once.
So he is quite experienced in this.
Insufficient armor protection?
Don't worry about this, the speed of "No. 4" can rush into the enemy's defense line before their anti-tank guns destroy them. This is the most important thing: speed!
When receiving the order to attack, Captain Daniel exposed half of his body outside the turret, held up a walkie-talkie and ordered: "Listen to my command and move forward!"
More than forty tanks drove onto the railway in an orderly manner under the command of the commander. After the tracks rolled onto the railway track, they made a "clang" sound of steel colliding, just like samurai striking with their swords before charging.
The shield demonstrates to the enemy.
At the same time, General Schwepenburg ordered the artillery to implement fire cover... The purpose of this was to interfere with the sight and attention of the Soviet anti-tank firepower, because the smoke and evaporated water vapor from the shells would further affect the sight.
If he were not worried that the tank driver would not be able to see the railway and the enemy, General Schwepenburg would also fire smoke bombs.
A row of bullets hit the armor of Captain Daniel's Panzer III tank, making a "pop-pop" sound like exploding beans.
This made Daniel realize that the enemy had noticed their actions, so Captain Daniel retracted his head cover and closed the hatch cover and ordered: "All units, close the hatch cover!"
This was not the time to be a hero, and Daniel knew that.
He did not understand that some tank commanders always like to stick their heads out of the tank to direct operations... This may be a symbol of courage, and it can indeed better perceive the external environment and quickly indicate the target for the tank.
But at the same time, this will also make the commander a target for enemy snipers or machine gunners.
"Then the value of the tank is lost!" Captain Daniel commented on this approach: "The biggest role of the tank is that you hide in it and shoot at the enemy, but the enemy can do nothing to you!"
What Captain Daniel didn't expect was that this time the battle was exactly the opposite, that is, the enemy was shooting at him, but he was helpless against the enemy.
"First company!" Captain Daniel ordered: "Speed up!"
The first company was the unit at the forefront, including the five "No. 4" tanks that led the charge.
"We are already using our fastest speed, Captain!" the first company commander replied.
"Not fast enough!" Captain Daniel said: "You have to know that there are probably several anti-tank guns aiming at you. As long as you slow down, their shells will penetrate your armor and smash your tanks into a ball.
Fireball!"
"That's what surprises me, Captain!" reported the company commander: "No anti-tank guns have been fired at us until now!"
Captain Daniel also felt something was wrong.
Because infantry had already cleared the roadblocks before, and the railway track foundation was solid, the tanks were galloping forward at a speed of 40 kilometers per hour and were approaching the enemy's defense line...
The enemy should have responded with anti-tank guns long ago, but there has been no movement until now.
But Captain Daniel didn't think much about it. He ordered: "You don't need to worry about these, Second Lieutenant. There are only two things you need to do: increase the throttle and fire!"