The next day, before it was dark, the German soldiers were called out of their tents one by one... During this period, the German army could be said to be attacking, advancing, attacking again, and advancing again.
Therefore, the blocking of the attack last night was still what the soldiers hoped for, because only then could they get a rare rest.
War is sometimes ironic, it seems to have nothing to do with ordinary soldiers.
Money, interests, power, etc., they cannot get even if they win the battle, but they have to participate in it at the cost of their lives, and they can't help themselves.
Just like now, after a long and tense battle, they were called up after just three hours of rest.
"It will be dawn soon, we must be ready to attack before dawn!"
Then, the tanks started "rumbling", one after another, forming a neat formation in the front to form an offensive line, and the soldiers were assigned to the rear of the tanks in groups.
The commanders of each squad loudly gave their final mobilization and warning to their soldiers amidst the noise of the tank engines:
"Be careful to hide yourself, and protect the tanks at the same time... Protecting tanks is to protect yourself, because they are your shields and your spears!"
"Pay attention and observe. If you find an anti-tank gun, use tracer bullets to indicate the tank's position, or if it is close, use your mortars to suppress it!"
…
One of the things that all teams share is: "Watch out for the dogs. Those dogs are carrying explosives on their backs. They will burrow under the tank chassis!"
Of course they don't know that what they need to pay more attention to this time is not the enemy's dogs that drill into the tank chassis, but the enemy's tanks, tanks!
The sky gradually became brighter, but as usual the sun could not be seen because it had been blocked by rain and clouds.
The rain stopped for a while, and a few small snowflakes drifted down...or it could be said that the rain didn't stop at all, they just turned into snow and drifted down in the cold air.
These snowflakes failed to form anything on the ground. As soon as they hit the ground, they turned into water and disappeared into the soil.
Soon, the snowflakes disappeared and turned into a steady stream of rain again.
This also gave Major General Schroeder an excuse to urge the German army to advance faster.
"Did you see it?" Major General Schroeder looked at the sky filled with snowflakes, and then said to the adjutant: "If we don't speed up, we will freeze in the ice and snow! Tell them, when the snow comes,
Defeat Moscow before, and then we can spend this winter in front of the warm stove of the Kremlin in Moscow!"
Major General Schroeder's words did have an effect, especially the use of a "warm stove"... This was what the German soldiers who were starving and freezing in the rain desperately needed.
So they responded with practical actions.
"Go!" Following the order, the German troops advanced into the morning light under the cover of tanks.
There was no artillery preparation and no aircraft bombing.
In addition to the supply difficulties for the German army, more importantly, the smoke and water vapor generated by the explosion will remain on the ground for a long time and cannot be dissipated. This will definitely make it difficult for the German army to find the target... The so-called target is the Soviet mine dog.
But even this is about the same, because the tank exhaust and the mud and water kicked up by the tracks are enough to block the sight of the German infantry.
So after only advancing for a while, the German army decided to change their formation...the distance between the tanks was wider, and the infantry advanced between the tanks in sync with the tanks.
This formation quickly achieved results:
A dozen mine dogs sprang out from the trenches. Before they could run far, they were beaten to pieces by German machine guns and riflemen and fell to pieces on the road.
Although a few mine dogs were lucky enough to break through the long-range fire network, they were quickly knocked to the ground by German submachine gunners... The theoretical rate of fire of the German MP40 submachine gun was 500 rounds per minute. There was no need to face mine dogs at close range.
Aim and move towards the direction of the mine dog in a broad direction. Very few can escape from this firepower.
Its disadvantage is insufficient penetration, but this problem does not exist when dealing with mine dogs.
Then, the tank will slow down and wait for the infantry to move forward to eliminate the explosive devices on the backs of these mine dogs... The tanks do not dare to risk rolling over or stepping over these high explosives. It would be too much to trigger them at this time.
Unjust.
So the German attack went very smoothly. Major Millier, who suffered heavy losses from the bombing of these mine dogs last night, stood on an advancing Panzer III tank and shouted excitedly: "Come on, you Russians! Yours!"
The trick doesn’t work anymore, go back to Moscow!”
As if to fulfill Major Millier's words, the Soviet soldiers resisted for a while and then began to retreat.
A series of orders immediately sounded from the walkie-talkies of the German tank soldiers:
"They have retreated, don't rush to chase the enemy!"
"Keep your defense and speed, and continue to watch out for mine dogs! There are mines too!"
…
This choice was certainly the right one, because Soviet soldiers had never been the focus for the German army.
If they wanted to attack the Soviet army effectively, the German army would have surrounded and annihilated the Soviet army by hundreds of thousands on the front lines, but so far they still have not been able to inflict a blow on the Soviet army.
Therefore, the German army has basically given up on this. Even because the prisoner of war camps were overcrowded, the German army believed that the least valuable trophy was Soviet soldiers.
There is a saying among the German army: "If I capture a Russian, what I care more about is not the prisoner himself, but what equipment he is holding...the equipment is more valuable than the prisoner!"
The equipment can be used by the guerrillas, or the enemy's weapons can be used when ammunition is low, but the prisoners... they are just a number to the German army or waste that consumes food and guards.
Therefore, the German army certainly would not risk its tanks just to annihilate these Russian soldiers.
Therefore, the tank continued to drive forward slowly and unhurriedly. At most, it used its machine gun to fire a few rounds of bullets in the direction in which the Soviet troops were escaping.
After the Soviet army fired several rounds of smoke grenades, the German army became even more nervous.
"Stop! Everyone, stop... watch out for mine dogs!"
"Stop all tanks and turn off their engines!"
"We know from the Russians that tanks with mine dogs that can only run their engines are a threat!"
…
"Bang bang!" Then intensive gunshots rang out.
Groups of dogs jumped out of the smoke, leaving the Germans unable to respond.
Then soon a German soldier reported: "We found some dogs, but there were no explosives tied to them! To be precise, the explosives on them were fake, just cloth bags!"
"Great!" Major General Schroeder said: "They didn't even have time to stuff the explosives!"