In the early morning of the third day, Shulka and others were sleeping soundly in a private house, snoring one after another, especially Uncle Alek, who was sleeping in the tank cabin and could hear his snoring even through the armor of the tank...
…The fact that the tank didn’t have a hatch was a bit like a big amplifier making the snoring louder.
At this moment, a roar of artillery shells suddenly exploded in the village.
No one paid attention to it. Even if they were awakened, they turned around and continued to sleep. The reason was that it was not uncommon for stray bullets to enter the village these days, and the soldiers were used to it.
Then another shot, and another shot...
At this time, Shulka felt something was wrong. The intervals between these shells were very rhythmic. They were not like stray bullets but test firings by artillery.
He sat up and listened. The veteran also woke up and looked at Shulka.
However, there was no movement for a while, so the two thought they had heard wrongly.
But at this moment, there was a roar of artillery shells in the sky, followed by a series of bombings. The shock wave of the artillery shells made the tiles above the head make a "cough" sound, and the dust on the walls fell down with a "swish".
"Get ready for battle!" Shulka shouted.
In fact, there was no need for Shulka to give an order, the soldiers had already started to move spontaneously... All they had to do was for the infantry to come out of the tank cabin and the tank soldiers to return to their positions. Uncle Alek, who was drunk, didn't know whether he was panicked or exhausted.
After failing to get out several times, Fedosiev became anxious and dragged him out one by one with another tank soldier and threw him to the ground.
This made Uncle Alek a little dissatisfied and he cursed, but no one cared at this time and at the same time, he couldn't hear what he was cursing over the sound of cannons.
Soon the soldiers were ready.
However, they soon discovered that there was no need to be so anxious because the enemy was fighting the infantry of the 316th Division on the outer defense line.
The soldiers could only hear the loud sound of artillery outside, and from time to time the sound of diving fighter planes, especially the unique roar of Stuka bombers diving.
Shulka and the instructor looked at each other, and then looked out through the window... The situation was not good. The rain stopped at some point and seemed to be frozen in the sky, and the snow on the ground was not obvious enough.
In the wet the ground quickly becomes semi-melted and only the roof is covered with a thin layer.
This improves visibility, but a tank painted white would look awkward if driven out.
Shulka immediately called Major Gavrilov.
Major Gavrilov also realized the seriousness of the problem.
"The weather has improved!" Major Gavrilov said: "This is not a good thing for us!"
"Major, we should let the artillery battalion make some preparations!" Shulka said: "Let them spread white cloth on the ground or other places!"
"Good idea!" Major Gavrilov replied and immediately hung up the phone.
Soon, the artillery battalion in the village did what Shulka said.
The Soviet army had a lot of white cloth, which was used to camouflage the troops. It was transported from the rear to the front by truckloads.
Moscow may lack equipment because a large number of troops have been surrounded and annihilated, but there is no shortage of things like white cloth, and workers can quickly produce it in large quantities.
Then……
Firewood piles, stones, mounds, and even bushes were covered with white cloth, and the whole village soon turned into a piece of snow-white.
But at this time, the German troops still did not appear in front of the soldiers, and the gunfire and artillery fire on the outer defense line were still fierce.
"Those infantry!" said the veteran: "They fought very tenaciously!"
"How many are there?" the actor couldn't help but ask.
"A battalion!" Shulka answered.
This situation also surprised Shulka. According to previous practice, the Soviet infantry should collapse quickly under the impact of enemy armored forces.
Later Shulka learned that in addition to the bravery of the 316th Infantry Division from Kazakhstan, another reason was that they were equipped with ptrd anti-tank guns... The German armored divisions were also equipped with many "Pop 2" tanks in the early days.
It makes up for the shortcomings of frontline tanks, and in muddy fields the Germans prefer to use the lighter "PzKw2" tank for assaults because they are worried that the "Pzkfw3" tank will get stuck in the mud and be unable to move.
This gives the ptrd anti-tank gun a chance to shine.
This anti-tank gun can penetrate 25mm thick vertical armor at a distance of 500 meters, while the side armor of the "Plank 2" tank is only 16mm thick.
Although the "Plank II" tank has 30mm of frontal armor, the ptrd anti-tank rifle can still penetrate it from the front at about 200 meters.
This is definitely a tragedy for the German armored forces... The enemy only needs to set up a gun and a rifle. Although it is two meters long and weighs 17 kilograms, it requires two people to carry it in tandem, but after all it is
A gun that can maneuver quickly.
The bullet it shoots can open a hole in the tank and paralyze the tank, which is unacceptable in any case.
In particular, the soldiers of the 316th Infantry Division also adopted a tactic... They combined several anti-tank guns to attack the same target, thus increasing the probability of destroying the target exponentially.
As a result, one after another "No. 2" tanks were paralyzed on the way to attack. The German army did not even know the reason for a long time and thought it was a tank failure.
The "No. 3" tank advanced hard in the mud, but was blocked by the "Katyusha" rocket launcher and was defeated.
But the ptrd anti-tank gun is somewhat weak...
First of all, it is basically ineffective against the Panzer III tank and cannot penetrate its 37mm frontal armor at any distance.
Secondly, the recoil of this anti-tank gun is too great. The moment it is fired, the shoulder feels like being kicked by a donkey.
The shooter usually fires one bullet with his right shoulder, then switches to the other shoulder to shoot one bullet with the left shoulder, and then switches to the right shoulder to shoot another round.
After three rounds of bullets, the human body's limit has basically been reached, and the shooter will no longer be able to fight and should go to the hospital to recuperate.
Therefore, about twenty minutes later, when the German army launched the second wave of attacks, the troops of the 316th Division were gradually exhausted.
Colonel Katukov was commanding this battle from Tver... He had to be in Tver, and only by being in Tver could he deceive others.
After hearing the report, he immediately ordered the anti-aircraft artillery battalion to retreat to the defense line.
Then he made a call to the 316th Division headquarters.
"You should retreat!" Colonel Katukov said: "Withdraw the troops on the outer defense line!"
"I'm about to send reinforcements there!" Panfilov, commander of the 316th Division, replied: "We can't lose there!"
"Don't worry, Comrade Panfilov!" Katukov replied: "We will not lose our position, you can prepare your reserves for counterattack!"