The battlefield gradually became silent, and the smoke gradually dissipated, leaving only a few ignited tanks on the bridge still burning with flames, which looked very dazzling in the dark night.
"How is the situation?" Major Gavrilov asked nervously.
"I don't know, Comrade Gavrilov!" Major Zahakavich put away his telescope and replied: "They do look destroyed!"
This sentence has two meanings:
One is that the camouflage of a Soviet tank looks very similar.
The other is that these latent tanks seemed to have been really destroyed.
In fact, there is indeed such a situation. A tank that was originally performing a lurking mission rushed forward in the chaos and was destroyed by an anti-tank gun... Destroyed by an anti-tank gun, which means that the forward rushed into a range of one hundred meters.
This can be said to be a success, but the price paid is also very heavy: nine Soviet tanks were destroyed on the bridge. You must know that these are T34s. They are T34s that the Soviet army is in short supply and can walk sideways in front of German armored forces.
.(Note: "Walking sideways" here is just a description)
After hesitating for a moment, Major Zahakavich stuck his head out and raised his telescope to observe for a while, then turned back and said: "The good news is that the tank wreckage did not block the bridge deck, which means the road is clear!"
"Then it's time to act!" Major Gavrilov.
Major Zahakawicz nodded and said to the communications soldier beside him: "Notify the Second Battalion to attack!"
"attack!"
With an order, the 2nd Tank Battalion located at the "No. 2" Bridge launched an attack, and the battle started again.
Colonel Fane on the other side of the river contacted the armored train command headquarters immediately.
"Another bridge is under attack, what are you waiting for?"
"Colonel!" Major Michael felt something was wrong: "Why don't they attack both bridges at the same time? This will make it difficult for us to take care of both ends..."
This may be a flaw in Shulka's plan or a doubtful point.
However, Colonel Fane did not suspect anything. He shouted on the phone: "How can I know what Ivan is thinking? Maybe you should use the cannon on the armored train to ask!"
In desperation, Major Michael ordered the armored train to drive to another bridge.
A few minutes later, Major Michael, who had doubts, was observing another position through the periscope in the armored train.
At this glance, Major Michael was even more surprised...the enemy tanks in front of him seemed to be in no hurry to attack. Until now, only two tanks had driven onto the bridge, and the distance between them was still wide.
"Major, carriage No. 7 is ready!"
Car "No. 7" is an anti-aircraft gun platform. This is the gunner's report to Major Michael, which means that it can fire at any time.
"Fire!" Major Michael ordered.
"Boom!" Two cannon shots were fired, and the tank at the front was destroyed.
The anti-aircraft guns were facing the bridge, they were long and straight, and the two guns hit one target, so it was not difficult to hit the target.
But Major Michael soon realized that he had been deceived, because at this moment there was a loud and strange roar on the other side. He turned the periscope to the direction of the sound and saw bright lines across the darkness.
From the north bank of the Volga River to the south bank.
Major Michael immediately threw away the periscope in his hand, grabbed the microphone, and shouted: "Quick, go back right now!"
But then it was too late to wake up...
"Bridge No. 1".
In the unique roar of the "Katyusha" rocket launcher, the dense rockets passed over the lurking troops and hit the enemy's bridgehead defense line. The entire bridgehead defense line was instantly wrapped in a ball of flames and thick smoke, like
The volcano erupted, like a gasoline barrel on fire, and some rockets hit the bridge, causing waves of vibrations.
Then, three red signal flares rose into the air, and the tank's motor rumbled.
If the Germans could see this scene, they would definitely be shocked... The tanks with "bullet holes" and even black smoke were actually started one by one, and the soldiers with blood on their faces also got up from the ground. This is simply
It's an army from hell.
But the Germans failed to see this scene, because in front of them was a wall of fire blasted by rockets, and the wall of fire, their bridgehead defense line, was blown to pieces in an instant and no trace of it was left.
The bombing finally stopped after more than ten seconds, but the reverberation of the explosion was still "booming" in the ears of the German soldiers.
Colonel Finn jumped out of the trench and waved to the German soldiers, shouting something, but the German soldiers could not hear anything... The violent explosion made them temporarily deaf.
Colonel Fane was no exception, but he knew what was going on.
Although he still didn't know what tricks the enemy was playing at this time, he knew that there was a gap in the bridge's defense at this time... The armored train was transferred away, and the bridge's defense line was blown up to the sky. With combat experience, of course he knew to make up for it as soon as possible.
this gap.
Fortunately, the German troops were of high quality. They reacted quickly and rushed forward with weapons and anti-tank guns. They organized another line of defense almost spontaneously, because quite a few people did not hear Colonel Fane's order.
.
But they were still too late.
A huge figure suddenly emerged from the darkness and thick smoke. The German soldiers who had just recovered some of their hearing immediately heard the "rumbling" sound again, but it was not the sound of artillery but the sound of tank motors.
"T34, it's T34!" Colonel Fein looked at the tanks that had rushed to the bridgehead defense line before the Germans in surprise. He opened his mouth for a long time and didn't understand what was going on.
"How do they do it?"
“How could you cross the Volga Bridge in such a short time?”
…
These questions lingered in Colonel Finn's mind, and there was nothing he could do except think about these questions. He could only watch those tanks firing rounds of bullets, knocking down the German soldiers who rushed forward in pieces.
On the ground.
Then, when Colonel Fane saw a "bullet hole" in the tank armor under the bright light of the flare, he suddenly understood: these tanks, and the Russian soldiers following the tanks, they had never left.
The Volga River Bridge was right under their noses, but he diverted the armored train in another direction.
Watching his men fall in pieces under the firepower of enemy tanks and machine guns, watching more and more tanks and enemies rushing up in the darkness, watching the enemy's follow-up troops on the other side of the river also launch an attack...
Colonel Fane suddenly felt hopeless.
The next second, he raised the pistol, pointed it at his temple, and pulled the trigger.