Artillery shells hit the German positions one after another, and flares were tossed in the air like fireworks.
From inside the armored train, you can clearly see German anti-tank guns shooting, as well as German machine guns and mortars... This is a very strange feeling. At that moment, Shulka almost thought that these German soldiers were his comrades.
The Soviet army on the opposite side is our enemy.
After thinking about it later, I felt that this should be because the German army integrated the armored train into its own defense system, which gave Shurka the illusion of cooperating with them in the battle.
Then the observer reported: "Our tank was found ahead, three hundred meters away..."
"Two hundred meters!"
"One hundred meters!"
"Fire!" Shulka ordered loudly.
Suddenly the sound of gunfire rang out, and the machine guns and artillery on the armored train fired at the German troops.
The 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun was aimed at the German troops hiding behind the house, which was a dense rain of bullets. The German troops were beaten into pieces before they even figured out what was going on.
Then the machine gun turned towards cars and armored vehicles... After a burst of "clang, clang, clang, clang" sound, the targets one after another burst into flames and then exploded.
The small-caliber anti-aircraft gun aimed its muzzle at the rear armor of the German tank and struck randomly, and the tank soon caught fire.
Needless to say, the 88mm anti-aircraft gun aimed at the tank and directly penetrated the tank's engine with a "boom".
The German tank used gasoline. Once it was penetrated, it immediately burst into a raging fire and violent explosion. The German tank crew hiding inside was nervously aiming at the Soviet tank just a moment ago. The next second, it had become
A pile of charred corpses.
Many of the surrounding German soldiers did not even react. They waved loudly at the armored train and cursed loudly, but the Soviet army answered them with bullets.
"Keep going!" Shulka ordered: "Until it stops driving!"
Armored trains rely too much on railways, so they should be moved as soon as the battle begins, otherwise they will easily be blown up by the enemy and be trapped in place unable to move.
The direction of advance is of course the German hinterland, that is, the south, which is why Shulka just asked Major Luka for the firepower layout along the railway.
At this time, the instructor had successfully obtained the information. He staggered forward in the moving train and handed the map to Shulka.
Shulka glanced at the map and then shouted: "Attention, there is an enemy artillery position two kilometers ahead!"
The distance of two kilometers was reached in an instant for the armored train. It was easy to identify because the artillery was firing happily towards the north. The flames and smoke from the muzzles were very clear in the dark night. Shulka looked through the periscope.
One can even count more than fifty howitzers scattered in such an open space... This is the establishment of an artillery regiment. As mentioned before, Tver's German army has no shortage of equipment, and in order to be able
To defend Tver, it can be said that they used these equipment as much as possible.
This is of course correct, because if Tver is breached, then these equipment will fall into the hands of the enemy anyway, and it will be useless to keep them.
The armored train slowly stopped next to the artillery position, and then fired several illumination bombs.
The German artillerymen were not alert to the armored train. They just looked at the armored train strangely. Some people were also angry that the armored train fired flares, because this would undoubtedly bring them great danger.
Shulka saw an artillery major shouting at the armored train. Although he couldn't hear what he was shouting, Shulka could still understand what he meant:
"Hey! Are you crazy? I'm going to court martial you, you idiots!"
But what happened next left the German major completely confused.
The anti-aircraft guns on the armored train were turning towards his artillery positions…
The German major was stunned for a while, feeling that something was wrong, and immediately ran to the barrel truck to grab the phone.
But by now it was too late.
With a "boom", a shell blew the barrel truck into the sky. At the moment of the explosion, the German major disappeared.
This was followed by intensive gunfire.
This time it was even more lively. The German artillery positions were full of artillery shells and cars loaded with artillery shells. The firepower of the armored trains quickly detonated them, and then the detonated artillery shells detonated other artillery shells... The artillery positions were quickly detonated.
It was like being carpet bombed.
At this time, the armored train slowly started to move to the next station.
In the end, the armored train almost traversed the entire Tver, destroying an artillery position, two supply convoys, and an engineering unit laying mines along the way.
It is said to be "almost" because it even hit the line of contact between the German army and the 32nd Army.
At this time, the armored train did not dare to move forward, because the officers and soldiers of the 32nd Army would definitely regard it as a German armored train and shoot it with guns and cannons.
Therefore, after Shulka commanded it to fight and kill indiscriminately behind the German army to help the 32nd Army open a gap, he raised a big white flag on the roof of the car... This was Shulka's first surrender, and he still surrendered to the German army.
Our own people surrender!
The soldiers of the 32nd Army also felt strange that the German army, which was fighting well, suddenly collapsed in chaos and quickly.
What surprised them even more was that they collided head-on with an armored train, which had already hoisted a white flag before it started.
In fact, Shulka hoped that Major Gavrilov would inform the 32nd Army about the armored train so that they could prepare to avoid accidental damage. However, it was not until after the war that he learned that Major Gavrilov did not do so.
Major Gavrilov's answer was: "I thought that at most you could only rush into the enemy's defense line to cooperate with the main force to break through... but you rushed across the entire enemy-controlled area from north to south and hit the other side! Who could have imagined that?
?”
Then Major Gavrilov complained with regret and a bit of reproach: "You should have brought me with you, Shulka! Such an opportunity may not come again!"
This is indeed true.
Armored trains are actually very fragile. They can only function under certain circumstances, such as air superiority and a large number of soldiers protecting the railway. Then they can provide limited fire support to the front line.
In short, if it is used for offense, it will be basically impossible.
Driving it like Shulka and running rampant through enemy-occupied areas... that was only possible by chance when the enemy thought the armored train was "one of their own".
"There is still a chance, Comrade Major!" Shulka comforted Major Gavrilov: "In the future, we will drive it to Berlin!"
Major Gavrilov burst out laughing, thinking that Shulka was joking.