Of course, dealing with the guerrillas was an asymmetrical battle. Shulka didn't even bother to direct such a battle. He should have asked his subordinates to practice marksmanship.
But of course this mission is not all that simple. After repelling the enemy, the troops will have to get off the vehicle and search for the remaining elements.
On the one hand, this is for the purpose of railway safety. Otherwise, the armored train will be meaningless if the armored train has just passed the enemy's rear leg and then comes up to bury mines and explosives.
On the other hand, it was the engineers who got off the train to repair the railway.
Engineers need to work under a light source, which requires combat troops to open a safe area around them, otherwise the engineers will be easily shot by the Germans.
This is also a small battle.
The railway engineers moved very quickly. They removed the damaged rails and sleepers and replaced them with better ones. The whole process only took ten minutes.
After the engineering construction was completed, the soldiers released were able to return to the train, taking several German prisoners with them.
However, the soldiers had strange expressions when they came back, especially Antipunov, who was sweating profusely and kept mumbling prayers.
"What's going on?" Shulka asked the veteran.
The one who got off the bus just now to perform the mission was the veteran's platoon.
"They killed many people, Comrade Second Lieutenant!" The veteran raised his head towards the darkness on the left: "There is a forest there, and the bodies are hanging on the trees!"
"Mostly women, but also old people and children!" the actor added.
Shulka nodded and said nothing.
This kind of thing is not uncommon for the German army, especially those German skirmishers who are mostly SS special operations teams.
"How could they do this, Comrade Second Lieutenant!" Antipunov raised his head and looked at Shulka: "Those common people have no weapons and do not pose a threat to anyone..."
"You have to ask those Germans about this, Comrade Antipunov!" Shulka raised his head towards the German prisoners who were tied up and thrown at the back of the carriage.
Then Shulka ignored Antipunov, and he needed to digest these things by himself.
In fact, it's a miracle that someone like him can survive to this day.
This is mainly because tonight's battle was tactically smooth and the third company basically did not engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Germans:
First, they attacked the bridgehead defense line. Although it was very dangerous, the entire attack was completed within a few minutes and the German army retreated quickly. The front was the T34 tank.
Then we boarded the armored train and basically shot out of the car.
Therefore, Antipunov can still survive until now even if he shoots in the air, but at most he will waste a few bullets.
If there is any surprise, a bullet fired casually on the north bank of the Volga River Bridge can actually hit a target... People say that novices who don't know how to play cards tend to have good luck, and it seems that this is really the case.
But if it's a hand-to-hand fight where you're facing an enemy with a bayonet, and you still have this idea of not killing people, you're almost unavoidable.
So Antipunov is somewhat lucky.
"Is everyone here?" Shulka asked.
"Yes, Comrade Second Lieutenant!" replied Pukarev, who was responsible for counting the people.
"Drive!" Shulka ordered: "Let's see what other desperate Franz stops us!"
The soldiers couldn't help laughing.
But at this moment, there were suddenly several gunshots. The soldiers raised their guns habitually, and then they saw several German prisoners lying in a pool of blood. Each of them had been shot in the head.
"I said, don't kill prisoners!" Shulka couldn't help but get furious when he saw this.
But when he saw the shooter, Shulka, he lost his temper.
It was Antipunov. He was holding a rifle in his hand, with a little smoke coming from the muzzle. He was staring blankly at the corpse on the ground.
Then, as if he suddenly came to his senses, Antipunov walked up to Shulka and stood up and said: "I'm sorry, Comrade Second Lieutenant!"
"Because of killing?" Shulka asked.
"No, I violated your order and killed the prisoner!"
Shulka smiled and replied: "It doesn't matter, we have plenty of prisoners anyway!"
The soldiers burst into laughter.
"Please, Comrade Antipunov!" protested the actor: "Next time you do this, take them out!"
There was another burst of laughter in the carriage.
The veteran even took out the wine bottle and raised it high, shouting: "Come on, comrades! Cheers to Antipunov for becoming one of us!"
"cheers!"
…
After a few sips of wine, I don't know who started it. The soldiers sang "If War Comes Tomorrow" amidst the "click" sound of the armored train.
Shulka didn’t know who wrote this song, but he just felt that the artistic conception of the lyrics was just like the Soviet Union at this time:
"If the war started tomorrow, if the enemy launched an attack
If the power of darkness suddenly comes
As one person, the entire Soviet people
Rise up for a free motherland!
…”
The armored train headed for Moscow to the sound of this song.
When the armored train entered Moscow, to Shulka's and others' surprise, the entire train station burst into excitement.
Although the surroundings were still dark due to martial law, cheers rang out.
Later, Shulka learned that the victory of the 4th Tank Brigade in Tver had already spread throughout the streets and alleys on the Moscow radio, especially that Shulka and others had captured an armored train... Of course, the Supreme Command
I won't miss this rare opportunity to boost morale.
Therefore, when they learned that the armored train was about to return to Moscow, many people asked to go to the train station to greet it.
Originally this was not allowed due to martial law, but this was the "people's enthusiasm" and an encouragement to heroes, so the common people who applied were allowed to come and greet them.
I didn't expect that this would cause trouble.
The entire train station was packed with people... If the Germans bombed the train station at this time, it would undoubtedly cause a lot of casualties.
This made the entire Moscow air defense force nervous, and even all Soviet air defense forces within the second line of defense received combat alerts.
Of course, part of this was to cover the retreat of the 32nd Army and the 4th Tank Brigade.
As soon as Shulka got out of the car, he felt a person flying towards him. In the darkness, he didn't even recognize who the other person was.
But Shulka soon knew who she was, because he saw the other party's boat-shaped military cap and major's epaulettes.
"Varrasa!" Shulka excitedly hugged her and spun her around.
"Nice to see you again, my hero!" Varrasha said: "I want to know, would you like to be interviewed by me?"
"Of course!" Shulka replied.
I don't know why, in that kind of atmosphere, or in the darkness and the crowded crowd, Shulka naturally kissed Valrasa's lips.