The church is located to the east of the central fortress.
Choosing this place as a breakthrough point is because the height of the church can block the sight of the German army very well... Even if the German army found out that the Soviet army was crossing the river from here, the German artillery shells from the west would hardly pose a threat to the Soviet army.
On the other hand, you can reach the mainland by crossing the Bug River estuary from here. There is no need to pass through the West Island, South Island and then cross the river again.
Political Commissar Fomin and Major Gavrilov led the troops to the church under cover of darkness. Along with the troops were many women and children... all of them were military dependents.
However, not all of these military family members were the family members of the Brest officers. Most of the officers took their troops to conduct routine summer training outside the fortress.
In other words, they were likely to have lost their father or husband when the war broke out.
Shulka noticed that many of them were half-clothed... It was four o'clock in the morning when the war broke out. Everyone was sleeping in bed, and many escaped in their pajamas.
The children, under the supervision of adults, looked around with frightened eyes, their eyes full of helplessness.
While others were preparing for the attack, Shulka took out a biscuit from his backpack... This was the ration distributed before departure, otherwise it would be difficult to take out more than a dozen carts of food.
What Shulka didn't expect was that his inadvertent action instantly attracted pairs of eyes nearby, and they all stared pitifully at the biscuits in Shulka's hand.
After being stunned for a moment, Shulka realized that the situation in the central fortress was much more difficult than that of the Kobrin Fortress, and they did not find much food.
After thinking about it, Shulka took out all the biscuits from his backpack and brought them to them... The children gathered around and grabbed them, and when they got them, they hurriedly tore open the packages and stuffed them into their mouths.
What's surprising is that they didn't make any sound while doing this, except for saying a few vague thanks to Shulka.
Shulka couldn't believe that they were all children, some even less than ten years old, but he also knew to keep quiet.
It can only be said that the battlefield taught them to mature early.
"Don't you keep some for yourself?" Okunev asked.
Shulka asked back: "Are you sure you can eat all this food alive?"
Okunev raised his eyebrows and then laughed.
"That's right!" With that said, Okunev also took out the food from his backpack and gave it to the children.
Then Matvey followed suit, and the soldiers all spontaneously shared their food.
"Rofeyev!" At this time, Major Gavrilov, who was more than ten meters away, shouted: "Take a few people and inform Comrade Artu that you can retreat!"
"Yes!" Rofeyev responded and waved, leading a few communication soldiers into the darkness.
This is somewhat ironic. At this time, the Soviet Union had the ability to build the largest number of tanks in the world. In the later period, it could even kill the German troops who invaded the Soviet Union. However, they were extremely lacking in communication equipment, so that they had to rely on communication troops, signal flags, etc. to command operations.
This is one of the reasons why they have more troops but are often defeated by the German army.
But that's not the point.
Shortly after the signal troops left, a loud bang was heard in the air... If the previous sound of artillery was like thunder, then this sound was like a volcanic eruption.
Then there was a "boom", and a ball of flames shot into the sky in the direction of Butele Bridge, almost lighting up the entire central fortress. The vibrations on the ground spread all the way to the church, which could be clearly felt even from hundreds of meters away.
get.
"What's going on?" Major Gavrilov asked, "What is that?"
Political Commissar Fuming looked to the north, and then replied: "Maybe this is the super artillery shell they are talking about!"
"Super Cannonball?"
"Yes!" the political commissar explained: "The Germans have been threatening us with super artillery shells in an attempt to get us to surrender. We always thought it was just a trick..."
Needless to say what follows, facts prove that it exists.
Shulka knew what it was, a 600mm caliber mortar. The Germans originally built it to attack France's Maginot Line. Unexpectedly, the Maginot Line was nothing more than a Gallic chicken that didn't need a sword.
Then, the Germans used it on the Soviet battlefield.
It appeared on the battlefield twice in total, the first time was now, against the Brest Fortress, and the other time was against Sevastopol.
Before the soldiers woke up from the loud noise, there was another loud noise...another shell exploded a few hundred meters away, and heat waves and debris surged over like a storm. Everyone hurried
Lying on the ground.
"They have two of these guns!" said Major Gavrilov.
"How do you know?" Political Commissar Fuming asked.
"It will take them at least ten minutes to load such a large shell!" Major Gavrilov replied: "So these two shells were fired from two different guns!"
Major Gavrilov's guess was correct. It was the German 833rd Heavy Artillery Battalion. There were two companies under the battalion, each operating one of these super-large-caliber mortars.
"Then..." Political Commissar Fomin glanced at Major Gavrilov.
Major Gavrilov understood what Political Commissar Fomin meant, so he quickly stood up and ordered: "Break out immediately!"
At this time, the preparation work was not very complete, and the troops led by the instructor had not yet withdrawn, but everyone knew that time waited for no one.
Shulka also felt that something was wrong, because he found that both shells were targeting the central fortress.
Why the central fortress?!
If the previous deception plan and feint attack went well, the Germans should believe that the main force of the Soviet army was in the Kobrin Fortress in the north instead of the central fortress, and then these two artillery shells should also target the Kobrin Fortress.
Did the Germans discover something?
Facts have proved that Shulka was right to worry... because right after that, a large number of artillery shells came towards the central fortress, and their target was very clear, which was the church in the east of the central fortress.
Just as Shulka was thinking about what went wrong, he saw a communications trooper dragging several Soviet soldiers covered in blood running through the artillery fire and darkness.
"Where is the instructor?" Major Gavrilov hurriedly came up to greet him.
"Comrade Major!" the signal soldier replied: "The instructor will not come!"
"You mean..." Major Gavrilov looked up at the signal soldier: "The instructor died?"
"No, Comrade Major!" The communications soldier shook his head: "These wounded people told me that the instructor fled towards the German camp with several of his subordinates!"
"What?!" Major Gavrilov looked at the signal soldier with a shocked face.