Before they even reached the front line, German aircraft roared past one after another in the sky.
The soldiers habitually lay down to evade, and even the tanks stopped moving... A moving tank is more easily discovered by the enemy than a stationary one.
Fortunately, these German troops did not find the advancing 4th Tank Brigade. Their target was an artillery position one kilometer away.
Shulka believed that if the German pilots discovered that dozens of T34 tanks were marching under their noses, they would be happy to change their targets.
But obviously, the artillery position attracted their attention, so the "Stuka" bombers dived down from the sky one after another.
The military quality of the German pilots was very good. They drove the "Stuka" to dive almost vertically, and then quickly pulled up after throwing the bomb... This action itself is very dangerous, and you will fall headlong if you are not careful.
The plane crashed on the ground and killed everyone.
But these German pilots still completed these actions perfectly, which made the bombs almost hit the Soviet artillery howitzers and bomb-loaded cars like they had eyes.
The artillery shells exploded quickly, and the artillery position was instantly surrounded by clouds of fire and black smoke. The vibrations from the artillery position even collapsed half of the snow walls piled up on both sides of the road.
Then several more German fighter jets swooped down and fired wildly at the surviving Soviet artillery.
After a while, the roar in the air gradually faded away. Everyone in Shulka got up from the ground and looked at the artillery position. The artillery position that had been firing artillery shells in the direction of the German army before was only a pile of swaying scrap metal.
There were corpses lying strewn about, and the red blood was particularly obvious in the white snow.
"Keep moving!" Major Gavrilov ordered.
The Fourth Tank Brigade continued to advance along the road. The soldiers rarely spoke and the atmosphere was very depressed for a while.
If they hadn't realized the "speciality" of this battle before, then they understood it after witnessing an artillery position being wiped out in an instant... All combat units under air supremacy are actually very fragile. If just now,
What was discovered was not the artillery position but the 4th Tank Brigade, so the 4th Tank Brigade could not escape the fate of being destroyed instantly.
For the German "Stuka", there is not much difference between tanks and artillery. The targets are about the same size, and neither has the ability to fight against them. They can only wait on the ground to be bombed.
If there is any difference, it is that the tank has some maneuverability, but the tank's speed of tens of kilometers per hour is nothing compared to the enemy's speed of hundreds of kilometers per hour if it is immobile.
"Shulka!" the actor couldn't help but ask: "We can't go back this time, can we?"
Shulka knew that the actor was nervous, otherwise he should have been called "Comrade Company Commander" instead of "Shurka".
But this seems normal. The 4th Tank Brigade has not been seen during the day for quite some time.
To be precise, it was after the temperature dropped and the rain turned into snow... This was the first time that the Fourth Tank Brigade fought during the day.
"Don't worry, Okunev!" Shulka replied: "We will defeat the enemy and come back alive!"
Although Shulka said this, he didn't think so in his heart.
Shulka had no idea about this battle... Volokolamsk, a place that should have been lost long ago, was still in the hands of the Soviet army because of Shulka's appearance.
Now, fate has brought Shulka and others back again, and he has no way of knowing what the outcome of this battle will be.
But this doesn't seem to make much sense.
Because regardless of whether this battle is won or lost, Shulka and his men may be sacrificed, but the probability is slightly different.
As you walk further, artillery shells will explode around you, and occasionally a few artillery shells will hit the middle of the road and make a big hole, but this cannot stop the advance of the tank troops. The tanks can easily pass through the frozen soil next to them.
Go around.
It took more than an hour to arrive at Volokolamsk. At this time, it was already different from the Volokolamsk that Shulka knew before. Although it had only been a few days, Shulka almost didn't recognize this place.
...There are craters everywhere, stacked one after another in front of the position, corpses, tank wreckage, armored vehicles, assault guns, etc., staggering in front of the position, making this place look like a large tank cemetery.
The Fourth Tank Brigade immediately added to the defense line as soon as it came up: the infantry fought at the front, while the tanks hid in the rear and were ready to attack at any time.
"Shulka!" Major Gavrilov called as he passed by.
Shulka understood and ran along the traffic ditch behind Major Gavrilov with his gun in hand.
After a while, they arrived at a temporary headquarters, where Major General Panfilov and Major Zahakavich were already waiting.
"We don't know the specific number of the enemy!" Major General Panfilov didn't say any more nonsense. He pointed at the map and said: "Initially, it is estimated that the enemy has one armored division, one motorized division and one infantry division!"
This force could not help but make everyone present take a breath. With so many troops concentrated on attacking Volokolamsk, where only one infantry division was stationed, it was no wonder that the Fourth Tank Brigade was called for emergency reinforcements.
"They launched a fierce attack on our defense line this morning!" Major General Panfilov said: "We all know that the muddy ground has frozen, and the German command began to send tanks off-road. Their tanks bypassed residential areas and along the
The groves and bushes, which were invisible to us, advanced forward, massed in front of our defense lines, and then launched a sudden attack to break through. They carried out the impact under the cover of powerful artillery and mortar fire, while dive bombers attacked from the air.
…”
At this time, Major Zahakavich couldn't help but asked with some confusion: "How did you stop them?"
"We just blocked them!" Major General Panfilov replied: "With grenades, anti-tank guns, Molotov cocktails..."
Shulka and others couldn't help but look at each other.
They knew that Major General Panfilov seemed relaxed when talking about it, but it was not like that in real fighting.
"We lack anti-tank equipment!" Major General Panfilov continued: "We only have fifteen anti-tank guns left, and they are still decreasing. Fortunately, you have come to reinforce..."
Major Zahakavich shook his head in embarrassment: "I don't think you can put too much hope in us, Comrade General! Although we have tanks, they are very effective when the enemy has air superiority, especially when the enemy has air superiority.