Due to the military emergency, the soldiers only had two hours of sleep.
However this is extremely painful.
The soldiers were indeed very tired. They had not been able to take a good rest from the moment the battle began.
But perhaps it is because of the tension of crossing the German front, the joy of a successful rendezvous, and the worry about the enemy's attack tomorrow morning... all of these make people secrete adrenaline hormones vigorously, so it is common to feel so sleepy that they can't open their eyes.
But can't sleep.
The actor was rolling his horse box cigarette again, carefully, using half the amount as usual. After rolling it, he lit it and took a deep breath. Then he leaned against the concrete wall of the bunker with contentment, inhaling the smoke.
Zhong slightly squinted his eyes and listened leisurely to the rising and falling voices coming from the radio outside.
"You look confident, Okunev!" the veteran asked while cleaning his gun.
"What?" The actor raised his eyes.
"You are not worried about this battle at all!" said the veteran.
"Do I need to worry?" the actor replied in the smoke: "Leave such things to our comrades, the squad leader!"
"What does this have to do with me?" Shulka asked.
"Of course it does matter!" The actor raised his eyebrows: "Look at this bunker, there are machine guns, ammunition, and there are quite a few of us... there should be hundreds of thousands of people!"
"No, at least hundreds of thousands of people!" the thief interrupted: "Two front armies!"
Thieves can always have more accurate information, even now even the top brass of the Soviet army are not sure how many there are.
The veteran laughed: "Do you think we can stop the Germans? That's just what they said!"
As he spoke, the veteran raised his head in the direction of the radio, where the announcer was shouting energetically: "There is no doubt that any attack by the German invaders will be defeated by our heroic Soviet troops, because the enemies standing in front of them are
Not just the defense line, but also our flesh and blood and unyielding spirit..."
The top brass of the Soviet army used propaganda tools to convince everyone, including the people in Kiev, that this line of defense could block the German attack.
Therefore, the lives of people in Kiev are as usual, and even entertainment venues are open as usual.
But soldiers with combat experience will know that this is not the case.
The reason is simple: there is also such a line of defense in front of Minsk. If that line of defense is vulnerable to the German attack, how can this line of defense be defended?
"No, Comrade Matvey!" replied the actor: "Of course I won't believe them!"
Seeing the puzzled look from the veteran, the actor smiled and explained: "Think about it, Comrade Matvey. When we were in Brest, we had less than a thousand people, and we were running out of ammunition and food. The enemy's
Their strength is dozens of times that of ours. Even so, Shulka can still bring us out. It’s much better now than it was then, isn’t it..."
"Shut up, Okunev!" Shulka interrupted the actor: "It's not as simple as you think!"
"Look!" the actor said with a smile: "Our monitor comrade is worried, that's right!"
The soldiers around him were all amused by the actors, or they had the same idea as the actors... Shulka would know how to do it.
"Comrade squad leader!" the thief even said, "They should make you a bigger official, I mean... command more troops!"
"I agree!" Someone soon answered: "Especially when we are strutting across the German front!"
"Yes, I thought Shulka must be crazy to come up with such a method. It can't be successful!"
"But it succeeded, and we made it here alive!"
…
The soldiers chatted with each other, and the atmosphere was so lively that Shulka couldn't even get a word in.
At this moment, a sharp whistle came from outside the bunker, and then Major Gavrilov's slightly hoarse voice: "It's time to get up, boys, pick up your weapons, let's practice how to deal with the enemy tomorrow
!”
This is actually an irony: Practice how to deal with the enemy tomorrow? This should be something that has been completed a long time ago.
But for the Soviet army, this was normal. Shulka even knew that there were volunteers in the army who had just been recruited from Kiev and could not even shoot.
This is a characteristic of the Soviet army. Although in principle, what the Soviet army lacks at this time is not people, but quality, equipment and preparation. However, they always feel that more people are better than fewer people, so they stuff in some people who are in the way.
Come in.
Of course, Shulka couldn't complain. He could only order the soldiers to move. Okunev was not willing to part with the unfinished horse box cigarette. He put out the cigarette and took a while to take out the shredded tobacco and stuff it back into the cigarette.
In the box... this smoker, Shulka suspected that one day he would use the enemy's gun muzzle as a cigarette holder.
The first thing to familiarize yourself with is the equipment. Shulka's squad is responsible for three connected bunkers, which are divided into left, middle and right layouts. There are three machine guns on the left and right sides, and two 37mm anti-tank guns in the middle.
Shulka thought there was a problem with this layout. The anti-tank gun was placed in the middle, which inevitably led to many blind spots for shooting. The machine guns were placed on both sides to form cross fire and cover each other... This was obviously a configuration for dealing with enemy infantry.
If the enemy comes up with tanks, the situation will be worrying.
A very useful piece of equipment is the periscope inside the bunker, which allows Shulka to observe the situation outside without having to go outside the bunker.
The second step is to get familiar with the location... This is actually very simple, just go back and forth to the ammunition depot at the rear to carry ammunition.
In fact, there is a small ammunition depot inside the bunker, with boxes of bullets and artillery shells piled inside. Because of the fear of being ignited, detonated or collapsed, its walls are made of the thickest standard, which is 1.5 meters.
Moreover, the opening faces the rear, and there is also an iron door.
Although the Soviets were sloppy in doing things, they were also cautious in matters concerning their lives.
Finally, use the small perforations on the bunker...that is for riflemen to use, mainly to target some blind spots that cannot be reached by machine guns.
This is important because German infantry would often come up from these blind spots and stuff explosive packets or Molotov cocktails into the perforations.
But Shulka believed that these perforations would be of little use because they were too small, just big enough for soldiers to insert their rifles and aim through the crosshairs.
This was done because they were worried that a large perforation would become a fatal danger to the bunker, and the enemy could stuff grenades through the perforation.
However, with such a small observation range, if the Germans ran past the perforation, the shooter would not have enough time to react.