Because after he commanded the tank detachment to enter the building, he found that except for his own armored vehicle shooting randomly, almost no bullets were fired at him.
To be precise, there is none at all, not even a hair.
Captain Orff, who was sitting in the armored car, noticed this... This is why Captain Orff chose an armored car as his ride instead of a tank.
Type armored vehicles have radio equipment, and of course tanks do too. The problem is that armored vehicles have better external perception capabilities and speed than tanks, which is particularly important for a commander, especially a frontline commander.
The disadvantage of armored vehicles is insufficient defense, but as a German commander, you should not consider too much personal safety.
For example, if Captain Orff is hiding in the tank and taking command now, he may not even notice that the enemy has zero resistance.
The next second, Captain Orff asked over the radio: "Report the situation on the battlefield!"
Captain Orff thought there was another possibility, that is, the small number of Russian snipers had been wiped out by armored vehicles.
But his subordinate's answer made him feel bad:
"No casualties, the enemy is unknown!"
"No casualties, the enemy is unknown!"
…
It is normal for the enemy to be unknown. Because the battle is fierce and the opponent is a sniper hiding in the dark, it is indeed difficult to judge whether the target has been killed in a short period of time.
But it would be abnormal if there were no casualties on our side.
Captain Orff hesitated, because there was another possibility, that is, the enemy saw the armored company attacking and retreated first... In other words, he successfully occupied this floor.
But Captain Orff believed that things would not be that simple. His intuition told him that this was a trap, although he did not know what the trap was or how the enemy would deal with their tanks and armored vehicles.
So Orff immediately ordered: "Retreat, everyone, get out of here immediately!"
But it's too late.
At this time, at each entrance, following an explosion, several black things fell from the ceiling.
Orff and other German soldiers took a closer look and saw that it was an oil barrel and there were several holes in it. At this time, gasoline was leaking out.
Then Orff understood what the enemy's trap was.
This is indeed a trap set by Shulka. The best way to deal with German armored vehicles and tanks is fire attack.
The reason is that all German armored vehicles and tanks have gasoline engines.
But in fact, this doesn't matter anymore, because no matter whether it is a gasoline engine or a diesel engine, it will not be able to escape from this situation.
To do this is easy, Shulka only needs to blast a few holes in the ceiling above several warehouse entrances. It doesn't need to be too big, just big enough for gasoline barrels to roll down from above.
In order not to be discovered by the enemy prematurely, the Soviet army also used kraft paper to seal the exploded openings and spray-painted them with ceiling colors to camouflage them.
Otherwise, the first batch of German troops entering the warehouse would find several holes above the warehouse entrance and become suspicious.
A letter made of kraft paper looks no different at least from the outside.
Then, all the Soviet army needed to do was to push the prepared gasoline barrels down the gap, and they would fall one by one to the entrance of the warehouse and block it.
Of course, these oil barrels are not just oil barrels, they can also turn into flames.
"Get out of the way!" Captain Orff shouted: "Get out of here right now!"
But it was too late. As a match was dropped from the ceiling, a raging fire burst into flames at the entrance, and the fire continued to spread everywhere with the spread of gasoline.
Screams started immediately, and most of the German infantrymen gathered at the entrance of the warehouse. Many of them were immediately stained with gasoline...either they were splashed by gasoline or they couldn't avoid it and their shoes were stained with gasoline.
At this time, the fire started, and they were immediately set on fire. As these firemen ran and screamed, the fire soon spread to other places.
Captain Orff moved quickly. He dodged the fire immediately and climbed onto a "Plank 2" tank.
He knew that only tanks could possibly rush out at this time.
This is partly because tanks are tracks and armored vehicles are tires. Those rubber tires will be burned out quickly in flames or burst due to high temperatures. Tank tracks don't need to worry about this.
On the other hand, there are oil barrels blocking the entrance to the warehouse... It is difficult for armored vehicles to push those oil barrels away, but this is not the case for tanks.
Of course, the tank's gasoline engine would probably ignite, but at least it would be out by then.
"Turn around!" Orff ordered to the tank commander who leaned out: "Get out!"
The tank commander understood and immediately ordered the crew to turn around and rush towards the flames.
However, at this moment, there was a "boom" and the flame exploded... The oil barrel released a part of the oil before it was ignited. The empty part was a mixture of air and vapor gasoline, which was easily ignited and burned.
An explosion occurred, and flames filled with gasoline flew everywhere, and the entire first floor of the warehouse was quickly surrounded by flames.
The "No. 2" tank commanded by Captain Orff did indeed rush out, pushing several burning oil barrels.
The problem was that the tank itself turned into a ball of fire, and no one on the crew, including Captain Orff, was spared.
Major Paul was observing the battlefield with a telescope outside. The scene he saw was very simple... an armored company with more than a dozen armored vehicles rushed in with a large number of soldiers, and then they were all swallowed up by the flames and no one survived.
Major Paul didn't even have a chance to rescue them.
For the Soviet troops waiting in the building such as Shulka, because the walls of the granary were thick and made entirely of reinforced concrete structures, the fire hardly affected other floors.
If there is any impact, it is that the basement is baked like a steamer.
However, they had considered this issue early on, so all the people in the basement had been evacuated.
"Major!" The signal soldier handed the phone to Major Paul and said, "General's phone!"
The call was from Major General Jonas. He saw the fire and thick smoke in the direction of the warehouse and felt a little strange about it.
"What's the situation?" Major General Jonas asked: "You haven't captured the warehouse yet? A fire attack will not do us any good, Major. What we need is to occupy it!"
Jonas took it for granted that the fire was set by the Germans.
"No, General!" Major Paul replied weakly: "We failed to capture the warehouse because the enemy was attacking with fire, General!"
"The enemy attacks with fire?" Major General Jonas asked doubtfully, "What do you mean? That's their own warehouse!"
"Our armored company is inside!" Major Paul replied. (To be continued)