It is not surprising that Colonel Pavelkov would be surprised by this.

Because as long as any unit dares to fight the enemy in close combat, its combat effectiveness has been demonstrated.

The reason is that hand-to-hand combat requires more courage.

In battles where guns and artillery fire are exchanged in each other's positions, bullets and shells often come before you are mentally prepared, and you don't realize you are injured until you see the wound and feel the pain.

But in hand-to-hand combat, you need to face bayonet, blood, and the enemy's distorted face.

Sometimes you have to feel the enemy's helplessness, pleading, and fear, and at the same time, stab the opponent point by point, slowly pushing into the opponent's heart.

At this time, Shulka was doing such a thing.

Any time you're fighting with an opponent in hand-to-hand combat, the whole world seems to go silent and you only see each other.

There is no other reason. At this time, all strategies, tactics, official titles, etc. are useless. There is only one useful thing, strength.

It was only then that Shulka truly realized the true meaning of "two fists are difficult to defeat with four hands".

The strength of the enemy and ours is actually about the same, that is, evenly matched. At this time, as long as one more pair of hands, or even just one hand, is used to hold a pistol or a military spur and hit Shulka, the battle will be over.

But the intensity of this hand-to-hand combat lies in the fact that the enemy and our forces are roughly equal in strength.

In other words, it cannot be said that the strength of the troops is roughly equal. This hand-to-hand battle took place amid smoke bombs, and the visibility was only two meters. Even if there were extra troops farther away, they could not see here and of course they would not be able to help.

Shulka used a clever move during the scuffle. He turned over and pressed his opponent into a crater blasted by a mortar... Rolling into this crater meant that both sides were blocked and unable to move, so the opponent

Fall into passivity.

Then, Shulka put his weight on the military thorn in his hand.

The German soldier struggled desperately. He held Shulka's hand and tried with his last strength to push Shulka away.

But he failed and could only watch the military thorn getting closer to his heart one by one.

Shulka could see the despair in his eyes and even understand the plea in his mouth.

But Shulka knew he couldn't be soft-hearted.

Because this is a life-and-death hand-to-hand battle, if Shulka lets him go, he will immediately turn around and kill Shulka in the next second.

As a result, the military thorns came closer and closer... The tip of the knife penetrated the uniform and penetrated the flesh. The German soldiers screamed in despair. They finally struggled to change the direction of the military thorns, but failed.

He gave up in the next second. As soon as he let go, the thorn stabbed heavily into his heart, and blood burst out like a fountain. The pain deformed the German soldier's brain, and at the same time, his whole body convulsed as if he was electrocuted.

After pulling out the thorn, the German soldier seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, and then his head tilted and he lost his life.

Shurka lay on the ground as soon as he turned over. He was exhausted. If another enemy appeared at this time, Shurka might have no choice but to give up like the German soldiers around him who had just died in his hands.

No one likes to give up their life, they are even willing to fight until the last moment.

But sometimes the situation just doesn't allow them to live another moment.

Fortunately, this did not happen, and the Soviet army once again took advantage in hand-to-hand combat.

This should be taken for granted.

The reason is that whenever there is a hand-to-hand battle, the Soviet army will organize mortars to carry out stationary blocking fire on the positive slope controlled by the German army. This makes it difficult for the German follow-up troops to reinforce, or even if they do, they will suffer casualties.

On the contrary, the German army did not dare to do this.

Because as mentioned before, the battlefield is on the reverse slope where the Soviet army is located. If the German army carries out blocking artillery bombardment, the casualties may be greater among the charging German troops.

In other words, the Soviet army always received strong reinforcements in every close combat, but this was not the case for the German army.

Therefore, even if the quality of the German army is better than that of the Soviet army in all aspects, even physical fitness is no exception... It should be said that the physical fitness of the German army is much better than that of the Soviet army.

In 1938, Germany had achieved "milk and bread on every household's table."

The Soviet Union, on the other hand, had just recovered from the famine, and even most of the soldiers had experienced famine. (Note: The second famine in the Soviet Union occurred from 1932 to 1933)

This determines that the average physical fitness of Soviet soldiers is not as good as that of the German soldiers.

It should be said that this is also the reason why the German commander Lieutenant Colonel Edmund has confidence in close combat: the German soldiers are obviously better than the Soviet soldiers in both military and physical fitness. Why can't they suppress the Soviet army and occupy the Mamayev Hills?

!

However, the battlefield is not a simple comparison. Sometimes objective conditions or artificially created favorable situations are more important than the soldiers themselves.

Lieutenant Colonel Edmond seemed to realize this as well.

He frowned and said to Lieutenant Colonel Ball: "Now it seems that not only the direct-fire weapons have lost their effect, but also the mortar units have been restricted to some extent!"

Lieutenant Colonel Power looked at Mamayev Hill and then asked: "Lieutenant Colonel Edmund, I was wondering...if we could drive the assault gun onto Mamayev Hill?"

"Drive the tank up?" Lieutenant Colonel Edmond was a little surprised.

"Yes!" Lieutenant Colonel Ball replied: "Although it is a bit difficult, I mean there is almost no decent road on Mamayev Hill and it is full of craters, but it has a gentle slope. If the engineers are allowed to go under the cover of artillery fire,

Build a path to bring tanks and assault guns into battle..."

"This seems to be a good idea!" Lieutenant Colonel Edmond nodded in agreement.

"We have to move quickly!" Lieutenant Colonel Ball looked at the sky and said, "It will be dark in a few hours, and it will be difficult for our tanks and assault guns to be effective. In addition, I don't think we can

Let the enemy discover our movements, otherwise they will be prepared!"

"Of course!" Lieutenant Colonel Edmond replied.

Lieutenant Colonel Edmund's method was very simple, which was to maintain the infantry's attack on Mamayev Heights, even if the German soldiers fell one after another on the Soviet anti-slope position.

The sounds of gunfire, explosions and fighting were enough to cover up the German army's movements on the positive slope.

On the other hand, the German engineers were very clever in combining roads with existing fortifications... Some fortifications could be turned into good roads with a little modification. In this way, the German army could build two zigzag upward roads in the shortest time to allow tanks to

and assault guns can lead to the top of the mountain.

This plan went smoothly because the Soviet army, including Shulka, knew nothing about it.
Chapter completed!