Chapter 147 The Battle of Unnamed Highlands (Part 2)
The German artillery fire was more fierce than ever before. The entire high ground was blown into a sea of fire, with mud flying and shrapnel flying. The fortifications that the soldiers spent several days and worked hard to build were blown up by the artillery fire in a moment.
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The commanders and fighters of the third company who were holding on to the high ground had withdrawn to the bunker fortifications on the north slope one after another before the large-scale German artillery bombardment began, leaving only a five-person observation group on the position responsible for monitoring the enemy's movements.
Corporal Semyon, who had participated in the Grisa reconnaissance team, was the leader of this observation team. Faced with such fierce artillery fire, he could not observe the German army's situation at all. He could only open his mouth wide, cover his ears, and huddle in the trench to hide.
Artillery bombardment. The shells that fell one after another exploded in front, back, left, and right of the trench. The soil stirred up by the air waves rushed towards his face like water, and in an instant, half of his body was buried in the soil.
Except for the deafening explosion, he could hear no other sounds; except for the smoke that covered the sky and the earth, and the soil stirred up by the air waves, he could see nothing. He secretly prayed in his heart that the German artillery bombardment would be faster.
past.
A long time after the German shelling ended, he crawled out of the mud with difficulty. He stood up and looked around, but did not see several of his soldiers. He shouted twice at the top of his lungs, but found his own voice.
It was barely audible, and it seemed that his ears had been damaged by the shelling. He turned his head and looked down the hillside, and faintly saw several German tanks heading towards the high ground. Behind them, there were waves of German infantry.
Skirmishing formation. Seeing the German army starting to attack, Semyon quickly put the whistle into his mouth and blew it hard.
Saveyev, who was staying in the bunker on the north slope, heard that after the German artillery bombardment ended, there was no whistle sound from the position. He frowned and said to Stepan sitting opposite: "What's going on?"
What's going on, why didn't Corporal Semyon blow the whistle yet?"
Stepan listened to the noise outside and said in an uncertain tone: "Did all the soldiers in the observation team die in the shelling?"
The two came outside the fortification and looked up at the high ground shrouded in gunpowder smoke. When they were considering whether they should send someone to check, a sharp whistle suddenly came from the high ground. Two long whistles and one short whistle were the sound in advance.
It was agreed to discover the enemy's attack signal.
"The enemy has begun to attack." Saveyev pulled out his pistol and shouted towards the bunker where the soldiers were hiding: "The enemy is coming up, everyone enter the position!"
Belkin stood in the traffic trench outside the battalion command post, raised his binoculars and looked at the third company that was entering the high ground from its hiding place. He was thinking to himself: This German shelling is more violent than ever before. It seems that
They are bound to capture the high ground. The second company and the machine gun company as reserves were taken away by the battalion commander. If the third company is wiped out, they can only send directly-controlled units such as the guard platoon, engineer platoon, and tank platoon.
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Just when he was worried, he suddenly heard Seryosha standing nearby shouting excitedly: "Comrade Deputy Battalion Commander, look, the battalion commander and the soldiers from the other two companies are back!"
Belkin looked in the direction of his finger, and sure enough he saw hundreds of soldiers trotting over. The one at the front was the battalion commander, Major Sokov. Seeing this scene, his heart finally returned to his stomach.
As long as the soldiers of these two companies come back, there will be enough troops to carry out defensive battles.
Sokov came to the battalion command post and stopped, turned around and breathlessly ordered the two company commanders following behind him: "After returning to their respective stations, let the soldiers seize the time to rest, and be ready to reinforce the second and third companies at any time.
Company preparations." The two company commanders agreed and took their respective soldiers back to their bases.
Sokov jumped into the traffic trench, came to Belkin's side, and asked: "Comrade Deputy Battalion Commander, how is the situation?"
"The German shelling just now was very violent." Belkin did not know much about the situation on the high ground, so he could only tell Sokov what he knew: "But as soon as the enemy's shelling ended, the third company entered the position.
"
He saw Sokov turning towards the command post and quickly followed him. From behind he asked a little worriedly: "Comrade Battalion Commander, are you not afraid of being blamed by the division commander for bringing back the troops transferred to the division headquarters?"
"Deputy battalion commander, don't you see that we are being attacked by the enemy? Allocating troops to the division headquarters at this time will greatly weaken our army's strength and be detrimental to our defense." Sokov said without looking back.
: "I think the division headquarters can understand our difficulties."
The German tanks stopped at the foot of the hill, and the infantry following them sped up, passed the tanks, and rushed towards the hillside. Saveyev, who was lying next to a machine gun, saw the enemy rushing up the hillside and hurriedly moved to the left and right.
The soldier said: "Pass this down, no one is allowed to shoot without my order!"
The soldiers who received the order lay motionless in their shooting positions, pointed the black muzzles at the enemy, and waited patiently for Saviev's order to fire. The entire hillside was quiet, and the only sound was the German
The sound of heavy footsteps and heavy breathing as soldiers climbed the slope.
Seeing the enemy entering the 100-meter range one after another, Saviev raised his right hand high above his head, then swung it down suddenly and shouted: "Fire!"
The machine guns roared, and then the whole company opened fire, and there was a dense sound of gunfire on the position. The bullets spewed by the machine guns, submachine guns, and rifles were as airtight as a heavy rain, smashing the enemies on the hillside into pieces.
Knocked down.
The Germans quickly lay down on the spot and fought back. After firing a few shots, they jumped up from the ground. Under the leadership of their respective commanders, they stepped on the corpses of their companions and continued to bend over, struggling to rush to the position on the top of the mountain. Seeing the
The Soviet army opened fire, and the tanks at the foot of the mountain also began shelling. The shells fell on the position and exploded. Smoke and shrapnel flew everywhere, cutting down the soldiers near the explosion point one by one.
Facing the enemies rushing up, the condescending soldiers of the third company poured ammunition downwards without hesitation. However, due to the limitations of the terrain, in order to defeat the enemies rushing into the blind spot, individual soldiers had to stand up and shoot. But as soon as they emerged,
, he was hit by a bullet fired by the German army and fell on his back in the trench.
When a group of German soldiers rushed near the position, countless grenades suddenly flew out of the trenches, fell on the way of their charge and exploded. The shrapnel flying everywhere overturned each figure. In the short distance of about twenty meters, it became
The insurmountable chasm, the ground under the feet of the German soldiers, has been soaked with blood and turned into sticky mud. When you step on it, the ground will squeak non-stop. The corpses of those killed by bullets and grenades are piled up in layers.
There.
Faced with such a tenacious Soviet defense, the German commander knew that there was no point in continuing to fight, so he blew the whistle to notify the desperate soldiers to retreat. When the German soldiers on the hillside heard the whistle, they felt like they had been amnesty and rolled over.
Climb and run back faster than when charging.
Seeing that the enemy had retreated, cheers erupted from the position. Saveyev, who was wounded in several places, did not bother to bandage his wounds, so he returned directly to his company command post and reported to Sokov in the rear by phone:
"Comrade Battalion Commander, the enemy's attack was repelled by us."