Chapter 387: The Valiant Guards (Part 1)

  Chapter 387 The Brave Guards (Part 1)

   Zhukov's counter-assault organized north of Stalingrad did not achieve the desired results, but instead consumed the valuable Soviet reserve force. After successfully preventing the Soviet counterattack, the Germans used the 14th Tank Corps and the 51st Infantry Corps to launch a fierce attack on the Soviet defensive positions. The defensive position of the 35th Guards Division became the first target of the German attack.

The artillery shells rained down on the position of the 100th Guards Regiment, and countless explosive points exploded suddenly. The shrapnel flying around and the collapsing rubble intertwined with each other like a violent wind and rain, and the sweeping was covered by black gunpowder smoke. position. The commanders and fighters of the whole regiment covered their ears with their hands and curled up in the trenches to avoid the German shelling. From time to time, shells fell directly into the trenches, and the blast wave would pull up the soldiers near the blast point from the ground and throw them high into the air. Falling.

  Even if some of the soldiers who were blown away by the shells were only missing arms and legs, fell to the ground and howled, but no one would go to treat them before the shelling ended. After all, hygienists are also flesh and blood, and it is entirely possible that the final outcome of saving people under such intensive artillery fire is that people were not saved, but their own lives were put in it instead. Whether these wounded can persist in the rescue until the end of the shelling depends on the shrapnel.

  A red flag planted on the position was first distorted by the blast wave, and then the flagpole was cut off by shrapnel. Half of the flagpole was connected to the riddled flag, which was instantly blown away by the hurricane formed by the air waves.

A soldier squatting not far away saw the flag blown up and was about to get up to look for the flag, but was held down by a veteran beside him, and at the same time he approached his ear and shouted loudly: "Don't you I'm dead, squat down obediently."

  As soon as the shelling stopped, before the smoke cleared, the German infantry, under the cover of tanks, rushed towards the position of the 100th regiment aggressively.

   Seeing that the German shelling had stopped, the Soviet commanders immediately stood up and shouted loudly: "The Germans are coming up, everyone rushes to repair the fortifications immediately and get ready to shoot..."

  The shelling of the German army caused a lot of casualties to the Soviet army without solid fortifications. At the same time, it also destroyed several civil bunkers. The heavy machine guns placed inside were blown into parts without even a chance to shoot. Fortunately, the machine gun shooters hid in other places during shelling, otherwise they would be blown to pieces like these machine guns.

The battalion commander of the Soviet army was 300 meters away from the first trench. After counting the casualties of the troops, the battalion commander’s heart was bleeding. More than a third. However, when he learned that the German infantry was rushing towards his defensive position, he immediately issued a combat order to his three company commanders: "Tell the soldiers, bring the enemy closer before fighting."

  The company commanders naturally understood the reason why the battalion commander issued this order. As long as the distance between the enemy and us is close, the German tanks parked at a distance to provide artillery support will stop shooting in order to prevent accidental injury to their own people. As long as the Germans have no artillery support, it will not be so easy to break through their positions.

  The marching German infantry, seeing that there was no movement on the Soviet position, quickly passed the tanks that had stopped and fired, and trotted forward. Three hundred meters... two hundred meters... one hundred and fifty meters... one hundred meters, the German infantry is getting closer and closer to the trenches, but there is no movement at all, as if all the defenders were bombarded by the bombardment that just ended died.

When there were still fifty meters away from the trenches, the German soldiers rushing to the front showed smug smiles on their faces. They thought to themselves: as long as they run for more than ten seconds, they will be able to rush into the Russian trenches. The honor of being the first to rush into Stalingrad will belong to your own troops.

  However, the joy turned into sorrow, and just when they thought that they could rush into the trench with another sprint, in the trench that had been silent for a long time, the machine gun suddenly opened fire without warning. The dense bullets caused the twenty or so German soldiers who rushed to the front to spin and fall to a place less than twenty meters away from the trench.

   Seeing the Soviet army firing suddenly, the German army behind hurriedly sought cover on the spot and fired back. The machine gunner also quickly established a machine gun position in the bomb crater, and fired wildly at the Soviet soldiers on the position. Many soldiers who were shooting fell face up in the trenches after being hit by bullets.

  ...

  Compared with the situation here in the 100th regiment, the battle fought by the 101st regiment on their right flank was more brutal. The German army attacking from this direction adopted the tactics of tank assault. The tank left the infantry far behind and rushed to the Soviet position alone, trying to break through this way to break down the morale of the defenders.

The anti-tank company of the regiment was deployed one hundred meters in front of the regiment's defensive position. When enemy tanks appeared in the distance, the company commander Gerasimov quickly counted the number of tanks: "Brothers, the Germans There are 25 tanks, and we only have 18 anti-tank rifles, that is to say, seven fighters need to destroy more than two tanks."

"Company Commander." After Gerasimov finished speaking, a second lieutenant lying not far away asked: "Our anti-tank guns have to be within two hundred meters to penetrate their frontal armor. See if you can bring the enemy tanks closer before attacking?"

"Yes." For the second lieutenant's suggestion, Gerasimov immediately agreed: "Anyway, there are no infantry behind the German tanks, we can put them as close as possible. Even if they rush to the front, we don't have to worry, because there are still Anti-tank grenades can deal with them."

After saying these words, Gerasimov shouted at the soldiers again: "Everyone get ready, the German tanks are coming." Following the order, all anti-tank rifles were aimed at the soldiers driving in the distance. German tanks coming.

   When the German tanks were getting closer and the roar of the engine was getting louder, Gerasimov raised his binoculars. He saw that the hatch of the first tank was open. A tank driver in a black tank uniform, with a pair of earphones on his head and a microphone in his hand, was staring ahead, as if he was preparing for other tanks. tanks indicate the direction.

Seeing this situation, Gerasimov put down his binoculars, called a sharpshooter, and said: "Comrade soldier, have you seen the tank soldier who is sticking out half of his body?" Then he said, "According to my judgment, he is showing the direction for other tanks. You shoot him immediately and kill him."

   "Comrade Company Commander," the sharpshooter said in embarrassment to Gerasimov's order, "the enemy's tank is still 400 meters away. At such a long distance, I can't hit the target."

   "Then get closer and fight again." Gerasimov waved his fist and said, "Once he is killed, it will not be so easy for the enemy in the tank to find our position."

  The sharpshooter agreed, and immediately ran to choose a suitable position to lie down, set up the Mosin Nagant rifle with a scope, and aimed at the German tank soldier who was protruding half of his body in the distance.

   But the first one to shoot was not the sharpshooter who wanted to kill the German tank soldiers, but another little soldier who was a little nervous. After the little soldier locked the tank where the tank soldier was with the cross in the scope, he couldn't wait to pull the trigger regardless that the opponent was still more than 300 meters away.

   The bullet fired by the anti-tank rifle did not hit the front armor of the tank, but hit the high-speed rotating track on one side, thus becoming a ricochet. The loud sound of bullets hitting the tracks startled the tanker who was observing the situation ahead. He looked around, quickly retracted into the tank, and closed the hatch casually.

Seeing the German tank soldiers shrinking back, the sharpshooter who was about to shoot was so angry that he punched himself hard with his fist, turned his head and cursed: "Damn it, who fired indiscriminately and scared the German tankers into hiding?" Woke up."

   The little soldier who found himself in trouble did not dare to speak, but silently reloaded a bullet, re-aimed the tank, and prepared to shoot again to make up for the mistake he had just made.

  After the German tanks discovered that there was a Soviet blocking position in front, they immediately changed their tactics, adopting a group of two, alternately covering and advancing forward. One tank stopped and fired, while the other continued to rush forward to seize favorable terrain. After the tanks rushing forward reach a favorable position, they stop and shoot to cover the tanks that have just fired and rush forward.

  The tactics used by the German army stunned the soldiers of the anti-tank company at once. Because the bullets fired by the anti-tank rifles may not be able to penetrate the frontal armor of the German tanks, but the shells fired by the enemy tanks are enough to blow them up to the sky with their guns.

  When the German tanks rushed to a distance of seventy or eighty meters from the anti-tank position, eight anti-tank guns had been destroyed, and the German army only lost one tank. Seeing the German tanks approaching in no time, Gerasimov hurriedly shouted: "Use anti-tank grenades to blow up the enemy's tanks."

   Hearing Gerasimov's order, a soldier immediately climbed out of the fortification with two anti-tank grenades, and crawled towards the galloping tanks. Seeing that the tank was about to rush in front of him, the soldier leaned up half of his body and threw out the anti-tank grenade in his hand. Hearing a loud "boom", the tank started to burn and moved forward again. After a certain distance, it stopped completely.

  Because the anti-tank grenades of the Soviet army are too heavy, even a strong soldier can only throw about 20 meters at best. Just after the soldier threw an anti-tank grenade, he was hit on the forehead by the shrapnel that bounced back, and he died on the spot next to the destroyed tank.

  Seeing that the fighters who bombed the tank had died, Gerasimov hurriedly shouted again: "Comrades, keep going. We must blow up all the German tanks, and we must not let them rush to the infantry positions behind."

   Under the call of Gerasimov, seven or eight soldiers with anti-tank grenades climbed out of the trench one after another, and crawled over with hands and feet to meet the oncoming tanks. After a series of explosions, all the soldiers who performed the anti-tank mission died, but they succeeded in blowing up two tanks. The tank soldiers who were covered in fire escaped from the vehicles. The soldiers shot down indiscriminately.

  Finding that their tanks were blown up one by one by the Soviets, the Germans realized that it was impossible to continue to break through without destroying this anti-tank force. So the German tank soldiers let the infantry behind them speed up to catch up, while using tank guns and machine guns to deal with the Soviet anti-tank fighters hiding in the trenches.

  After half an hour of fierce fighting, the German infantry caught up, and there was only Captain Gerasimov left on the anti-tank position. Even so, he calmly fired at the German tanks with his anti-tank gun and destroyed four tanks in succession. He ran out of bullets, put down the anti-tank gun, and searched for bullets on the soldiers who died next to him.

  He just found the bullet, and before he had time to reload it, a German tank rushed over aggressively. Seeing that the situation was not good, Gerasimov quickly squatted in the trench with his head in his arms. The German tanks first smashed the anti-tank gun used by Gerasimov, and then spun around Gerasimov's head, trying to crush him to death while hiding in the trench. With the rapid rotation of the tank's tracks, Gerasimov felt that the walls of the trench began to collapse in pieces, and the warm soil quickly buried himself.

   After an unknown amount of time, the tank spinning overhead finally left. Gerasimov felt as if an elephant was sitting on his body. He used all his strength to arch upwards little by little. After several efforts, he finally got out of the mud. Just as he was breathing in fresh air, he found groups of German infantry following the tanks and rushing towards the rear infantry positions.

  Seeing a tank parked more than ten meters in front of him and firing, Gerasimov wanted to destroy it with an anti-tank gun, but after searching for a long time, he only found half of the deformed barrel. He squatted down and groped in the empty soil. He remembered seeing a few anti-tank grenades on the ground of the trench before avoiding the crushing of German tanks. Under the current situation, this weapon can only be used against enemy tanks. up.

  Kung fu paid off. After groping for a while, Gerasimov finally touched the anti-tank grenade covered in the mud. After digging out the grenade, he straightened up abruptly, raised the grenade high above his head, and prepared to throw it at the tank not far away. However, when he was doing all this, he forgot that there were German infantry soldiers everywhere. As soon as he stood up, he was spotted by the nearby German soldiers, and seven or eight guns were pointed at him immediately.

  Before he threw the grenade, the surrounding German soldiers opened fire, and the bullets hit him, splashing countless blood foam. Gerasimov's body shook violently like an electric shock. First, the anti-tank grenade fell from his hand, and then his body fell limply into the collapsed trench.

  (end of this chapter)