War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 32 Deliberate stalemate

On the evening of July 1942, 7, at the front of the Don 25 position, soldiers armed with guns and engineering shovels, led by Vanya, buried various tank shells collected on the battlefield near the wreckage of the tanks.

In the trenches, hundreds of German-made M24 long-handled grenades were also distributed to each soldier. The fragments of these grenades were also tied with cloth strips or wires. Mauser bullets of varying sizes.

Also sent down were the collected submachine guns or machine guns and their respective ammunition.A little further away, the five ZIS-3 anti-tank guns and the only two 120mm heavy mortars are also ready to fire.

Even the remaining gasoline and leaked lubricating oil that could be found in the wreckage of those tanks were transported back by every means, and made into Molotov cocktails with various other materials that could be found.

In the temporary command post, Vanya put down the phone in disappointment, "The rear has sent almost all reinforcements and supplies to the main battlefield on the easternmost side, and they don't believe that the German army may launch an attack from us."

"Damn bureaucracy"

The Aleutian company commander who just came in cursed with an ugly face, "Isn't there any news from Kaze?"

Vanya shook his head again, "Since the last time he called for artillery strikes, he has lost his response, he is likely"

"Commander Aleutian!"

A soldier with gauze on his head ran into the command post, yelling, "Commander Aleutian, the Germans! The Germans are attacking!"

"go!"

Everyone rushed out of the command post like a swarm, and when they stepped on the ladder and climbed to the trench, they immediately saw blue smoke rising from the end of their line of sight, and at the same time, the roar of the tank engine became more and more clear!

"Tank No. 4!"

A nearby gunner held up a binoculars and said, "There are sandbags piled up on the front, and our anti-tank guns may be difficult to penetrate directly!"

"Put it in a little bit," the Aleutian company commander shouted, holding up the horn, "82mm mortar! Get rid of the infantry behind the tank first!"

Before he could finish his words, the dozen or so German tanks approaching from the opposite side were the first to roar. Immediately, the barbed wire fence directly in front of the trench was hit with a series of damages.

Before the tanks could fire a second round of shells, the 82mm mortars in the trench had each fired a high-explosive shell under the control of the surrounding soldiers.

Amidst the loud rumbling noise, two shells struck behind the row of tanks in an arc, and the dust and smoke from the explosion could be seen faintly, but Aleutian and the others showed no happy expressions at all.

Even Wei Ran, who was lying not far away, knew the reason. Those German soldiers stood too scattered, and the damage caused by those two mortars was far below everyone's expectations. Even if they were replaced by those two 120mm mortars With heavy mortars, the results of this battle will not be expanded much.

"Bring them closer, bring them closer and fight again." Captain Aleutian shouted hastily.

Wei Ran clenched the submachine gun in his hand, and from time to time, he would turn his head to glance at the soldier who was in charge of using the anti-tank gun not far away. According to the task assigned to him, once the soldier died in battle, he would immediately go up to it!
While everyone on both sides waited anxiously, the tanks bumped up and down over the bomb craters full of rainwater and corpses, pulling the distance between the two to less than 500 meters!

"beep--!"

With the sound of the sharp whistle, the five anti-tank guns immediately began to fight back violently against the artillery fire of the opponent's tank. One after another, the 76mm armor-piercing shells smashed into the oncoming tank turret with the sound of the whistle. Or frontal armor.

During the violent explosion, several of the tanks were the first to be turned into fireballs, and even one of them was directly martyred, lifting the entire turret into the air.

From this moment, from the water-cooled Maxim to the powerful Deshka, to the captured German-made MG34 machine guns, the fire points of the machine guns extending from all over the position sprayed out deadly fire snakes, like a station with inefficient The tall but deadly scythe harvests the life of the enemy like a scythe.

But from this moment on, the soldiers guarding position 19 also began to suffer casualties one after another. Every time the opponent's mortar and tank artillery exploded, the smoke and dust would be accompanied by familiar or unfamiliar screams around them.

And amidst the continuous screams, the female soldier Zoya was lying on the slope of the trench, pointing the camera at the soldiers who fought back and pressing the shutter again and again, even if the mud from the explosion fell down, this young-looking The first action the small female soldier made was to protect the camera in her arms.

After the five anti-tank guns fired back again and again, they finally nailed most of the tanks approaching in place, but at the same time, the shell craters behind those tanks were also full of German soldiers.So far, the seizure distance between the two parties has also been stalemate within a distance of less than 400 meters for the first time.

Under the command of Aleutian, the five anti-tank guns were the first to stop firing after destroying the last tank, and then quickly shifted their positions one by one amid the whistle of the artillery squad.

What made them very fortunate was that although the small-caliber mortars on the opposite side smashed around the trenches again and again, this time from before the exchange of fire until the two sides reached a stalemate, the German artillery honestly did not come to add to the chaos.

"It seems that Kaze really solved their artillery positions"

Aleutian's frown that had been frowning all this time finally relaxed somewhat, "Vanya, report our situation to the rear, and see if we can send some reinforcements by the way."

In everyone's expectations, Vanya took the order and left, but soon came back with bad news with a gloomy face, "The Germans have launched a general attack on the entire right-wing position of the 64th Army, and now it is impossible for us to get any more Reinforcements are here."

"Save ammunition!" Aleutian gritted his teeth and issued a new order.

Soon, there were only occasional cold gunshots on the side of the 19th position, but the German mortars on the opposite side seemed to be free of money. Whenever there was a gunshot here, a few shells would be fired in retaliation .

"Captain Aleutian, why do I feel like they are stalling for time?"

Wei Ran was the first to see something was wrong. The Germans dispatched more than a dozen tanks with great fanfare, but they just sent the soldiers who came with the tanks to a position less than 19 meters away from the No. 500 position and stopped. How do you see this operation? How strange.

Company Commander Aleutian glanced at Wei Ran in surprise, and handed the binoculars to him directly, "Look at it and you'll understand."

Wei Ran didn't know, so he took the binoculars and looked along the gap between the two sandbags. He could vaguely see that the German soldiers hiding in the shell crater seemed to be throwing something out.

"Are they digging trenches?" Wei Ran asked without knowing why.

Captain Aleutian nodded worriedly, "The attack just now was to test our counterattack distance, and then we opened up trenches as close as possible. The next battle may be extremely difficult."

"Don't we have mortars?" Wei Ran returned the binoculars to the other party, "Even if the ammunition for the two largest ones is limited, we still have them."

"Keep talking," Captain Aleutin looked at Wei Ran and urged with great interest.

Wei Ran thought about it for a moment, and a sudden realization appeared on his face, "I understand!"

　Thank you Yongtuo Road for rewarding 1000 points

　　
　
(End of this chapter)