War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 33 The Germans' Rope
"I don't understand." Zoya looked at Captain Aleutian and Wei Ran suspiciously, "Shouldn't we fight back?"

"Let's talk about it." Captain Aleutian looked at Wei Ran encouragingly, as if curious whether his answer was the same as what he thought.

"Trenches are good against direct-fire shells, but not against mortar shells."

Wei Ran shrank his neck and looked at the puff of smoke that exploded around position 19, "And the most important thing is that the damage caused by our mortar counterattack is not high, it is better to let them continue digging for a while, wait Their reinforcements will come and solve it together."

"What else?" Captain Aleutian asked with a smile.

"What else?" Wei Ran thought for a long time, and finally shook his head honestly, "I can only think of so many."

"As long as they dug the trenches, the route of the troops coming from behind with the tanks is fixed, the position of the trenches is also fixed, and even the position where they hide is fixed. This is for our new recruits who have just learned to operate the mortar Said that the difficulty of aiming at the target will be reduced a lot, and it can also save some ammunition in disguise."

"But we let them dig out a trench to confront us so smoothly?"

Wei Ran asked worriedly, it was two different things whether the opponent had trenches or not. It would not be a wise decision to allow the Germans to dig trenches to the door just to save some ammunition.

"Of course it's impossible," Vanya added with a fierce face, "Aleutian, you're ready."

The latter nodded upon hearing the words, "Arrange good marksmanship to carry out uninterrupted sniping, and supervise them to dig faster."

Although they didn't know what kind of evil plans Captain Aleutian had in his stomach, everyone accepted his arrangement honestly.

As time passed, the sky gradually darkened. Compared with the almost non-stop fighting in other positions around, the vicinity of Position 19, apart from the occasional gunshots and mortar explosions, fell into a strange atmosphere. quiet.

In the command post surrounded by wind, the Aleutian company commander finished a simple dinner in two or three bites. After roughly wiping the remaining mashed potatoes on the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, he glanced out through the observation hole and said casually, "It's already eight. It's half past, and it's about time we started."

Upon hearing this, Vanya poked his head out of the command post and blew the whistle that was originally hanging around his neck vigorously.After receiving the signal, the mortar soldiers who had been silent all afternoon immediately picked up the shells and stuffed them into the launch tube without hesitation.

"Bang bang!"

After two consecutive low hums, the positions of the heavy mortars were driven by the shock wave to push away a circle of slowly spreading circular water vapor ripples.

Only a few seconds apart, the two 120mm high-explosive mortar shells accurately hit the half-dug trench line on the opposite side. Although it was impossible to hear the screams coming from the opposite side, the trench exploded. The flames are particularly conspicuous in the night.

Behind the observation window of the command post, Aleushin put down the binoculars and said with satisfaction, "That's right, let's continue with the bombing point now!"

Upon hearing this, Vanya immediately took out his flashlight and shook it at the two heavy mortars, and immediately blew the whistle again after the opponent stopped shelling.

Less than a second later, the 82mm mortars that had also been aimed before sunset began to fire one after another. Under the operation of those soldiers, the only two mortars fired one by one. hit the opposite trench line.

Under Wei Ran's perplexed observation, Vanya turned around, shook the flashlight towards the slope of the trench, and then personally led a small group of soldiers with submachine guns over the trench, passing through the broken barbed wire, Under the cover of the mortar, Mao stooped silently and rushed to the trench that was about to be dug on the opposite side!
At the same time, the two heavy mortars that fired first have been quickly moved to the backup artillery positions more than [-] meters away along the trenches that have been widening in the past few days under the force of a dozen soldiers. .

"This lunatic!"

Wei Ran muttered to himself, until this time, he barely figured out what Captain Aleutian was thinking. This bastard from the correctional battalion seemed to have taken a fancy to the trenches dug by the German soldiers who spent most of the afternoon on the opposite side!

Soon, the opponent's mortars began to fire back, and most of the shells that exploded in succession hit the trenches near the No. 19 position, and occasionally a few hit the inside of the trenches, because most of them had already hid in the bunkers in advance. No effective damage was done.

The mortar bombardment between the two sides didn't last long, and the team that rushed out with Vanya had already touched the shell crater outside the opponent's trench, rounded their arms and threw the grenades captured during the day. Entering the opponent's trench, at the same time, several flashlights were turned on and signaled in the direction of position 19.

The trench dug out in only half an afternoon was not as well-equipped as the long-established No. 19 position, even because of the initial bombing of the heavy high-explosive mortar shells and the almost unbroken 82 The threat posed by the millimeter artillery shells, the German soldiers hiding inside had no idea that the Soviet Red Army, which had no superiority in strength, dared to send people to take the initiative to attack!
Before the grenades exploded one after another before the smoke could dissipate, the two mortars at Position 19 were immediately replaced with flares, and sent them directly over the German trenches with an interval of [-] seconds!
The Soviet soldiers, like death squads, have jumped into the trenches shouting Ulla, pulling the trigger at any suspicious target and shooting frantically!

However, the next operation was beyond Wei Ran's expectation again. The death squad led by Vanya could be said to come and go in a hurry, almost before the flares above their heads fell to the ground, they jumped out of the trench relentlessly. Cover each other and retreat in the direction of position 19!

The astonishing operation was still to come. Almost at the same time that the second flare was completely extinguished, the two 82mm mortar shells in the trench began to pour mortar shells towards the opponent's trench again!

When Vanya jumped into the trench with the surviving death squad members and the machine gun he brought back, the two mortars immediately stopped firing.

"Okay, now it's time for the Germans on the opposite side to have a headache."

Satisfied, Captain Aleutian put down the binoculars he had been holding up all the time, "Before dawn, the people in that trench will probably keep their eyes open."

"I thought you wanted to occupy their trenches." Wei Ran muttered regretfully and fortunately.

"The trenches were the ropes that tied the Germans"

Aleutian explained slowly in the dark command post, "If they don't dig the trenches to the point where they can't bear to give up, I'm afraid they will run away after we fire a mortar round."

"But now it's different"

Vanya, who was smelling of gunpowder, walked into the command post with a submachine gun in his hand, "Before they got the fire support of howitzers or a large number of tanks, the goal of our competition between the two sides has changed from the 19th position to the area that is only a short distance away." The trenches can be dug with one shovel, which can buy us a lot of time."

In the dark command post, Wei Ran frowned secretly. He hadn't forgotten that Aleutian and Vanya both seemed to be from the correctional camp.But during World War II, did the "Suka" in the Soviet correctional battalion have such high combat literacy and command ability?
(End of this chapter)