War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 35 Fierce Veteran
As night fell, the rear of the Don River position rarely sent a large amount of ammunition to the No. 19 position. By the way, an additional group of less than 50 veterans, but generally more than 40 years old, was added here. .

These soldiers were obviously very familiar with Aleutian and Vanya, and the undisguised disgust and hidden fear in the eyes of other soldiers around them made Wei Ran easily guess their identities.

The key point of this conjecture is that after receiving these veterans, Aleutian not only took the initiative to salute, but even directly distributed almost all the soldiers in the 19th position to these veterans, allowing them to choose and form battles one by one. The team, and gave these veterans the right to directly deal with deserters.

Even Wei Ran can be sure that if it weren't for the existence of the blue hat who sent these veterans over, Company Commander Aleutian might even hand over the command of position 19 to the other party.

On the other hand, although this order caused dissatisfaction among some soldiers, it is undeniable that with the addition of these veterans, the operation efficiency of the 19th position has been greatly accelerated.

In particular, the 82mm mortar, which has been expanded to five, quickly fired several rounds of intensive salvos with the cooperation of these veterans, and even hit the barely completed trench of the German army on the opposite side, which was silent for five or six minutes. There was no time for a decent counterattack.

This move not only suppressed the German soldiers on the opposite side, but even the unconvinced soldiers in the 19th position immediately calmed down. Regardless of whether these veterans really came from the correctional camp, anyone with a brain knows that following these Veterans, the probability of surviving is definitely far higher than that of inexperienced recruits.

However, less than a minute after the five mortars, which were still hot to the touch, were sent into the bunker, there was a piercing whistle in the night sky, and the Germans on the opposite side received artillery support again!

"Hidden! Hidden!"

While Commander Aleutian and Vanya shouted, they took Zoya and Wei Ran to hide in the command post. The veterans who just arrived also responded quickly, even those who pushed and shouted brought their own soldiers Drilled into the nearest bunker.

Dense shells exploded around the No. 19 position one after another. One of the anti-tank artillery squads and four machine gunners, led by two veterans, ran to the entire No. 19 position along the trench just dug before dark. at the forefront!

"Hound dog! Hound dog! I am Don 19!" In the command post that kept shaking off the mud, Aleutian skillfully manipulated the radio station to call the artillery observer Kaze who had not responded for two days.

"Don't waste your efforts, they must have died long ago." Vanya said while leaning against the damp wall, lighting a crumpled cigarette, puffing.

Captain Aleutian didn't seem to hear it. After repeating the call two or three times, he directly dragged Wei Ran to the edge of the table, "Continue calling!"

"Hound! Hound! I am Don 19!"

Before sitting down, Wei Ran immediately started calling. In the past few days, he has learned how to operate this old-fashioned radio station from Vanya. At the same time, he is also secretly looking forward to the artillery observer Kaze and the communication Bingbyshev and veterinarian Cyril are still alive.

However, until the most forward anti-tank gun position called to remind the Germans that the tanks had been dispatched, until all the anti-tank guns at the 19th position began to counterattack, there was still no sound in the radio channel except for the piercing noise. To the response of the artillery observer Kaze.

"boom!"

A cannonball hit a position not far from the command post, and a broken shrapnel was firmly embedded in the thigh-thick log wall outside the command post with a dull loud noise.

"Don't stand still! Keep calling!" Aleutian glanced at the shrapnel emitting green smoke, raised his binoculars again expressionlessly, and observed the situation on the battlefield.

Wei Ran swallowed his saliva, and while calling into the microphone next to his mouth, he picked up the temporary wooden table and carefully moved it to the corner of the command post against the wall.

"You're less courageous than a bullet!" Zoya muttered disdainfully, and then she also focused on the battlefield outside the observation window.

Amid Wei Ran's repeated calls, the tanks on the opposite side drove closer and closer under the cover of artillery.The forward artillery position, which was hastily built before dark, was also ordered by the Aleutian company commander and under the cover of the other four anti-tank artillery in position 19. In less than ten seconds, the two artillery shells were fired. It smashed into the side armor of two tanks!
Amidst the loud bang, the two tanks that were serving as mobile infantry shelters were killed one after another, and their respective turrets were thrown into the air in the flames, and then they smashed hard on the muddy ground amidst the exclamation of the German soldiers. .

At the same time, the DShka heavy machine guns on both sides of this anti-tank gun also fired one after another. They ate the ammunition belt that had been deliberately replaced with tracer ammunition at the fastest speed, and quickly spit out the barrel, harvesting a large number of German soldiers by the way. life!

"Commander Aleutian, we lost an anti-tank artillery!" A soldier ran to the gate of the command post despite the intensive artillery fire from the opponent to deliver bad news.

"Organize the manpower and send the shells to other artillery positions!" Captain Aleutian sent the messenger away, turned his head and glanced at the call to Wei Ran, and then raised the binoculars again.

In the sound of rumbling artillery fire, the German tanks quickly approached the front of position 19. While the turret was slowly rotating, they were either destroying the fire points of machine guns that were fatal to the infantry, or being burned by anti-tank guns piercing through the armor. Start a raging fire!

At this moment, the trench dug hastily before dark played a huge role. Under the leadership of those veterans, nearly half of the troops in Position 19 filled the 150-meter-long trench in an instant, and harvested it from the side with submachine guns. The life of the German soldiers attacked the side armor of the German tanks with anti-tank guns.

The German tanks attacked at a 90-degree angle were caught in a dilemma. If the Soviet soldiers in the trenches on the side were left alone, the infantry behind the tanks would be their live targets, but once they drove towards them, the frontal anti-tank Cannons and machine guns will also bring huge damage to themselves and even the infantry behind them!
What makes the Germans even more uncomfortable is that they didn't know the existence of this trench before the war started. It would be too late for the support artillery they deployed so hard to change the target at this time, because this time is enough time for the soldiers commanded by the Aleutian company commander Use all kinds of light and heavy weapons to swallow all the troops on the battlefield!
At the same time that they were in a dilemma, cheers came from the command post at position 19, because the artillery observer Kaze's concise and accurate artillery instructions finally sounded on the radio channel that was originally only noisy!

(End of this chapter)