artillery arc

Chapter 694: Breaking Through the Diber River

Arriving at the backup position, Andreas took one look at the tripod and knew it was unusable.

So he decisively adopted the second plan, propped the machine gun on the sandbags with a bipod, and began to fire based on his experience - the tripod has a handwheel with a scale to adjust the lifting angle when shooting, while the bipod can only rely on the shooter's experience and scale.

Andreas fired wildly.

The backup machine gun position was behind the first trench and formed cross fire with the second trench. The Ants did not confirm the direction of the machine gun fire in the first time, allowing Andreas to steal more than a dozen people in a row.

Suddenly, a flare rose into the air, drew an arc and fell towards Andreas' position.

He immediately hid backwards and dragged the unresponsive recruit Malamon behind the sandbags.

Then the bullets hit the sandbags with a crackling sound.

Maramon was shocked: "What's going on?"

"That flare indicated our target, so the Ants began to concentrate their fire on us!"

"They discovered us just by using the flares?"

"Nothing was found. We were just firing in the direction of the flare. But look at the firepower. Do you dare to bet that there wasn't a lucky bullet that hit your head?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of bullets hitting the sandbags stopped. Andreas changed his position, raised his machine gun and started firing.

At this time, someone shouted: "The tanks are coming!"

Maramon, who was holding the ammunition belt, immediately looked in the direction of the sound, and then he also shouted: "The tanks are coming, they are our tanks!"

Andreas opened the bullet-loading plate: "Change the bullets! Quick!"

While Maramon was changing bullets, he looked in the direction of the engine sound and saw a Type 2 tank driving up to the position and strafing the beach with its machine gun.

The tanks stopped behind the third trench, a few hundred meters away from the real front line.

Maramon replaced the ammunition and reported loudly: "Reloading completed!"

Andreas replaced the bullet-proof plate and continued firing without stopping.

Maramon held the ammunition belt and continuously fed bullets into the gun chamber, while muttering in confusion: "Why can't the tanks behind us come up?"

Andreas: "That's the Type 100 tank. It's already fallen behind. The enemy has weapons that can penetrate its armor at a distance of meters. It can't move forward, so it's good to stay behind and serve as a machine gun turret-"

A dragon of fire spewed out from the position occupied by the Ants and rushed straight towards the Type 2 tank hiding behind the third trench.

The tank immediately caught fire, and the crew members, covered in flames, climbed out of the tank and rolled on the ground.

"Watch!" Although Andreas said this, he didn't even look at the burning tank. He was focused on defeating the Ants.

Suddenly, he was startled. Veterans would trust their intuition when faced with such a situation, so he rolled away from the shooting position and rolled to the communication trench next to him holding the machine gun with a hot barrel.

Almost at the same time, the sound of mortar shells whistled in the sky. Ten mortar shells fell in succession, blowing down the sandbag walls outside the machine gun position.

It is estimated that the Ant people's mortar team has advanced to the west bank and has begun close support.

After the bombardment, he got up and patted the shoulder of Malamon who was lying next to him: "Let's go! This position has been exposed! Ant's assault team should be nearby! Move!"

Maramon did not move.

Andreas thought something was wrong, so he grabbed Malamon's shoulders and turned him over. He found that the new recruit's young face was covered with mud, and there was mud in his mouth, nostrils and even eyes.

Red was spreading across his chest.

Andreas put on the eyes of a new recruit, skillfully searched his pockets, took out the letter from home and put it in his pocket, then went into the communication trench with a machine gun in his arms.

After running less than thirty steps along the communication trench, Andreas ran into Sergeant Koslake head-on.

"Sergeant?"

Koslake: "My machine gun crew has been wiped out. The machine gun and tripod have been taken away by the enemy. I'm going to inform the deputy company commander of the loss!"

Andreas: "I'm in need of a secondary shooter!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the deputy company commander appeared with a platoon of people: "You two! We are going to fight back! We need heavy machine gun firepower, and you - light machine guns will do!"

A general-purpose machine gun mounted on a tripod is a heavy machine gun, and when disassembled it can be used as a light machine gun.

"follow me!"

Sergeant Koslake stopped the deputy company commander and asked: "Are you going to take these new recruits to retake the position?"

Andreas realized that the man holding the submachine gun behind the deputy company commander was not an experienced and skilled non-commissioned officer, but a new recruit with a childish face like Maramon.

Kosrek snatched the submachine gun from the recruit's hand: "Give me the magazine bag! And the grenades! You go and serve as the assistant shooter for Sergeant Andreas!"

New recruit: "I have no training in machine gun operation!"

Andreas: "Hold the bullet belt, right? Come with me and give the submachine gun to Sergeant Kosrek!"

"But!"

Deputy Company Commander: "That's it. As long as you survive, sooner or later it will be your turn to fight for the trenches with the enemy guards with a submachine gun. Let's go, Kosrek! We still have work to do!"

After saying that, the deputy company commander jogged along the communication trench. Compared with the new company commander who was airdropped from the military academy, the deputy company commander was an experienced second lieutenant who had never attended a military academy and was promoted completely on the front line. However, he was more trusted by the soldiers in the company than any young guy from the military academy.

Sergeant Koslake followed behind with a submachine gun.

Andreas carried the machine gun on his shoulder and followed with great strides. The squad soon arrived near the lost position.

Andreas chose the best position for the machine gun at a glance and lay down next to the sandbags to set up the machine gun.

Deputy Company Commander: "Forward! Close combat, recruits, follow your training!"

Andreas began to fire, forcing the Ants who were poking their heads out into the trenches.

Koslake rushed out of the trench first, threw a grenade, and then rushed diagonally.

The grenade exploded outside the trench occupied by the Ants. This grenade, like Andreas' machine gun fire, was intended to suppress the enemy and prevent them from raising their heads.

Sergeant Koslake rushed to a place less than ten meters away from the trench, lay down, and threw three grenades that he had held in his hand for a second into the trench.

After a series of explosions, he rushed into the trench with a submachine gun.

Andreas could no longer see the sergeant, but he could hear the sound of submachine gun fire.

The deputy company commander also jumped up: "Support the corporal! Move forward in groups!"

He rushed to the trench with two soldiers.

Andreas suddenly noticed that a group of Ants were rushing towards this side in the distance, so he turned his gun and shot over them, trying to stop them.

But without a tripod, the accuracy of the overtaking shot was not very good, which simply made Ant go from jogging to running wildly.

Suddenly, Andreas saw Sergeant Kosrek stick his head out and splash the approaching Ants with captured PPSh.

Now the Ants finally fell down.

Then Andreas saw the Ants begin to retreat toward the river beach.

There were also Ant people on the riverbank who threw away the weapons they had brought and tried to swim back to the other side.

It looks like the first wave of attack was blocked today.

Andreas dropped his machine gun, sat down in the trench, and gasped for air. Only then did he realize that his heart was beating like an internal combustion engine.

He took out a cigarette, put it in his lips, and then searched for matches in each pocket.

At this moment, there was a whistling sound in the sky, and the Ant people's heavy artillery came again.

But Andreas suddenly didn't want to avoid the artillery fire anymore, so he let the Ants blow him to death, which might be a little easier.

Amid the shaking of the earth, Andreas finally found a match, struck it and lit his cigarette. As he puffed away at the smoke, he thought of his hometown in the mountains and his father who had spent his whole life tinkering with the family's orchards and terraces.

My father said that my grandfather’s grandfather had fought for the Habsburgs, and the decorative air rifle in the house was given by the Habsburg emperor at that time.

My grandfather's grandfather certainly didn't have to endure such earth-shaking bombardment.

A shell landed nearby, and Andreas began to have tinnitus, and at the same time felt something warm and sticky flowing out of his ear hole.

Andreas always felt that the hearing in his ear was no longer safe.

Just then, the shelling stopped.

Andreas supported himself and climbed up, ready to continue fighting the Ants with his machine gun.

However, there was no Ant's sampan on the river, and the Ant people who had just retreated into the water did not attack again, and everything became quiet.

The situation was so strange that Andreas was stunned for a long time with the cigarette in his mouth. It was not until the cigarette burned his lips that he suddenly woke up and threw the cigarette butt on the ground.

At this time, the deputy company commander ran along the trench, and Andreas stopped him: "What's going on? The Ants suddenly stopped attacking?"

"I'm also going to the battalion headquarters to inquire about the situation. Stay put and find a usable tripod! If there's no usable one, find a way to repair one!"

"Yes."

After watching the deputy company commander leave, Andreas picked up the machine gun, recalled the locations of all the machine gun positions, and began looking for a tripod.

……

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the deputy company commander returned from the battalion headquarters with a worried look on his face.

He called a meeting of all the surviving NCOs.

As soon as Andreas arrived at the meeting, he reported: "I fixed a tripod and found two usable ones, which were deployed on three machine gun positions."

"No need." The deputy company commander had a gloomy expression, "We are going to retreat."

Sergeant Koslake: "We are not defeated yet! If the enemy comes, we can still make them suffer!"

Deputy Company Commander: "We have been breached 17 kilometers upstream and a pontoon bridge has been built. The enemy's tanks are continuously passing through and the armored forces are counterattacking, but the division headquarters has ordered us to prepare for retreat."

Andreas: “What do you mean?”

"Literally, we will know the result of the armored unit's counterattack by tomorrow night. If it succeeds, that's great. If it fails, we will have to retreat."

One of the NCOs cursed: "I knew the 310th Division on the flank couldn't hold it, damn it!"

Someone immediately chimed in: "And those Moravians! I don't understand why they were given such good equipment! They are clearly second-class citizens!"

Deputy Company Commander: "Alright! When you go back, be careful not to shake the morale of the troops and quietly prepare for retreat. It's right to put the wounded on the trucks first and then send them back! Disband!"

(End of this chapter)