Bismarck

In the face of death and failure, many recruits who fought with only their blood and courage could barely hold on during the attack, but once they were about to fail, they could not stand the atmosphere and some began to flee from retreat. As for deserters, once there was one person taking the lead, it would not just be one or two, but an avalanche, growing larger and larger, and it would easily lead to the collective collapse of the entire unit! Moreover, the collapsed team would even lead to other troops that still had combat effectiveness, causing a cliff-like collapse.

What's more, everyone is retreating now. Whether one can have this awareness depends entirely on one's personal will and character!

Even though the NKVD Internal Guards were still fulfilling their duties during the retreat, and they shot several people who dropped their weapons and turned from retreating to running away, under the pressure of the German army, it was only a matter of time before they were defeated! They could shoot one or two, but what was the use of facing the overwhelming deserters?

"Comrades! Don't run! For the Soviet Motherland (BOOM!!)... Ugh!!"

The commander, who was waving his pistol to boost morale and supervise the battle, was knocked down by an exploding shell just as he was shouting! The commander's death caused the soldiers' already low morale to drop even further! They were too lazy to see how the commander died, and just ran away. I hate my parents for not giving me two more legs.

The German commander on the opposite side was obviously an experienced guy! After seeing the signs of collapse of the Soviet army, he quickly called on the artillery and air force, wanting to add more pressure to these already shaky Soviet troops! At the same time, behind the German attack line, more shadows appeared faintly, and it seemed that more tanks were gathering on the second line, just waiting for a collapse here, and then they would rush in and rush directly into the factory area of ​​Stalingrad that was like steel before, and the army had been on an expedition but had not been conquered for a long time. Behind the factory area was the temporary dock that was the key to the life and death of the city of Stalingrad!

The battle line is at stake!

"Damn it... Let's fight! You are a Communist Party member. For the Soviet Union, stand up with me!"

The man with glasses on his frail face looked like a scholar. Even though he had been conscripted into the army after the outbreak of the war and had experienced some of the cruelty of war, the political commissar still had the habits of a local administrative official. He gritted his teeth as he looked at the crisis on the battlefield.

Everyone can retreat, but the political commissar cannot. They often take the lead in charging, so in the Soviet army, the political commissar can be said to have the highest casualty rate, so much so that there are orders from above strictly prohibiting the political commissar from taking the lead in charging.

But in the current situation, I can’t take care of anything.

He strode to the door, picked up a steel helmet and put it on his head, then pulled out a pistol from the holster on his belt that he had rarely used since he was assigned to the post except for a few target shootings, and yelled at the NKVD Internal Guards and some officers and soldiers who were still wavering. Then, without caring about anything else, he took the lead and walked out of the temporary command post - even when he walked out, the political commissar looked nervous and gritted his teeth!

And seeing that the political commissar, who was temporarily transferred from the local administrative official after the outbreak of the war, had already gone into battle himself, the other Soviet officers and soldiers looked at each other, grabbed their weapons, and followed the political commissar out!

Whether it was to face death with equanimity, or to fight to the bitter end, or even to bite the bullet...

In this situation, anyone who dares to step out of the shelter is a hero!

Under the leadership of the political cadres, the few officers and veterans who remained in the Internal Guard and the Red Army also gritted their teeth and persevered under severe pressure! They held on to their weapons, relying on all kinds of things that seemed to be able to protect themselves, using their fighting spirit and lives, and desperately shot at the German army that was constantly making tactical leaps under the tacit cooperation and uninterrupted suppression firepower without blind spots of the German army!

And...even in this situation, there are still several soldiers and female soldiers wearing Red Cross armbands who are doing their best to rescue the injured and unable to move comrades, and carry them on stretchers and transport them to the rear!

The doctors were no different from the soldiers at this time, they were both risking their lives, and they also did not retreat and stayed with the soldiers.

Everyone knew that Hitler regarded everyone except the Germans as inferior races, and the purpose of this war was to completely destroy the Soviet Union! Once they fell into the hands of the German army, these Red Army soldiers would surely die!

-----

Among the soldiers left behind, a tank with more than fifty battle marks painted on it was particularly conspicuous!

Under the cover and support of more than 20 Soviet soldiers, the tank was using the road signs, low walls and ruins on both sides of the road as cover, reversing and firing. Although the warriors were still left at the back, they had to admit that their lack of training made their coordination look very chaotic! And this kind of chaos was fatal.

If the tactics are strictly followed, when the troops retreat, the covering infantry should lie down and fire in front of the reversing tanks. After the tanks have retreated far away, the infantry can retreat under the cover of the tanks' artillery fire and machine guns.

But if they huddle together now, not only will the soldiers hinder the movement of the reversing tanks, but they will also be easily hit by the enemy's concentrated firepower!

"Pfft, what a hassle..."

Fortunately, the driver of this tank, Sergei Yongfu, was already an experienced veteran. He used the rearview mirror to observe the movements behind and to the left and right, trying his best not to overwhelm his comrades - if he overwhelmed his comrades at this time, it would be a tragedy for the overwhelmed people. At the same time, he kept reversing and making short stops to shift gears. Although it was a little embarrassing, the gun of this tank was still rotating and firing - and this was the last tank of this unit...

It's really tragic, isn't it? Most of his comrades were killed in the battle.

"…Prepare to fire! Sergei, release the clutch!" Lavrinenko, the captain who had been promoted to captain, shouted loudly on the car radio. The next second, the power of the car was obviously disconnected.

"Fire!"

With a loud bang, the tank on this side shook violently, and the junction of the hull and turret of a German Type 4 tank opposite, the so-called bullet nesting area, shook with a metal collision sound, and a wisp of light smoke was shaken, and then it broke down and could not move.

Sergei had no time to think about what was going on inside the car.

"Great, that's the fifty-seventh one!... Drive! Get ready for the next one!"

There was no time to look out again to search for the target! Lavrinenko stared at his sight intently, and from time to time stepped on the rotating motor of the turret to find his next target. But at this moment, on the other side of his tank gun, the loader with a sad face reported helplessly: "Captain, we are out of shells!"

"what?!"

Not only Lavrinenko, but also Sergei who was still driving in the front, and Shura, the mechanic who was sitting next to him and firing desperately with a machine gun mounted on the car body, were all stunned when they heard this!

On the battlefield, the shells are gone...

But just this moment of distraction...

Boom! -- Bang!

With a tooth-grinding metal collision sound, the turret of the last T-34 of this unit was hit by an armor-piercing bullet! Under the impact and shear force of the armor-piercing bullet, the back of the tank armor was peeled off in large pieces! The armor that was originally used to protect them has now become a terrible lethal weapon. These countless armor back plate fragments, like bullets, hit the tank turret with a bloody and muffled sound of ding-bang-dang! It was like the last sonata.

Captain Dmitry Lavrinenko, winner of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and an ace tank driver who destroyed 57 tanks, and his loader died in their tanks without even a sound when an attack penetrated the front of the tank turret!

-

Fortunately, there were no shells left in the vehicle, and pure armor-piercing shells would not explode. Moreover, because the shells attacked from the front, the turret was hit from the front, so the other two people in the tank who were directly below the turret were lucky enough to escape...

but……

"Company commander!"

"Company commander!"

No matter how Sergei Yongfu and Shura shouted in front, Captain Lavrinenko, who had already died, could not make any more noises...

In the blink of an eye, the tank, which was slowly reversing because its engine was still working, suddenly fell backwards! Then it seemed to fall heavily somewhere, and fell sideways!

"Ouch!"

The two people in the car were almost squeezed together in the overturned tank, and they were about to suffer internal injuries from the seat belts!

"What's going on, Sergei?"

"Shit, the tank fell into the bomb crater..."

The car had flipped over and could not move. The German fascists' attack never stopped, and the sound of machine guns and artillery shells hitting the car body was clanging!

Their situation is precarious.

Without time to mourn their dead comrades, they immediately began to think about how to leave here.

"It looks like the car can't move anymore..." Shura scratched his head: "We can't stay here anymore, we have to leave immediately!"

"Okay!" Yang Yongfu on this side agreed without hesitation.

The tank has now tilted to one side, and even though Yang Yongfu is an experienced driver, he can no longer drive it.

Fortunately, the door hatch of the T-34 tank is easy to open - although it is a bit exposed, and the narrow space of the vehicle body will get stuck if you wear thick winter clothes. On the other side, Shura has an emergency escape hatch under his feet. He began to unfasten his seat belt with Shura, while bending down to open the emergency escape hatch under his feet.

In the narrow car body, the two people squeezed together sideways, and they were also bumping against various joysticks and mechanical parts. After a long period of confusion, they finally got out of the two entrances and exits of the car body.

Yang Yongfu finally climbed out of the hatch of the tank that had fallen to one side, but a muffled groan came from Shura on the other side.

"Shula, what's wrong with you?"

Without caring that he hadn't gotten up yet, Yang Yongfu rolled and crawled to the other side of the tank, but what he saw was Shula, who was curled up on the ground in a cold sweat, holding his ribs and thighs in pain, and curled up on the ground, holding his ribs and thighs in pain, because he climbed the hatch sideways when he got out of the emergency hatch, and ended up getting his ribs and waist stuck on the hatch, and when he fell from the hatch side more than a meter high, he broke his foot on the tank track! !

Yang Yongfu pulled it, but after a while, Shula's broken bones were in terrible pain. It hurt when touched, and he couldn't pull it up!

"This... this requires a stretcher..."

Yang Yongfu looked at the only pistol in his hand and felt like crying but couldn't...

The surrounding Soviet officers and soldiers had either died in battle or retreated! The German troops on the opposite side were now approaching aggressively, holding guns, and getting closer and closer in the smoke...

Chapter 598: The Soviets Will Not Fail!

The fascist front kept advancing. The few remaining Soviet soldiers were still gritting their teeth and retreating, but they were knocked down one after another in the Germans' torrential rain of bullets! The tanks around them were also hit by bullets!

Shula might have injured his bones and lost his ability to move! In the current situation, I can't carry him on my back...

If the bone injury gets worse, it will be troublesome - especially when Shula got out of the escape door, he got his left ribs caught - if he runs with his back on, it is very easy to break a bone here! The consequence of a broken rib is either piercing the lungs or the spleen, and if you are unlucky, it can even pierce the heart directly...

No matter which one, there is no hope!

And a few hundred meters away, one after another, hazy ghosts were shooting alternately and leaping forward in the smoke of the battlefield...

"Sergei... huh... huh..."

Shura on the ground gritted his teeth, gasping for air as he spoke. Yang Yongfu was stunned: "What's the matter? My brother?"

“Kill… kill me… and then… run back… haah…”

Although it was so painful that it was difficult for him to speak, Shula still persisted and said what he wanted to say.

“This…?! How can this be possible!!”

“…Huh…I can’t…walk anymore…I don’t want to be…a prisoner…kill me, run…” Although his face was filled with pain, Shura stared at his Chinese comrade with determination.

However, what answered him was Yang Yongfu's more insistent look:

"That won't do! If you die here, I won't run away!"

"you……"

"Don't worry, I won't let you be taken prisoner. I won't be one either. After all, we two can still catch up after we go down. Maybe we can catch up with the tank commander and the loader. When the time comes, the four of us will walk together on the road to the underworld. Maybe we can find a few more people to take our place. Then we won't be lonely!"

Ignoring Shura's stunned expression, Yang Yongfu looked around and rushed out with a tactical move. He rolled over two steps on the side of the wall ruins, picked up a light machine gun from the side of two dead Soviet soldiers, and took out two large magazines from the bottom door of the overturned tank emergency vehicle, where Shura had been sitting, and then put the large magazine with more than 70 rounds of bullets on the gun body, and found a place on the edge of the crater on the side of the vehicle body to set up the machine gun.

-----

"Shura! What's wrong with you?!"

An anxious female voice and footsteps came from behind. Yang Yongfu looked back and saw a female medical worker carrying a medicine box and a small pistol, and a male soldier with a submachine gun and a stretcher on his shoulders running towards him.

Yang Yongfu remembered that this was Shura's sister, Zoya, whom he had met once when he was gathered in Stalingrad...

The Germans on the opposite side probably saw someone running here, and they fired rounds of bullets at this side! Seeing this, Yang Yongfu also pulled the bolt of the DP-28 light machine gun at hand, and a round of bullets fired back, pressing towards the opposite German machine gunner!

The MG-42 machine gun was not very accurate, and Yang Yongfu's counterattack suppressed the opponent's vitality. Zoya and the male nurse ran behind the shadow of the tank without any danger. However, Yang Yongfu's shooting seemed to attract more German firepower attacks...

"What's wrong with Shura?" Zoya and the stretcher bearer ran over and began to check Shura's injuries.

"I broke a rib when I got out of the tank, and I think I broke my foot... (Dududududu-bangbangbang)" Yang Yongfu continued to shoot while speaking, but was soon suppressed by the German firepower...

The bullets from the German machine guns quickly suppressed the tanks and hit them around them, making them bang! At this time, the few Soviet soldiers around them had already retreated while fighting, and retreated to a further position!

"Broken leg, bruised ribs... We can't stay here... Hey, please help, carry him onto the stretcher!"

"okay!"

Seeing that the enemy was still several hundred meters ahead, Yang Yongfu dropped his machine gun, turned around, and together with Zoya and the stretcher bearer, hurriedly moved Shura, who was groaning in pain with clenched teeth, onto a stretcher, and then prepared to carry him away.

but……

“Swoosh! Swoosh!!”

A sharp voice enveloped this side! Zoya's face changed, and she stretched out her hand and pushed towards Yang Yongfu and the medical soldier!

"Get down! The German mortars! ..."

Before he could finish his words, two balls of fire exploded at the edge of the crater!

A sticky warmth, like the red spider lily with a hint of foam, sprinkled on Yang Yongfu, Shura and the medic!

“Comrade?!”

"Zoya?!!!"

"……elder sister!"

Even Shura, who was on the stretcher, opened his eyes with some effort. But what he vaguely saw was the scene of his sister being blown down by a mortar in order to cover her comrades! Then, as Yang Yongfu and the medical soldier were pushed down by Zoya and pressed on Shura, Shura groaned and fainted under the double torture of anxiety and pain!

The stretcher bearers and Yang Yongtai did not have time to climb up from Shura's body, so they turned around, but they saw Zoya lying behind them after being knocked down by the mortar explosion. On her right back, a piece of shrapnel had been deeply inserted into her flesh, and even the bones could be seen!

"Leave me alone... take my brother away..."

Zoya, who was seriously injured, struggled and waved to the two of them, then began to crawl towards the machine gun.

"But..." Yang Yongfu and the medical soldier opposite looked at each other, but they just couldn't bring themselves to do this!

"I...can't walk anymore...you guys hurry up...give me the machine gun..."

Zoya, who was also seriously injured, struggled to crawl to the edge of the crater and grabbed the machine gun with great effort. Her hands, which were once slender but now looked pale and weak due to excessive bleeding from the serious injury, pulled the bolt twice but failed.

The German troops on the opposite side have already rushed closer...

"But you..."

"If you don't leave... you'll all die... Haah!" Zoya turned around and shouted softly. Because of the pain, her originally delicate face had become a little hideous! At this time, she also used the last bit of her strength to pull the bolt hard, and then reached out her hand tremblingly and hooked the trigger of the machine gun!

When the machine gun sounded, the Germans less than 300 meters away suddenly fell to the ground as if by conditioned reflex.

"Walk!……"

Yang Yongfu wanted to say something, but the medic also held back his grief and pulled him. Seeing Zoya pulling the trigger with almost the last bit of energy before her death, Yang Yongfu could only wipe away his tears and salute.

"...Yes! We will definitely bring Shura back!"

Zoya was too weak to look back, but a smile seemed to appear at the corner of her mouth...