, red moscow
The German artillery fire was more intense than ever before, and the entire high ground was blown into a sea of fire, with mud flying and shrapnel flying. The fortifications that the soldiers spent several days and worked hard to build were destroyed by artillery fire in a matter of seconds.
The commanders and fighters of the third company who were holding on to the high ground had withdrawn to the bunker fortifications on the north slope one after another before the large-scale German artillery bombardment began. Only a five-person observation group was left on the position to monitor the enemy's movements.
Corporal Semyon, who had participated in the Grisa reconnaissance team, was the leader of this observation team. Faced with such fierce artillery fire, he could not observe the German army's situation at all. He could only open his mouth wide, cover his ears, and huddle in the trench to avoid the shelling. The shells that fell one after another exploded in front, back, left and right of the trench, and the soil stirred up by the air waves rushed towards his face like water, burying half of his body in the soil in an instant.
He could hear no other sounds except the deafening explosions; he could see nothing except the smoke that covered the sky and the earth, and the soil stirred up by the air waves. He secretly prayed in his heart that the German shelling would pass quickly.
A long time after the German shelling ended, he crawled out of the mud with difficulty. He stood up and looked around, but did not see the few soldiers under his command. He shouted twice at the top of his lungs, but found that his voice was inaudible. It seemed that his ears were damaged by the shelling. He turned his head and looked down the hillside, and vaguely saw several German tanks heading towards the high ground. Behind them was a wave-like skirmish formation of German infantry. Seeing the German army starting to attack, Semyon quickly put the whistle into his mouth and blew it hard.
Saveyev, who was staying in the bunker fortification on the north slope, heard that after the German shelling ended, there was no whistle from the position. He frowned and said to Stepan sitting opposite: "What's going on? Why hasn't Corporal Semyon blown the whistle yet?"
Stepan listened to the noise outside and said in an uncertain tone: "Did all the soldiers in the observation team die in the shelling?"
The two came outside the fortification and looked up at the high ground shrouded in gunpowder smoke. When they were considering whether they should send someone to check, a sharp whistle suddenly came from the high ground. Two long whistles and one short whistle are the pre-arranged secret signals to detect the enemy's attack.
"The enemy has begun to attack." Saveyev pulled out his pistol and shouted towards the bunker where the soldiers were hiding: "The enemy is coming up, everyone enter the position!"
Belkin stood in the traffic trench outside the battalion command post, raised his binoculars and looked at the third company that was entering the high ground from its hiding place. He was thinking to himself: This German shelling is more violent than ever before. It seems that They are determined to gain the high ground. The second company and the machine gun company as reserves were taken away by the battalion commander. If the third company was wiped out, the direct troops such as the guard platoon, engineer platoon, and tank platoon could only be sent up.
Just when he was worried, he suddenly heard Seryosha standing nearby shouting excitedly: "Comrade deputy battalion commander, look, the battalion commander and the soldiers from the other two companies are back!"
Belkin looked in the direction of his finger, and sure enough he saw hundreds of soldiers trotting over. The one at the front was the battalion commander, Major Sokov. Seeing this scene, his heart finally returned to his stomach. As long as the soldiers of these two companies came back, there would be enough troops to carry out defensive battles.
Sokov came to the battalion command post and stopped, turned around and ordered the two company commanders following him breathlessly: "After returning to their respective stations, let the soldiers seize the time to rest, and be ready to reinforce the second and third companies at any time. Company preparations." The two company commanders agreed and took their respective soldiers back to their bases.
Sokov jumped into the traffic trench, came to Belkin's side, and asked: "Comrade Deputy Battalion Commander, how is the situation?"
"The German shelling just now was very violent." Belkin did not know much about the situation on the highlands, so he could only tell Sokov what he knew: "But as soon as the enemy's shelling ended, the third company entered the position. "
When he saw Sokov turning towards the command post, he quickly followed him and asked worriedly from behind: "Comrade Battalion Commander, are you not afraid of being blamed by the division commander for bringing back the troops transferred to the division headquarters?"
"Deputy battalion commander, don't you see that we are being attacked by the enemy? Allocating troops to the division headquarters at this time will greatly weaken the strength of our army and is not conducive to our defense." Sokov said without looking back. : "I think the division headquarters can understand our difficulties."
The German tank stopped at the foot of the hill, and the infantry following behind accelerated, passed the tank, and rushed towards the hillside. Saveyev, who was lying next to a machine gun, saw the enemy rushing up the hillside and quickly said to the soldiers on the left and right: "Pass this down, no one is allowed to shoot without my order!"
The soldiers who received the order lay motionless in their shooting positions, pointed the black muzzles at the enemy, and patiently waited for Saviev's order to fire. The entire hillside was silent, and only the heavy footsteps and heavy breathing of the German soldiers as they climbed could be heard.
Seeing the enemies entering the 100-meter range one after another, Saviev raised his right hand high above his head, then swung it down suddenly and shouted loudly: "Fire!"
The machine gun roared, and then the whole company opened fire, and there was a dense sound of gunfire on the position. The bullets sprayed by machine guns, submachine guns, and rifles were as airtight as a heavy rain, knocking down the enemies on the hillside in pieces.
The Germans quickly lay down on the spot and fought back. After firing a few shots, they jumped up from the ground. Under the leadership of their respective commanders, they stepped on the corpses of their companions and continued to bend over, struggling to rush to the position on the top of the mountain. Seeing the Soviet troops on the top of the mountain open fire, the tanks at the foot of the mountain also started shelling. The shells fell on the position and exploded. Smoke and shrapnel flew everywhere, cutting down the soldiers near the explosion point one by one.
Facing the enemies rushing up, the condescending soldiers of the third company poured ammunition downwards without hesitation. However, due to terrain restrictions, in order to defeat the enemies rushing into the blind spot, individual soldiers had to stand up and shoot. But as soon as they emerged, they were hit by bullets fired by the Germans and fell on their backs in the trench.
When a group of German soldiers rushed near the position, countless grenades suddenly flew out of the trenches, landed on the path of their charge and exploded. The shrapnel flying everywhere overturned every figure. The short distance of about twenty meters has become an insurmountable chasm. The ground under the feet of the German soldiers has been soaked with blood and turned into sticky mud. When you step on it, the ground will make a non-stop sound. Bodies killed by grenades were piled on top of each other.
Faced with such a tenacious Soviet defense, the German commander knew that there was no point in continuing to fight, so he blew the whistle to notify the desperate soldiers to retreat. When the German soldiers on the hillside heard the whistle, they felt as if they had been granted amnesty. They rolled and crawled back and fled faster than they had charged.
Seeing the enemy retreating, cheers erupted from the battlefield. Saveyev, who was wounded in several places, did not bother to bandage his wounds, so he returned directly to his company command post and reported by phone to Sokov in the rear: "Comrade Battalion Commander, the enemy's attack was repelled by us. "
