The village of Igolaya Ulica, listed as the No. 1 target by Sokov, was as beautiful as a Russian rural landscape painting shrouded in morning fog. The second company led by Vasily left the forest and cautiously moved towards the location of the village. Sokov stood in the bunker at the edge of the forest, nervously looking at the troops looming in the fog with his binoculars, secretly praying that they could approach the village smoothly.
When the troops were still three to four hundred meters away from the village, there was a sudden explosion, and then a column of black smoke rose into the sky, and several figures near the explosion point fell down. "What's going on?" Seeing this situation, Sokov couldn't help shouting loudly: "Did the Germans fire?"
But no one in the observation center answered him because no one knew the answer.
Soon there was another explosion, and several more figures fell down.
After seeing this scene clearly, Sokov's heart sank suddenly. He secretly said that he had led people to inspect the terrain yesterday. How could he forget that the German army would lay a minefield outside the village? This must be the commanders and fighters of the second company stepping on a mine laid by the enemy.
The explosion of a mine outside the village alarmed the Germans in the village. Soon, the firepower points in those earthen bunkers began to fire machine guns at the soldiers outside the village, forcing them to lie down on the spot.
Sokov grabbed the phone used to contact the artillery battery and said angrily into the phone: "Hey, Lieutenant Sergeyev, the artillery battery is opening fire immediately! Destroy the German firepower points, hurry up, open fire immediately!"
When Sergeyev accompanied Sokov to inspect the terrain yesterday, he recorded the location parameters of the German firepower points in detail. At this moment, receiving Sokov's order, he immediately ordered the six 762mm cannons in the company to aim at the already marked Good targets to shoot at.
The six guns fired only two rounds and destroyed four German fire points outside the village. The soldiers who had been pinned to the ground by the firepower got up again and rushed toward the village through the snow.
"Our artillery is really great." The heat generated by the explosion dispersed the morning fog that filled the air, broadening the field of vision in the observation post. Through his telescope, Belkin clearly saw that the German firepower point was burning after being destroyed by artillery fire. He couldn't help but said excitedly: "It only took a dozen artillery shells to destroy the German firepower point."
Sokov put down the telescope, turned to Belkin and said: "Comrade Deputy Battalion Commander, I lent all the commanders and fighters of the artillery platoon to Sergeyev, otherwise I would rely on his new recruits, even if all the artillery shells were fired, It may not be possible to destroy these firepower points.”
Although the German firepower was destroyed, the German soldiers living in the village, hearing the gunshots outside, rushed out of their houses, jumped into the trenches outside the village, and opened fire on the rushing Soviet troops.
Under the hail of German bullets, the soldiers of the second company sometimes crawled forward, and sometimes took advantage of the intervals between enemy shooting to jump up from the ground, trot forward a few steps, and then lie down on the spot.
The German tanks at the entrance of the village also slowly turned their turrets and fired at the soldiers approaching the village. Although its rate of fire is not fast, every shot can cause considerable casualties to the second company.
Ajik, the commander of the anti-tank artillery company, saw the German tanks opening fire and quickly urged the artillerymen to move towards the village with their guns. Regardless of the anti-tank guns they are equipped with, the effective range is 4,100 meters, but if they want to effectively penetrate the armor of the Panzer III or Panzer IV tanks, they must be close to a distance of 300 meters.
The officers and men of the second company performed very bravely. Although their comrades kept falling around them, they still rushed forward bravely. Grisa rushed to a place ten meters away from the enemy's trench, lay down behind a tree stump, and threw four grenades into the trench. As soon as the explosion stopped, he jumped up from his hiding place, rushed into the trench quickly, and used his submachine gun to mow down two German soldiers who were stunned by the explosion.
A platoon of soldiers followed Grisa and jumped into the trench one after another. They used submachine guns and grenades to destroy the German soldiers who had not yet recovered, and quickly controlled this section of the trench.
After several impatient soldiers eliminated the enemies in their sight, they climbed out of the trenches and prepared to charge into the village with their guns in hand. Before they could even gain a foothold, they were fired upon by machine guns mounted on German tanks. The soldiers who were shot covered their wounds and fell into the trench one after another like dumplings.
Grisa saw his men being knocked down by the enemy's machine guns, and blood rushed to his head. He crouched down, picked up a few German wooden handle grenades from the trench, tied them together with straps, and prepared to use them in clusters. Grenades to blow up tanks. He tied the grenade, and as soon as he stuck his head out of the trench, he heard an explosion from the front, and a column of mud rose into the sky from the side of the tank.
"What's going on?" Griza thought in surprise, "Is it our artillery firing?"
At this time, there was another explosion. A ball of fire burst out on the tank body, and then the fire enveloped the tank and started to burn. Grisa put the cluster grenade aside, raised his submachine gun, and aimed at the burning tank, preparing to kill the tank soldiers who escaped from it.
Ajik stood behind an anti-tank gun three hundred meters away from the village entrance. When he saw the gun squad assigned to him by Sokov, he destroyed the snow-covered German tank with only two rounds. A look of surprise appeared on his face. Yesterday, when Sokov introduced the situation of the troops to him and Sergeyev, he was still sneering secretly in his heart. He had never heard of a mixed battalion of various arms, but because the other party was his superior, he knew that the other party was When bragging, you must also pretend to believe it. But the performance of the artillery squad made him realize that he had wrongly blamed Sokov. The strength of the Istria Battalion completely exceeded his imagination.
After Grisa knocked down a tank soldier who climbed out of the tank with his gun, he jumped out of the trench, raised the submachine gun in his hand, and shouted loudly: "Comrades, charge with me!"
Sokov in the observation post saw a platoon of soldiers rushing into the village from the village entrance under the leadership of Grisa. He put down his telescope and said to Belkin with relief: "Finally we have taken the village. "
"But, Comrade Battalion Commander." Belkin pointed to the trenches where the battle was not over yet and said: "The enemies in the trenches are still resisting, and our battle is not over yet."
"Don't worry, there aren't many enemies left." Sokov said with a relaxed expression: "Our soldiers will be able to wipe them all out soon."
