The four platoons of soldiers led by Briskey walked at the front of the battalion and took the initiative to assume the responsibility of guides. They have been active in this area for more than a month and are as familiar with the terrain as the guides sent by the Army Group Headquarters. After a day and night of marching, the troops of the first and second companies arrived fifteen kilometers away from Tim City.
Seeing that the soldiers were exhausted after continuous long-distance marches, Sokov ordered the troops to rest on the spot. He took Briski and a soldier from the guard squad to the front to check the terrain.
Sokov and the others came to a hill not far away and found a suitable location to establish an observation post. Sokov raised his telescope and looked to the southwest. Three or four kilometers away from the hill, there were railways and roads leading to the distant city of Tim. Sokov began to wonder in his mind: Is there anything we can do now, such as laying mines on the road to blow up German transport vehicles; tearing off the railway tracks to make it impossible for the enemy's military columns to move...
"Comrade Major, look quickly." Just as Sokov was staring at the roads and railways in the distance, he suddenly heard Briski standing next to him saying loudly: "Look quickly to the north, there is a German train. The human army is coming!"
Sokov quickly looked in the direction Briski said, and sure enough he saw a locomotive with a chimney spewing black smoke, pulling a dozen carriages, approaching from the north. Sokov stared at the train car for a while, then put down his telescope and asked Briski: "Comrade Captain, do you think the German trains are pulling soldiers or supplies?"
Briski frowned and looked at it for a while, and then said decisively: "Comrade Major, I think it should be an arms train. You see, the third and seventh carriages are covered with camouflage nets, and there should be Germans inside." Anti-aircraft machine gun." After finishing his analysis, Brisky sighed and said, "It's a pity that we are too far away from the railway. We know that this is the enemy's arms train, but we can't do anything with it."
Sokov felt that Brisky's remarks made sense. He thought painfully in his heart: "The resting place of the troops is still several kilometers away from the enemy's railway. Even if we rush there now, it will be too late. It would be great if there was a 762 mm cannon. With the level of the artillery soldiers in the battalion, Enough to easily destroy this enemy train of arms!”
Just as he was feeling annoyed, the roar of an airplane engine suddenly came from the sky. Everyone looked up and saw six fighter planes flying from the east. The three planes flew in a formation towards the location of the military column. "It's our plane," Brisky said excitedly after seeing the plane clearly in the sky: "They must be here to bomb the train."
As he spoke, the plane began to lower its altitude and dive and shoot at the high-speed train. Through the telescope, Sokov clearly saw that the camouflage nets on the two carriages mentioned by Briski were lifted, revealing the Type 38 quadruple 20mm anti-aircraft guns hidden underneath. The German anti-aircraft troops immediately began to shoot at the swooping aircraft. Because the train was traveling at high speed, it became difficult to aim and shoot. They finally locked the target. As soon as they pressed the gun button, the aircraft had already flown to other places, so that they fired All the shells missed.
The German anti-aircraft guns could not hit the Soviet aircraft, and the Soviet aircraft swooped and fired. Although they repeatedly hit the carriages, they did little harm to the entire train. Seeing this situation, Sokov couldn't help but sigh secretly, thinking that with this method of attack, even if all the airborne ammunition was used, it would not be able to destroy the German military columns. It would be better to try to drop bombs. As long as one aerial bomb hits the target, it will be destroyed. It was enough to shatter this army into pieces.
The aircraft that were constantly circling and swooping and strafing over the military columns not only achieved limited results, but were also in danger under the attack of German anti-aircraft guns. One of the planes suddenly broke away from the formation and flew south along the railway. Seeing this situation, Briskey said with a surprised look on his face: "What's going on? Why did that plane fly away? Did it run out of ammunition?"
Sokov stared at the plane that broke away from the team for a while and then made a bold guess: "Comrade Captain, that plane is not out of ammunition, but is preparing to bomb the enemy's train."
Hearing what Sokov said, Brisky still asked puzzledly: "He can drop bombs from above the train. Why would he fly in front of the enemy's train?"
"It's very simple," Sokov told Briskikop: "If he drops a bomb on top of the train, by the time the bomb falls, the train will have moved far forward, and the bomb will miss. But what if he If the bomb is dropped from the front of the train, the probability of hitting the target will be greatly increased."
Perhaps to verify Sokov's statement, the plane made a large circle in the air after passing over the train, then dived down towards the locomotive and dropped an aerial bomb at the same time. The bomb rolled several times in the air and hit the locomotive directly.
The locomotive suddenly stopped, and the thick boiler on the front of the locomotive burst like a walnut smashed by a hammer after being hit by an aerial bomb. The car being dragged behind felt like it was suddenly lifted up by a big hand, and then thrown out heavily. It rolled on the rails, was blown apart in the continuous explosions, and then was blown away and torn into pieces. In the smoke and dust that covered the sky, the locomotive that had been burned into a fireball dragged the billowing black smoke and slid on the rails with its inertia until another explosion occurred. The locomotive of dozens of tons was like a toy, constantly spinning. It was torn apart in a tumbling explosion.
In the distance, groups of mushroom clouds rose into the sky and flew straight into the sky, alarming the resting commanders and soldiers. They stood up one after another, looking at the smoke rising from the other side of the hill, and kept asking: "What's going on? What happened? Where did the explosion come from?"
Although everyone is asking the same questions, sadly, no one is answering their questions. Vanya asked the platoon leaders to appease the soldiers and control the situation, while he led a few soldiers to the hills to find out what happened.
The German military column was destroyed, and the plane that dropped the bomb head-on did not get any relief. Although the pilot pulled the plane up in time, long black smoke still came out from under the wing. Watching the plane turn around and fly east, it flew not far before falling into the forest.
Sokov saw Vanya leading several soldiers up the hill, and quickly ordered him: "Captain Vanya, we have a plane crashing in the forest over there. Send someone to rescue immediately."
"Comrade Major," Briski said quickly before Vanya could speak: "Leave the task of rescuing the pilot to our platoon, we are familiar with the terrain here."
"Comrade Battalion Commander," Vanya probably also felt that Briski was the best candidate for the search and rescue pilot, so she said to Sokov, "I agree to let the fourth platoon of soldiers search and rescue the pilot."
"Comrade Captain, without further ado, you should set off immediately." Seeing that Vanya also advocated letting the fourth platoon of soldiers rescue the pilot, Sokov nodded and ordered: "If you want to see a living person or a dead body, if the pilot Even if he is alive, he must be brought back; even if he is sacrificed, his body must be brought back, do you understand?"
"Understood, Comrade Major." After saying this, Briski immediately turned around and ran down the hill.
Seeing that the targets on the ground were destroyed, the five planes hovering in the air immediately split into two groups. Two planes flew towards the forest where the plane crashed, while the other three planes flew towards the hill where Sokov and the others were. Come over.
"No, Comrade Battalion Commander, the pilot has discovered us." Seeing the plane flying towards her location, Vanya quickly shouted: "Hurry up and prepare to contact Bu! Otherwise they will shoot at us. .”
When he first saw the plane flying towards him, Sokov didn't pay attention. When he heard Vanya shouting, he immediately realized that the pilot might have regarded him as an enemy and was preparing to fly over to destroy him. In order to prevent him from being unjustly shot by his own plane, Sokov also shouted loudly: "Hurry up, take out the contact cloth quickly."
Hearing the shouts of Vanya and Sokov, a soldier from the guard squad next to him hurriedly took out a roll of red contact cloth from his bag. With the help of others, he unfolded it and spread it on the ground. .
The three Soviet aircraft flying over the hill were about to swoop and shoot at the people moving on the ground. When they saw the red contact cloth spread on the ground, they knew that the people moving below were their own people, so they raised their altitude. , circled in the air and then flew away. Not long after these three planes left, the two planes that were hovering over the forest also flew away. They may have been notified that their own troops were here and could help rescue their comrades who had crashed, so they returned to the airport with confidence.
