At this moment, a German tank pulled out of the streets of the city, stopped on the side of the road, and bombarded the charging troops with tank guns. As soon as a shell fell, several, or even a dozen fighters were blown to the ground. However, the power of a tank is limited, and although it is constantly shelling, the fighters still rush forward without hesitation.

A heavy machine gun team saw that the German tanks posed a threat to the troops, and quickly selected a crater, set up the heavy machine guns, aimed at the tanks in the distance and began to shoot. The bullets clanged on the tank's armor plates, splashing a barrage of sparks, but they couldn't penetrate it. When the German tankmen found that the machine guns were firing at themselves, they quickly turned the muzzle of the guns and fired a shot at the position where the Soviet heavy machine guns were.

If the Germans only had one tank, the Soviets could rush over and kill it without casualties, and then rush into the city. At this moment, from the entrance to the city street, seven or eight tanks drove out one after another, followed by groups of German soldiers. The Soviet commander, who was directing the attack, saw that the situation was not good, and knew that if he continued to rush forward, it would inevitably cause heavy casualties, so he hurriedly blew his whistle and beckoned his troops to retreat, preparing to withdraw to the fortifications they had just occupied to resist the German tank attack.

The commanders and fighters of the attacking Soviet army saw the German tanks appear, although they were still charging forward, but many people were beating drums in their hearts, and when they heard the whistle of retreat, they immediately turned around and ran backwards, and the offensive formation immediately became messy. Many of the fighters jumped into the trenches, and without stopping for the slightest, they ran backwards.

The division commander, Colonel Chirkov, was in the observation post, and when he saw his troops fleeing, he couldn't help but be ashamed and angry, and hurriedly called the chief of staff and ordered: "Chief of staff, immediately call several regiment commanders and order them to go on the defensive on the spot and destroy the German counterattack forces." ”

After receiving Chirkov's report, Tolbukhin only said lightly: "Comrade Colonel, order your troops to resolutely block the enemy's counter-assault, and I will support you." ”

After putting down the phone, Tolbukhin called the commander of the artillery group over and asked: "The enemy has carried out a counter-assault on our troops, can you intercept the German troops with artillery fire?" ”

The artillery commander walked to the lookout, raised his binoculars and looked into the distance, then put down the binoculars, turned to Tolbukhin, and said: "Comrade commander, our troops are too close to the enemy, and if they carry out artillery bombardment, it is easy to accidentally injure their own people. ”

The German counterattack troops had come out of the city one after another, and when they saw that the Soviet troops were in confusion during the retreat, and the long-range artillery did not fire, they immediately launched a counterattack. A dozen tanks cleared the way ahead, followed by German soldiers a few hundred meters away, sometimes lying down, sometimes leaping, slowly advancing towards the nearest trench.

Left in the trenches at the moment, there was less than a company of Soviet infantry, and an anti-tank artillery group. Faced with the rushing German tanks, Sergeant Hvastantsev, the gunner from the 43rd Guards Artillery Regiment, took command of his subordinates and aimed an anti-tank gun at a rushing German tank.

Sergeant Khvastantsev patiently waited for the German tank to enter a distance of a hundred meters, then waved his hand down sharply and shouted: "Fire!" ”

The disemboweling shell hit the tank's frontal armor plate directly, and after a flash of dazzling fire, the tank body was wrapped in smoke and flames. The German tankmen in the car fled from the burning tank in a panic and stumbled backwards in flames.

Seeing that the anti-tank gun had hit the target, Sergeant Khvastantsev immediately chose a second target. The second loaded shell also managed to destroy a tank. But their good luck ended there, after choosing a third target, several shots missed and exploded in the clearing, causing no damage to the third tank.

The tanks, which were leading the infantry to carry out a counter-assault, suddenly found that an anti-tank gun was firing on the position of the Soviet army, which also posed a threat to their own side, so the muzzles of two tanks were immediately turned around, aiming at the gun position where Sergeant Khvastantsev was and firing.

The shell landed next to the gun emplacement and exploded, and the two gunners immediately fell in response, and the remaining fighters did not panic in the slightest, and continued to reload, aim and shoot in an orderly manner. After two shells in a row, the third tank was finally successfully destroyed, and the tank crews who escaped from it did not run far before falling under the guns of the Soviet soldiers.

The German tankmen understood that it would be almost impossible to break through the Soviet defenses without destroying the Soviet anti-tank guns, so seven or eight tanks turned their muzzles at the same time, aimed at the gun positions and opened fire. After the violent explosion, the anti-tank gun was blown to pieces, and several fighters in the gun position were also blown to pieces.

Seeing that the anti-tank guns were destroyed, the German tanks, which had already stopped their advance, began to advance again, covering their infantry towards the Soviet positions.

When the gun position was bombarded by German tank shells, Sergeant Khvastantsev was swept into a nearby trench by the blast, thus escaping the fate of being blown to pieces, although he still lost consciousness when he fell into the trench.

I don't know how long it took, but he woke up slowly, trying with great difficulty to get his head out of the dirt, but the weight of his body weighed down on him and he couldn't move. Just when he was holding back the stars in his eyes, his back was light, and he was suddenly dragged out of the soil involuntarily. Although this action caused pins and needles to pierce the bones all over his body, at least his breathing was much easier, and he clearly felt that he was indeed still alive in the world.

He opened his eyes and looked at the warrior who was squatting in front of him, only to see the other party's mouth open and close, but he couldn't hear what the other party was saying. The other party probably noticed that Sergeant Khvastantsev could not hear the sound in his ears and gestured to him to signal that the German tanks were rushing towards the position.

Sergeant Khvastantsev, supported by the fighters, stood up with difficulty, and he saw that one of the German tanks was only more than twenty meters away. Before he could react, the German course machine guns opened fire, smashing the dirt in front of them as if they were boiling. The soldier who was holding Khvastantsev was immediately shot and fell, and Khvastantsev, who had lost the support of others, immediately fell into the trench, thus once again luckily brushing shoulders with death.

It didn't take long for a German tank to pass over Khvastantsev's head, and loose and slightly hot dirt from the tracks was scattered all over his body.

Looking at the German tanks passing above him, Hvastantsev quickly sat up and looked around for weapons that could be used for defense. The sacrificed soldier carried a rifle with a bayonet on his back, which was okay against the German infantry, but useless against the German tanks. He stooped over and walked quickly along the trench, looking for a weapon to take advantage of.

After walking a short distance, he saw a half-buried wooden box in the floating soil in the trench. He hurriedly stepped forward and lifted the lid to see that there were actually four anti-tank grenades neatly placed inside. He hurriedly grabbed two and got up to observe where there were German tanks nearby.

As soon as he stood up, he saw a German tank rumbling towards him, only five or six meters away. Dropping bombs at such a short distance, even if you blow up a German tank, you will not escape death. But time was pressing, and Khvastantsev hurriedly crawled out of the trench with his hands and feet, still holding an anti-tank grenade and pounced on the German tank.

After two earth-shattering explosions, the German tank was enveloped in fire and smoke, and the heroic Soviet tank gunner, Sergeant Khvastantsev, once again succeeded in destroying a German tank while sacrificing his own life.