At five o'clock in the morning, Roshakov ordered all the soldiers to get up. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

In December, the Arctic falls into a permanent night, and at high latitudes, the sun comes even later. And five o'clock in the morning is the coldest time of the day, and it is also the moment when the human body temperature is lowest.

However, all the fighters knew that there would be a battle on this day, and the Germans would definitely appear under their noses.

The soldiers emerged from the snowdrifts, holding their positions. While the time was still in peace, everyone hurried to eat.

Rosakov and Kravsky did not want to be exposed, so they set up a few bonfires in the rubble of the city, set up cauldrons to boil hot water, and threw canned meat and sauerkraut into them.

Some of the soldiers even took advantage of the kitchens of the houses, so that everyone had a hot breakfast.

In such a difficult environment, everyone can only endure it, and as time advances little by little, the dawn of the East slowly emerges.

When the sun comes out, the enemy will also advance, and they have no experience in sneak attacks at night, but they are very effective in attacking during the day. Even if they have won a few battles, they are all flexible sneak attack operations, and this time it is an upright urban offensive and defensive battle, and the soldiers dare not slack off. Now the witty soldiers were already discussing what the first wave of German attacks would be, and the vast majority of soldiers immediately thought of shelling.

In this regard, the Soviet army has already planned for a long time, in addition to the general attempt to evade artillery, that is, to dig deep pits, and in the end, only when the enemy's artillery fire swoops down, hope that they are lucky enough.

On the other hand, for many soldiers of the two infantry regiments of the German army, it is still rare to sleep outside, let alone outdoors in more than ten degrees below zero. The cold caused many people to pass through the night, and accidentally contracted the wind cold, which made Hoffman very angry.

"A bunch of stupid people, fighting in the USSR, you will have to overcome this damn hypothermia. Before the war was fought, there was a group of people who could not fight because of injuries and illnesses, what a tragedy! Is it because there is going to be a war today, and one by one they are so excited that they even forget to wrap their blankets tightly? A few days ago, there were not so many diseases! He reprimanded the more than 100 soldiers who had been kicked out, some of whom were coughing desperately, and some of whom even had high fevers.

If they're sick, you can't leave them alone! Nearly one hundred and fifty soldiers in his regiment alone were too sick to charge and fight, and for this he had to leave at least three hundred soldiers to take care of them, so that his regiment alone lost more than four hundred combat troops.

Throughout the morning, Freud's regiment was in worse condition, with two hundred men falling ill.

"This night seems to be colder than the previous days, damn winter, I hate him! Now my regiment has only 2,000 men to fight. ”

The two of them summed it up, how could today's battle be discouraged by a small setback. In this regard, Hoffman still cheered himself up and said to Freud: "Since the winter is cold, it is impossible for the Slavs to really be indifferent to the cold, and they will be lazy." We still have more than 4,000 combat troops, and as long as we fight through them in one go, the city will still be easily breached. ”

The two discussed a few words, and the focus fell entirely on the German artillery.

Since the German 715th Division was not a front-line unit, their artillery was further emasculated on the basis of the already not very strong.

With the participation of the army in the artillery battalion of the operation in Homnich, there were only five 105 mm howitzers, two 150 mm howitzers. This configuration stemmed from the German understanding of the occupation, that is, to deal with the partisans, the use of powerful firepower was entirely anti-aircraft guns to fight mosquitoes, and the infantry had more individual firepower in order to take advantage of sudden encounters.

Therefore, their individual mortars are a little more, mostly small mortars of 50 mm caliber, which act more like the grenades of later generations.

Of course, the infantry regiments of the German army were also to be armed with field artillery. After the invasion of the Soviet Union, the first-line troops underwent some firepower rearmament, and almost all the 75-mm infantry guns were withdrawn and handed over to the second-line troops.

Hoffman and Freud's two regiments, each with four of these 75mm infantry guns, were used for fire support at the front, but both felt that pushing infantry guns forward in the snow was a disaster.

The sun was slowly rising, the Germans were already on the march, and they continued to advance in a line until they were five kilometers from Khomnitsch, when the troops stopped advancing.

"Now, set up a heavy artillery position at once!" Hoffman commanded.

The German artillery battalion immediately began to move, and their behavior was directly observed by the defenders of the city of Homnich, and the news of the appearance of the German troops and their unusual pause reached the headquarters of the Soviet army - a basement - as soon as possible.

Roshakov listened to the herald's report and waved his hand. "Okay, you go down too, get ready to defend against shells."

The situation is already very obvious, the enemy must be laying artillery positions. The two commanders, Roshakov and Kravsky, immediately called the heralds: "The enemy is preparing for an artillery strike, everyone is on guard, and after the artillery fire, the battle will begin." ”

More than 20 heralds ran away, and there were only a few people left in the headquarters.

Roshakov sat calmly at the table, holding his chin with his hands: "After that, it is the time for us to make meritorious contributions, and we must hold on until the new attack of the deputy division commander is successful." ”

On the German side, due to the limitations of the times, it was impossible for them to deploy the ultra-light large-caliber howitzer M777 in only three minutes like the American army 70 years later. The Germans unloaded the heavy artillery from the wagon, and then completely relied on the manpower of a dozen men to set up the artillery, which took twenty minutes.

Only three shells could be placed in a huge shell box, and all the shells carried by this unit were only enough for all the artillery to shoot ten rounds. For no other reason, the German 715th Division had already sent most of the heavy artillery shells to the front line in Moscow along with a large number of artillery pieces according to the orders of the superiors.

All the artillery was lined up, five kilometers was not far away, and the air was clear, and the Soviets watched nervously the German movements, and the artillery fire that stood abruptly on the snow had already aimed the barrels at the city.

"Number one is over!"

"Number two is over!"

……

The German artillerymen pushed the gun into the chamber and immediately reported. Soon, all the artillery was ready.

Hoffman raised his binoculars again and looked at Homnitch in the distance, "It seems to be quiet there, and I don't see the enemy's movements." ”

"I think so, too, maybe the Soviets are hiding like rats, or maybe they've already withdrawn." Floyd said.

"God knows what will happen." Hoffman shook his head and motioned to the standard-bearer. "All artillery, two shots, rapid fire!"

The red flag fell violently, all the artillery opened fire together, the snow suddenly set off a fire, the Soviet troops on the defending side realized what was happening, and almost everyone lay down in the tunnel.

Cannonballs fell from the sky with a characteristic whistling sound, and the targets were mainly in the city, which suddenly kicked up a huge cloud of dust.

Under the attack of artillery shells, it is impossible to be without casualties, and all the Soviet army can do is to avoid unnecessary casualties as much as possible. They built the trenches in the shape of a zigzag line, so as not to storm the entire trench and kill everyone.

In the city, soldiers could hide in basements, and many more were asked to be on the outskirts of the city at the time of the shelling.

The blast wave shook the ground, and Roshakov and Kravsky endured it in their basements, with each explosion leaving a huge amount of dust and even the kerosene lamps extinguished.

"Really! It's fighting in the dark, and that's how we endure! Roshakov coughed and grumbled.

"Keep waiting, I don't believe that the Germans can shoot a hundred rounds with one cannon?!"

"A hundred rounds? You fool, if the Germans did that, they would be so hot that they melted after fifty rounds. ”

After saying that, the two of them immediately laughed, bitter and happy.

Only two shots were fired from each cannon, and Hoffman observed, as if there was no reaction in the city, only a large amount of dust swaying up with the waves.

"The effect looks pretty good, I'm afraid these Soviets really ran away?" Floyd said.

"Ran away? I don't think so, let's have another bombardment to see how it goes. Hoffman ordered four more rounds after a ten-minute break.

In fact, as long as one cannon is fired, the barrel is very hot. In order to cool down the artillery, the best thing is actually vinegar, how can this high-grade cargo be carried, the barrel of the German gun overheats after two rapid fires, and the cooling is snow on the ground.

The ten-minute rest was also to cool down the artillery, and then four shots were probably going to be fired sequentially.

In these ten minutes, the Soviets immediately began to check the casualties. In this round of shelling, many people were killed, and some unlucky people were injured, and the wails spread. The heaviest losses were among the militia battalions, and more than 30 people were killed in this round of shelling, much to Ninelli's annoyance.

However, his annoyance immediately turned into a new fear, and the veteran reminded him that the infantry should attack as soon as the German artillery was ready, but after a few minutes, the Germans still did not act, which only showed that the shelling was not over.

That's exactly what happened! When Ninelli heard this, he immediately went back into the tunnel, hugged his head, and waited for the next wave of bombardment. (To be continued.) )