Several German attacks on settlements ended in failure. Seeing that the attack was ineffective and that it was getting late, the German commander ordered his troops to temporarily halt the offensive and move to the defensive.

Fortunately, these soldiers had experience in winter warfare and knew the danger of freezing to death by spending the night on the unobstructed wasteland, so they used the snow on the side of the road to build more than 20 ring-shaped snow walls more than one person high and ten meters in diameter to shield them from the biting cold wind. German soldiers hid in platoons in the middle of these snow walls, using campfires to keep warm and warm food.

Fearing a night attack by the Soviet army, the German commander set up a number of observation posts in the direction of the settlement. According to his idea, as soon as the Soviets came out of the settlement, his observation post would be able to detect it in time. Their troops were stationed three kilometers from the settlement, surrounded by snow more than half a man deep, and it would take at least half an hour for the Soviets to approach their positions, enough for their observation posts to sound the alarm and prepare all their soldiers for battle.

But by two or three o'clock in the morning, there was no movement in the settlement, and the soldiers lying in the snow as observation posts were almost frozen, so two or three people were left to continue the guard, and the rest of them hid in the snow wall to keep warm.

The commander of the ski detachment is called Guchakov, a lieutenant in his thirties, he once participated in the Soviet-Finnish war, and his unit was attacked by the Finnish ski detachment, and suffered the fate of the whole army.

He led a ski detachment of more than 40 men from the west out of the settlement, and after making a big circle, came to the vicinity of the German camp. He had intended the machine gunners to strafe the Germans around the fire, but when he approached the German camp, he found that the enemy was hiding in the snow wall.

Seeing that the original plan could not be implemented, he did not mess with himself, but after some pondering, he came up with a new way. He called his three squad leaders over and ordered them in turn: "One squad, you still follow the original plan to blow up the German tanks; Second squad, you row a sled over the enemy's snow wall, and at the same time throw grenades into it, blowing up a ghost crying wolf howl of the enemy; Squad, you set up your machine guns near the snow wall, and when you see an enemy escaping from inside, you use your machine guns to strafe them. After listening to Guchakov's arrangement, the three squad leaders hurriedly whispered a word, and then returned to their respective units to make arrangements.

A few minutes later, the two Dzhegalev light machine guns carried by the three squads were only 30 meters away from the German snow wall. The squad leader waited for the machine gun to be ready, then ran over and reported to Guchakov: "Comrade lieutenant, the machine gun is ready and ready to act. ”

Seeing that the machine gunner was already in place, Guchakov nodded, and then whispered to the captain of the second squad: "Comrade squad leader, it's time for you to attack." ”

The captain of the second squad nodded, turned his head and said to his subordinates who were squatting aside, "Comrades, are you ready?" Let's go! ”

With the order of the squad leader, more than two dozen soldiers with guns behind them vigorously supported the snow poles in their hands, and the skis under their feet rushed forward with them. In groups of three, they skied to a different wall of snow and stopped, put their poles in their left hands, pulled out the grenade stuck in their waists, pulled the string with their teeth, and threw it into the wall without hesitation. But as soon as the grenades emitting white smoke flew into the snow wall, they immediately left the vicinity of the snow wall as fast as they could.

The grenade thrown into the wall of snow exploded in just a few seconds, waking the German army from their sleep. The soldiers sat up straight and clutched their guns in their hands, nervously checking the situation around them, and when they saw their colleagues who were blown up and rolled on the ground and screaming, they were immediately frightened, and immediately someone shouted: "Enemy attack, enemy attack!" After shouting, he rushed outside with his gun.

The Soviet machine gunners, who had been waiting for a long time, saw the German soldiers rushing out of the gap in the snow wall and immediately pulled the trigger. With the sound of machine gun fire, a barrage of bullets flew towards the German soldiers in a mess, knocking them down in pieces in the snow. The rest of the soldiers saw that the situation was not good, and hurriedly retreated back into the snow wall, they did not dare to show their heads, but just stretched out their guns and put them indiscriminately. Seeing that the enemy had retreated into the snow wall, and knowing that it would be difficult to destroy them again, Guchakov decisively ordered the machine gunners to move their positions to other snow walls to destroy the German soldiers who had been blown away by the grenades.

A small squad responsible for blowing up German tanks heard that the battle had begun on this side. The squad leader stood up from the snow, raised his gun and knocked down the sentry standing next to the tank, then waved his gun forward and shouted, "Demoman, give it to me!" ”

With his shout, several fighters vigorously supported the snow poles in their hands, and with the speed of their skis, rushed to the tank, removed the explosives on their backs, pulled the fuse and threw it on the tank body. As soon as they fled to safety, a series of earth-shattering explosions were heard behind them, and the blown up German tanks began to burn, and the flames reflected in the sky.

The battle of the ski detachment was watched by Vamko, who stood above the church and watched the battle. Seeing that the enemy's infantry and tanks had been dealt heavy blows, he could not help but applaud again and again. He thought to himself that after such an attack, the enemy would definitely be greatly damaged, and as soon as it was daybreak, he immediately ordered the 235th Infantry Regiment, which was in reserve, to carry out a counterattack, and strive to completely annihilate or inflict heavy damage on this group of enemies.

The command vehicle of the German commander was three or four hundred meters away from the soldiers' camp. After being awakened by the sound of gunfire and explosions outside, he sat up straight with a confused face and asked the staff officer standing aside: "What's going on, why is there gunfire outside?" ”

"Mr. Colonel," replied the staff officer with a look of horror, "it is the Russians, and the Russians are sneaking up on us." ”

"What are you still doing in a daze?" The German commander glared at the staff officer and said sharply: "If you don't order the troops to counterattack, you must destroy all the Russians who are sneaking up." ”

"Mr. Colonel, things are not going well." The staff officer said to the regiment commander: "Listen to the gunfire outside, it is the Russian Dzhegalev light machine gun, it seems that our soldiers are suppressed by their firepower. In my opinion, let's move immediately. ”

"No, how can you transfer?" Although the German commander was shocked to hear the Soviet army's sneak attack on his camp, how could he easily give the order to retreat, but shouted at the staff officer: "Immediately contact the tank battalion and let them use artillery and machine gun fire to eliminate the Russians who carried out the sneak attack." ”

As soon as his words fell, an earth-shattering explosion came from outside, which shook the command vehicle several times. When the staff officer heard this, he was immediately shocked: "Mr. Colonel, it's not good, the tank battalion has also been attacked by the Russians, and it seems that there is no hope for it." Let's retreat. ”

Seeing that the tank battalion on which he relied was also attacked by the Soviet army, the German commander still had any fighting spirit, and hurriedly ordered: "Drive, drive quickly, we must leave this dangerous ghost place as soon as possible." ”

As soon as the order to retreat was issued, the direct troops arranged near the command vehicle took the lead in the retreat. However, the motorcycle, which drove along the road for less than a kilometer, ran over a mine hastily planted by the Soviet army and was blown into a fireball. When the German commander saw this situation in the command car, he was frightened, but fortunately he still understood that if he continued to stay here, he would either be killed or taken prisoner, so he gritted his teeth and ordered: "Rush over, rush over at all costs." If we let the Russians surround us, we'll be all finished. ”

As a result of this death order given by the German commander, the motorcycles, automobiles, and armored vehicles of the troops directly under the regiment rushed forward along the road at full speed. Although quite a few vehicles were blown up, Guchakov's ski detachment did not have time to lay more mines on the road, so many of the enemy successfully broke out of the encirclement.