After capturing the hillside position, the German troops saw that no one had fired at the position on the top of the hill, probably thinking that the defenders on the hill had been wiped out by their artillery fire after the heavy shelling just now. Only a small number of troops were left on the mountainside position to defend, and the remaining officers and soldiers marched boldly to the top of the mountain with their weapons in hand.

I did not panic at all as I watched the advance towards the position at the top of the hill, for I saw that some troops had left the cave on the southern slope and entered the trenches that swirled upward, cautiously approaching the position on the mountainside.

"What's going on, Comrade Oshanina." Seeing this, Kirillov asked in surprise: "Where does the trench into which our troops enter?" ”

Without looking back, I said: "This trench leads to the position on the mountainside, and as long as the troops on the top of the hill open fire, the attacking troops will quickly destroy the remaining enemy, and at the same time flank the troops on the top of the mountain, so that none of the enemies on the high ground can escape." ”

With that, I looked my binoculars into the distance again, at the location where the Germans had parked their trucks. Although the Germans sent a regiment of infantry to seize Mamayev Heights, they did not throw all their troops into the battlefield at once, but only sent one or two companies at a time to carry out repeated attacks on our positions.

From the binoculars, I quickly saw the commander of the German army. He was standing in the middle of a truck, looking up at our high ground with his binoculars up, and behind him stood four or five officers and a communications soldier with communications equipment on his back, as if he had used the truck compartment as his forward command post. After looking at it for a while, he pulled the telescope away from his eyes. Turning his head and saying something to the back. Immediately an officer walked up to him. Bent down slightly to listen to his orders.

When the German commander raised the telescope again, the officer turned around and held on to the baffle of the carriage and shouted loudly at the bottom of the car. With the dense trucks blocking my view, I couldn't see what he was shouting at someone. But within a few minutes, groups of German infantry, armed with weapons, marched towards our heights.

I put down my binoculars and said to Kirillov, who was staring at the heights: "Comrade commissar, the Germans have increased their troops to the heights again, and it seems that they will not take the Mamayev post. There will be no withdrawal. ”

Kirillov's attention was all on the heights, and when he heard me say this, he just casually asked: "Comrade Oshanina, how do you know that the Germans have increased their troops on the heights again?" ”

"Comrade commissar, if you look to the north, you can see the German commander directing the operation in the truck bed."

"German commander?!" Kirillov asked rhetorically in disbelief: "Isn't he worried about our snipers when he stays on the battlefield?" ”

To be honest, when I first met the German commander, I also had the idea of killing the other party with a sniper rifle, but I looked at the distance in between. It's two kilometers, not to mention now. Even in another fifty or sixty years, there may not be a sniper rifle with such a long range. Hearing Kirillov say the same, I had to smile wryly and say: "My good commissar, don't look at how far we are from where the Germans parked their trucks, at least two kilometers, and we don't have a sniper rifle that far, unless it's almost the same with shelling." ”

When Kirillov heard me say this, he also said regretfully: "Alas, what a pity, if they had come any closer to us, they would have been able to kill all these German commanders in the carriage by finding two soldiers with accurate marksmanship." ......" At this point, he suddenly stopped the topic, turned his head to look at me, and asked with some excitement, "What did you just say?" ”

His words were a little inexplicable, and I looked at him blankly, and instinctively replied: "What I said is that we are too far from the Germans here, and there are no sniper rifles that can shoot that far." ”

"Not this one, the last one, what did you say in your last sentence?" Kirillov asked nervously.

The exaggerated expression on Kirillov's face made me stunned. I stood there frowning and laughing for a long time before I remembered what I had just said, and hurriedly said to him, "I said, unless it is bombarded, it's almost the same." ”

"yes, that's it." Kirillov excitedly slammed his right fist into the palm of his left hand, and then shouted at the door: "Someone! ”

With his shouting, the soldier just now ran in again, stood up straight and asked us: "Division commander, political commissar, do you have any instructions?" ”

I didn't speak, but looked at Kirillov beside me, and only listened to him tell the fighters: "Comrade soldiers, you immediately go and invite the commander of the artillery battalion, Captain Morozov, I have something important to look for him." ”

The warrior did not leave immediately after receiving his order, but turned his face towards me, perhaps because not long ago, I had a disagreement with Kirillov, so he had to wait for me to confirm the order before he dared to leave. Seeing the soldier standing still, I understood what he was thinking, so I nodded at him and said, "Since the comrades of the commissar have given orders, then you can carry them out." ”

The soldier happily agreed, turned and ran out of the observation post.

Seeing the back of the departing fighters, I had already guessed Kirillov's thoughts, so I asked tentatively: "Comrade commissar, could it be that you want Morozov's artillery to shell the forward command post of the German army?" ”

Morozov had not yet arrived, and the German infantry, starting from the position on the mountainside, was only twenty or thirty meters from the position on the top of the hill. At this time, hundreds of fighters stood up in the originally empty trenches, condescendingly smashing the grenades in their hands towards the German attacking ranks.

In an instant, a black smoke rose from the hillside, and the infantry, which had been blown up, scattered and fled. At this moment, our soldiers jumped out of their fortifications, swept at the enemy with machine guns, submachine guns, and rifles, and knocked the enemy in front of them on their backs. By the time the German infantry, which had suffered more than half of the casualties, fled towards the mountainside position, the troops that had come out of the cave had recovered their lost positions and were facing the defeated enemy head-on.

Although there were tanks under the hillside and artillery in the distance, the Germans were bogey. I am afraid that if I open fire, I will accidentally injure my own people. So it was only possible to watch as our troops attacked from two directions at the same time. Wipe out the German army that attacked the high ground bit by bit. In a short time, the German infantry who had attacked the high ground were lying on the hillside, and none of them missed the net.

I am deeply afraid that our fighters will take advantage of the victory and pursue the German troops at the foot of the hill, so that our troops exposed on the hillside will be wiped out by the German tank guns and howitzer fire. I was about to call Shederikov and ask him to restrain his troops. Unexpectedly, the troops who attacked had already retreated to the fortifications on the mountainside and the top of the mountain.

"Well played, really good played. That's how it should be played! When Kirillov saw this, he couldn't help but praise it, but he quickly said with regret: "It's a pity that the Germans still have tanks and artillery, otherwise we would have taken the opportunity to attack on all fronts and destroy all these attacking enemies." ”

I first looked at the phalanx of trucks in the distance, the howitzers parked in front of the trucks, and then at the tanks parked at the foot of the hillside, and sighed silently in my heart. Said regretfully: "If only we could get the support of the air force, the truck phalanx and artillery positions placed on the grassland." Including the twenty or so tanks at the foot of the mountain, they were live targets for aircraft attacks. ”

As soon as my words fell, the German retaliatory shelling began. Not only are howitzers firing in the distance, but even tanks at the foot of the hill are firing. The Germans fired such a dense artillery attack as if they were trying to flatten our positions in the shortest possible time, and the entire heights were covered in black smoke from the explosion.

At this moment, Morozov came to the observation post out of breath. He stood at the door and politely asked us: "Report to the division commander, political commissar, artillery battalion commander Captain Morozov has been ordered to come and listen to your orders. ”

Kirillov beckoned to him, and when Morozov came to his side, he guided the captain to the observation port, handed him his binoculars, pointed to the distance and said to him: "Comrade Captain, do you see that truck phalanx?" ”

Morozov looked at it for a while, put down his binoculars, nodded vigorously at Kirillov, and said affirmatively: "See, Comrade Commissar." ”

"I order you to immediately rush to the southern slope of the high ground in front with a mortar battery, choose a suitable location to build an artillery position, and try to destroy the command post of the German army in the truck phalanx by all means. Do you understand? ”

Listening to Kirillov's assignment to Morozov, I was deeply afraid that he would not pay attention to this matter, and I specially emphasized: "Captain Morozov, if you can knock out the German command post and kill their commander, then the German attack on us will be a complete failure." If it could not be defeated, then the Germans would continue to launch fierce attacks on our positions before dark. Speaking of this, I pointed to the high ground in front of me, which was being shelled, and said in a serious voice: "At present, the positions of the first regiment are being shelled by the Germans, and there must be many casualties. So you have to do everything you can to put the mortar battery in place and knock out the German command post in the shortest possible time. Do you have faith? ”

"Please rest assured that the division commander and political commissar," Morozov said loudly to the two of us, "I promise you that this command post of the German army will be destroyed." ”

After Morozov left, I stood in front of the observation port and held a telescope to observe the surviving artillery deployed in the hollow. I saw a gunner lying on the ground not far in front of the cannon, raising his right hand and swinging constantly, while the gunners standing around the cannon followed the gunner's gesture to adjust the position of the gun.

The muzzle of the cannon ceased to turn when the gunner's hand stopped completely moving. As the shells were reloaded, the gunner turned around and seemed to shout at the back, then his raised right hand slammed down. As soon as his hand fell, the lone cannon fired, and the cannonball whistled out of its chamber.

When I saw our artillery firing, my first instinct was to look at the position of the truck phalanx to see how they were blown up. As a result, after looking at it for a while, I saw that there was silence there, and I couldn't help but be stunned, and I wondered how this artillery was doing, and where the shells were hit.

I retracted my binoculars again, and I saw the gunners withdraw the shells from the chambers and reload a new shell. Before this shot, I had an extra eye to focus on the gunner lying in front of me, staring closely at his raised right hand. When the shell is discharged again. I turned my observation to the tanks that were parked at the foot of the hillside.

In the open space between the two tanks. Suddenly, a cloud of fire and smoke rose. The dirt crackled against the two tanks. It dawned on me that the gunners were not targeting the truck phalanx in the distance, but the tanks parked at the foot of the mountain.

The gunners apparently did not shoot very accurately, and it was not until the fourth shell was fired that a German tank was hit. When the gunners in charge of observation gave a thumbs up to their comrades in the back, the movements of those gunners in the back became sharper and the speed of shooting became faster. Since the German artillery bombardment of the heights was in full swing at this time, no one noticed that a cannon was firing at their tanks nearby.

I excitedly patted Kirillov on the shoulder. Then he pointed to the cannon in the hollow and said excitedly: "Comrade commissar, you see, our cannon is firing at the German tank." ”

Kirillov looked in the direction of my finger for a while, and then asked curiously: "Comrade Oshanina, what is that gunner doing lying in front of the cannon?" If he wanted to observe, he could also observe it while standing next to the cannon. ”

I had always wondered why the gunner was lying in front of the cannon, and when I heard Kirillov think the same, I couldn't help but take a closer look at the gunner. After looking at it for a while, I finally saw the roll call. It turned out that the position of the artillery was lower than the hillside, and not only the enemy outside could not see our artillery. The gunner, who was standing next to the cannon, also saw the enemy outside, and relied on the observation of the gunner lying in front to adjust the angle of fire. After I understood, I quickly explained to Kirillov, and he suddenly realized.

Our artillery fired non-stop, and although quite a few shells missed and exploded in the open space near the tanks, some shells accurately hit the German tanks. But when the German tanks parked at the foot of the hill were burning one after another, even a fool knew that there must be our artillery firing nearby.

The Germans stopped shelling the heights, and both howitzers and tank guns turned their muzzles and fired in the direction where the shells were flying. Since they could not see the cannon that was firing at them, they thought that there were surviving cannons firing on the destroyed artillery position, so they did not hesitate to choose the target for firing. The positions that had just fallen silent were once again overturned by artillery fire, the wreckage of the artillery was torn to pieces, and the bodies of the martyrs were blown to pieces.

Seeing this scene, Kirillov scolded angrily: "Damn the Germans, even the remains of our sacrificed fighters will not be spared, this revenge, we must avenge it!" ”

Since the Germans chose the wrong target for shooting, our artillery continued to fire while they were shelling frantically, while also accurately destroying two tanks. But just then, the cannon stopped firing.

"What's going on, why don't you fire the guns?" Kirillov asked in surprise.

When I saw empty boxes lying all over the side of the cannon, and two gunners left their emplacements and ran towards the artillery positions that were being heavily shelled, I knew the reason for the stoppage: "All the shells are gone!" ”

As soon as the two gunners who ran one after the other rushed to the vicinity of the artillery position, a shell fell from the sky and landed next to the gunner running in front, directly blowing him up. Another gunner rushed up the hill and ran towards a relatively intact wooden box, apparently trying to drag it back.

He had just bent down to carry the wooden box when his body suddenly stiffened, and then he stretched out his hands to cover his lower back, and staggered to the side before rolling down the hill with his bones.

Seeing that the two fighters who went to carry the shells were killed, I hurriedly walked to the door, and just wanted to call the fighters standing guard outside to come in, but found that the commander of the second regiment, Pugachev, had also come to the outside of the observation post. Hurriedly turned his face and shouted loudly at him: "Second Regiment Leader, come here." Pugachev ran up to me quickly, stood upright, and without saying a word, quietly waited for my order.

The situation was urgent, and I didn't care about talking nonsense with him, so I ordered him straight to the point: "Captain Pugachev, you immediately arrange for a platoon of fighters to go to the artillery battalion to get shells, and then send them to the cannon in the hollow." To move quickly, whether or not to destroy the tanks of the Germans, we will rely on these few surviving artillery fighters. ”

After receiving this order from me, Pugachev did not immediately turn around and run out, but rushed to the telephone at the observation post, shook the handle a few times, picked up the microphone, and said sternly to the other party: "Hey, is it the commander of the third company?" I am the regiment commander Pugachev. I now order you to send a platoon of fighters at once, carrying a few boxes of guns from the artillery barracks, to deliver them to the cannon that is hiding in the hollows. ”

After putting down the phone, Pugachev smiled at me embarrassedly, and then explained to me: "Report to the division commander, I have just sent a company of infantry to the artillery battalion after seeing that our artillery positions have been destroyed by the Germans, and are ready to assist the artillery of the third company as soon as I receive your order, push all the artillery to the positions, and continue the battle with the German tanks. ”

"Good, good, Captain Pugachev, you did a good job." Hearing that Pugachev had thought so thoroughly, Kirillov couldn't help but give him a thumbs up and praise him repeatedly. (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank the book friends for having two children's shoes at home and voting two votes for support!!