Shells whistled down on Soviet positions, and smoke billowed up after the earth-shattering explosion.

Standing in front of the observation hole in the observation post of the group army, I looked through the position shrouded in the smoke of artillery fire with a telescope, and I could not help but feel worried about the soldiers on the position. You must know that the soldiers of the 230th Preparatory Training Regiment on the position of Lu Dao were workers in factories not long ago, although many of them participated in the domestic revolutionary war and fought against foreign intervention armies and white bandit armies, but many more may have only undergone shooting training, and know how to shoot bullets out of the chamber, and as for what can hit after the bullets are removed, only God knows how to hit them. There is no skill in the offensive and defensive battles of the position, and the competition between the two sides is nothing more than the number of troops, as well as the equipment and morale of the soldiers. In the face of the frantic attack of the German army, to let such an untrained unit defend such an important position, when I think of this, my heart rises to my throat.

The German shelling stopped, and after a short silence, the roar of huge tank engines was heard from the front of the position, and it seemed that the German infantry was starting a new offensive.

After a while, the gunsmoke of the position sounded the sound of our artillery counterattack. Listening to the sporadic sound of artillery, my heart suddenly cooled by half, is there only so many guns left among the hundreds of guns of more than a dozen artillery companies on the position?

A few hours before the battle began, when General Lelyushzyuka and I were inspecting the front line, I accidentally noticed that several artillery batteries of the military were actually deployed directly behind the trenches, and the artillery pieces were neatly arranged next to each other in the open field. Seeing this situation, I unceremoniously pointed out this erroneous deployment to him at that time: "Comrade Major General, it is not possible to arrange the artillery like this!" You see that the artillery is so densely placed, if the Germans had even one shell landed in the artillery queue during the shelling, then the detonated shells would have wiped out the entire artillery company. Without the support of the artillery battery, the militia units with poor equipment and lack of training alone could not withstand the German tank attack. ”

When he heard this, he shrugged his shoulders and replied in a helpless tone: "Dear Major Oshanina, my comrade commissioner! I admit that there are many unsatisfactory aspects of the deployment that you have seen, but it has been carried out in full accordance with the provisions of the military regulations. The current general regulations, which were specially formulated by Marshal Shaposhnikov on the basis of the experience of the civil war, are also included in the textbooks of the Frunze Military Academy. We don't have permission to modify this. ”

When he said that, I was completely speechless. Shaposhnikov was a great military strategist and had a high prestige in the Soviet army, but he always clung to the concept of the First World War, believing that the use of artillery and machine guns to organize a strong defensive position would break the head of the invading enemy. I have no idea how untimely such a deployment is in the present situation, and the artillery positions are so densely arranged on open ground without cover that they are simply a live target for enemy artillery and aircraft attacks.

The cold wind blew away the smoke and I could see the battlefield clearly. The large German tank troops, lined up in formation, pressed towards our positions with great vigour, followed by dense infantry in loose formations. Occasionally, one or two tanks, hit by sporadic artillery fire from our positions, stopped in smoke, but more of the enemy continued to advance on our positions.

Seeing that the tanks were already approaching the first trench, the position was still quiet, and there was no movement at all. The anxious voice of General Lelyushonka came from the side: "What happened? The infantry still didn't fire, did they all die in the shelling just now? ”

A German tank had just crossed the trench and had just gone far when with a huge explosion turned the mighty behemoth into a ball of fire. With this explosion, the normally silent light and heavy weapons suddenly opened fire, and a dense stream of bullets fired from the trenches towards the rushing enemy. The Germans were taken by surprise, and more than a dozen infantry who rushed in front suddenly froze, and their bodies fell straight to the ground, and those behind quickly fell to the ground.

A few more tanks crossed the trenches, and after driving far, they all followed in the footsteps of the tank just now, and became a few piles of burning scrap metal. I finally saw how the tanks were destroyed this time, it turned out that the soldiers on the positions waited for the German tanks to cross the trenches, came out of their hiding places, blocked the enemy infantry with dense fire, and then threw Molotov cocktails and anti-tank mines at the tanks from behind. However, this method was really effective, and in a short time, more than a dozen German tanks were blown up one after another.

But there were so many German tanks that the front ones were blown up, and the ones behind were swarming, and at the last few tanks safely crossed the trenches and drove in the direction of the army group headquarters, crushing several of our artillery pieces into scrap metal along the way.

Seeing that the tank was getting closer and closer to us, not only was I anxious, but Lelyushchenka was also panicked, he grabbed the phone on the table and shouted loudly: "Ornenko!" Ornenko!! Where are you? Where are you? Without waiting for the other party to answer, he continued to shout: "Immediately attack in the direction of the group army observation post and fire at me!" Shoot at me!! ”

Soon, the shells whistled down around the observation post, shaking the dirt on the roof, and Lelyushzyuka threw the phone in his hand and took me to the ground of the observation post. When the cannon fire had stopped, he got up from the ground, looked out of the observation hole for a moment, then picked up the Bobosha submachine gun I had placed on the table and rushed out.

I got up from the ground and looked outside, and saw that the tanks that had just rushed over had all been destroyed and were burning not far from the observation post. The submachine gun was taken away by the major general, and I could only draw my pistol and rush out of the observation post.

I rushed out of the door and saw that Lelyushchenka had jumped out of the trench and was running towards a burning German tank, and the two tankmen, covered in fire, had just escaped from the cockpit and were knocked down by his indiscriminate gun.

There was a rumbling sound of artillery on the right, and I turned around and saw some tanks flying and firing as they went. I recognized at a glance that this was a Soviet tank, small in size, but flexible in the "Т-34" type.

Lelyushzyenka stood in front of the blazing German tank, waving his hand that was still holding the submachine gun and shouting: "Ornenko! Ornenko! ”

The hatch of the leading tank opened, and the commander of the tank brigade, Ornenko, stood there with half his body exposed, waved to Lelyushonka, and at the same time promised loudly: "Look at me, I'll go to the front and beat those bastards myself!" ”

General Lelyushzyōka continued to wave the weapon in his hand and shouted loudly as he leaned over to Ornenko's tank: "Forward, forward!" Give them a look! ”

The tide was turning in our favour, and it seemed that I no longer needed to fight for it myself, so I put my pistol back in my holster and walked slowly down the trench towards them. Just then, a cannonball whizzed down between the two of them. Without saying a word, Ornenko threw himself on the hatch cover of the tank, and General Lelyushonka covered his forehead, slowly turned in a circle in place, and slowly fell to the ground, throwing the submachine gun in his hand far aside.

"Comrade Major General!" I was taken aback by the unexpected turn of events, and I shouted, and quickly crawled out of the trench with my hands and feet, and ran quickly towards him.