By the time the fighters fell to the ground, the four remaining T-34s of our army had already leaped over the trenches and hid in the forest. The German tanks bypassed the burning T-34 and quickly pounced on our positions.

Seeing that the enemy's tanks were only three or four hundred meters away from the position, I was just about to order Chistyakov to order the artillery to open fire, when a dense burst of gunfire suddenly rang out from the forward position. The light and heavy machine guns on the position opened fire fiercely, and the bullets hit the tank hull and splashed a series of dazzling sparks.

The German tanks, which were moving at a rapid pace, slowed down their battle formations as they marched, turned their muzzles, and opened fire unhurriedly at exposed points of fire. A few shells flew over, and the two most active firing points were suddenly dumb.

"Nonsense! It's nonsense! "Seeing that the infantry opened fire without authorization, attracting the shelling of German tanks, I couldn't help but be furious and shouted at Chistyakov: "Hurry up, pick up the anti-tank artillery regiment, let them open fire immediately!" ”

Almost at the same time as I finished speaking, the anti-tank guns deployed in the forest had already opened fire, and it seemed that Major Yevremenko, noticing that the situation was wrong, decisively gave the order to open fire before I had time to ask for instructions.

The shells that flew out of the forest fell in the ranks of German tanks and exploded, and immediately the smoke and flames rose to the sky. Except for the first few shells that missed the target, the subsequent shells that were fired all landed accurately on the body of the German tank, and the hit tank was immediately covered in billowing smoke. Soon a tankman covered in fire emerged from the scrapped and burning tank, rolled on the ground, trying to extinguish the flames burning on his body.

Seeing that the enemy had come out of the tank, the gunfire in the trench intensified again, and the figure who was rolling on the ground trembled violently for a while under the intensive fire, and then lay on the ground and did not move again.

The four T-34s, which had retreated into the forest, rushed forward at full speed, stopped in front of the trenches, and opened heavy fire on the enemy tanks.

In the first round of shelling of the anti-tank artillery regiment, four German tanks were destroyed. And the countercharge of our tanks easily destroyed two more. The remaining dozen or so tanks, finally realizing that something was wrong, immediately drove in reverse, shooting and retreating backwards.

The T-34s parked behind the trenches were too few in number to immediately pursue them, but instead fired at the German tanks with the anti-tank artillery regiment. The German tanks retreating in the open field were no better targets, and when they approached the vicinity of the forest fortified by Katukov's tanks, at least six more tanks were knocked to the ground and turned into burning scrap metal.

"Great!" Chistyakov excitedly shouted: "Six more were killed, and they only have five left!" Then he asked me in an inquiring tone: "Comrade division commander, now let General Katukov attack?" ”

"You don't have to worry about this, Katukov is a very good fighter man, and he knows when to take the initiative. If these tanks were allowed to escape, he would not be Katukov. After I said this casually, I couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, why is this so familiar, could it be that I stole the dialogue from which movie?

Katukov did not disappoint us, as soon as the five German tanks approached the forest, our T-34 tanks rushed out of it, and with a dense artillery fire, four of them were destroyed, and the remaining tank had its tracks blown off and was spinning in place. The roof of a T-34 opened, and out of it came a tank man, holding small red and green flags in both hands, waving a series of flags. As the flag ended, the rest of the tanks stopped firing and slowly surrounded the German tanks in three directions.

When the German tank stopped, the lid opened, and a submachine gun with a white handkerchief protruded from it. The white flag waved desperately, signaling that it was ready to admit defeat and surrender.

Seeing that the German tanks had been completely annihilated, I secretly breathed a sigh of relief, hung the binoculars around my neck, and then said to Chistyakov: "Comrade Colonel, the battle is over, let's go to the front and have a look." ”

When coming to the position of the anti-tank artillery regiment, Yevremenko was directing the fighters to hang the artillery on the tractor. When he saw us coming, he hurriedly ran over and saluted me.

I returned the salute and said, "Comrade Major, well done!" Are the casualties of the troops large? ”

He smiled a little shyly and said, "It's not big, but a cannon was blown up, three people were sacrificed and nine people were injured." Fortunately, it was not a German tank, otherwise our regiment would have suffered more casualties. ”

Not a German tank? I raised my binoculars and looked at the wrecked tanks again, and the white cross on the body was clearly visible. So I was surprised and asked, "Doesn't this destroyed tank have a Nazi cross on it?" You say it's not a German tank, is it still an American tank? ”

Hearing me say this, the major waved his hand again and again and said, "Comrade division commander, you have misunderstood, you have misunderstood!" When I say not German tanks, I mean that these tanks are not produced in Germany. ”

"It's not produced in Germany, so where is it produced?" I was confused by what he said.

"That's right," he explained, coughing and clearing his throat, "the Germans' tanks had suffered heavy losses in the early battles, and they had not been replenished in time by the mainland, so they began to use captured French tanks on a large scale. Compared with the German tanks, these tanks are obviously much inferior in terms of firepower, armor and speed, so we can completely annihilate this tank detachment with such small casualties. ”

"Comrade division commander," Chistyakov called me from the side, "look, General Katukov's tank is coming. ”

I followed the direction of his finger and saw that a T-34 tank of our army was carefully bypassing the flaming tanks and moving quickly towards us.