Chapter 1046: The Unseen Cannon

On the side of a small railway station’s outer wall, a German soldier cautiously poked his head out. He saw a Soviet soldier on the other side cautiously looking in his direction. The distance between the two of them was not great, so they both ducked back at almost the same time.

Observing the enemy on the battlefield is a life-threatening business, so everyone is extremely cautious. Just behind the German soldier who had ducked back, a two-man machine gun team had already set up their MG42 on an overturned cart. From here, through the straw and the collapsed low wall, they had a relatively good firing angle.

Further in the distance, a dozen or so German soldiers had already aimed their Mauser 98K rifles at their enemies. Using the messy weeds and the scattered rubble as cover, their movements seemed not to have attracted too much of the enemy’s attention. These infantry were almost ready, and the battle could break out at any moment.

“What did you see?” the platoon leader, who was carrying an ammunition box for the machine gun team, asked, placing the box at his feet as he spoke to the soldier who had just been on reconnaissance. He needed to understand the situation on the other side, so that in the chaos of a moment, he could make a relatively correct judgment as much as possible.

The soldier pointed to a certain part of the outer wall and replied, “They have sandbag shelters in this direction, and this direction. I saw a Maxim heavy machine gun, and then I was spotted, so I had to pull back.”

“It’s a crossfire. Their main defense is to the north…” the platoon leader nodded. From this little bit of intelligence, he had analyzed the Soviets’ basic defensive situation.

It was impossible for them to put their main defense on the west side, because on the Baku plain, it had already been confirmed that the German armored forces were approaching from the north. So even if this Soviet defensive force had heavier firepower, it should be deployed facing north.

Of course, the war had already been going on for so long. If the Soviets hadn’t learned to arrange machine guns to cover their flanks, they would have died on the previous battlefields long ago. So the platoon leader easily judged that this machine gun nest was a flank defense line to cover the main front, not the main position of the Soviets in the small station.

“At least 100 men. This is trouble. We’ve only got 75 unlucky bastards on our side,” the platoon leader said with a bitter smile. He then roughly sketched the position of the Soviet positions on a piece of white paper. He then handed this paper to the soldier who had just been on reconnaissance and ordered in a low voice, “Take this to company headquarters. Everyone else, prepare to attack.”

The battlefield has its own rules. The person who is responsible for reconnaissance will, after the battle begins, be assigned a relatively safe communication task. This is a basic means for a grassroots commander to lead his troops: to distribute the tasks as fairly as possible. And then next time, it will be someone else’s turn, and so on.

Of course, most commanders, when new recruits were sent as replacements, would first have them carry out some dangerous tasks. This was a kind of special treatment for the veterans, a sort of unwritten rule of the battlefield. This was also another reason for the high casualty rate of the new recruits. After all, a veteran, in a certain sense, was more precious.

“Prepare to attack! Everyone, check your ammunition!” the platoon leader, after assigning the covering team and the assault team, began to check the ammunition of his own weapon. When they were on the offensive, they would generally leave their bags and heavy gear at the company headquarters, carrying only their combat items.

From their appearance, this German unit was basically no different from the beggars on the streets of Berlin. Some of them were wearing tattered camouflage smocks, some were wearing Wehrmacht autumn uniforms with frayed cuffs. Most of them were wearing tactical vests, but a few were using the most primitive of web gear.

The company had just given the order to attack, because not far away, the German tank units had already begun their frontal assault. They were to disrupt the Soviet positions from the flank, to reduce the pressure on their main armored forces. Most of these soldiers had been green new recruits who knew nothing when they had been thrown into the battle in Crimea, but after being baptized by the flames of war for several months, they were now qualified battlefield elites.

The sound of gunfire from the main battlefield had already begun. On the Soviet position, a concealed self-propelled anti-tank gun suddenly opened fire. The huge explosion made all the German soldiers behind the outer wall instinctively duck. Everything they were familiar with was once again appearing before them. All the chaos and destruction here was a rhythm they knew well.

“3, 2, 1, attack!” the platoon leader shouted the order to attack, and the MG42 over there began to spit fire. The bullets swept over the weeds in the rubble, sending the leaves of the small plants flying. The tracer rounds flew out of the grass, crossed to the other side of the several railway tracks, and struck the piled-up sandbags, making a thudding sound.

The Soviets had spotted the German troops on their flank just now, and they had also made all the preparations they could, hoping to use their own strength to suppress the threat from the side. So a second after the Germans had opened fire, the prepared Soviet troops also began a fierce return fire.

The Maxim heavy machine gun, in terms of mobility and instantaneous rate of fire, seemed to be inferior to the German MG42. But it was, after all, a classic heavy machine gun. In terms of firing stability and sustainability, it was indeed a cut above the MG42. But when compared to the firing density of their other weapons, the Soviet side had no advantage at all.

The PPSh submachine gun was not bad, but it was prioritized for the Moscow and Kursk fronts. The Baku side was certainly not equipped with it on a large scale. The occasional submachine gun could not change the balance of power in firepower between the two sides. And the Mosin-Nagant rifle, compared to the Mauser 98K, was just about half a catty versus eight taels.

Unfortunately for them, the German army was equipped with a large number of MP-44 assault rifles and G43 semi-automatic rifles. The sustained fire and density of fire from these weapons was an advantage that the Soviet Union could not offset. So although the German army did not have an advantage in the firepower of its fixed heavy machine gun positions, in other aspects, their advantage was very obvious.

It all happened in an instant. The bullets fired from the German positions were clearly more numerous than those from the Soviet side. Several German soldiers tried to charge into the railway station through a breach in the outer wall. One soldier was hit and fell to the ground, but the other few succeeded. They had opened a breakthrough, allowing the German army to effectively deploy their attack formation.

“Ammunition!” On the machine gun team’s side, the assistant gunner, while opening the last box of ammunition by his side, pulled out the belt inside and fed it into the MG42. He shouted to his comrades behind him.

A new recruit with a Mauser rifle on his back ran over with an ammunition box and delivered it to the machine gun covering position that was in urgent need of replenishment. The bullets were flying everywhere. This run was not safe, but in a place like the battlefield, perhaps the one thing you couldn’t ask for was so-called safety.

“Thanks!” the assistant gunner shouted to the new recruit who had brought the ammunition, his head not even turning, as he held the ammunition belt in both hands to allow the bullets to be pulled more smoothly into the machine gun.

“You’re welcome!” the new recruit replied instinctively. His face was then struck by a flying bullet, and he fell to the ground with a thud. He didn’t even have time to struggle, and then he was silent.

The assistant gunner seemed to have sensed something. He turned his head and just happened to see the new recruit who had just fallen to the ground. He flinched, then slowly turned his head back. There was no pity or sympathy, because this kind of thing happened every day. If anyone in this place still felt sad, that would be truly looking for trouble.

“Company commander, what are you doing here?” by the side of a ditch, behind a low wall, the platoon leader, who had just emptied his magazine and was reloading his G43, saw his superior approaching with a radio. He didn’t stop his movements, but asked as he reloaded.

“The tank unit on the main front has been blocked. The Soviets have hidden a large-caliber anti-tank gun, or maybe a self-propelled one. In any case, one of our Panther tanks has been destroyed, and the entire offensive has been forced to a halt,” the company commander said, one hand on his helmet, the other supporting his body. “The battalion has ordered us to find that cannon and provide its coordinates.”

“It’s behind that building! We can’t see what it is, but we can hear it firing!” the platoon leader replied, pointing to a building on the other side of the small station, through a gap in the collapsed wall. “The sound is very loud, much louder than a 76mm anti-tank gun.”

“Alright, I see it.” The company commander pulled his head back. He didn’t want to put his head in a dangerous gap in a low wall in this chaotic situation. No one did not cherish their own life, even on a battlefield where they could die at any moment.

“Hello, this is Arthur… Arthur of 1st Company! The cannon is behind the red building, behind the red brick building. Yes, we can’t see it from here either, but we can hear from the sound that it’s behind that building!” The company commander then picked up the phone and loudly reported the battlefield situation he had been able to obtain.

BOOM! A shell flew from the German main front and slammed into the edge of the roof of that red building. Half of the building’s roof and a corner of the wall were blown off. Debris and glass flew everywhere. The intense vibration could be felt even on the German side. All the German soldiers squinted their eyes and steadied the helmets on their heads.

Advance chapters at Nightjar Reads · nightjarreads.com