Chapter 1081: Encirclement on Three Sides

As was to be expected, when the tanks of the 1st German Panzer Corps were committed to the battlefield, the Soviet defense line, as expected, began to collapse. Their light weapons left them with no way to deal with the advanced German tank units. And so the entire front line began to waver, and everywhere Soviet troops were beginning to abandon their positions and retreat.

Soon, the Germans, who had already set up their machine gun nests on the flank, got their chance. Swarms of Soviet soldiers began to try and cross the wide street, to flee to a safer place. The moment they showed themselves, they were cut down by the German machine guns on their flank.

“Rat-tat! Rat-tat!” The sound, like a cloth-tearing machine, suddenly rang out. “Akado’s Saw” had once again begun to indiscriminately reap the lives of the enemy. Tracer rounds crisscrossed the wide street. Most of them buried themselves in flesh, ending their short but unstoppable journey.

Further in the distance, a Soviet sniper, who was hiding on a rooftop, had calmly reloaded his Mosin-Nagant sniper rifle and had then, with composure, pulled the trigger. His gunshot was completely drowned out by the bullets flying on the battlefield, and among the attacking German soldiers on the main front, another soldier clutched his chest and fell, becoming a gradually cooling corpse.

“Find that damn sniper!” a German NCO, leaning against the ruined wall of a building, shouted to several German soldiers in the distance. Everyone was looking for this detestable enemy, but in the chaos of the battlefield, to find a well-hidden enemy was indeed a very difficult matter.

On the other side, near the German battalion headquarters, the battalion’s artillery was assembling the 80mm mortars they had carried. In a little while, the German army would be able to drive the Soviet defenders out of this small town. When they reached an open area, they would open fire and deliver another fatal blow to the routed Soviet army.

The battlefield was filled with flying bullets, and the chaos continued. The routed Soviet army, as they crossed the longitudinal street, paid an extremely tragic price. Dozens of Soviet soldiers had fallen on the street, and subsequently, their bodies were stepped over by the pursuing German infantry.

A tank rumbled past on the widest street, followed by a dense mass of German soldiers. These soldiers, holding their guns, watched all the windows on both sides, covering the two steel behemoths as they slowly passed through the dangerous town.

Behind a window, a Soviet defender with a rifle suddenly poked his head out. He held his rifle, hoping to take out the passing enemy. But the moment he showed his face, he was spotted by the vigilant Germans. A sudden gunshot rang out, and this Soviet soldier fell back inside the window, collapsing on the floor and closing his eyes.

A pool of blood began to gush from the back of his head, spreading rapidly on the floor. A bullet had pierced his steel helmet, leaving a smoking hole in it. And beside this killed Soviet soldier were two cowering women and several children.

After nodding to the commander of the 2nd Company, which was following behind the tanks, a squad of German soldiers charged into the building where the Soviet soldier had just appeared. They cautiously stepped on the wooden stairs, trying their best not to make a sound. Suddenly, a man in civilian clothes rushed out of a room, his hands raised high, shouting a word in Russian. But in his nervousness, he was turned into a sieve by the Germans. The sound of gunfire in the stairwell lasted for a long time before it gradually died down.

“I’ve found the sniper!” a German soldier with a rifle in his hand shouted, pointing with his hand over his head to a building in the distance. He yelled to the NCO beside him, “On the roof of that building! He’s on the roof! Right next to the chimney! Do you see him?”

The NCO shifted his Mauser 98K rifle to his other hand, then pressed his face against the corner of the wall, exposing half of his face, and looked at the building that his subordinate was pointing at.

There was indeed a chimney on that roof, and next to the chimney, there was clearly a strange shape. Although the distance was at least 200 meters, this NCO still easily identified that that was a Soviet sniper with a steel helmet, a sniper, no doubt about it.

And so he immediately pulled his head back. After all, no one wanted to be shot in the head while they were on lookout. Although that was a very quick way to die, after all, everyone hoped that they could live to a ripe old age, didn’t they? And so this NCO patted the soldier who was holding a sniper rifle beside him and shouted to him, “Soviet sniper, on the roof of that building, slightly to the north! Don’t miss!”

In every German unit, there were many skilled marksmen. These soldiers had been through simple sniper training, and they were also outstanding soldiers who had been selected for their relatively accurate marksmanship. Although they could not carry out professional sniper missions, they could, at critical moments, play a part of a sniper’s role.

This marksman nodded his head, and then adjusted the scope on his rifle. Generally speaking, the German snipers preferred the high-precision modified G43 semi-automatic rifle, but due to a shortage of supplies, most of the sniper rifles used by these grassroots infantry marksmen were emergency sniper rifles modified from the Mauser 98K.

After adjusting his scope, the German marksman took a deep breath, and then he flashed out from the corner of the wall, raised his rifle, and aimed at the general direction that the NCO had indicated. In his sniper scope, his eyes easily found his target, the Soviet sniper who was leaning against the roof, constantly firing at the German army.

The other clearly had not discovered that he had been targeted by an enemy on his flank. He was still aiming and firing, hoping to stop the German soldiers on the other side from breaking through the collapsing Soviet defense line. And from the current war situation, his efforts were indeed very effective. At least for now, the Germans over there did not have the courage to continue their attack and to break through the crumbling Soviet line.

The German marksman adjusted his muzzle, pressing the crosshairs on this Soviet sniper’s body. Because of his muscles, he began to tremble slightly, and what he had to do before this slight tremble became a violent shiver was to fire the bullet in his chamber.

Crack! He pulled the trigger of his rifle. The bullet instantly crossed the long distance and flew to the target’s position. In his scope, the German marksman saw the other scream as he was hit, and the whole process of him rolling down from the roof and finally falling off the house. He retreated behind the corner of the wall and reported his combat result to the NCO behind him. “I got him!”

The NCO patted his subordinate on the shoulder and gave him a satisfied thumbs-up. Then, at his signal, the several German infantrymen behind him charged out from the corner of the wall, crossed the street, and rushed towards a building that the Soviets were still holding. And at the same moment, the German tanks also crossed the street and began to advance towards the small town’s central square.

The Soviet defense line had finally collapsed. With no anti-tank weapons, and in the face of the German infantry’s orderly cover, they had no way to deal with the two King Tiger tanks. As another hidden machine gun nest was suppressed by the German fire and was finally taken out by a tank cannon, the Soviet defenders had no choice but to begin a full-scale retreat from this small town.

They began to flee from the buildings into the wilderness behind the small town, trying to hide in the woods in the distance. But German mortar shells began to land around these routed Soviet troops, and some of the Germans also began to set up machine guns behind the Soviets, firing fiercely at their backs.

Dozens of Soviet soldiers were hit and fell on their escape route, and some could only stand where they were, their hands raised high, praying that the god of death would not come for them. Fortunately, the German fire had spread to the distance, passing over these surrendering enemies. In the end, only a few fish had escaped into the woods. Of the approximately 300 Soviet troops stationed here, almost 200 had been finished off, and the remaining 100 had handed over their weapons and had chosen to surrender.

In the core of the German G Army Group’s command, in an armored command vehicle that was constantly shaking on a rugged road, Guderian was studying the war map in front of him. His troops were advancing north at an extremely fast speed. They had already entered the central region of the Oryol Oblast, and were only one assault away from Oryol.

Because their advance speed was fast enough, the Soviet 1st Guards Armored Front and the 3rd Guards Armored Front, which had originally set out first, had not been able to shake him off. These two units, and some other retreating Soviet units, had no choice but to leave a portion of their forces behind to defend and to stop the German pursuit.

In this way, he had chased them all the way to the region south of Moscow. He had already successfully encircled and annihilated over 200,000 Soviet troops. Although he knew that there were not many of the Soviet Union’s true main forces among them, to be able to weaken the northward-advancing Soviet troops was already a very satisfactory result.

“Your Excellency, General, a message just came from the vanguard of the 1st Panzer Corps. They have met with Soviet resistance near Dankov in the Lipetsk Oblast. Our army has lost 47 men in action, and has only just successfully captured the small town that the enemy was defending,” a staff officer reported, handing a telegram to Guderian. “The troops are now too spread out. They have been forced to stop and rest. The troops’ fuel has also been almost completely consumed… Oh, and there is a piece of good news. Captain Markus of the 502nd Heavy Panzerjäger Battalion has destroyed his 140th tank. You will have to award him a new medal.”

“Let the troops rest and refit,” Guderian said, his eyes moving from the map. He nodded and ordered, “We are about to encircle Moscow on three sides. This is something worth celebrating, isn’t it?”

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