Chapter 973: It Can't Be...?

A trench, a facility that could very well protect infantry. The first person to think of digging a hole to win was an absolute genius. He had inverted the ancient concept of a city wall, creating the modern-day tortoise-shell trench defense tactic. After decades of evolution and development, the trench had become a perfect defensive system, capable of withstanding heavy fire such as artillery, a truly formidable fortress.

As long as a shell did not score a direct hit on a trench node, it could not effectively kill the infantry inside. For the infantry, especially the defending infantry, this was absolutely good news. To cower in a trench, as if betting one’s life, with the only hope of survival being that the various bombs and shells falling from the sky would not score a direct hit—this was modern warfare, this was the brutal German-Soviet Eastern Front.

On a nameless high ground at the front line, Soviet soldiers were fighting with the Germans, using the weapons in their hands to decide who would have the right to continue to live in the future. The trenches were filled with the smell of gunpowder. The cries of the wounded and the crackle of gunfire were drowned out by the continuous roar of explosions.

The position was littered with corpses in all sorts of shapes. A German steel helmet rolled back and forth on the slope with the sound of the cannons, finally coming to a stop beside the young body of a Soviet Red Army soldier. The machine gun nest in the distance spewed a dazzling tongue of fire, and the tracer rounds intertwined with each other, a beautiful and extraordinary sight.

Before the concealed Soviet machine gun nest on the high ground could be arrogant for long, a huge shell landed on it. Not a small-caliber mortar, nor an infantry field gun, but a 270mm standard railway gun shell. The power of this huge shell was astonishing. In one fell swoop, it had silenced more than half of the Soviet positions.

The vibration could be felt even on the German positions. This railway gun was the latest masterpiece of position destruction successfully developed by the Krupp factory. Relying on its high rate of fire, stable reliability, and good mobility, this cannon had been approved by the Führer to be mass-produced as one of the standard weapons of the German heavy artillery.

In fact, the biggest attraction of this weapon for the German army was that it could be moved by a coal-burning train, saving a large amount of fuel. And in terms of long-range fire support, the further they went, the more the German army found that they needed a large-caliber artillery piece as a corps-level fire support weapon.

After all, air support was not too timely, and the army, which overemphasized mobility, did indeed lack a large-caliber weapon to take out the permanent fortifications that were blocking their way. The caliber of the towed artillery was too small. Although it could keep up with the rapid maneuver of the German army, in the face of the increasingly numerous and sturdy Soviet trench defense positions, the German army had found itself helplessly bogged down in an endless trench warfare.

So the German army had also made a demand on its own weapon production. A weapon modified from an ordinary train car, mounting a naval 270mm cannon, was born. As a large-caliber support artillery for the German Wehrmacht at the army group level, it was quickly thrown into the battlefield.

Against this kind of defensive position, one shot was indeed enough to change the situation. The earth was thrown up and scattered in all directions, and the entire mountaintop was shrouded in a cloud of black smoke. With this huge explosion, the German infantry began to shout and surge towards the Soviet positions, which had little strength left to return fire.

A Panzer III assault gun slowly crossed a trench, its tracks churning up the mud, its road wheels bouncing up and down with the undulations of the terrain. This assault gun was an improved, long-barreled 75mm universal model, which, while covering the infantry in an assault mission, also had a certain anti-tank capability.

To give this originally very light Panzer III a better defensive capability, the crew had hung everything they could find on the frontal armor plate. It was now covered with spare road wheels and additional steel plates, a messy sight that made the assault gun look extremely scruffy. On top of these steel parts, dirty sandbags were filled with stones and sand. On the battlefield, people did everything they could to stay alive. No one was lazy.

Accompanying this assault gun was also a half-track armored car. The German soldiers inside were frantically strafing with the machine gun at the front of the vehicle, trying to suppress the scattered Soviet infantry who were returning fire.

Following behind this armored car was a group of German soldiers, their heads bowed. Some were carrying rifles, some were holding submachine guns with both hands. Every step forward was taken with caution. As the vehicles inched forward, these cautious soldiers saw the Soviet trench at their feet, which was piled high with corpses.

“Get in! Get in! Heil Führer!” the leading infantry officer shouted his command, and then, leading by example, he jumped into the trench, which was filled with enough blood and water to cover his ankles. As he jumped down, one after another of the German soldiers jumped into the trench and, like a virus, they quickly spread out along these trenches.

A Soviet soldier, leaning against the trench, returned fire and was then turned into a hornet’s nest by the submachine guns in the hands of the German soldiers. The other Soviet soldiers raised their hands to surrender, but a few more were cut down by the Germans who had not ceased fire. The rest were finally able to live.

The German assault gun and armored car began to advance into the depths, bit by bit. A Soviet soldier aimed his huge, two-meter-long anti-tank rifle at the German armored car. He squinted his eyes, aimed, and then pulled the trigger. The huge recoil seemed to have broken the bones in his shoulder, like being punched in the chest by a giant. It was a long while before he realized he had completed his shot, but the pain in his shoulder made him give up the idea of continuing to fire.

He sat back down in the trench, his thoughts unknown. On this position were dozens of his comrades whom he knew. In the distance were also thousands of Soviet soldiers. But now this place was filled with burning flames, and the remaining people were all waiting for their end. Hope no longer existed for them.

The anti-tank rifle’s bullet had struck the engine compartment of the German armored car. A second later, the German armored car came to a stop, smoking lightly. But in front and to the side of this armored car, the German Panzer III assault gun was still firing fiercely. The German soldiers had bypassed the damaged armored car and were continuing to attack forward.

A young German soldier, holding his G43 assault rifle, jumped into a foxhole and then looked in surprise at the Soviet gunner who was sitting on the ground, panting. The huge anti-tank rifle was still lying on the ground. The Soviet rifleman who had been covering him had been dead for a long time.

The German infantryman raised his rifle and aimed it at the enemy in front of him. Just a dozen seconds ago, this enemy had just fired and had hit an armored car. He had to shoot and finish off this damn Soviet enemy.

But looking at that equally young face, this German soldier wavered a little. He didn’t know whether it was better to open fire in this situation, or if it was more appropriate to take a prisoner. But soon he no longer had to think, because the Soviet who was sitting on the ground began to draw the pistol at his waist.

Crack! The German soldier fired deftly, a single shot striking the man in the chest. The other’s body shuddered from the immense force, and the hand that had been drawing the pistol fell limply to his side. His youthful face also drooped powerlessly.

A second German infantryman jumped into the foxhole, and then a third. One of the German soldiers cleanly stepped on the body of the Soviet soldier and set up his G42 machine gun. The other opened an ammunition box and fed the belt into the machine gun.

The machine gun nest was quickly established, and then the sound of ripping linen came out. Under the cover of the machine gun fire, the German offensive became even more ferocious. And the Soviet soldier, who was still with his eyes open, had become an insignificant stepping stone under the feet of the Germans.

“Clang… Clang…” With the sound of metal colliding, a heavy track passed over this foxhole. The second covering assault gun drove past this place. The German soldiers following behind the assault gun did not even glance here, but, with their waists bent, they cautiously continued to advance.

This young soldier, holding his helmet, charged out of the foxhole, followed behind this unit, and continued to advance. The bullets struck the mud at their feet, kicking up puffs of green smoke. The debris and dirt from the explosions landed on their helmets, making a clanging sound. Those things, hitting their faces, stung with a fiery pain.

Two hours later, at the very top of this high ground, a dozen or so German soldiers, by the side of a damaged 76mm anti-tank gun, had erected a huge flagpole. A huge swastika flag fluttered in the rolling black smoke. The dense bullet holes on the flag told of the tragedy and heroism of the battle here.

On the main front, near another high ground in the distance, a Soviet regimental commander picked up his phone. “The Germans did not use tanks. The ones attacking the main front are the German infantry units… Yes! The observation was not wrong! They have no tanks! They are all armored cars and assault guns!… Yes! I will defend the position to the death, until the very last moment.”

The call went straight to the Soviet High Command. The chubby General Vatutin squinted his eyes. The main force of the German armored units had not appeared on the main front. This seemed a bit strange. After all, this was still a battle for defensive positions in the open field. Even if the German army were to avoid losses, there was no reason for them to hold back their tanks in this situation.

“The Germans… the damn Germans… in this situation, not to use armored units… what on earth are you planning?” Vatutin muttered in a low voice, but in his mind, he was imagining what kind of trick the Germans were playing. Suddenly, his eyes widened, and he said to himself with some fear, “It can’t be…?”

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