Chapter 147 The Battle of the Nameless Highlands (Part 2)

  The artillery fire of the German army was more violent than ever before. The entire highland was blown into a sea of ​​flames, and the earth was splashed with shrapnel. The fortifications that the soldiers spent a few days working hard to build were blown up into disrepair by artillery fire in a short while.

  The commanders and fighters of the third company who stood firm on the high ground retreated to the bunkers on the north **** one after another before the large-scale German bombardment began. Only a five-member observation team was left on the position to monitor the enemy's movements.

  Corporal Semyon, who had participated in the Grisa reconnaissance team, was the leader of this observation team. Facing such fierce artillery fire, he was unable to observe the situation of the German army at all. He could only open his mouth wide, cover his ears, and curl up in the trench to avoid the shelling. The shells that fell one after another exploded in the front, back, left, and right sides of the trench, and the soil raised by the air wave rushed towards his face like splashing water, and half of his body was buried in the soil in an instant.

   Except for the deafening explosions, he couldn't hear other sounds; he couldn't see anything except the gunpowder smoke that covered the sky and the earth lifted by the air waves. He secretly prayed in his heart that the German shelling would pass quickly.

   After the German shelling ended for a while, he crawled out of the mud with difficulty. He stood up and looked left and right, but he didn't see the soldiers under him. He yelled twice, but found that his voice was inaudible. It seemed that his ears were hard to use due to the shock of the shelling. He turned his head and looked down the hillside, and faintly saw several German tanks heading towards the high ground. Behind them, there was a wave-like skirmish formation of German infantry. Seeing that the German army was about to attack, Semyon quickly stuffed the whistle into his mouth and blew vigorously.

  Saviev, who was staying in the bunker fortification on the north slope, heard the end of the German shelling, but there was no whistle sound from the position. He frowned and said to Stepan who was sitting opposite: "What's the matter? Why hasn't Corporal Semyon blown his whistle yet?"

  Stepan listened carefully to the movement outside, and said in an uncertain tone, "Did all the soldiers in the observation team die in the shelling?"

  The two came outside the fortification, looked up at the high ground shrouded in gunpowder smoke, and were considering whether they should send someone to check it out, when suddenly a sharp whistle came from the high ground. Two long whistles and one short whistle are a pre-arranged signal to detect the enemy's attack.

   "The enemy has begun to attack." Savyev drew out his pistol, and shouted at the bunker where the soldiers were hiding: "The enemy is coming up, all enter the position!"

Standing in the traffic trench outside the battalion command post, Belkin raised his binoculars and looked at the third company that was entering the high ground from its hiding place, thinking to himself: This German shelling is more violent than ever before. They are bound to win the high ground. The second company and the machine gun company, which were the reserves, were taken away by the battalion commander. If the third company was wiped out, the guard platoon, engineer platoon, and tank platoon could only be sent directly under the platoon.

  Just as he was preoccupied, he suddenly heard Sergey who was standing next to him shout excitedly: "Comrade deputy battalion commander, look quickly, the battalion commander and the soldiers from the other two companies are back!"

  Belkin looked in the direction of his finger, and sure enough, he saw hundreds of soldiers trotting over all the way, and the battalion commander, Major Sokov, was at the front. Seeing this scene, his heart finally returned to his stomach. As long as the soldiers of these two companies come back, there will be enough troops for defensive warfare.

Sokov came to the battalion command post and stopped, turned around and commanded the two company commanders who were following him out of breath: "After returning to their respective garrisons, let the soldiers take the time to rest, and prepare to reinforce the second company and the third company at any time." The preparations of the company." The two company commanders agreed and took their soldiers back to the station.

   Sokov jumped into the traffic trench, came to Belgin's side, and asked: "Comrade deputy battalion commander, how is the situation?"

"The German shelling was very violent just now." Belkin didn't know the situation on the high ground, so he could only tell Sokov what he knew: "However, the third company entered the position as soon as the enemy's shelling ended. "

  He saw Sokov turning his head and walking towards the command post, and hurriedly followed, and asked worriedly from behind: "Comrade battalion commander, aren't you afraid that the division commander will blame you for bringing back the troops transferred to the division headquarters?"

"Deputy Battalion Commander, don't you see that we are being attacked by the enemy? At this time, deploying troops to the division headquarters will greatly weaken our army's strength, which is not conducive to our defense." Sokov said without turning his head. : "For our difficulties, I think the division can understand."

  The German tanks stopped at the foot of the mountain, and the infantry following them accelerated, overtook the tanks, and rushed towards the hillside. Savyev, who was lying next to a machine gun, saw the enemy rushing up the hill, and quickly said to the soldiers on the left and right: "Pass down, no one is allowed to shoot without my order!"

  The soldiers who received the order lay motionless on their shooting positions, pointed their black muzzles at the enemy, and waited patiently for Savyev's order to fire. The entire hillside was quiet, only the heavy footsteps and heavy breathing of the German soldiers could be heard as they climbed the hill.

  Seeing the enemy entering the 100-meter range one after another, Savyev raised his right hand high above his head, then swung it down violently, and shouted loudly: "Fire!"

  The machine gun roared loudly, and then the whole company opened fire, and there was a dense sound of gunfire on the ground. The bullets spewed by machine guns, submachine guns, and rifles were as impenetrable as a rainstorm, knocking down the enemies on the hillside piece by piece.

  The German army quickly lay down on the spot and fought back. After firing a few shots, they jumped up from the ground again. Under the leadership of their respective commanders, they stepped on the corpses of their companions and continued to bend over, struggling to rush to the position on the top of the mountain. Seeing that the Soviet army on the top of the mountain opened fire, the tanks at the foot of the mountain also started shelling.

  Facing the charging enemies, the condescending fighters of the third company poured their ammunition downwards without hesitation. However, due to the constraints of the terrain, in order to knock down the enemies rushing into the dead angle of shooting, individual fighters had to stand up and shoot. But as soon as they showed their heads, they were hit by bullets fired by the Germans and fell face up in the trench.

  When a group of German soldiers rushed to the vicinity of the position, countless grenades flew out of the trenches and exploded on the way they charged, and the shrapnel flying around turned over every figure. The short distance of twenty meters has become an insurmountable moat. The ground under the feet of the German soldiers has been soaked in blood into sticky mud. The corpses killed by the grenade were piled on top of each other.

   Facing such tenacious defense of the Soviet army, the German commander knew that it was meaningless to continue fighting, so he blew his whistle to inform the desperate soldiers to retreat. The German soldiers on the hillside felt amnesty after hearing the whistle, and fled back at a faster speed than when they charged.

  Seeing that the enemy retreated, cheers erupted from the battlefield. Savyev, who was wounded in several places, returned directly to his company command post without dressing his wounds, and reported to Sokov in the rear by phone: "Comrade battalion commander, the enemy's attack has been repulsed by us. "

  (end of this chapter)