Burning Moscow

51 The Magical Use of Individual Bunker

“Report!” The voice of a soldier came from outside, which made me dispel the idea of ​​continuing to sleep in bed.

“Come in.” Before I could speak, Kroshkov, who had been in the shelter, had already spoken.

I lifted the curtain separating the camp bed from the command post and poked my head out to look around. I saw a soldier wearing a helmet and a rifle with a bayonet on his back. Standing in front of Kroshkov in a formal manner, he reported to him: “Comrade Instructor I, I saw a group of trucks with a canopy driving towards us. come.”

“What kind of truck? Is it our army truck?” He asked after hearing this.

“Yes, it is the towing truck of the artillery company of the division. There are artillery towed behind each vehicle. They are driving towards us from the back of the position. The platoon leader felt it necessary to report to you, so he sent me over.”

“I see, thank you.” Kroshkov said and waved to the soldier, indicating that he could leave. The soldier immediately understood him, saluted him, turned and left the command post.

Kroshkov watched the soldiers walk out of the command post, and then slowly turned around, presumably he was about to call me, but it happened to meet my eyes when the probe came out. He chuckled, and then asked me: “Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, can you get up? The sentry on duty came to report just now that an artillery company has pulled in. Let’s go and have a look.”

“Okay.” I was originally lying on the camp bed in my clothes. After saying this, I immediately got out of bed, put on my boots, opened the curtains, and removed the nails hanging on the wall. The army coat, while putting it on, said to Kroshkov: “Comrade instructor, let’s go take a look.”

I stood on the open ground with Kroshkov, watching the convoy in the distance get closer and closer. In a short while, the convoy stopped five or six meters in front of us. Immediately after the cab door of the first truck opened, a heavily armed captain jumped out of it, blew his whistle vigorously, and shouted loudly: “Artillery company, listen to my orders, get out of the car.”

As he shouted, the soldiers in the truck jumped out of the car one after another, moving their stiff bodies while waving their arms and kicking their legs, while talking and laughing around.

The captain ran over, paid a salute to Kroshkov, and said loudly: “Comrade first-level political instructor, Captain Gunchazin from the anti-aircraft artillery company will report to you, and I will lead the antiaircraft artillery company to come and listen to your orders. ”

“Anti-aircraft artillery battalion?!” When Kroshkov said this, he looked up at the sky and said with some confusion: “What we need here are anti-tank anti-aircraft guns, not anti-aircraft guns. If we want to strengthen For air defense, it might be more appropriate for you to go to the division headquarters.”

“Wait a minute,” I interrupted the instructor and asked the captain directly: “Comrade Captain, you have received an order to use anti-aircraft guns to strike enemy tanks, right?”

“Yes, absolutely correct.” When the captain answered me, he looked me up and down curiously. Perhaps he was wondering how suddenly a young female soldier would jump out and say irresponsible things, and the first-level political instructor did not express any objections.

“Come and get to know, this is Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina.” Kroshkov quickly introduced my identity to the captain.

“Hello, comrade lieutenant colonel.” The captain hurriedly saluted me, “I am waiting for your instructions.”

I did not return the gift, but stepped forward to hold his hand and said, “Welcome to you. With your support, the German Devil’s tank is no longer a concern.” After letting go of his hand, I pointed to the back of the position. A piece of woods in the northwest said: “You rate the antiaircraft artillery to connect to the woods over there to establish a position. I will immediately arrange for the correspondents to lay the telephone lines. If you need your fire support, I will call you.”

“Understood, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel.” The captain stood up and saluted me again, then ran back to his convoy quickly, and shouted in his loud voice: “Artillery company, listen to my orders, all get in the car.”

Seeing the convoy turning around and looking towards the woods in the northwest, Kroshkov asked in a puzzled way: “Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, why do you arrange the artillery company’s position in the woods? You know, according to the regulations, artillery should be deployed directly in the woods. On the open ground behind the position.”

“Comrade my political instructor,” I explained patiently to him: “The regulations were formulated more than ten years ago. At that time, the enemy had very few aircraft and tanks. The defensive positions were arranged like that. It was completely correct. But the situation is now. It’s different. Before the enemy attacked, aircraft bombed and bombarded, and then the infantry charged under the cover of tanks. If we were to follow the regulations mechanically and place the artillery on open, unobstructed ground, that would be to let the soldiers Be a living target for the enemy. Do you understand what I mean?”

Hearing my explanation, Kroshkov said nothing, just nodded. After a while he said again: “Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, it’s cold outside, let’s go back to the shelter.” He didn’t say that I didn’t feel cold yet. Hearing this, I felt the cold wind hurt my face. It hurts, so he agreed, turned around and ran back to the warm shelter.

The German offensive began at ten o’clock in the morning. They used the same old tactics. When the plane went to the position, it would first turn around, drop a few bombs, and then chase the target on the ground, and shoot with a machine gun. Then their artillery began to roar, and the dense shells fell on our army’s position.

Facing the old German style of play, I had a way to deal with it. As soon as the enemy plane flew over, I notified the company commanders that, except for a few observation posts, the rest of the soldiers hid in the bullet-proof holes that had been dug. As long as there is no dense battle formation in the trenches, the German bombing and shelling will cause much less damage to our army. I am very confident that under my command, the guard battalion will never be completely lighted up in a day or two. Otherwise, without having to hold the higher authorities accountable for the failure, I would shoot directly into my temple like Major General Smirnov.

The shelling hadn’t ended yet, I heard two rapid whistle sounds coming from the trenches. This was a signal that had been communicated to the observation post in advance, and it meant that the commander should go over immediately. I quickly ran out of the bullet-proof hole, bent down along the trench, and ran towards the observation post braving the enemy’s fire. As soon as I saw the soldier who was in charge of the observation, I asked unhappily: “The enemy’s shelling is not over yet, what are you doing with your whistle?”

“Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, look, German Devil,” the sentry I blamed did not refute, but pointed to the front of the position and said to me: “Look, the German Devil’s infantry is here.”

I raised my binoculars and looked outside, and saw that the German skirmish formation had gradually approached our army position. Unexpectedly, I didn’t expect that the learning ability of the German commander who commanded the troops was still quite strong. Yesterday, I used this tactic to bring troops to seize the position. I didn’t expect that they would also use their own human way to attack them today, taking advantage of the opportunity of our army to be suppressed by artillery fire.

But since this tactic is my first, I naturally have a way to deal with it. I immediately ordered the observation post to blow the whistle to greet the soldiers to enter the position as soon as possible. After a series of rapid whistle sounds from the observation post, the soldiers hiding in the bullet-proof hole entered the fighting position braving the enemy’s artillery fire.

As soon as the shelling ended, the German infantry charge began. However, they were not as fortunate as we were yesterday and failed to rush into the position because our army’s intensive firepower greeted them. The German infantrymen were exposed on the unobstructed open ground more than ten meters away. They were almost a living target for soldiers to shoot. The water-like bullets were shot out, and the infantrymen fell one after another in front of our army’s position. In order to avoid the intensive firepower of our army, some soldiers hurriedly jumped into the individual bunker we dug.

“Charge!” It was fighting fiercely, and a shout that was suppressed by the shooting sound came from the side. I turned my head and saw that Kroshkov actually took the lead and started the charge. Seeing more and more soldiers jumped out of the trenches and began to attack the enemy. I cried secretly in my heart, how safe it is to stay in the battle against the enemy, why are you leading the team? However, seeing the enemy retreating like a tidal wave, I stood up straight and swept the enemy’s retreat queue with my submachine gun. After I finished playing a magazine and replaced it with a new magazine, I jumped out. Trenches, follow the soldiers to charge forward.

The assault force stopped after advancing 300 meters, and then retreated as a whole. Kroshkov pointed to the individual bunker and said: “I now understand why you asked us to dig the bunker so deep that the German devil fell in and couldn’t climb out.”

“Hee hee, just understand.”

“What about the German devils in the bunker?” he asked.

“A soldier who understands German shouts to them. If you want to survive, throw your weapon out and surrender. Otherwise,” At this point, I pulled a grenade from the waist of a soldier next to me, ignited the fuse, and waited for it to burn. Five seconds later, the grenade was thrown into one of the bunkers. “Boom!” With a loud noise, thick smoke mixed with a burst of blood came out of the bunker, and then everything returned to calm. I then added: “Those who don’t surrender will be dealt with like this. Do you understand?”

“Understood.” Kroshkov and the soldiers around answered me at the same time.

The shouting to the German soldiers trapped in the individual bunker began. Many German soldiers in the bunker obediently threw out their weapons. After being pulled up by the soldiers, they held up their hands and became our prisoners. But from time to time there was a sound or two of explosions. This was the most direct method used by the soldiers to clean up those stubborn enemies.