Before the fog dissipated, everyone divided into groups and found positions near the German artillery positions according to the previous plan.
After covering his cloak, Wei Ran raised his telescope and looked around at the surrounding situation.
At this time, artillery observer Andre and postman Revry were hiding in a pile of leaves under a certain pine tree only a hundred meters away from him, which was the closest to the edge of the forest and the best view. A good location, as long as the dense fog dissipates completely, you can easily see the entire German artillery position outside the forest from there.
Farther on the other side of the fire, sniper Danila and Nurse Lano were hiding on a small highland protruding from the edge of the forest, silently digging for energy with an engineer shovel. Bunkers to house them. The two of them were not only able to see part of the German positions, but also the area around Andre.
But because they are too far forward, the two of them are most easily exposed. This is something that neither they nor others know very well but are powerless to do anything about.
The position of Weiran's ambush between the two groups of people can only be said to be neither good nor bad. It does not have as good a perspective as Andre and the others, and it is relatively safer than Daniela and the others. , but more importantly, the muzzle of the gun in his hand was pointed at the direction they came from.
As everyone waited patiently, the fog inside and outside the forest gradually dissipated, and Wei Ran, who had been passing the time by digging trenches, finally saw the German artillery positions outside the forest.
However, although the position that was zoomed in by the telescope has now dug a lot of gun emplacements, there are even some scattered trucks parked around it, and there are even some piles on the ground covered by camouflage nets. things, but the artillery they are looking for is not much at all. What they can see so far are only some small-caliber rapid-fire anti-aircraft guns.
Where did the artillery go?
This is a question that pops up in everyone’s mind at the same time, and this question is bound to not have an answer in a short time. But on the other hand, last night they clearly watched the cannons dragged by the locomotive drive past their eyes to this area.
Could it be that the artillery hasn’t been delivered yet? Wei Ran muttered to himself and continued to hold up the telescope patiently, waiting for a turn of events outside the forest.
At the same time, artillery observer Andre had already begun calculations and prepared the angle and density of artillery strikes. For him, although there are not many artillery pieces in this position at the moment, since the preparations are so complete, it is only a matter of time before the artillery appears.
As for Danila and Nurse Lano, they were even less anxious. They wished that the Germans outside the forest would move slower so that they could be more prepared and at the same time. We can get along longer.
Since the opponent's position was not set up yet, Wei Ran simply picked up the engineering shovel again and continued to dig his own bunker to pass the time.
Thanks to the humid climate in the forest and the current season, the soil mixed with a large amount of humus was dug outIt wasn't difficult to get there, but the dug-out soil needed to be well disguised and wasted some time.
Although it was a bit troublesome, at about four o'clock in the afternoon, he still dug himself a foxhole that was level with his chest and could barely bend his knees to sit down.
Even the excavated soil was not wasted. He piled it around and compacted the cloak covering the foxhole. Finally, he crawled deep into the forest and carefully collected enough fallen leaves. Covering the breastworks, which were piled with excavated earth, and the cloak that served as a "roof".
Until the outline of the one-man bunker was completely blurred, he got in, raised the telescope again, and while chewing the dried meat that Joya gave them, he observed the artillery emplacement outside the forest.
Unfortunately, there are still only a few anti-aircraft guns in this position at this time, and even only one of the trucks is left.
Not far to the right of the artillery position, there were some sidecar motorcycles and half-track motorcycles carrying bundles of telephone wires around the wooden houses. The latest appearance of antennas on the roofs of these wooden houses also indicates that they may be activated at any time.
In the almost torturous wait, time passed by minute by second. After the setting sun was once again completely blocked by the tree canopy, the fog gradually spread, but the artillery position outside the forest was not visible from the beginning to the end. There was no change in the direction, not even the direction in which they came, without the appearance of the German search team.
Although this situation is a bit unexpected, it is undoubtedly good news for them. However, compared to the calmness on their side, Captain Valentin in the Soviet position a few kilometers away became increasingly uneasy.
In just two or three days, the Germans more than 200 meters away seemed to have given up the idea of starting a war. They used the radio to invite them to sing every once in a while throughout the day, and even Last night, a few bold German soldiers secretly threw two harmonicas and a pack of canned meat outside their trenches, and then blatantly informed them by radio that they were gifts for the singer.
Such an abnormal behavior not only made him and political commissar Sergei more and more vigilant, but there was no clue at all. Since Wei Ran and others left, the artillery observer Andrei had not used the radio. No messages were sent. At this time, they had no idea whether the other side had found the German artillery positions, or even whether they were still alive.
The turning point for all this occurred in the second half of the night.
The first person to notice the abnormality was Reveli, who was on duty at night. He was the first to notice a large number of car lights appearing in the German artillery position outside the forest.
Although it was impossible to see what the other party was doing because of the fog, everyone who was woken up by him knew that the artillery they were waiting for was probably in place!
"Would you like to touch it and have a look?" Postman Reverie asked first.
"No, or it's not useful at all."
Andre was the first to open theHe refused, "Even if they set up an artillery position today, they will at least wait until the fog clears before they can start fire strikes. The distance between our position and theirs is only two hundred meters. They will not be in this kind of situation." If you fire blindly under the visibility, you will only lose the surprise value of this artillery position."
"Andre, when do you think they will open fire?" Danila asked in a low voice.
"Tomorrow morning," Andre guessed decisively, "Tomorrow morning, when the fog starts to disperse."
"Then we will continue to wait," Danila said decisively. A decision was made.
“Everyone should be more vigilant tonight. They might enter the forest to expand their patrol range.” Andre continued after hesitating for a moment, “Revry, take me to the forest now and find a little From a higher position, I will first notify Comrade Commander Valentin via radio to get them ready, and also ask the first aid station in the forest to move quickly."
"Follow me. , I know a good place." Revry stood up as he spoke.
"Do you want us to follow?" Wei Ran asked.
"No, we'll be back soon." Andre picked up the submachine gun at his feet and tightened the radio on his shoulder. "Don't worry! There won't be any danger. ”
Watching Revry and Andre leave on a horse-drawn sledge, Weiran, Daniella and Nurse Lano looked at each other, and each quietly returned to their bunker patiently. Waiting, at the same time in the dark, using binoculars to vigilantly observe the artillery emplacement shrouded in fog outside the forest.
More than an hour later, Andre and Revry returned one after another and hid themselves in the pile of leaves again.
On this night, except for the five of them, all that was left was boring waiting, but it was not easy for others.
After receiving Andre’s radio message, Captain Valentin and others who stood firm at the position immediately moved the first aid station nearly two kilometers deep into the birch forest overnight, and also conducted The air defense bunker was once again reinforced, and even at Dr. Pasha's insistence, an additional most secluded air defense bunker was assigned to him, his two other recently added doctors, and several nurses.
Similarly, the lame Gioia also relied on the sledge pulled by the pregnant donkey and the two tattered clothes tied to the tail of the sledge to lead the pursuers behind him to run farther and farther. As for the two The girls who have been entrusted with his care have also been arranged in a more secluded shack deep in the forest. They each hold weapons that they are barely able to use, and are anxiously waiting for Gioia to return, or for Refri and others to return for a reunion. .
At 6:30 in the morning, the sun's rays gradually emerged from the horizon. The lights of the German artillery positions outside the forest finally went out one after another. At the same time, in the gradually dissipating fog, some vague figures of German artillery also appeared. and artillery outlines.
"The wait is finally here..."
Wei Ran muttered to himself, turned to look in the direction behind him, and when he saw no pursuers appeared, he immediately took out the anti-tank gun from the metal book.
Ever since he got this big guy, he has never been put to serious use. No matter what, he has to get a shot this time to enjoy it!
Gently, he put on a magazine full of high-explosive bombs and a matching muzzle brake. Wei Ran aimed the circular anti-aircraft sight in the optical sight at the edges of the position. There was a wooden house with smoke rising from the chimney. After moving slowly, he finally settled on the glass window of one of the wooden houses facing his direction.
Gently twist the auxiliary hoe under the butt of the gun to lock the shooting angle. Wei Ran slowly shook the bolt ratchet, and with a crisp click, he pushed a thick bullet into the bullet. chamber.
As everyone waited patiently, as the fog became thinner and thinner, they finally saw clearly the 150 mm caliber SFH18 howitzers on the position outside the forest!
Once these terrifying big guys open fire, not to mention that the bunker at Company Commander Valentin’s position may not be able to withstand it at all. I am afraid that all Soviet positions within a radius of 10 kilometers will suffer!
Artillery observer Andrei was obviously aware of this. At this time, he no longer cared whether the several German radio detection vehicles circling at the edge of the forest would notice them, and decisively turned on the radio. Start calling in Soviet artillery.
While everyone was waiting anxiously, the German radio detection vehicles were the first to notice something was wrong, but before they could determine the source of the signal, Andre had already turned off the radio.
Seeing that there were already patrols leading wolf dogs or driving half-track motorcycles from the camp near the position to the surrounding forest, everyone's hearts were lifted.
While everyone was waiting patiently, within less than five minutes, the rumble of artillery shells and rockets tearing through the air began to appear in the sky, followed immediately by Katyusha rockets. Shells of indeterminate caliber hit each other less than 500 meters away from the German artillery position.
Andre hammered the soil in front of him hard, gritted his teeth and turned on the radio again to guide the artillery in the Soviet position to correct the shooting angle.
At the same time, the artillerymen of the German position also realized that this position had been discovered, and immediately put the artillery that had just been deployed overnight into the gun mount, preparing to use the truck parked not far away to launch the final attack. Tow away as quickly as possible.
However, the time required for artillery to move positions is directly proportional to the caliber of the artillery. The weight of a single gun mount of these 150 mm caliber big guys may be as heavy as a complete set of some small-caliber artillery. The weight of the Soviet artillery, which had been waiting for Andre to return the observation results a few days ago, was undoubtedly far faster than the speed of local artillery transfers.
Soon, the second wave of artillery shells passed through the positions of both sides, hitting the German artillery positions andThe open space between the forests where Wei Ran and others were hiding also included nearly a quarter of the artillery positions.
Although this shelling had little effect, it happened to help them deal with the patrol soldiers who were getting closer and closer. At the same time, Weiran also used the cover of the explosion to aim at the target he had chosen long ago and continuously pulled the trigger of the anti-tank gun!
After two consecutive 20mm caliber high-explosive bombs flew a full distance of seven to eight hundred meters, they hit the glass window about one and a half meters square with reasonable accuracy. This The accuracy is already very high for these ammunition produced during World War II, but how much damage the two brothers can cause in that wooden house with an antenna above their heads, in a short period of time, I am afraid that only the people in that wooden house can do it. knew.
Shortly after Wei Ran put away his anti-tank gun after he had had enough, the third wave of artillery fire called by Andre finally hit the right place accurately.
Although the distance from the German artillery position was more than one kilometer, the sound of those artillery shells carrying huge energy and the dense explosion of Katyusha rockets, as well as the sound of the explosion caused by their exploding artillery shells, could not be heard. The shock waves visible to the naked eye still gave Wei Ran and others hiding at the edge of the forest the illusion that their hearts would be torn apart at any time!
Compared with their illusion, the small wooden house that had been hit by two 20mm high-explosive bombs not long ago, as well as the wooden houses abandoned by forestry workers around it, had withstood the third round of skyfall. After justice, he was literally torn into pieces.
Now in the field of view of the telescope in Wei Ran's hand, those wooden houses and even the wooden boards used as foundations have been blown away to unknown places.
"Caliber is justice..."
Wei Ran murmured to himself, moved the telescope to look in Andre's direction, and then discovered that the other party was actually Still holding the radio and saying something.
Soon, the fourth round of artillery strikes arrived as scheduled. The location of this strike seemed to be farther away, and because of the terrain and the obstruction of the pine trees directly in front, Wei Ran could not see it at all, but The explosion that occurred after the shelling was even more terrifying than before, so much so that he had the illusion of an earthquake!
He glanced at the smoke rising into the sky in the distance with fear. When Wei Ran looked at Andre again, he found that he had already stood up and left the hiding spot, while Lei Fuli was waving to him at this time.
Jumping out of the bunker quickly, Wei Ran grabbed the camouflage cloak and draped it over his shoulders before running in the direction of the draft horse tied deep in the forest.
Danila and Nurse Lano were also not slow. They completed the artillery guidance task so easily, and there were no pursuers to surround them. This was incredible to them. Good news. At the very least, this also means that they may survive, or possibly live longer.
After a group of five people met up at the frightened draft horse, Revry easily used a handful ofThe salted corn kernels calmed the draft horse, and then he invited everyone to get on the sledge and ran deep into the forest.
Until they could no longer see the boundary between the forest and the open space behind them, Revry sighed happily, "I didn't expect that we could complete the mission alive."
"Yes, it's good to be alive." Nurse Lano put the sniper rifle aside, took off the bottle of vodka from her waist and took a sip, then handed it to Daniela, and took a sip. Lean into each other's arms.
"Andre, where did the last artillery call you call hit?" Wei Ran asked curiously.
"Ammunition Storage Point"
Andre happily took the water bottle handed over by Daniela and took a sip of vodka, "That place is better than the first time we saw the artillery position. There was an extra circle of dirt, and I guessed that they must have piled ammunition there, so I called for another round of artillery fire on the pretext that there was no hit, but I didn’t expect that my bet turned out to be right.”
said. At this point, Andre raised the kettle again and took a big sip of vodka, then handed it to Revry who was driving the car.
"Where are we going now?" Revry also took a sip of vodka and asked, "Find a place to hide first, or find a way to return to our position?"
An Andre thought for a while and said, "Find a place to hide first. Maybe we will have a new mission soon."
"Then let's go to Joya's territory to repair it." Reveli suggested, "His other shack is not far from here. You can find it in an hour at most." Seeing that no one had any objections, Reveli returned the kettle to Lano and immediately shook it. He took the reins and ordered the draft horse to run.
“This animal is really good,” Nurse Lano said in admiration as she took the kettle and hung it again on her waist. “I was worried that it would be frightened or bark when the shell exploded.”
Revli sighed and explained, "After the Germans occupied our village, Gioia deafened the ears of this horse and his other donkey, and even asked a veterinarian to help with the throat repair. A minor operation was performed to make it mute, and now it can no longer make any sound, but there is nothing that can be done about it. If this was not done, Gioia would have been captured by the Germans. ”
Everyone was stunned when they heard this. Danila shook her head and sighed, "When a war breaks out, even the animals will suffer..."
Nurse Lano, who was leaning in the former's arms, murmured to herself He said, "Even people have to suffer, let alone animals..."
Andre lay down on the sledge and closed his bloodshot eyes, "Yes, if the Germans really After occupying Moscow, our situation will not be much better than this animal."
"I don't know when this war will end." Revry also muttered, shaking the reins. It's also much gentler.
After riding this sledge and running around in the dense pine forest for more than an hour, Revry tightened the reins fiercely and whispered a reminder.Said, "Something is not right! There is the sound of an engine!"
Hearing this, everyone immediately jumped off the sledge and hid behind a pine tree, observing the surrounding environment vigilantly. Revry also skillfully comforted the draft horse and laid it down on the ground again.
"Refrie, how far is it from Gioia's shack?" Danila asked in a low voice.
“It’s very close,” Refri said, pointing to the raised terrain not far away. “You can just climb over there.”
Danila looked at the direction that the former pointed. , listened carefully for a moment and then whispered, "The sound of the engine is coming from another direction. Revry, you go over first and see if there is anything abnormal in Gioia's shack. Let's block it here. If Gioia Over there in the shack, take them to hide first."
"Be careful," Refri said as he stood up.
"Andre, you go too."
Danila paused for a moment and then said with difficulty, "Revri, if necessary, protect Andre first. He is more important than everyone else!"
"I...I understand! I will protect him!" After saying this, he immediately motioned Andre to get back on the sledge.
The artillery observer Andre looked at Danila and Nurse Llano, then at the guard, gritted his teeth and jumped on the sledge, letting Postman Revry pull the quiet draft horse. The horse left its spot.
“Don’t shoot until necessary”
Danila gave a final reminder, and then took Lano to hide behind a fallen dead tree and raised the binoculars. He looked towards the direction where the engine was coming from.
At the same time, Wei Ran had already hid behind a pine tree with a diameter of more than one meter, and took out the SVT40 semi-automatic rifle with a scope from the metal book.
Less than ten minutes later, two half-track motorcycles appeared at the end of the three people's field of vision, and each of the two half-track motorcycles had a machine gun mounted on the engine radiator cover!
This is not over yet. Following closely, more than a dozen German soldiers came out of the bushes holding Mauser rifles or submachine guns. The first two of them, They also each held a wolf dog that had started growling or barking.
"Bang! Bang!"
Almost at the same time that Wei Ran was thinking about whether to fire, Danila and Nurse Lano had already pulled the trigger in no particular order!
After the gunshots rang out almost simultaneously, the drivers of the two half-track motorcycles tilted their heads, and a cloud of blood mist burst out from their faces!
The out-of-control half-track motorcycle continued to move forward under the drive of the engine, but Danila, who was using a semi-automatic rifle, had already pulled the trigger for the second time without distinction between Weiran and Weiran!
After another gunshot sounded almost simultaneously, the two machine gunners kneeling on the rear bucket of the half-track fell down one after another. And Lano's subsequent shot also accurately killed a wolfdog that had discovered them!
It was from this shot that the rest of the German soldiers immediately began to fight back. Even the only wolfdog still alive was loosened from its leash and flew towards the three of them!
"Bang!"
Danila took the risk and fired the third shot, hitting the wolfdog who was no less threatening than the Germans holding submachine guns, and immediately retreated behind the dead wood where he was hiding. .
At this point, all the advantages of the three of them have been exhausted. The dozen or so German soldiers suppressed them with fierce firepower from submachine guns until they could not even lift their heads, and at the same time, they were getting closer and closer. distance.
In this dense red pine forest, the effective field of view is no more than 100 meters, but once they get within 50 meters, the opponent can easily kill them by throwing a few grenades at random!
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