Capítulo 16: Chapter 16: The Flames of War Reignite
Each army has a relatively fixed combat pattern, and the Soviet army is no exception. Shortly after the bombing ended, the whistling sound of Soviet artillery shells came flying through the air with little variation. The villages and surrounding positions naturally became the areas under concentrated attack. The village buildings, which were mostly intact before the bombing, gradually turned into ruins under the fierce bombardment and sustained artillery fire of the Soviet army. The German war flag, which had been fluttering on the flagpole, disappeared in the artillery fire. The village, along with a large area around it, was filled with flames and thick smoke from explosions, and not a single person could be seen!
The bombardment lasted for nearly half an hour before finally coming to an end. The resolute artillery barrage clearly indicated that the Soviet command wanted to avenge their T-34 tanks and combat personnel being slaughtered. Following the Soviet attack routine, as soon as the artillery ceased, the officers' slogans rang out around the village perimeter. With "Butcher" nearby, Lynn didn't need to worry about his combat role and position. These withdrawn soldiers were considered extraneous personnel in this defensive sector. After a short while, a young lieutenant ran along the trench. From the insignia and markings on his uniform, he was also a member of the Waffen-SS "Nordland" Division. Seeing these four dirty-looking individuals, the lieutenant temporarily halted his steps, identified the "Butcher" as the highest-ranking officer, hastily gave a few instructions in a loud voice, and then pointed with his right hand towards the forest outside the trench. The "Butcher" nodded without saying a word and finally, in a calm tone, said something before the lieutenant quickly left.
"Follow me," the "Butcher" said to his three soldiers.
Due to the slight difference in pronunciation between this phrase and "follow me" in English, Lynn managed to understand another sentence. He quickly followed the "Butcher," and after walking north along the trench for a while, they arrived at a place where a non-commissioned officer with a cloth military cap was distributing ammunition to passing soldiers. Depending on whether the soldiers carried rifles or submachine guns, he took bullets wrapped in parchment paper from two different boxes, but instead of distributing them per package, he opened them and gave each soldier some. Behind him was another wooden crate containing the iconic long-handled German stick grenade. Each submachine gunner received two grenades, while some riflemen received one each, while others received none at all.
As they approached, Lynn noticed that the quartermaster was standing on top of the wooden ammunition crate, and his actual height was probably less than five feet.
The "Butcher" approached alone, and the quartermaster originally grabbed a handful of bullets to give him. However, after the "Butcher" said something to him, the short sergeant stared at him for three or four seconds before reluctantly grabbing three slightly larger and two slightly smaller packages of bullets from the two boxes nearby and "dropped" them into his hands clasped together. He then took four grenades from the crate behind him. The tall soldier with Lynn hurriedly reached out, smiling, and only then did the quartermaster reluctantly hand him the grenades.
Although nothing was said face-to-face, when the quartermaster turned to leave, the "Butcher" looked displeased. Another companion who stayed behind quickly picked out three slightly larger packages from his hands, and the "Butcher" put the remaining two in his pocket, took a grenade from his companion, muttered something, and then walked away with a cold expression.
The two companions didn't say anything, they divided the remaining three packs of bullets and three grenades between themselves. This was the first time Lynn had held a grenade, but in this situation, he had no intention of playing with it and immediately strapped it to his belt. Holding the bullets in his hand, there was a heavy feeling. In fact, Lynn had seen such parchment packs on the first day; each pack should contain fifty rifle or submachine gun bullets. During his time on the front lines, he hadn't received more than thirty rounds at a time, and he didn't know what the quartermaster had said to the guy who looked like that. However, fifty bullets didn't make Lynn feel like he was a "nouveau riche," after all, he didn't know when he would receive another ammunition resupply!
With the ammunition in hand, the "Butcher" walked back with his head down. Near the location where they had previously taken cover from the bombing and shelling, he found a narrow section of trench. With one hand resting on the edge of the trench and using both legs to push off from the walls, he effortlessly climbed up, unaffected by his left hand injury. Lynn and his companions clumsily followed suit, each carrying a Mauser rifle and a "** Shovel." The action of climbing the trench appeared more awkward for them.
Leaving the trench, the four quickly arrived at the edge of the small forest indicated by the lieutenant. Several soldiers wearing large earflaps were using fresh branches to conceal their quad machine guns. Facing towards the village, there was a slope about the size of a badminton court. The top of the slope was about two meters above the ground. Climbing to the top, one would find that the forest was actually smaller than imagined, with fewer than a hundred tall and short pine and fir trees combined, occupying only this small hill. Several shells had landed here during the Soviet bombardment, breaking several spruce trees and some pine trees. Due to the damp environment, the artillery fire did not ignite other trees, leaving behind scorched shell craters that barely qualified as foxholes.
Looking around, there were several similar hills and small forests within a three-kilometer radius of the village (East Prussia was mainly hilly terrain). Faced with modern weapons of great power, such hills and forests did not offer much terrain advantage. As long as the Soviets were willing to spend some time, they could easily crush the trees and climb to the hilltops with T-34 or heavy tanks!
Under the guidance of the "Butcher," Lynn and his companions each found a foxhole to occupy, with them being relatively close to each other. After setting down their firearms and backpacks, the "Butcher" took out a shovel to reinforce his new position—he held the shovel handle with his right hand and supported the injured left hand against the shovel handle at the base of his palm. He exerted force with his feet on the upper part of the shovel when digging, demonstrating a tenacious and serious attitude that influenced the three "lazy bums" who had originally intended to just get by. Knowing the "Butcher" was stubborn, the three did not go up to help but instead vigorously wielded their shovels to deepen their foxholes and build low walls on the east side. They didn't have time to complete this small project before the Soviet artillery struck again. Although the first few shells were aimed directly at the front-line positions, the four quickly hid their heads and bodies in the foxholes, only occasionally peeking out to observe the changing situation on the battlefield.
The subsequent Soviet shelling seemed to be aimed at distracting the defending troops, as the intensity and density of the artillery fire had diminished compared to before, but the shells were relatively concentrated, once again enveloping the village and the front-line trenches in smoke and fire.
Gradually getting used to the scenes of "flashes and thunder" on the battlefield, Lynn also summarized the different sounds made by the shells flying near or far, allowing him to face such artillery fire more calmly. The hill three kilometers ahead was where he nearly lost his life, and it was also the route he had taken from the east to reach this village. Apart from keeping an eye on it, Lynn also took the opportunity to survey the area around the village. As he had expected, the German defensive forces were not always fixed in one position. Anticipating an imminent ground attack from the enemy, several "bushes" sprang to life—two groups of German soldiers manually pushed anti-tank guns forward from the side and rear of the village, along the edge of the woods, to gain more forward attack positions. One group moved forward from directly behind the village until they ambushed among the ruins. Additionally, several gun crews did not change their positions but had soldiers hidden in trenches or woods return to their gun positions. Among them were "tank can openers" with particularly tall gun carriages and thick barrels—the renowned German Pak 41/43 88mm guns!
Knowing that there were at least seven tanks and assault guns deployed on this front line, and seeing such a quantity of anti-tank guns, Lynn felt much more reassured. He felt that although the defensive firepower on the previous front line was strong, defending a front several tens of kilometers wide with relatively open terrain was not as favorable as defending this small village. Coupled with the battlefield mobility of tanks and assault guns, it had a very positive significance for revitalizing defensive warfare. Moreover, two of them were even the German "land warfare little overlords" Tiger tanks?
Under the skilled manipulation of experienced German gunners, the positions of the three anti-tank guns were quickly adjusted. One of them was placed behind the quadruple machine gun, less than thirty meters from Lynn. At this distance, Lynn could clearly see the gunners fixing the gun carriage, adjusting the gun barrel, and taking out long pointed shells from square wooden ammunition boxes. Although there were various types of anti-tank guns used by the German army in the later stages of World War II, including those self-developed, captured from the Soviet army, or modified from French guns, they were still distinguishable by their appearance. Based on the length of the gun barrel and the size of the shells of the gun in front of him, Lynn judged that it was a German 75mm anti-tank gun, and it was very likely a later model—this reasoning was quite plausible: most of the good weapons produced by Germany during this period were prioritized for use by the Waffen-SS.
The artillery bombardment lasted for about ten minutes, with over a thousand shells falling, and it seemed that many of them were rockets. Just when Lynn wasn't paying much attention, the Soviet artillery clearly "took care" of the forward area of the German positions, which was usually where minefields were laid. When the Soviet tanks rumbled into view, the artillery fire gradually subsided, and the two coincided very smoothly, showing a very tacit connection.
The first Soviet tanks to arrive on the hill were still the T-34s familiar to Lynn. They formed loose columns, with combat infantry in white cloaks closely following them. What appeared on the hill later were some "fresh faces." Their appearance resembled that of the "rhinoceros beetles" in the insect world, with large bodies supporting huge heads. The huge heads protruded with incongruously long gun barrels, coupled with oversized muzzle brakes, making people feel that they would tip forward when going downhill.
Seeing these guys who were obviously one size bigger than the T-34s, Lynn couldn't help but take a deep breath: the IS-2 heavy tanks named after Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, the most powerful land ace in the Soviet Union during World War II! Some regarded it as the terminator of the German Tiger tanks, and even called it the "Tiger Hunter". Its 122mm tank gun could overpower the 88mm gun of the Tiger in terms of firepower. Its excellent defense and even better mobility gave it an invincible "killer" status!
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