red moscow

Chapter 2796

Hearing this, Sokov turned to Alina and said with a serious expression, "Comrade Lieutenant, on the battlefield, the panic-stricken behavior of Sergeant Basco is very serious. If the troops on the battlefield are all new recruits with no combat experience, some of them may be frightened and flee the position, causing our position to be breached by the enemy."

Alina was shocked by Sokov's words. She said in shock, "Are the consequences so serious?"

"Of course." Sokov nodded and said in a positive tone: "That's why I have to stop him in time to avoid affecting other officers and soldiers."

Basco, who was slapped by Sokov, was lying on the side with his face covered, waiting for Alina to say a few good words for him. When he heard what Sokov said, he was immediately frightened and broke out in a cold sweat. Although his legs were still shaking, in order to survive, he still mustered up his courage and said tremblingly: "I'm sorry, Comrade Major, I was wrong. I shouldn't have panicked when facing the German tanks. Please forgive me!"

Seeing that Basco took the initiative to admit his mistake, Sokov didn't want to argue with him. He just waved his hand and focused his attention on the German tank that was speeding towards him. Although he said that this place was still a bit far from the battle, it would be a lie to say that he was not nervous when he saw the German tank coming straight towards him. He began to mutter to himself that if he didn't see anyone to deal with the tank, he would have to consider moving with Alina and others, otherwise his life would be in danger.

Seeing the German tanks getting closer and closer, Alina felt somewhat uneasy. She asked Sokov anxiously, "Comrade Major, the enemy tanks are getting closer and closer to us. What should we do next?"

"Don't worry, Comrade Lieutenant." Sokov said calmly, "Although the German tanks have broken through our defense line, don't worry. Colonel Polosukhin has deployed anti-tank troops behind the position. They will destroy the German tanks at the appropriate time."

In order to prevent Alina from staying here and being frightened, Sokov continued, "Comrade Lieutenant, please go and call out Sandor. After the tanks are destroyed by our army, the tankmen inside will definitely escape, and we need him to destroy the enemy tankmen."

"Okay, I'll go call him now."

"Wait a moment," Sokov stopped Alina who was about to leave and added, "You stay in the shelter for a while. Don't come out unless I call you. Do you understand?"

Not long after Alina left, Sandor appeared in front of Sokov with a sniper rifle in his arms: "Comrade Major, what instructions do you have?"

"See that tank?" Sokov pointed to the slowed-down German tank in the distance and said to Sandor, "After our soldiers blow up the tank, you will be responsible for sniping the German tankmen who escape. Do you understand?"

"I understand, Comrade Major." Sandor agreed, then found a suitable place to lie down, set up the sniper rifle, and prepared to shoot.

After waiting for a while, the German tanks circled in that area, neither advancing nor retreating. As a sniper, Sandor was very patient and kept looking for the best time to shoot. But Basco seemed particularly irritated: "Comrade Major, why haven't our anti-tank soldiers appeared yet?"

"Soon!" Sokov said calmly, "Our anti-tank soldiers are still waiting patiently. As long as the German tanks enter the attack position, they will attack without hesitation and destroy the enemy tanks."

After hearing Sokov's words, Sandor's reaction was quite normal, as if he believed Sokov's words. Basco's mouth twitched, thinking that he had been talking for a long time, but he didn't even see the shadow of an anti-tank soldier. Maybe there was no anti-tank soldier between the front line and his hiding place.

However, just as Basco was complaining about Sokov, he unexpectedly saw a man crawl out of a crater as the tank passed by it, ran after the tank for a few steps, then stopped and threw a Molotov cocktail at the tank. But the tank turned a corner at that moment, and the Molotov cocktail flew past the tank and landed directly on the muddy ground next to it.

The soldier was not discouraged and chased the tank again. When he felt that the distance was about right, he threw another Molotov cocktail at the tank. This time, his aim was good. The Molotov cocktail hit the tank turret and shattered into pieces. The gasoline in the bottle splashed everywhere. The white phosphorus in the bottle immediately burned violently after it came into contact with the air. Soon, the back half of the tank began to burn fiercely.

The anti-tank soldier who had completed his mission hid back in the crater, with only half of his body exposed, observing the burning tank.

The German tank, with flames and smoke, circled several times and finally stopped. First, the turret opened and a tank soldier jumped out. After he jumped off the tank, he did not run away immediately, but bent down and dragged out a companion who had crawled out from the bottom of the tank. Then the two of them supported each other and ran in a direction where there was no one.

The two men were not running very fast, which made them perfect targets for the sniper, Sandor. After two shots, the two German tankmen fell down one after the other.

Seeing Sandor cleanly kill two German tankmen, Sokov couldn't help but give him a thumbs up and shouted, "Good job, Sandor, well done!"

In response to Sokov's praise, Sandor just smiled faintly, then put away his sniper rifle and stood up straight.

Just as Sokov was considering whether he should call Alina out, Basco suddenly exclaimed: "Major, tanks, German tanks!"

Hearing Basco yelling again, Sokov couldn't help but get angry. He turned to Basco and said dissatisfiedly: "Comrade Sergeant, the German tanks have been destroyed by our soldiers. Why are you still yelling here?"

"No, Comrade Major." Basco waved his hands and said in panic, "Two more tanks have broken through our defense line and are heading in our direction."

When Sokov heard what Basco said, he immediately turned his head and looked into the distance. Sure enough, he saw two German tanks that had already broken through the defenders' line of defense and were rushing towards this side with great momentum, as if they were preparing to meet up with the destroyed tank.

Seeing the tanks coming, Sandor immediately lay down in the distance without waiting for Sokov's order, and set up his sniper rifle again, ready to wait for the anti-tank soldiers to destroy the German tanks, so that he could calmly snipe the German tank soldiers.

However, with the experience just now, Sokov was not worried. After all, tanks without infantry cover could be easily killed by anti-tank soldiers. He quietly observed the two tanks, waiting for the moment when they were killed by anti-tank soldiers. When the two tanks approached the tank with the incendiary bomb, a soldier climbed out of the crater, holding a Molotov cocktail and rushed towards the German tank, ready to kill the tank that broke through the defense line again. But this time he was unlucky. Before he could get close to the tank, he was shot by the vehicle-mounted machine gun. After being shot, the soldier staggered a few steps and fell directly to the ground.

Seeing the soldier fall to the ground after being shot, Sokov felt very sorry. He thought to himself that if the enemy waited for the tank to pass by and then chased after him and bombed him, not only would the success rate be high but the danger could also be minimized.

Two tanks drove past the bodies of the soldiers and headed straight for where Sokov and the others were.

Seeing this, Basco became even more panicked: "Comrade Major, did you see that? The German tanks are coming towards us."

Sokov was annoyed by Basco's noise. If he hadn't been a little far away, he would have slapped him again. He yelled at him, "Shut up! If you don't speak, no one will think you are dumb."

After Basco became obedient, Sokov began to think that he did not have any anti-tank weapons. If a German tank really rushed in front of him, he would not be able to fight it head-on. He could only find a place to hide and let other officers and soldiers deal with it.

The tanks continued to move forward, but because there were many shell holes left by the bombing and shelling in front of them, their speed was affected. At this time, another soldier climbed out of the shell hole and chased after them with an anti-tank grenade.

When he was about ten meters away from the tank, he threw the anti-tank grenade in his hand. Unfortunately, the anti-tank grenade did not hit the target, but fell on the open ground. Molotov cocktails fell on the soil, and there was a certain probability that they would not break, but the anti-tank grenade exploded as soon as it hit the ground, and the flying shrapnel directly cut down the soldiers who were close at hand.

Seeing the soldiers being knocked down by the anti-tank grenade he threw, the expression on Sokov's face became solemn. This anti-tank grenade is extremely powerful and has a good effect in blowing up tanks, but it also brings a disadvantage, that is, if the soldier throwing the grenade is too close, it is easy to be injured by mistake. No wonder Sokov heard from the grassroots commanders in his previous life that before the anti-tank rocket launchers were invented, the casualties of anti-tank soldiers who used anti-tank grenades and Molotov cocktails to destroy German tanks were always very high. Even if everything went well, it would cost three to four people to destroy a German tank.

"It's over, it's over." Basco was even more panicked when he saw this, but he was afraid of being scolded by Sokov, so he didn't dare to shout loudly. He could only mutter in private: "Two anti-tank soldiers were killed in a row, and they couldn't destroy the enemy's tanks. In a while, they will rush in front of us."

The third anti-tank soldier also climbed out of the crater. He learned from his comrades' lesson and did not throw bombs blindly. Instead, he trotted behind the tank, looking for a suitable opportunity to throw bombs. When one of the tanks stopped and the anti-tank soldier raised his anti-tank grenade to throw, the top hatch of the tank turret suddenly opened. A tank soldier leaned out and saw the anti-tank soldier preparing to throw bombs. He quickly raised his submachine gun and pulled the trigger at him.

After a series of gunshots, the third anti-tank soldier fell to the ground again, and the operation to blow up the tank ended in failure again.

Just as Sokov was trying to see if there was a fourth anti-tank man, a cloud of black dirt suddenly rose up from the side of the German tank. The German tankman who had just finished shooting immediately retreated into the tank and closed the hatch.

"What's going on?" Sokov was confused by the mud column that just shot up into the sky. He wondered if there was an anti-tank gun hidden somewhere nearby?

Soon, he heard the roar of a tank engine coming from behind him. He was startled and thought, could it be that the Germans are coming from behind us? Thinking of this, he quickly turned around and looked behind him.

But to his surprise, the first three T-3 tanks that came into view were followed by a dozen T-26 tanks. It turned out that they were the tank brigade deployed nearby, who saw that the defense line here was breached by the German army and rushed over to provide support.

When Sokov saw the tanks of the tank brigade coming to reinforce, his heart was relieved. He did not get carried away and stand up to cheer. Such actions are fatal on the battlefield. He just told Sandor next to him: "Sandor, our tanks are coming up. After they destroy the German tanks, you will be responsible for destroying the tankmen who escape from the tanks."

"Don't worry, Comrade Major," Sandor said confidently, "None of them can escape."

With the participation of the tank brigade, the German troops attacking the Soviet positions were repelled again.

Seeing that the battlefield had returned to calm, Sokov returned to the shelter and shouted inside: "Lieutenant Alina, the enemy's attack has been repelled, you can come out."

Alina came out of the shelter. Although she tried to stay calm, Sokov could see that she was still somewhat frightened. After all, the internal affairs personnel who had never been to the battlefield were not much better than the new recruits who had no combat experience. She tried to force a smile on her face and asked, "The enemy's attack was repelled?"

"Yes, the attack launched by the enemy has been repelled by our army." Sokov remembered the topic that the two had not yet finished, so he said directly: "Comrade Lieutenant, there are no outsiders here. Can you tell me where our destination is?"

Alina thought for a moment and answered: "Mogilev!"

"What, Mogilev?" Sokov's eyes widened in surprise when he heard the place name Alina said: "My God, that place is about 500 kilometers away from here. If there is no suitable means of transportation, it will take at least ten days to walk there. If it were me, I would definitely take a plane directly from Moscow and parachute after reaching the target."

"Initially, someone proposed a parachute drop plan, but it was rejected," Alina explained. "Because on the way from Moscow to Mogilev, we would not only be intercepted by enemy aircraft, but also by anti-aircraft fire along the way, which would hinder us. Therefore, we could only use ground marches to enter the Mogilev area."

"Comrade Lieutenant, if it was half a month ago, we would not have had much trouble marching from here to Mogilev on foot. At most, we would have wasted two more days on the road." Sokov said with a wry smile, "But in the Bryansk area we have to pass through, there are hundreds of thousands of our troops surrounded by the German army. If we accidentally break into the German encirclement, it will not be easy to get out."

(End of this chapter)