I asked you to escape, but you became a soldier in World War II

Chapter 108 Fatal Ditch
In the following period of time, the German army stopped attacking. Except for leaving a part of the troops to carry out the siege, all the others went to dig ditches to divert the river water.

Dravich and his men had been waiting in agony in the tunnel. The German army was slow to attack and they initially thought that the German army had withdrawn. After all, it was raining so heavily and they must have been suffering.

Later, someone discovered the German army's movements through a hidden observation post. After hearing this, Dravich didn't think much of it, but just wondered why they were digging trenches. Were they going to carry out a long-term siege?
But Uncle Lennon's face changed drastically after hearing this. The thing he was most worried about had happened.

The thing we fear most in our earthwork is flooding. Because the terrain here is not high, the tunnels we dig are wet all year round and are prone to landslides. If the weather is dry, it's okay, but once it rains heavily, it will be extremely humid inside. If the German army really diverts river water to flood the tunnels, the original drainage facilities will be of no use at all.

Because the water level of the river has exceeded that of the drainage ditch, it is good enough if there is no backflow, so how else can the water be drained?

When he told Dravitch about this, the fearless guerrilla leader became panicked.

"Is there no other way?"

"There's really no way this time. Unless it stops raining now and the sun comes out and the river level drops rapidly, we will definitely drown!" Lennon answered helplessly.

"If it doesn't work, just rush out and fight!"

"If we rush out and fight, we will only play into the hands of the Germans."

"That's better than drowning here!" Dravich looked desperate.

Suddenly, he thought of something and grabbed Lennon's arm, "Isn't there a secret passage? We can evacuate from there!"

"Alas, it's raining so hard that the river has already flooded that place. Among our people, there are probably not many who are good at swimming and can hold their breath for such a long time."

"In that case, we might as well fight the Germans!" Dravich fought bravely and was not afraid of death, but he lacked sufficient wisdom.

"Captain, Andre is back."

Everyone was confused. Hadn't he already broken through and escaped?

"You little fool, why did you come back?" Uncle Lennon was very angry. What did you come back for? To die with everyone?
"Captain, uncle, they asked me to come back and pass on a message. Judging from the weather, the heavy rain will not stop for a while, so we should break out as soon as possible. However, considering that the enemy's firepower advantage during the day is too great, we need to counterattack and delay the enemy's progress in flooding. In the evening, they will create chaos on the German side to create conditions for our breakout."

After hearing the message from Andre, Dravic didn't know what to say. Although this method would still cause huge casualties, it would definitely preserve the seeds of the guerrillas.

"Are we just going to break through like this?" Dravich was still a little hesitant.

"Captain Ghost said that we have two options. One is to select some people who are good at swimming, and then hold their breath to pass through the sewer and cross the river." Andre tried his best to make himself clear.

Sure enough, after hearing this, Dravich pondered for a long time, "Is there another way?"

"Put high explosives in a place where the sewer has not yet been flooded, get out of that hole, then cross the open field and swim across the river! The premise is to wait for their signal. As long as the German army riots, you must break out immediately."

"This is even less feasible, Captain. Once the high explosives explode, the German army will be attracted here. With their firepower, we will be sitting ducks in the river." Lennon immediately pointed out the drawbacks of this problem.

But Dravitch ignored him and asked, "Andre, how many meters is flooded in the sewer now?"

"It's about 15 meters. It may be longer now because when I came here, I found that the water level was still rising."

"Then our first plan will be impossible to implement. Are any of us confident that we can drill through the 15-meter sewer pipe? The pipe is very narrow. If we were to swim 15 meters in the river, I believe most people could do it, but if it were that pipe, I'm afraid no one could do it. Not to mention the resistance caused by backflow now."

Dravitch patted Andre on the shoulder and said, "While there is not much water in the pipe now, go back and tell him that we have decided to use the second method. I hope they can provide the necessary support. As for how much we can get through, it all depends on God's will!"

Andre didn't say much, he just hugged everyone one by one, and then rushed out without hesitation.

"Comrades, it's only noon now. We will take turns to eat. The rest of you will follow me to harass the German army. Remember, our mission is to harass, and we must not fight to the end."

Lennon looked at the situation and thought there was only one solution: May God bless us.

Lin Chen and his friends were anxiously waiting in a shabby hut on the opposite bank. Although it was raining heavily, they stared at the direction where Andre disappeared.

Frankly speaking, Lin Chen didn't want to take the risk because they lacked enough heavy weapons (Sergei left the machine gun on the opposite side in order to swim across). If they wanted to provide support, they could only rely on swimming over and launching a sneak attack.

But doing so is very risky. Once surrounded by the German army, it would be difficult to escape.

However, both Sasha and Andre hope to save Uncle Lennon and his family. After spending more than a year together, they have developed a deep relationship.

Kirilenko also said that the guerrillas are also an important armed force in the fight against the German invaders, and we’d better not stand by and watch them die.

Sergei didn't care. He just said, "If the captain says save me, I'll do it!"

After repeated considerations, Lin Chen decided to take a risk, but he put forward two suggestions:
First, the two children must not cross the river. They are responsible for picking up Dravich and others here, and they will take care of as many as they can get across. Then they will rush to the next location to meet up.

Second, after you get there, you must not linger in the battle and must obey orders and follow commands.

Everyone expressed no objection, and then Lin Chen opened the dry food wrapped in oil paper, let everyone have a full meal, have a good rest, and prepare for the night's support operation.

Relying on the machine guns and mortars left by Sergei and others, Dravich caught the German army off guard in the first surprise attack, causing great losses to the German army. Many German soldiers were engaged in excavation operations and had no weapons, resulting in heavy casualties.

However, Bode was experienced after all, and he responded quickly. He ordered the three heavy artillery of the heavy mortar platoon to frantically suppress the guerrillas' firepower points. At the same time, he mobilized armored personnel carriers and used the machine guns equipped on them to fire at close range. The powerful firepower immediately suppressed the guerrillas and made them unable to raise their heads.

"Captain, we can't fight hard. We don't have enough money to do so!" Lennon saw the problem at a glance and hurried to stop it.

"We have to work hard. I just checked and they are working very fast. They have already dug half of the soil. At this rate, they will start flooding the ground before dark."

"Then" Lennon also saw the seriousness of the problem.

"Take your men to prepare the explosives, and make sure they can explode immediately. I'm leaving this to you. Leave the harassment to me." Dravich smiled casually.

But Lennon understood that the captain was going to fight hard.

As expected, Dravich organized his team members into more than a dozen death squads. Their mission was clear: to stop the German army from continuing to build deadly ditches from the river to the tunnel at all costs.

Under the powerful firepower suppression of the German army, the suicide squads that rushed out would not be able to hold out for long before being wiped out in front of the battlefield or in underground firepower points.

Dravich's heart was bleeding. These were his good brothers who had been through thick and thin with him, and now they had fallen in a harassment battle.

By five o'clock in the afternoon, the German trenches were getting closer and closer, and Dravich only had about twenty men left.

Bode watched all this coldly from the hill, and finally, he smiled.

By the time the last few meters were repaired, this small Soviet unit would either rush out to die or stay inside as fish and shrimps.

At this time, Dravich was making the final mobilization. Almost all the guerrillas volunteered to stand up. They knew that they would die if they rushed out, but they did not hesitate to buy time for others to break out.

Dravich handled the mortar with his unskilled technique, chose an angle, and shakily placed the few mortar shells in.

"Pass!"

A shell quickly flew out of the muzzle, drew a beautiful arc, and fell into the German army that was working in the rain, immediately causing considerable panic.

How come the Soviets had mortars?

Having tasted the sweetness, Dravich immediately called on the people around him to continue placing shells. He fired six shells in a row, blowing the German army to pieces.

The German army's operation progress was forced to stop.

"Good fight!" The surrounding guerrillas were greatly encouraged by this scene.

However, he forgot the key point that Lin Chen had told him: "The mortar must be moved frequently."

"Captain, be careful!"

Suddenly, there were several shrill sounds of shells piercing the sky, and a guerrilla quickly pushed Captain Dravich into the tunnel. With several loud bangs, the mortar and the guerrilla disappeared in an instant.

The power of this 120mm heavy mortar is truly amazing, and its killing radius is extremely large.

Dravich was so angry that his teeth were bleeding, but there was nothing he could do. They didn't have weapons with enough range to fight back, so they could only take the bombing.

Without the mortar attack, the German army continued to dig under the command of the officers. Finally, when the night began to deepen, the German ditch was dug through.

The raging river water rushed continuously underground along this deadly ditch.

As the river level was already very high, the existing drainage facilities were almost useless, and in the end all they could do was watch helplessly as more and more water poured into the tunnel.

"Captain, let's take action! We can't hold on for much longer." When a team member saw the water pouring in, how could he not be nervous?

"Don't panic, we still have time. Wait a little longer. Wait for their signal!" Dravitch knew very well that without the support of Lin Chen and the others, rushing out like this would simply be courting death.

After all, it takes a lot of explosives to blow a hole in a sewer that is more than one meter deep. With such a huge noise, the German commander, unless he is an idiot, will definitely know what is going on.

On the other side of the German position, Lin Chen, Sergei and Kirilenko had quietly sneaked into the German heavy artillery position. As the Soviet guerrillas were being suppressed, in order to speed up the excavation progress, a platoon originally deployed here was also transferred to the front.

A dozen German soldiers from the heavy mortar platoon, with their bare chests, carried out precise firing according to the needs of the front under a makeshift awning.

The continuous bombardment left the German army with very few artillery shells, but after all, it was a super-killer weapon, and it was Bode’s "stabilizing force".

When they saw the right opportunity, the three of them sneaked in and silently killed two German artillerymen who were lying in the back to rest, but they were still accidentally discovered by the enemy soldiers.

Now that it has been exposed, there is naturally no need to hide it.

After several volleys of bullets, the defenseless German artillerymen were crying for their parents.

"Quick, Sergei, help me reload! I'm going to bombard their command post!"

Because the 120mm mortar shells were very heavy, Sergei was responsible for loading the shells and he fired the shells himself.

After observing the enemy situation for a long time during the day, the coordinates of the enemy's headquarters had been completely imprinted in his mind.

As a huge heavy mortar shell flew out, Bode's command post was razed to the ground.

Fortunately, Bode was used to observing the enemy situation from outside and commanding from the front, so this shell only killed his followers, adjutants and others, and he was lucky enough to survive.

After coming to his senses, Bode immediately organized the German army to attack the mortar positions upwind, vowing to recapture the heavy artillery.

Lin Chen was very adept at using this mortar. Although he had never fired such a large-caliber mortar in his previous life, the shooting principles of all mortars were almost the same. The only difference was that the sound was much louder when firing.

There's no way, the recoil is too great.

"Captain, we don't have many shells left."

"Why are you panicking? Shoot them all out," Lin Chen's artillery fire caused heavy casualties to the German troops rushing over. In addition, the submachine gun in Kirilenko's hand was unambiguous. For a moment, the firepower of the three men made the German army helpless.

Bode became furious and was forced to dispatch armored personnel carriers to attack upwards. Seeing that the situation was not good, Lin Chen quickly took some ammunition and retreated. When he left, he also set up several booby traps as a gift to the German army.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

Several loud noises were heard, and the attacking German troops triggered the booby traps set up by Lin Chen, causing heavy losses again.

"Colonel, there's a loud noise over there!" A second lieutenant stumbled over to report.

In fact, he didn't need to report it, he also found that something was wrong. Did the Soviet army blow itself up? This didn't make sense.

"Order one part to continue chasing the saboteurs, and the other part to charge towards the village!"

The loud noise was caused by Dravitch and his men blowing up the pipe. Those who could swim formed a breakout team, and the few who could not swim formed a tragic blocking team.

Their mission is to prevent the enemy from approaching at all costs.

Uncle Lennon was determined to stay and create opportunities for more young people because he was old.

There were also many elderly people and women who chose to stay because they did not want to be a burden to the guerrillas.

At this time, Dravich didn't know that Lin Chen and his men had destroyed the German heavy mortar position, so after coming out of the pipe, they immediately dispersed and ran towards the river.

Despite the darkness of the night and low visibility, the German army cautiously fired flares.

You don't know until you see it. The German army was shocked. They instantly understood the Soviet intention and immediately mobilized the powerful firepower of 50mm light mortars and MG42 machine guns to fire crazily at the river.

After the light mortar shells fell into the river, they splashed water more than two meters high, and soon several young men and children never floated up again.

The hail of bullets from the machine guns dyed the river surface red.

Lennon saw that the situation was extremely critical and they had to do something, otherwise Dragic and others would be finished.

"Fellow countrymen, in order to allow our young men and children to rush out, we have to fight the Germans!" Lennon picked up an MP38 submachine gun and rushed out majestically.

All the villagers in the tunnel, regardless of gender, age or status, took action.

Those who had guns took them, and those who didn't picked up a grenade, or even sickles and axes, and rushed out with Lennon. They wanted to fight for a chance of survival for the breakout team.

The German troops, who were originally fighting happily on the river surface, were shocked when they saw this and hurriedly adjusted the muzzles of their guns to aim at these guerrillas who actually did not have much combat power.

They didn't even have decent weapons, but they were not afraid of the fierce bullets from the German machine guns.

The villagers shouted "Ura" and rushed towards the area where the German troops were concentrated. A few guerrillas who managed to get close threw a few grenades and then engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the German troops.

There are no fancy fighting skills, only the most primitive vendetta between people!

An angry Lennon tore off his sweatshirt, revealing his strong muscles, and shouted to his comrades who were following him: "Comrades, fight the Germans!"

In fact, Lennon was not good at hand-to-hand combat, but it seemed that this plain slogan gave him infinite power.

He was seen leaping into the German trench with a wild roar, his body covered in mud and blood, holding the sharp old-fashioned Russian saber in his hand, and rushing towards the enemy viciously.

Seeing how brave he was, the soldiers' blood boiled and they shouted in unison to follow him and fight. The power of this brave fight was so powerful that it gave the feeling of being the main force.

All kinds of sharp weapons were waving up and down, and both sides of the fight tried their best to stab each other with their weapons. The sounds of various weapons cutting into the human body and the howling of life and death wolves immediately rang out.

After all, the German army had an absolute advantage in numbers. After a few moves, Lennon and another seriously injured guerrilla were back to back and surrounded by the German army.

The German officers admired their courage very much, and were especially in awe of Lennon when they saw that he was a gray-haired veteran.

He called on Lennon to surrender, but Lennon didn't even have the energy to curse. He missed his youth very much, when he studied and fought at the same time. How high-spirited he was.
Now he was old, and with his tenacious willpower he had killed two German soldiers, but he himself was also pierced in the lower abdomen and thigh by German bayonets, and blood was flowing mercilessly. He looked at the direction in which Dravich was swimming.

I thought to myself, you guys should have made it through, right? I tried my best.

Then he contemptuously spat a mouthful of bloody phlegm at the German officer.

The German officer was startled and dodged this "unique hidden weapon". When he saw clearly that it was such a disgusting thing, he finally waved his hand helplessly.

The MP40 submachine gun fired, and Lennon's not-so-tall body fell to the ground with a bang.

(End of this chapter)