Chapter 2388 Welcome to the Crater World (Part 1)

"Forward troops, report! How is the situation on the German defense line!?"

Although Malashenko personally led the team and directly directed the first wave of attacks, he did not rush to the front and lead the troops to attack the position first.

Although he has become a major general and division commander, and the actual power he holds is no less than that of a military commander, or even more so, he should indeed restrain himself and change in some aspects. He can no longer do whatever he wants, as he did in the past. Charge into battle recklessly.

However, the reply sent to Malashenko via the radio a moment later was not what Malashenko expected. In other words, the reply itself was describing another situation completely, and some of the answers were not what was asked.

"There are no Germans, everything here has been destroyed! There are only weapon fragments, flesh and blood remains, and big pits one after another! There is no other valuable thing at all, everything is completely destroyed!"

Holding the radio transmitter in his hand, savoring the word "destruction" that was still echoing in his ears and repeated twice in a row, Malashenko finally gave a quick answer after a brief thought.

"Understood, continue the search, remember to maintain formation, and report any situation immediately."

It's not that Malashenko didn't believe the reports from his soldiers, he just felt that the scenes in that description were a bit too difficult to imagine. It is impossible to imagine what kind of scene would be left after the troops deployed on such an important blocking defense line were completely cleared.

Everything can only be known after Malashenko goes up there and sees it with his own eyes.

Malashenko took a deep breath and firmly held the commander's periscope in front of him, already prepared for this, until a moment later, the No. 177 IS7 command heavy tank, surrounded by a large group of IS6 and a small number of IS7 escorts, Surrounded by another group of infantrymen following closely behind them, they finally charged into the enemy position that had been trampled by their comrades in front.

It was only then that Malashenko realized what kind of scene the description of "everything was destroyed" was referring to, and that this description was indeed true.

"Damn it! Picasso couldn't even paint this kind of abstract painting, absolutely"

At this moment, Malashenko, who was sitting in the commander's command seat, still remembered a photo he had seen in the relevant intelligence on the Zero Highlands.

That photo was taken about a month ago. A Soviet agent lurking in the rear risked his life and copied it from the Germans' combat readiness report. The core content of the photo is only one: the defense line halfway up the slope of the Zero Heights. Condition.

Several German generals are pointing and inspecting in the photo, while the surrounding German soldiers are busy reinforcing bunkers and building fortifications. It can be seen that the German defense line in the photo had basically taken shape at that time, and only later reinforcements were left. Several bunkers and half-buried fortifications were clearly visible in the photo, and even the surrounding trees and vegetation that had not been cleared out were also captured. photo.

The staff officers and intelligence analysts of the Red Army believed that the German resistance at the second line of defense halfway up the slope would be predictably tenacious. Otherwise, they would not have worked so hard to prepare defenses and build reinforcements in advance. , and in the compilation of the combat plan, it was emphasized that the attack on the second line of defense halfway up the slope especially required strengthening heavy firepower.

Facts have proved that the Red Army offensive troops carried out the previously compiled and prepared combat plan very well in the subsequent combat stages, and indeed strengthened the heavy firepower projection to a considerable extent. However, this enhanced strength seemed to be "a bit excessive."

Why did Malashenko remember that photo?

Because the scene recorded in that photo is basically two completely different worlds from the scene in front of you, and they are completely different from each other.

If Malashenko was not very sure that his current position was almost exactly where the photo was taken, Malashenko would have almost thought that he had gone the wrong way. Because all the iconic features in the photo in my memory have nothing to do with the corrupt scene in front of me!

There are no bunkers, no half-buried bunker fortifications, no German soldiers busy digging pits and trenches, and no pointing German generals. Even those innocent plants and trees have completely disappeared and disappeared.

Desolation, the scene in front of Malashenko was only desolation.

There are countless huge craters, one after another, dotted all over the place. There are so many craters that they spread from the nearest point in front of your eyes to a position that can no longer be seen in the distance, turning into a dense mass of small dots and disappearing.

If you take a live photo of the completely identical scene connected into a large area, add some filters and don't use PS, it can be used as a textbook photo of the lunar surface.

There were no hidden and crawling German soldiers in those craters of various sizes, only the remains of their weapons and the remains of their flesh and blood. It was mixed together with the clods of soil that were raised high by the explosion and crashed down, mixed together in the crater and piled up randomly, so that no one could recognize what it was supposed to be like.

Sitting in the car, Malashenko could see the soldiers who followed him towards the enemy's position. One or two of them were watching the surroundings cautiously and advancing vigilantly, but it was very difficult.

Not only did the soldiers have to avoid craters of different sizes, but the thick floating soil under their feet that had been bombarded by shelling to the point where there was no intact piece of land was even more annoying.

When the military boots stepped on the soil, the entire foot was instantly covered by loose soil. It took a little effort to pull the boots out of the soil pit and change direction to continue moving forward.

When encountering a loose soil pit that had been dug up by the first artillery attack, but then was filled up again by the second, third, and countless artillery attacks, but was not compacted. A soldier who was not careful would even sink half of his leg into it, especially those combat engineers who were carrying a lot of equipment and were called "heavy infantry" by their comrades. If they stepped into such a loose soil pit, they would sink deeper and almost fall.

Fortunately, those tracked armored vehicles with strong off-road capabilities would not sink their legs. The wide tracks would compact and flatten the loose soil while rolling over the loose soil pit, which was equivalent to opening the way in advance for the infantry behind them who "did not know the depth of the loose soil".

Soon the soldiers who got used to this situation found the trick, and then began to flexibly follow the tracks that had been run over, and avoided many situations where they would be trapped in the loose soil pit.

Holding the periscope in his hand, he kept silent and kept observing. As the vehicle continued to move forward, Malashenko saw everything he saw clearly on the surrounding positions. He soon noticed that an infantry soldier who was very close to his vehicle bent down, reached out and grabbed a handful of loose soil at his feet and put it in front of him, as if trying to see clearly what he was looking for.

After slightly revealing the gaps between his fingers and shaking them off, there was almost no loose soil left in the palm of his hand.

Malashenko, who had always had very good eyesight, could see clearly through the commander's periscope.

In the hands of the soldier who was not far from his vehicle, who was bent down and squatting, there seemed to be more than one shell left, and it was estimated that there were at least four or five, or even more shell fragments, which were emitting a metallic luster under the refraction of the sun.

A handful of soil, half a handful of shells, walking around the battlefield will cause anyone who is not careful to fall down.

The situation is clear, and there is only one real answer.

This is the crater in front of Malashenko, which is as dense as the surface of the moon. It is the crater that has been filled with loose soil after being blown up by a cannon, and then filled up with loose soil after being blown up again, and finally filled up with loose soil after being blown up again.

In other words, all the seemingly exaggerated things you see in front of you are just the craters created when the last wave of shells fell.

Don't think that the one-hour-long Guards Army, plus an additional artillery preparation at the level of a leader division, only produced "this little" effect you see in front of you.

The previous craters that were severely saturated and far exceeded the limit of the land's bearing capacity have been filled up countless times.

But the real "after the destruction" is only half of it, or even less than half of the appetizer.

What is truly terrifying and sensational are the oversized pits that Malashenko will soon encounter a distance further ahead.