Chapter 582: Scattering

Although in the blink of an eye, the blasted bones flew away and no residue was left, the fate was barely fair to Major Edelman, at least it did not make this devoted armored major feel anything before his death. pain of.

Destroying the commander's car on the battlefield has proven to be a very effective means of attacking the enemy's combat effectiveness. As the saying goes, "shoot the man first, shoot the horse, and capture the thief first, capture the king." After losing the command of Major Edman, the remaining German troops The tank immediately looked a bit headless.

The German tanks that suddenly lost their commander suddenly lost the unified and efficient combat method just now. They were already under great pressure and suffered heavy casualties when facing the powerful First Guards Heavy Tank Breakthrough Regiment. Major Edman's sudden death in battle It was like the straw that broke the camel's back.

"Damn! Edman is dead, he's dead! We need to get out of here right now!"

"How should we go!? The tanks are now the target of the Russians!"

"Abandon the car! Abandon the car and get out of here, quickly!"

In this case, it cannot be said that the German armored soldiers who took the initiative to abandon their tanks were vulnerable. At least they finally chose to give up after making enough attempts.

The German armored soldiers who opened their overhead hatches fled in a hurry like frightened birds in the forest. The less than ten remaining German tanks turned into a pile of unattended in less than half a minute. of unmanned combat vehicles.

The German infantrymen who were pressed behind their own tanks and did not dare to move were instantly panicked when they saw this scene.

He was defeated again and again from the front, and he made a side attack and was slapped back, causing heavy casualties.

The German army, which had exhausted all means, really had no way to hold on. This group of Soviet heavy tanks lying in front of them was simply more terrifying than the devil! The collapse, like a bursting flood, began immediately and suddenly without warning.

From the gun scope in front of him, he clearly saw the German offensive troops fleeing. Iushkin, who was in a great mood, immediately slapped his thigh and shouted in surprise to Malashenko beside him.

"We did it! Comrade Commander! Those Germans were driven away by us! They retreated!"

The high-magnification narrow field of view of the gun scope cannot see anything that is too wide-angle in the distance, but Malashenko, who is holding the commander's periscope with properties that are completely opposite to the Iushkin gun scope, can see it extremely clearly.

"Don't be too happy, Iushkin! More Germans are coming!"

The speeding and roaring steel tracks rolled over the Don River grassland that was exposed to the scorching sun. Lieutenant Colonel Doppler, who was sweating profusely from the heat as soon as he entered the tank, was so angry that his head almost boiled. Major Edman's sudden The sudden death and the disintegration of the troops under his command really made him furious.

"These bastards who abandoned their weapons!"

Due to the heavy casualties in last winter's Moscow offensive, Lieutenant Colonel Dubler, who was transferred from Army Group Center to Army Group South, received many new recruits from the country.

These recruits who have just graduated from the Armored Forces Academy are at best a group of kids who can drive a tank. They are not serious armored soldiers at all, at least that is what Lieutenant Colonel Dubler thinks.

Lieutenant Colonel Dubler expected that these new recruits might perform poorly, but he always felt that it should at least be no problem for these rookies to persist in fighting.

Lieutenant Colonel Dubler never expected that this group of picky little bastards would abandon the car and run away within a minute of Major Edelman's death.

Although they had sufficient reasons to defend themselves, even Lieutenant Colonel Dubler himself felt that the failure of the charge on Napo just now was closely related to his probing tactics, but they just threw away the precious tank. Sayazi's escape behavior, leaving his back to the enemy, is still intolerable.

Lieutenant Colonel Dubler, who became increasingly angry as he thought about it, glanced at the tanks hundreds of meters away that were still keeping their engines running after being abandoned.

The Soviet heavy tanks deployed behind the infantry trenches to serve as mobile anti-tank fortifications seemed to have no intention of wasting artillery shells to destroy these abandoned tanks. Watching this scene, Lieutenant Colonel Dubler immediately made a rather bold decision. decision.

"Walter! Tell those cowards to follow us and go back to drive their own tanks immediately. This is an order!"

Lieutenant Colonel Doppler, who pressed the throat intercom, seemed a little angry, but the captain who was called Walter on the other end of the radio seemed a little unexpected and particularly surprised.

"What? Just let them go back with us like this, right now?"

"That's right! Now! Drive them all back, immediately!"

As a traditional Prussian-style soldier who comes from an old Junker aristocratic family, Major Dubler has three generations of his ancestors who all fought for the Kaiser. He is full of the style of the old era that pursues supreme glory, even more rigid than those of the Wehrmacht. The officer corps will become even more intense and unbearable.

It is precisely for this reason that Doubler, who is almost fifty years old, is still just a small armored lieutenant colonel until now.

Those who were with him in the Battle of the Somme and squatted in the same trench are still in the Wehrmacht today. They are all generals and have already prospered. They are upright and upright. Doppler, who didn't know how to adapt and was even a bit rigid, was the most frustrated.

If it weren't for the three-year-younger-than-he division commander, he might not even be able to keep his position as a lieutenant colonel, and he might even be sent to a military court for trial. However, Doppler himself didn't seem to care about all this.

Just like abandoning those seriously injured soldiers who begged for mercy last winter just to keep more people alive.

In order to win the final victory of this battle, Lieutenant Colonel Doppler decided to do everything to regain the gambling chips that had already been lost.

The life and death of these young armored soldiers was at best just a number for Lieutenant Colonel Doppler, who had participated in the Battle of the Somme. The scene of breathing blood in the sea of ​​corpses was much more terrifying than now.

As long as this battle could be won, even if these new recruits died, he was dismissed by his superiors, and even sent to a military court for trial, Lieutenant Colonel Doppler would accept it. Lieutenant Colonel Doppler, who could almost recite the Treaty of Versailles by heart, didn't want to go back to that dark and desperate time even if he died.

Lieutenant Colonel Doppler's order was cruel and merciless, and it was like sending people to their deaths.

Many German armored soldiers, who were unarmed and had no self-defense weapons, followed behind their own attacking formation, dodging the bullets and shells that kept flying across them in panic. With terrified eyes, they cursed the person who issued this order that was equivalent to sending them to their deaths.