Chapter 586 The Battle Continues

It was pitch dark in the cellar. The moment he flew into the cellar, he felt his eyes go black and then he couldn't see anything. Malashenko lost his balance and fell down together with Iushkin who was running in front of him like a snowball.

"Oh, damn, it's too dark here"

Muttering to himself, he struggled to get up from the ground. The sunlight shining in from the entrance of the cellar barely allowed Malashenko to see everything around him.

"Are you all still alive? Count!"

Almost at the same time as Malashenko, several other crew members who had fallen into the cellar in a tumbling posture quickly got up from the ground.

"Kiril, it's okay"

"It's fine, not dead."

"Iushkin, can still fight."

Although the voices that answered were almost all panting and had just experienced a life-and-death race, fortunately, the four crew members of the No. 177 crew were all safe and sound after a round of dive and strafing by the Stuka.

The empty cellar was so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of you. The only thing that could illuminate a small area of ​​the pitch-black scene was the sunlight that shone diagonally from the hole in the ground, which barely allowed Malashenko to see who was standing next to him.

The deafening explosions from the ground continued, and the explosions transmitted from the ground shook the entire cellar into dust. The situation on the battlefield outside was obviously still not optimistic, so Ivushkin couldn't help but ask Malashenko first.

"Comrade commander, comrade political commissar is still leading people to fight, what should we do?"

Hiding in the cellar was just to temporarily avoid the fierce bombing of the German Stuka. Staying here was not a solution after all, and Malashenko looked a little solemn.

"Wait a little longer, wait until those Stukas stop staring at us, and then go out to support the battle immediately. I guess these German planes that eat shit don't have much ammunition left."

The Stuka is not a professional ground attack aircraft designed for protracted warfare on the front line. The small amount of ammunition it carries and the fact that it can only carry two or three rounds of dive bombing attacks at most are its most fatal shortcomings.

Malashenko, who had been pressed to the ground by the Stuka for at least ten minutes, estimated based on past experience that the Stukas that were still hovering overhead would retreat in a few minutes.

Although the order from Malashenko seemed to ignore his comrades, it was ultimately the only helpless choice that could be made based on the current reality.

Although the other people present were furious and wanted to rush out of the cellar immediately, judging from the deafening and continuous noise, if they ran out at this time, they would be torn to pieces by the Stukas in less than a minute. These Soviet tank soldiers were the main targets of the Stukas.

No matter how unwilling they were, they could only force themselves to wait silently in the cellar.

Two minutes seemed longer than a year to Malashenko and his crew members. Their tightly clenched hands were already soaked with sweat, and the self-defense weapons they carried were in their hands ready to fight at any time. The soldiers who wanted to go out and fight the fascist invaders to death soon got their chance.

The Stuka dive scream that resounded over the village for nearly fifteen minutes finally began to gradually decrease, and the huge tremors and deafening explosions that were constantly transmitted through the ground also weakened and disappeared a lot.

Realizing that the Stukas were almost out of ammunition and food, Malashenko immediately waved his hand in the direction of the cellar entrance, and the few people holding their weapons tightly immediately crouched and carefully climbed down the slope stairs to the entrance of the cellar.

He looked around and could only see the wreckage of the tanks that had been bombed miserably and the billowing flames. The smell of fire and blood in the air made Malashenko frown. Judging from the situation, even if his troops were not completely wiped out, they had suffered heavy casualties.

Malashenko looked up at the sky above and was dazzled by the scorching sun.

In the scorching sky, except for a few Stukas that were circling and seemed to be observing the results of the battle on the ground, the rest of the Stuka fleet had already thrown away all the ammunition they carried and quickly fled away. Even the six BF109s that were just to ensure that they would not be slaughtered by the possible Soviet fighters also left with them.

Without the hateful buzzing flies above his head, Malashenko, who could finally show off his skills, immediately clenched the Suomi submachine gun in his hand and ran towards the position of his car in his memory. The other three crew members followed their commander and ran forward.

During the more than ten minutes of bombardment by the Stuka, in addition to the heavy losses of the tank troops led by Malashenko himself, the situation of the infantry defense line led by Political Commissar Petrov himself was even worse.

The last few KV1 heavy tanks that insisted on firing at the German tanks despite the fierce bombardment were all destroyed in the fifth minute of the Stuka's arrival. These loyal Soviet tank soldiers fulfilled their oaths under the red flag with their blood-soaked sacrifices.

Without the last and most powerful anti-tank firepower to defend the position, Lieutenant Colonel Doppler, who realized that a good opportunity was just around the corner, immediately shouted into the radio channel and ordered the entire army to attack.

More than 30 German tanks lined up in a row and rushed towards the fragile defense line with only infantry left.

The 50mm tank guns that could not penetrate the solid frontal armor of the Soviet tanks were quite efficient in killing the unprotected soft targets of the infantry. As long as the 50mm small water tube high-explosive shells were accurate, they could still cause several Red Army soldiers to fall to the ground and die instantly, not to mention that Lieutenant Colonel Doppler also had short-barreled Panzer IV tanks to support the infantry with 75mm guns.

The German armored soldiers who were riding horses and waving swords attacked so fast that the German infantry who had originally launched the attack on foot behind the tanks could not keep up with the speed of the tanks in the end. They could only run as fast as they could without even firing their guns to barely keep up.

The few anti-tank guns in their hands had long been destroyed by the extremely accurate direct firepower of the German tanks. Although Malashenko's tank troops attracted the attention of the Stuka by retreating to the village, it solved the urgent problem that the infantry positions might be bombed at the same time.

But the really difficult battle has just begun for Political Commissar Petrov.