Chapter 503 On the Nameless Heights

At 1030 on October 20, 1915, the outer position of Abavahan was five kilometers deep, at the nameless highland.

The regiment's military chaplain Ilyich Ivanovich found the regiment commander.

He gently closed the regiment commander's eyes, pulled out the pistol from his waist, turned his head and shouted: "Enter the position! Quick! The enemy is coming!"

He rushed into the communication trench and ran towards the position that had been bombed to pieces.

The surviving soldiers followed him and rushed into the position along the communication trench, but everyone looked confused, and obviously had not been freed from the fierce bombardment just now.

Ilyich shouted: "Wake up! It's okay to be unconscious, just give your body to the usual training! The body knows what it should do! Push the machine gun to the machine gun position! There is also a 45mm gun! Quick!"

The position of the nameless highland was built according to the latest defense manual. This latest manual is said to take into account the lack of training and low morale of the front-line troops, and try to make the mobilized soldiers play a sufficient role as much as possible.

Now it was time to test whether the experience in this manual was useful.

Ilyich came to the machine gun and patted the gunner on the shoulder: "The distance has been measured, the scale is set, you can hit people without aiming, don't be nervous!"

The gunner took a deep breath and looked even more nervous.

At this time, the roar of the engine came from the bottom of the mountain. After a while, the sandbags next to the machine gun vibrated, and the fine sand and stones on the surface jumped like water drops in a wok.

Ilyich took a deep breath. As a military chaplain and the highest-ranking officer on the battlefield, he could not panic at all.

If he revealed a flaw at this time, the result might be the rout of the entire battlefield.

After several deep breaths, Ilyich patted the machine gunner on the shoulder again: "I will walk around the position, keep calm, and open fire when the enemy passes the target!"

The machine gunner nodded repeatedly.

Ilyich began to patrol along the position. Because the artillery fire destroyed some trenches, he had to squeeze through the collapsed areas from time to time.

He encouraged morale as he walked: "The enemy is also human. If they are hit by bullets, they will die. If the machine guns sound, they will be scared. Make good use of your weapons!"

At this point, Ilyich happened to walk to the anti-tank gun group and said: "Aim at the enemy's observation port! Observation port, understand!"

The man operating the anti-tank gun was a man who looked to be in his 50s, wearing a shabby military cap, and the cap badge was almost worn out. He said to Ilyich: "Father, don't worry!"

"Don't call me Father, the civil war is over, and the Saint Worshipers have been defeated." Ilyich said.

"Well, Father Davarich, I have never hit the observation hole in training, never."

Ilyich: "Don't worry, other people will not be able to hit it when they are nervous. You just need to shoot the bullet at the tank, create sparks, and scare the infantry around the tank, and you will complete the task.

"Also, the enemy's armored forces will be accompanied by half-track vehicles. This thing is quite effective against half-track vehicles."

The uncle took a deep breath: "Okay, I will shoot when I see a half-track vehicle."

Ilyich left the anti-tank gunner and continued to move forward, and then saw Stepan, one of the few veterans in the army, placing a row of grenades on the edge of the trench.

"Stepan!" Ilyich said sincerely, "It's up to you."

The veteran just nodded and didn't answer.

Ilyich continued to move forward, encouraging every recruit who looked like a wilted eggplant.

Someone shouted: "Enemy tanks! There are still 800 meters! "

Ilyich immediately lay down on the edge of the trench and looked out. As expected, he saw an assault formation consisting of about ten tanks, and the same number of half-track vehicles behind the tanks.

The infantry could not be seen for the time being, probably because they were hiding behind the tanks.

Ilyich drew back, waving his pistol and shouting: "Remember, use crossfire to clear the infantry following the tanks! After cutting off the infantry, throwing incendiary bombs at close range can destroy the tanks!"

In fact, Ilyich had never fought the enemy with real swords and guns. He used to be a parish priest in the district church. The most familiar job was to distribute sausages to the old men and women in the community, and while distributing them, he spoke well of the secularists and told them that these sausages were made by the secularist factories, not the gift of the Tsar.

Ilyich's promotion speed showed that he was still very effective in this work.

But now, he can only wave a small pistol that he was not very skilled in using, and recite the knowledge he learned from the manual.

Suddenly, the battle line rang Cannon fire.

Ilyich stopped and looked at the anti-tank artillery position.

His regiment was only equipped with outdated 45mm anti-tank guns, which had no effect on the Type 3 and Type 4 tanks with reinforced frontal armor. Even if the enemy was placed in front of them, they could not penetrate them.

Therefore, the artillery position could only hide on the side of the entire position and wait for the enemy tanks to rush to the main position before firing, hitting the side of the tank, especially the area slightly above the suspension mechanism.

If the artillery fired now, it meant that someone was panicking and hysterical.

Ilyich shouted: "Don't fire! Damn it! Don't fire!"

He shouted while running along the trench, approaching the artillery position on the side.

But the artillery position was still firing, and the shells kept sparking on the Proson tanks, but it had no effect at all.

Ilyich finally ran to the end of the main position, leaned out half of his body and shouted to the anti-tank artillery position: "Don't fire, bastard! See if it works?"

"I don't know!" The second lieutenant commanding the artillery position looked at Ilyich, "The captain is dead, the captain is dead! I don't know what to do!"

"Stop first, wait--" Suddenly, Ilyich felt something, and turned to look at the formation of the Prossens, just in time to see the moment when the No. 4 tank equipped with a short-barreled gun opened fire.

The sound of "日" pierced Ilyich's eardrums, and before he could lie down, the explosion occurred.

The hysterical artillery lieutenant just now was gone, and Ilyich only saw the helmet flying high.

The light mount of the 45mm gun was blown to the ground, followed by a chain explosion of unfired 45mm shells.

The enemy continued to fire, and at least one platoon of Short-barreled Gun No. 4 opened fire, and the anti-tank gun position was quickly engulfed in smoke and fire.

"Sukabu!" Ilyich couldn't help but yelled. In theory, as a clergyman, he shouldn't have Sukkabu, but at this time, he couldn't care less.

"Priest!" he heard someone shout, "Alexander has escaped!"

"What?" Ilyich turned around and saw Alexander holding Bobosha and running backwards. He didn't even have time to pick up his helmet when it fell.

Ilyich raised his hand and fired a shot, but it missed, but Peter, who had just left the position and was about to escape, hesitated.

Ilyich: "Peter! Think of your sister! How sad she would be if she knew you were a deserter!"

Peter returned to the trench and lay down next to his comrades again.

Ilyich: "I'm scared to death now! But we can't retreat! If we retreat, wouldn't those dead comrades die in vain?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the observer shouted: "Enemy tank, five hundred meters!"

Ilyich: "Machine gunners at the ready!"

At this point, the half-track accompanying the tank opened fire, machine gun rounds ricocheting across the trench.

"Don't panic! The enemy is shooting intimidation, they didn't really notice where we are!" Ilyich said.

Observer: "Four hundred meters!"

"Calm down and remember, after blocking the infantry, the bombardment team is ready!"

Observer: "Three hundred meters!"

Ilyich felt that he should continue to talk about some precautions. No matter what, it would be able to stabilize the morale of the army to some extent.

At this time, the vibrations caused by the enemy tanks had already caused dirt to fall off the walls of the trenches. The grenades placed by the soldiers on the edge of the trenches began to vibrate, and the tabs jingled.

Suddenly, the machine guns started firing.

Along with the chug, the observer shouted: "Two hundred meters!"

Ilyich: "Fire! Fire quickly! No need to aim, just shoot! There are enough bullets!"

The sound of machine guns and the firing of Bobosha resounded throughout the entire position.

Ilyich passed the anti-tank gun position again and saw the fifty-year-old man firing a shot. The bullet arced and hit the half-track vehicle in the distance, creating a dazzling flame.

The half-track stopped, and the people on board jumped out one by one, quickly lying on the ground to hide.

Ilyich: "Well done! Keep fighting!"

The uncle pulled the bolt of the gun, and the bullet casing was caught by the bullet hook and fell into the trench. The deputy shooter immediately inserted a new bullet into the chamber.

Ilyich looked at the collaboration between the two with satisfaction. Just as he was about to say something, he saw the No. 4 turret turning around not far away.

"Conceal!" Ilyich shouted, and at the same time, a flash of light erupted from the muzzle.

The next moment, his consciousness was interrupted.

I don't know how long it took, but Ilyich's vision recovered. His brain seemed to be filled with water and was about to explode like a water balloon. His ears could hear nothing except a buzzing buzz.

He sat up and looked at the dull eyes of the old shooter in front of him. He was stunned for a second before reaching out and helping to close his eyelids.

He looked around blankly and saw the deputy shooter holding his broken arm and wailing, and saw the anti-tank gun lying crookedly next to him.

Ilyich remembered that he should fight and continue to fire the anti-tank gun, so he picked up the gun, set it up by the trench, found a random target and pulled the trigger.

But the gun didn't go off.

Ilyich wanted to pull the bolt to remove the obstacle, but found that the charging handle seemed to be welded and could not be pulled open.

This gun is probably useless.

He dropped the gun, picked up the cluster grenade placed on the edge of the trench, roared out of the trench, pulled the fuse, and threw it at the tank in the face.

However, this time it was thrown closer, and the grenade fell on the ground in front of the tank, exploding a mud pillar seven or eight meters high.

Immediately afterwards, the tank's tracer barrage passed through the still falling mud and swept toward Ilyich.

At this moment, he was grabbed by someone and dragged back to the trench.

Tracer bullets crackled on both sides of the trench, and flying stones scratched Ilyich's cheek.

The pain caused his brain, which had been blinded by the bombing, to quickly regain its composure.

The tinnitus also subsided at this time.

"You're crazy!" said the veteran Stepan. "No matter how strong you are, you can't throw it over this distance! You have to wait until the enemy gets closer!"