Chapter 485

Because of this, many local people joined the German army... A considerable number of them were voluntary. According to statistics, there were more than 100,000 Latvians who had served in the German army.

The most common practice of the German army at this time was to mix them into the German infantry platoon in groups of 21, so that they could become familiar with the German tactics in the shortest time and play a role on the battlefield.

Kurucs was obviously one of these Latvian soldiers.

"Kuruuc was a worker in the tractor factory before!" The oily soldier explained: "Then the Soviets asked him to repair tanks, and he said he had repaired T34!"

"Yeah!" Qin Chuan nodded, looked around and said: "Be careful not to let the light out, and, keep your voice down!"

"Yes, Captain!" Several soldiers looked at each other excitedly.

Although the smell in the repair shop was a bit unpleasant, the kerosene lamp could bring a little warmth, and Qin Chuan felt even stronger when he lifted his raincoat and walked out.

After walking along the street for more than 100 meters, Qin Chuan arrived at the defense line. He saw several sentinels hiding behind the snow wall and constantly stamping their feet to keep themselves warm.

"How is the situation?" Qin Chuan asked.

"Everything is normal, Captain!" The sentry replied, "It's just too cold!"

"In such cold weather, the Soviets will not choose to attack at this time!" said another sentry.

"That's not necessarily true, Corporal!" Qin Chuan replied, "They are Soviets and have long been accustomed to life here!"

"Yes, Captain!" The sentry replied.

Then he immediately added, "Don't worry, Captain, we will take good care of this place!"

Qin Chuan nodded with satisfaction, turned around and was about to leave, but heard the "rumbling" sound of the motor faintly coming from the darkness, dull and powerful.

Qin Chuan couldn't help but look back at the two sentries, and the sentries also stared at Qin Chuan with wide eyes.

"Flare!" Qin Chuan ordered.

With two "bangs", two flares were fired into the air, and dozens of tanks and groups of Soviet soldiers in snow-white uniforms appeared in the light.

Seeing that they were discovered, the Soviet army shouted and rushed towards the German position.

Gunshots rang out, and the German sentries immediately fired a few shots in the direction of the Soviet army to warn them.

The German soldiers who were curled up in trenches or buildings to rest all got into the trenches with their guns and set up their guns. Then, under the command of their respective company commanders, they shot at the Soviet army.

Qin Chuan also entered the trench and fired two shots to knock down two Soviet officers, and then he couldn't help but take a breath of cold air... The Soviet army deployed more than a dozen tanks in this direction at once, and most of them were T34, and only a few were light tanks T26.

At first, these Soviet tanks were lined up as infantry cover fire to press towards the German defense line, but they soon found that this was not feasible at all.

The reason is that the road from the Soviet position to the German position is steep... Although there is no steep slope in this area, the area is a swamp in summer and ice in winter. Tanks will slip or even fall back when they drive on these ice surfaces.

This put the Soviet army's first wave of attack in a dilemma. The infantry could only rush towards the German defense line over the tanks.

But such an offensive was unexpectedly beaten back by the German army... Mines, barbed wire, thick snow and extremely low temperatures made a large number of Soviet soldiers advance under the German machine guns and rifles like slow motion, and as a result, they fell under the guns of German soldiers one after another.

Soon, the Soviet army quickly realized that their tanks had only one place to attack, that is, the road leading to the town.

Although the road could not be seen in the white snow, the Soviet army was very familiar with the terrain in this area. They quickly concentrated their tanks on the road and launched an attack, while the mortars continued to bombard forward.

So Qin Chuan knew it was time to retreat... Otherwise, once these tanks broke into the defense line and fired machine guns and artillery shells at the Germans in the trenches from the flanks or even around the rear, the German losses would be great.

Of course, Qin Chuan could choose to use rocket launchers and anti-tank guns here to stop the Soviet advance.

But the range of the rocket launcher is too short, and there are not many buildings near the defense line, so it is not easy to hide. The only anti-tank gun is the PAK40 found in the cellar. Qin Chuan doesn't want the only anti-tank gun to be blown up by the Soviets as soon as it starts firing.

This is also one of the reasons why Qin Chuan planned to abandon the area west of the Lovat River from the beginning.

"Retreat!" Qin Chuan ordered: "Retreat to the east of the river!"

If this order was given to the First Infantry Regiment, there would be no problem. They would consciously divide into several teams and gradually retreat to cover each other. In this way, when they retreat to the east bank of the Lovat River, they can organize defense in an orderly manner and use the terrain to resist the Soviet attack as planned... The east bank of the Lovat River is more than five meters higher than the river surface, and it is very steep. In most places, not to mention tanks, even personnel cannot climb the snow-covered and hard frozen walls.

Especially in the area where the Lovat River and the Kunya River meet, the river turns a corner here to form an arc facing the Soviet army, which is to form a natural firepower encirclement for the Soviet army.

Qin Chuan had the third battalion build fortifications there early in the morning and prepare to receive the soldiers of the first and second battalions to retreat there for defense.

However, what Qin Chuan did not expect was that these were scattered soldiers, most of whom were second-line troops with no combat experience such as engineers and transport troops... In fact, these are not important. Although they have no combat experience, they do not lack the courage to fight. The important thing is that this force has just been formed and does not know how to coordinate.

This weakness is not obvious when defending in the trenches. Once they enter the tactical mode of retreat, which requires high-level coordination, things immediately go wrong... They don't know whether to leave cover or who to retreat, plus the Soviet mortar A burst of artillery bombardment soon reduced them to chaos, and they fled towards the east of the river.

Seeing this situation, Qinchuan secretly thought that things were going to be worse, but under the fierce Soviet artillery fire, he was unable to organize an orderly retreat.

"Go to hell!" Qin Chuan couldn't help but cursed fiercely. He should have expected this situation to happen.

But even thinking about it is of no use, because this unit must face the enemy's attack as soon as it is formed, and there is no time for training and exercises.

Qin Chuan fired back while retreating. When he passed the maintenance shop, he saw that there were still lights inside. He couldn't help but angrily opened his poncho and rushed in, shouting: "The enemy is coming, let this kid go to hell, retreat immediately!"

"Captain!" the soldier with a greasy face said, lighting the kerosene lamp: "I think... we have fixed it, but now we don't know what to do!"