Chapter 496 Ambush

The Soviet tanks spread out their formation and "rumbled" towards the German second line of defense. The speed was not fast, but they were steadily destroying and clearing one room after another, or directly knocking down with tanks, and then continued to move forward.

Qin Chuan led a battalion of German soldiers to garrison the second line of defense.

Strictly speaking, this plan to lure the enemy deep into the country was still quite risky because the German army was seriously short of manpower... The elite First Infantry Regiment was used to defend the Eastern Front, and the temporarily assembled skirmishers were used to defend the Western Front. These two lines of defense roughly formed a bean-like defense zone on the east bank of the Lovat River.

Now, there was only one Soviet regiment and a tank battalion in the Soviet army.

There was only one German regiment in this direction.

Qin Chuan divided the regiment into three parts:

The first battalion, led by Gerhard, moved from the tunnel to the Lovat River defense line to reoccupy it and hold it.

This task looks dangerous but it is actually not difficult to do.

The reason was that the Soviets did not know about the German fortifications, and at the same time, the Soviets would concentrate their main forces in the front and advance deep into the German defense zone, so they could catch the Soviets off guard.

As Qin Chuan thought, Gerhard easily occupied the Lovat River defense line and cut the Soviet army in two.

The second battalion, led by Qin Chuan, laid the second line of defense two miles deep in the German defense zone.

There were buildings everywhere that were destroyed by Soviet artillery shells, and these buildings provided good cover for the German army... Broken walls, ruins, windows, etc. can all be used as trenches for cover.

Of course, these trenches could not stop the Soviet tanks.

Qin Chuan knew this, and the Soviet army also knew this.

Therefore, Colonel Yefimshi, the commander of the Soviet 164th Regiment, was very confident in this attack, even after receiving intelligence that the rear defense line had been reoccupied by the German army.

"Andreevich!" Colonel Yefimshi ordered one of his battalion commanders: "Take your troops and go in front of the tanks!"

"Yes, Comrade Colonel!" Andreevich responded and led his troops to rush forward, crouching over the tanks.

Although this is a common way of fighting for the Soviet army, it is undoubtedly correct.

The reason is that the tank's external perception ability is very poor, especially at this time it is still dark, especially here there are building debris and ruins everywhere, especially Colonel Yefimshi also knows that the Germans have a single-soldier weapon rocket launcher that can easily penetrate the front armor of the T34... Hitler used the rocket launcher on the Eastern Front a few months ago, so the Soviets are no strangers to its performance.

In this case, if the tanks are still in the front, it is basically sending the tanks to die.

Therefore, Colonel Yefimshi believes that he should let the infantry go in front to launch a surprise attack, and after these infantry find the enemy's firepower points and hiding places, they will suppress them with the firepower of the tanks, and at the same time keep the tanks out of the range of the enemy's rocket launchers.

This approach was quite effective. With the cooperation of infantry, flares and tanks, the Soviet army successfully advanced several hundred meters.

"Keep going, boys!" Colonel Yefimshi said, "One more mile forward, we will be able to join forces with the comrades of the 82nd Regiment!"

If they continued to fight like this, Qin Chuan and others would not be able to deal with this Soviet regiment.

But at this moment, with a sharp whistle of "chi", a T26 tank was blown into a ball of fire in a line of fire... The armor of the T26 light tank is only 15MM, and of course it cannot withstand the attack of the rocket launcher, especially this rocket launcher hit its side armor.

"Find that guy immediately!" Colonel Yefimshi shouted at the infantry around him, "Because of your negligence, our tanks and comrades are paying the price!"

Colonel Yefimshi thought that the infantry did not search clearly and left behind a few German rocket launchers.

"Yes, Comrade Colonel!"

A team of infantry responded, grabbed their guns and ran towards the rocket launcher point... When the rocket launcher is fired, it will leave a long track, which is particularly obvious in the dark, so the Soviet soldiers immediately determined the position of the German army.

But soon Colonel Yefimshi found out that he was wrong, because immediately afterwards, there was a roar of rocket launchers, and Soviet tanks were destroyed one after another and turned into a pile of scrap metal. At the same time, there was a burst of gunfire in the Soviet camp, with rifles and machine guns, and a few grenades from time to time.

"What's going on?" Colonel Yefimshi asked.

"I don't know, Comrade Colonel!" The guard replied: "The Germans are suddenly in our troops!"

"Flare, flare..." Colonel Yefimshi shouted.

The flare rose slowly, illuminating the Soviet army that was already in chaos and running around, and then Colonel Yefimshi saw clearly that there were indeed many German soldiers hiding behind the ruins and broken walls shooting at the Soviet army, and there were quite a few of them.

Obviously, it was not because the Soviets did not search clearly, because so many Germans could not deceive the search.

Then, when Colonel Yefimshi found a hole hidden in the corner of the wall, he realized where the problem was.

"Damn Germans, they are hiding underground!" Colonel Yefimshi cursed.

But it was too late to understand now.

These Germans were the Third Battalion of the German Army. They hid in the dark and shot at the Soviets from all directions. Some of them crawled out of the tunnel to fight, some opened the tunnel entrance in the ruins and poked out their rifles to shoot outside, and some disguised themselves as Soviet civilians to confuse the Soviets.

What's worse is that it is dark at this time, and the Soviet army cannot distinguish between ourselves and the enemy in the chaos. Indiscriminate shooting continues to cause "friendly casualties" and further increases the chaos.

Colonel Yefimsi wanted to control the troops, but no matter how much he shouted, it was to no avail... This was related to the low quality of the Soviet army. Once troops with poor quality became chaotic, it would be difficult to reorganize them.

Originally, Colonel Yefimsi should have ordered a retreat at this time.

But the next second he remembered that the way back had been blocked by the Germans, so the 164th Regiment had no way to survive.

With a "boom", a grenade exploded not far away from Colonel Yefimsi and knocked him to the ground.

After a while, Colonel Yefimsi woke up and struggled to get up from the ground. With blood on his face, he watched another tank explode into a ball of fire, and watched rows of soldiers being shot by machine guns. Falling down in a pool of blood, watching the Soviet soldiers raise their hands to surrender one after another...

Colonel Yefimsi sighed, thinking about the responsibility he might bear for the failure of this battle, so without hesitation, he raised the pistol to his temple and pulled the trigger.