Chapter 503 Counterattack

In a way, what Petrolev said was still correct, because the situation was now developing in a direction that was unfavorable to the German army... Everything happened too quickly, or the Soviet army did a good job of preparing and keeping secrets for this attack. The German army did not expect the Soviet army to attack the Lovat River defense line in this way of engineers building bridges.

In other words, the German army was caught off guard by the Soviet army.

The main threat came from those engineering vehicles... So some people also say that in offensive and defensive battles, engineering vehicles are sometimes more threatening than tanks.

The German army wanted to blow up the engineering vehicles with grenades, but the bridge-building vehicles below were supported by the tank chassis, and the upper layer was a steel frame structure that was wide and solid enough for dozens of tons of tanks to drive on it (Note: T34 tanks are 32 tons), and grenades could not pose a threat to it at all.

Several soldiers threw grenades on the engineering vehicles, and the only effect they could have was to shake the bridge deck on the engineering vehicles.

Some German soldiers threw explosive packs down, but the explosive packs were equipped with delayed fuses, and were quickly thrown away by the Soviet soldiers lying on the bridge deck following the engineering vehicle.

Some German soldiers wanted to blow it up with a rocket launcher, but the rocket launcher shooter at a high altitude could not hit the main body of the engineering vehicle at that angle. At most, it could make a few holes in the bridge deck with its metal jet, which had no effect on the enemy at all.

Soviet soldiers rushed up from the defense line in groups.

Because the Lovat defense line was only more than 20 meters away from the drop line... This was due to the previous defense needs. At this position, the German soldiers could easily throw grenades, explosive packs and other explosives to the drop line to prevent the Soviet army from climbing.

But now this distance has become the fatal weakness of the German army: once the Soviet army climbed up, it was only more than 20 meters away from the German army. What's worse is that in this situation, the Soviet army can throw grenades while the German army cannot... Unless the grenades thrown by the German army are exactly about 20 meters away, they will slide down the slope behind the drop line at a distance and will not pose a threat to the current Soviet army.

Worse, the Soviet tanks are rumbling on the bridge and can drive up at any time.

"Anti-tank gun!" Qin Chuan shouted.

The gun crew immediately dragged out the only anti-tank gun. They started working mechanically without thinking, just like they did in countless drills before. The first and second gunners fixed the gun wheels, the third and fourth gunners separated the frame, and the aimer lowered the gun barrel to a horizontal position to adjust the range. The loader opened the breech and the breech block, and several porters moved boxes of shells out of the cellar and stacked them next to the anti-tank gun.

A sergeant loudly gave the order: "Front, range 100 meters, tanks... fire!"

A T34 tank just "rumbled" up from the bridge and exposed its most vulnerable belly to the anti-tank gun. Then, with a "bang", a big hole was blown in the tank's belly. The tank trembled like a frightened beast and then stopped moving.

Anti-tank guns or rocket launchers can be effective in attacking tanks at this time. Even after they damage the enemy tanks, they will block a certain slope to prevent the follow-up troops from attacking.

The problem is that there are too many Soviets. They are like ants, continuously pressing towards the German defense line from the defense line. They throw grenades at the Germans, or charge while holding the PPSh submachine guns in their hands and firing wildly. Then more than a dozen Soviet fighter planes in the air joined the battle group and bombarded the German positions.

"Captain!" Gerhard shouted to Qin Chuan while shooting at the enemy with a pistol: "We can't stop them, let's retreat!"

"No, we can't retreat!" Qin Chuan replied.

Gerhard was inexperienced. In this situation, when the enemy and us were only 20 meters apart, we must not retreat, otherwise the wolf-like Soviet army would immediately catch up from behind and wipe out all the German troops.

"Then what can we do?" Gerhard asked.

Qin Chuan did not hesitate and responded loudly: "Counterattack!"

"What?" Gerhard didn't hear clearly, or perhaps he didn't dare to believe what he heard.

"Counterattack!" Qin Chuan ordered: "Only by launching a counterattack and knocking them down can we survive, understand?"

"Yes, Captain!" Then Gerhard no longer hesitated, he ordered loudly: "Everyone, go forward, charge!"

"Charge!"

...

German soldiers jumped out of the trenches and rushed towards the Soviet army. They didn't even have time to put on their bayonets. It was a sudden and random charge.

But the facts proved that Qin Chuan was right.

In this situation, the German army had no advantage at all, and was even at a disadvantage because of the problem of grenades.

According to common sense, the German army should try to avoid hand-to-hand combat with the Soviet army. This is not only because the German army has few troops, but also because the Soviet army is accustomed to fighting in the snow, especially the Soviet Northwest Front they are facing is transferred from the coldest Siberia. In addition, the quality of the German army is generally better than that of the Soviet army... Many Soviet soldiers are directly converted from civilians, and many people don't even have weapons and need to pick up the rifles in the hands of their dead comrades in front to fight.

Therefore, hand-to-hand combat is obviously not cost-effective for the German army.

But there are exceptions to everything.

First of all, in this case, hand-to-hand combat is inevitable.

Secondly, the Soviets had planes in the air, tanks on the ground, and Maxim machine guns and mortars in the distance to suppress them. The Germans had nothing... If there was anything, it was a few captured tanks hiding in the ruins, but because they had no air superiority, these tanks dared not show up at all (if they showed up, they would either be blown up by Soviet artillery fire or chased by their fighter planes).

In this case, it was a good choice to take the initiative to launch a hand-to-hand fight, because the two armies were mixed together, and the Soviet planes, tanks and Maxims would not be able to play a role, especially when the Soviets were still at a low point and the Germans were at a high point, especially when they were stepping on the smooth snow...

"Charge!" Qin Chuan shouted and rushed up with his rifle.

The Soviet soldiers in front of him obviously did not expect the Germans to take the initiative to meet them, and they seemed to have just finished their bullets, and they were at a loss for a moment and didn't know how to deal with it... As mentioned before, the quality of Soviet soldiers was generally poor, and they lacked the ability to react quickly in times of crisis.

Qin Chuan rushed forward as fast as he could, then swung the butt of his gun and smashed it hard on the Soviet soldier's chest, transferring all the momentum to him.