Chapter 508 Field Hospital
I have something to do tonight, so I can only update once. I will make up for it tomorrow. Sorry!
It was 2:30 in the morning.
Just as the Soviet army was stepping up its attack on Holm, a hole was carefully knocked on the sloped ice layer downstream of the Lovat River. Seeing that there was no movement outside, the hole became bigger and bigger, and then several German soldiers came out from it.
After these German soldiers came out of the hole, each of them was responsible for checking in a direction around the hole. After confirming that they were not discovered by the enemy, they sent a safe signal to the hole.
Then, teams of German soldiers came out of the hole and hid in the snow and waited for orders.
This unit was the first battalion of the skirmisher regiment led by Qin Chuan and Gerhard.
The reason why they chose to launch a surprise attack from here was because the Lovat River turned a corner here, and the German soldiers used to call this area "Hairpin Bay".
Because of this bend, the German soldiers appeared on the side and rear of the west bank of the Lovat River as soon as they got out of the hole, which also meant that they could bypass the Soviet attack front and reduce the probability of colliding with the Soviet army.
Seeing that almost everyone was there, Qin Chuan waved his hand, and the German soldiers climbed out of the snow and rushed to the west bank of Holm.
The disadvantage of sneak attacks in the snow is that stepping on the snow will make a "crackling" sound. If there are one or two people, it is not a big deal, but if there are many people, the sound is a bit obvious. Fortunately, the gunshots and artillery sounds on the battlefield on the east bank covered up this noise to a certain extent.
At the entrance of the town, several Soviet sentinels gathered together, smoking, chatting and roasting fire, which was a little unimaginable for the German army. They were not even allowed to smoke at night, while the Soviet army could be so free.
But this is actually very normal.
The most important thing is that the artillery of the two is disproportionate: the Soviet army has an absolute advantage in artillery and sufficient artillery shells. They can fire several or even dozens of artillery shells at any fire in the German-controlled area.
On the contrary, the German army was not so heroic, which allowed the Soviet army to build fires in the wild to keep warm.
Of course, there were also various reasons for this, such as the poor quality of the Soviet army, poor military discipline, and the low temperature and no place to keep warm in the wild.
But no matter what, this provided a lot of convenience for the German army.
Gerhard waved his hand, and several German scouts quietly surrounded them from different directions.
It should be said that there are still many skills in the work of scouts. For example, now, the matter in front of us looks simple, that is, to kill the three scouts around the fire.
But thinking about it carefully, this matter is not simple at all.
The first is how to approach the target silently without being discovered. This is relatively easy to do in ordinary terrain. For example, Qin Chuan had stolen a chicken under the nose of the German guard before.
But it is very difficult to achieve this in the snow, because, as mentioned before, feet or hands stepping on the snow will make a sound.
Their method is to make several pairs of shoes as big as washbasins... These shoes are made of bamboo, very light, a bit like divers' flippers.
Needless to say, the purpose of this is that the scouts crawl forward on the ground wearing such shoes on their hands and feet, which can increase their contact area with the ground exponentially, so the scouts actually walk on the snow without making any noise due to stepping through the knee-high snow layer. This allows them to approach the Soviet sentries silently.
Secondly, it is a question of how to unify the time to attack the Soviet army.
The scouts' approach is to estimate how long it will take to arrive, and then add a little time and space. Those who arrive first will lie in wait and suddenly attack when the time comes.
Finally, it is a question of killing skills.
Compared with the previous two points, this point is actually the simplest link for the scouts... The requirement for them is that each of them only has the target they are responsible for in their eyes, and when the time comes, they rush up, cover the target's mouth with one hand and stab the target's heart or lung lobe with the other hand, and then everything is over.
The German scouts did a good job. They cleanly eliminated the three Soviet sentinels, dragged them to the snow nearby and buried them as quickly as possible, and then pretended to be three sentinels and warmed themselves by the fire.
If you didn't pay attention, you would really think that there were three sentinels chatting there from a distance. No one noticed that a group of German soldiers had crouched down by the fire and sneaked into the west bank of the Holm.
After entering the town, everything was even simpler. The Soviet army in the town was basically not vigilant. When they saw a group of soldiers coming from a distance, they took it for granted that they were their own people, so no one cared.
There was a tannery in front, but it was obviously used as a field hospital by the Soviet army. This can be seen from the stretchers carrying the wounded and the Soviet medical women soldiers wearing boat caps and white red crosses running back and forth.
Gerhard and Qin Chuan looked at each other.
Both sides saw the embarrassment in each other's eyes... The wounded and medical soldiers, in principle, can be regarded as things outside of war, especially among them There are women.
Of course, if it were other countries such as Britain and the United States, the medical soldiers would still be protected by the Geneva Convention, but the Soviet Union refused to join so this was invalid for them.
But Gerhard and Qin Chuan knew that the Soviet wounded and medical soldiers were not "outside of war" or "not dangerous". They would pick up their guns at any time and shoot at the backs of the Germans.
So Qin Chuan gritted his teeth and ordered: "Go forward and kill them!"
"Yes, Captain!" Gerhard responded and gave the soldiers an order.
It was not until the German soldiers approached that a few Soviet female health soldiers saw clearly the guns held by the German soldiers, and they couldn't help but screamed and turned around and ran away.
But it was too late. The German soldiers pulled the triggers and fired rows of bullets... The health soldiers and the wounded fell in a pool of blood one by one. Some people wanted to raise their guns to fight back, but before he could touch the guns, several rounds were fired. The bullet knocked him to the ground.
A group of soldiers quickly rushed to the door of the field hospital and leaned to both sides. They ignited a few grenades and threw them in...
There were horrified screams from a group of wounded Soviet soldiers and medical soldiers, but no one could help them. Just a few "boom" sounds were heard, and a cloud of smoke exploded in the hospital, and the glass of several windows was shaken. It has to break apart and shoot everywhere.
The German soldiers did not hesitate, turned around and rushed in with their guns raised. Then there were gunshots, screams and screams... War is so cruel. If you want to blame it, it is the Soviet army that allowed the Germans to take advantage of the loophole. .
Qin Chuan couldn't bear to see what was going on inside. He left a small force to continue attacking the field hospital, told a few people to pay attention to seizing drugs, especially morphine, and then led the main force to continue attacking in other directions.