Chapter 626 Baku Defense Line

The sound of the tank tracks became louder and louder. After firing a few flares, we saw a group of Soviet troops crouching and advancing under the cover of tanks about a thousand meters in front of the position.

Qin Chuan could easily tell from their actions that these were experienced veterans... Compared with other new recruits of the Soviet army, they knew how to protect themselves, just like the saying goes, "Only by protecting yourself can you better destroy the enemy", so this is a troublesome thing for the German army.

However, it is obvious that this time the Soviets only used the tanks as a shield... The tanks did not dare to fire, because, as mentioned before, the German army was behind the refinery, and the Soviets wanted to take the refinery back intact, otherwise they would not be able to explain to General Chulenev, and General Chulenev could not explain to Stalin.

What the Soviets did not know was that Qin Chuan took advantage of them.

From this point of view, Qin Chuan actually only needed to ignite the oil field and refinery to achieve his goal, but the problem was that the Germans also wanted to save the refinery.

"Bang bang" several shells exploded in front of the position.

That was the Soviet 37MM mortar... This light mortar was equipped in large quantities in the elite Soviet troops, as mentioned before, similar to the German 50MM mortar.

In fact, the Soviet 37MM mortar is still a very unique piece of equipment in the Soviet army... It is a combination of an engineer shovel and a light mortar: it can be used as an engineer shovel at ordinary times, but if it is turned over and the shovel head is folded into an angle to become a base, and the shovel handle opens the dust cover as a gun barrel, then it will become a mortar.

Its disadvantage is that the range is short, and it can only barely reach 300 meters.

The two shells fired by the Soviet army were obviously used for distance measurement. They wanted to know how far away they were from the German defense line.

The explosion point of the shells made both sides know that the two armies were still 400 meters apart.

In a sense, the German army should have opened fire at this time.

Because the range of the German 50MM mortar is 500 meters, if the enemy is allowed to enter the range of 300 meters, the range advantage will be lost.

But Manstein did not do this.

Manstein's decision was correct... The theoretical range of the Soviet mortar is 300 meters, but it is very difficult to hit a target 300 meters away in actual combat, especially at night.

Another more important point is that the MP43 used by the First Infantry Regiment has a range of only 350 meters, and firing at 400 meters is beyond its range.

Therefore, weapons and equipment should also be matched or systematic. For example, the previous firepower configuration of the German army was k mortar, which was not a problem. The two could easily create a firepower wall at about 400 meters, making the Soviet 37MM mortar unable to play a role.

But MP43 and 50MM mortars cannot do this.

However, in this battle, neither KP43 could stop the Soviet army. The reason was simple... The Soviet army had tanks while the German army did not. The German army only had a rocket launcher with a range of 160 meters.

Therefore, the German army still let the Soviet army continue to advance.

400 meters.

The Soviet tanks turned on the headlights without hesitation. At this time, they had already figured out the performance of the German anti-tank equipment, that is, the rocket launcher, so they knew that the tanks were almost invincible at this distance.

350 meters.

The tanks advanced slowly, followed by groups of Soviet troops. Following the order of the Soviet officers, they installed bayonets on their rifles one after another.

Their tactics were simple, just like the German attack, they bombarded the enemy's defense line with mortars at a distance of about 300 meters. Then they continued to advance under the cover of the tanks, and in the last 100 meters, they made a 100-meter sprint into the enemy trenches and fought hand-to-hand with the enemy...

300 meters.

The Soviets fired a few more shells. This time they were sure they had reached the range, but as mentioned before, this was not the ideal shooting distance for the 37MM mortar, so they had to keep moving forward.

The Soviet soldiers walked steadily, and seemed confident that they could defeat the Germans.

This may be because they had tanks in their hands... Tanks versus no tanks are usually a massacre, and they believed that this time would be no exception.

Perhaps it was also their confidence in the upcoming hand-to-hand combat... The Soviets were more willing to fight hand-to-hand combat because they had more people, while the Germans were the opposite.

Finally, the Soviet troops advanced to a distance of 250 meters.

Just as the Soviets set up the mortars, Manstein gave an order: "Fire!"

There was a flash of fire, and the mortars of both sides fired at the opposite side almost at the same time.

The battlefield suddenly became lively, with the sound of artillery shells and machine guns everywhere.

At this distance, the Germans still had the advantage in artillery fire. On the one hand, the German soldiers were well-trained and their shells were very accurate. On the other hand, the MP43 in the hands of the First Infantry Regiment could also suppress the Soviet mortar gunners.

So the Soviet artillery fire soon stopped making any sound. Occasionally, a few shells were fired from behind the tanks using curved angles, but the German mortar gunners were all veterans. They could roughly determine the position of the enemy gunners just by the flash from the muzzle and the landing point of the shells... This was a bit magical, because the target was hiding behind the tank and could not be seen at all, but the soldiers who were used to firing mortars could fire shells by feeling and accurately kill the target.

Qin Chuan just used a sniper rifle to knock out the headlights of the tanks one by one.

For now, the tanks' headlights are more threatening than those of the Soviets.

But the Soviets did not retreat. Instead, they shouted and rushed over the tanks towards the German defense line. The tanks also accelerated at full speed...

In other cases, this kind of Soviet charge can indeed break through the German defense line: infantry and tanks are mixed together, and the distance between the enemy and us is only 200 meters. The infantry rushed to the front of the defense line and threw a row of grenades to make the German rocket launchers useless. The tanks covered the infantry and followed closely to the German defense line, and then the battle was almost over.

But this time the situation was completely different.

Several flares were fired into the air, and rows of bullets poured towards the charging Soviets... The MP43 is the best weapon to deal with the enemy's close-range charge. It not only has the firing rate of a submachine gun but also has considerable penetration. (Note: Although the submachine gun has a fast firing rate, it cannot penetrate. When several targets overlap, it can only kill the first target, but the intermediate power bullet can penetrate the human body and kill several subsequent targets)

So, the Soviet army fell in front of the German position like harvested rice. No one could rush to the distance to throw grenades, let alone close combat.

The Soviet infantry was killed and wounded in large numbers. The tanks were like targets in front of the rocket launcher shooters. With a few "chi chi" screams, the tanks were blown into a pile of scrap metal.