Chapter 647: Line of Defense

The engine rumbled, and the tracks rolled on the steel plates, making a sharp, piercing sound that made people feel itchy bones.

Qin Chuan and a group of soldiers followed the tanks and slowly advanced towards the Soviet positions. Shells exploded in front of them. That was the mortar fire provided by the infantry who provided fire cover for them in the back... Mortars are easier to coordinate than long-range artillery, because the gunners were observing the armored forces not far behind, and then they would make adjustments according to the actual situation and push the shells forward layer by layer.

Soon the Soviet army began to fight back.

But as Qin Chuan expected, the Soviet infantry in front of him lacked anti-tank equipment, because all the bullets and mortar shells flying from the opposite side.

But of course, these things could not cause much damage to the tanks. The tanks still advanced at a speed of about ten kilometers per hour, getting closer and closer...

If it was at other times, the Soviet army should have turned over the trenches and fled in batches, but this was not the case now.

Qin Chuan knew why they were doing this... Order No. 227, not to retreat a single step.

In fact, it was more accurate to say that Stalin personally flew to Stalingrad to mobilize in some way, that is, the "punitive battalion" and "interception team" were more intimidating... After all, an order is just an order. Although soldiers take obedience to orders as their first duty, the Soviet army's military discipline is lax, and disobedience to orders often occurs. After a long time, a considerable number of soldiers do not take orders to heart.

But the "punitive battalion" is a specific measure.

Every soldier will make such a consideration in his heart: rather than being assigned to the punitive battalion and dying with shame or even shame for his family, it is better to die bravely as a hero.

So, even if they are extremely scared in their hearts, even if they are unwilling, even if they are nostalgic for this world, they still have to make this correct choice in the end... Hold their ground and not retreat a single step.

Several Soviet soldiers jumped out of the smoke of the shells, shouting wildly and rushing towards the paving tanks, holding explosive packs with ignited fuses in their hands.

In a way, the Soviet soldiers were right. The Pave Tanks could not see them because of the steel plate in front of them, and they could not shoot or fire at them.

But the German soldiers following the Pave Tanks were well prepared. They immediately leaned out and raised their guns, and then pulled the trigger at the Soviet soldiers without mercy...

"Da Da Da" After all the gunshots, the Soviet soldiers fell in a pool of blood.

In the face of the firepower of the MP43, this suicidal charge had basically no chance.

The explosive pack exploded more than 20 meters in front of the tank, which had the effect of blowing a hole in the ground.

A Soviet soldier crawled slowly in the mud holding a bundle of cluster grenades.

He was very smart, and he was determined to die, which can be seen from the fact that he used mud to camouflage himself, then estimated the direction of the Pave Tanks and lay still... In this case, who could find the target lying still on the ground? Most people thought it was a corpse.

So, he only needed to wait for the tank to arrive in front of him, then pull the grenade and he could do what he was supposed to do.

But Qin Chuan still found him because his legs were shaking unconsciously. Perhaps he himself was not aware of this, and he could not control it, because it was the fear of death of human beings. Even veterans who had experienced hundreds of battles could hardly face it calmly.

Qin Chuan was not soft-hearted. He gently pulled the trigger with his index finger, and a bullet flew out and hit his head... Then his legs stopped shaking.

With a crisp sound of "clang", a road-paving tank stopped and did not move.

Qin Chuan realized that this must be some kind of direct-fire anti-tank weapon, but it did not sound like an anti-tank gun, but more likely an anti-tank gun.

Looking in the opposite direction of the road-paving tank, he saw a long barrel extending from the middle of several sandbags.

That was the Soviet PTRS-41 anti-tank rifle.

This thing can be considered a new weapon, because only 77 of them were produced and urgently equipped to the Soviet army during the Battle of Moscow, but in the Battle of Stalingrad a year later... the Soviet army was equipped with more than 60,000 of them, so that the German army was very troubled by it.

The reason is that it is very powerful and can penetrate 50MM armor within a distance of 100 meters. You should know that the front armor of the "Three" tank is only 47MM.

However, because it emphasizes the anti-tank power unilaterally, it has become a kind of equipment that is not suitable for single-soldier firing... The whole gun weighs 20 kilograms, and it needs two people to carry it one in front and one behind on the battlefield to move quickly.

What's more serious is that it is said that each person using it can only fire three bullets: fire one with the right shoulder, then switch to the left shoulder, wait for the right shoulder to breathe and then fire another round. If you want to fire more, you can't bear the recoil.

A Soviet shooter once described the feeling of shooting like this: the shoulder is like being kicked hard by a donkey.

But no matter what, it had successfully fired a shot and penetrated a Pave Tank.

Qin Chuan certainly couldn't let it continue, so he raised his rifle and aimed at the back of the sandbags. When he saw a head popping out to observe, he killed it with a "bang".

The tank was getting closer and closer to the Soviet trench, and it was about to approach the 50-meter distance for throwing grenades...

Once approaching this position, it almost means that the Soviet army has no chance, because the German army only needs to lean out to throw a large number of grenades into the Soviet trenches, and when the Soviet army does this, most of their grenades will be blocked by tanks.

Then you can imagine that the German army only needs to take advantage of the residual power of the grenades to charge, and the Soviet defense line will no longer exist.

At this time, rows of grenades were thrown in the direction of the Soviet army. After the explosion, the Soviet army shouted loudly, and climbed out of the trenches one after another in the smoke and charged towards the German army.

Seeing this, Qin Chuan couldn't help but secretly praise in his heart... This should be the credit of the Soviet commander, and the timing of the counterattack was just right.

It was too early, the distance between the enemy and us was too long, and they all died before they rushed to the front.

It was too late, and they had to face the enemy's grenade rain.

From this point of view, the Soviet commander still has some combat experience.

If the Germans were equipped with bolt-action rifles at this time, they would probably be rushed into the team and engaged in close combat. As you can imagine, tanks would not be able to play a role in this situation.

But the problem was that the First Infantry Regiment was equipped with MP43.