Chapter 715 Landing Operation

Werner was talking about a common paradox on the battlefield.

Soldiers sometimes couldn't tell whether to enjoy good things like chocolate first or save them for when they needed them more.

If they enjoyed them first, they would end up like Werner, who had nothing left when they really needed them.

If they saved them for when they needed them more, they would end up like the 35 people who died... and had no chance to enjoy them.

This was a trivial matter for people living in a peaceful society, but on this battlefield where supplies were scarce, many soldiers would think about it and hesitate for a long time before deciding to eat a little.

Qin Chuan was better in this regard, because compared to those soldiers who didn't need to think about it when the war stopped, he still had to think about how to proceed with the next battle or persist.

But it seemed that he didn't need to think about it now.

Because Kuhn, who was looking out through the observation hole of the bunker with a telescope, reported: "Major, the Soviets seem to be attacking!"

The reason why Kuhn said "seems" is because the Soviet shells exploded outside the bunker and produced layers of gunpowder smoke... In fact, most of the shells exploded in the river, and the evaporating water vapor was like a layer of fog covering the sandbar, making it difficult for the German army to see the movements of the Soviet army on the east bank.

Qin Chuan raised the telescope and looked out. In the rolling smoke, he could see the shadows of a busy Soviet army.

"Prepare for battle!" Qin Chuan ordered loudly.

The soldiers turned over and sat up from the corner of the wall, scrambling to put their guns on the firing holes... The Soviet bunker fortifications were obviously built for anti-landing. In addition to the larger heavy machine gun and artillery firing holes, there were also rifle firing holes for individual soldiers.

However, these rifle firing holes were designed to target the Soviet Mosin-Nagant, which was relatively short, and the MP43 used by the German army had a higher aiming baseline, so part of the field of view was not very clear.

Of course, this did not affect the combat effectiveness of the German army.

Anti-aircraft machine guns and small high-caliber anti-aircraft guns were also ready, with their muzzles pointed at the river ahead and a beach in front of them that was already full of craters.

The sound of the guns gradually became smaller and disappeared completely in a short while... This is another advantage of the sandbar defense. Because it is close to the east bank, the Soviet army has to stop shelling if it wants to launch an attack, otherwise the shells will immediately cause accidental injuries to the Soviet army crossing the river.

There were faint sounds of wooden oars paddling in the smoke. The Soviet soldiers had obviously entered the water and were slowly approaching the sandbar... They did not dare to make too much noise because they were worried that this would draw the enemy's firepower to themselves.

However, this would not make much difference, because soon the sunlight penetrated the water mist and cast a series of black shadows in it.

The moment Qin Chuan saw the Soviet offensive formation, he was stunned. It was rafts and small fishing boats, and even some kayaks. The Soviet army actually tried to use these things for landing operations, and they could not stop the bullets fired by the German camp at all.

But the Soviet army's fragility was a good thing for the German army.

Qin Chuan did not hesitate and shouted: "Fire!"

Instantly, the sound of gunfire rang out, and the bullets were like a gust of wind, carrying the bullet line into the smoke, and screams and the sound of broken wood boards soon rang out.

The Soviet army shouted and accelerated the speed of rowing, and some assault boats and rubber boats even started the motor.

Obviously, the Soviet army hoped to break through the German fire blockade with speed, but this was just a luxury... The anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns in the German bunkers soon sounded.

The bullets fired by the anti-aircraft machine guns made a series of splashes on the river surface, and the end of the splashes hit the fishing boat.

Wood chips flew and blood splattered.

Rows of cup-sized bullet holes were immediately shot on the fishing boats. What was even more terrifying was the penetration of these bullets... A 12.7mm caliber bullet could penetrate a 15mm steel plate at a distance of 500 meters, and the Soviet fishing boats were only 200 meters away, and most of them were wooden structures. The bullets would undoubtedly penetrate and hit the Soviet soldiers who were bending over and hiding in the hull.

Some anti-aircraft machine guns even fired a few rounds of bullets at a fishing boat, and would cut it in half like cutting tofu.

Even more terrifying was the anti-aircraft gun... The shells of the anti-aircraft guns were delayed fuses, and the German soldiers with rich combat experience knew to aim the muzzle slightly above the target.

The reason was simple. The shells aimed directly at the target would penetrate more and explode in the water, which would obviously cause much less damage to the enemy.

But if aimed at the sky above the target, the shells would explode in the air and then scatter shrapnel to hit the Soviet army below.

After the black smoke, not to mention the Soviet soldiers, even the fishing boats were blown to pieces by shrapnel. Some shells happened to penetrate the target ship and exploded inside, which was even more horrible.

The Soviet wooden boats rushed up one after another, one after another, and then were penetrated and smashed like a dead tree under the powerful firepower of the German army, and then sank while floating with the river.

After a while, the river was full of half-sunken and half-floating wooden boat wreckage and the bodies of Soviet soldiers. Occasionally, there were a few boats whose engines might have been blown up, and the leaked gasoline ignited a raging fire on the water, and there was another round of screams and cries.

The first attack of the Soviet army was repelled without any suspense. Although it was only a short twenty minutes, the Soviet casualties were at least thousands of people... This was estimated by the size of the fleet that launched the charge.

The exact number is more than 1,300 people, because 300 of them are armed swimming troops.

Compared with those who charged with wooden boats, these armed swimming Soviet troops were much luckier... The wooden boats were too big and were destroyed by a barrage of bullets, and most of the Soviet soldiers on them could not swim, so countless were killed or drowned.

On the contrary, the armed swimming soldiers were smaller targets, and it was difficult to find their existence in the smoke and mist.

Therefore, some of them even attacked the sandbar.

But these people were obviously not smart enough. It was clear at a glance that attacking the sandbar would have no meaning except to die: there were mines and barbed wires outside the bunkers, and behind them there were machine guns and MP43s facing the wide river bank without any concealment...

Ironically, these obstacles were all built by the Soviet army, but they did not play a role during the German attack, and instead became an insurmountable barrier for the Soviet army.

With the sound of mine explosions and gunfire, the Soviet soldiers who rushed onto the sandbar fell one by one on the beach. The blood flowed back into the Volga River, adding dazzling red lines to the Volga River.