Chapter 11 Nowhere to Hide
In the extreme predicament, a beautiful ambush was fought, which not only relieved the distress of the belly and ammunition but also opened up the situation to some extent. Along the highway, the German soldiers advancing northwest had recovered their spirits to a considerable extent, and these steel-helmeted men were chatting and laughing while eating. Among them, Lin En was perhaps the only one who was depressed, with many things he couldn't understand and many worries - what if one day he became a prisoner of war of the Soviet army, would he also be killed like just now after surrendering? And after death, could he return to his original world, or drift forever in the endless void?
The rumble of the tracks was still echoing in my ears, and only one of the two half-tracked armored vehicles that participated in the battle remained, which was the assault type with a turret. In the battle, it was almost destroyed by the Soviet tank's firepower, but fortunately escaped, but the body was full of large and small holes, and the original crew lost one person and seriously injured another. In order to maintain combat effectiveness, we had to temporarily draw people from the infantry to supplement.
At this moment, this combat unit temporarily formed by the retreating personnel is advancing along the route of the previous Soviet armored units. The officers seem to want to encircle those Soviet combat units with the defenders in front of their own defense line, so that even if they can't annihilate the enemy, they can retreat back to their own defense line in the chaos. The plan itself looks good, but not being able to capture a few trucks is probably the biggest regret of the previous ambush battle. With these soldiers' exhausted bodies, continuous "forced march" is unthinkable, and it's already quite good to maintain a normal marching speed of 4-5 kilometers per hour.
Half an hour after leaving the previous battlefield, looking back still can see the soaring black smoke - those soldiers responsible for "aftercare" got some gasoline from Soviet armored vehicles and cars, which were poured on the concentrated shooting of prisoners of war, collected firearms and ammunition boxes piled around the artillery. Destroying Soviet equipment and supplies can indirectly alleviate the combat pressure on our side, but the explosion and burning smoke of ammunition also provided guidance for Soviet aircraft.
Sure, here is the translation:
As expected, two small dark dots soon appeared on the eastern horizon. The buzzing noise they made was more effective than military trumpets or boots, and hundreds of German soldiers greatly accelerated their march, even trending towards a jog - fortunately, the ground was wet, so no choking dust was raised, but after leaving the forest, the vegetation along the road was sparse, unable to provide cover for a team of hundreds.
He ate some bread with a taste similar to chewing wax, and Lin's strength had recovered somewhat, but after carrying two guns and a cartridge pack for a short distance at a fast pace, the heavy fatigue spread from his legs to his whole body. His life was at stake, he could only grit his teeth and persevere, relying on his willpower to drive this already freely controllable body to move forward with all its might!
The humming sound became clearer, and when he turned his head, he could see the two Soviet planes with dark green paint. From the outline, they should not be Il-2 attack aircraft known as "Black Death God", but this is not worth celebrating for German soldiers, because there are rockets hanging under their wings. When they dived down with their heads lowered, the spiral propellers rolled out a low hum, and the engine's humming had a strong penetrating power, which could make people feel oppressed and tense at a great distance. Seeing the two Soviet planes posing in an attacking posture, German officers loudly called on soldiers to scatter on both sides of the highway.
The surrounding soldiers rushed away from the highway, Lin En lost "Butcher", and had to squeeze in among a group of unfamiliar faces and desperately ran in the direction away from the highway. At this time, only the whistling sound came from the sky, who dared to raise his head to see the magnificent scene of rockets flying together? He instinctively lowered his head and crouched down, and his feet didn't dare to slow down at all. Suddenly, intense explosions followed one after another, and when he heard the roar, Lin En learned from the movie's action to fall forward, but many soldiers behind him couldn't stop in time and were hit by a strong gust of wind, instantly stumbling and falling to the ground, among them One person fell straight onto Lin En's body. If his body was a little heavier, he might have been pressed into shock!
There were dozens of intense explosions, and judging from the intervals, they were divided into two batches. The huge roar shook people's eardrums, so that Lynn didn't hear the sound of two Soviet planes taking off and flying over her head until her hearing recovered a little, and what entered her ears was the familiar and close sound of machine guns. The soldier who fell on his body rolled down, muttering something in his mouth, Lynn took a long breath, turned her head to look, the smoke dissipated, only one armored vehicle left burning with fierce flames, around it, a large area was pockmarked with bullet holes, charred and fragmented everywhere, and people who fell to the ground didn't know whether they were dead or alive.
On both sides of the highway, several machine gun combat groups temporarily played the role of anti-aircraft forces: they consisted of one soldier carrying a two-legged tripod for the machine gun on his shoulder, another soldier crouching or half-squatting to aim and fire, and another soldier helping to grasp the ammunition belt. The short bursts of MG34 or MG42 sounded like ravens making hoarse cries, and the golden shell casings poured out from the barrel like a miniature waterfall. However, these "infantry killers" seemed to pose no great threat to Soviet aircraft. Soon, a Soviet plane came swooping again, flying over at an altitude of less than thirty meters. At such close range, every detail on the underside of the plane was clearly visible to people on the ground - the size and composition of this German unit, their main equipment, and the wretched state they were in - all these details must have been taken in by the Soviet pilot's eyes.
The machine gun fire was still roaring, and a moment later, the second Soviet plane also dived down. When the two machine guns on its wings fired simultaneously, the crisp sound of popping beans suddenly burst open above their heads, and two strings of bullets immediately stirred up rows of mud on the ground. One of the German machine gun groups was swept away, and several soldiers who were crawling on the ground could not escape this disaster. Roughly observed, this short round of shooting had already caused nearly ten casualties.
In the roar of the engine's acceleration, the first Soviet plane climbed to a height of about 100 meters and then flew directly eastward. The second plane only climbed to about half that height, made a large-radius turn, and about a minute later dived from the north. When it descended to its lowest altitude, the wind generated by the propeller was almost strong enough to blow away the sand on the ground. Lin En felt that this not only fully demonstrated the Soviet army's absolute air superiority on the Eastern Front at this time but also showed the strong confidence of the Soviet officers and soldiers.
As usual, the Soviet aircraft flew extremely low and this time it strafed for a longer period. The German machine guns fired fiercely at the "green eagle", but the huge recoil made the gunner and the soldiers holding the shoulder stock present a very strange and awkward posture. Many scattered German soldiers also shot into the air with their submachine guns, but the Soviet aircraft flew away as if nothing had happened. It climbed to an altitude of several dozen meters again, banked elegantly, adjusted its position, and then dived down from a small angle in the east, opening fire at a distance of hundreds of meters. This time, the cannon on the plane also fired, and the bullets that fell to the ground seemed to be drawn by an invisible hand, with the middle row of bullet holes spaced more than twice as wide as the two rows on either side. Each bullet hole exploded like a small grenade. The three rows of bullets extended rapidly along the direction of flight, and when they entered the area where the German soldiers were scattered, the scene changed from flying mud to a mixture of mud, blood, and torn fabric. The deafening sound of machine guns covered up the painful cries. The German soldiers desperately fired their weapons upwards, and with the naked eye, it was possible to see that many bullets hit the Soviet plane, but it flew away again as if nothing had happened.
Lin was thoroughly shocked by the scene in front of him. Although ordinary machine guns have small bullets, that Soviet plane shouldn't be so invincible!
Three consecutive ultra-low-altitude "performances" seemed to have not satisfied the pilot of that Soviet military aircraft, who drove the plane to climb slowly and steadily. This time, the circling time was slightly longer, basically making a big circle around this German army unit as the center point, and then launched a dive-bombing attack from the south again.
When Lin heard the Soviet planes diving down and making their unique humming noise, his heart jumped into his throat. Especially when two bullets had just swept across the ground, kicking up stones and mud, he felt like he was hovering between life and death - those planes were firing heavy machine gun rounds or cannon shells, if he got hit, he estimated that not only would he lose his life, but also end up with a corpse that couldn't be identified.
