Chapter 163 Traps

The sky is getting brighter, and the smoke is gradually dissipating.

There was silence on the battlefield for a while, and then the sound of tank motors was heard in the rain curtain opposite, and German tanks covered the infantry and rushed towards the Soviet positions in a row.

Most of the tanks that came up were the No. 1 and No. 2 tanks, and there were also the No. 3 tanks, but they followed the No. 1 tank.

It is understandable for the Germans to do so.

First of all, the No. 1 and No. 2 tanks are light in weight, and they are more suitable for driving on muddy roads... If the No. 1 and No. 2 tanks cannot pass, the No. 3 tank, which is twice as heavy as the No. 2 tank, should stop.

The second is that the No. 1 and No. 2 tanks are small in size, and they can more flexibly avoid bomb craters and rush to the enemy's position.

The tank drove forward slowly with the sound of motors, and the German soldiers pushed forward over the tank.

Infantry often do this when first attacking because there are likely to be mines, barbed wire, and other obstacles in the mud...it's impossible to blow up all of these things and clear a way for the tanks, so the infantry needs to go Clear obstacles ahead and even guide tanks behind you to attack from a safe position.

Otherwise, the tank might be bombed and paralyzed in place before it could advance very far.

Of course, these obstacle-clearing infantry have to take great risks. On the one hand, they have to bear the threat from landmines, and on the other hand, they have to withstand the enemy's firepower. In this case, they have to work hard to complete the task.

The second, third, and subsequent attacks are relatively much better, because these obstacles will not repeat, unless the enemy has not attacked overnight and placed obstacles again.

But in this attack, the German wreckers felt that their task was much easier than before.

The reason is that there are not many obstacles and mines on the ground, and more importantly, due to the low visibility, the Soviet army has not implemented fire suppression against them.

What they don't know is that it's not that there are not many obstacles, but that they don't see them.

Then……

With a bang, a soldier fell into the mud.

The German army didn't pay attention to it at first, thinking that it was just a mud pit formed by accident, and this kind of situation often happened during the march.

but soon,

One after another, several soldiers fell into the mud pit.

The mud pit was filled with mud, especially the surface was covered with a layer of solid soil, and the wreckers were not mentally prepared to step into the air.

You must know that these mud pits are used to trap tanks, so the width is about two meters, and the length is not necessarily... This is the minimum standard for anti-tank trenches. If the width is too small, tanks can go over directly like running over trenches.

This length and width may be a sinkhole for tanks, but it is a big bathtub for soldiers, just a bathtub filled with mud.

As soon as the wrecker infantry fell, he swallowed a few mouthfuls of mud like a dog eating shit, and it took him a long time to come up to wipe off the mud on his nose and mouth before he was able to breathe heavily.

Although the time before and after was short, it felt like saving a life.

Even if some barrier-wrecker infantry fell, if there were no comrades to pull them up, they would probably die in it after a few breaths.

The obstacle-wrecker infantry wanted to remind the tanks behind them, but at this moment, gunshots and cannons rang out in the Soviet position...

These guns and cannons are not designed to kill the enemy.

At this time, the enemy was still more than 300 meters away from the Soviet defense line, and only a little moving shadow could be seen in the rain. It was not easy to hit the target.

This is done to put a little pressure on the enemy and make it a little harder for the wreckers to communicate with the tanks.

Sure enough, under the suppression of the guns, the infantrymen hurriedly sought cover to avoid.

Just then the tank passed them and continued on.

This is the standard procedure for German combat. Tanks and infantry cover each other or coordinate, but the tank soldiers don't know that the infantrymen don't want the tanks to come forward.

Then, an accident happened...

First, a tank plunged into the mud pit with a bang, and couldn't move after it kicked up a large swath of mud.

Moving forward, the front armor is against a nearly two-meter-high earth wall, and the tracks are inserted obliquely downward into the mud pit, and the more the tracks turn, the deeper they sink.

Retreat... German tanks have a reverse gear, but the retreat also does not work because the bottom is muddy, and under gravity and the reverse rotation of the tracks, the result is still sinking deeper and deeper.

So the best thing to do is to stay still.

Then a No. 2 tank rolled over... This kind of situation is relatively rare. Usually, half of the tank rolls over the ground and the other half hangs over the trap, and then loses balance and flips into the trap.

This situation is quite sad. The No. 1 and No. 2 tanks have no escape doors due to their small chassis. In fact, the same is true for the No. 3 tanks. All crew members can only enter through the top hatch. It was not until the No. 4 tank that the driver was added. Exclusive entrance and escape door for personnel.

So a rollover blocked the hatch, and all the crew could only wait in the tank, waiting for water and mud to seep in through the gap, and then more and more, more and more...

Often this kind of slow death is the most painful, because they will experience a considerable period of painful struggles before they are alive, and they are still enclosed in a tank and almost isolated from the world, making them ineffective every day.

The commander of the German army was Armored General von Schweppenburg.

It is the habit of the 2nd Armored Group for the general to come to the front to command in person. This habit was initiated by Guderian, the father of armor and the commander of the 2nd Armored Group. Only then can we change tactics flexibly, in a targeted manner, and in a timely manner for command.

This is a good habit, which has made Guderian's reputation, and at the same time has become the target of his subordinates to emulate. This habit has even spread to other armored forces and even other arms.

As the commander of the 24th Motorized Army of the 2nd Armored Group, Schweppenburg is of course no exception.

At this time, he was standing next to a No. 3 tank three hundred meters behind the offensive line, holding up a telescope to observe the battle situation on the front line.

Schweppenburg was very surprised by the tanks that appeared one after another.

After thinking for a while, he put down the binoculars and said two words to the adjutant beside him, "Retreat!"

Then Schweppenburg walked to the map and remained silent.

Schweppenburg knew what the Russians were doing. It was not an accident that the tank fell into the pit, nor was it a bomb crater. It was a trap dug by the Soviets.

If there are such traps all the way from here to the city of Tula...

Schweppenburg didn't dare to continue thinking about it, which meant that the entire army's tanks would not be able to reach Tula.

Soon, Schweppenburg realized he had only one path: the railway.

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