The decisive battle against the Third Reich

The first thing the troops ran into after advancing was the Soviet artillery... Because the German army was advancing very fast, and the artillery was firing shells at the German-occupied area one after another, the sound of the artillery covered the sound of gunfire from the direction of the field hospital, so the Soviet artillery didn't even notice anything unusual.

It wasn't until a gunner was knocked to the ground by a bullet that the Soviet artillery stopped what they were doing and looked back in amazement. When they realized that the troops behind them were enemies, their first reaction was to reach for their guns.

But it was too late. The German soldiers pulled the trigger without hesitation, and the Soviet artillery fell to the ground one after another.

One of the Soviet artillerymen was injured in the leg, but he still didn't give up running away. He dragged his injured leg and limped in the opposite direction... But it was obviously useless. A German soldier caught up with him and shot him in the head with a rifle at a distance of only about half a meter.

So it was a good thing to have artillery, which made the Soviet troops on the west bank realize that they were ambushed almost until the German soldiers arrived in front of them, and this situation continued until the battle was about to end.

Similarly, Matevich and Petronovich did not notice anything unusual. They were still analyzing the battle situation in the headquarters, calculating the escape route of the German army after breaking through and where the Soviet army should intercept them.

At this time, there was a sudden panic outside. When Matevich and Petronovich were wondering, a bloody guard pushed open the door and shouted: "Comrade Political Commissar, the enemy is coming, retreat quickly!"

Matevich and Petronovich looked at each other and realized that they had been fooled. The Germans had no intention of breaking through. It was not a pretext to divert their attention. Their real purpose was to raid the rear of the Soviet army.

"Retreat!" Matevich said.

He knew that he could not hesitate at this time, because he knew that the Soviet army on the west bank of the Lovat River was too weak and could not stop the Germans even for a while.

"But what about the documents?" Petronov hurriedly put on his belt.

"Never mind it!" Matvich blew out the kerosene lamp and said, "It's too late to destroy it. I hope I won't leave anything useful for the Germans!"

Then he opened the back door and ran away.

Matvich was very smart. He chose to escape in the direction of the Lovat River, which was the front line. He knew that the Germans' goal was the west bank of Holm, and he also knew that the Germans would definitely set up a lot of ambushes at the exit of the town, so the safest place was the front line.

Matvich was right, so he and Petronov escaped the Germans' pursuit safely. Other officers... a lot of colonels, captains and regimental and battalion-level political commissars all fell under the German guns. Even a major general who stopped here in Holm was captured alive. He was the commander of the 31st Infantry Brigade.

However, Qin Chuan did not think he could provide any useful information. On the one hand, the Soviet army's combat intentions at this time were already very clear, and on the other hand, the Soviet army's command system was very chaotic. Sometimes even senior generals did not know what role they played in the battle. They only knew to advance according to orders and destroy the enemy when they encountered it.

In addition, Qin Chuan and other commandos also captured an arsenal.

The German army certainly would not blow up the arsenal easily. They first took out the mines from the arsenal and laid them inside and outside the town as quickly as possible... At this time, the most commonly used mine in the Soviet Union was a square wooden shell mine.

This should be said to be another creation of the Soviets. First of all, the wooden shell mine is very simple to make and the cost is very low. It is just two wooden boxes turned upside down. This advantage is obviously very important to the Soviet Union, because the Soviet Union's industrial capacity at this time was greatly damaged by the invasion of the German army, so there was a shortage of materials, and the cost of the wooden shell mine was almost negligible.

Secondly, because this kind of mine is made of wood, ordinary metal mine detectors are basically ineffective against it, which can make it have a good effect of blocking the enemy.

The German army had suffered enough from this kind of mines when attacking the Soviet Union. Because this kind of wooden shell mine is rectangular, the German army called them "small coffins". Now, they are just used on the Soviets. While laying mines, the German army replenished a lot of ammunition from the arsenal... The most of them are pistol bullets and grenades. Many soldiers in the German army are using PPSh submachine guns, which need to be replenished with ammunition. Finally, explosives were put on the ammunition courier to blow it up. The whole battle took only 35 minutes before and after. The German army withdrew completely from the west bank of Holm, leaving only blood, corpses and ruins on the west bank. What made the Soviet army that arrived immediately painful was that although they knew that there were no Germans in the town, they still had to face the mines that might exist everywhere. What's worse is that these mines are their own and cannot be detected. Matvich watched the advancing Soviet soldiers being blown down and screaming in the mines one after another, and a sense of powerlessness arose in his heart. "Where did they come from?" Petrolev couldn't help complaining, "Are they German reinforcements? How come our outer troops didn't notice it at all?"

"No, they are not reinforcements!" Matevich opened a corpse of a German soldier that was dragged in front of the Soviet soldiers and said: "Look at the boots they are wearing... They are our leather boots and cotton-padded jackets. The rags and paper inside..."

(Note: Soviet boots and cotton-padded jackets are better at keeping warm than German soldiers. Due to identification problems, German soldiers did not dare to wear Soviet cotton-padded jackets, but they often took off their boots from dead bodies and put them on.)

"They are Germans from the East Coast?" Petnolev couldn't believe it.

"Yes!" Matevich said: "They are the Germans on the east coast. They came out of the tunnel. We thought we were going to defeat them, but now it seems... they are far from being beaten!" "

"I don't think so!" Petnolev said angrily: "We have already captured the Lovati River defense line. Their sneak attack will not change anything. As long as we..."

Before he finished speaking, there were explosions one after another on the defense line of the Lovati River. Petnolev looked back and saw that the slopes they had piled up on the defense line of the Lovati River had been blown to pieces, including those A bridge erecting vehicle that can allow tanks to pass.

"Pull the troops back!" Matevich said helplessly: "Otherwise they will be surrounded and annihilated again like last time!"