Past events in Beicheng

Chapter 13

The German armored group crossed the border like lightning. This steel torrent, which cooperated extremely tacitly with the Stuka bomber formation, had a total of 34 divisions, while the Soviet army facing it had only 21 divisions.Because of the previous multiple waves of air strikes, most of the Soviet airports on the western border have been paralyzed. The effective resistance of the Soviet Air Force is difficult to continue, and the army without air cover has become extremely vulnerable.

After tearing through the first line of defense on the border, the German Army Group North rushed towards Leningrad.Ivan thought that his chariot formation would drive to the border, but he didn't expect that they had to stop as soon as they arrived in Luga.

"This is the front line," an army officer stationed in Luga told him, "and behind it is Leningrad."

Ivan was incorporated into the No.30 Fourth Army of the Soviet Army. This is his luck, because the comrades who went to the battlefield in the early stage are now surrounded by the enemy.From the morning of June 22, when he hurriedly left Leningrad, he had been in despair.

Ivan looked at the long anti-tank trench in front of him, and then at the group of strange soldiers in front of him, suddenly didn't know what to say.

"Young company commanders, this is the Luga Line. As you can see, it was built only a month ago. This is the first line of defense that can effectively stop the Germans so far. I hope you can understand , the war has begun, if you don’t know how to fight, learn to fight.” The political commissar told everyone at the meeting.

Walking out of the temporary command post, Ivan only remembered one name: Erich von Manstein, a major player in the German Northern Army and their current opponent.

Torres was mobilizing the new soldiers before the battle. The artillery fire not far away shook the ground. He didn't know whether it was a duel between tanks and anti-tank guns, or a duel between tanks and tanks.Ivan admired Torres's passionate speech, and he was lucky to have such a partner, who gave him the time to sort out the current situation in front of him temporarily - he was a brand new company commander, in front of him was a brand new tank, and a group of brand new soldiers - and Is there anything worse than this?

The place they were going to was a swamp that was crossed by only one road. This place had been occupied by the Germans yesterday and had just been recaptured in the morning.Several infantrymen stood up excitedly when they saw the reinforcements, although one was supported because he had a broken leg.On the side of the road is a broken KV tank. If it weren't for the fresh paint on it, you wouldn't be able to tell that it just rolled off the assembly line of the Kirov Tank Factory just a month ago.

"New Comrade Tank Company Commander! Hello!"

"Hello," Ivan jumped off the turret, "Has this place been attacked just now?"

An infantryman ran over: "Yes, it's a bit bad to say, Comrade Company Commander, our camp is in the woods in the swamp, please go there yourself, we have to clean up the mess here."

Ivan turned his head to glance at the situation in front of him, and just asked, "Is there anyone else?"

"No, it's terrible." The infantryman didn't say much: "Then I'll go to work, Comrade Company Commander."

Ivan and Torres stepped on the mud and walked about half a mile into the swamp. They met the commander of the infantry company. His situation was much worse than Ivan's, because the instructor of this company had already died: "Hi, two , Please sit down, the morning battle lasted at least three hours, we finally regained the position, but paid too much price. What do you think, two newcomers?"

"Soldier morale was low," Torres said.

The company commander in his 40s agreed: "The instructor of the last armored company said the same thing, but it's a pity we can't see him anymore."

Ivan didn't show any expression: "I don't think the German tanks are that strong. Let's talk first. I'll go and see the battlefield."

The commander of the infantry company showed displeasure, and Torres stopped him: "Let him go, Comrade Company Commander, after all, you don't want to kill me the next time the Germans attack, so you have to be alone with him."

"Yes, you have to listen to the political cadres at all times." The infantry company commander complained and sat down.

Ivan returned to the battlefield: "Aren't there any tank soldiers left?" He asked the infantry soldiers who were burying their bodies.

"There was one just now, but unfortunately it is gone now."

"They planted anti-tank mines here."

The infantry showed a look of incomprehension: "Maybe."

"Gunner, come here." Ivan waved to his tank.

A small man ran down and looked at the ruins in front of him tremblingly: "Comrade company commander, here we are!"

"What's your name."

"My name is Peter Vladiminovich Karanishkov, sir."

"This is the German tank that was destroyed this morning. You tell the driver to drive 500 meters away, and then you aim at the front armor plate and fire a shot."

"Yes."

The little Peter ran back tremblingly. After a while, the chariot started and stopped about 500 meters away from the German tank. Then the turret started to rotate. After aiming for a while, the first shell fired.

The turret of the shot German tank flew high, then fell to the side, and then, the whole tank exploded a second time and ignited violently.

"Everyone come here." When the explosion was over, Ivan waved to his soldiers.

"Look at our kv tanks. There are no traces of penetration on these armor fragments. This tank was destroyed by anti-tank mines. Especially the complete ones, you see, only the tracks are broken. If the people inside Not so eager to get out that you don't lose your life. There are six of our tanks here, but only two of the enemy tanks, and if we have equal firepower, then at least four German tanks have escaped."

The infantrymen who were listening on the side nodded: "There are about eight of them."

"So, their tank guns are not insufficient in caliber to penetrate our armor, but ours can easily kill them. Their strength is that they may be veterans, they can run faster than us, and they can aim more accurately than us, but ours The advantage lies in the equipment. In the following battles, I will plan a strategy that is beneficial to us, but remember, no matter what, if anyone dares to abandon the car and escape, I will definitely catch him and smash his head with a single shot."

The soldiers of the armored company stood in a row and saluted their commander.

"Drive the tank into the swamp on the side of the roadbed, about 500 meters away from the road, hide well, and make sure there are no roadblocks ahead. Action!"

"Yes!"

Ivan stood on the high ground and watched his soldiers work. Torres and the commander of the infantry company came over. They seemed to be familiar with each other.

"This is Boris Alexandrovich Antonov, can you guess? This company commander is also from Leningrad." Torres introduced enthusiastically.

"You can tell from the accent, I'm Ivan Ivanovich Braginsky, the commander of the tank company." Ivan reached out his hand and shook the other party.

"Well, two young people," Boris looked at the busy tanks in front of him with a numb expression, "I hope your fate will not be as bad as theirs, and not as bad as my old partner."

"No, the German tanks use gasoline engines. As long as we can penetrate their armor, they have absolutely no chance of escaping."

"And what about our tanks? They might penetrate our armor, too."

"It's very unlikely, and we're a diesel engine, so we're unlikely to have a secondary explosion. Our tankers need more time to travel the same distance, our gunners have to wait longer to aim at the same target, and Panic always makes them abandon the car and run away, which is the root cause of our failure. Now you don't have to think about it, I will, but if there is a motorcycle formation, I may not be able to do it? Can you handle it? Yours The soldiers look fine."

"Well, yes, young man, I hope you are not talking on paper." Boris raised his eyebrows: "How often will they attack again?"

Ivan and Torres looked at each other.

"We may need to discuss this issue in detail." Torres shrugged.

This discussion was not held in a tent. The three men discussed while walking along the edge of the swamp, and did not return to the camp until three hours later.

Torres went to continue his pre-war mobilization. After checking the results of his soldiers, Ivan found a dry place to lie down and rest.After closing his eyes, he didn’t actually feel sleepy. He calculated the time—July 75st, only a week had passed since the day he left. He calculated the distance—[-] versts, only one day away from Leningrad less than the distance.

Germany, which has flattened half of Europe, is here, Leningrad, how are you?

Budyonny Military Communication Academy, how are you?

Wang Yao, what about you?

"Not good. Very bad."

But this is Professor Belyayev's answer. He hoped that the school would allow him to leave with his family, but his wish failed.The school pointed him the way—the Kirov factory—to get there and become an engineer until the end of the war.

"If you don't want to, Comrade Belyayev, I will send you to a military court right now." Lotnikov looked proudly at the angry little old man in front of him.

"What about Wang Yao? Can he leave?" Belyayev shouted.

"He can, he is an international student, as long as he wants, we will send him to Moscow, and then send him to China."

"I can go with him! Then I'll be back! My family is in your hands!"

Rotnikoff ignored him, but turned to Wang Yao: "Are you willing to leave? You are a faculty member in our department, but your student relationship is in the Department of Communication Engineering. If you want to leave, please submit an application to your department as soon as possible. "

In fact, Wang Yao only met him once. It was when he first came to Leningrad. He received the class schedule from the dean, and then he talked to himself for a whole noon at lunch. "Anti-Dühring".

"I would like to stay." Wang Yao said calmly.

"My God! You're crazy!"

"He's not crazy!" Lotnikov suddenly yelled at Beryayev: "On the contrary, I think you're crazy, and I'm ashamed of you. This is the registration document from the Kirov Tank Factory! You No need to go back, I will pick you up tomorrow morning!"

Rotnikoff threw the papers on the table, slammed the door and left.

Belyayev slumped on the chair in despair: "It's over, it's over, this time it's over. These black-haired bastards! They ruined me time and time again! This time I'm really going to be over!"

Belyayev was dejected, Wang Yao helped him pour a cup of hot water and handed it to him, the professor raised his head in frustration, with tears in his eyes: "I'm not talking about you, Wang Yao, you are a good boy, I, I really It's too bad luck, it all started with this black-haired man, who introduced old Ivan with the same black hair to meet Elizabeth, and he withheld my file so that I couldn't go to Moscow University, and now, he You can finally kill me. This bastard, this bastard. But Wang Yao, why don’t you leave? You should go back to China and go to the Kirov factory to be an engineer, what’s the point of that?”

"Don't cry, professor, we will set off together tomorrow morning."

The Kirov factory is one of the three largest tank manufacturers in the Soviet Union, and it is also the only factory that can manufacture super-heavy tanks such as kv tanks. If Wang Yao is still studying in Stuttgart, then becoming a technician in this factory is simply a dream.However, his current mood is more complicated. Although he didn't answer, he still couldn't help thinking about Professor Belyayev's words: Wang Yao, why don't you leave?

Yes, why don't I leave?

Wang Yao decided to let himself go and stop asking himself questions. He simply packed his luggage and prepared to say hello to his mentor and say goodbye.When he walked to the International Students Department, many students were submitting asylum applications.Because most people speak English, Wang Yao can't understand it well.The noisy hall made him a little uncomfortable, so he withdrew, and a graduate student of the same subject came over: "Wang Yao? Are you here to submit the application?"

"No, I'm here to see the mentor, he doesn't seem to be upstairs."

"Huh?" The Soviet classmate was a little surprised: "Aren't you leaving the Soviet Union?"

"Yes, I will not leave, I will report to the Kirov factory tomorrow."

"Wang Yao, you are not from the Soviet Union." The other party looked at the noisy crowd in front of him with a complicated expression: "Maybe, I don't know what to say, sometimes I would complain a little, thinking that so many people went to the Soviet Union to learn technology, The Soviet Union treated everyone as VIPs, but once the Soviet Union and Germany went to war, everyone left one after another... Of course, there is nothing wrong with this... After all, everyone is studying technology, and they can't help in war. Generally speaking, there is nothing wrong with it. Wang Yao, are you really not going back to China, and you are not from the Soviet Union?"

"Yes, I'm not from the Soviet Union." Wang Yao paused: "Ah, don't ask me this question, I still want to meet my mentor."

"I don't know where he is, how about I look for it for you?"

Wang Yao thought about it, but there was nothing to say: "If you see him, please help me to thank him, please thank him for me."

"Wang Yao!"

Wang Yao had already walked out of the building, and the Soviet classmate suddenly chased him out.

"what happened?"

"Thank you!" The Soviet classmate looked a little excited: "Thank you! The Soviet Union will definitely win! China will definitely win!"

"Yes!" Wang Yao nodded and said to him with a smile, "We will definitely win."