The sound of the tracks of the tank became louder and louder. After firing out a few flares, I saw a group of Soviet troops standing up and advancing forward a thousand meters away in front of the position.

Qin Chuan could easily see from their actions that these are experienced veterans... Compared with other new recruits in the Soviet army, they knew how to protect themselves, just like the saying goes, "Only by protecting themselves can we better eliminate the enemy", so this is a troublesome thing for the German army.

However, it is obvious that this time the Soviets just used tanks as shields... Tanks dared not fire for the reason, as mentioned before, there was an oil refinery behind the German army, but the Soviets wanted to take back the oil training plant intact, otherwise they would not be able to explain to General Qiulenev, and General Qiulenev could not explain to Stalin.

What the Soviets didn't know was that Qin Chuan took advantage of theirs.

From this perspective, Qinchuan actually only needs to ignite the oil fields and refineries to achieve the goal. The problem is that the Germans also hope to preserve the refineries.

"Boom boom" a few shells exploded in front of the position.

That was the 37MM mortar of the Soviets... This light mortar was equipped in large quantities of the elite Soviet troops, just like the previous one, similar to the 50MM mortar of the German army.

In fact, the Soviet 37MM mortar was also a unique piece of equipment among the Soviet army... It is a combination of engineer shovels and light mortars: they can be used as engineer shovels, but if you turn it in reverse and fold the shovel head at an angle to make it a base, and open the dust cover as a gun barrel, then it will become a mortar.

Its disadvantage is that its range is short and can only barely hit 300 meters.

The two shells fired by the Soviet army were obviously used for distance measurement, and they wanted to know how far they were from the German defense line.

The bombing point of the shell made both sides know that the two armies were still 400 meters apart.

In some ways, the German army should have opened fire at this time.

Because the range of the German 50MM mortar is 500 meters, if the enemy breaks into a range of 300 meters, it will lose its range advantage.

But Manstein did not do that.

Manstein's decision was correct... The theoretical range of Soviet mortars was 300 meters, but it was very difficult to hit targets 300 meters away in actual combat, especially at this time it was still dark.

Another more important point is that the MP43 used by the First Infantry Regiment has a range of only 350 meters, and when it is fired at 400 meters, it is outside its range.

Therefore, weapons and equipment should also be equipped or systematic. For example, the German army's previous firepower configuration was k98k and 50MM mortars. Both can easily shoot a fire wall around 400 meters to make the Soviet army's 37MM mortar ground technique work.

But the MP43 and the 50MM mortar cannot do this.

However, in this battle, neither K98K nor MP43 could stop the Soviet army. The reason is very simple... The Soviet army had tanks but the German army did not, and the German army only had a rocket launcher with a range of 160 meters.

Therefore, the German army still allowed the Soviet army to continue advancing.

400 meters.

The Soviet tanks turned on the headlights without any scruples. At this time, they had already figured out the performance of the German anti-tank equipment, that is, the bazooka, so they knew that the tanks could almost be said to be invincible at this distance.

350 meters.

The tanks slowly advanced, followed by the Soviet army. With the order of the Soviet officers, they installed military stents one after another.

Their tactics are very simple, just like the German attack, bombarding the enemy's defense line with a mortar at a distance of about 300 meters. Then, continue to advance under the cover of tanks, and rushing a hundred meters into the enemy's trenches and fighting with the enemy...

300 meters.

The Soviet army fired several more shells, and this time they were sure that they had reached the range, but as mentioned before, this was not the ideal shooting distance for a 37MM mortar, so they had to continue moving forward.

The Soviet soldiers' steps were very steady and seemed to be confident that they could defeat the German army.

This may be due to the fact that they have tanks in their hands... With tanks and without tanks, it is usually a massacre, and they believe this time will be no exception.

Perhaps it was also their confidence in the upcoming hand-to-hand combat... The Soviet army was more willing to fight hand-to-hand combat because it was too many people, but the German army was the opposite.

Finally, the Soviet troops advanced to a distance of 250 meters.

Just as the Soviet army set up a mortar, Manstein gave an order: "Fire!"

A fire was filled with fire, and the mortars on both sides opened fire on the opposite side almost at the same time.

The battlefield became lively in an instant, with the sound of shell explosions and machine guns everywhere.

The firecrackers at this distance are still the advantage of the German army. On the one hand, the German soldiers are well-trained and fired shells very accurately. On the other hand, the MP43 in the hands of the First Infantry Regiment can also suppress the Soviet mortar gunners.

So the Soviet artillery fire soon disappeared, and occasionally several shots were fired from behind the tank using the angle of curved firing. However, all the German mortars were veterans. They could roughly determine the position of the enemy gunner just from the flames emitted from the muzzle and the landing point of the shells... This sounds a bit magical, because the target was to hide behind the tank and see no one at all, but soldiers who were used to mortars could shoot shells based on their feelings and accurately kill the target.

Qin Chuan just used sniper rifles to turn off the tank's headlights one by one.

For now, the headlights of the tank are more threatening than those of the Soviet troops.

But the Soviet army did not retreat because of this. Instead, they shouted and rushed over the tanks and rushed towards the German defense line. The tanks also drove at full speed and accelerated...

In other cases, this kind of charge from the Soviet army could indeed break through the German defense line: infantry and tanks were mixed together, and the distance between the enemy and us was only 200 meters. Infantry rushed to the front of the defense line and threw a row of grenades, which made the German bazooka unable to play a role. Tanks covered the infantry and followed closely onto the German defense line, and the battle was almost over.

But this time the situation is completely different.

Several flares hit the air, and rows of bullets poured towards the Soviet army that was charging... MP43 is the best weapon to deal with the enemy's close-range charge. It not only has the speed of the submachine gun but also has a considerable penetration power. (Note: Although the submachine gun fires fast, it cannot penetrate. When several targets overlap, it can only kill the first target, but the power bomb in the middle can penetrate through the human body and shoot several subsequent targets)

So, the Soviet army fell in front of the German positions like harvested rice, and no one could rush to the distance to throw grenades, let alone close combat.
Chapter completed!