Chapter 217: The Battle of the Riverbank

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“Enemy tanks!” a German soldier on the position shouted. On the other side of the river, not far away, a dozen or so Soviet tanks were attempting to ford the river and attack the German positions.

Two soldiers carrying Panzerfausts moved forward, hunched over in the trench. They soon arrived at their prepared firing positions, but there were simply too many tanks in front of them. On a single front, a dozen Soviet tanks had already reached the middle of the river.

The river was not too deep, nor was it too shallow. It was covered with the floating bodies of Red Army soldiers, and there were probably many more who had sunk with their packs and could not float up. So most of the Soviet tanks were advancing smoothly. It looked like they would soon succeed in crossing the river. And with the cover of the tanks, the infantry following behind were clearly not suffering such heavy casualties and were charging forward with renewed courage.

Soon, due to the varying depth of the river, two T-26 tanks stalled in the water. They stopped there like two reefs, only able to adjust their turrets to fire at the German positions on the opposite bank. Under the cover of these tanks, the Soviet army for the first time set foot on the opposite riverbank.

“Boom!” From the bushes, a German anti-tank gun was the first to open fire. A shot slammed into the hull of a Soviet T-26 tank that had just crossed the river and landed on the bank. The tank’s armor was directly pierced. It moved forward another meter, then stopped, spewing black smoke. A Soviet tanker, his face covered in blood, climbed out of the tank. He struggled for a few moments before slumping against the tank’s hatch, motionless.

With this tank destroyed, the Soviet infantry following behind it fell into chaos and were quickly cut down in large numbers by machine guns. But at this moment, the Soviet artillery came back to life. Perhaps the few remaining cannons had opened fire at this time. The shells landed on the German positions. Although they were not dense, the psychological pressure they brought to the German army was obvious—the German machine gun fire began to shift positions, and the infantry, lacking fire cover, were pinned down by the machine guns on the Soviet tanks.

A German soldier had just exposed his head when he was hit by a stray bullet. He fell backward into the trench and stopped breathing in an instant. A nearby German soldier crawled over, glanced at him, then picked up his rifle and left that section of the trench.

“Boom!” Another hidden German anti-tank gun opened fire. A shell accurately hit another T-26 tank. This shell pierced the armor at the junction of the turret and the hull, directly detonating the ammunition stored inside the tank. The explosion sent the entire turret flying, and the intense blast knocked down a swath of nearby Soviet soldiers.

A Soviet infantryman bravely climbed onto one of his own tanks, knocked on the tank’s hatch, and then pointed to the bushes in the distance. The Soviet tank, which lacked a communication system, finally spotted the anti-tank gun that was reloading not far away. The tank immediately began to turn its turret and soon pointed its cannon at the German anti-tank gun position.

At this moment, the German anti-tank gun that had fired first once again hit a T-26 tank not far away. By now, three Soviet tanks were burning and exploding on the battlefield. The thick smoke somewhat obscured the view, but the Soviet tanks, relying on their numerical advantage, were still attacking frantically.

The Soviet tank finally found the tank killer hidden in the corner. Soon, a hail of bullets began to be directed fiercely at the 75mm anti-tank gun. Some bullets sparked off the gun’s shield, while others went straight through it, hitting the German gunner behind.

“Boom!” After aiming at the anti-tank gun, the 45mm main gun on the Soviet T-26 finally fired. A shell hit the German cannon, directly blowing it to pieces. The surrounding German soldiers were all knocked to the ground by the flying fragments. This one tank had destroyed the German position in an instant.

In a forward trench, a German soldier with a Panzerfaust saw the signal from the machine gunner behind him. Two seconds later, the machine gun began to roar again. The bullets once again flew into the crowd of Soviet infantry, taking away one young life after another. This anti-tank rocket gunner, under the cover of the machine gun, exposed his head, shouldered the rocket launcher, and aimed at a T-26 that was driving over.

“Thump!” With a muffled sound, the rocket flew out of the tube and directly hit the chassis of the T-26. Soon, the tank could no longer move. It seemed its transmission, located in the front of the hull, had been completely destroyed, and the driver inside was probably already dead.

Quickly ducking down, the German anti-tank man escaped back into his own position along the trench. He had successfully completed his anti-tank mission and had to quickly find a new firing position, because the Soviet infantry would soon react and begin to search the surrounding foxholes.

Four huge explosions in a row. Four plumes of black smoke rose from the Soviet crowd. The German artillery had found its target. Another round of shelling made the Soviet infantry begin to retreat in despair. But they did not have the courage to cross the river again under the fire of the barrier troops behind them. So after hesitating by the river for a while, they steeled themselves, turned their guns around, and charged toward the German positions again.

Another German anti-tank man with a Panzerfaust poked his head out. But the tank opposite him was no longer a fragile T-26. The German army had never seen such a huge tank before. He hesitated for a moment, and his rocket went wide. The rocket hit the turret of this strange tank but did not penetrate the armor plate, merely sparking and kicking up a cloud of white smoke.

The KV-1 tank was no longer a small fry like the T-26. This was a super secret weapon that the Soviet army was mass-producing, and it could be said to be specifically designed to counter the German heavy tank, the Panzer III, on the Spanish battlefield.

The 76.2mm cannon it was equipped with could be said to be the largest caliber tank gun of the current era, and its power was fully capable of destroying a German Panzer III. Of course, this tank also had its flaws. Compared to the mature suspension structure and engine-transmission system of the German Panther tank, the KV-1 had a complex structure, frequent breakdowns, and was rarely equipped with an onboard radio system.

However, the armor of this tank was indeed very thick. Man-portable anti-tank weapons at close range were clearly unable to penetrate its frontal armor. So this tank continued to swagger forward and even took out the German anti-tank man who had ambushed it with its hull machine gun.

Under the lead of this KV-1 tank, the Soviet forces had already approached the German defensive positions. Subsequently, several other T-26 tanks and two KV-1 tanks of the Red Army also moved in this direction. It seemed they wanted to create a breakthrough here and destroy the nearby German defensive system.

“The Polish army fought an army like this for over a month and didn’t retreat a single step? Are you kidding me?” a regimental commander in the German frontline command post said, lowering his binoculars and looking at his staff officer. “They’re much more formidable than the Poles!”

In fact, this German regimental commander had misunderstood. The offensive this time did not represent the overall strength of the Soviet Red Army. First, because this unit had always been deployed in Belarus and Ukraine, it had been less affected by the Great Purge, and its combat effectiveness was still relatively intact. Second, this unit had concentrated almost all the tanks and ammunition that could be found in the vicinity. It could be said that it was using the supplies of an entire army group to fight a division-level battle. Finally, the name of this unit’s commander was Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov.

“If reinforcements don’t arrive soon, I’m going to have to abandon the positions here and retreat,” the German commander said, looking at his silent staff officer with some annoyance. “I can’t just watch my troops be sent to their deaths here!”

Suddenly, at the destroyed anti-tank position, a shell flew through the branches and directly hit the lead, thickly armored KV-1 tank. This shell hit the side of the turret, pierced the armor here, and completely destroyed this seemingly invincible steel monster.

Following that, another shell flew out from roughly the same position, turning a T-26 tank behind the KV-1 into a pile of parts. The explosion directly swept away a swath of the surrounding Soviet infantry. This sudden attack stunned everyone.

Behind the destroyed German anti-tank position, the cannons of two late-arriving German Panther tanks were emitting a light white smoke. The shells just now had been fired by them, as a greeting to the Soviet tanks that were running rampant on the riverbank. On the side of these tanks’ turrets, two numbers were painted in hollow font: 112, 113.

“Baumann! Full speed ahead! Stop when we’re ready!” Rein commanded loudly, his eyes pressed to the commander’s observation scope. “Andre! Aim for that big guy! Ignore the T-26s for now! Bruce, load AP!”

Marcus’s voice came through the headset, tinged with excitement and madness. “Rein! You take the big guys! I’ll handle the T-26s! Advance! Advance! Advance! Let’s show them what a real tank is!”

Amidst the cheers of the German infantry, the two German Panther tanks charged out of the bushes and attacked the Soviet offensive force from the flank. A German soldier raised his arms and madly shouted “Long live,” watching as the tracks of a tank rolled over the body of a German soldier beside him. War makes people mad.

“Boom!” A shell once again hit another KV-1. The side armor could not withstand the power of the long-barreled 75mm cannon. This Soviet heavy tank also instantly lost its life and stopped on the battlefield. A moment later, a tank crewman climbed out of the turret to escape but was cut down by a nearby German machine gunner.

Finally spotting the suddenly appearing German tanks, the remaining few Soviet tanks began to slowly turn, as if wanting to present their stronger frontal armor to the direction from which the German tanks had come. But the other German anti-tank gun, which had been hiding in a corner and playing dead, opened fire. Seeing the rear of a line of Soviet tanks was a temptation that was simply too hard to resist kicking.

“Boom!” Another Soviet tank was hit in the rear and produced a severe explosion, taking several burning tankers with it to their graves.