Chapter 299

All of a sudden, a strange sound came from the sky above. A shell hit the wreckage of a destroyed French tank, which was already smoking heavily, and splashed with scrap iron; Then the second shell hit a big tree next to the road, and exploded countless branches in an instant; It was only about two seconds before a barrage of ammunition poured down on the head of the French team at the pass, and the explosion continued one after another.

After some adjustments, and various information and intelligence showed that the French did launch a large-scale attack on the small highway pass, so soon the German mobilized the most powerful weapons in their hands. The Frederick rockets of the 9th motorized infantry division covered the pass with dense artillery fire.

He could not say a word when he looked at the explosion on the pass and listened to the sound that seemed to strike his heart. He couldn't understand why his well planned counterattack could not even win a small pass. He couldn't understand how the other side could mobilize such intensive artillery so quickly.

"General, listen to the artillery fire, the other side has at least one regiment of large caliber artillery, otherwise, let the directly subordinate artillery fire?" Looking at the disordered Charles de Gaulle, the staff officer suggested in a low voice, "shall we also bombard the German positions?"

"It's no use. There's no way to take it here." "It won't be long before the German planes from the front-line airport will arrive," de Gaulle said dejectedly. "Our armored forces are so concentrated here that it's no different from suicide."

He waved his hand and said, "contact the air force and cover our retreat as much as possible. All troops will retreat separately, move in company and assemble 50 kilometers south."

Yes, there is no need to force any more attacks. Just as Charles de Gaulle expected, five Stukas would arrive late in a short time. After all, because of the German's advancing speed, the field airport has not been built yet. These planes took off from far away and arrived at a slower speed than the division's rocket troops.

The French army retreated in a rout. The 10th French armored army, which had suffered a huge loss, was attacked by fibrette fire arrows and guns for a round, and then was bombarded by Stuka with his tail biting. When it returned to its starting place, it lost 49 tanks and more than a dozen armored vehicles, including broken down equipment. This is almost a fifth of the total power in de Gaulle's hands.

You know, one of his main tasks is to prevent goodrian's first armored army from going south, so most of the troops can't be sent out to take part in the attack, so his failure this time is basically equivalent to losing his offensive ability.

Ryan sat on his tank, holding a gun, staring at the distance in a daze. On the side of the tank, he temporarily built a small shed with a white sheet full of dust. Andre was lying on a door panel, and the medics of the infantry company were simply bandaging him. There are still hot craters everywhere, and the power of fibrette's firecrackers is overwhelming.

Bruce sat on the ground, listless head down, Bauman complained. In Berlin, the erosive life of a heroic car crew made Bruce, a drunkard and luster, empty his body. That's why in the battle just now, when the loading intensity was higher, he was out of breath.

After that, the two assault guns came out of the pass and set up guard positions on the periphery. Then trucks of infantry passed by. They jumped off the truck and unloaded the anti tank guns beside the crater temporarily filled with stones and bricks to build a stronger defense.

The commander of the Grenadier company, who stood here together, came and looked at the 113 tank like a God. The barrel is painted with white circles representing its previous achievements, but the tank is almost the same as the wreckage except for the gun.

The track on the right side has fallen off, and the guide wheel on the same side has been broken into pieces and scattered not far away. From here, the shell penetrated the tank's side armor and hit the tank's electromechanical crew. Of course, in other places, the tank was also full of bullet marks. More than half of the skirts hanging on both sides were blown away, and only a few pieces were still hanging on it, which was almost like a sieve.

The whole turret has been hit several times, and the hanging basket at the rear of the turret has been destroyed. The original contents on it have disappeared for a long time. The only thing in good condition is the white sheet that has been used as the roof of the medical room.

A tank is not big or small, but on such a tank, even the exhaust pipe less than one twentieth of the size was blown off, and even the driving light less than the size of a fist was hit. It's not hard to imagine how intensive the attack the tank faced at that time.

The Grenadier's company commander leaned against the fender of Ryan's tank and handed him a cigarette box. Never smoker Ryan pulled out one and lit it in his mouth with the company commander's lighter. He took a deep breath but coughed.

The company commander of the Grenadier was obviously stunned, and then laughed: "first time smoking?"

"Cough. Yes, smoking for the first time. " Ryan nodded, held the cigarette between his fingers, spewed out the smoke, and said, "how are you doing over there?"

"More than 60 people died, almost half of them." The company commander sighed with a lonely sigh, and with some pride, said in a cynical tone: "originally, we also wanted to retreat, but when we saw that you were still fighting, we didn't go. My soldiers are more or less shameful. They are not used to running without their comrades. "

"You are all good soldiers, and so is Clark." Ryan took another puff of the cigarette and choked his tears again, but he still swallowed it stubbornly: "it's really hot. It hurts my throat when I take a puff."“ The tobacco of small factories in Germany is not handled carefully, and even the filter is shoddy, which naturally makes people choke. " With a smile, the company commander touched the outer package of half a carton of cigarettes with his fingers, and looked up at the completely abandoned tank: "we have been ordered to withdraw to stone half an hour later, waiting for replenishment. And you? When will it be withdrawn? "“ I don't know. I'm waiting for my troops. I don't know when they will come. My radio is broken... "He thought of the soldier with round eyes again. When they met for the first time, company commander Carter pointed to the man and said, "this is private Clark. He is an electrical engineer and is also responsible for your front machine gun." Ryan remembers that at that time, he was different from others. He immediately stood at attention and replied. He looked very standard. Carter added a compliment: "he's the most normal soldier in this dorm! The technical level is excellent. " But now, either company commander Carter who took Ryan into the dormitory or Clark, who was described by Carter as the most normal soldier, is no longer there. So they became memories, and if the whole company or even the whole battalion disappeared, who would prove that they existed“ If you are not afraid of trouble, I can help you inform the regiment headquarters, and then let the infantry over there tell your men to come While smoking, the commander of the Grenadier company was very helpful. The army is a very strange place. The people here are cold-blooded enough to kill and fight without blinking an eye; People here are indifferent enough that veterans usually don't remember the names of new recruits; The people here are loyal enough. For a soldier, honor and friendship can even surpass life. Although they are cold-blooded and cold-blooded, they worship the strong from their bones. When they identify the people they admire, they will not easily change their life. What's more puzzling is that this kind of feeling has continued from Caesar's time in Rome, and still has no change. So it's not hard to understand why some soldiers can't even borrow a cigarette, some soldiers borrow a truck, and someone laughs and delivers it. Ryan shook his head with a smile, then took another puff of his cigarette, still coughing: "no, they should be on their way." Yes, the infantry have caught up, the defense line has been reinforced, and the broken defense line has been reinforced by one anti tank gun after another, which has made the defense line in the area south of stone solid. I don't think there will be such a fierce battle as the pass fight“ It's my pleasure to fight with you. " As a veteran smoker, he obviously smokes faster than Ryan. The commander of the Grenadier company threw the cigarette butt which he held in his fingers into the soil, crushed it out with his leather boots, spewed out the last puff of smoke and said, "welcome to company 1 any time. What's next? What's your plan? "“ Kill the French until they realize how miserable it is to be against me. " Ryan looked at the cigarette burning between his fingers, chuckled and said, "next time, I'm going to kill 20 tanks unharmed!"“ Ha ha ha ha! Take care The commander of the Grenadier company was stunned, then laughed, and then continued to say, "I hope I can see you again." Then the Grenadier company commander turned and left, and Ryan took his last puff of cigarette, threw the cigarette end aside, and yelled to the depressed Bruce and Bauman, "come and help, move out what's still available." So the three men climbed onto the tank and began to work. They took the remaining shells out of the tank one by one and piled them aside to form a trapezoid. Then there are the drum for the machine gun, the toolbox in the corner, the small mirror and the coaxial machine gun. Of course, with a leather pipe and an empty gasoline tank, they also scraped the oil out of the tank. When they moved all these things out, Marcus came with two other tanks, separated the ammunition and oil, put Andre on a tank, and then the others sat down separately, detonated the No. 113 leopard tank which was no different from the scrapped one, and they were ordered to return to stone.