The mirror is pitch black?
Lin En was stunned for a moment—The Soviets shutting down all the searchlights must mean they were up to something. With a sudden shock, he crawled back to the bottom of the pit, snatching the assault rifle with the infrared flashlight and scope from Tanze's hand. Without waiting for him to remove the battery pack, he dragged him back to the edge of the pit. Although the 17-year-old private was bewildered, he knew enough to keep his mouth shut.
Turning the knob, Lin En raised the mp44 and used the infrared scope to scan the front—No Soviet soldiers were approaching. Lin En breathed a sigh of relief, then pulled Tanze back to the bottom of the pit. He whispered softly, "Sorry, Marcos, I thought the Russians were flanking us!"
After Lin En's earlier reassurance, Private Tanze's nervousness had subsided considerably. He replied quietly, "It's okay, sir!"
At this moment, the old soldier, Wolfram, muttered quietly, "Don't worry, the Russians won't recklessly leave their trenches!"
Upon hearing this reasoning, Lin En quickly grasped the meaning behind the words—This was a reprimand for recklessly leading everyone from the established position to this inexplicable place, right?
Although he wanted to argue, this was not the time for explanations and discussions. Furthermore, Lin En couldn't openly voice some truths, so he chose to remain silent. He had Tanze return the battery pack and firearms equipment to him, then whispered to him, "I'll teach you sniper skills when we have the chance!"
Tanze nodded, holding the Mauser sniper rifle with one hand, then turned to Tychimerl gently and said, "Don't worry, everything's fine!"
"Oh!"
The voice of the "young pretty boy" still sounded somewhat trembling, and both of his hands were empty, the "pop-pop sand" was nowhere to be seen.
Lin En sighed helplessly. Blaming was useless, so he decided to go back to the pit wall alone, once again opening the infrared night vision device and raising the gun to head height. Slowly, he cautiously and quickly conducted a 360-degree all-round observation from the pit.
Ceasefire and blackout without identifying and eliminating the attackers? What new trick are the Soviet troops playing across the way?
Unable to determine whether this was a plot by the Russians to lure them out or if the other two night combat teams joining in the counterattack played a role, or for some other reason, Lin En could only continue to hide with his combat team in this shell hole, carefully listening to the sounds outside and occasionally observing with the infrared night vision device. After about ten minutes passed like this, there was suddenly a thunderous barrage from the front, and the earth trembled slightly from the tremendous artillery fire.
Lin En was astonished.
Certainly, the Soviets wouldn't use hundreds of heavy artillery to deal with German soldiers who were destroying searchlights. Lin En looked up and saw the Russian shells streaking across the night sky like meteors. In an instant, distant flashes of fire illuminated the dark night sky, and the air was filled with the sound of explosions.
This was the prelude to a large-scale Soviet attack!
It wasn't difficult to judge the current situation, but what was difficult was determining what to do next—advancing? There were probably Soviet soldiers ready to attack in the frontline trenches, so that was a dead end; retreating? The intense artillery fire would surely create enough brightness to expose them to Soviet snipers, not to mention that they couldn't outrun Soviet tanks on foot; staying put? When the Soviets launched their attack and tanks and infantry poured in here, heh heh, unless they surrendered, they would end up choosing between being crushed, turned into mincemeat, or dismembered.
Glancing at the faces of the four soldiers under his command, their expressions were all different at this moment. Wolfram's bitterness, Graf's frustration, Tanze's fear, Tychimerl's dread—all were clearly evident on their faces.
Lin En cleared his throat, finally able to speak normally under the cover of the artillery fire.
"Everyone, we're now in an unexpected situation. It's clear that the Soviet army is about to launch a counterattack against our defenses! As your commander, I deeply regret this and am responsible for all consequences..."
"What's the point of worrying about consequences when our lives are already at stake!" The old soldier Wolfram couldn't hold back his discontent.
Seeing the mood of the other three, especially the two privates, plummeting, Lin En felt somewhat annoyed—being challenged by subordinates' sarcastic remarks was indeed uncomfortable. But looking at it from their perspective, being commanded by someone of similar age and experience wouldn't be a problem if they hadn't ended up in danger because of that person's direct decisions. Even someone with a good temper would probably have objections!
Thinking about this, Lin En immediately adjusted his mindset and said calmly, "Difficulty does not mean despair!"
This was a proverb from "Daily German Conversations" that Lin En had memorized, and it finally came in handy. Then, the young commander said firmly:
"You may not understand why I volunteered to report to the higher-ups and brought you here! Look in that direction, our position is under fierce Soviet artillery fire. How long do you think it can hold up? If we just wait inside the city, when the Soviets break through the defense line and enter Orlaningburg, do you think, with the capabilities of our twenty night combat teams and one hundred soldiers, we can eliminate how many Soviet soldiers?"
This question clearly puzzled everyone present. In the current battlefield situation, whether the battle happened inside or outside the city didn't really make a difference. Either they died in battle or surrendered. As for retreating, whether they had the opportunity was probably not up to them to decide.
"Everyone, our current situation is indeed not very good, but there's no need to scare ourselves! Listen to that sound, the Soviet artillery fire may have extended into Orlaningburg, and the place where we stayed before may now be in ruins!"
This speech, full of coaxing and deceit, finally stabilized the emotions of the four soldiers. Lin En then announced his decision to them: "Now, whether we advance or retreat, we'll be exposed to the enemy's guns, and I won't let any of you sacrifice in vain. So, we'll stay here, not going anywhere for now, and adapt as the situation changes!"
Finally, Lin En thought for a moment and added, "Comrades, we are a complete combat team and brothers who rely on each other on the battlefield. We must trust each other fully! Pull yourselves together, Gordon, Anton, Marcos, Karl, pull yourselves together!"
With the last sentence, Lin En shouted hoarsely with clenched fists, like a soccer coach facing a formidable opponent and trailing 0-3, passionately encouraging his players.
Seeing everyone's emotions recovering and no other objections, Lin En crawled back to the edge of the shell hole, first turning his back to observe through the lens. He only saw the flashes of the Soviet positions behind, then raised the mp44 in the same posture as before, looking through the infrared scope. He finally saw something new.
Tanks?
The infrared night vision device was only "interested" in objects that emitted heat, and the hotter they were, the more obvious they appeared. The objects Lin En observed were at the edge of the "vampire's" maximum observation distance, looking very blurry, like bright balls floating in the air, and he couldn't confirm their true form at all. There were many of these bright spots, and there were no individual personnel around them. The continuous sound of artillery severely interfered with his hearing, so initially, Lin En thought they were Soviet tanks leaving the starting point of the attack. As they approached, he realized that apart from a few tanks, the rest were wheeled vehicles.
What was the situation with these wheeled vehicles moving forward before the attack? Armored vehicles or trucks towing infantry guns? Lin En was puzzled, but fortunately, his thinking was flexible, and he grew up in a country that had equipped itself with Soviet weapons for many years. He finally realized: Katyusha!
As the most common and largest quantity of rocket artillery models in World War II, the BM-13 had a maximum range of 8.5 kilometers, which was enough compared to artillery, but slightly inferior to ordinary howitzers. Lin En calculated that it was nearly 10 kilometers from the German positions to here, meaning that for the "Katyusha" to bombard the German positions, it had to advance at least 1.5 kilometers from its original position!
If only he had a radio—Lin En was once again troubled by this annoying issue. Unfortunately, without wireless communication equipment, he couldn't become the fearless hero who would call on his own artillery to "fire on me," so Lin En had to think of another way. As the vehicles continued to approach, he began to be troubled by a new problem: if these vehicles passed directly in front of them, how could he ensure that they wouldn't be spotted by the Soviet soldiers on tanks and trucks?
The problem soon had a solution. Under the joint action of the rainy season and the war, the fields here were pockmarked everywhere, and there were quite a few shell holes near the Soviet positions. So, the movement speed of the Soviet vehicles was very slow, but they were still moving without lights. A "Katyusha" stumbled "accidentally" about thirty to forty meters in front of Lin En, with its right wheel stuck in a shell hole. No matter how the engine roared, the vehicle remained motionless. Through the infrared sight, Lin En saw several soldiers jumping off the truck, some busy around the trapped wheel, others running forward to find a tank for help. Soon, a tank reversed to the side of the truck, and the soldiers began to busy themselves with tying steel cables between the tank and the truck. As a result, the following vehicles had to bypass this area—after all, they needed to recalibrate their shooting parameters when they reached the firing position, so whether they deviated left or right by a few hundred meters didn't matter.