USSR 1941

  Chapter 78 Deserters

   Soon Shulka realized that it was completely unnecessary to worry about the recruits' accidental injuries, because there would be many more "accidental injuries" in this battle than imagined...

  The sound of gunfire continued to advance towards the trenches, and groups of Soviet deserters fled across the trenches in groups.

   Then Shulka felt the danger: it was night at this time, if this continued, the German army would follow the Soviet deserters and capture the trenches without any effort.

   "Comrade Lieutenant!" Shulka looked in Davydov's direction.

  Second Lieutenant Davydov also felt this, he gritted his teeth, and then replied: "Ready for battle, waiting for orders!"

   "Yes, prepare for battle and wait for the order!" Shulka passed the order down, and the veteran waited for several squad leaders to pass down the order again.

   Of course, squad leaders have more to do than that, they also drag the terrified recruits out of the trenches and make them raise their guns.

   Three hundred meters.

   Several flares slowly rose into the air, illuminating the position ahead.

  This distance can already fire... As I said before, due to the light range, the Soviet army is actually more suitable for firing from 300 meters away.

  But this time the Soviet army was unable to start the fight. The reason was very simple. The dark area in front of them was full of Soviet deserters, and the bullets had to go through them first.

   Two hundred meters.

Shulka even felt that the Germans did this on purpose, because they could obviously knock down all the Soviet deserters with machine guns, but they didn't do that... They followed the Soviet deserters leisurely with bayonets in their hands. Pushing forward from the rear, from time to time, a few shots were shot at the deserter's back or a few grenades were thrown out.

   One hundred meters.

  That is the position of the anti-tank trench. If the Soviet deserters are smart enough, they should use the anti-tank trench as a line of defense to counterattack. Even if they counterattack for a while, they can survive.

  But they have lost their ability to think in extreme fear, they only know to escape and only know that they are farther away from the German army.

   As a result, the deserters crossed the anti-tank trench and continued to attack the trench behind it.

  They thought the trenches ahead were the way to survive, they thought they would be safe as long as they crossed over, and they thought their own people would not shoot them.

but…

   The deserters never thought about it at all. If this continues, the Soviet defense lines will only collapse one after another. No sober commander will let it develop like this.

   "Fire!" Major Gavrilov ordered loudly.

  In an instant, intensive gunfire rang out, and bullets flew out of the soldiers' barrels, knocking down groups of Soviet deserters rushing to the trenches in pieces.

   There were screams one after another, the injured Soviet deserters shouted and cursed loudly, and some people shouted:

   "Don't shoot, your own people!"

   "Are you crazy? We are our own!"

  …

  The smart ones know to get down at this time, although this will not be of any use, because the German army will turn this area into a real battlefield.

   Shulka is also pulling the trigger to shoot, although he doesn't want to.

  The reason is simple: he is a platoon leader, and his more than 30 subordinates follow him everywhere, especially those recruits. If Shulka is soft, he cannot accuse the recruits of disobeying orders.

At this time, a Soviet deserter crawled in from the front of the trench with both hands and feet. Shulka was taken aback. He habitually aimed his rifle at his head, but the next second he realized that he needed to It was the person who blocked the gun that was shot.

  Shuerka was about to turn his gun, but was caught by the deserter.

   "No, don't shoot!" The deserter begged Shulka almost crying: "They are my own people, my comrades-in-arms, please, let them not shoot..."

   Shulka hesitated, but soon broke free from the deserter's shackles.

   "Go away!" Shulka ordered loudly.

   But the deserter still refused to give up, so Shulka gave him a gun **** to knock him out.

   Shulka couldn't imagine what he was like at that moment. Looking back after the war, he could hardly believe that he would have done it.

   But thinking about it seriously, Shulka thinks that if this happens again, I'm afraid he will still do it.

  Because if you don't do this, you will probably lose your life the next moment.

  So, Shulka gritted his teeth, aimed at the fleeing Soviet soldiers and kept pulling the trigger.

  One, two, three...

   It wasn't until he knocked down the fifth that he saw the German soldier's helmet and his black holed muzzle.

   This made Shulka relieved.

   "Bang!" With a gunshot, Shulka knocked down a German soldier to the ground.

  The German soldier's bayonet was covered with blood, and even bleeding down. It was obvious that several of his men had already lost their lives.

   "Bang!" There was another gunshot, and another German soldier fell down.

  I don’t know why, but at this time, every time Shulka knocked down an enemy, he felt more comfortable, as if paying debts or taking revenge for the Soviet deserter he just killed.

   But then Shulka felt a little funny. This is a war, a life-and-death war. If there are a few lives under his command, he deserves to die, then Shulka himself will not be spared.

   "Bang!" This time Shulka killed a German officer.

  Due to lighting problems, Shulka failed to recognize his rank. He was directing the troops to change formation and launch a charge... Shulka knew that killing such a frontline commander would often slow down the reaction of the German army.

   Sure enough, the German army separated a certain distance from the Soviet deserters at this time, which also gave some surviving Soviet deserters the opportunity to escape back to the line of defense.

  The German offensive also slowed down, especially when they found an anti-tank trench in front of them... The German army pays attention to multi-army coordination in charging. If the tanks cannot advance, they will hardly send infantry to charge indiscriminately.

  German commanders knew that excellent soldiers were a kind of wealth, so they rarely made unnecessary sacrifices on the battlefield.

  Shuerka sat back in the trench, and then remembered the deserter he had just knocked out. Turning his head, he found that he had woken up and was crying while looking at the battlefield.

   "You'd better keep your head back!" said Shulka, "otherwise it won't be the **** but the German bullet that hit it!"

   "Go away!" The deserter shouted at Shulka: "You bastards, cold-blooded animals, traitors...how can you shoot your own people..."

   "We have no choice!" the veteran interrupted him.

   "No, of course you have!" The deserter retorted: "You can wait for the Germans to approach before you fight, why can't you let us pass!"

   "You can't get through!" Shulka replied: "A little further away, the Germans will throw rows of grenades into our trenches, and then we will have to die with your comrades!"