Rows of flares continued to rise into the air, illuminating the earth in the night sky and in the darkness.≥In these light and dark lights, the defense lines between the Soviet and Austrians on the attacking were vaguely distinguished. The cannons were roaring, and the Russians seemed to have never finished shelling. The fire preparation time before the attack was much longer than the normal artillery preparations of the German and Austrians, and the firepower density was also very large.

The entire Austro-Hungarian defensive position seemed to have been turned over with an iron plow, and there were craters everywhere.

Karaditch felt that he was about to collapse. When facing the charge of dozens of Soviet tanks, an infantryman seemed so weak and helpless. Without anti-tank weapons, the rifle sounded on the tank's shell, and there was no substantial effect except for sparks. The number of Soviet tanks was greater than that of Germany and Austria. In addition to the signature KV-2 and T-34, there were more T-28 and BT-7 fast tanks. On the Kuban River front line, the Soviet army invested 5 armored troops and 6 independent tank brigades, with a total of more than 7,000 tanks, while the German and Austrian coalition on this line had only 4 armored troops and more than 4,800 tanks.

In every battle, the infantry group had to rely on the full cooperation of anti-tank trenches, mines, anti-tank guns and infantry anti-tank weapons to withstand the enemy's attack with difficulty, which also caused huge casualties to the front-line infantry.

Karaditch could only hide in the trenches and leave them to fate. He didn't want to die, and sometimes he had the urge to give up on the trenches to escape. However, those "cowards" who were scared by the enemy's tanks and fled desperately, after losing the cover of the trenches, most of them died in the enemy's guns and bullets, and the remaining few would be executed by the gendarmerie that supervised the war.

The anti-tank training I received before was basically useless. No soldier was willing to risk the rain of bullets outside to rush out of the trenches, jump onto the enemy's moving tanks, and then stuff the anti-tank grenades between the enemy's turret races. This kind of training has no practical effect on the battlefield, and the infantry would rather squat in the trenches and wait for death.

In fact, no soldier on the battlefield would think that he would die. Although everyone knew that casualties were inevitable, they would always imagine themselves as those lucky ones who survived. Everyone stayed in this purgatory battlefield. There was not much despair, but they were praying for the beginning of the counterattack.

As time passed, the Soviet tanks hit by anti-tank fire during the attack continued to increase, but the crowds that seemed like diving were still rolling forward. The Soviet army's fanatical "Ula! Ula!" shouts seemed to be louder than gunfire. As the Soviet infantry began to charge, the soldiers evading in the trenches were driven to dangerous shooting positions again.

The Austrian position suddenly burst into gunfire, and tracer bullets poured down towards the front of the position like heavy rain. The attacking Soviet army rushed to a halt and the charge was temporarily stopped. Soviet tanks swimming outside the anti-tank trenches launched a fierce counterattack against the anti-tank artillery fire on the Austrian position. The su-76 or su-85 self-propelled artillery that followed also began to stop moving and implemented fire suppression.

Balls of fireballs quickly rose up in the front areas of the Austrian trenches, and shrapnel flew everywhere. Many people were hit and died before they could dodge. The Austrian firepower weakened instantly. In the flames, Karaditch witnessed the anti-tank hand crawling on the ground in the platoon hidden on the side and using a rocket launcher to fire at the Soviet tank. The rockets accurately hit the side of the tank with a tail light. The Soviet tank was destroyed. A large ball of fire rose and then burned.

But the brave anti-tank soldier was immediately blown up by the Soviet tanks that counterattacked, and his limbs were scattered and blood was scattered, which was shocking.

"Our position is critical! The position is critical! The enemy is breaking through, request immediate support, request immediate support!" In the anti-cannon hole behind him, the correspondent in the platoon was calling for reinforcements. But the battle has lasted for nearly thirty minutes, and Karadji and the others are already feeling desperate.

At this moment, a roar of the engine came from behind, and the Bulgarians beside Karadjic laughed and shouted: "Oh my God, our tank. They are finally here!"

Hawke grabbed the machine gun and jumped back into the trench. Then a tank rolled over from where he was just now. The tracks made a creaking sound, and rumbling across the trench from above his head and rushed forward. Karadzic saw a large group of vague organs and flesh sticking to the tracks of a tank, which was basically left behind by rolling over his own body.

"My God!" he couldn't help but scream.

More Austro-Hungarian tanks rushed out of the woods, and some intercepted the retreat of Soviet tanks and infantry, and the Russian attack quickly collapsed.

About two thousand German and Austrian tanks rushed out of the position, roared forward, surrounded the 8th armored army of the Soviet army, and then began to divide and annihilate. For this large-scale annihilation battle, the generals raised by dogs and wolves sacrificed the infantry of the two divisions and gradually led the Russians into the encirclement they set up.

The 8th Soviet Armored Army collapsed within a few days. The Kuban grassland was full of burning tank wreckage. Some of them were from German and Austria-Austrian troops, but more from Russians. The Soviet T-28 and BT-7 could not withstand the attacks of the German Mark Four tanks and Austria-Hungary PT35 tanks equipped with 75mm L50 artillery. Although the performance of the KV tanks and T34 were basically the same as that of the German and Austria-Austrian tanks, their equipment was less than 400, and they could not play a role in turning the tide in such a large-scale tank duel.

The large-scale counterattack began like lightning.

The infantry team followed the tank group and was chasing the fleeing Soviet army. The next day Karaditch seemed to be numb and had no deep memories. He followed the rolling dust raised by the tanks in front with his original survival instinct, mechanically charged, shouted, and fired at all items belonging to the Russians.

The continuous sound of gunfire and explosions around seemed to blur his memory, but occasionally he still remembered some incredible tragic scenes on the battlefield: human organs scattered everywhere in the bombed bunker - there were long broken intestines hanging on a piece of wooden stake, the exploded tanks or charred bodies beside the armored vehicles, the broken and burning tree stumps everywhere, the ruins and smoke everywhere...

The entire Kuban River was burning, the Soviet resistance had been destroyed, and the steel torrent of the German and Austrian coalition forces rolled forward and was unstoppable. The entire Russian defense system had become chaotic and had to retreat to the desolate field of Kalmyk behind him in order to reorganize a new line of defense.

However, the German and Austrian armored forces, which were well versed in the essence of blitzkrieg, did not give the Russians time to readjust. With the cooperation of the air force that occupied the air superiority, they made every effort to advance.

The Russian army collapsed, and the 136th Division where Karaditch was located captured more than 30,000 prisoners of war. The German and Austrian coalition, with only 250,000 people, launched a crazy attack on the defense line between Krksk and Stavlopol, which was defended by nearly 500,000 Soviet troops. The German 14th Armored Army and the Austro-Hungarian 8th Armored Army, as the main assault force, opened a gap of nearly 50 kilometers wide on the Soviet defense line, and began to attack on both sides continuously, expanding their results.
Chapter completed!