USSR 1941

  Chapter 30 Super Cannonball

  The church is located to the east of the central fortress.

  Choose this place as a breakthrough. On the one hand, the height of the church can well block the sight of the German army... Even if the German army finds that the Soviet army is crossing the river here, the shells fired by the German army from the west will hardly pose a threat to the Soviet army.

   On the other hand, you can reach the mainland by crossing the mouth of the Bug River from here, without going through the West Island and South Island and then crossing the river again.

  Commissar Fumin and Major Gavrilov led the troops to the church under the cover of darkness. Along with the troops, there were many women and children...all of them were members of the military.

  However, not all of these military families are family members of Brest officers. Most of the officers have taken their troops outside the fortress for routine summer training.

   That is to say, at the moment the war broke out, they probably lost their father or husband.

   Shulka noticed that many of them were not fully clothed... It was four in the morning when the war broke out, everyone was in bed, and many escaped in their pajamas.

  The children looked around with terrified eyes under the care of adults, and their eyes were full of helplessness.

   While others were preparing for the attack, Shulka took out a piece of biscuit from his backpack... This was the ration distributed before departure, otherwise it would be difficult to take out more than a dozen carts of food.

   What Shurka didn't expect was that his inadvertent action instantly attracted pairs of eyes nearby, and they all stared at the biscuit in Shurka's hand with pitiful eyes.

   After a moment of stupefaction, Shulka realized that the situation in the central fortress was much more difficult than that of the Kobrin Fortress. They did not find much food.

   After thinking about it, Shulka took out all the biscuits from his backpack and brought them in front of them... The children gathered around and robbed them, and when they got them, they hurriedly tore open the package and stuffed them into their mouths.

   Surprisingly, they didn't make a sound while doing this, except for a few mumbled thanks to Shulka.

   Shulka couldn't believe that they were all children, some not even ten years old, but they knew how to keep quiet.

   It can only be said that the battlefield taught them to mature early.

   "Don't save some for yourself?" Okunev asked.

  Shuerka asked back: "Are you sure you can eat all this food alive?"

  Okunev raised his eyebrows, then laughed.

   "That's right!" Okunev also took out the food in the backpack and gave it to the children.

   Then Matvey followed suit, and the soldiers all spontaneously shared their food.

   "Rofeyev!" At this moment, Major Gavrilov, who was more than ten meters away, called out: "Take a few people and inform Comrade Artur that you can retreat!"

   "Yes!" Rofeyev responded and waved, leading a few signal soldiers into the darkness.

This is a bit ironic. At this time, the Soviet Union was capable of producing the most tanks in the world, and even killed the German troops who invaded the Soviet Union in the later stage. However, they were extremely lacking in communication equipment, so that they had to rely on communication soldiers, signal flags, etc. to command operations. This is one of the reasons why they have more troops but are often defeated by the German army.

   But the point is not this.

  Not long after the messenger left, there was only a loud noise in the air... If the previous artillery sound was like thunder, then this sound was like a volcanic eruption.

Then there was a "boom", and a ball of flames rose into the sky from the direction of the Bootley Bridge, almost illuminating the entire central fortress. The vibration of the ground spread all the way to the church, and it could be clearly felt even hundreds of meters away. get.

   "What's going on?" Major Gavrilov asked, "What's that?"

  Political Commissar Fuming looked to the north, and then replied: "Maybe this is what they call a super shell!"

   "Super Cannonball?"

   "Yes!" The political commissar explained: "The Germans have been threatening us with super shells to try to make us surrender. We always thought it was just a trick..."

   Needless to say the next words, it turns out that it exists.

   Shulka knew what it was, a 600MM caliber mortar. The Germans built it to attack the French Maginot Line. Unexpectedly, the Maginot Line was a Gallic chicken that didn't need a knife.

   Then, the Germans used it on the Soviet battlefield.

   It has appeared on the battlefield twice, the first time is now, against the Brest Fortress, and the other time is against Sevastopol.

Before the soldiers woke up from the loud noise, there was another loud noise... Another shell exploded hundreds of meters away, heat waves and debris rushed over like a storm, and everyone hurried to lie down on the ground.

   "They have two of these guns!" said Major Gavrilov.

   "How do you know?" Commissar Fuming asked.

   "They need at least ten minutes to load such a large shell!" Major Gavrilov replied: "So these two shells were fired from two different cannons!"

  Major Gavrilov's guess was correct. It was the 833rd Heavy Artillery Battalion of the German Army. There were two companies under the battalion, each of which controlled a super-large mortar of this type.

   "Then..." Commissar Fomin glanced at Major Gavrilov.

  Major Gavrilov understood Commissar Fumin's meaning, so he hurriedly got up and ordered: "Break out immediately!"

  At this time, the preparations are not yet fully carried out, and the troops led by the instructor have not yet withdrawn, but everyone knows that time is waiting for no one.

   Shulka also felt that something was wrong, because he found that the two shells were targeting the central fortress.

  Why the central bastion? !

  If the previous deception plan and feint attack went well, the Germans should believe that the main force of the Soviet army is in the Kobrin Fortress in the north instead of the central fortress, so these two shells should also target the Kobrin Fortress.

   Did the Germans discover something?

  Facts have proved that Shulka's worry was right... because immediately after that, a large number of shells rushed towards the central fortress, and their target was very clear, which was the church in the east of the central fortress.

  While Shulka was thinking about what went wrong, he saw a signal soldier dragging several **** Soviet soldiers running over from the artillery fire and the darkness.

   "Where's the instructor?" Major Gavrilov rushed to greet him.

   "Comrade Major!" The communications soldier replied: "The instructor will not come!"

   "You mean..." Major Gavrilov looked up at the communications soldier: "The instructor died?"

   "No, Comrade Major!" The communications soldier shook his head: "These wounded told me that the instructor fled to the German camp with several subordinates!"

   "What?!" Major Gavrilov looked at the communication soldier in shock.

  (end of this chapter)