The 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 114th Regiment was responsible for bombing the bridge. Now only the company commander Lieutenant Ivanov, instructor Yelushimovic and two other wounded soldiers were left. Looking at several German firepower points at the bridgehead, Ivanov's eyes were almost spitting out of fire. In order to rush to the bridgehead to blow up the bridge, more than 20 soldiers in his company fell under the enemy's gun.
"Comrade Commander," Yeluhimovic, the instructor with a leg injured, sat behind a pile of bricks and stone rubble and said to Ivanov: "Although we only have four people left, the orders given to us by our superiors still need to be found."
"You are injured and unable to move." Ivanov looked at the three subordinates in front of him who were injured, and said with a firm expression: "I will complete the task of bombing the bridge."
"Comrade Commander, I'll go to bomb the bridge." A soldier who was shot in the abdomen turned red when he heard Ivanov say this, and tears couldn't stop flowing down his cheeks. He said excitedly: "My injuries are so serious. Even if I don't bomb the bridge, I won't live long. Don't worry, even if I climb, I will climb to the bridge deck and blow it up."
"No, I can't let you die." Amid the sound of gunfire, Ivanov shouted at his subordinates at the top of his throat: "You are injured and unable to move. If you go out of this hiding place, you will be killed by a German machine gun if you can't walk ten meters. I will complete the task of bombing the bridge. Do you understand?"
"I am the instructor of the company," Yeruhimovic looked at Ivanov with a serious expression. "I have no right to let the military chief take risks alone. Even if you go to bomb the bridge yourself, you cannot leave me behind. We must complete this task together."
Ivanov came to Yelushimovic and squatted down, put his hands on the other party's shoulders, and said earnestly: "Comrade Instructor, don't forget that we had the division of labor before, you have the final say in life, and I have the final say in military affairs. Now, I order you to stay. Do you want to disobey my order?"
He saw the other party open his mouth and seemed to want to say something, and quickly added: "We have 138 people in the company, and now there are only four of us left. I don't want the company to be revoked, so I order you to survive. When the troops retreat to the rear to make up for the restoration, rebuild the company as soon as possible to avenge me and those comrades who died!"
Ivanov's last few words deeply moved Yelushimovic. He held Ivanov's hand tightly and said with a serious expression: "Comrade Commander, you must come back alive. We cannot be without you as the company commander."
"Company Commander!" The other two wounded men also said with tears in their eyes: "You must be alive. We are still waiting for the company to be rebuilt, and you will continue to be company commanders for us."
Hearing the words of the instructor and the soldiers, Ivanov tried to squeeze out a smile on his face and said with a forced smile: "I will strive to come back alive." After that, he put a few explosive packs on the ground, tied the ropes firmly, and prepared to drag them to the bridge to explode the bridge.
But as soon as he tied the explosive pack, he didn't wait for him to leave his hiding place, he heard someone vaguely shouting behind him: "Lt. Ivanov, wait a moment. Lieutenant Ivanov..."
Ivanov turned his head and looked back. He saw the second battalion commander, with about twenty soldiers, bent over and ran towards him quickly with the cover of the ruins. When the second battalion commander came to him, Ivanov quickly reported to him: "Comrade Battalion Commander, Lieutenant Ivanov, the commander of the Sixth Company, is preparing to carry out the task of bombing the bridge. Please instruct!"
"Lt. Ivanov, you have all the soldiers?"
"Yes, Comrade Battalion Commander." Ivanov did not hide it, but replied truthfully: "Even me and the instructor, there are only four people left in the company."
After hearing this, the second battalion commander nodded slightly, looked at the soldiers behind him, and said, "I guessed that this would be the case, so I brought me all the rest of the battalion."
"Comrade Battalion Commander, I would like to make a suggestion." Ivanov pointed at the German machine gun firepower dozens of meters away and suggested to the second battalion commander: "It is a distance of fifty or sixty meters from here to the bridge deck, and most of the areas are exposed to the coverage of German firepower. Therefore, I suggest that two machine guns be set up here to suppress the German firepower and cover the people who exploded the bridge to approach the bridge deck..."
Before Ivanov finished speaking, he saw the second battalion commander shaking his head. He thought the other party said that there were not so many machine guns in the battalion, so he quickly changed his words and said, "If there is no two, one can bend. Just restrain the enemy's firepower to cover the people who exploded the bridge to get close to the bridge deck."
"Lt. Ivanov, you're wrong." Seeing that Ivanov had misunderstood his meaning, the second battalion commander explained to him: "I shook my head, not that there is no machine gun to provide cover for comrades who bomb the bridge, but that I just received an order from the regiment headquarters that we have to adjust our tactics and no longer have to approach the bridge deck with the enemy's dense firepower."
"Comrade Battalion Commander, I don't understand what you mean." Ivanov was confused by the words of the second battalion commander. He asked in confusion: "The roads close to the bridge deck have been blocked by the enemy's machine guns. Where can there be roads that lead to the bridge deck?"
"I said to Comrade Lieutenant, why are you a stubborn mind?" The second battalion commander said to Ivanov with a wry smile: "Since the road leading to the bridge has been blocked tightly by the German machine guns, we can completely change the road to blow up the bridge. For example, the bridge piers close to the highway bridge from the water surface and detonate the explosive pack, can also blow up the bridge."
"Go from the water?" Ivanov heard this and subconsciously looked towards the river not far away. He saw a lot of floating objects on the river, flowing towards the direction of the highway bridge with the water. He thought for a while, and then asked his own question: "Comrade Battalion Commander, we can indeed float along the water flow. But I have a question, how can we detonate the explosive bag after it floats below the highway bridge?"
"Comrade Lieutenant, the superiors have also explained the issues you are considering." The second battalion commander pointed to the explosive packs piled up in the distance and said to Ivanov: "We put the explosive packs into the oil barrel and set the length of the fuse according to the speed of the lead burning, so that the explosive packs can explode directly as soon as they floated under the highway bridge."
Ivanov immediately opposed the statement of the Second Battalion Commander: "Comrade Battalion Commander, we are not engineers, and we cannot accurately calculate the speed of the fuse burning, nor can we accurately set the length of the fuse. If an empty oil barrel filled with explosives explodes just under the bridge, it will naturally be better. However, if the explosive package explodes in advance or delayed, it will not only not cause any damage to the bridge, but will also arouse the Germans' vigilance. If this blasting method is detected by the Germans, and if they want to use this method to blow up the bridge in the future, they may not achieve their goal."
After listening to Ivanov's explanation patiently, the second battalion commander felt that what he said made some sense, so he asked back: "Lt. Ivanov, what do you think you should do to ensure that the gasoline barrel filled with explosives explodes when it reaches the bottom of the bridge?"
"This is easy to deal with. Just send someone to float to the bottom of the bridge with the gasoline barrel and then ignite the fuse, which will definitely blow up the highway bridge." After Ivanov said this, he volunteered to the second battalion commander: "Comrade Battalion Commander, this suggestion was made by me, and I ask you to let me perform this mission."
"No, you can't go." When the second battalion commander thought of detonating explosives at the bottom of the bridge, he guessed that this was a death mission without returning. Ivanov was the most trusted company commander under his command. It would be very unworthy if he sacrificed in vain. Therefore, he refused the other party's request without hesitation: "I think it's better to send someone else to carry out this mission."
Seeing that the battalion commander opposed him to perform this task, Ivanov immediately guessed his thoughts and quickly explained to him: "Comrade Battalion Commander, don't worry, after I ignited the fuse at the bottom of the bridge, it took more than ten seconds for the explosive pack to explode. I think I should have enough time to get out."
"That's it." When I learned that Ivanov was going to carry out the mission and had hope of survival, the battalion commander's opposition was not so strong. After all, the superiors gave him a death order to blow up the highway bridge no matter what. After staring at the river where the water kept flowing for a while, he nodded slowly and said, "Okay, Lieutenant Ivanov, you will carry out this mission. Now we will prepare the explosive pack for the bridge explosion."
The battalion commander took Lieutenant Ivanov and several soldiers to the place where the explosive packs were piled and stuffed the explosive packs one by one into the empty oil barrels. Seeing that the explosive packs filled the two empty oil barrels, the battalion commander was about to order people to push the oil barrels into the river, Ivanov said first: "Comrade Battalion Commander, I think we should also find a rope and tie the two gasoline barrels together."
"Bundle the two oil barrels together?" Hearing Ivanov say this, the battalion commander asked in confusion: "Why?"
"Look," Ivanov pointed to the road bridge in the distance and said to the battalion commander: "I plan to let the oil barrel float to the position of the bridge pier and then ignite the fuse. If the two oil barrels are not tied together and are dispersed by the water flow, I am afraid that one of them will be detonated."
The battalion commander felt that Ivanov made sense, so he asked the soldiers to tie the two oil barrels together and then pushed them into the water. The oil barrels filled with explosives came into the river, and one-third of them were still floating on the water. Seeing this, the battalion commander felt a little relieved, so that at least they could ensure that the explosives were not wet by the river.
In order to facilitate his behavior, Ivanov took off his military coat before going into the water, leaving only a white shirt. He stood in the water above his knees, grabbed the rope connecting the two oil barrels in his hand, looked at the battalion commander and asked, "Comrade Battalion Commander, I am going to set off. What instructions do you have?"
"Lt. Ivanov," the battalion commander looked at his brave subordinate, and his nose felt a soreness, but he tried hard to control his emotions and said in a steady tone: "Be careful, be sure to come back alive!"
"Don't worry, Comrade Battalion Commander." Ivanov grinned at his battalion commander and said, "I believe I will definitely come back alive!" After that, he threw himself into the water and dragged two oil barrels to the deep water area.
When the oil barrels flowed down and began to drift, in order to prevent themselves from being discovered by the enemy on the shore, Ivanov plunged into the water and drifted towards the highway bridge with the oil barrels. The second battalion commander, who was hiding behind the ruins, watched the two oil barrels float and sink toward the highway bridge with worry, and prayed in his heart, hoping that the enemy would not discover Ivanov.
After two or three minutes, the two oil barrels were blocked by a bridge pier. Seeing that the oil barrels stopped drifting forward, Ivanov, who was in the water, felt that he might have reached the place, so he resurfaced. He saw that the two oil barrels were parked on the left and right sides of the bridge pier, and because the rope was tied in the middle, he could not continue drifting forward.
Seeing this, Ivanov couldn't help but be overjoyed. In this way, he didn't have to find a suitable place to fix the oil barrel. In today's place, just one ignition of the fuse would be enough to blow up the bridge. He grabbed the fuse from the two oil barrels and cursed in a low voice: "Damn Germans, go to die." Then he suddenly ignited the fuse.
He grinned as he watched the fuse burning "sting" and then plunged into the water and swam downstream with all his strength.
More than ten seconds later, a huge explosion sounded from the bridge pier. The highway bridge collapsed rapidly in the sky-storm column, and the broken piers and bridge decks fell into the river. Another highway bridge connecting the family area and the factory area was gone in vain.
Although they were still far from the explosion point, the second battalion commander hiding behind the ruins were still dizzy. When they seemed to have a piece of cotton stuffed into their ears, they heard others talking, and their voices seemed to be coming from a distant place.
The second battalion commander yelled at a soldier who was responsible for monitoring the river for a long time, and then the other party vaguely heard it clearly. The battalion commander was asking if he had seen Lieutenant Ivanov. He quickly shook his head and replied loudly: "Comrade Battalion Commander, I saw that before the bridge was blown up, Comrade Lieutenant had dived into the water. What place might be downstream at this moment."
The second battalion commander did not get the answer he wanted from the soldiers. He quickly reached out and grabbed a soldier not far from him and told him loudly: "You go to the regiment headquarters to report immediately, saying that we have successfully blown up the highway bridge west of the factory. However, Lieutenant Ivanov, who was carrying out the bridge bombing mission, was missing at this moment, and it may have been washed downstream by the river. Please contact friendly forces to find the whereabouts of the lieutenant. Do you understand?"
"I understand." The soldier replied quickly.
After hearing this, the second battalion commander said worriedly: "Repeat what I just said."
Chapter completed!