It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 155 | A desperate battle

"Attention! Enemy on the flank! Anti-tank weapon!" a female tank commander shouted shrilly.

Disrupted by the sudden attack from the side, the slowly moving Imperial Russian tanks stopped, rotated their turrets, and fiercely fired at the location where the Hungarian anti-tank team had appeared.

The Russian-made medium-caliber tank gun's high-explosive shells had a considerable charge and good power. Two Hungarian soldiers who were a little slow in moving their positions were engulfed by the explosion, and tattered pieces of their uniforms and helmets flew more than ten meters into the air!
At this point, the Imperial Russian infantry had advanced to a suitable starting point for the assault and were preparing to launch their attack.

Suddenly! A unique booming sound came from the second line of the Hungarian army without warning!

In the blink of an eye, a fist-sized molten hole appeared in the sloping armor of a T-34 hull, and the 7.62mm tank machine gun that had been spitting fire just two seconds earlier suddenly went silent.

In the blink of an eye, blazing orange flames shot out from the gaps in the turret ring, and the top hatch also spewed out a column of fire seven or eight meters high, like fireworks.

To put it vividly, it can be summed up in four words: furious.

what? !

Where did this attack come from?!

Colonel Belyaev, who was in the command post, had not yet recovered when two more loud bangs came. Another tank was hit and then exploded in a terrible manner, with the turret flying into the air and spinning two and a half times.

The battlefield was filled with the smoke and the sounds of gunfire, making it impossible to discern the source of such a terrifying attack.

A kilometer away, on the second line of the military police regiment's 2nd battalion, there was a large, meticulously constructed firing position, with a wisp of smoke rising from beneath the anti-aircraft camouflage netting.

"Target on fire!"

"Reload!"

"Fire!"

One of the gun crew members, holding an optical rangefinder, shouted loudly.

Atop the cruciform gun carriage is a long cannon barrel, from which large bursts of flame erupt as capped armor-piercing shells are ejected!

This was one of the gifts that came with Sigrid.

The Battle of Budapest has continued to this day, and most of the Bofors 75mm anti-aircraft guns have been destroyed, with very few remaining usable. These long-barreled, medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns are among the few weapons capable of destroying the T-34 head-on.

【Picture】

Upon seeing that the Hungarian army had secretly deployed such a powerful weapon, Colonel Belyaev was shocked and quickly ordered the firing of smoke grenades to cover the tanks' retreat.

The Imperial Russian tank crews knew that acting recklessly in this situation would be suicidal, so they hurriedly loaded smoke bombs, fired at the ground ahead, and then put the guns in reverse and ran away.

"Great job! Well done!" Shang Ke exclaimed upon seeing this.

"These tanks are too much of a threat. We can only deal with them with anti-aircraft guns, but the mobility of anti-aircraft guns is too poor." Captain Zeno, who was the intelligence officer, reminded him with concern: "Colonel, your country should develop high-powered anti-tank guns."

Shank appreciated Zeno's kindness, but inwardly he couldn't help but complain about Zeno's slow-wittedness.

It should be noted that just two months ago, not long after the outbreak of war, the Federal Military-Industrial Complex had already initiated a project for a medium-sized long-barreled anti-tank gun.

"awesome!"

"The enemy tank is destroyed!"

"Hey! Move two more heavy machine guns to the south!"

"Watch out for snipers!"

After destroying three enemy tanks in succession, the dense direct-fire firepower was greatly reduced, and the Hungarian soldiers cheered loudly.

This only relieved the pressure temporarily; the fierce battle continued.

By noon the following day, Ivan Ross's army, which had been attacking the Margaret Bridge, was showing signs of exhaustion, and a sense of despondency was spreading. Left with no other option, Colonel Belyaev withdrew his troops.

"Let the brothers rest, treat the wounded, and send the Romanians to slaughter these die-hard Huns!"

On that day, the 65th Infantry Regiment of the 22nd Infantry Division of the Romanian Empire replaced the heavily wounded 427th Infantry Regiment of the Imperial Russian Army.

Discovering that their enemy had become their sworn foe, the enraged Hungarian soldiers became even more agitated, and the deadly battle between the two sides became extremely bloody.

The Romanian army received various direct and indirect fire support, including infantry guns, anti-tank guns, mortars, and howitzers, and repeatedly attacked the positions of the 2nd Battalion of the 'Hungati' Gendarmerie Regiment.

Under the relentless bombardment, the Hungarian soldiers suffered heavy casualties, and in many cases, the position was lost only after the entire platoon had been wiped out.

At dusk, with the final tactical counterattack ending in failure, the main position of the 2nd Battalion of the Military Police Regiment was completely destroyed and captured by the enemy.

Shank now only had the royal guard left as a reserve force, and after weighing the options, he abandoned the idea of ​​counterattacking.

"The Second Battalion retreats south to join the Mamara Hotel position and blows up the Margaret Bridge."

Blow up the bridge?!
Although the bridge was ravaged by artillery fire and pedestrians had to proceed with extreme caution, it was still the last glimmer of hope.

Reika muttered softly, "Are we really going to blow up that bridge?"

Shang Ke looked up at her and said softly, "Follow orders. No bridge can fall into enemy hands."

The officers present exchanged glances, but soon their gazes hardened.

The order to blow up Margaret Bridge should, in principle, be transmitted to the city defense command and approved before it can be carried out.

However, wired communication has been interrupted, wireless communication is also temporarily unavailable, and the special telepathic communication only provides a rough understanding that one or two assault groups have broken into the block northeast of the Capitol Building and sealed off that area.

In this emergency, Mr. Shang made the impromptu decision to blow up the bridge immediately.

At his command, the engineering commander personally pressed down the detonator lever.

The current flows instantly through the wires into each detonator, detonating the entire explosive charge in an instant.

"Boom—boom boom—boom boom—"

A series of blinding orbs of light suddenly burst forth from the eastern section of Margaret Bridge!
Dozens of explosions immediately destroyed its structural integrity, and the classic bridge, with its half-century history, emitted a piercing creaking sound as the steel deformed and twisted, like the screams of a dying man.

The sound of rushing water was incessant; Margaret Bridge had completely collapsed.

“Now I know what it’s like to fight the enemy with your back to the river,” Captain Zeno exclaimed in a strange tone.

"It hasn't come to that yet." Shang Ke chuckled and said calmly, "If we hold on for two more days, the river might freeze completely."

Its daybreak.

As the first light of dawn broke in winter, people saw some twisted steel frames appearing on the Danube River, resembling menacing monsters.

The remnants of the Second Battalion of the Military Police Regiment numbered less than two hundred men. Shang Ke dismantled and reorganized them into a small combat group, directly commanding four reinforced platoons.

The fighting near Margaret Bridge was fierce but progressing rapidly.

In contrast, the fighting near the Mamara Hotel, where the regimental headquarters and the first battalion were located, was much more intense.

In an era when brick-and-mortar buildings were the norm, the Mamara Hotel, with its reinforced concrete structure, was an exception. Its robust structure gave the building unparalleled resistance to impacts.

Unless it is a close-range blast, it is almost impossible to completely destroy a reinforced concrete building with simple artillery fire.

During the Warsaw Uprising, the Prudential Tower was even bombarded three times by 2-ton shells from a 600mm 'Karl' mortar, yet it remained standing and was even used into the 21st century after being repaired.

(End of this chapter)