Chapter 482 Organization

There are 2,397 scattered soldiers in total.

Of course, this does not include the wounded who have lost their combat effectiveness and the police battalion that maintains law and order in the town.

Colonel Slaine has initially organized these troops into a regiment with three battalions, each with more than 700 people, and has registered the battalion commanders and company commanders of each battalion in detail in the documents. The regiment commander is Lieutenant Colonel Gerhard.

It makes sense to do this, because only by organizing the entire force in this way can it form a whole for planned operations, instead of a bunch of people here and there who can't be commanded at all.

Of course, at this time, this force is only a whole in principle... Usually, after the organization, it needs to be trained to let the soldiers get to know each other and even their superiors, so that they can cooperate more closely during combat.

"So, what they said is true?" Lieutenant Colonel Gerhard asked Qin Chuan: "I mean, your achievements in North Africa?"

"You can say that!" Qin Chuan replied: "Of course, those are not my own achievements!"

"That's amazing!" Lieutenant Colonel Gerhard looked at Qin Chuan with envy and said: "You know, I'm an engineer, and I also hope to fight a few battles like you!"

"Didn't you command two battles independently?" Qin Chuan asked.

"Oh, forget it!" Lieutenant Colonel Gerhard replied somewhat embarrassedly: "Those two battles... were just guerrillas, you know, we were building roads, and then the guerrillas attacked us without knowing whether they were alive or dead!"

From Lieutenant Colonel Gerhard's expression, Qin Chuan guessed that the number of guerrillas was not large, which made Lieutenant Colonel Gerhard embarrassed to say more details.

"Lieutenant Colonel!" Qin Chuan said, "Believe me, you won't be willing to face this kind of 'painful' scene!"

"It's not up to us whether we want to or not, right?" Lieutenant Colonel Gerhard spread his hands, "We have to face it now!"

Qin Chuan nodded in agreement.

Then he quickly realized why this scattered soldier, with only more than 5,000 people including the wounded, still maintained morale when facing a Soviet army group... This is not because they are too good, but because a considerable part of them have not experienced a real war.

This mentality is easy to understand. Most of them are second-line troops, such as engineers, police, transport soldiers, etc. These troops have been coming and going in the front and rear for a long time. They have guns in their hands but can never use them, and they have been hit by rounds of air raids and bombings from the enemy...Naturally, they will hold back their anger and think that one day they can fight the enemy face to face.

This is a bit like a recruit, but it will be better than a recruit, because at least they have been bombed or dealt with guerrillas.

"So, Captain!" Lieutenant Colonel Gerhard asked, "What should we do?"

"In addition to defense, you need to withdraw all our supplies to the east of the Lovat River in the shortest possible time!" Qin Chuan said, "Especially the supplies at the airport, see what's left in the warehouse!"

"Withdraw to the east?" Lieutenant Colonel Gerhard was a little confused: "Why?"

"The terrain west of the Lovat River is low!" Qin Chuan replied, "And there is no strategic location to defend, you have to be prepared to give up!"

Lieutenant Colonel Gerhard opened his mouth wide, that was almost giving up one-third of Holm's territory.

Qin Chuan looked up at Gerhard, and Gerhard quickly responded, "Yes, Captain!"

Then he immediately passed the order down.

This search was quite fruitful. In the warehouse of the airport, several barrels of gasoline and some boxes of canned food forgotten in the corner were found. In the cellar, a pak40 anti-tank gun and several boxes of shells were found. In addition, there was a T34 tank parked in the repair shop... Obviously, this was a tank captured by the German army, but it was left here because it broke down.

"Are there any of us who can repair the tank?" Qin Chuan asked.

"I need to ask!" Gerhard replied.

Fortunately, there were a few mechanics among the scattered soldiers, and several tank soldiers were also ordered to take charge of the tank.

For this tank, Qin Chuan just took the attitude of giving it a try, but he didn't expect that it would not only play a role but also make great contributions.

At 3:05 pm, when Qin Chuan was still looking at the topographic map, there was a whistling sound of artillery shells in the sky, followed by several German soldiers shouting: "They are coming!"

Qin Chuan and Gerhard ran out of the command post and saw a team of ski soldiers firing mortars at the town in an open field a few miles away.

However, they also knew that it was impossible to attack the town of Holm with the light weapons carried by the ski soldiers. Perhaps because of the destruction of a ski camp before, they did not intend to attack, but just fired mortars casually outside.

"Boom" A shell exploded on a building, and a big hole was blown on the building on the spot, and several screams of Soviet people came out from inside.

Kuhn couldn't help but shout: "God, don't they know that there are still their people in the town?"

Gerhard smiled and replied: "They don't care about this, Lieutenant!"

"Yes!" Another German soldier said: "Didn't you see what they did when they retreated before..."

"What?" Kuhn asked.

"They burned down the people's houses and food!" The German soldier replied.

"What? Why?" Kuhn was very surprised.

"To prevent us from getting supplies!" Gerhard replied: "By the way, leave a lot of people who need food for us!"

Kuhn looked at Gerhard in disbelief. He couldn't believe that this was true.

But Qin Chuan knew it was true.

This was the Soviet method, and it could even be said to be premeditated... They cleared the land and left nothing for the Germans along the way, and then when the Germans reached Moscow, winter had arrived.

However, it was understandable that the Soviets did this. Otherwise, the Germans only needed to plunder the Soviet people's clothes and food along the way to survive the winter, and the Battle of Moscow might have had a different outcome.

So, as it is now, the Soviet army's reckless bombing of its own people's houses can be said to be a piece of cake.

"Do we need to fight back, Captain?" Kuhn asked, with some hatred in his eyes.

"No!" Qin Chuan replied: "Let's save some shells, they will stop soon!"

Sure enough, after firing more than a dozen shells and seeing no response from inside, the ski soldiers lost interest... They just wanted to test how much firepower there was in the town and the approximate location of the enemy's defense line.

But the town neither fired guns nor artillery, and continuing to blindly fight would be a pure waste of shells.