The Frontniki were running forward as fast as they could, trying to close as much of the gap as possible before the stunned defenders could recover and start hosing the ground in front of them. Priority target was the two anti-tank guns, if they could be knocked out, the JSU-152s could close up and destroy the machinegun positions with relative safety. Overhead, but not by much, there was a scream of high-velocity shot, somebody was firing at something.
The ground was hot and crumbling now, shaken to powder by the artillery and scorched by napalm. At least the wire was down, blown up and ripped apart by the artillery barrage. Nikolai Fedorovich Lukinov heard cracks and saw some of the infantry start to go down as they tripped off the mines. The little schu-mines were designed to wound, to blow off limbs and remove genitals rather than kill, the idea was that a wounded man would need three or four others to take him back to a casualty station.
The Frontniki had come up with their own solution to that approach. Get wounded and you were on your own until the sweep unit behind them got to you. Ruthless but fewer died that way. Long, vicious sawing bursts of machinegun fire. The Germans were coming back to life. The machinegun turrets were firing continuously, raking fire backwards and forwards across the lines of advancing Frontniki. The drill was well-known, one gun in the turret was firing while the other cooled and was reloaded. That way, the stream of fire could be maintained almost indefinitely.
Behind the Frontniki, a JSU-152 broke cover and lurched forward, its big gun firing on the bunker that had opened up on the infantry. Its first shell missed, overshooting. Before it could reload, the long-barreled 88 in one of the anti-tank bunkers had swung to engage and fired a shot. The hit resounded across the battlefield, a screaming clang that blended with all the other noise of the attack. The thick armor on the JSU had taken the hit and its 152 millimeter fired again, this time landing its hit squarely between the two machinegun turrets in the central bunker.
The Frontniki had gone to ground when the sawing bursts had started to cut them down, since then they had been trying to synchronize short runs forward with the swinging streams of fire from the machine guns. With the central bunker temporarily silenced, they made a bit more ground. Nikolai Fedorovich Lukinov saw the hatch on one of the 88 millimeter turrets open and one of the crew, probably the commander, very carefully and cautiously looked out.
As he did so, his head distorted and snapped back. Klavdia Efremovna Kalugina had scored again. Only about 300 meters, she wouldn't be boasting of that one. Behind them the JSU-152 had taken more hits and was silent, smoke coming from its open hatches. Lukinov hoped the crew had gotten out safely, at least they were far enough back to escape being machine-gunned as they bailed out.
Over to his right, there were three smoke trails, smacking into the side of the turret of an 88, the one whose commander was still draped over the side of the steel cupola. One must have penetrated because smoke started to rise from the turret and its barrel drooped slightly. Nikolai Fedorovich Lukinov started another short run forward, one of the anti-tank guns down, one to go. Suddenly, something, perhaps a glimpse below open perception, warned him and he changed his foot placement at the last instant. A schu-mine had been where his stride would have landed. Still shaking from the near miss, he took a short red wand out of his belt and stuck it in the ground by the mine. Somebody from a penal battalion could deal with it later. Another shot from an RPG hit a machinegun turret on the center bunker, it vanished in a burst of flame. Much thinner armor than on the 88 turrets.
The defense in this block was beginning to come apart, one of the 88s was down and the central machinegun bunker was damaged. That left the machinegun bunker on the extreme right isolated. If they could take that out, the remaining anti-tank gun could be eliminated and the JSU-152s could deal with the rest of the machine guns. He angled his advance over, the bunker was firing long bursts, but its coverage was spotty. More Frontniki went down as they closed in but soon the RPG-7 rounds flew across the space and the turrets were destroyed. There was a sound like a train going overhead.
Looking behind him Lukinov saw the other two JSU-I52s in the support platoon had broken cover and started firing as they lumbered forward. As they did so, five figures got up from the ground by their disabled vehicle and ran back for cover. The crew had survived, good. Their tank could be recovered, it would be repaired and could be back in the battle again in a day or two.
From their position well back, the JSUs had seen something Lukinov had been too close to spot. A blind zone caused by a dip in the ground. It would have been covered by the destroyed 88, now it was a path forward. The central machinegun bunker took a flurry of hits from the 152s and ceased to function.
That cleared a path for the Frontniki to swing around and take the other 88 from the rear. There were more vicious cracks as schu-mines claimed victims but they were beside and behind the 88. Again, the RPG-7 gunners scored their hits and the gun went down. Freed from its threat, the JSU-152s barged their way forward again, firing on the remaining machinegun position. It didn't last long and now the Frontniki had their last job to do
The artillery bunker, it hadn't fired yet It was supposed to support the forward bunkers but it had remained silent. It was visible now, through the smoke and carnage but the Frontniki drew no fire from it. Its guns were intact, apparently, but one sign as to what may have happened was lying outside. A German soldier, his head shattered by a rifle bullet. Score two for Klavdia Efremovna Kalugina. Must have been a difficult shot and her second for the day. The girls in the sniper teams believed they got one good shot per day, a second was a bonus. A third was an occasion for a party. All the girls knew what the Germans had done to the women they had captured and the sniper teams took grim satisfaction in the retribution they exacted. Their only regret was the sniper code - one bullet, one kill - didn't allow them to cause the Germans some of the suffering they had inflicted on others.
Come to think of it, the dead “German” looked odd. Nikolai Fedorovich Lukinov knew it was a myth that all Germans were fair-haired and blue eyed but this one had black hair, brown eyes and an olive-colored skin. And his nose was unduly prominent, even allowing for the fact that most of the head behind it had ceased to exist. Looking around, he could see what had happened, the crew of the artillery bunker had abandoned the position. Kalugina had been caught by surprise and only managed to drop the last one out. The others had been machine-gunned as they ran away. By the Frontniki? By their own comrades in the other blocks? Nobody would ever know.
Nikolai Fedorovich Lukinov cautiously approached the entrance. It was open but it could be booby-trapped or there could be hold-outs inside. Still this was why Mother Russia paid him such a generous salary and gave him no less than 900 grams of black bread a day.
“Follow me!”
He jumped in and looked around. The entry passage had a pair of right-angle bends as a grenade and gas trap and then opened out the fighting room. There was a portrait on the wall. Not Model or Hitler, but some unkempt looking man with a black turban and a disheveled beard. Nikolai Fedorovtch Lukinov knew he had stumbled onto something important here, something that shouldn't be touched until experts got to look.
Outside, the two surviving JSU-152s had pulled up next to the captured artillery bunker. They had positioned themselves carefully so they were shielded from the anti-tank guns in the block behind this one. Lukinov saw his infantry had spread out also and gone to ground. A quick head count, he almost sighed with relief. Of the 50 men he had started with, no less than 12 had made it this far alive. Probably a few more wounded in the ground behind them.