Chapter 369 The Winter War (21)

Although the Maus tank (for convenience, we won't give it another name since it won't survive for more than two chapters) was paralyzed and unable to move 800 meters away from the Mannerheim Line, it was not entirely useless.

As an invulnerable fortress, it served as a fixed artillery platform, supporting the Soviet assault, which was quite detrimental to the Finnish forces.

The Finnish anti-tank guns could only fire two shots at most before they had to quickly relocate, or else they would be bombarded into oblivion by the Maus tank's 152mm or 76.2mm tank guns. In no time, the Finnish forces had already lost eight anti-tank guns, a loss unprecedented in their history.

As a result, the effectiveness of anti-tank measures was greatly reduced. If it weren't for the Finnish soldiers' desperate resistance with their handheld Panzerfaust 150s, the Soviet steel tide would have breached the Finnish defenses several times.

The intense battle continued until nightfall, with both sides exhausted, before finally calming down slightly.

Meanwhile, the Maus tank, still immobilized, found itself in a rather awkward situation. The Soviets couldn't just abandon it, so they had to establish a camp nearby.

Both sides stared at each other from a distance of a few hundred meters.

Inside the Maus tank, Lavlenkin sighed deeply. After a thorough inspection, they discovered that an important component in the motor had been damaged. This part had to be brought from the factory, and replacing it would be quite troublesome. Even if they worked overnight, it would be the earliest until tomorrow morning that they could fix it.

In fact, they all knew that such a super tank was nothing but a white elephant. Rather than investing time, effort, and resources into building such a behemoth, it would be more cost-effective to produce more ordinary tanks.

But this was a task personally ordered by the great leader Comrade Stalin, so they could only grit their teeth and carry on. They dared not utter a word of complaint or dissent. Even if they did, out of fear for their own lives and the lives of their families, they would keep it to themselves.

In the command post of the Finnish defense line, the officials were equally frustrated. If that giant tank were to come any closer, they might have been able to destroy it using Panzerfaust 150s, but it just sat there at a distance, serving as a fixed artillery platform, causing them heavy losses. Throughout the day, it had already destroyed 17 anti-tank guns and several bunkers. At this rate, in just two days, the defense line wouldn't be able to hold back the Soviet steel tide.

"How about sending a suicide squad to approach and destroy it tonight?" someone suggested.

"I don't think it will necessarily succeed," Colonel Hans shook his head. "The Soviets are obviously prepared for this trick; they've dug a trench in front of the big tank, guarding it. Sending people over will only result in more casualties."

Just as everyone was brainstorming for solutions, the Finnish high command issued an order for frontline troops to fire illumination flares near the vicinity of the large tank half an hour later.

"Great!" The people were instantly elated, it seemed that the higher-ups had already figured out a way to destroy that darned big tank. They immediately ordered the forward positions to prepare to launch illumination flares.

Half an hour later.

"Bang, bang!" Several illumination flares were fired into the sky, illuminating the forefront of the Finnish position as bright as day. The illumination flares were equipped not only with sustainable illuminants but also with small heat-resistant parachutes. These parachutes would open at a preset altitude, prolonging the time the illumination flare stayed aloft. Each illumination flare could burn for about a minute, illuminating targets within a radius of 1 kilometer.

Facing the sudden brightness, the Soviet soldiers opposite didn't know what the Finnish troops were up to, and they became alert in confusion.

Thinking that the Finns were about to launch an assault, they stared for a long time but saw no significant movement from the Finnish positions. Instead, the Finns were just launching illumination flares into the sky from time to time.

After a few minutes, they suddenly heard the rumbling sound of aircraft engines coming from behind the Finnish defense line.

"It's enemy aircraft! Prepare for anti-aircraft combat!!"

The Soviet soldiers hurriedly set up anti-aircraft machine guns. As the roaring sound grew closer, illuminated by the glare of the illumination flares, they saw that it was the Il-2 attack aircraft. Although the Soviet bomber squadrons had suffered terrible losses while trying to destroy most of Finland's airfields, it was worth noting that during World War II, airplanes could take off as long as there was a relatively flat area of land or grass.

"Fire!" The ground-based anti-aircraft machine guns fired frantically at the attacking aircraft, with tracer rounds streaking across the sky. However, the gunfire from these machine guns in the middle of the night only served to cause some disturbance.

The flight formation of six Il-2 attack aircraft completely ignored the ground anti-aircraft firepower, flying directly over the Mannerheim Line, and began bombing. Each aircraft was loaded with 5 100-kilogram napalm bombs. One after another, the bombs fell near the Maus tank. Due to the low-altitude bombing, the accuracy was relatively high, with the nearest bomb landing just one meter away from the tank.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" With each intense explosion, towering pillars of fire erupted near the tank, the flames soaring high, smoke billowing, and raging flames engulfing the entire Maus tank in an instant.

Ordinary aerial bombs would explode and be done with it, but after the napalm bombs exploded, they would continue to burn like molten lava. What's more, the explosives inside would turn the napalm into splashing fireballs.

Napalm-like fireballs fell on nearby Soviet soldiers, causing intense pain as the flames burned on their bodies. Despite their efforts to pat out the flames, the flames only grew larger. Some soldiers, their bodies engulfed in flames, attempted to roll in the snow to extinguish the fire, but only ended up spreading the fire further. Some, with more fireballs on their bodies, inadvertently flung them onto their comrades, causing further secondary injuries.

"Ah..."

Burning napalm and the burning human fat emitted heart-wrenching screams as countless fire-covered individuals staggered and struggled, inadvertently spreading the flames to other soldiers as they moved. Some of the fire-covered individuals, still conscious, ran towards areas with more people in search of help, inadvertently spreading the fire to even more individuals.

"Quick, run..."

Witnessing the horrifying scene of comrades trying to save each other only to be ignited themselves, and seeing a comrade rushing towards them, the Soviet soldiers immediately screamed and fled in the opposite direction.

If given the choice, they wouldn't want to abandon their comrades and flee like this, but now, they were stunned by everything happening before their eyes.

Finally, after who knows how long, everything came to an end. When the struggling fire-covered individuals fell to the ground, the cautiously hiding Soviet soldiers dared to approach. They found that not everyone had been burned to death; many were still alive. In the heads of those human-shaped "charcoal," pairs of white eyes still revealed intense pain, with hoarse cries still emanating from their throats.