Chapter 241

In a fairly complete building in the city of Kling, I called all the commanders above the regimental level for a meeting to prepare for the next action. As a result, a phone call from Zhukov disrupted my plan.

"I know you've got Colin back, Rita, and I congratulate you." Zhukov said in a low voice on the phone: "but at present, I need you to send troops to the South immediately to support rokosovsky's 16th army. They are now in great difficulty. The 17th infantry brigade and the 44th cavalry division of the group army are fighting repeatedly with the enemy in the areas of lyalovo and cleukovo, and even fighting with the enemy. Unfortunately, they have not driven the enemy away from these areas for the time being. "

After Zhukov hung up the phone, I hesitated again and again, thinking that I should report the matter to Vlasov immediately, because Zhukov's move was suspected of being over command after all. In the past, when I was just a teacher, as long as a commander higher than me gave orders, I would obey them. Now, with different identities and commanding a number of various kinds of troops from different places, the angle of consideration is different.

After receiving my report, Vlasov kept silent for a long time on the phone, and then replied leisurely: "since the senior general has given the order, then you can carry it out! However... "He specially ordered:" the establishment of the reinforcements should not affect the combat effectiveness of the troops remaining in Kling. Use them when attacking botovo. In addition to leading the eighth division, you should also deploy a tank brigade and a cannon regiment. For the time being, the troops in klin were under the command of Colonel gritznov of the seventh division. That's all. You can set it up. "

So I handed over the command of the troops in klin city to Col. gritznov. At the same time, I ordered the kaliyev tank brigade, the leiutov cavalry regiment and the skiing brigade to stop and defend in place, waiting for further orders. Then I led the eighth division, the tank brigade and the cannons regiment out of the city and rushed south to help rokosovsky.

The tank brigade opened the way ahead, followed by the cannon regiment of trucks, followed by the eighth division of the guards. Because of the lack of transportation, half of the soldiers took cars and half walked.

Sixty kilometers of road, we drove for nearly two hours, just close to the destination. At one o'clock in the afternoon, the tank brigade who opened the way in front sent people to report that they had arrived in the dakliukovo area, where they found the German defense positions, and they could clearly see the German soldiers moving in the trenches with binoculars.

I ordered them to stay where they were, not to attack for the time being, waiting for artillery and infantry to arrive. At the same time, he ordered the signalmen to send orders to the Artillery Corps to speed up the March.

Five minutes later, I had reached the position of the tank brigade. While the cannons were laying out their positions, I took the staff officer, the signalman and Yushchenko. They found a high place and raised their binoculars to check the enemy's defensive positions.

The enemy's position was laid out in a large open area extending to the horizon, which was composed of two trenches one kilometer apart, and the middle section was cut apart by cobweb like trenches and traffic trenches. The damaged tanks and armored vehicles in front of the position looked black. I went out of my way to check the signs on the tanks. The damaged ones were all German technical equipment. We can imagine how tenacious our resistance was when the German army seized this position.

The arrival of our army has undoubtedly been noticed by the German army. They are transferring a large number of infantry and all kinds of heavy weapons to the trench facing us through the traffic trench. The German soldiers who entered the position put their rifles and assault rifles on the edge of the trench and were ready to shoot at our army at any time.

The head of cannon regiment reported to me by walkie talkie that the artillery position had been arranged and could be put into battle at any time. I nodded and ordered to fire at the enemy positions.

Soon, the artillery regiment hit out of a shell, with a sharp whistling sound, in the air after drawing a curve, accurately fell on the enemy's position.

The huge air wave generated by the explosion lifted the snow on the German position so high that all the German soldiers who were still running in the traffic ditch bent down. Even the soldiers who were in full readiness squatted down to avoid our artillery attack.

The explosion continued for a moment, and the flying snowflakes with scorched soil kept falling on the heads of the German soldiers. They could no longer see their swaying figures in the trenches. In the face of such shelling, they could only squat in the same place, desperately trying to hide themselves more safely.

After a quarter of an hour of shelling, I asked the signalman to call the channel of the brigade commander of the tank brigade, and then decisively gave him the order to attack.

When the tank brigade commander heard my order, he was silent. After a few seconds, he asked cautiously, "Comrade chief of staff, our artillery are still bombarding the German positions. Do you think our brigade will attack again when the bombardment stops?"

I knew that this kind of fighting method was beyond the scope of what he had learned in the military academy. Because of the lack of time, I didn't care to explain it to him in detail. I simply said, "the tank brigade will attack immediately. This is the order!"

The tank brigade commander had no choice but to agree: "yes! "Guarantee to complete the task"

I then talked to the head of the artillery regiment and asked him to extend the artillery fire to the enemy's rear after the tank brigade attacked.

With the roar of the motor, a large number of our tanks appeared in the vast snow and rushed to the German position in a neat formation, while the infantry of the eighth division arrived by car followed them and launched a charge with the tank group in a scattered formation. At a distance of one kilometer, the tank can reach it in two or three minutes. When our tanks approached 100 meters in front of the German position, the enemy's counterattack began, and the surviving mortars fired desperately at the tanks. However, this kind of small caliber gun does very little damage to our army's tanks, even if it hits, it can't blow up the tanks. Seeing that the mortar attack did not work, a German soldier immediately jumped out of the trench with two anti tank mines and rushed to our tanks. Just as he was approaching the leading tank, he did not know where to fly. A tank shell fell on his side and exploded. Then the air wave lifted him to four or five meters away. After landing, he did not move. It was estimated that he was seriously injured even if he was not dead. Our tanks soon crossed the trenches and rushed to the rear of the German army. From time to time, German soldiers came from the trench and threw anti tank mines and flasks at the tanks from behind. A bad luck tank was hit at once, and a raging fire broke out on its body. It drove on for a while and then stopped“ That's major marafeyev's tank Captain Yushchenko, standing next to him, suddenly let out a cry. I moved my telescope to the burning tank. As soon as the tank stopped, two tankers covered with fire came out of the tank. After jumping off the tank, they rolled on the ground and put out the fire. Then he pulled out the pistol he had with him and shot the German soldiers. One of the tankers was soon shot down, and the other, after knocking down two enemies, picked up a submachine gun and jumped out of the trench. The soldiers of the guard division had already rushed into the trenches of the German first line of defense and were fighting with the enemy for bayonets. Although soldiers were constantly knocked down by German submachine guns or machine guns when approaching the trench, they still rushed forward one after another. With the passage of time, the superiority of our army in technology, equipment and number of soldiers began to appear, and infantry constantly rushed to the enemy's positions. The shelling of our army has stopped, and the tanks of the tank brigade have rushed to the trench of the enemy's second line of defense. Those firepower points that pose a greater threat to our army are being destroyed one by one under the fire of tanks. Under the strong attack of our army, the soldiers on the German positions are dying one by one, the will to resist is being destroyed by our army little by little, and the sound of gunfire at our soldiers has become zero. Seeing that the enemy's situation was gone, I called the tank brigade commander again and ordered him to shout to the German army through the horn on the car, so that the remaining German troops would stop resisting and immediately lay down their arms and surrender to our army. If any German army continued to resist, it would be resolutely eliminated. After hearing our army's call, the demoralized German army knew that there was no point in fighting any more, so they stopped resisting one after another and surrendered to our army obediently.