The words of Colonel Ruskin made me uneasy. I worked out the battle plan for several days. I thought I had taken into account all the aspects that should be considered. I didn't expect that when it came to implementation, I found that there would still be accidents. Just like a boxer who has been ready for a long time, he tries his best to fight, only to find that his opponent is not in the position to fight, and his fist is empty.
After handing over the earphone and transmitter to the signalman, I stared at the residential area whose outline became clearer as the smoke dispersed. I couldn't help thinking that the development of the war had completely deviated from my original idea. Where has the enemy gone? It is impossible for them to give up the occupied areas and transfer when the war situation is obviously favorable to them. Are they aware of our possible attack, deliberately evacuating from the residential area, hiding somewhere nearby, and then encircling and annihilating our isolated army under the cover of armored forces and air force after our troops have completely entered the residential area?
At the thought of the latter possibility, a cold sweat oozed from my forehead. Without time to think about it, I quickly ran to Gaidar's side and decisively issued an order to him: "order the reserves to stop advancing, dig trenches in the existing area, build fortifications, and prevent the enemy's possible counterattack."
Without saying a word, Gaidar quickly ran to the front of his team and raised his hand to stop the army's further advance. When the infantry began to dig the trench in place, the company commander of the cannon company was also directing his men to line up several light cannons behind the trench.
I turned my head and saw the operators No. 4 and No. 5 beside me. I could not help but raise my hand and pat my forehead and scold myself for being confused. These two operators can contact the operators entering the residential area. I can fully understand what happened in the residential area through them.
Thinking of this, I quickly ordered the two operators: "I ordered that operator No. 4 immediately contact operator No. 1, and operator No. 5 and operator No. 2 to ask them what happened in the residential area and why they could not hear anything?" The two operators agreed, then went to one side and began to call their colleagues in the living area.
After finishing the task, Captain Gaidar ran back to his side, followed by the engineer Mikhail yev. He came up to me and said with a melancholy face: "Comrade division commander, the engineer suggested to me that we immediately send troops to occupy these colorful wooden houses outside the residential areas, dig trenches in the courtyard outside these wooden houses, and build a new defensive position."
After thinking for a while, I also think that it is necessary to excavate the courtyard of these wooden houses. Besides, there are German individual bunkers inside. As long as these individual bunkers are connected together, they are ready-made trenches. Thinking of this, I nodded with approval.
The order was quickly passed on, and a company of soldiers marched in a scattered formation toward the cabin area. Looking at the almost uniform rifles in the hands of these soldiers, I can't help sighing to myself that the equipment of the independent division is really poor. Except for a few submachine guns and machine guns, the rest are rifles. Even with such equipment, there is no guarantee that every soldier in the division can be armed. At least half of the soldiers in the three regiments are unarmed and unarmed.
Gaidar, mihayev and the commander of the artillery company were all staring at the advancing soldiers, listening to their confused footsteps and looking at their changing formation from time to time. As we were approaching the wooden house, the unique gunfire of German mp40 suddenly sounded in one of the courtyards, followed by the gunfire in several neighboring courtyards, and the dense gunfire was particularly clear in the silent morning. Several fire tongues spraying death licked the attack line of our army, the advancing soldiers fell down, and the rest of the soldiers quickly lay on the ground. The soldier who was digging the trench also fell down because of the sudden gunfire.
"Hell! These damn Krauts. " Gaidar saw his soldiers fall. He drew out his pistol, waved it and rushed forward. I reached for it, but I didn't hold it. In this short time, he had bent down and ran to the middle of the attacking team. He yelled and cursed loudly to make the soldiers on the ground stand up and move on. Unexpectedly, as soon as the soldiers got up from the ground, they were knocked down by German bullets, so they had to lie down again. Gaidar was helpless, so he could only lie down in the same place and shoot the German soldiers in the courtyard with pistols.
Seeing this scene, I roared at the growth of the cannon company: "artillery company commander, fire immediately! Kill all the firepower points in the courtyard! "
The artillery company commander turned pale and said to me, "Comrade division commander, we are too close to our soldiers. If we fire, we will hurt our own people by mistake."
If these German firepower points are not destroyed, the morale of our division will be destroyed by German submachine guns. I was unmoved and solemnly issued an order: "comrade company commander, I order you to fire immediately and destroy the enemy's firepower points."
The company commander of the cannon company had no choice but to agree. He turned and walked to the artillery position, raised his right hand high and gave orders to his subordinates: "No.2 and No.3 gun positions, target the colored wooden house, and load the high explosive. Ready, let go Almost at the same time, the right hand waved down.
Two cannons opened fire at the same time. The cannonball roared out of the gun and flew to the enemy's individual bunker. The 76mm shell landed in the courtyard accurately, not only smashing a German soldier hiding in the bunker, but also toppling the wooden fence and a wall of the wooden house.
"Good fight!" I clearly saw the effect of the shelling. I yelled out loud, regardless of the buzzing of my ears. I urged the artillery company commander, "comrade company commander, don't stop, continue to fire!"
When the artillery was loading, I felt that someone patted me on the shoulder and turned to see that it was operator No. 4. He came close to my ear and said in a loud voice: "Mr. reporter, I have contacted operator No. 1. Captain Oleg is online. He's waiting to talk to you Then he handed me the earphone and the transmitter.
"Comrade division, this is captain Oleg." Oleg's voice came from the earphone.
"Comrade captain, speak up. I can't hear you clearly." Just now, the sound of artillery shocked my hearing, so that when I heard Oleg's voice, my ears seemed to be stuffed with a ball of cotton, and the sound seemed far and light. I walked a few steps towards the forest, and when I saw that I was far enough away from the artillery position, I stopped and asked, "what's the matter in the residential area, why can't I hear anything?"
"After the army entered the residential area, Comrade Shi, two of the German Sentinels were found at the street corner. They apparently had not yet understood what was going on, and were killed by shovel and axe. Then we rushed into building 1, building 2 and building 3, and found only five or ten German guards in each building. When we rushed in, they were still sleeping. Most of them were killed by us in their sleep, so there was no big change in the early fighting. "
Listening to him saying that there are enemies in the residential area, I feel a lot more calm. I didn't hear the news from the residential area because our army used cold weapons when fighting. It's normal that we can't hear the sound. As long as there is an enemy in the settlement, it will not be a trap set for us by the enemy. I asked steadily, "what are your plans for the next step?"
"Report to Mr. division, we have occupied buildings 1 to 8 one after another and are preparing to launch a final attack on the remaining nine buildings." Before the attack, in order to accurately understand the progress of the troops, we numbered every building, so as soon as he reported the building number, I knew where the troops were.
"What's going on with captain chejerikov?" As soon as I began to ask about the support force, I heard the roar of tanks in the distance. It seemed that our tank unit was coming. I didn't care to go on. I just said the same thing: "I wish you good luck and finish the task early. I'm waiting for the news of your victory." Then he cut off the communication, threw the earphone and phone to the operator, and quickly ran to the direction of the tank.
At this moment, the cannon company's fire has destroyed all the enemy's firepower points in the wooden house yard. Gaidar has rushed into the wooden house area with his soldiers, searching for the enemy near the burning house.
Five t-34s stopped near the artillery position. The commander of the tank soldiers jumped down from the first tank and came to me. After raising his hand and saluting, he asked for instructions: "report to the commander, the tank unit has been ordered to come and wait for your instructions!"
I looked at the young commander in tank uniform in front of me, nodded with satisfaction, pointed to the residential area, and said: "Comrade tank soldier, you left two tanks to guard the artillery position here, and the other three to drive to the residential area to assist the infantry to capture the buildings occupied by the enemy."
The tank soldiers looked at the residential buildings and said with some embarrassment, "Comrade commander, the roads in this residential area are too narrow. The Germans who occupy the buildings can easily throw burning bottles or anti tank grenades at us from the buildings on both sides and kill us easily."
Seeing the appearance of the tank soldiers pushing, I was a little annoyed. However, because other people came to help our friendly army, I couldn't get angry with him, so I had to squeeze out a smile, pretended to be understated and said to him, "Comrade tank soldiers, don't worry, our infantry have occupied many buildings in the residential areas, It can help you eliminate the German anti tank men, and you can drive the tanks in safely and boldly. "
When the tank soldiers saw that I said so, they could not shirk responsibility any more, so they had to ask in a voice: "Comrade commander, what's our task?"
"There are a few German armored vehicles in the settlement, and our infantry don't have the necessary anti tank weapons. If you don't help them, in the end, we can only watch these armored vehicles swagger out of our encirclement."
"No problem, comrade commander." When the tank soldiers heard that they only need to kill a few armored vehicles, they immediately said to me, "we will kill all these German Mouse cages." When he said the mouse cage, I was stunned for a moment, and then I understood that he meant the German armored car.
When shejerikov contacted me, there was finally a lot of gunfire in the residential area. As soon as I heard the gunshot, I immediately asked shijerikov in a loud voice, "Comrade captain, what's the matter? Why is there so much gunfire? "
"Report to Mr. division commander," shejerikov said aloud, "it was Oleg's commandos who fired at them when they attacked building 11."
"How's it going? Did our troops rush in? " I asked with concern.
After a moment's silence, shijerikov reported: "the enemy's firepower is too fierce. Before the members of the first commando team get close to the building, they have all died under the enemy's cross fire."
"Don't stop, keep on attacking!" I can't help getting a little impatient when I heard that the attack of the commandos was frustrated.
"Captain Oleg is organizing a second commando, ready to attack again." At this point, shijerikov stopped for a moment, and then said: "Comrade division, I think we need the support of heavy weapons, otherwise no matter how many commandos attack the buildings occupied by the enemy without any firepower, they will be in vain."
"I've sent you tanks," I specially told him, "as soon as the tank soldiers arrive, you go and tell them to use tank guns to blow up the enemy's fire points and cover our infantry to break into the building."
"Yes, sir. I'll go to the commander of the tank unit and ask them to help us attack. If we meet the enemy's armored vehicles later, our tanks can easily kill them all. " Shejerikov's reaction was very quick. I just mentioned tank unit. He has considered how to use this unit in the future.
Hearing the sound of intensive gunfire coming from the residential area, I went back to the company commander of the cannon company and said to him, "comrade company commander, take two guns and follow me to the residential area. Let's show the enemy what a bayonet on a cannon is
The company commander called the soldiers nearby and helped the soldiers in the two gun positions to drag the guns to the residential area. On the way, the artillery company commander asked me curiously: "Comrade commander, what is a bayonet on a cannon? This is a novel statement. I heard it for the first time."
I pointed to the light cannons in front of me and explained to the artillery company commander, "comrade company commander, you see, we push these two gates to the nose of the enemy to shoot, that is to put bayonets on the cannons."
After hearing this, the company commander suddenly realized and urged the soldiers in front of him: "Hey, soldiers, hurry up, the infantry in front of you are waiting for our artillery support."
We walked along the dirt road into the residential area, and our soldiers stood guard beside the roadside buildings, indicating that this place has been occupied by our army. We don't have to worry about the enemy's bullets flying out of the buildings on both sides.
At the first crossing, I saw that all the three tanks I had just sent in were standing still. I suddenly nose gas crooked, rushed over, with the butt of the submachine gun hard hit the body of the tank. As I hit, the tank turret hatch was opened, and the tank commander came out from inside.
As soon as I saw him, I asked angrily, "I said tank soldiers, why don't you stop and move forward? You know, our infantry are attacking the enemy's buildings with flesh and blood in front of them. There are huge casualties every minute. Why don't you support them? "
Tank soldiers pointed to the front, said helplessly: "Comrade commander, you see."
I went around to the front of the tank and felt that I had wronged the tank soldiers. There were barricades built by the enemy and two destroyed armored vehicles on the road, blocking the whole road tightly. The tank really couldn't move forward.
Since we can't count on tanks, we just have to rely on the artillery company to provide firepower support. With the help of dozens of us, we carried the two cannons through the obstacle area and continued to push forward.
More than 100 meters away, I saw a few windows of a building directly opposite, and German soldiers were shooting frantically downward. The soldiers of our army were pressed to the ground by the intensive fire. Some of the remaining people hid behind the buildings or the bunkers made of the soldiers' remains to avoid the enemy's shooting.
At such a close distance, plus the German soldiers' reckless body out of the window, only a few good marksmen can kill them. But the attacking soldiers have only touched their guns for a few days. It's good that they can shoot the bullets calmly on the battlefield. As for where the bullets have gone, only God knows.
I immediately ordered the artillery company commander: "comrade company commander, put the guns here and fire at the enemy's firepower point."
The artillery company commander readily agreed and immediately ordered his men to dismount their guns and measure the firing data himself. After the two guns were in place, the artillery company commander yelled: "target, the window on the second floor of the building in front of us, load with high explosives."
When the artillery reported to him in a loud voice: "report to company commander, loading is complete!"
Without hesitation, he waved his raised right hand down and yelled, "fire!"
With two loud blasts, the German corpses, blurring with the shells, fell down from the building together with the broken bricks and stones, and landed heavily on the ground. The firepower in the enemy's building weakened a lot. The commandos, who had been unable to move due to the suppression of firepower, took the opportunity to get up from the ground and rushed to the building.