Chapter 559

Then, I picked up the phone again and made a call to the commander of the station, Sergeant Xie jerikov: "Comrade commander, come to me. I have important combat tasks for you."

"That's very good, comrade teacher." Xiejerikov excitedly agreed: "but it's the moment. Just a moment, please. I'll be there in ten minutes to accept the assignment. "

It was said that it was ten minutes, but just five minutes later, the eager sergeikov appeared in my observation post. As soon as he entered the observation post, he raised his hand to salute me and asked impatiently, "Comrade division commander, all the officers and men of the first regiment of the independent division are ready to fight at any time and wait for your orders."

"Don't worry, Sergeant Sergeant. Just sit down and wait for a while. I'll assign the task when everyone comes."

Although xiejerikov sat down, he was restless because of something in his heart. He kept turning to the door to see if the person I had to wait for appeared.

As soon as captain Morozov and captain yegonovich entered the observation post, there was a violent explosion outside before they could finish speaking. I darted to the observation port, raised my telescope and looked out. I saw that the German planes that had bombed the artillery positions were bombing the positions of the fourth regiment.

Four German planes circled over the positions of the fourth regiment, then dived one by one, dropping bombs on our positions. Dense bombs landed near the trench and exploded. Large groups of gunpowder with fire suddenly formed a piece above the position, submerging our position in the smoke.

"This damned German plane, bullying us, has no air defense weapons, only dare to be so arrogant. If I had only one antiaircraft gun, I would beat them all down. " I heard someone talking next to me. I turned my head and saw that it was captain yegonovich. He was staring at the enemy planes plundering in the air and gnashing his teeth.

I waved my hand and said, "Comrade captain, don't be so angry. Although we can't do anything about the enemy's planes, we can't do anything about their infantry." speaking of this, I stopped for a moment, snorted heavily, and then said, "we can beat them to tears."

"Do you have any plans, sir?" Although shejerikov had known for a long time that I was planning to attack the German camp at night, he asked me to make sure that my determination had not changed.

"Come and see," I said to the three men, pointing to the map. "We have taught the German motorized infantry 29th division here today. In my estimation, they may camp near the current assembly site in the evening. So I plan that after dark, the artillery battalion of captain yegonovich will quietly move the artillery to a place two or three kilometers away from the enemy camp. By 11:30 p.m., the Germans were almost asleep. At this time, the artillery battalion opened fire decisively and shelled the enemy's camp. And sergeant shejerikov, while the Germans who were suddenly attacked were in a mess, led your regiment to attack decisively and make a fierce attack on the enemy. "

Shejerikov heard this with a smile on his face. He added: "if we can have a few more tanks of our army to cooperate with the assault, we can completely plan the enemy's battle formation. At that time, if we rush up, there will be no more organized resistance. Sporadic resistance will soon be buried by our swarming commanders and fighters. "

"Sergeant Sergeant kirikov," I said with some regret, "although I want to equip you with more tanks, I can't. In the battle just now, Captain perskin's tank unit suffered heavy losses, leaving only five tanks. However, I think that since the enemy is dazed by us in his sleep, even if only five tanks rush up to destroy the German tanks, we are quite sure. "

"Five is better than none." Although the number of tanks is a little less, chejerikov obviously doesn't care. You know, artillery alone is enough to make the enemy drink.

Next, I'll let the three commanders study the details of the battle. While the three were discussing, I called the third commander, Lieutenant Colonel kosga, and asked him about the situation.

As soon as I got on the phone, I asked with concern, "what's the situation there, commander kosga? Where is the German reconnaissance unit you're talking about? "

"Report, comrade division commander, after receiving your instructions, I quietly withdrew the soldiers lurking in the first line of defense to the second line of defense. The vehicles of the German reconnaissance team stopped at the first trench, got off their motorcycles, and several German soldiers jumped into the trench for a walk. They found no sign of our army, and then turned back to the residential area. "

"Good. But you can't relax your vigilance. You should send more scouts near the residential areas to monitor the enemy's movements, so that as long as the enemy moves, you can get intelligence there and make corresponding deployment. "

When I put down the phone, I saw that the three commanders who were still discussing had calmed down, so I asked with concern, "how about that? Is the discussion over?"

He raised his hand, looked at his watch, and asked, "Comrade Colonel, when does our artillery battalion leave in the evening?"

"It's about ten o'clock in the dark now. Your artillery battalion should start at ten o'clock." Speaking of this, it suddenly occurred to me that I didn't know what kind of artillery was used in the artillery battalion, so I asked, "Comrade captain, I forgot to ask you, what kind of artillery is used in your regiment, a cannon or a howitzer?"

Hearing me ask myself, yegonovych quickly straightened up and said, "report, comrade Colonel, there are eight 122mm howitzers in our battalion."

"What, eight howitzers?" I was disappointed to hear that there were so few trees in the artillery. I turned to ask Morozov, "Comrade captain, why are there so few guns in the artillery battalion of captain yegonovich? You know, your artillery company still has ten cannons

With a smile, Morozov replied, "Comrade division commander, in fact, our company had been strengthened before it was assigned to the independent division. The number of guns increased from four to ten."

I nodded and asked yegonovich, "Comrade captain, how do you plan to move your howitzer to the designated position?"

"Report to the colonel, we have a tractor truck so that we can move the howitzer into position quickly."

At this time, a voice calling for a report came from the door. I didn't see who was coming from the door, so I called out casually: "come in!"

I didn't expect that it was captain perskin who came in. He limped in from the door, raised his hand to salute, and said shyly: "report to Mr. division. It's all because of my recklessness that the tank unit was almost destroyed. I've come here specially to ask for your pardon. Please punish me. "

Instead of criticizing captain perskin, I looked down at his legs and asked with concern, "Comrade captain, I heard that you have been injured. Where is your injury? Is it serious?"

"When I came out of the tank, I was scratched on my thigh by shrapnel," pelsjian replied. I've dealt with it just now. Although it's still a little painful to walk, I decided not to affect my charging to the enemy in the tank. "

"Well done! good job! Captain perskin, you are so good After listening to him, I patted him on the shoulder and encouraged him for a few words. Then I turned the topic around and said, "it's very nice of you to come here, so I don't have to send someone to look for you later."

I called the four men to the table and began to set up the task again: "at 11:30 p.m., our night attack on the 29th German motorized infantry division officially began. After the battle started, the artillery battalion opened fire on the enemy's camp and tried to cover the whole area where the enemy was. Then shejerikov's regiment launched a fierce attack on the camp. Under the cover of captain perskin's tank unit, it launched a centripetal assault on the enemy's camp. It was necessary to destroy the German command system, so that their troops could not find soldiers and soldiers could not find officers. "

"Comrade division commander," shejerikov cautiously suggested to me, "do you think that the second or third regiment should also be put into the night attack? I think we can achieve more results in this way."

I waved my hand and said, "no, Lieutenant Colonel chejerikov. Although I want to annihilate the German division completely, I can't do it. There are still two German divisions in the West. Once they know that the 29th Division has been attacked fiercely by us, they will come at us at night. As you know, our soldiers generally lack training and combat effectiveness. If they can't eat the 29th division in a short time, they will easily be surrounded by German troops. Therefore, our objective tonight is to annihilate a German army, so that they have to stop and rest for a period of time, so as to achieve the goal of delaying the advance speed of the fourth group army of Gothic tanks towards Stalingrad. "

Seeing that all of you were nodding after listening to me, knowing that they had listened to me, they waved their hands and said passionately, "four commanders, I hope that through this battle tonight, first of all, I will play the role of an independent division and live up to the bright red flag granted to us by general trakov himself; The second is to beat the German guys to fear, so that when they hear the name of our independent division in the future, they will be scared from the bottom of their heart. "

When I finished the assignment, I said to them, "I only do the general deployment. How to build the specific artillery positions and how to hide the troops are all your business. I won't do too detailed deployment." At this point, I looked out from the observation port, and then said, "the enemy's air raid is over. Go back to your respective troops and make combat deployment."

Four people happily saluted me, turned and walked out of the observation post.

After they left, I looked through my telescope at the line of defense that had just been bombed. As the smoke slowly dispersed, I saw that the first trench of the fourth regiment was hollowed out. There were people walking around, probably busy rescuing the wounded. I moved the camera to the village where the regiment was located, and found that it was also bombed by German planes. Almost all the buildings in the village were collapsed, and the collapsed wooden houses were burning.

I called Gaidar, but I couldn't get through. Seeing that I couldn't get in touch with Gaidar, I couldn't help worrying about his safety. I asked razumeyeva to use the telephone to get in touch with the communication team of Gaidar regiment to find out what was going on.

Fortunately, the telephone got in touch with Gaidar. As soon as the communication was connected, I couldn't wait to ask, "Comrade commander, what's the situation there? Why can't I get through? What's more, I saw your village destroyed by German planes and burning everywhere. Are you ok? "

"Thank you for your concern." To my series of questions, Gaidar answered without delay: "maybe in the bombing just now, the telephone line was blown off. I can't get in touch with the frontier here. We dug a lot of air raid shelters in the village last night. When the enemy planes came to bomb, we all hid in air raid shelters, so there were no casualties in the village. "

"Your regiment is really powerful," I can't help but say with emotion, "overnight, not only the trenches were built, but also so many trenches were dug in the village. Your actions are really sharp."

"Yes, as you know, most of our soldiers come from Gulag concentration camp. The people there have no other skills. They are faster than professional engineers in playing with trench repair and fortification."

I heard him say that, but it's true. The civil engineering work in the concentration camp can't be finished all day long. These soldiers have been trained for a long time. Let them dig fortifications and air raid shelters this time. It's no surprise that they have such high efficiency.

I didn't talk nonsense with him, just told him: "let the signalmen repair the telephone lines immediately, restore the communication with the frontier, and let the soldiers repair the bombed fortifications, maybe the enemy will attack later."

My words soon came true. Soon after the end of the plane bombing, the Germans started shelling again. This time, they may have put the remaining two 150 mm artillery battalions into battle. Their shells blew up the dust in front of our army. The soldiers who had not finished the repair had to lie in the trenches to avoid the flying shrapnel.

After the enemy's shelling, the infantry began to attack again. About a battalion of infantry, under the cover of seven or eight tanks, pounced on the four regiments' uneven trenches.

The tank in front of the road is moving forward and firing guns at suspicious targets. My teacher's shortcoming of insufficient training was exposed at this time. When some soldiers saw the approaching tank, they couldn't help getting flustered. They stood up straight in the trench and fired at the tank with their weapons in hand. As a result, the bullet hit the armor plate of the tank, only splashing a string of sparks, while the German tank just fired a shot, hit the target, then the soldiers were blown to pieces.

Seeing his comrades in arms falling down, more and more soldiers were red eyed, jumped out of the trench with guns and rushed towards the enemy's tanks. As a result, they were knocked down by the machine guns on the tanks before they went far.

Seeing the forward rushing officers and soldiers, I was so angry that I wanted to curse. Is there such a war? Can human flesh and blood block the iron and steel giant of the enemy? It's not like hitting a stone with an egg.

As soon as the enemy's tanks were about to cross the trench of the fourth regiment, a team of our tanks rushed out of the slash and rushed towards them. After two rounds of shooting, five of the German tanks, which were originally invincible, were reimbursed in front of the trench. The remaining two turned around and wanted to run. They were also chased by the soldiers of the fourth regiment and killed with burning bottles.

Without the cover of tanks, the infantry in the rear also lost the courage to continue to attack. They retreated, fired their guns randomly, and gradually moved away from our positions.

I was relieved to see that the German attack was repulsed. Fortunately, the tank unit attacked in time, otherwise, the enemy infantry would follow the tank and rush into the position of the fourth regiment.

After dark, shejerikov's regiment, the artillery battalion under the command of yegonovych and Morozov, and the tank unit of pelsjian all set out from their respective hiding places and hurried to the starting point of the night attack.

Just after eleven o'clock, I haven't been waiting for the news of the night attack troops. Trakov contacted me first. In the earphone, he said angrily, "Comrade oshanina, what are you doing?"

At that time, I was just in a daze. What's the matter? Didn't I report the night attack plan to him, which made him angry? As I didn't know what he wanted to say, I could only ask vaguely, "Comrade commander, I don't know what you mean? Can you make it clear? "

"Well, you know it. Let me ask you, I asked you to lead the troops to retreat 30 kilometers northward after dark. Why don't you implement it? You know, the 214 division, who is in charge of taking over you, is still waiting for you. "

It turned out to be about the retreat. To my surprise, I wiped the sweat on my forehead and explained to him: "report to the commander, the withdrawal time of our division may have to be delayed."

"Postpone the retreat, why?" He asked, puzzled.

"Because I just sent a regiment, artillery battalion and tank unit to attack the camp of the 29th German motorized infantry division. If we want to retreat, we have to wait for the three troops to return safely. "

"What, you said you sent troops to attack the enemy's camp?"

"Exactly, comrade commander." I replied cheerfully.

I didn't expect that there was a loud noise from the earphone. According to my experience, trekov was patting the table again. These leaders also patted the table when they were angry. They didn't know how to vent their anger in another way, such as throwing a teacup or drawing a gun and shooting several shots into the sky. He was thinking wildly when he heard trakov roar: "nonsense, it's nonsense. O'shanina, do you know how strong the Goth 4th tank group army is? Even if our two main divisions can't beat one of them, you're good now. You sent a regiment to beat another division. Didn't you let the commanders and fighters of this regiment die? "

I didn't defend myself immediately when I heard the thunder of trekov, because I knew that it was adding fuel to the fire, but it was easy to backfire. After he had finished, he said slowly, "Comrade commander, please don't get angry and let me explain. In the daytime, our division fought with the 29th German division, defeated them three times, eliminated one of his regiments, and seized a lot of weapons and ammunition. They never dreamed that the troops fighting with them during the day would attack them at night. Under our surprise attack, they will be caught off guard. "

"No way," said trekov reluctantly, "you immediately give orders to the troops to withdraw immediately. If they don't withdraw again, if they are surrounded by the German army, they can't withdraw."

I raised my hand and saw that it was already half past eleven, so I said to trikov tactfully, "Comrade commander, I'm sorry, the operation of the army has started. As soon as the battle started, I just wanted them to withdraw, but I couldn't. I'll get in touch with you in an hour, and then I'll report the progress of the battle to you. " With that, without waiting for trekov to make a statement, I immediately stopped contact with him.

Then I called commander kosga of the third regiment and said sternly to him, "commander kosga, I asked a regiment to launch a night attack on the German camp in the West. The Germans who are attacked may ask their friends for help. If the troops stationed in the residential areas go out, I order you to stop them at all costs to ensure the victory of the night attack. Do you understand? "

"Yes, sir." Cosga's answer was very simple: "I will immediately order the troops to enter the combat position and be ready to fight against the enemy. As long as there is one person in the third regiment, we will never let the enemy cross our defensive zone. "

"Good. I'll remember that." As soon as I hung up, I asked razumeyeva to contact Oleg, the second commander of the former group army headquarters.

As soon as I heard Oleg's voice, I said coldly to the transmitter, "commander Oleg, a regiment is going to attack the enemy's camp. Maybe they will ask for help from the friendly troops nearby. In this way, the enemy stationed at heights 158 and 165 will directly rush at you after receiving the rescue order. What you have to do now is to order the soldiers to enter the position and be ready to stop the reinforced enemy at any time. "

"Yes, please rest assured, I promise to complete the task."

The defense in the West has been arranged. It's time to contact several commanders who took part in the night attack. After taking a deep breath, I said to razumeyeva, "Comrade second lieutenant, get me captain yegonovich of the artillery barracks."

Because there was too much noise during the shelling, the captain had to say to me in a loud voice: "report to Comrade Colonel, we are shelling the German camp."

"Is the target clear?" I am deeply afraid that when the Germans camp, there will be no lights, and then the artillery will not find the target.

Unexpectedly, the captain replied, "the target is very clear. There are searchlights near German tanks, armored vehicles and cars, so our first shooting targets are here. After our shooting, there will be nothing left for German tanks and armored vehicles

When I went to the observation port, I looked at the west side of the sky red by the fire with my telescope. Although I couldn't see anything, I could hear the faint rumble of guns. It seemed that our artillery were using their shells to teach those invincible Germans a lesson.

Twenty minutes later, the news of the war came through the telephone. He excitedly told me, "Comrade division, the enemy's camp is in a mess. Tanks, armored vehicles, cars and cannons were blasted into piles of burning scrap iron by the shells of our artillery battalion. The German soldiers who woke up from their sleep ran around like headless flies. My regiment, under the leadership of the tank unit, is rushing towards the German commanders. "

After hearing the news of the war, I breathed a sigh of relief. Although the other side could not see my expression, I nodded first and then said, "go on, comrade commander. If possible, don't let any of them go

"Yes, sir." Chejerikov replied loudly.

At the end of the phone call with sheijerikov, reports from the second and third regiments came one after another. They all reported that the enemy's reinforcements were advancing towards their positions. As the Germans did not find anyone in these positions, they did not carry out artillery bombardment. Hearing the report from Oleg and kosja, I just said faintly, "stand in their way and don't let them move forward."

Half an hour later, shejerikov excitedly reported to me, "Comrade division, the enemy's camp has been occupied by us. Except for a small number of enemies who fled, the rest were either killed by our shells or by our infantry, or they were captives. We are counting the spoils. "

After praising xiejerikov, I confidently asked razumeyeva to connect me with the headquarters of the group army, and I also spoke to trekov. As soon as the communication got through, I didn't wait for trikov to speak, so I reported to him first and said, "report to commander, I have a good news for you. Under the cover of artillery battalion and tank unit, the brave regiment of our independent division successfully occupied the camp of the enemy's 29th division. Except for a few enemies who fled, the rest were killed or captured by us."

After listening to my success report, trakov was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly said excitedly, "Colonel oshanina, I congratulate you on your great success. I will report the achievements of the independent division to the headquarters of the front army as soon as possible. "

Before talking to trekov, the third commander, kosja, called again to report. He said excitedly, "report, comrade division commander, the attack of enemy reinforcements, which was defeated twice by our regiment, has returned to the residential area in a gloomy way. According to the Scout's report, there are no living German soldiers in front of our army. "

"Let the commanders and fighters sleep at ease." I said with ease: "Lieutenant Colonel shejerikov has successfully completed the task of occupying the enemy camp. These German soldiers know that the friendly forces have been destroyed, and there is no point in reinforcing them, so they withdraw in dismay." Put down the phone, I stretched out and ordered razumeyeva: "call commander Oleg and tell him if the enemy retreats, let the soldiers rest."