Chapter 591

Street fighting, also known as "city war", is a battle between streets and houses. It usually takes place in cities or large villages. The first is the close combat between the enemy and ourselves, which is cruel. The two sides compete fiercely for solid buildings, main streets and commanding heights. Second, the enemy and ourselves are mixed and intertwined with each other, and the movements of the two armies are restricted, often resulting in many local independent battles.

Since the crossing, I have participated in almost all kinds of positional offensive and defensive warfare. I have little contact with this kind of urban street warfare gradually formed with the expansion of the scale of the war, and my group of commanders and fighters know little about this important combat style, so I specially called them together today, Let's listen to lieutenant gretka's talk about the city battles he participated in, and let the commanders know what the city street fighting is all about.

Lieutenant gretka, seeing that the room was quiet and no one was talking, continued: "I separated sergeant Bossel's squad and followed the tanks and firemen to attack the other side of the block, while I took three squads with an 81mm mortar to attack from the front.

My men and I assembled behind a row of bungalows. Our target was a three story concrete building across the road. There were four similar buildings in this street, which was the commanding height of the whole block. Almost all the buildings have been toppled off because of the air attack of our army in the morning.

I hide behind the window of a room to observe the situation on the opposite side. The building seems empty, but I dare not take it lightly. Who knows if there will be hidden Russians behind the windows without glass, who are closely monitoring us preparing to launch an attack.

Just when I hesitated, Sergeant zegor, the second squad leader, came into the room from the big hole in the wall and saw that I had not given the order to attack. He was a little frustrated and yelled out: "Mr. second lieutenant, what are you hesitating about? It looks like there is no one in the opposite building. Let's attack?"

I took a look at him and stopped him decisively: "no way." Although I didn't agree to his attack request, I couldn't think of any good way in a hurry. At this time, Sergeant pullang, the third squad leader, and Sergeant Kranz, the fourth squad leader, came into the room and heard the conversation between sergeant zegor and me. Sergeant Krantz thought for a moment and said to me, "Sir, I have a way!" Seeing us all looking at him strangely, he continued, "you should cover me with fire and rush into the building, and then let the soldiers rush through one by one."

I was very curious about his proposal, so I asked, "Sergeant Kranz, why do the soldiers rush one by one?"

"Mr. lieutenant," Kranz replied, "I guess there must be a lot of Russian firepower in the building. If we rush together, they will be scared. The firepower composed of their machine guns and submachine guns will cause heavy damage to our attacking forces. But if they rush past one by one, they will not expose their firepower for the sake of one or two soldiers when they see that we have too few people in the range. In this way, when they understand, I think most of the people in our platoon have already rushed into the opposite building, so that we have enough strength to carry out the assault, Take out all the Russians in the building! "

Listen to what he said is very reasonable, I nodded and agreed. With my permission, Sergeant Kranz opened the door and rushed out of the room with his submachine gun. When he rushed to the road, my heart went up to my throat. I was afraid that the Russian hiding in the building would shoot at him. But facts have proved that Kranz's analysis is correct. The Russians are not willing to expose their firepower for the sake of one person. Before he rushes to the building, no one shoots in the opposite building. "

When lieutenant gretka just said this, I heard a captain not far away muttering in a low voice: "damn the Krauts, they are really cunning. If it's me, I see only one person running over, and I absolutely don't allow soldiers to open fire to expose the target."

Gretka obviously heard the captain's complaint, but he just looked in the direction of the captain, and did not stop his story: "Sergeant Kranz rushed out of the building, did not rush in through the corridor door immediately, but leaned against the wall and threw a grenade inside. After the explosion of the grenade, several fire tongues shot out of the corridor. It seems that some Russians could not help but shoot outside in spite of the orders of their superiors.

Kranz threw two more grenades into it, and the shooting stopped immediately. At about this time, the soldiers in Crantz's class had rushed out of the building one after another, leaning back against the wall and throwing grenades into the window, just like their monitor. Without waiting for the smoke of the explosion to disperse, some of them rushed into the building from the door, and some directly turned the window into the building.

Seeing that the fourth class of Crantz had all impacted the building opposite, I stood up straight, straightened my cap, and said to sergeant zegor, the second squad leader, who was already eager to try, "sergeant, take your soldiers and occupy the other party's building."

Zegor excitedly agreed, drilled out of the big hole in the wall, called the second class hidden behind the bungalow, and charged against the opposite building.

However, class 2 was not so lucky as class 4. They just rushed to the road. Behind a window on the second floor, a machine gun shot them fiercely. The two soldiers who rushed in front of them were knocked down on the spot, and the rest had to lie down to fight back.

Seeing that the attack was frustrated, I immediately ordered the mortar team equipped for my platoon to bombard the fire point. After two rounds, I found that although the building was riddled with holes by the air force, the mortar couldn't play a big role, because there was a ceiling to block it, and the shells couldn't fall down at all. The machine gun was still shooting recklessly, which made the second crew unable to lift their heads.

When I told the mortar to stop firing, I was about to let class three take part in the attack. The shooting window suddenly exploded, and the Russians in the room rushed to the window and fell down with their machine guns. Before I could figure out what was going on, I suddenly saw someone at the window waving a German helmet. Then Kranz leaned out of the window. I realized that Kranz, who was fighting in the building, had blown up the enemy's machine gun.

Seeing that the second class also attacked the building, I gave an order to the third class leader who was still standing beside me: "sergeant pullang, get ready and take your third class to attack the second building immediately."

Pollan agreed to get out of the hole in the wall and gather his troops.

On the other side of the block, however, the soldiers went very smoothly. The soldiers of the first group cooperated with the tank soldiers very well, because there was no concrete building there, only an ordinary warehouse. Seeing that the terrain here was good for us, a tank soldier leaned out of the turret and looked around. As a result, he was shot dead by a Russian hiding in the warehouse.

Our two tanks immediately turned the muzzle and fired two rounds in the direction of the bullets, collapsing the wall and burying the sniper in the rubble. Then our firemen came forward and burned him with fire. Seeing that our tanks destroyed the warehouse and threatened buildings 3 and 4, the Russians launched a counterattack. They sent a squad of infantry to attack us under the cover of an armored vehicle.

As soon as the armored car appeared in the sight of the tankers, it was destroyed by the artillery fire, and the rest of the infantry were also destroyed by the tank fire and the vehicle machine gun. Then the first group, under the cover of tanks, launched an attack on Building 3. Unexpectedly, it was met with tenacious resistance by the Russian people. A wounded Russian second lieutenant, holding a bundle of cluster grenades, jumped down from the window on the second floor and died with a tank. The remaining tank, fearing the same fate, quickly retreated.

After class two and class four captured building one, they cooperated with class three to capture building two. Class one, which was defeated by the Russians, launched a new attack on building three under the cover of the remaining tank.

Four classes after fierce fighting, although paid heavy casualties, still failed to capture the third and fourth building. At this time, there were only a dozen people left in our platoon, and class one and class two were almost finished. Seeing the heavy casualties in our platoon, the company commander transferred another platoon to replace us in the tough battle of the building. "

At this point, Lieutenant gretka stopped, turned to me politely and said, "Sir, my experience of street fighting is over."

I nodded to him, got up and said, "thank you, lieutenant. There's nothing for you here for the time being. Go and have a rest with your companions. " After that, I said to mikhaev next to me, "Comrade second lieutenant, take captain gramus, Lieutenant gretka and this communication monitor to have a rest."

After mihayev and the three Germans left the house, I stood in front of the commanders and asked solemnly, "comrades, what do you think of the story of German lieutenant gretka?"

The third company commander looked around for a moment, stood up and said in a loud voice: "report to our division commander, I think our soldiers are very tenacious, even if all of them die bravely, they will never step back."

After hearing what he said, I snorted heavily and said discontentedly, "fighting is about skill. I don't deny that the commander of our army, who was just said by lieutenant gretka, was really brave. He jumped down from the stairs with a bundle of cluster grenades and died with the German tank when he was seriously injured, His brave and tenacious fighting spirit is worth learning. But then again, in the battle to defend the city, what we have to do is to preserve ourselves and destroy the enemy. If you can't save yourself, it's no use just having a high fighting spirit. In the end, you will die as honorably as those commanders and fighters who stick to No. 1 and No. 2 buildings. "

"I don't understand, sir." Another Captain stood up and asked, "don't we always fight positional warfare with the German army? Why ask this German guy to tell us about street fighting in the city?"

When the captain finished speaking, I said coldly, "Comrade captain, have you not found that the present strength of our army can only delay but not stop the German advance towards Stalingrad after fighting for so long? From the analysis of the current situation, the German army will rush into Stalingrad in the near future. If we don't want to be thrown into the Volga River by the Germans, we must fight a cruel street battle with them in the city. "

"But our division has been winning all the time. Can't this stop the German from marching towards Stalingrad?" The captain retorted, still unconvinced.

"Enough, fifth company commander." Oleg got up from his seat and yelled at the captain who was playing the opposite role. "Don't you think that the defenders in other areas, except our division's defense line, are retreating to Stalingrad step by step under the strong German offensive? If the independent division had not been under the command of commander oshanina, then our division would have been either maimed or destroyed or captured by the German army. "

The captain was reprimanded by Oleg. He did not dare to refute, so he sat down reluctantly.

I went on to say, "the reason why I asked lieutenant gretka to tell you about the street fighting he participated in today is to let you know what the street fighting is like. I would like to ask you a question. If you lead your troops in a building and see only one German soldier rushing towards you, will you order to shoot? "

As soon as I asked this question, everyone was in a mess. Some said they would shoot, others said they would not shoot. The public said that the public was reasonable, and the old woman said that the old woman was reasonable. No one could persuade anyone. The room was noisy.

When they had almost finished their argument, I raised my hand and pressed it down. Seeing that everyone shut up, I then asked, "how are you, comrades commander, do you have an answer?"

Verol stood up and asked his men, "comrades, do you know what to do?" All the people, including Oleg, shook their heads neatly about her question.

Seeing that no one answered, verol said without hesitation: "I think about it carefully. If we didn't listen to the German Lieutenant talking about it, we would choose not to shoot in case of such a sudden situation. I don't know if you agree with me? " Her last sentence is to ask the commanders present. After listening to it, everyone nodded at the same time.

She continued: "if you shoot, you expose the target, and the attacking German army will be alert; If we don't shoot, we won't expose the target, but if the German forces break up into parts and rush into the building to attack as they did just now, we will still suffer a great loss. So I think about it this way, is it possible to arrange two or three sharpshooters in each building to fight a single German who rushes to the building. And even if the German army has a large force in the back, they will not be too alert when they see only one or two people shooting. When they find something wrong, it is estimated that there are many German soldiers' bodies in front of our building. "

To tell you the truth, when I heard from lieutenant gretka just now, I also found it difficult to shoot or not to shoot. However, it is a feasible way to follow veroll's suggestion. So I made a decisive decision and said in a loud voice: "yes, I think political commissar veroll is right. In the future, if our division's troops stick to the established buildings, they must be equipped with snipers to attack the individual German soldiers who rush to the buildings. Do you have any objection? "

"No!" The people in this room replied loudly.

In order to enhance your impression, I said while the iron was hot: "in addition, the street fighting in the city is similar to the guerrilla tactics we usually use, that is, if we win, we will fight, and if we don't win, we will leave. We should never fight hard with the Germans, find the right time, fight when we have the opportunity, and the battle cost is not big. Don't worry about the gains and losses of a street or a building, Focus on the elimination of German forces. We should know how to concentrate our superior forces against small or isolated enemies and turn small victories into big ones. "

"Comrade division commander, when can we find the right time and fight when we have a chance?" A company commander sitting in the middle asked me modestly.

"What is a favorable fighter? Even when the German troops were small and the terrain was unfavorable, and they were not ready. We should not fight three times. First, we should not fight when we find that the number of German troops is larger than ours; Second, the terrain occupied by the German army was good, so they did not fight; Third, the German army was prepared and did not fight; In short, we will not fight unprepared or uncertain battles. "

As soon as I finished, the third company commander stood up again. He scratched the back of his head and said, "Comrade division, listen to what you just said. You are giving us a war theory lesson. But we are just ordinary company commanders. Is it useful to learn these things? "

As soon as his words were finished, I immediately nodded my head and said with certainty: "useful, of course useful. Although you are only company commander now, the next battle will be more cruel. Many people, including me, may die. However, the surviving commanders may be promoted because they have experienced the war and have rich combat experience. Although what I said is not very useful when you are a company commander, when you become a battalion commander or even a division commander, you will find how important this knowledge is to you. Finally, I would like to remind you that if a commander makes a wrong decision, many soldiers will pay the price of blood and life. In my division, such commanders who do not cherish the lives of soldiers are absolutely not allowed to exist. "

At this point, I waved to the commanders and said, "OK, that's all for now. There will be a German army coming over tomorrow. We will go back to our company and do a good job in camouflage. We must not make any mistakes, otherwise our Camouflage Army will be exposed. Once exposed, what kind of consequences will there be? I just don't want to say it. We all know it in our hearts. "