Chapter 857

Beckman, who has always kept a distance from me, unexpectedly nodded after hearing what I said. Perhaps for fear that his former comrades would die worthless, he took Lieutenant Braun and a dozen soldiers to run from the depths of the factory area, including his own subordinates and soldiers of the guard company. The former is to persuade the German soldiers who are still struggling, while the latter is to protect their safety.

Looking at Beckman's back, Yushchenko murmured dissatisfied: "Sir, are we too good to these Germans? Not only to treat their wounded, but also to persuade those German soldiers who will soon be destroyed by us. I think it's unnecessary. "

"When are you still thinking about this?" As for Yushchenko's complaints, I gave him a gloomy look, and then said to him in a tone of teaching: "Comrade captain, I ask you to make it clear that although captain Beckman and his men were German soldiers before, they have joined us and become our comrades now. If captain Beckman can tell those German officers and men who are still fighting stubbornly that marshal Manstein, who came to rescue them, has been repulsed by our army, completely breaking the illusion of the enemy's heart, and obediently laying down his arms and surrendering to us, how many casualties will we reduce in this way, have you considered? "

Yushchenko, who was reprimanded by me, did not defend. Instead, he scattered the soldiers of the guard company who came out with us, and let them form a loose circle around me to protect me to go deep into the factory area.

The area of the "Red October" factory is bigger than I expected. After walking for nearly half an hour, it is not close to any workshop where the enemy and us are fighting.

"We can't go any further, sir." Yushchenko, who was walking beside him, suddenly said to me in a loud voice: "we are very close to the area of the exchange of fire. If we go further, there will be danger. He was either killed by a shell or by a stray bullet... "

Maybe it's to add persuasion to his persuasion. His voice just dropped. A shell flying from the deep of the factory landed 30 meters to the right of us and exploded. The roar nearby overwhelmed all the other voices. The soil splashed at the blasting point, and shrapnel flew around with howling sound. Two soldiers walking on my right suddenly gave a cry of pain, and then fell to the ground at the same time.

"What's the matter, what's the matter?" Seeing the soldiers beside me fall down, I couldn't help getting flustered. I repeatedly asked, "have you been hit by the cold gun of the German?"

Yushchenko rushed to the two soldiers, squatted down and asked in a deep voice, "what's the matter?"

"I was hit by shrapnel!" One of the soldiers replied bitterly.

"Does it matter?" Yushchenko asked again.

The soldier shook his head and replied, "the shrapnel is blocked by the armor. The injury is not serious."

Hearing that the soldier was not seriously injured, Yushchenko quickly stood up and came back to me. He spoke as fast as he could and said, "Comrade division, you can't go any further. Our bullet proof clothes may be able to block the stray bullets flying in the distance, but they can't block the shells at all. If that shell had just landed a little closer to us, I believe many of us have really fallen down. "

After his words, I found that although the soldiers around didn't speak, they all turned their eyes to me and waited silently for me to make the final decision.

The scene just now made me understand that it's not the time to be a hero. If I was really killed by a shell, I would be wronged. However, since I have entered the factory, it is not appropriate for me to go back. I might as well find a hiding place nearby to observe the progress of the fighting in the factory.

Thinking of this, I tried my best to keep calm and said to Yushchenko: "Comrade captain, since we have entered the factory area, it is impossible to retreat again. Retreat at this time means escape. I can't be an escape general, so we must stay here anyway." After expressing my determination, I asked him, "Comrade captain, go and find out if there is a suitable place nearby for us to hide for a while. After daybreak, we'll move on. "

Yushchenko looked around for a moment, then pointed to my left side and said directly, "Sir, there seems to be a ditch dug by a truck. Let's go there first. As long as it is not directly hit by German shells, I believe there is no danger. "

"Well, let's go there first." Hearing Yushchenko say that there is a place to hide nearby, I waved my hand and said aloud, "Comrade captain, you lead the way ahead."

The ditch for car repair is more than ten meters long and more than one meter deep. When we went there, we found that the ditch was full of German corpses. I was hesitating whether to change the place when Yushchenko had begun to command the soldiers to lift the bodies out of the trench.

After the corpses were carried aside, I jumped into the ditch without hesitation, found a position with wide vision, raised my telescope, and looked in the direction of the distant workshop where there was an exchange of fire.

The workshop in the telescope is burning at the moment, but I don't know whether the burning is caused by artillery fire or grenade explosion. Many of the German soldiers at the windows of the factory are shooting continuously. Some of our soldiers hide in the crater in front of the factory and shoot against the German soldiers. The other part, under the cover of the terrain, approaches the factory quickly. When it was not far from the factory, he raised his hand and threw a grenade. When the firelight and smoke of the grenade explosion rose, they rushed forward decisively, jumped into the factory from the window of no one, and engaged in a new battle with the German army inside.

When I was looking at it, there was a voice behind me. It seemed that a group of people were dragging something forward. I quickly put down my telescope and looked back. A large group of soldiers were dragging several large caliber guns towards us.

When I saw such a large number of people, I knew that it was the artillery company of the 178th artillery regiment, because in addition to the artillery, there were also infantry sent by chejerikov to help them pull the artillery. So I told Yushchenko, "Comrade captain, go and call the company commander of the artillery company."

Yushchenko agreed, took orders, turned and ran away quickly.

It wasn't long before Yushchenko answered me with the artillery captain. Because I forgot the name of the company commander, I could only ask vaguely, "Comrade captain, where are you going to put your artillery company?"

The artillery captain looked around for a while and answered me, "report, comrade general, there is a distance of one to three kilometers from the fighting workshops. So I plan to deploy the artillery positions here to provide necessary artillery support for the attacking friendly forces."

"No, comrade captain." As soon as the artillery captain's words were finished, I shook my head like a rattle. "It's too far. In such a long distance, you can't suppress the enemy's firepower with your only guns."

"Comrade General, what should I do?" The artillery captain was a little flustered when I said that. After a short silence, he asked me, "where should I put my artillery company?"

I waved my hand forward and said, "Comrade captain, let your artillery continue to push the cannon forward. Push to a place only two or three hundred meters away from the enemy's fortifications, and then set up artillery positions to provide necessary artillery support for our offensive forces. "

"What, push the gun to a place only two or three hundred meters away from the enemy's position, and shoot close." Since the other side is to cooperate with our division, I will teach him my own tactics without stint“ With the caliber of your artillery, no matter how strong the fortifications of the enemy are, they will not be able to resist the bombardment of the artillery. "

"But, Comrade General." Although I heard this new way of playing, the artillery captain hesitated and said, "it's too close. The shells will hit our own people."

"Comrade captain, you may not know." Regarding the artillery captain's worry, I said with disapproval: "a few days ago, when the 64th group army captured the streets of Voroshilov District, the artillery that provided artillery support for infantry never stopped shooting. It was only when the enemy could not fight back that our troops were able to smoothly break through the enemy's line of defense. Although there may be accidental injury, but in order to achieve the final victory, no matter how big the price is worth it

The artillery captain heard me say so, had no choice but to agree. Then he turned and ran quickly back to the crowd dragging the cannons, and I heard him shouting from a distance, "keep going!"

When the artillery passed through the trench and gradually walked away, Yushchenko whispered in my ear, "Comrade division commander, is it appropriate for the artillery to set their positions so close to the enemy fortifications? You know, even if the enemy doesn't have artillery, their machine guns can directly threaten our artillery positions. "

"Captain Yushchenko," I said impatiently to Yushchenko, who had been whispering in my ears, "there are still many troops in front of the fortifications. They see that the enemy's machine gun fire points threaten the artillery positions in the rear. They will try to solve these problems themselves." After that, I told him, "Captain, in order to keep abreast of the progress of the battle, you should send some people to inform the commanders of the battle and ask them to send me all the battle reports."

After being informed by Yushchenko, the battle reports of the first regiment and the 45th division were sent to me in an endless stream. From the war report, I learned that although our army occupied most of the workshops, the German soldiers who had suffered a lot in the street battle learned to use the most solid buildings and basements as the support for their stubborn resistance. Although our troops paid a great price in capturing the German firepower support points, they made slow progress.

The battle lasted until dawn. After fighting for more than ten hours, our army gradually eliminated all the enemies in the model workshop, classification workshop and mechanic workshop, realized the meeting with the 39th division of Jinwei, and completed the encirclement of the German officers and men in the factory. The remaining officers and men of the enemy fought and retreated, and fled into the office building that they had transformed into a powerful defense hub.

When I heard that several attacks organized by Sokolov and shejerikov were all backed down by the German troops in the building, I insisted on coming to the mechanic workshop where the headquarters of the 45th division was located, regardless of Yushchenko's opposition. Here, in addition to Sokolov, I also met the commander of the 39th division, general guriyev, and the first commander, Lieutenant Colonel xiejerikov.

Seeing my arrival, general guriyev welcomed me with a smile. At the same time, he took the initiative to extend his hand and warmly called me: "Hello, comrade deputy commander, nice to meet you here!"

When I shook hands with guriyev, I said with concern, "Comrade General, it's too dangerous here. You'd better take your troops to the back to have a rest, and leave the rest to us."

Guriyev, with a smile on his face, listened to me and released my hand. At the same time, he put a face on his face and said seriously, "Comrade deputy commander, how can you say that? You can come to the most dangerous places. Why can't I stay here? " When he said that, I suddenly felt that my cheek was hot. Perhaps he saw my embarrassed expression and quickly slowed down his tone and said, "our soldiers of the close guard division have been fighting here for two months and are very familiar with the environment of the factory area, so I think we should hand over the task of the active building to our division."“ Comrade Colonel, general guriyev said that they are very familiar with the factory and want to take over the task of seizing the office building. " Instead of answering guriyev immediately, I turned to Sokolov and asked, "do you agree with him?"“ No, absolutely not. " Sokolov was anxious to hear me say this, and said to Guriev: "Comrade General, after a night's fighting, my division's officers and soldiers are very tired, but there is no problem in seizing the office building occupied by the German army." At this point, he turned to me and asked, "Comrade deputy commander, I ask you to hand over the task of seizing the building to our division. On behalf of the 45th infantry division, we are confident to complete all the combat tasks you have given us. " I beckoned to sjerykov, who was standing behind a few people, called him to me and asked, "Comrade commander, I heard that several attacks you organized have been defeated by the enemy who stood in the building. Is that true?" Xiejerikov nodded his head vigorously and answered positively, "yes, sir. Because the enemy's fortifications were solid and the firepower was fierce, all the three charges we organized before and after were repulsed by the enemy. "“ Where's the artillery? Where's the artillery? " Hearing that the other side's fortifications were solid, I looked around for the captain from the 178th artillery regiment. At the same time, I asked strangely, "isn't there a howitzer company to cooperate with you? Why don't you bombard the German fortifications with howitzers?"