Chapter 862

As soon as the meeting was over, several teachers stood up, raised their hands to salute Vitkov and me, then turned around and walked out of the headquarters. Bantai leiev took a few steps and suddenly heard it. He turned to me and said, "Comrade commander, I almost told you something. According to the confession of the German prisoners captured by yesterday's night attack team, they all received a strange order. "

"Strange command?" Bantai leiev's words aroused my interest. I immediately asked, "Comrade Colonel, tell me quickly. What strange order is it?"

"According to the prisoner's confession, the commander ordered them to open fire only when they were attacked by our army."

After listening to bandeleev's words, wittkov, who was standing beside me, showed a smile on his face. He turned to me and said excitedly, "Comrade commander, so to speak, the German army is in a serious shortage of ammunition at present."

"Absolutely right, my chief of staff." As for Vitkov's judgment, I nodded in agreement and said, "maybe it's not just ammunition. Under our siege, it's estimated that they don't have enough food."

"Comrade commander, you have guessed very accurately." Bantaileiev said triumphantly: "the prisoners said that they were eating less and less. Each soldier had only one piece of bread a day. Fifteen soldiers ate one kilogram of potatoes. There was no difficulty in drinking water, because there was a lot of snow." He said the last sentence with an exaggerated shrug.

When he left the headquarters, it suddenly occurred to me that when he was a deputy division commander, he often had conflicts with akhromeyev. Now that he is a division commander, akhromeyev, the chief of staff, may be suppressed by him. Therefore, I specially remind him: "Comrade Colonel, although there were many contradictions between you and akhromeyev in the past, But after all, it's all about work. You don't have any personal grudges, but you must pay attention to unity. "

As for my reminder, bandeleev nodded and said obediently, "I understand, sir. I will have a good relationship with chief of staff akhromeyev."

Then I suddenly thought of another thing, and suggested to him, "Comrade Colonel, there is another thing I almost forgot. Captain Dragan, the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd regiment, was originally the company commander of the 1st battalion and 1st company of the 42nd regiment of the 13th guard division. He once led the troops to defend the central railway station. He should be very familiar with the terrain there. He can also take part in this attack on the railway station. "

"I see, comrade commander." Bantai leiev nodded his head and told me what he thought: "in this case, I'll let the third regiment take up the main task of the railway station."

Three regiments?! I had thought that he would transfer captain Dragan from the third regiment to the regiment that would take charge of the main attack, but I didn't expect that he was going to let the third regiment take charge of the main attack directly. Thinking of the unsatisfactory performance of the third commander, Lieutenant Colonel kosga, in the past two months, I almost want to veto his plan immediately. As soon as I was about to open my mouth, I suddenly remembered that Bantai leiev was the commander of the 150th division at the moment. As a commander, I could not interfere too much in his command, so I changed the topic in time: "Comrade Colonel, how long will it take you to attack the railway station?"

"It will take at least two hours to gather the three regiments together and to move the tank battalion." Bantai leiev told me after a brief thought: "that is to say, we will launch an attack on the railway station no earlier than one o'clock in the afternoon."

"Comrade Colonel, we must take into account all the unfavourable factors that may arise in the course of fighting." When I saw him speak, I felt a little disapproval. I was deeply afraid that he would underestimate the enemy and lead to failure. I also specially reminded him: "at last, we should draw a battalion with strong combat effectiveness from the first regiment and the fourth regiment as the second echelon. Once the third regiment fails in the attack, we can immediately put them into the battlefield."

"Yes! I am determined to obey your orders. " Bantailiev agreed very readily to my reminder. Then he asked carefully, "can I leave now?"

I nodded, then extended my hand to him, and said, "good bye, Colonel bandeleev. I wish you good luck."

Before Bantai leiev left, he told me that the troops would attack around 1 pm, but it was not until 2 pm that I received a phone call from Bantai leiev, who briefly reported to me: "Comrade commander, the troops have entered the starting position and can fight at any time."

After listening to the report from leiev, I immediately said in a loud voice to the microphone, "go ahead, comrade Colonel, immediately order the troops to attack the railway station."

When I put down the phone, I turned to Vitkov and said, "Comrade chief of staff, the battle of attacking the railway station is about to start. Let's go ahead and have a look." After that, without waiting for him to make a statement, I apologized to Vasiliev, the political commissar who just came back, "Comrade political commissar, when we are not here, you will be responsible for the affairs in the army for the time being."

After arranging for Vasiliev to stay, I took wittkov, Yushchenko and a platoon of the guard company to watch the battle near the railway station that was about to fight. For the convenience of contacting with the troops, I specially brought a telegraph operator and a radio station.

After leaving the army headquarters, we passed through the defense area of Colonel wachuk's troops, passing by the soldiers who were staying in the trenches or firepower points. These trenches and firepower points were owned by the German army a few days ago, and now all the bodies of the enemy have been removed.

Is walking forward, suddenly in front of a dense sound of gunfire. Hearing such news, I knew that the attack of the third regiment had begun. While speeding up, I urged wittkov: "chief of staff, hurry up. There is already a fight ahead."

We walked two or three hundred meters further and entered a building with only two floors left. When I came to the second floor, I found that I had a good view. I could clearly see the railway station in the distance and the troops attacking.

As soon as I tried to raise my telescope, I heard wittkov next to me ask, "Comrade commander, is that your cooperation with Tanzania?"

I quickly followed the direction of his fingers and saw that in the open field in front of the railway station, the four tanks of the 150th division lined up, covering the rear of the car and charging forward. Then I nodded and replied to wittkov: "yes, comrade chief of staff, this is the original independent division's cooperative operation between infantry and Tanzania, with tanks driving in front to destroy the German firepower; The infantry who follow are responsible for clearing the anti tank fighters who rush out from the roadside. "

The German soldiers who stood at the station saw that our army had launched an attack and immediately began to stop and shoot. Under the intensive fire of the enemy, among the soldiers who followed the tanks around, people were constantly shot and fell to the ground. Seeing that the enemy's firepower was fierce, the moving tank stopped, aimed at the enemy's firepower point or machine gun position, fired a gun, and drove forward slowly.

When I saw that our tank was getting closer and closer to the sculpture of "six young pioneers dancing around the crocodile" in the middle of the square in front of the railway station, I thought to myself that the tank driver would not be a fool. There was such a wide road next to him that he had to run straight into the sculpture. You know, in the fighting in the past few months, thousands of shells and bombs fell on the sculpture and exploded, but the sculpture was like wearing a layer of invulnerable protective clothing and was always safe. If my subordinates crash this sculpture with tanks, maybe I will be criticized by my superiors after the campaign.

Fortunately, my worry was superfluous. The tank at the front suddenly made a big turn, bypassed the sculpture and continued to rush forward. Just as I was breathing a sigh of relief, a machine gun suddenly started to fire behind the broken wall of the sculpture reservoir, knocking down half of the soldiers following the tank. A German soldier jumped out from behind the broken wall and rushed to the moving tank. He stuck something he was holding on to the tank's body, pulled the lead with his hand, turned around and ran back. When he got to the broken wall, he jumped and flew in. Then there was a loud noise, and the turret of the tank flew aside in the light of fire and smoke.

"Damn it Vitkov yelled: "the Germans use magnetic mines. It's better to deal with tanks than our anti tank mines."

Following the other tanks, the commanders and fighters stopped when they saw that the open tank had been destroyed. The machine gun behind the broken wall turned its muzzle again and swept towards the stunned commanders and fighters. In an instant, it knocked down a dozen more. Seeing his comrades in arms falling down one after another, the soldiers were in a panic. When they saw someone retreating, they immediately fell back, leaving only a few tanks to rush forward alone.

The German army in the railway station saw that our tanks and infantry were completely out of touch, so they pushed two anti tank guns to the front of the position without any fear. After a round of salvo fire, one of our tanks was reimbursed. Then, the German anti tank guns carried out the second and third rounds of salvo fire, killing the remaining two tanks of our army one by one. Without the cover of infantry, the tankers who escaped from the tanks did not escape far and died under the random guns of the German army.

See this scene, I immediately blood to the head. I put down my telescope, walked quickly to the operator, and told him in a loud voice: "connect me to division headquarters of division 150 immediately."

As soon as I got on the phone, I yelled at the transmitter angrily, "Hello, Captain Bantai, what's going on? It's not the first time that you've used the tactics of coordinated operation between infantry and Tanzania in the city. Why have you been beaten so badly by the Germans? One of the four tanks is left, and all of them have been killed by the German army. "

Obviously, the news of the defeat of the attack has not been reported back to the division headquarters, so Bantai leiev was confused about my blame. After I finished, he asked carefully, "Comrade commander, what's the matter? I'm confused. "

I took a deep breath, and when my mood was a little bit more stable, I told him what had just happened, and specially pointed out: "the cooperative combat ability between the troops of the third regiment and the tanks is not good at all. They fight separately in the operation, and they can't think of effective cooperation with the armored forces, Let the armored troops without infantry cover be exposed to the enemy's anti tank guns. Tell me, when did our troops become so friendly? Can more recruits make an independent division with a glorious history so unbearable? I order you to withdraw the third regiment immediately, transfer the second echelon composed of the first regiment and the fourth regiment, and take down the railway station in the shortest time. "

When I finished the call with Bantai leiev, vetkov asked me carefully: "Comrade commander, will it cause chaos if we change new troops to take part in the attack at this time?"

"There is no way. We have no choice." With a gloomy face, I said, "anyway, the combat experience of the first and fourth regiments is much better than that of the third regiment. I feel at ease when they take up the main attack task..." speaking of this, I turned to the outside, looked at the third regiment which is reorganizing, and then decisively said, "our troops are limited. We can't be here at the railway station, Fight a war of attrition with the Germans, otherwise, even if we win the station, we will win miserably. "

Before the second echelon of four regiments was in place, trakov's call came after him. "Hello, comrade o'shanina," he asked hastily in the receiver, "are your troops attacking the railway station?"“ Yes, comrade commander. " To trekov's question, I didn't hide anything. Instead, I honestly replied, "the third regiment of the 150th division just launched a charge and was defeated by the German army." As soon as I finished, I heard a "um" from trekov. I knew that he was expressing his dissatisfaction and quickly added, "but I've transferred the second echelon up and ready to charge again. These commanders and fighters have rich combat experience, and I believe they will soon be able to take the railway station from the enemy. "“ In that case. " Seeing that I said so clearly, trikov couldn't say anything more, so he had to say vaguely, "well, I'll wait for your news in the headquarters." I know in my heart that if we simply rely on tanks to cover the infantry charge, the fighting time will be very long. Only by transferring the artillery can we speed up the fighting process. So when I finished talking to trakov, I told the operator, "take over Colonel lyev for me." When I heard Bantai leiev's voice coming out of the receiver, I immediately told him: "Comrade Colonel, immediately transfer major Morozov's artillery battalion and let them bombard the German positions with heavy howitzers and rockets. Even if we can't blow them all up, at least we should drive them out of the position outside the railway station. " When I went back to the window again, wittkov asked anxiously, "Comrade commander, I heard that you are going to use heavy howitzers to bombard German positions. Are you not afraid to hurt your own people at such a short distance?"“ Chief of staff, don't worry. " Seeing witkov's worried face, I quickly comforted him and said, "the artillery battalion of the Division has used heavy artillery many times in street battles. It won't go wrong. You can rest assured."