Chapter 863

Morozov's artillery battalion put the captured 41 type 150mm rockets on an open field with the muzzle pointing to the direction of the railway station. At the same time, the soldiers of the battalion are pulling the remaining heavy howitzers into the newly established artillery positions.

Witkov looked at the gun in the distance and asked me curiously, "Comrade commander, what kind of gun is that gun with multiple barrels? I've never seen it before?"

"That's the 41 type 150 mm rocket captured from the German army," I knew what he was asking, so I introduced it to him without looking back. "This is the standard rocket with German artillery. Six launch tubes are arranged in hexagonal shape, assembled together, mounted on a tractor, and it's very convenient to transfer. The ignition mode is wire ignition mode, and the ignition cable is generally 10 meters, so as to ensure that the post spray flame does not harm the soldiers. The firing interval is two seconds, and it takes 90 seconds to load six rockets. "

"Compared with our rockets, how powerful is it?" Vetkov kept asking like a curious baby.

I shrugged my shoulders and said in an uncertain tone, "it's not as good as our rockets, but it's more than enough to suppress the German troops in the railway station."

All the guns are in position. I saw several soldiers ignite the ignition cord behind the rocket, then ran to a safe place to hide. After a while, the Rockets flew out of the shells one by one and headed for the railway station.

The shell went right into the strong station building and caused a earth shaking explosion. I can see from the telescope that the building has become a sea of fire. Many soldiers have been blown to pieces by the shells. Fortunately, the surviving soldiers are running around in the fire. Some soldiers covered with fire jump down from the gap of the collapsed wall and roll on the ground in an attempt to extinguish the flame that ignited their clothes.

As soon as the rocket fire was over, the howitzer began to fire. After the powerful shell landed and exploded, the German simple defense positions in front of the railway station buildings were blown to pieces, and the rubble piles that could hide people were destroyed. Under the impact of the shell explosion, the bricks and stones were excited to fly everywhere, and then scattered from the air, which made the German soldiers hiding behind cry and howl. The newly exposed anti tank guns were also hit beyond recognition.

Although the shelling of the artillery battalion continued, the attack of the second echelon was in full swing. At the front, five tanks of pelsky's tank battalion, followed by about a dozen armored vehicles, drove rapidly towards the gate of the railway station. After the armored vehicles drove out more than 100 meters, groups of infantry formed a scattered formation and strode forward.

Witkov saw such a combination of attacks and asked in surprise: "Comrade commander, the 150 division's playing style is really special. I've never seen other troops adopt such an attack style."

I put down my telescope and said to him with a smile: "Comrade chief of staff, this is a set of fighting methods I have found out, covering with artillery and attacking with armor. In this way, we can form a strong assault force and break through the German fortifications in the shortest time."

"Artillery coverage and armored assault?" After repeating what I said, wittkov nodded thoughtfully: "this tactic is quite novel. If possible, it should be promoted in the whole army."

As far as we were concerned, the tanks of the tank battalion had bypassed the fountain in the square and approached the German simple defensive position. In order to prevent accidental injury, the artillery battalion of Morozov stopped shooting. The armored vehicles that had been following accelerated past the tanks, apparently trying to stop in front of the station buildings so that the commanders and fighters on the vehicles could get off and attack.

"Boom", did not wait for the armored car to stop, an anti tank shell that did not know from what hit one of the armored cars. In the violent explosion, several soldiers with fire all over them struggled to escape from the car. After a few steps, they fell to the ground one after another.

Before the armored car in the back stopped, the commanders and fighters jumped from the open door and rushed to the railway station with weapons. Several German soldiers rushed out of the building with guns. Before they could open fire, they were splashed with their weapons. As soon as we killed the German soldiers at the gate, our soldiers rushed in without looking back.

Our tanks and armored vehicles lined up in front of the station building, using tank guns and vehicle mounted machine guns to suppress the fire points revived because of the stop of shelling. The following infantry arrived one after another at this time. Seeing that the infantry in front of them had successfully rushed into the station building, their morale was immediately boosted, and they rushed into the building in droves, shouting to get over the tanks and armored vehicles that had stopped in the square and opened fire.

The battle in the station lasted about half an hour. Witkov, who was close to me, suddenly pointed to the southeast of the station and yelled, "Comrade commander, look, the German garrison in the station has been defeated by us."

When I heard the word, I frowned slightly and turned the lens of the telescope in the direction of Vitkov. I saw hundreds of enemies escaping from the station, retreating in an orderly southeast direction. Although they were in the process of retreat, the troops did not appear confused at all. Hundreds of soldiers were divided into several teams to retreat. The front team first occupied a favorable position and established a defense to cover the retreat of the troops behind; After passing the position of the front team, the rear team also found a place to establish defense and cover the front team to withdraw.

Seeing that the German army was orderly covering the retreat alternately, I couldn't help saying to wittkov with emotion: "Comrade chief of staff, the German commander in charge of defending the station, it seems that it's not easy."

When he heard me say this, wittkov did not speak, but looked at me blankly. He obviously did not understand why I said this inexplicably.

Seeing this expression on his face, I had to explain to him: "most commanders think that retreat is easier than attack, but it is not the case. We should know that the retreaters will always be in a very unfavorable situation, because retreating will make the soldiers depressed. If we do not grasp it well, orderly retreat will turn into rout. " Speaking of this, I can't help but think of the scene when I went to the western front with Zhukov. For the first time, I saw konev being reprimanded by Marshal voroshlov. When konev defended himself, he said: "retreat is the most complex form of fighting, it needs higher fighting quality." Now I agree with him a little. After a brief pause, I went on to say, "from a military point of view, retreat is the most complex maneuver. The commander must be good at mastering the situation and withdraw the troops from the nose of the enemy with the least loss, so as to preserve and then accumulate strength for new assault. And all this should be carried out under the condition that the initiative is in the hands of the enemy, and it is difficult to determine in which direction the enemy is going to carry out the next assault and where it is going to set traps for you. "

As for what I said, wittkov didn't express any opinions, just kept nodding. Perhaps today's relationship with me made him understand that the independent division's playing style is quite different from that of other units. If he wants to get familiar with this unit, he still has a long running in period.

Seeing a red flag flying on the building of the station, I knew that we had captured the station. At the same time, I thought of the flag that had never been used by the independent division. Now that the number has changed, should the flag be changed?

While I was thinking about it, the telegraph operator called to me: "report to the commander, commander of the 150th division, Captain leiev wants to speak to you!"

I took the earphone, put it on, and said to the transmitter in a loud voice, "Hello, Captain leiev? I'm o'shanina. I've seen the whole process of your seizing the railway station. However, the soldiers of the first and fourth regiments fought bravely and tenaciously. The tank battalion of pelsjian and the artillery battalion of Morozov performed well. If they had not successfully used the coordinated tactics of infantry and artillery, they would not have been able to capture the railway station occupied by the German army in such a short time. "

"Comrade commander," Bantai leiev asked respectfully, "do you have any further instructions?"

Hearing Bantai leiev's question, I organized some words in my mind, and then told him: "Comrade Colonel, hurry up to repair the fortifications of the railway station, and turn it into an invincible fortress in the shortest time. The German army must never take the railway station away from us again."

"I understand."

"In addition, I am very disappointed by the performance of the third regiment today, so we should dispatch commanders with rich combat experience from the first regiment and the fourth regiment to the third regiment as soon as possible to enrich their command force." At this point, I couldn't help raising my voice: "if I find that the combat effectiveness of the third regiment is so unsatisfactory in the next battle, then I will withdraw the regiment."

"Yes Bantai leiev was obviously frightened by what I said, and quickly replied, "please rest assured, comrade commander. I will dispatch experienced commanders from the 1st and 4th regiments as soon as possible to enrich the 3rd regiment."

After the call with Bantai leiev, I took the initiative to call trakov and report the good news that our army successfully recaptured the station. After hearing trakov's voice, I immediately said aloud, "report to commander comrade, after fierce fighting, the 150th division succeeded in seizing the railway station from the enemy."

"Great, that's great." Trikov was very excited when he heard that the railway station had been recovered. He said repeatedly, "Comrade oshanina, you have done a wonderful job. Now that we have recaptured the railway station, we must guard it well and never let the Germans recapture it again. "

"Please rest assured, comrade commander. I promise you that as long as there is one soldier alive in the 150th division, the German will never take away the railway station." Speaking of this, I suddenly thought of an important thing, and quickly reported to him: "Comrade commander, I also found a strange phenomenon."

"What strange phenomenon?" Trekov asked curiously.

"The enemy seems to be short of ammunition." I said cautiously: "according to the interrogation of the prisoners, they all received an order that they could only shoot if they were under attack."

"Well, the situation you mentioned has also been reported by other troops." Trakov said in a sarcastic tone: "Paulus's troops are surrounded by us. If we want to get supplies, we have to rely on airdrop. Now many of their airdrop sites are in our hands. It's perfectly normal that they can't get enough supplies, and there is a shortage of ammunition, medicine and even food. "

"Comrade commander, what shall we do next?" Seeing that trakov knew the current situation of the German army very well, I was deeply afraid that he would have any new ideas, so I asked: "do you want to continue to attack the streets occupied by the German army, or consolidate the existing positions and trap the German army in the city?"

After a moment's silence, trakov replied, "although the German troops are short of ammunition and materials, they still have a huge advantage in strength and equipment compared with us. So my opinion is to consolidate the existing positions, supplemented by small-scale attacks, and nibble at the areas occupied by the German troops bit by bit." At this point, he suddenly thought of another important thing and reminded me, "by the way, I almost forgot. Half an hour ago, your military and political commissar, comrade Vasiliev, called me and said that Colonel vaschuk's 284th division was launching an attack on the enemy's defensive positions. If you have time, you can go to the front and have a look. " When I heard that Colonel wachuk led the army to launch an attack without my permission, I immediately got flustered and quickly agreed to trakov: "OK, comrade commander, I'll go to the front to see the progress of the attack." At the end of the call, I told wittkov, "chief of staff, you stay here and wait for the 150th regiment to clean up today's results. I want to rush to the 284th division immediately." At this point, I couldn't help adding angrily, "this Colonel wachuk, who didn't even fight me, led his troops to attack the front German position without authorization." When I got to wachuk's command post, his troops launched a second attack. More than 100 officers and men were shouting "Wula" and rushed to a lonely building more than 200 meters away with weapons. Behind them, several mortars providing artillery support fired several times and then stopped. Seeing the fallen bodies of our soldiers all over the snow in front of the building, I couldn't help asking wachuk anxiously, "Comrade Colonel, why don't the mortars fire? Without the support of artillery, these attacking soldiers would have been knocked down by the German army as targets in the snow. " Wachuk shrugged his shoulders, spread his hands out, and said helplessly, "Comrade commander, do you think I don't cherish the lives of soldiers? But I can't help it. The artillery of our division was almost exhausted some time ago. There were only a few mortars left, and all the shells were used up. That's all I can do for the infantry. "