Chapter 1155

Povsky shook katukov's hand and released it. He asked uneasily, "Comrade General, what's the situation outside at present?"

Katukov turned aside, gave way to the lookout hole, shrugged his shoulders and said solemnly, "not very well, comrade colonel. The German army bombarded our defensive positions continuously with long-range artillery fire. Now it is not only the tank troops that attack, but also a large number of infantry. If we attack like this two or three more times, I don't think we can hold our position outside the city. "

Povsky walked quickly to the observation hole, leaned down close to the trench and looked out with a periscope. After a while, he said to the door, "operator, come here!"

With his shouts, the operator who came with us from the group army headquarters walked into the observation post with a telephone on his back. Povsky told him: "contact the rocket battalion immediately." The operator agreed, sat down in a corner, took the transmitter and opened it.

While povsky was talking to the commander of the rocket battalion below, I also came to the lookout hole, and then the periscope looked out. Our position was shrouded in smoke, and in the open field in the distance, the German tanks were in a neat attack formation, charging forward with swagger, and the infantry like ants were closely following the tanks.

I turned the camera back to see what happened to the anti tank trench named after me in front of the position. As a result, after seeing clearly, I could not help but take a breath. Maybe it was covered by artillery fire more than once, and the anti tank trench had almost been filled with floating soil. It's impossible to block the German tanks like before.

Seeing this, I straightened up and turned to ask povsky, who was shouting, "Comrade Colonel, have you got in touch with the rocket battalion?"

"Got in touch, comrade commander." Povsky straightened up and reported.

"Order the artillery to fire immediately!" I said it briefly.

"Yes, order the artillery to fire immediately!" After repeating what I said, povsky yelled at the transmitter, "commander orders, rocket Battalion Fire!"

As the firing order was issued, the rocket shells roared down on the charging German tanks and infantry. The falling shells blasted the open plain like a violent volcano, and the infantry, who were swept into the explosion area, immediately turned into a group of shapeless meat. The German tanks, which were once invincible steel giants, were torn apart like toys in the explosion. The collapsed steel plates mixed with fragments of human body and parts of weapons swept out like bullets, knocking down more soldiers in the distance mercilessly.

Seeing the tragic situation of the German offensive troops, katukov couldn't help cheering. I patted him on the shoulder and asked in a loud voice, "Hey, comrade general, where's the 20th brigade of my close guard tank?"

Katukov waved his head and said in a loud voice, "no, Rita, no more." In order to let me know what happened, he explained to me in a loud voice, "today, after the first German attack was repulsed, the tank brigade launched a counterattack, and the tanks following the German army chased down. Unexpectedly, it was a trap. When they left our position for about two kilometers, they were bombarded by German long-range heavy artillery. Before they had time to retreat, the enemy's bombers came out again and bombed our tanks indiscriminately. Even the tanks that were fleeing also rushed back. In this way, after half an hour of fighting, only five of the 80 tanks in the tank brigade were pulled down by luck, but each one was injured. "

After listening to katukov's story, I was so angry that I said: "I remember the hatred of the tank brigade. Today, I must teach the Germans a lesson they will never forget, and make them regret not coming to our country. "

Before the shelling stopped, katukov's operator suddenly reported to him, "Comrade commander, I have received a strange call. It seems that I am looking for general oshanina."

"For me?" I was surprised to hear the operator say that. My heart said who would come to me at this time. I quickly took the earphone from the operator. After putting it on, I asked aloud to the transmitter, "I'm o'shanina. Where are you?"

"Comrade commander, it's me. I'm Colonel berey There's beeray in the headphones.

"Comrade Colonel, where are you?" I thought that I ordered berei to send the 101st tank brigade to cover the 90th guard division and attack the enemy along the road, while he went directly back to the headquarters of the group army to report“ Is it on the way back to the headquarters of the group army? "

"No, comrade commander, I didn't go back to the headquarters of the group army." "My 101st brigade and I are going down the road to oboyan," Colonel berey replied quickly

"Where is the 90th division of Jinwei?" When I heard that the tank brigade was moving towards oboyan, I immediately asked about the infantry, "where is colonel Chernoff?"

"Comrade commander, this is Chernoff." A slightly strange voice came from the earphone immediately, "my troops are taking a truck, under the cover of the tank brigade, advancing towards oboyan. In an hour at most, our troops will arrive at oboyan. "

"How was the road?" Hearing that they were marching by car, I couldn't help thinking of the German air force and asked in a hurry, "don't you find any enemy planes in the sky?"

"No, no, please rest assured." Chernoff said with a smile: "now we have our fighters on patrol above our heads. Although there are only two of them, they can drive away the German bombers."

"That's good, that's good." When I heard him say that, I felt a little more secure. But to be on the safe side, I specially told him: "Colonel, remember to send reconnaissance troops, because you may soon enter the starting point of the German armored forces. If you are unprepared, you will lose a lot."

"Don't worry, comrade commander." Chernoff confidently said to me, "Colonel berey and I have sent scouts on motorcycles. If anything happens, they will report it to us in time."

I had just returned the earphone and the transmitter to katukov's operator. Suddenly, a soldier came in. After saluting katukov, he reported, "Comrade commander, there's a general coming out. He wants to see you immediately."

"A general?" Katukov was stunned for a moment by the soldier's words, then asked: "what kind of general?"

"A general in a tank uniform," the soldier continued, shrugging his shoulders. "To be exact, a tank general. He said he wanted to see the top commander here, so I came to report."

"What are you still doing?" Katukov saw the soldier after the report, still standing in place, hastened him to say: "do not go to the general to come here."

After a while, the soldier led a general into the observation post. I fixed my eyes on it. It turned out that it was lieutenant general Kravchenko, commander of the Fifth Army of the close guard tank. I said to him: "Hello, comrade general, I didn't expect to see you here."

Kravchenko just raised his hand and saluted katukov. When he heard my voice, he turned and looked this way. When he saw that it was me who was greeting him, he could not help smiling. He turned his head again and reported to katukov, "Comrade General, lieutenant general Kravchenko, commander of the Fifth Army of the close guard tank, reports to you that we have been ordered to reinforce you. I'm at your command, please give me directions

Katukov came forward, took his hand, shook hands with him, looked at me and said, "I know that you must have come to support us on the order of oshanina? That's great. We have enough tanks. The German armored forces that attack us will be beaten to pieces by us. "

The three of us stood in front of the simple wooden table, staring at the big map on the table. Katukov pointed to a position south of oboyan and said to both of us, "according to our reconnaissance, the German artillery position and the starting point of attack are here. If our artillery had not lost all of them yesterday, we could have used cannons to suppress them, and then used tank troops to launch a comprehensive counterattack. "

Kravchenko looked at the position, nodded and said with approval: "yes, if we don't kill the artillery positions here, our army will pay heavy casualties even if it is equipped with the latest tanks to completely annihilate the German armored forces."

After Kravchenko finished, katukov looked at me and asked me with a smile, "Rita, do you have any good way to deal with the German artillery?" With that, he nuzui toward the position where povsky stood and said, "it's a pity that your artillery position is too far away from here and the range is not enough. Otherwise, with the artillery power of your group army, the enemy's artillery position can be completely destroyed."

"Although our artillery can't kill the enemy's artillery positions, it doesn't mean there is no other way." As for katukov's scruples, I said with ease: "commander vatukin promised to send 20 planes to support our operation, eight of which are bombers. I think it's no problem to use them to kill the enemy's artillery positions."

"What, the front command also provided us with air force support?" Hearing this unexpected news, katukov's mouth almost grinned to his ears. "No matter how powerful the enemy's artillery is, can we still shoot our plane down from the sky? I don't know when they can go out? As long as we kill the enemy's artillery, our tank forces can launch a comprehensive counterattack. "

I raised my hand, looked at my watch, and replied, "according to the agreement with general vatukin in advance, the air force bombers will arrive in an hour and bomb the German troops assembled along the road." I turned to Kravchenko and asked, "Comrade Kravchenko, how many tanks do you have in your tank army?"

"The two remaining tank brigades add up to 90 more tanks." Kravchenko replied: "there are 70 of the latest tanks, and the rest are T-34. Compared with the enemy's tanks, our tanks are more powerful."

"General oshanina." Just as I was about to say a few more words, katukov's operator called to me: "the commander just now has something urgent to ask for you."

I dashed over, took the transmitter and asked aloud, "Hello, comrade Colonel, what's the matter?"

"Report to Comrade commander." "According to the Scout's report, about five kilometers in front of us, we found a German artillery position with about a regiment, almost all heavy artillery. Let me ask you, what shall we do, go around or kill it? " I really want to doze off. Someone will give me a pillow right away. We are discussing how to take out the German artillery position, and the Scout of Colonel berey found out where the artillery position was. I immediately said without hesitation, "is that true, Colonel? Gather your tank troops immediately and continue to assault the enemy's artillery positions. There seems to be no infantry in this artillery position, so you can crush all their guns even if you drive them with tank tracks, understand? "“ I see, comrade commander. " "I immediately organized the tank troops to carry out the assault and strive to eliminate the German artillery positions in the shortest time," Colonel berey replied loudly When I returned to the table, I excitedly said to katukov: "two general comrades, the troops transferred from Yakovlev, found the German artillery position on the road. I have ordered them to launch an attack and try to destroy the enemy's artillery position in the shortest time."“ Comrade commander, this is very good. " Kravchenko said with a smile: "as long as the enemy artillery is killed, then the battlefield is the world of our tanks. You just wait to see how our tanks, like shooting targets, kill the enemy's tanks one by one. "“ Go and gather the troops, "I said to Kravchenko with a smile." I'm waiting to see your tank army's performance. Maybe your battle today will go down in history. " Ten minutes later, there was a deafening roar of tank motors outside the observation post. I knew it was the beginning of the advance of the guard tank army. The German artillery fire on the distant highlands also stopped suddenly. It seems that their artillery position was killed by Colonel berey. After regrouping, the German armored forces, which had lost the cover of artillery fire, rushed to our position again. When they saw that the smoke of gunpowder had dispersed from the position, and countless new tanks of our army were speeding towards them, it was too late to turn around and run away. The tank battle under Kravchenko's personal command ended in less than half an hour. In front of the position were all kinds of tanks destroyed by the German army, while only a dozen of our tanks were slightly injured, which did not affect the next battle.