Two hours later, our troops surrounded the village occupied by the German army, and the German army in the village obviously found out our move, so they began to fight back crazily. Their mortar shells, like they didn't want money, smashed into the area where our army was assembled.
While akhromeyev and I stayed in a temporary shed in the forest without walls on all sides. Akhromeyev squatted on the ground, pointed to the map spread on a section of logs, and explained the task to several commanders around him: "the East and west sides of the village are forests, and vehicles are not allowed to pass; The north and south sides of the road are connected with the outside world. From the traces of tank tracks on the ground, we speculate that the enemy should have touched it from the south. In the next battle, if the enemy can't resist and tries to escape, he will definitely choose the two roads of North and south, so we need to strengthen our defense forces in these two directions. "
"But, comrade deputy chief of staff." A commander carrying the rank of major asked, "are we deploying too few troops in the forests on both sides of the East and the west? I'm afraid that if the German forces abandon their vehicles and break through the forest, our commanders and fighters will not be able to stop them. "
Ahlomeyev looked up at each other and said, "major, what you said is quite possible. But the Germans are not stupid. They should know that the village is surrounded by a vast forest. If there is no guide, they will be trapped in the forest. "
As for akhromeyev's statement, I nodded silently sitting on the stump beside me. People who have not seen the Russian forest can not experience that kind of fear. It's quiet to look at the forest outside. When you go in, you will find that it's gloomy and terrifying. As early as in the Moscow defense war, there have been many German units trapped in the forest and frozen to death. There was a story on the Internet, which said that the German detachment saw the warning sign of no tree cutting in the forest, so they would rather freeze to death than cut down the trees in the forest to get warm. As a result, they were frozen to death. In fact, all this is nonsense. The trunk of the birch tree is too hard. It needs an axe and a carpenter's saw to cut it down. The German army trapped in the forest probably has a few bayonets, so it's normal that they can't cut down the tree.
After akhromeyev finished his assignment, he asked the major, "your battalion will attack the village under the cover of artillery fire. Is there anything else you want to say?"
The major stood up in a hurry, straightened up and replied, "report, comrade deputy chief of staff, no more. Our battalion promised to take the village in front in half an hour. "
Seeing his blind and confident expression, I sneered, stood up from the stump and said to him across the crowd, "major, don't underestimate the enemy. Listen to the dense sound of mortar explosion from outside. If you don't suppress the enemy's fire first, you will suffer heavy casualties under the enemy's fire when you attack. "
Hearing what I said, the major bowed his head and thought about it, then replied, "Comrade commander, before the attack, we will carry out ten minutes of artillery preparation. After the enemy's firepower is suppressed, we are launching the attack."
Just after I came here, I went to this battalion to inspect it. I saw that there was a cannon company in the battalion, equipped with six 76.2mm cannon. Although it was not easy to solve the enemy's tanks, it was not a big problem to suppress the enemy's artillery. After nodding, I said with approval, "well, order the artillery to hit the right point, try to destroy all the enemy's firepower points, and reduce the casualties of the troops." With that, I turned to ask akhromeyev, "when will the tank arrive?"
Akhromeyev stood up, raised his hand, looked at his watch, and replied, "we should arrive before our artillery is ready. However, as the new tanks have no shells, the tank brigade only sent a few t-34s. "
"T-34 is OK. Anyway, the German army doesn't have many tanks. With our advantage in quantity, even if we collide, we can smash all their tanks to pieces. " I then said to the commanders who had just stood up, "now that the task is clear, everyone should go back to their respective units and make preparations for all battles as soon as possible."
The commanders agreed neatly, raised their hands to salute me, and then scattered.
As the commanders left, I waved my head to akhromeyev and said, "come on, let's go to the observation post and see how our commanders and fighters recaptured the village from the enemy."
In the village occupied by the German army, the buildings inside were all wooden houses. The shells of our army smashed in, which not only made the German mortar dumb, but also made the scattered houses collapse one after another, and then burst into flames. Seeing such a scene, ahlomeyev turned to me and said, "Comrade commander, such shelling should be able to completely destroy the enemy's resistance?"
Holding up my telescope, I said without looking back: "Comrade major, don't be too optimistic. We must not be careless until we have completely eliminated the enemy. Before the end of the battle, any accident can happen. "
The tank company sent by the tank brigade arrived just when the artillery stopped and the artillery were ready to charge, so they made a way ahead to cover the infantry and attack the village covered with smoke.
At the beginning, everything seemed to be going well. When the tank arrived two or three hundred meters away from the village, there was still no movement in it. It seemed that the enemy had been completely destroyed by the artillery fire just now. Seeing that there was no movement in the village, the infantry following the tank quickened their pace and prepared to enter the village to search for the enemy.
At this time, suddenly several mortar shells whistling out of the village, landed in the slightly crowded infantry line, and immediately bombed many of the commanders and fighters. Then the machine gun fire that was originally thought to be destroyed also opened fire, knocking down a large area of the commanders and fighters in the shooting area.
Seeing the enemy firing, our tanks stopped one after another, turned the muzzle and opened fire on the exposed machine gun fire point. One of the tanks had just destroyed one of the German machine gun fire points, and the body of the tank was covered with smoke. In a flash, I was stunned by this scene. I watched several tank soldiers all over fire come out of the burning tank, sometimes fall down, sometimes stand up, and stumble towards us.
Our tanks continued to fire at the village, covering the infantry for battle formation. Although two more firepower points were destroyed one after another, we had two more tanks, which were hit by armor piercing projectiles fired by tanks hidden in the village.
Seeing this, akhromeyev could not help gritting his teeth and said: "this damned German tank has been using the smoke from the burning houses in the village as a cover, constantly changing its position, so that our tanks can not find its trace." Before he finished his words, another tank of our army was shot, which soon caused the explosion of ammunition in the car. The flying shrapnel swept down our soldiers who were hiding nearby and shooting.
Seeing that our army's tanks were shot and set on fire one after another, and the fire points outside the village were resurrected one after another, our commanders and fighters seemed to be in a panic. Soon everyone gave a shout, and then fell back. The tank soldiers watched as the infantry around them retreated, and retreated as they fired.
The retreat of our army boosted the morale of the German army, and their artillery and machine gun fire became fierce again. Many of our officers and men were either knocked down by flying shrapnel or hit by machine gun bullets when they retreated, and fell down a lot immediately.
When a retreating tank was only 200 meters away from our observation post, the body of the tank suddenly shook and stopped in the same place. After a while, I saw three tank soldiers coming out of the smoking tank. Not long after they ran towards us, two of them were hit by German machine gun bullets and fell into a pool of blood. The only survivor, however, was not much better. His leg seemed to be injured, but he still limped and tried to run towards us.
When several soldiers rushed out at risk and carried him to the trench where the observation post was located, I heard a cry. I couldn't help putting down my telescope and walked out of the observation post. The fleeing tank man, with his face covered with blood, was leaning against the wall of the trench. He pointed to the smoking tank not far away and cried out: "please, comrades! Please, comrades, help me. My pilot is still trapped in the tank. If we don't save him, he will die soon. Please... "
Although the soldiers around heard the heartbreaking cry of the tankers, no one paid any attention to him. Instead, they scattered one after another, as if they didn't hear his cry at all. I held up a soldier who passed by me and asked him loudly, "Hey, why don't you help an injured comrade in arms?"
After seeing my rank clearly, the soldier was startled and quickly straightened up and replied, "Comrade General, that tank is in the range of German artillery and machine gun fire. If we want to save people, we have to enter the tank, but if we want to rush through the enemy's bullets, we have to sacrifice several people. Maybe in the end, the tank driver didn't get out, but took in more people's lives. "
After listening to the soldier, I felt that what he said was very reasonable. Sending someone to rescue at this time is tantamount to letting the rescuers die. So I released my hand and let the soldier go.
I sighed, took a final look at the wailing tank man, and walked back to the observation post. Akhromeyev saw me enter the door and asked curiously, "Comrade commander, what is the soldier crying outside? The guns were too loud to hear what he was shouting, but it seemed very sad
After I simply told akhromeyev about the incident, I finally said with emotion: "Alas, if we don't save it, we can only watch the tank man die in the tank; But if we have to go to the rescue, the rescuers will suffer heavy casualties in the hail of bullets. It's really a dilemma. "
After hearing this, akhromeyev said carelessly, "if you want to rescue the injured tankers, you have to drag the tanks to a safe place. Unfortunately, if the tractor used in the maintenance station wants to return the heavy T-34, it won't be able to do so in a short time. Maybe the driver of the tractor will sacrifice himself... "He didn't say anything. Suddenly, he let out a cry, and then he raised his telescope and looked out.
"What's the matter?" I mumbled and walked up to him, raised my telescope and looked out. I was stunned by what I saw. My simple armored tractor a few hours ago was driving towards the smoking T-34 under the enemy's fire and machine gun fire
The armored tractor drove into the blind corner formed by the tank. As soon as the car stopped, I saw Yoda jump out of the car, and the cat dragged a cable to the tank. After hanging up the cable, he tried to make it firm before running back to the tractor. There was a puff of black smoke from the back of the tractor, and then it roared towards our army. As the cable between the two cars was stretched, the smoking tank moved slowly.
Seeing the tractor pulling the injured tank back, the crying outside suddenly stopped, and the enemy guns were still ringing. Watching the body of the armored tractor burst out a string of sparks from time to time, I knew that it was hit by the German machine gun bullets, but such damage to the base of the Tiger tank can be completely ignored, so the tractor still pulled the tank slowly towards our army. When we saw that the tank was dragged into our army's position by the tractor, the cheers burst out in the trench. Then several soldiers left the trench, bravely climbed up the tank, lifted the top cover of the turret, and went in to rescue the tank driver who was stuck in the tank. I walked out of the trench again to see the rescue process up close. But I was surprised to see that the major just jumped out of the trench, stood on a high mound, raised his open right hand high, sideways, and yelled at the commanders and fighters in the trench: "brothers, are you not as brave as a common man driving a tractor? Come with me, get rid of all the Germans, move on After calling out the last word, he waved his hand forward, and then headed for the front. Looking at his battalion commander taking the lead in the charge, the officers and men in the trench all yelled "Wula" and climbed out of the trench one after another. Although a few soldiers just climbed out of the trench, they were hit by bullets and fell down, but the people behind still rushed forward without hesitation. Youerda's brave performance has deeply stimulated these officers and men. Their bravery is beyond everyone's imagination. They showed extraordinary performance, even in the running, but also shot. Although the charging team was hit by the German heavy rain of bullets and continuous shells, it was filled by the rear team, and countless figures fell in a few hundred meters. In the slogans, wave after wave swept past, the front fell, the back made up, endless, shaking figures everywhere, made the German officers and soldiers who hid in the simple fortifications look numb. With our tanks fighting again, the victory of the sky began to tilt to our army. As more and more soldiers swarmed into the village, the enemy's resistance became sparse. Even the tanks that just hid in the village and fired their guns were silent. I don't know whether there were no shells or whether they were destroyed at close range by our anti tank fighters. With a long sigh of relief, I said to akhromeyev, "well, comrade major, the victory is decided! I'm going back to the headquarters of the group army. I'll leave the rest of the work to you. "“ What should we do with the German prisoners? " Because every time I deal with German prisoners, it depends on my mood, so akhromeyev will ask this question. Without thinking, I said, "major, it's better to leave the matter of prisoners to the commanders and fighters who have just taken part in the battle. I believe they will handle it very well." I walked out of the observation post towards the smoking tank. The tank driver stuck in the tank has been rescued and is lying on a stretcher, while his captain has squatted beside him, holding his hand and whispering something. Youerda and several soldiers gathered around them and watched the touching scene. I came to yorda, reached for his hand, and said with a smile, "well done, comrade yorda, you have just been very brave. If it wasn't for you, this tank driver would have been very dangerous. You should be rewarded for your bravery and contribution. I think when you get back to the maintenance station, you will get your honor and a new medal. "