Chapter 1208

At five o'clock in the morning on August 10, the artillery bombardment of the grassland front army began, and the roar of artillery broke the silence of the morning. After an hour and a half of uninterrupted shelling, the German position to the north of Kharkov was shrouded in flames and smoke.

Just as my ears were buzzing with the bombardment of the platoon, the bombardment stopped. Seeing that the whole battlefield fell into silence again, chisjakov curiously asked managarov, "Comrade General, since the shelling has stopped, why didn't you see your troops launch an attack?"

Managarov laughed at him and said, "general chisjakov, don't worry. The play is still to come."

As soon as his words were finished, twenty close guard rocket barracks assigned to the grassland front army also opened fire. The continuous fire once again tore through the night sky of Russia and roared towards the target. It soon landed on the enemy's position, with dazzling fire and earth shaking roar.

Looking at the red sky in the distance, I thought that after this round of shelling, the attack should begin.

When the explosion stopped in the distance and the whole battlefield fell silent again, I saw managarov leave the lookout, go to a table in the middle of the observation post, and yell at a lieutenant commander standing there: "let's go!"

The Commander agreed, picked up the earphone on the table, stuck it to his ear, and said in the same loud voice, "Comrade commander, order, attack begins!"

With the order issued, the sky at the same time raised three red flares, which is the signal of attack.

When thousands of commanders and fighters yelled to leave the trench and launched an impact on the German position thousands of meters away, I suddenly heard the melody of "holy war". At first, I thought it was auditory hallucination, but after listening carefully, I found that it wasn't auditory hallucination, but the voice of the 53rd army group was broadcasting this song which made people excited after listening.

Looking at the offensive troops rushing forward like a tide, chisjakov excitedly said to me: "Comrade commander, you see, our troops are rushing up, rushing up! In a few minutes, the vanguard will be able to break into the German defensive position. "

Managarov, who had just returned to the lookout, said with a smile after hearing what chisgakov said: "general chisgakov, you see, the German front positions have been basically destroyed under our shelling. I don't believe how many Germans can survive under such intensive shelling."

I couldn't laugh or cry at the optimistic conversation between them. If the German army were so vulnerable, we would have driven them out of the Soviet Union. I remember clearly that every time the German army retreated to the rear before the Soviet artillery started, when the artillery finished and the infantry charged, they entered the position along the traffic trench and killed our charging team with intensive fire. Although the Soviet army suffered such losses many times, the commanders did not seem to have learned this lesson at all and still made the same mistakes again and again.

Chisgakov approached me and asked, "Comrade commander, do you think the friendly forces can break through the German defensive positions?"

When I heard his question, I just gave a faint smile, and then whispered, "Comrade deputy commander, this is not easy to say. Despite the heavy shelling, it is still unknown how much damage it caused to the German army. "

Although I have been very euphemistic, chisgakov is still a little vindicated for managarov. He repeated what he had just heard to me: "Comrade commander, I think you have just seen the effect of shelling. Almost all the German forward positions have been destroyed by our shelling. I don't believe in such positions, There are still enemies to survive. "

"The answer will soon be known if any of the enemies have survived." After I had said this, I raised my telescope and carefully looked at the German position which was almost destroyed by the artillery fire in the distance, thinking that the enemy would wait until our troops rushed to where they would fire.

When our commanders and fighters rushed to less than 100 meters away from the German position, the German position, which had been silent, opened fire. Dozens of machine gun bullets, if dozens of firecrackers in our army's line swept by. The momentum of the rush was suddenly blocked in the hail of bullets, and the commanders and fighters fell into a pool of blood.

"Hell," chisjakov said in a low voice, "I didn't expect that the German firepower was so fierce. In just one minute, we lost at least one battalion."

The officers and men who were forced to hide in the crater by the fire returned to normal after a short period of confusion. They either lie in the crater and shoot at the enemy's firepower point, or throw out a batch of hand grenades. When they use the explosion smoke to block the enemy's sight, they jump from one crater to another by leaping forward, and approach the enemy's position a little bit.

There was a flash of fire in the rear of the enemy's position, and then the shells landed one after another in the concealed area of our soldiers and exploded. Seeing this, managarov widened his eyes and said in an incredible voice, "it's impossible. It's impossible. Where did the enemy's artillery come from? If you know where they are now, they have just been hit by our intensive artillery. How can the Germans survive such intensive artillery? "

"Comrade General," although I don't want to attack managarov, in this case, I have to say something: "the German army concealed their artillery and troops in the rear when our army shelled. When the shelling is over, move the troops to the front along the traffic trench... "

"No, it's absolutely impossible. Don't the enemy worry that our troops will rush into their lines before they return to their positions? " Before I finished, I was interrupted by managarov, who said with a strong voice: "the Germans must have built strong fortifications in their defensive positions that our shells can't destroy, so when we attack, they can counterattack us in such a timely manner."

Seeing that managarov was so stubborn, I didn't argue with him. After all, today I came here with chisgakov to watch the war instead of directing the war. There was no need to take over his place to command it. So I raised my telescope and continued to watch the movement in front of me.

In the broad front of the battlefield, the commanders and fighters who were suppressed by the German artillery and machine gun fire in the crater threw rain like grenades at the enemy's position and exploded the open space in the middle. Taking advantage of the rising smoke, many soldiers, led by their commanders, bravely rushed towards the enemy's positions.

Unfortunately, in front of the dense firepower network composed of German machine guns, submachine guns and rifles, the bravery shown by the commanders and fighters did not make any progress. Instead, they were knocked down by the enemy's bullets in groups and lay in front of the position.

After more than ten minutes of fighting, we could see that the troops could not move forward in front of the enemy's dense firepower. After consulting managarov, the commander of the front gave the troops an order to withdraw.

Managarov's face turned blue when he saw the commanders and fighters crawling out of the crater with weapons and bending back to run back. It was thought that after the intensive shelling, the troops could break through one or two German lines as long as they came to a charge. Unfortunately, they didn't even get close to the enemy's first trench, so they paid thousands of people.

At this moment, chisjakov really believed my judgment. He leaned slightly towards me and asked in a low voice, "Comrade commander, if you were in charge of this offensive, what would you do?"

Before I spoke, I glanced aside and found that managarov had gone back to the table in the middle of the room. I whispered to chisjakov, "Comrade deputy commander, first of all, when shelling, I don't just stare at one position to carry out uninterrupted shelling. Because the Germans are not fools. They know that under such intensive artillery fire, as long as they are flesh and blood, they can't resist. They will certainly retreat to the second line of defense to hide before the artillery attack begins. Therefore, our artillery preparation should be extended after bombarding the first line of defense and continue to bombard the enemy's second line of defense. When it's almost done, kill another rifle and bombard their first line of defense again. At this time, even if there is a German to re-enter the position, we will be caught unprepared. "

"Although artillery can destroy the enemy's defense, it still depends on infantry to solve the battle." Anyway, there were only two of us left at the lookout, and chisjakov asked me modestly, "how can our infantry attack in that situation?"

"It's very simple." since chisjakov's attitude is sincere, I don't hide anything from him in terms of tactics: "the offensive forces should be divided into three groups, three groups as a team, and divided into assault group, firepower group and support group in turn. Each group alternately covers in the battle, and constantly suppresses the enemy's firepower points in high-speed running, In order to break through the position. "

After listening to what I said, chisgakov pondered for a long time, then nodded at him slowly and said with emotion, "Comrade commander, I have never heard of such tactics you mentioned before." But soon he asked cautiously, "have you ever tried this tactic?"

"That's not to say, comrade deputy commander." I looked at him and said solemnly, "whether it's in Stalingrad or Kiev, the offensive tactics we have adopted have achieved a lot. At the same time, it has greatly reduced the casualties of the troops. "

At this time, a group of commanders came in from outside the observation post. With sharp eyes, I immediately recognized these commanders. They were the ones we met when we first came here. They were supposed to report to managarov.

With the idea that it's none of my business, I looked through my telescope at the far-off battlefield and listened to how managarov taught his subordinates. First, I heard a loud noise, which should be the sound of managarov slapping the table. Then he began to roar, yelling at the commanders, saying that they were all cowards and that so many people had been killed and injured that they didn't even get close to the first German trench.

After the attack, managarov's mood finally stabilized, and then asked the commanders, "do you have any good methods?"

"Comrade commander," a colonel asked cautiously, "may I make a request?"

"What request, say it quickly." Said managarov impatiently.

"The machine gun fire on the German position is too fierce, and infantry alone can't rush through." The Colonel asked cautiously, "can we ask the comrades of the tank army to send some tanks to cover the infantry charge?" For this request, managarov thought for a while, then nodded and agreed: "OK, I'll call the commander of the tank army and ask him to send a tank battalion to cooperate with our attack."“ Comrade commander, "said the colonel," there are too few tank battalions. How can there be a tank brigade? " After listening to the Colonel's words, managarov slapped him on the table again. Then he pointed to the other side's nose and said, "isn't it disgraceful that our three divisions launched an attack at the same time and were beaten back by the hard hit German army? If you ask the commander of the tank army to provide us with a tank battalion, I will lose face. You even want a tank brigade. " When I heard managarov teach his subordinates such a lesson, I couldn't help wondering what logic it was? What's the difference between a tank battalion and a tank brigade? Isn't it all about tanks cooperating with infantry to attack enemy positions? If more tanks are deployed, the success rate of capturing positions will be much higher. After seeing the commanders leave again, chisgakov asked me in a low voice, "Comrade commander, we have seen almost everything we should see. Is it time to go back?"“ Wait a minute, comrade deputy commander. Please wait a second If managarov didn't ask the tank army to cooperate with him in the attack, maybe at this time, I and chisgakov really said goodbye to him and left. In order to see how the 53rd army cooperated with Tanzania, I decided to stay and have a look“ They will launch a new attack soon. Let's see what the effect will be with the help of tanks this time. "“ Well, let's stay and see how they broke through the German positions under the cover of tanks. " Perhaps when he was commanding the troops, chisgakov had cooperated with Tanzania for many times, so as soon as he heard that there were tanks participating in the battle, he immediately had full confidence in the next round of attacks by the friendly forces.