At first it looked like a tank the size of a black spot, but now it's almost like a beetle. They stopped one after another and began to attack the flanks of the cavalry division with tank guns and vehicle mounted machine guns.
After seeing the enemy's tanks, the cavalry, who had been running at a constant speed, immediately bent down and speeded up their horse's speed, trying to cross the anti tank trench in front of them as soon as possible and stay away from the German tanks that suddenly appeared.
But no matter how fast the horse runs, can it run faster than shells and bullets? Immediately, many cavalry commanders and soldiers fell from the tall horses because they were shot or hit by shrapnel, and smashed heavily in the snow, splashing a mass of snow powder. Some of the officers and men were directly hit by tank shells, and their horses were blown to pieces on the spot.
"General povsky, order your artillery to fire quickly." Nervously, I watched the massacre on the battlefield with my telescope. At the same time, I yelled to povsky, who was standing beside me, who was numb. "If this goes on like this, before the cavalry division rushes through the trench, it will be wiped out by the German army for most of the time."
"But, comrade commander." "The artillery regiment and the rocket battalion have used up all their ammunition," povsky replied with a sad face
"It's impossible," he said angrily. "I see that the rocket battalion has only launched one volley. How can it use up all the shells?"
"General bere," povsky explained, seeing that his old friend was angry with him, "our rocket battalion has not been replenished for at least a month. For today's attack, I concentrated all the Rockets, just barely enough to make up a volley
Hearing this, I can't help thinking about the cavalry regiment that was completely annihilated by the German army during the Moscow defense war the year before last. Is the cavalry division facing the same fate? I thought bitterly, "if the howitzer regiment had just a few shells left, it wouldn't be so bad."
Povsky suddenly pointed to the outside and exclaimed in surprise, "look, what are these cavalry going to do?"
I quickly raised my telescope and looked at the battlefield again. I saw a group of cavalry with about 100 people turning their horses and rushing towards the parking position of German tanks in the north. From the equipment they had on their horses, I immediately understood why they did so. I put down my telescope, turned to povsky, and they said, "do you see the equipment on the cavalry? If I read it correctly, it should be 40 rockets. They intend to use the speed of horses to destroy enemy tanks with rockets after approaching them. "
Seeing the coming cavalry, some of the firepower of the German tanks had been drawn in. Hundreds of thousands of bullets thrown out by the vehicle mounted machine guns are interwoven into a dense fire net. Soldiers are constantly falling down on the horses, and the horses are constantly falling over while running. When they trip other horses, they are rolled under the surrounding iron hoofs together with their owners. But even so, the war horse in the high-speed impact is constantly moving forward.
"Report!" Suddenly someone at the gate of the observation post called out, "may I come in?"
I was worried about the fate of the cavalry division. When I heard someone calling a report at the door, I immediately said, "come in!"
As soon as my voice dropped, someone quickly walked behind me and loudly reported: "Comrade commander, major general babajanian, commander of the 20th brigade of mechanized guards, reports to you that our brigade has entered the attack position and is ready to attack the enemy at any time. I'm at your command, please give me directions
Major general babajanian was heard. I quickly put down my telescope, turned to shake hands with him, and then said, "general babajanian, it's good that you can enter the offensive position ahead of time. However, for the time being, you can only stay there, not attack. "
"Why, comrade commander?" Hearing this command, babajanian asked strangely, "when I came here, I knew that the tank troops and the two guard divisions had broken through the German defense and were developing in depth. In addition, the cavalry division seems to be charging against the enemy's positions. "
"General babajanian, don't you see that the flank of our Cavalry Division is being attacked by German tanks?" I patiently explained to him, "the cavalry division has suffered a lot of casualties under the German artillery and machine gun fire. If they can't cross the anti tank trench as soon as possible and enter the trench occupied by our army for shelter, they will be in danger of the whole army's destruction..."
When I just said that, a series of huge explosions came from outside. My heart was shocked and I thought to myself, "did our cavalry rush up and blow up the enemy's tanks?"
I quickly turned to grab the telescope and looked in the direction of the explosion. I saw the German tanks in the north were covered by the wall of fire, and our cavalry continued to rush towards them at the moment, but only a dozen of them were left. The cavalry has not yet entered the effective attack range of the rocket launcher. The fire and smoke of the German tanks must have nothing to do with them. What's the matter?
Without waiting for me to come up with a reason, I don't know when babajanian, who crowded in front of the lookout, exclaimed: "tank, it's our tank!"
When I heard babajanian calling for our tanks, I rushed to the east of the anti tank trench and found that the tank brigade, which was cooperating with the infantry to launch an attack on the German second line of defense, was engaged in a fierce battle with the enemy and was unable to support the cavalry division attacked by the German tanks. Since it's not the tanks in the east of the trench, where are the tanks coming from? It's not our tanks coming from the sky, is it?
At the thought of the word "fall from the sky", I was shocked. Suddenly, I thought of the two tank brigades who had not arrived at the battlefield. Did they arrive at this critical moment? Thinking of this, I quickly turned the lens of the telescope to the north to observe the movement there.
At this time, I found some differences. Behind the German tanks, in the snow further north, there were more black ideas. As soon as there was white smoke, a moment later, the German tank line would be covered with fire and smoke.
Seeing that the German tanks began to turn around in a disorderly way, berey also found something strange. After observing for a while, he tentatively said to me, "Comrade commander, I think there are two possibilities. One is that the friendly forces that are attacking the East and north of fativ are coming to support us; Second, the troops of the 100th and 200th tank brigades just arrived at the battlefield. When they saw that the German tanks were attacking our cavalry division, they beat them hard behind the German buttocks. "
No matter where the troops came from, I knew at least one thing that our Cavalry Division was free from the danger of the whole army being destroyed. I quickly called a staff officer and said, "take a jeep and contact the commander of the tank troops to find out what part they are." With a promise, the staff officer turned and walked out of the observation post.
Babajanian saw that I seemed to have forgotten him. He coughed heavily and quickly. After attracting all our eyes, he quickly said, "Comrade commander, you haven't said what the task of our brigade is?"
"General babajanian, don't worry." When I thought that two guard divisions were attacking the German second line of defense, and the cavalry division was going up again, it was a bit like painting a snake to add to the foot to send another mechanized brigade, so I said euphemistically: "after a long march, the commanders and fighters of your brigade are very tired, so they should be given more rest. I'll let you know when it's your turn. "
"Comrade commander, our commanders and fighters have been resting too long." Babajanian went on to say, "I think we are ready to fight."
"Comrade babajanian," seeing that he repeatedly asked me to fight, I said to him impatiently, "we all have overall arrangements for which army to fight and when to fight. Now there are enough troops to attack, and you don't need your brigade to take part in the battle for the time being, so you'd better stay in the offensive position and stand by. "
"Comrade commander," babajanian said anxiously as soon as I finished saying, "other troops are fighting with the Germans, but our brigade is staying in the offensive position to watch. How can we not feel bad about that?"?! You know, we've come so far... "
"Wait a minute, general babajanian." I knew what he would say next, so I interrupted him first, looked at him and said in a stern tone, "I told you that good steel should be used on the blade. Now that the attack on the German army has just begun, no one can predict the direction of the war. So I have to keep a strong fighting force in my hands to prevent the situation from deteriorating. Do you understand? "
When I spoke to myself with such severe words, babajanian immediately admitted his mistake and said, "Comrade commander, I'm wrong. I'm eager to fight. That's why I've asked you again and again to let my troops fight. If this affects your deployment, I apologize to you. "
"Well, general babajanian, you don't have to say that." At this time, berey came out and said, "no one is wrong. It's all about winning."
After I sent babajanian away, I asked berey, "what's the latest news on the frontier?"
Bierre nodded and replied: "the German army deployed a large number of 88mm anti-aircraft guns on the second line of defense to deal with our tanks. We lost more than 20 tanks in our recent attack. Now our troops are regrouping to attack the enemy's positions again. "
I knew that at such a time, the artillery could not be expected, so I was disappointed and said, "without the support of artillery, even with the support of tanks, our troops would not be able to attack the enemy's positions successfully."
Bielei pointed to the battlefield with smoke in the distance and suggested to me, "Comrade commander, isn't there a friendly tank to support us? If we combine their tanks with ours and attack the enemy, the chances of victory will be greatly improved. "
"General bere, if we have a decisive battle with German tanks on the plain, the more tanks we have, the better. But now we want to attack the German defense solid positions, and the fortifications also deployed a lot of 88 mm anti-aircraft guns, which is the enemy of our tanks At this point, I stopped, thought about it, and then said, "besides, within a narrow range of a few kilometers, more than 200 tanks are concentrated to attack the enemy's positions, and the enemy's long-range artillery can turn them all into burning scrap iron."
Berey turned to look at the embarrassed povsky, then said solemnly, "what should we do? Are we not going to attack without artillery support? "
"The attack must continue." Seeing that they were helpless, I said with a smile, "without artillery, don't we still have air force? I can ask general rokosovsky to send out the air force to bomb the German peripheral positions to the west of fastif, destroy the technical equipment that poses the greatest threat to our tanks, and clear the way for the next attack. "
Don't thunder listen to me so say, immediately immediately in front of a bright, then repeatedly call up good: "yes, yes, how I put our air force to grasp the battlefield air supremacy this matter to forget." He grinned and said to himself, "it's mainly because we were bombed too much by the German army some time ago, and we forgot to get air support." I waited for him to finish, and immediately said, "give orders to the troops in the front, let them stop attacking temporarily, and wait for the air force to bomb the enemy's positions before launching a new attack." By means of the telephone, berey can directly shout with the front tank brigade and convey the order directly. And I had to get in touch with rokosovsky by telegraph. Seeing that the operator had finished the call, povsky asked nervously, "Comrade commander, I don't know when our bombers will arrive?" I raised my hand, looked at my watch, and then said, "maybe as soon as half an hour or so. Our troops just took advantage of this time to have a short rest." Berey soon ended his communication with the front line, and then reported to me, "Comrade commander, the tank troops in the front line have stopped attacking and have a rest in place. When our air force has finished bombing, they can attack the enemy's defensive positions again." I went to the observation port, raised my telescope and looked at the battlefield. I saw that the German tanks, which were originally fierce, had almost become piles of burning debris. Our new tanks are coming through the burning German tanks towards us. The rest of the cavalry division commanders and fighters entered the positions occupied by our army through the simple bridges erected in the trenches.