Chapter 1350

Only after the battle to liberate fastif was over did I know that the fighting in the southwest was quite different from what veradelle had reported to bere.

When the tank brigade led by veradelle was five or six kilometers away from the road, his scouts came back on motorcycles to report that a large number of German troops were retreating southwest along the road. After getting this information, villadelle was really happy and worried at the moment. Happily, the 48th German Panzer Army, which had been defeated by the 38th and 60th army some time ago, was defeated by the Soviet counterattack. The worry is that although only the defeated German troops were intercepted, without the cooperation of the cavalry division, only their own tank brigade wanted to stop them, but not so much.

But he couldn't let the opportunity slip away from his eyes. Therefore, even if he knew that without the cooperation of the cavalry division, his tanks might be destroyed by the German anti tank men. He knew that the road they were walking was bad and their speed could not be improved. But he still issued the order of assault to the troops without hesitation.

After receiving this order from veradelle, one of his battalion commanders immediately raised an objection: "Comrade brigade commander, we don't have the help of cavalry division to launch an attack on the enemy. Even if the enemy is just retreating, it's like committing suicide. The enemy's anti tank men can kill all our tanks. "

Although veradelle knew that the battalion commander was telling the truth, it was time to stop. Although, as long as we can stop most of the enemy's retreat, let the main forces annihilate a part of the German army in fativ, and reduce the pressure for the next battle, even if our own troops suffer serious losses, it is worth it.

It was for this reason that when he reported the situation to berey, he deliberately concealed the real situation, and then led more than 60 tanks of the whole brigade to attack the retreating German army.

Two or three kilometers away from the road, villadley vaguely saw that the fleeing German army was passing quickly. He immediately ordered the troops to form a formation and bombard the enemy.

In a hurry, less than ten tanks fired at the German army. But the retreating German troops, like frightened birds, fell into chaos immediately after seeing the shells exploding on the road and overturning several trucks.

However, they were the elite of the hundred battles. After a short period of chaos, they immediately organized a counterattack. The German artillery took off the gun hanging behind the car, quickly established the artillery position, and fired towards the Soviet tank. A Tiger tank company of the imperial Panzer Division also spread out on the side of the road, fighting back in the direction of the shells.

In the face of the enemy's artillery and the Tiger Tank's counterattack, the T-34 tank brigade suffered a big loss. Four or five tanks were hit by the enemy's shells and immediately began to burn.

The battalion commander, who had warned veradelle, saw that his tanks suffered heavy losses under the enemy's artillery fire. He could not help crying out to veradelle: "Comrade brigade commander, when will the cavalry division arrive? If they don't come again, all the tanks in our battalion will be killed by the Germans like shooting at targets. "

"Comrade major." Vera delle had always attached great importance to the battalion commander. Seeing that he used such rigid tactics to fight against the German army, he could not help getting angry and scolded him: "I said you were very smart before, why are you so confused now? At such a long distance, our 76mm artillery can't penetrate the front armor of the Tiger tank, but the enemy's 88mm artillery can lift our tank turret. And what did you do to line up the tanks in order to let the Germans be your targets? "

After receiving a scolding from veradelle, the battalion commander said wrongly, "but you just ordered us to bombard the enemy on the road."

"I asked you to bombard the fleeing enemy on the road, but I didn't let you be a target there." After two more words of abuse, veradelle added: "tell your tankers to fight two guns in another place. Don't stop at the same place. That will be the target of the German army. Do you understand? "

"I see, comrade brigade commander." After listening to veradelle's instructions, the battalion commander immediately said with deep understanding, "I will tell the soldiers immediately that they can change their places after two rounds. Anyway, there are so many trees here, which is convenient for our tanks to hide. Let the German artillery slowly waste their shells. "

Seeing his own tanks arriving at the attack position one after another, Vera delle, who stayed behind to command, was still murmuring about what to do in order to intercept more enemies. Just then, berey got in touch with him through the radio. "Comrade Colonel, in order to escape, the enemy will certainly fight with you. In order to keep more enemies and reduce your casualties, comrade commander, let me tell you to blow up the bridge on the only way for the enemy to retreat. As long as the bridge is broken and the enemy wants to escape again, he must discard such technical equipment as tanks, artillery and armored vehicles. Without heavy weapons, even if the German army fled back to Wurman, our friendly forces would bear much less resistance when launching an attack. "

"I see, Comrade General." After hearing what berey had said, veradelle immediately replied, "I will personally lead the troops to blow up the bridge on the German retreat road and leave more enemies in fativ."

After the call, he asked his chief of staff on the radio, "when will the cavalry division arrive?"

After a moment's silence, the chief of staff of the brigade replied, "report to Comrade Colonel, the cavalry division is still seven or eight kilometers behind us. It will take about an hour at the earliest to get to the battlefield."

Veradelle thought about it and said to the chief of staff, "chief of staff, you stay here to command the troops. As soon as the cavalry division arrives, take the tanks as the guide and attack the places on the road."

"I'll stay in command!" When the chief of staff heard that, he was stunned. Then he asked curiously, "Comrade brigade commander, where are you going?"

"General berey just called me and said that Comrade commander ordered us to blow up the bridge on the German retreat road." Veradelle didn't know when he would be back, so before he left, he had to tell his chief of staff what he had to tell him clearly: "I'll lead the heavy tank company to carry out this task, and I'll give it to you."

"Don't worry, comrade brigade commander." The chief of staff of the brigade said to Willard: "we will certainly intercept the enemy who fled south, drive them back to fastiev, and let our main forces wipe them out completely and cleanly."

Thinking that it would not be difficult for the remaining 50 or so tanks to intercept the enemy fleeing south after they led the heavy tank company to leave, they boldly led five heavy tanks southward, ready to destroy the bridges on the road.

Because the retreating enemy was afraid of being shelled by the tank brigade, they had already stopped withdrawing to the south. The troops that had been withdrawn in the early stage had already passed the bridge. At the moment, there was no one on the bridge nearest to the blocking place except a dozen German soldiers guarding the bridge.

Seeing the tank rumbling towards them, the Germans thought it was their own tank at first. When it was clear that the Soviet tanks were coming, they quickly hid in the sandbags beside the bridge and shot the coming tanks with machine guns.

The front armor of Soviet heavy tanks, even the artillery of Tiger tanks, could not be broken down, not to mention two ordinary machine guns. The tank driving in the front stopped more than 100 meters away from the bridge, ignoring the rattling bullets on the turret and slowly adjusting the muzzle. After aiming at the machine gun bunker that was shooting crazily, he fired without hesitation and lifted the other side's machine gun into the air.

After annihilating the German soldiers on the bridge, the tanks in front of them checked their vehicles and asked veradelle for instructions: "Comrade brigade commander, the enemy did not place explosives on the bridge. How can we destroy the enemy's bridge?"

When he heard that there was no explosives on the bridge, veradelle was slightly disappointed. He thought that the German army would bury explosives on these important bridges in order to prevent the Soviet army from pursuing them at any time. Who knew that he had not found explosives on the first bridge he had captured. After thinking about it, he ordered the tank soldiers in front of him: "after all the tanks pass the bridge, you drive the tanks to the side of the bridge and destroy the bridge pillars with artillery fire, so that the bridge deck will collapse."

"I see, comrade brigade commander." In front of the tank, the tank soldiers made a loud promise, then drove the tank quickly through the bridge, then turned to the side, ready to wait until the rest of the tanks passed, and then destroyed the bridge with tank guns.

After rokosovsky gave the air force an order to air attack the German army southwest of fastif in my headquarters, I was worried that the tank brigade and cavalry division of veradelle would rush to the depth of the enemy because they were too strong. In that case, they would suffer from the disaster of the pond when they were attacked by our plane. So I hastened to say to berey, "Comrade General, please pass on the news of the air raid to Col. veradelle immediately, so that he can take preventive measures to avoid being bombed by our air force."

Berey didn't raise any objection to my concerns. He immediately contacted veradelle on the radio. After waiting for veradelle's voice, he first asked, "Comrade Colonel, where are you?"

"Report to general," veradelle replied immediately and truthfully, "I am leading the heavy tank company to destroy the bridge on the German retreat road. Do you have any instructions? "

"Well, comrade colonel." When berey said this, he looked at me and rokosovsky, "the commander of the front army has ordered the air force to carry out an air raid on the German army in the southwest of fativ. I'm afraid that if you get mixed up with the German army, you will be bombed by the air force by mistake, so I'll let you know first."

"I see, general bearley." "I will inform my chief of staff of this news, so that they can immediately get out of contact with the enemy, so as not to be mistakenly bombed by our bombers," veradelle immediately replied

As soon as veradelle finished talking to bere, he immediately contacted his chief of staff. As soon as he got through, he couldn't wait to ask, "chief of staff, how's it going?"

"Report to the brigade commander." The chief of staff of the brigade said excitedly: "after you left, the enemy infantry launched a wave of attacks on us, but they were repulsed by our soldiers with vehicle mounted machine guns. Just at this moment, the vanguard regiment of the cavalry division arrived, and they followed the retreating German infantry in pursuit. Now they were mixed up with the enemy. The enemy's artillery and tanks may be afraid of injuring their own people, so they dare not shoot. At present, the fighting is very fierce. "

When he heard the chief of staff's report, veradelle could not help crying bitterly. He thought for a moment, and then decisively ordered: "Comrade chief of staff, I order you to immediately send someone to inform the commanders and fighters of the cavalry division who are fighting with the enemy, so that they can immediately withdraw from contact with the enemy and withdraw as far as they can!" The chief of staff, puzzled by the order given by veradelle, asked: "Comrade brigadier, our cavalry are very brave. They have beaten the enemy's infantry into a rout. They are losing ground. When the two regiments behind them arrive, I believe the German army on the road will be defeated by us..." "chief of staff, there is no time, Follow my orders immediately. " When veradelle heard the chief of staff speak in a tone of disapproval, he could not help stamping his feet. He said in a hurry: "according to the superior's report, our air force is flying in your direction, ready to bomb the German troops gathered there. If you don't withdraw, you will be blown up with the German army. "“ Ah, is that true, comrade brigadier? " The chief of staff was shocked when he heard that, but he asked in an unbelievable voice, "how can our air force go out at such a time to bomb the retreating enemy?"“ Chief of staff, general berey told me that. " Veradelle raised his voice and said, "chief of staff, don't delay any longer. Send someone immediately to get the cavalry division down, or it will be too late."“ I understand, I understand. " When the chief of staff heard what veradelle said, he was shocked and broke into a cold sweat. He said busily, "I'll send people to the battlefield immediately and ask the cavalry to withdraw." After the call with his chief of staff, veradelle's heart could not calm down. He knew that even if the chief of staff immediately sent someone to the battlefield to inform the officers and men of the vanguard regiment of the cavalry division to withdraw, the red eyed cavalry would not be able to withdraw. Many people might be killed in vain in the bombing of their own air force.