Chapter 1684

I really didn't expect that after hearing my name, many German officers and soldiers stationed in residential areas put down their arms and came out to surrender to our army with white flags.

After an urgent interrogation of the prisoners, I learned that the German garrison stationed in the residential area was different from the garrison formed in the fortress. They were just the scattered soldiers of the 151st and 45th divisions defeated by our army, plus the people's stormtroopers of 1000 or 2000, who had no combat effectiveness at all, so they would easily lay down their weapons and surrender.

Trekov and I were standing by the side of the road, looking at the people's stormtroopers in civilian clothes passing in front of us. Trekov shook his head and said, "it seems that the end of the bandits is not far away, Rita. Look at their so-called militia. They are teenagers or old men in their sixties and seventies, and they have no military training. To put them into battle is not to put them to death? "

With a sneer, I digged off the topic: "general trakov, since our access to the fortress has been opened, do you think we can let the artillery fire at the fortress and destroy the German fortifications, so that our infantry can attack the fortress as soon as possible?"

"Come on, let's go back to the headquarters first, and then discuss how to attack the German fortress."

When he returned to the headquarters, trakov immediately summoned the division leaders of all divisions together and assigned them combat tasks: "the 27th and 74th divisions of the close guard infantry carried out the main assault from the South... The attack of the 39th division of the close guard infantry from the North..."

After the deployment, trakov looked at everyone and asked, "is there any problem?"

After a short silence, Kuragin, commander of the 35th division of Jinwei, stood up. He raised his voice and said, "Comrade commander, I have observed the fortress area of Poznan at a close range. It is composed of a castle and the surrounding frontier fortresses. These fortifications are indestructible. The wall is about three meters thick and can withstand the fire of our army's field artillery. If we want to attack the city, 152 mm caliber guns are obviously not enough. "

His words caused a lot of discussion among the following people. Just as everyone was talking to each other, Pronin said, "general Kuragin, I don't know where you heard this rumor. Maybe it's a rumor deliberately spread by German agents, just to attack our confidence in attacking the city.

I've been fighting for not a day or two, and I've never seen a fortification that can't be destroyed by 152 mm caliber artillery. Are you a little too alarmist? "

Seeing that Pronin had set the tone of the matter, other people could not say anything more. They just asked trakov when the artillery and armored forces could enter the battlefield, and then they left one after another.

Trikov used 300 guns of different calibres to fire in the direction of the main entrance of the German fort. After the shelling lasted half an hour, trakov officially gave the order to attack.

But before long, reports from the following divisions came one after another, saying that the offensive troops rushed to the front of the fort and were blocked by the wide trench, unable to move forward.

Trikov was very angry when he heard these reports. He yelled at the microphone: "let the tank troops rush to the trench, use artillery fire to suppress the German fire points, and cover our engineers to build bridges in the trench."

"No, comrade commander." Another deputy commander in the front, general Gutman, reported: "the fortress and the triangle are covered with three meters of soil. There is a wide and deep trench outside the fort, which is hard for us to access from outside. The Germans, on the other hand, were able to block the trench with side fire from the dark fort, but we were not able to find perforations. The two walls of the trench are made of bricks, with a height of 5-8 meters, making it impossible for our tanks to pass through this barrier.

Several of our tanks had rushed to the trench, but before they opened fire, they were destroyed by the hidden anti tank fire of the German army. So I ask for artillery support. I hope you can send heavy artillery to support us. "

"All right, general Gutman." "I will contact the artillery commander immediately and ask them to send heavy artillery to support you," trekov replied

After finishing his communication with Gutman, trakov immediately dialed bozarsky, the artillery commander. He said in a hurry, "Hey, comrade bozarsky, now the troops attacking the fort are blocked outside the trench by the intensive German fire. I order you to immediately deploy heavy artillery to support the attacking troops. Do you understand? "

"I see, comrade commander." "I immediately mobilized 203mm caliber B-4 howitzers to support the army's attack," bozarski replied loudly

Trikov put down the phone and said to me with a relaxed expression: "Rita, as soon as our B-4 howitzers come out, it's only a matter of time before we can win the German fortress. This kind of heavy howitzer usually launches direct fire at exposed German fortifications or barricades at a distance of 200-300 meters. "

When I saw that trakov was going to use the "bayonet on cannon" tactic, I couldn't help smiling. Then I asked, "I don't know the power of this kind of gun?"

Trekov pointed to a building outside the window and said to me, "Rita, do you see that building? If our B-4 howitzers fire, the building will be in ruins. "

"So powerful?" I really didn't know that the Soviet artillery had such powerful and exposed big killers. I couldn't help being surprised and asked, "don't you know how long it will take to deploy this kind of artillery?"

Trekov was a little surprised by my reply. He looked at me for a while and then said, "don't you know that this kind of heavy howitzer is mounted on the base of a heavy crawler tractor and belongs to a self-propelled gun?"

I shook my head and said awkwardly, "I've never seen this kind of gun, but I believe it's very effective to use it to destroy the German fortress."

"But the drawback of this kind of gun is that its firing speed is too slow." "It will take almost four minutes for a shell to come out. It will take some time for them to destroy the German defense," trakov said with some regret

"Don't worry, general trakov. Don't worry." I saw that trakov was a little restless, and quickly comforted them, saying: "the task of seizing Poznan was originally assigned to general korpakchi's 69th army by the superior, but they were restrained by the German army before and could not move forward here quickly. We have enough time here to wait for their arrival."

The second round of shelling on the fortress started again half an hour later. This time, trekov and I went up to the top of the building to watch the artillery show.

With bozarsky's order, hundreds of guns of different calibres were fired at the main entrance direction of the German army in the East. In the great sound of the collapse, the fortress burst out a dazzling halo, and clusters of fireballs burst into the sky. The dense shells of our army fell endlessly. I couldn't see the explosion point clearly. I only saw that there were explosions and flames everywhere. The German fortress was shrouded in a sea of fire and smoke.

I felt the floor shaking slightly under my feet, so I put down my telescope, turned to trekov and said, "general trekov, in the face of such intensive shelling by our army, the German fortress will not be able to support it."

Trekov also put down his telescope and sneered: "our B-4 howitzer can destroy a building with one door. What's more, this time, 36 howitzers are fired at the same time, but there are dozens of large caliber howitzers and cannons. I believe that after the shelling, the German fortress will be in ruins."

I turned to ask the director of the engineering department, Tkachenko, "Comrade General, are the engineers ready to build bridges?"

"Yes, comrade deputy commander of the front army," Tkachenko said, looking at the smoke of the battlefield in the distance, "the bridge engineers are deployed 500 meters away from the fortress. As soon as the shelling is over, they will rush to the trench and build a passable bridge for the tanks."

It is said that the engineers are ready to be in place, and I feel more secure. As long as our tanks can pass through the wide trench in front, it will be easier to attack the German core fortress.

However, all our good wishes disappeared with the end of the shelling and the smoke of gunpowder over the fortress. Only after heavy artillery bombardment of the German peripheral fortress, still maintain the general integrity. The walls are pockmarked, with few holes. The shell fell on the soil cover of the fortress and the triangle fort, leaving only a crater after the explosion, just like digging the cultivated land with a shovel.

"What the hell is going on?" When trakov saw this scene, he couldn't help but be stunned. He quickly grabbed the phone next to him and asked the operator to connect the artillery headquarters. Then he asked in a loud voice, "Hello, general pozalski, did you tell me that you were shelling the German fort with B-4 howitzers?"

"Yes, comrade commander," bozarski replied positively, "all 36 B-4 howitzers participated in the shelling just now, but the German fortress was obviously stronger than we thought. If you want to destroy the enemy's fortress, I think you can only use special concrete sabotage bombs. "

"Can it work?" Trekov asked.

"It's hard to say, comrade commander." Pozharsky said with some embarrassment: "as far as we know, the wall of the German fortress is three meters thick, but our concrete destruction bomb only penetrates 0.7 meters, and the aftereffect damage is 0.3 meters. The total thickness of the damaged concrete is one meter..."

"Well, don't give me any more jargon." Before waiting for his opponent to finish, trakov interrupted his words: "you just need to tell me, can concrete sabotage bomb destroy the German Fort?"

"It's theoretically possible," bozarski said carefully. "As long as our shells hit the same position three times in a row, they can penetrate the German fortress walls, but it takes a little longer."

"As long as we can break through the walls of the enemy's fortress," trakov said with some impatience, "you immediately arrange people to prepare such shells. We must break through the defense of the German fortress in the shortest time."

However, this kind of special shells can not be prepared immediately. It will take at least one or two days to transport them from the rear. During this period, we can only adopt the tactics of encircling the fortress without attacking.

Trekov walked back and forth in the headquarters with his hands behind his back, stopping and sighing from time to time. I tried to persuade him, but I found that I had nothing to say. I could only keep silent, sitting in my seat and staring at him walking back and forth.

So he walked back and forth in the room for more than ten minutes. He seemed to think of something and suddenly stopped. After standing in the same place for a few minutes, he quickly walked up to me and asked carefully, "Rita, I remember that you developed a self-made gun during the war of defense in Stalingrad, which was very effective against the German positions." When I heard trekov ask this question, I immediately guessed that he said "heartless thunder" and quickly asked back, "general trekov, are you talking about the kind of explosive package that happens in a gasoline can?"“ That's right. It's this kind of simple gun. " Trekov asked me nervously, "do you remember how it was made?"“ Of course I remember When I said that, I called the chief engineer over and explained to him how to make "heartless guns" while drawing sketches. I think that when trakov suddenly asked about this weapon, he must want to use it to attack the fortress, so he specially reminded him: "general trakov, this kind of simple artillery uses parabola to launch explosive charges. The top cover of the German fortress is so thick, I'm afraid that the explosive package will not have any effect when it falls on it. "“ It will take a day or two for bozarsky's special shells to be delivered. During this period, we can't do nothing, can we? " Trakov said rather reluctantly: "since the original self-made artillery attack effect is so good, then used to deal with the German fort, the effect should be almost there." Although I know it won't have much effect, since trakov is so opinionated, it doesn't matter to try. It's better than letting the commanders and fighters idle. In this way, the engineers made 50 "heartless guns" in an hour, ready to deal with the German fortress. The infantry soldiers with "heartless guns" approached the fortress within 80 meters under the cover of the debris, and set up empty oil barrels on the rubble. After putting the explosives into the oil barrel, they ignited the fuse and then hid in a safe place to observe the effect of the attack. The explosive bag fell on the top cover of the fortress and made a series of earth shaking sounds, giving people the feeling that nothing could survive such an explosion. But when the smoke was gone, I still saw the German fortress standing in my telescope lens. The explosion just happened was just a scratch on its boots.