Chapter 1177 Breakthrough (Part 2)

  Bronnikov knew very well in his heart that his statement was weak and weak, not to mention the commanders present, even himself could not be convinced. If it was the German Wehrmacht who besieged the factory, there may be some honest officers who treated the captured wounded for humanitarian purposes. But now outside the factory area is the SS, which is known for its brutality. If the wounded fall into their hands, there may be no chance of survival.

   Sure enough, as soon as his words fell, Captain Qi Wen objected: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, how can you leave our wounded to the enemy? Isn't this sending them to a dead end?"

"Captain Qiwin, these wounded are our comrades-in-arms, do you think I am willing to let them fall into the hands of the Germans?" Bronnikov said solemnly: "Don't say that we will implement a breakout operation next, Even if the enemy takes the initiative to give us a way, it will take a long time for us to transfer them out without enough transportation."

Captain Qi Wen didn't know that Bronnikov's words were reasonable, but he still couldn't bear to abandon hundreds of wounded soldiers to break through, so he asked luckily: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, is it possible that other than that?" Besides, is there nothing we can do?"

   "No." Bronnikov shook his head and said, "If we want to get out of the enemy's encirclement smoothly, we can only reluctantly give up the wounded."

  As soon as his voice fell, the command post suddenly became extremely silent. Things were in a dilemma at this point, breaking out with the wounded would definitely become a drag on the breakout troops, and might even lead to the failure of the breakout operation; keeping them would be tantamount to letting them die.

When everyone was in a dilemma, a wounded man lying on a stretcher spoke up, and he said with difficulty: "Commanders and comrades, if you want to break through, you must be covered by someone behind you. Why don't you leave this task to our wounded men?" .”

   The wounded man who spoke was a lieutenant of the 25th Guards Division. His legs were broken by shells during the battle. Several soldiers under him carried him off the battlefield on a stretcher. Seeing that he was seriously injured, Bronnikov ignored him when assigning tasks. Hearing that he was willing to take on this arduous task, he pondered for a moment and said, "Comrade Lieutenant, you are all seriously injured. , how can you participate in the battle?"

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," the injured lieutenant looked at Bronnikov with a sad smile and said, "We are all a drag on the troops. If you take us into action together, you may not be able to break through the encirclement of the German army at all. But it is better to let Let's stay behind and block the enemies rushing up from behind, so that you can concentrate your strength to break through from the front."

   "But the seriously wounded are lying on stretchers and unable to move," Captain Qi Wen said with a frown, "How do they fight?"

"This is very simple." The lieutenant continued: "Put us in the fortifications, and give us a gun and a grenade. When the enemy rushes up, the gun is used to destroy the enemy; Our own, we will never allow ourselves to be captured by the Germans."

   Bronnikov held the lieutenant's hand tightly, and it took a long time before he said: "Comrade lieutenant, as long as we can successfully break through, we will definitely avenge you."

  Captain Qi Wen waited for Bronnikov to finish speaking, and asked cautiously: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, when will we break through?"

"We will carry out the breakout operation at four o'clock in the morning." Bronnikov looked at his watch and said to everyone in the room: "Although it was already dawn at that time, the Germans should still be asleep. They were caught off guard. Also, operating in daylight, the troops are not easily dispersed."

   Breakout time is coming soon.

In order not to be detected by the enemy prematurely, after the breakout operation began, Bronnikov did not take the lead in using Captain Zivin's tank company, but ordered the infantry to approach the enemy's position quietly, preparing to kill the sentries on duty first, and then Quickly occupy the enemy's position.

  However, the infantry who quietly approached the enemy's position was discovered by a sentry when they were more than 30 meters away from the position. Seeing that the sentry was about to warn, a Soviet soldier pulled the trigger without hesitation, and shot down the enemy sentry. However, in the stillness of the early morning, the sudden gunfire sounded like a cannon.

  Seeing that the target had been exposed, the commander who led the team suddenly jumped up from the ground, raised his pistol just above his head, and shouted: "Brothers, follow me!"

  Seeing that the commander stood up first, the soldiers who were crawling forward also stood up from the ground one after another, holding their weapons, shouting "Ula" and rushing towards the enemy's position.

  The Soviet army moved quickly, and the German army responded quickly. When the Soviet soldiers had just rushed to the edge of the trench and hadn't had time to jump down, there were shouts and sporadic gunfire from the German army in the position, and officers and soldiers on both sides started a scuffle.

  After a few minutes of melee, the Soviet army successfully occupied the first trench of the German army. When they were about to continue to expand the results of the battle, the German tanks deployed not far away opened fire. The shells landed in the ranks of Soviet commanders and fighters and exploded. The soldiers near the explosion point were immediately blown away by the air waves, but the remaining soldiers quickly approached the enemy tanks with the help of the cover of the bomb craters and ruined walls.

Bronnikov, who was directing the battle in the command post at the back, saw that the enemy tanks had opened fire, and quickly ordered Captain Qi Wen: "Comrade Captain, it's your turn for your tanks to play now, and you must destroy the enemy tanks as soon as possible. Rip a breach in the enemy's defenses."

  The four tanks of the tank company came out of their hiding places, stopped three or four hundred meters away from the German tanks, adjusted the position of a muzzle, and opened fire on the opponent. Due to the hasty firing, only one of the four shells hit the target, blowing off the track on one side of the German tank.

   Seeing that the four shells only broke the tracks of the German tanks, Captain Chiwin shook his fist in anger, and then ordered all the tanks: "Reload again, this time we must destroy the enemy's tanks."

   Soon, the reloaded Soviet tanks were reloaded and fired at the German tanks again. This time they were lucky, four rounds hit three, and the armor-piercing bullets caused the ammunition in the car to explode, blowing up the turrets of the German tanks to the sky.

Not long after the battle on the east side of the factory started, Tansen, who had set up his headquarters in the west, got the news. He quickly ordered all the troops on the other three sides to attack the factory at the same time, except for the defenders on the east side, in an attempt to pass this attack. way, to smash the breakout of the Soviet army.

  However, the German troops who rushed into the factory were met with resistance from the seriously wounded. However, the combat effectiveness of the seriously wounded cannot be compared with that of healthy soldiers. The areas they defended were quickly lost one after another under the attack of the German army. But at the last moment of their lives, those wounded did not hesitate to fire the grenade, and died together with the rushing German army.

  The reckless play of the seriously wounded frightened the German officers and soldiers who were trying to break through their positions. Every time there is an explosion, the enemy will temporarily stop attacking, wait until there is no movement in the front position, and then carefully launch the attack again.

  The news that the German army rushed into the factory from three sides, a soldier reported to Bronnikov in time: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the enemy has launched an attack on us from the north, west and south, and has now rushed into the factory."

  Bronnikov just nodded slightly when he heard the soldier's report, and continued to use the binoculars to observe the ongoing breakout battle in the east, and said with a normal expression: "I see, report to me if there is any new situation."

Seeing Bronnikov's indifferent expression, the militia captain next to him thought he hadn't heard the soldier's report clearly, so he hurriedly approached him and said loudly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the enemy has rushed in from the north, west, and south." The factory, with our hundreds of seriously wounded people, can't stop them at all."

"Comrade Captain," Bronnikov put down his binoculars, turned his head to look at the militia captain and said, "what do you want me to do, send people to reinforce the wounded? If we do this, at best, we will lose the position The delay is only a moment, but the strength we use to break out will be weakened, resulting in the failure of the breakout. We are now in a race against time to see whether we will break through the enemy's defenses first, or the enemy will rush to us first."

  Hearing what Bronnikov said, the militia captain fell silent. He only thought for a moment, and he realized that Bronnikov was not scaremongering. Sending troops to reinforce the places under attack at this moment would definitely disperse the troops, resulting in insufficient assault force to break through the enemy's defense line.

  Seeing the enemy who rushed into the factory, advancing step by step towards the position of the temporary command post, Bronnikov couldn't help feeling extremely anxious. But in order not to arouse the panic of the commanders and fighters, he still forced himself to be calm and continued to observe the breakout operation in the east. He thought to himself, fortunately, the factory is as big as a medium-sized city, and it will take some time for the enemy to rush to him. As long as the assault troops can break through the enemy's defense line before then, then he still has a chance of survival.

When the battle continued at six o'clock in the morning, a group of enemies charging in from the south were less than 200 meters away from Bronnikov's command post. Seeing this, the militia captain anxiously said to Bronnikov: " Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the enemy has rushed up, let's get out of here quickly, or we will become prisoners of the enemy."

When Bronnikov saw the enemy appearing not far away, he also panicked, but he knew better that if he left with the command post at this moment, it would definitely affect the morale of the commanders, so he called a A sergeant, told him: "Comrade sergeant, have you seen the enemy charging from the south?"

   "I see."

   "I'll give you two classes of people, you go and block them."

   If it is on the open ground, it is simply impossible to rely on the strength of two squads to stop the German attack. However, because the factory was shelled and bombed, there were bricks and rubble everywhere, which was very beneficial to the defenders. The soldiers commanded by the sergeant relied on these terrains and fortifications to block the enemies twice as many as themselves.

  The troops that broke out from the front, under the cover of the Chiwin tank company, advanced little by little. Although during the attack, soldiers were constantly shot and fell down, but the rest of the commanders and fighters turned a blind eye. They only wanted to break through the enemy's defense line as soon as possible and jump out of the encirclement. As for the fallen comrades, they were handed over to the health workers behind for rescue.

When Qi Wen saw through the lookout hole in front of the tank that there were no enemies in front of him, he immediately realized that the breakout had been successful. He quickly opened the hatch of the turret, fired a white flare with a flare gun, and informed Bronnikov: the enemy The defense line has been breached.

Seeing the white signal flare rising into the air, Bronnikov breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Thank God, we have finally broken through the enemy's line of defense." Then he ordered the remaining troops to move east immediately, tearing away from the assault troops. Open the gap and jump out of the enemy's encirclement.

When Tansen learned that the Soviet army had broken through his defense in the east, he was furious. He called the commander of the regiment standing on the east side and threatened the other party: "I order you to stop the counterattack immediately, and the Russians must be torn apart." Close the gap that was made, and if a Russian escapes, I'll shoot you."

  After receiving Tansen's order, the commander of the German army immediately mobilized the troops of two companies to launch a counterattack, trying to block the breakthrough that was torn open by the Soviet army.

Seeing the swarming German army, Captain Qi Wen quickly ordered several other tanks: "Brothers, the Germans want to seal our breakthrough, don't be stingy with ammunition, hit me hard, and make sure our army breaks through smoothly. "

  The tank soldiers who received the order aimed their tank guns at the German army and coaxed them violently. The shells fell in the German column and exploded. From time to time, soldiers were blown up by the shells and flew into the air dancing, or were knocked down by the flying shrapnel, but the remaining morale still rushed forward bravely, trying to reach the Soviet army as soon as possible. In front of them, start a melee battle with them.

   Fortunately, at this moment, Bronnikov rushed over with more than 300 soldiers. Seeing the enemy rushing towards the breakthrough, he quickly seized the favorable terrain and killed the rushing enemy with intensive firepower. The German army did not expect that so many Soviet troops would suddenly appear at the breakthrough, and a large area was immediately knocked down by the intensive firepower, and the remaining soldiers retreated like a tide.

Seeing that the attacking enemy retreated, Bronnikov quickly stood up and shouted to the commanders and fighters lying on the left and right: "Brothers, the enemy has been repulsed by us, rush out along the breakthrough, and rush out as quickly as possible." Jump out of the enemy's encirclement."

Bronnikov ran with the soldiers for a while, and when he passed the tank of Captain Zivin, he stopped, and slammed the armor plate of the tank with the handle of his pistol, and at the same time shouted loudly: "Hey, Captain Chiwin!"

   Captain Qi Wen, who heard the knocking sound outside, opened the hatch again and stuck his head out: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what's the matter?"

   "The troops that can be brought out of the factory have already rushed out, so hurry up and follow."

   "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," Captain Qi Wen shouted at Bronnikov: "You go first, and I will catch up later."

  (end of this chapter)