Chapter 1195 Judgment of the enemy

  The camp of the 3rd Grenadier Regiment was attacked by artillery fire from the Soviet army. Such a big movement must have alarmed the division commander and banner captain Tansen. Just after dawn, he took the division chief of staff, several officers and a group of guards and hurried to the site of the attack.

Looking at the camp full of huge bomb craters, charred corpses everywhere, and the lingering stench of corpses in the air, Tansen's face became disfigured with anger, and he ordered an officer: "Go and take the surviving corpses to the ground." The officer called over, I want to ask what happened here?"

  A German captain who was lucky enough to save his life soon came to Tansen and reported to him with lingering fear: "Your Excellency, the Russians used at least two artillery regiments to bombard our camp in the middle of the night."

"Nonsense, it's nonsense." After hearing the captain's answer, Tansen cursed angrily: "If the Russians have the ability to gather two artillery regiments to attack you, their defense line will not be so easily defeated by our army." Breakthrough."

  Among the officers brought by Tansen, one of the officers had been subjected to a similar night attack. After Tansen finished speaking, he said cautiously: "Your Excellency, if I guessed correctly, the Russians used their new rockets to carry out a shameless attack on our camp."

   "New type of rocket?" Tansen asked in puzzlement when he heard the word, "What is it?"

The officer knew that Tansen was wounded and returned to Berlin as early as February, and did not understand many things that happened later, so he explained to him: "As early as when General Paulus' troops attacked Stalingrad, the Russians developed To create a rocket that can be launched anywhere, although the size of the rocket has shrunk, but the power has not weakened much."

   "Really?" Tansen said with some doubts: "If the Russians launched this new type of rocket so early, why have I never heard of it?"

   "Your Excellency, you haven't heard of it because this weapon is only equipped with Sokov's troops..."

   "Sokov?!" Hearing this disgusting name, Tansen's pupils couldn't help constricting violently: "Is that the Russian commander who severely damaged the SS Panzer Army?"

"Yes, your Excellency, it is him." The officer continued: "According to the information we have, he served as the commander of the Russian 27th Army a few months ago, and now the troops are living in the Koski area. .”

   Tansen was silent for a long time after listening, and finally said: "If his troops are still in Koski at this moment, then which troops will use this new type of rockets to attack our camp?"

  The officer said cautiously: "Could it be that other Russian troops are also equipped with this weapon?"

"It's impossible." Tansen immediately denied the officer's statement: "Based on what I know about the Russians, if they were equipped with this kind of weapon, they would definitely use it when our army broke through their line of defense, and definitely not in the middle of the night. It is used to sneak attack on our army camp. Immediately arrange manpower to search around to see if there are any traces of Russians.”

   "Your Excellency," the captain, who had been ignored for a long time, finally found a chance to speak: "After dawn, I have organized the surviving personnel to search nearby."

   "Is there any gain?"

   "The search team I sent found a suspected launch position in the north of the camp..."

   "Where is it?" Tansen asked impatiently before the captain finished speaking, "Hurry up and take me there."

  A group of people took an armored vehicle and came to the place the captain said.

  Here, you can clearly see the traces left by the launching tube on the mud, and the traces of the flame tail burning on the ground after the rocket was fired.

"That's right, it's here." After Tansen carefully inspected the surrounding ground, he pointed to the ground and said, "Look, there are traces of flames on the ground, which should be left by the Russians when they fired rockets. .Also, there are many traces of track crushing around, they should have arrived here in armored vehicles."

  The chief of staff of the division, who hadn't spoken a word from the beginning to the end, suddenly said: "Mr. Banner Captain, I think the search area should be expanded, and maybe more clues can be found."

   "What you said makes sense." Tansen immediately issued a new order: "Immediately transfer people over, follow the traces of the tracks, and find out where the Russians came from."

  As the order was issued, a motorized company was quickly transferred to search along the tracks. Soon, the German soldiers found the place where Gelia and the others had rested, and found a lot of leftover garbage. After some inspection, the division chief of staff picked up an empty can on the ground, handed it to Tansen, and said to him, "Mr. Banner Captain, would you like to see this?"

   "Isn't this an empty meat can?" Tansen took a look at the can and said disapprovingly, "What's so unusual?"

"Mr. Banner Captain, this kind of canned food is neither issued by our army nor produced by the Russians." Seeing that Tansen didn't pay much attention to his discovery, the chief of staff of the division quickly said to him: "This is stewed meat from the United States. can."

   "Canned stewed meat from the United States?" Tansen said with some surprise: "We have never seen such a thing among the materials seized from the Russians."

   "Then you are right, Mr. Banner Captain." The division chief of staff nodded and said, "As far as I know, these canned meat stews from the United States are all given priority to the Russian reserve forces."

  "Reserve troops?" Tansen couldn't help frowning at the words of the division chief of staff: "Chief of staff, what do you mean to say that the Russians have transferred their reserve troops?"

   "It's entirely possible." The division chief of staff said solemnly: "I have a feeling that in the next battle, we may confront Sokov's troops."

"That's unlikely, right?" Don't see that Tansen has never fought against Sokov, but he knows very well in his heart that an enemy who can beat the SS Panzer Army is very troublesome. of. Although he agreed with the chief of staff's statement in his heart, he still tried his best to deny it: "The Russian command system has always been slow to respond. Make a correct judgment. At least four or five days have passed before the new troops are transferred to the battle area, and by then the situation on the entire battlefield has become very favorable to our army."

"Sokov is different from ordinary Russian commanders. He has a very keen sense of touch," the division chief of staff reminded Tansen, "Maybe the day our army launched an attack on Kursk, he began to mobilize troops. Therefore, the short-term It is still entirely possible to find his troops nearby within a certain period of time."

  Just as Tansen was thinking about the statement made by the chief of staff of the division, the motorized company that went out to the direction of Shumakovo sent a corporal back to report the situation to Tansen.

   "Tell me," Tansen, who was sitting on the armored vehicle, looked at the corporal standing beside the vehicle and asked, "What have you found?"

"Report to Your Excellency, Division Commander." The corporal reported respectfully: "About five kilometers away from Shumakovo, we found a motorized patrol team that was wiped out. Under the circumstances, it was attacked at close range."

   "He was attacked at close range without any precautions?" Tansen asked puzzledly, "Why did this happen?"

"Mr. Banner Captain." The chief of staff of the division had already guessed a possibility from the corporal's report, and said cautiously: "I think the Russians who attacked them should all be wearing our army's uniforms, and they may even be riding in our army." The army's armored vehicles will make this patrol completely let down its vigilance."

"So," after listening to the analysis of the division chief of staff, Tansen also had a clearer understanding of what happened: "The Russians who attacked our army's camp were wearing our army's uniforms and riding in our army's armored vehicles. , sneaked into our army's defense zone. When they left, they also killed one of our patrols."

   "Yes, it should be like this."

Thinking of the sneak attack of the Soviet army at night and the destruction of one of his own patrols, Tansen became furious. He leaned over and ordered the corporal next to the car: "Go back and tell your company commander immediately, let him continue to lead people to Shumakovo , find out the number of the troops deployed by the Russians there, and report to me as soon as possible."

  (end of this chapter)