Chapter 1206 Critical moment

  Sokov now has a strong army and a large number of people, but the reason why he only invested in one division and three brigades in the battle to encircle and annihilate the Imperial Division is entirely because the terrain here is complex, which is not conducive to the deployment of large forces.

  Seeing that the sky was about to dawn, but the battle was not as smooth as he had imagined. The three brigades attacking from north to south, because he personally commanded the battle, fought very methodically, and the German army retreated steadily. However, the infantry division attacking on the southern front moved slowly and fought all night. Not only failed to join forces as planned, but was blocked by the German army two kilometers away.

Looking at the bright sky in the east, Sokov couldn't help frowning. Don't look at his troops inflicting heavy damage on the Imperial Division during the night battle, but as soon as the day dawned, the enemy's planes appeared in the sky and pointed at him. The troops bombarded indiscriminately for a while, and the situation on the battlefield will develop in a direction favorable to the German army.

  In addition, he received a report from Gritsenko that they had found enemy troops in the rear, and if they continued to fight, they might be encircled. In order to prevent this from happening, Sokov decided to adjust his tactics and put the 84th Marine Brigade, which had been on standby, into battle ahead of schedule.

  Colonel Chuvashov watched the friendly army and the German army fight all night, while his own troops followed behind like a logistical force without firing a single shot. He was even worried that until the moment when the Imperial Division was wiped out, his troops might not have the chance to participate in the battle. Hearing Sokov's order at this moment, he was overjoyed and quickly replied, "Don't worry, Comrade Commander, we will definitely rush over to join our friendly forces as soon as possible."

"Wait a minute, Comrade Colonel." Seeing that Chuvashov was leaving in a hurry, Sokov quickly stopped him, pointed to the map and analyzed to him: "Now the 62nd Brigade of Lieutenant Colonel Dobrushin and the enemy We have already fallen into a stalemate, if you enter the battlefield from their position, I am afraid it will be difficult to break through the enemy's defense in a short time."

   "Then what should we do, Comrade Commander?" Chuvashov asked modestly.

"A detour, let's use a flank detour." Sokov drew a route on the map with his fingers, and said to Chuvashov: "It is best to detour from the enemy's left flank. That direction is under the control of friendly forces. Take action there and get the help of friendly forces."

   Just when Sokov put his reserve team into battle, Major General Gritsenko encountered unexpected danger. He was calling his regiment commander to ask how the attack was going, when suddenly a soldier came in with a gun and shouted loudly: "Comrade commander, something happened, something happened!"

   Seeing this noisy soldier, Gritsenko couldn't help frowning: "What happened?"

   "Tank, the enemy's tank." The soldier replied, "There is a German tank coming towards us."

   "Chief of Staff," Gritsenko heard the news, immediately called the Chief of Staff, and told him: "Let the guard battalion use rocket launchers to kill the enemy's tanks. They must not be allowed to approach the division headquarters."

   "Comrade division commander," unexpectedly, after hearing Gritsenko's order, the division chief of staff said with embarrassment: "the guard battalion has no rocket launchers at all."

   "What, there are no rocket launchers in the guard battalion?" Gritsenko asked with a straight face: "I remember that there were two rocket launchers?"

"Yes, there were indeed two rocket launchers in the guard battalion before dark yesterday." The division chief of staff argued: "But last night you ordered all the new rockets and rocket launchers to be gathered and handed over to the main attacking troops. Now there are not only no rocket launchers in the guard camp, even the new type of rockets are gone.”

   "Damn!" As soon as Major General Gritsenko uttered a word, he heard a loud noise from outside, and then the dust from the roof fell like snow, covering his whole body with dirt. Gritsenko raised his hand and patted his shoulder, and continued to say to the chief of staff: "Since there is no bazooka, then use cluster grenades to blow it up. We must destroy this lone German tank."

  Because the front attack was not going well, Gritsenko transferred two companies from the guard battalion to strengthen the front troops. Now there is only one company left. After receiving the order, the guard battalion commander felt that all his troops could not be used to intercept the enemy's tanks, so he left a platoon to continue to be responsible for the defense of the division headquarters, while he took the soldiers of the other two platoons to Intercept the lone tank of the enemy.

  The German tanks that appeared here got lost because it was too dark. It was almost dawn now, and the tank commander found that the front seemed to be a Soviet position, so he ordered the gunner to fire a shot. Unexpectedly, after the cannon fired, a large number of Soviet troops appeared. They ran around in the simple trenches, and the commander quickly gave orders: "Reload!"

  As the order was issued, the loader quickly loaded the shells into the turret. After a brief aiming, the shell is fired. The shell exploded two meters away from the trench, setting off a column of mud that soared into the sky, and the flying mud caused the soldiers who were running in the trench to squat down.

   "Comrade Major," a soldier nervously asked the guard battalion commander lying next to him: "The enemy tank is at least 400 meters away from them. How can we destroy it?"

   "Don't worry." Seeing the enemy's tanks staying far away from the trenches, the battalion commander understood that letting his soldiers run such a long distance to blow up the tanks was purely to send them to death. So after a short thought, he replied: "Pass it down, everyone pay attention to concealment, no one is allowed to fire without my order!"

  The battalion commander's order quickly spread throughout the entire position through the soldiers on the left and right: "The battalion commander has an order, pay attention to concealment, no one is allowed to fire without his order!"

  After the German commander ordered the gunner to fire two shots, he found that the Soviet army did not fight back at all. He immediately understood that the opponent did not have long-range anti-tank weapons and could not destroy his tank at a long distance. But he was reluctant to let him continue to bombard the Russians hiding in the trenches, because it was a waste of precious shells.

   "Commander," the driver asked tentatively seeing that the commander neither gave an order to advance nor ordered the gunner to fire, "What should we do next, and stay here forever?"

"Don't you know that we don't have the cover of infantry, so we can't pass through the Russian trenches at all? I don't want my tank to be destroyed by the Russians." The commander said, and he used the car radio to contact his superiors, hoping that the other party would send Order infantry to support yourself.

"What, you said you found the Russian headquarters?" After hearing the commander's report, the German commander immediately beamed with joy: "I'll send you two tanks and five armored vehicles over there immediately. As long as their headquarters are eliminated, the Russian troops who are attacking the Imperial Division will fall into chaos because of the loss of unified command.”

  The chief of staff of the division saw that the German tanks stayed a few hundred meters away and no longer took any action, so he suggested to Gritsenko: "Comrade commander, this place is too dangerous. Should we move to another place?"

"No, we can't leave at this time." Gritsenko said stubbornly: "Don't forget, there are two platoons of soldiers outside who are ready to fight the enemy desperately. If we choose to leave at this moment, it will affect their morale and morale will have adverse effects.”

   "Okay, Comrade Division Commander." Seeing that Gritsenko was unwilling to leave, the Division Chief of Staff had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​transferring: "I will stay and accompany you to face the enemy."

"Chief of Staff, call the troops at the front and ask them to speed up their attack." Major General Gritsenko didn't insist on going his own way. The friendly troops who came to join forces. As long as the two sides join forces, these enemies are nothing to worry about.

   There are still about 4,000 German troops compressed in a narrow area by the northern and southern troops. The division commander ran away, and the remaining commanders of the troops were the heads of the regiments. These officers with rich combat experience soon discovered the disparity in the strength of the Soviet troops coming from the two directions. Strike hard. After understanding the combat characteristics of the Soviet army, the German army adopted the tactics of defense in the north, defense in the south and counterattack to deal with the attack of the Soviet army.

  When they repelled the attack of the infantry division, they would seize the opportunity to launch a counterattack, which not only caused huge casualties to the Soviet army, but also restored some lost positions.

  The three regiments of the Infantry Division had already suffered heavy casualties after an all-night battle, and were unable to launch a new attack at all. But at this time, the chief of staff of the division also called the heads of the regiments, saying that enemy tanks were found near the division headquarters. In order to ensure the safety of the division headquarters, they must intensify their offensive efforts and break through the enemy's tanks as soon as possible. Defend, join forces with oncoming friendly forces, and save troops from danger.

"What should we do?" The three regiment leaders gathered together to discuss: "The division headquarters is in danger, and we can't go back to rescue. It seems that we can only organize another attack and try to break through the enemy's defense line as soon as possible. As long as we join forces with friendly troops, then Naturally, the division headquarters can be rescued from danger."

  But before the remnants of the three regiments launched an attack again, the German army preemptively launched a counterattack. Those commanders and fighters who rushed out of the trenches came face to face with the enemy, and the two sides had no time to make any evasive actions, so they opened fire directly. In the dense gunfire, officers and soldiers on both sides fell in pieces, and the living people were still pulling the trigger.

Fortunately, the Soviet army replaced the assault rifles not long ago, and they had an advantage in firepower. Although they suffered a lot of casualties, they knocked down most of the enemies who rushed out, and the remaining enemies fled back to their positions in a hurry .

  Suffering such heavy casualties, they must be unable to continue to attack, and the Soviet commanders and fighters had no choice but to retreat to their positions. After preparing to regroup, launch a new attack on the enemy.

  When the Soviet commanders retreated to their positions one after another, there was a strange sound in the air, and then they saw many rockets with long flame tails rising from the west, flying towards the German positions. Soon, the German position was shrouded in dazzling flames and billowing smoke, and at the same time there was a huge roar.

"What's going on here?" The three regiment leaders staying in the temporary command post rushed out immediately when they heard the explosion outside. They looked at the enemy's position shrouded in gunpowder smoke in the distance, and asked dumbfounded: "What is this?" What's going on, where did the rockets come from?"

   "Reporting regiment commanders and comrades," a soldier next to him quickly replied, "I can see clearly that it flew from the west, and it was probably launched by a friendly army."

"A friendly army?" Hearing what the soldiers said, a regiment leader frowned and said, "Isn't the friendly army that came to meet us in the north? When will another friendly army come from the west? "

  Before everyone figured out what was going on, they heard a faint voice shouting "Ula" from a distance. Everyone looked around, and saw countless sailors in black navy uniforms, holding new assault rifles, attacking the enemy's position from the west.

"Our reinforcements are here!" Seeing the appearance of the friendly troops, the regiment leader immediately became excited like a chicken blood, and he kept shouting: "Comrades, we can't just stand here and do nothing. Immediately organize the troops and launch another charge, I guess this time we will be able to break through the enemy's defense line."

Just when the main force of the 384th Division, together with the Marine Brigade that appeared suddenly, launched an attack on the enemy's position, Major General Gritsenko's division headquarters encountered a great threat, and two more tanks appeared in the distance tanks and five armored personnel carriers.

  After the two tanks lined up with the original tank, the German officers and soldiers on the armored personnel carrier jumped out of the vehicle one after another, seized the favorable terrain, and made preparations for the attack.

  Seeing the German tanks and armored vehicles appearing in the distance, the guard battalion commander was very anxious. If the enemy really rushed over, he would not be able to stop it with his own strength. Thinking of this, he quickly ordered: "Machine gun fire, destroy the enemy's infantry!"

   Following the order, the two turntable machine guns started firing. Since the German infantry were either lying on the ground or hiding behind the tanks, the Soviet fire did not achieve any results. Occasionally, a few bullets hit the armor of the tank, and they would be quickly bounced off, leaving only a trail of sparks.

  How could the German tanks let the Soviet machine guns shoot unscrupulously? The three tanks adjusted the position of the turret, aimed at the position of the machine gun and fired. After three loud bangs, the two turntable machine guns and the machine gunner were blown to pieces, and even the surrounding soldiers suffered a lot of casualties.

  Seeing this situation, the battalion commander stomped his feet angrily. If he had known this earlier, he should have sent someone to take a risky attack just now to blow up the enemy tanks. It's too late to blow up the enemy's tanks now. The distance of several hundred meters is all open. No matter how many soldiers I send, it means sending them to death.

  (end of this chapter)