Chapter 1292 Retreat (Part 1)

  Bakharov was silent. He silently put the microphone back on the phone base, took off his military cap, and mourned silently for the sacrificed subordinates. Colonel Shechtman, who was standing beside him, also heard the news from the earphones clearly, took off his military cap, and mourned silently for the sacrificed brigade commander.

About a minute later, Baharov put on his military cap again, turned his head and said to Shechtman who was standing aside: "Comrade Colonel, I heard that you are equipped with a weapon that can attack German tanks from a long distance. Is it true?" Is it?"

"It's true, Comrade General." Shechtman understood Baharov's meaning, and quickly continued: "Let the remaining tanks find a place to hide first, so as to avoid being attacked by Tiger tanks and self-propelled anti-tank guns. As for the attack, I let the anti-tank team go up and kill the enemy tanks and anti-tank guns at close range."

   "Okay, I will immediately notify the front tank brigade to temporarily stop their attack and stop to find a place to hide."

Unexpectedly, things were not as simple as Baharov and Shechtman imagined. Since the infantry was too far behind and the tanks of the tank brigade were looking for a place to hide, they were still on their way over, so that this section of the battlefield suddenly It became quiet, only the many burning tanks and the craters emitting green smoke, reminding people that there was still a fierce battle here not long ago.

  Five minutes later, Baharov suddenly received a call from Rotmistrov. On the phone, the bespectacled commander asked angrily: "General Baharov, what the **** is going on, why did you stop the offensive?"

"Comrade Commander," Baharov replied with some embarrassment, "we are attacking behind the German positions. There are a large number of Tiger tanks and Rhino self-propelled anti-tank guns. My tanks 170th and 181st brigades are in their The blow suffered heavy losses, even the commander of the 170th brigade died."

   Knowing that one of Baharov's brigade commanders had died in battle, Rotmistrov was silent. After a while, he asked in a hoarse voice, "What are you going to do next?"

Baharov glanced at Shechtman beside him, and replied: "I have discussed with Colonel Shechtman, the commander of the infantry division. My tank will find a place to hide first, and his infantry will go up to it and use anti-tank guns to attack it." weapons to destroy enemy tanks."

   "Colonel Shechtman?" After repeating the name, Rotmistrov asked tentatively, "Whose subordinate is he? Is he a subordinate of General Kryuchenkin of the 69th Army?"

"No, Comrade General, I am not from the 69th Army." Shechtman, who was next to him, heard Rotmistrov mention his name, and said loudly and proudly: "My 254th Infantry Division It belongs to the 27th Army and is the unit of Major General Sokov."

"Oh, it turned out to be Sokov's troops." When he heard that the opponent was Sokov's troops, Rotmistrov felt inexplicably relieved, and asked politely, "How do you plan to destroy the enemy's tanks?" ?”

   "I plan to let the anti-tank team rush up and use the bazooka to destroy the enemy tanks at close range."

"I've heard of bazookas, but I've never seen one." Rotmistrov said on the phone: "Although the enemy's tanks have retreated, there are still infantry standing on their positions. Are you sure your Can the anti-tank team successfully approach the enemy's tanks and anti-tank guns?"

  Rotmistrov's words stopped Shechtman, and he was thinking silently in his heart, how can he successfully break through the enemy's defense line and let the anti-tank team destroy the German tanks and anti-tank guns?

Seeing that Shechtman remained silent for a long time, Rotmistrov said again: "The superior ordered us to break through the German defense line quickly. I'm afraid we can't rely on the infantry alone. I'll see if we can request the air force to dispatch them. Provide you with air cover."

"Comrade Commander," Baharov was overjoyed when he learned that Rotmistrov was going to dispatch the air force, and said repeatedly: "It would be great if we could get the support of the air force. As far as I know, the air force Now there is a kind of high-explosive aerial bomb, which is used to deal with German tanks. If these aerial bombs are used to bomb German tanks, no matter how strong the Tiger tank is, it may not be able to withstand it."

   After Rotmistrov finished talking with Baharov, he ordered someone to connect to Vatutin's command post. As soon as the phone was connected, he said straight to the point: "Comrade General, this is Rotmistrov. I would like to make a request to you now."

   "General Rotmistrov, if you have any requests, please ask." Vatutin said: "As long as I can do it, I will definitely agree to you."

"My 18th Tank Corps was in the southwest of the city, attacking the German Banner Guard Division. Today, the 181st and 170th Tank Brigades are attacking positions, and the Germans have a large number of Tiger tanks and Rhino self-propelled anti-tank guns. In the impact not long ago, they suffered huge losses, and even the commander of the 170th Brigade was killed."

   Knowing that a tank brigade commander died in the battle, Vatutin couldn't help being surprised: "What, is the enemy's defense so tenacious? General Rotmistrov, what kind of help do you want me to provide?"

   "I hope to get air support, so that the attack aircraft can carry the kind of aerial bombs that are specially designed to deal with tanks, to support the 181st and 170th brigades, destroy the German tanks on the ground, so that they can successfully break through the German defenses."

Before giving Rotmistrov a final answer, Vatutin first had to find out which infantry unit was assisting the tank army in this area: "Which unit is fighting with the 18th tank army? "

"It is the 254th Infantry Division of the 27th Army, and the division commander is Colonel Shechtman." Rotmistrov reported to Vatutin: "He told me that he intends to let the anti-tank team approach the enemy tanks. Destroy enemy tanks with bazookas."

"Isn't this very good." Vatutin said casually when he heard this: "Although the shooting distance of this anti-tank weapon is not as good as that of ordinary anti-tank guns, it has very strong penetration. Within a range of 100 meters, even the thick armor of a Tiger tank can penetrate it."

"Comrade General, because the tank brigade's assault speed was too fast during the attack, the infantry was thrown too far, and the infantry has not yet approached the enemy's position." Rotmistrov saw that Vatutin did not understand what he wanted. Expressing the intention, he quickly continued: "The position to break through, in addition to the German Tiger tanks and self-propelled anti-tank guns, there are also a large number of infantry. I am worried that the infantry of the friendly army will not be able to break through the enemy's defense line in a short time."

  After Rotmistrov's explanation, Vatutin realized that he had just thought about the problem too simply. Today, the tanks covering the attack can no longer charge forward after suffering huge losses, and the infantry has lost the cover of the tanks, and the difficulty of breaking through the enemy's position is increasing exponentially.

"Oh, I see, General Rotmistrov." At this moment, Vatutin also felt that the best way to quickly break through the German defense line was to dispatch the air force to destroy the Tiger tanks and self-propelled vehicles behind the German positions. Anti-tank guns, so that the Soviet tanks can provide cover for the attacking infantry again: "I will immediately call the commander of the Air Force Group and ask him to dispatch an attack plane to the location you designated to destroy the enemy's tanks and Anti-tank guns."

  An attack aircraft regiment on standby at the field airport took less than two minutes to take off after receiving the attack order, and quickly completed formation in the air, flying towards the defense zone of the Banner Guard Division.

A few minutes later, the assault aircraft regiment came over the battlefield, and the commanders and fighters of the 254th Division had just arrived at the position of the anti-tank trench. Due to the suppression of the German machine gun fire, the commanders and fighters could only hide in the anti-tank trench. The German troops on the ground fired at each other.

  The Tiger tank behind the German position, because the rear of the body was covered with a huge gun, was quickly spotted by the attack aircraft in the air. After seeing the situation below, the commander of the fighter plane issued an order to his subordinates: "Attention everyone, attention everyone, attack the German Tiger tanks first. Repeat, attack the German Tiger tanks first."

   "Understood!" "Understood!" Many pilots responded immediately through the communication channel.

  After the order was clear, the attack planes lowered their altitude one after another and swooped down towards the Tiger tank on the ground. For well-trained and experienced attack aircraft pilots, the Tiger tank covered with huge guns is like a target on the training ground. As long as you aim at that position and drop the bomb, you can easily destroy the enemy's tanks. tank.

  More than a dozen aerial bombs fell from the sky and exploded around the scattered Tiger tanks. The rising mud blocked the pilot's sight, making it impossible for them to confirm whether they had destroyed the target in the first place.

  When the pilots pulled up the attack aircraft and hovered at high altitude, they could clearly see that four tanks were burning, and the remaining tanks also left their original positions, and were doing evasive actions on the ground in order to avoid air strikes.

   "Brothers," the flight leader was somewhat disappointed when he saw that only four Tiger tanks were destroyed in the first wave of attacks. He thought that at most two or three tanks could escape the bombing. However, he was not discouraged, but shouted again through the communication channel: "Do it again, this time try to kill all the enemy's Tiger tanks."

  A new round of attacks launched by the attack aircraft destroyed three German tanks again, and the deflected aerial bombs accidentally destroyed two Rhino self-propelled anti-tank guns, which is also an unexpected surprise.

  The Soviet tanks hidden in the distance saw the Tiger tanks and self-propelled anti-tank guns hidden behind the German positions, which threatened them hugely. Some of them stopped in front of the anti-tank trenches, using artillery fire to destroy the firepower points on the German positions, and covered the infantry to launch a charge; while the other part of the tanks were looking for a way to bypass the enemy's anti-tank trenches, so that after the infantry captured the enemy's positions, they could cover them Go deep into the enemy's defenses.

   Without the cover of Tiger tanks and self-propelled anti-tank guns, the German officers and soldiers panicked when faced with the Soviet tanks rushing up from the anti-tank trenches. If it was the Wehrmacht, maybe the defense line would have collapsed; but at this time the defenders in the position were the SS. They knew what would happen to them if they fell into the hands of the Soviet army. They knew they were invincible, but they were still stubbornly resisting.

  After the commanders and fighters of the 254th Division jumped into the trench, they started close combat with the stubborn enemy inside. To seize every section of trench, every traffic trench, and every bunker will cost the lives of a dozen or even dozens of commanders and fighters. Fortunately, the number of German troops is not large, only more than 400 people. This kind of battle of exhaustion came to an end with the death of all German officers and soldiers.

   Sokov, who was tens of kilometers away, could not see the battle with his own eyes, but he was always uneasy. He was worried that his two divisions would suffer heavy casualties in this all-out counterattack. If you want to ask how the troops are attacking, but these two divisions are not under their own command now, and it is taboo for them to even contact the commanders.

When he was considering whether to call Vatutin and ask himself about the performance of the two divisions on the battlefield, he suddenly saw Samoilov rushing in from the outside, and he said out of breath: "Report Comrade Commander, the reinforcements from our superiors have arrived."

   "Oh, the additional soldiers from the superior have arrived?" Sokov couldn't help being overjoyed when he heard the news, and asked quickly, "Where are they now?"

   "It's on the open ground near the headquarters."

"Chief of Staff, Comrade Military Commissar." Anyway, there is nothing in the headquarters at the moment, Sokov decided to ask Sameko and Lunev to go and see the new recruits that his superiors added to him: "Let's go and see together. Look."

When Sokov passed by Samoilov, he saw that instead of a happy expression on his face, he was frowning, so he asked curiously: "Comrade Lieutenant, do you have something on your mind? "

   "Comrade Commander," Samoilov said hesitantly, "This batch of recruits, this batch of recruits may not satisfy you. You must first make a mental preparation."

Sokov didn't care about Samoilov's statement at all: "Don't worry, Comrade Lieutenant, Comrade Marshal has told me that these people have no combat experience, and they must be trained to be combat-ready." Troops, there may be certain difficulties, but I think we should be able to overcome these difficulties. Let's go, let's go and see the new recruits that have been added to us."

Sokov took two steps. Seeing that Samoilov was still standing there, he turned to him and said, "Comrade Lieutenant, you can call Colonel Khokhlov, the commander of the 182nd Division, and ask him to take someone with him." Come here to receive recruits."

Sokov and the other three came out of the headquarters. At a glance, they saw dozens of hundreds of trucks parked on the open ground tens of meters away. The trucks were surrounded by people wearing new military uniforms. They should be supplemented by their superiors. recruits.

   When the three of them walked over and saw the recruits lined up on the open ground, they were all dumbfounded. After a while, Lunev asked, "Comrade Commander, these are the recruits that Marshal Zhukov added to us."

  Sameko waited for Lunev to finish, and immediately added: "I finally understand why Lieutenant Samoilov has such an expression after he reported the arrival of the recruits to us."

  Sokov looked at the more than 2,000 recruits wearing new military uniforms in front of him, and even thought of hanging himself. Zhukov only told himself that these people had no military training and no combat experience. At this moment, he finally understood why the other party said that. Among the recruits in front of him, they were either old men in their fifties or sixties, or children in their thirteens and fourteens. Such people could not go to the battlefield at all, and it was normal for them to have no combat experience.

Recalling the rumors I heard before, during the defense of Moscow, Rokossovsky ordered people to clear out all the recruits who were under the age of 18, so that they would not be allowed to stay on the dangerous battlefield, but returned to the battlefield. to the rear, lest they sacrifice their young lives in vain.

   Now that he has added more than 2,000 old men and child soldiers to himself, Sokov is in a dilemma: should he keep them, or let them return to the rear?

  (end of this chapter)