Chapter 1311

  The weird stalemate on the battlefield was soon known by the commander of the Grossdeutschland Division, General Herlein.

  He suddenly flew into a rage, furious at Colonel Lorenz, who was directing the battle: "Colonel, why did your attack stop?"

   "Your Excellency," Colonel Lorenz said bitterly, "the Russians ambushed an anti-tank unit in a bomb crater in the open ground, preventing our tanks from passing through."

"If tanks can't get through, then use infantry to attack." General Herlein said angrily: "Although Russian anti-tank fighters can pose a threat to our tanks, in front of our infantry, there is a group of soldiers waiting to be slaughtered." Lamb."

"Our infantry launched an attack on that group of Russians not long ago." Colonel Lorenz explained to Herlein: "Unexpectedly, before they got close to these Russians, they fired a lot of bombardments from their positions." The rockets killed and wounded hundreds of people.”

When Herlein heard this, he immediately understood that the troops under the command of Colonel Lorenz were attacked by the new Soviet rockets. The destruction of the Imperial Division and the Skeleton Division, as well as the heavy casualties of the Banner Guard Division, were all due to worship. gift of this weapon.

   "Your Excellency," Lorenz heard the silence from the microphone, thinking that Herlein was about to hang up the phone, and quickly raised his voice, "What method should we use to eliminate the Russian anti-tank force?"

   "Where is this anti-tank unit deployed?" Herlein asked looking at the map in front of him.

   "Deployed four to five hundred meters in front of the Russian trenches."

   "Colonel Lorenz, tell me about the battle just now."

   Colonel Lorenz didn't dare to neglect, and hurriedly reported the battle that happened not long ago to General Herlein in detail.

"Ok?"

"Ok!"

After hearing this, General Herlein snorted two voices with completely different emphasis from his nostrils: "Colonel Lorenz, I understand what's going on. I feel that if we want to destroy this Russian anti-tank force , the best thing to do, is to drive them out of hiding."

   "Get out?" Colonel Lorenz asked a little puzzled, "How?"

"Colonel Lorenz, according to what you just said, seven or eight tanks of our army blocked the retreat of these Russians, so they had to stay in the bomb crater and resist." Now that the reason for the stalemate on the battlefield is clear, General Herlein quickly came up with a countermeasure.

"You let those tanks go around where the Russian anti-tank fighters are, and retreat back to join the main force of our army." General Herlein was afraid that Lorenz would not understand his intentions, so he explained to him: "Once the Russians When people find that the tanks that cut off their rear have been withdrawn, they will not continue to hold on, and will return to their positions in the shortest possible time."

   "What if the Russian anti-tank fighters still refuse to leave after our tanks have withdrawn?"

"Then bombard their hiding places with mortars," Herlein said on the phone. "The tank guns may not hit the Russians hiding in the craters like rats, but the mortars are curved fire. Perfect for dealing with Russians in craters."

  After putting down the phone, Lorenz carefully considered Herlein's order, then he clenched his right hand and smashed it into the palm of his left hand. There was a snap, which startled the chief of staff who was concentrating on reading the telegram beside him.

Seeing the chief of staff cast a puzzled look at him, Lorenz began to issue orders: "Chief of staff, immediately order the tanks that cut off the retreat route of the Russian anti-tank fighters to find a way to return to join the main force. Wait for the tanks to withdraw. Afterwards, the positions where the Russians were hiding were heavily shelled with mortars."

  As the elite of the German Wehrmacht, the Grossdeutschland Division is undoubtedly the most complete in weapons and equipment. Soon after Lorenz's order was issued, more than a dozen 50mm mortars fired at the hiding place of Yegor and others.

  The mortars fired smoke bombs in addition to artillery shells. With little effort, clouds of smoke rose up in the middle area between the Soviet Union and Germany, blocking the vision of the officers and soldiers of both sides.

  As soon as the smoke rose, the German infantry, who had been defeated by the new rockets not long ago, bent down and used the cover of the smoke to quietly approach the hiding place of Yegor and others.

Seeing the smoke bombs rising suddenly and the mortar shells exploding nearby, Yegor realized that it was impossible to hold on here, so he shouted loudly to the left and right: "Retreat, before the enemy touches you, immediately retreat!" retreat."

  Egor's order was quickly passed on to every soldier through word of mouth. A soldier had just jumped out of the crater and was about to run towards the rear position when a shell fell beside him and exploded. During the explosion, the soldiers rolled down into the crater along with the kicked-up soil.

   Immediately, other soldiers stepped forward to check his injuries, only to find that he was covered in blood and had already passed away.

   "What are you still doing?" Yegor saw that his subordinates were frightened by several shells, and immediately shouted at them: "Why don't you retreat quickly, do you want to stay here as a prisoner of the Germans?"

  Egor’s words woke up the other soldiers, and everyone scrambled out of the hiding place, using short leaps to jump from one crater to another, trying to reduce the possibility of being hit by shrapnel.

   Fortunately, after running for tens of meters, the German shelling stopped. It should be that the German infantry entered the smoke area. The mortarmen stopped shelling for fear of accidental injury. But in this way, it also created a good opportunity for Yegor and others to escape.

"Comrades!" Yegor noticed that the enemy's shelling had stopped, so he stood up from the crater and shouted to the surrounding soldiers: "The enemy's shelling has stopped, run quickly! If you don't run, wait for the enemy's infantry to attack." Come up, even if you want to run, you can’t run away.”

  The German infantry came faster than Yegor had imagined. In less than a minute, dozens of German soldiers armed to the teeth passed through the smoke and appeared at the position where Yegor and the others hid not long ago. The German soldiers found no one in the crater, but there were more than 20 figures in the distance, fleeing towards the trenches in the distance.

  The German soldiers quickly raised the weapons in their hands, and shot desperately at the backs of Yegor and the others. It has to be said that the technical and tactical level of the officers and soldiers of the Grossdeutschland Division is not generally high. After a burst of intensive gunshots, the running figure suddenly fell down...

  As early as when the German army launched its offensive, Major General Malankin, who was on the second line of defense, had been staying in the observation post with a good view, holding up his binoculars to observe the battle ahead.

  When he saw the German tanks being destroyed one after another under the attack of Egor Company, he couldn't help applauding. When the German infantry attacked Yegor and the others, his heart couldn't help but rose into his throat. He knew very well that it would be impossible to block the attack of hundreds of German infantry with the twenty or so guns of the anti-tank troops. Arabian Nights. Fortunately, Guchakov ordered the soldiers to launch new rockets in time, blowing up the charging German infantry to pieces, which made him secretly relieved.

When he saw the strange stalemate on the battlefield, Marankin even smiled and said to the division political commissar who was watching: "Comrade political commissar, the Germans seem to be frightened by the comrades of the 188th division and dare not continue to attack. .”

  The political commissar also said with a smile: "It is undoubtedly in the best interest of our army that the two sides continue to stand in such a stalemate. The longer the delay, the more reinforcements we will rush over. Maybe we can launch a counterattack against the Germans by then."

The chief of staff brought a cup of tea to each of them, and said with a smile: "I really didn't expect that the troops trained by General Sokov were so good at fighting. Didn't touch it."

"This is just an undersized battalion, which can block the enemy and prevent them from advancing." Marankin shook his head and said, "If it is deployed here as a regiment, a division, or even an army group, what will it be like?" I can't even imagine the situation."

"Comrade Commander." The chief of staff waited for Marankin to finish speaking, and said, "When we blocked the German 19th and 6th Armored Divisions some time ago, the 188th Division showed amazing bravery and tenacity. Part of the 6th Armored Division and the 19th Armored Division, and even the Skeleton Division rushing towards Prokhorovka exchanged fire. If it was other units, I am afraid they would have been defeated long ago, but they are already maintaining the integrity of the organization Under such circumstances, the enemy's attacks were repelled again and again."

  While the three of them were standing by the lookout and chatting, they vaguely heard the explosion of shells in the distance. The chief of staff instinctively turned his head and found that the place where Yegor and the others were hiding was being shelled by the German army. At the same time, a cloud of smoke rose from the open space between them and the enemy.

   Seeing this, the chief of staff couldn't help exclaiming: "Damn it, the enemy is attacking the anti-tank squad again."

Hearing what the chief of staff said, Marankin said disapprovingly: "It's not that the enemy has never launched an attack. I think they will definitely have a **** head this time." Then, he handed over the teacup in his hand to The political commissar raised his binoculars and looked towards the battle area in the distance.

   After watching for a while, the smile on Major General Ma Lanjin's face froze.

  In order to cover the infantry attack, the German army actually fired smoke bombs, so that the anti-tank squad could not see the enemy clearly in the smoke.

  Malanjin's heartbeat accelerated, his breathing became short of breath, and his palms were covered with sweat.

   "Comrade Commander," the chief of staff raised his binoculars, and soon saw Yegor and others running back from their hiding place. He just grinned, and before he could speak, he suddenly saw the German soldiers rushing out of the smoke and shooting at the backs of the soldiers. Half of the soldiers were shot and fell to the ground immediately, and he couldn't help exclaiming: "Anti-tank!" The comrades in the squad are in danger."

  Hearing what the chief of staff said, the political commissar quickly grabbed a telescope and raised it to carefully observe the distant battlefield. Seeing the remaining ten or so soldiers, they continued to rush towards the position, and bullets hit their sides from time to time, splashing the soil on Lao Gao. But it was quiet in the trenches, and no one shot to cover them.

  Seeing this scene, the political commissar became anxious. He put down his binoculars and said to Marankin: "Comrade commander, those comrades are too dangerous. Should we do something to help them?"

   "That's right, Comrade Division Commander." The chief of staff echoed: "We can order the artillery regiment to fire at the enemy and cover them to withdraw safely to their positions."

"Political commissar and chief of staff, you are all commanders, especially at times like this, the more you must keep calm." Although Marankin was burning with anxiety at the moment, he understood that ordering the artillery to fire was because far water could not save near fire, so he had to force Scratching his scalp, he said: "Since Captain Guchakov in front did not ask us for help, it proves that they have a way to deal with these enemies."

  As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of shelling came from outside again, as if to make a footnote for what he just said.

The chief of staff looked in the direction of the gunfire for a while, and said pleasantly: "Comrade commander, what you said is really correct. It is the tanks deployed behind the front line that are firing. They are bombarding the edge of the smoke and shooting at the soldiers. soldiers."

  The German soldiers who were shooting at Yegor and their backs never dreamed that the Soviet tanks deployed behind the position would fire at them without warning.

  Although most of the soldiers jumped into the crater to escape before the shells landed and exploded, there were still more than a dozen soldiers who were blown away by the blast waves or knocked down by the flying shrapnel.

  Egor and others finally returned to the trench under the cover of tank fire. However, of the original 35 people, including Yegor, only 11 people remained, and half of them were wounded.

"Captain Yegor," Guchakov greeted Yegor as soon as he jumped into the trench, held his hand and said, "Good job, you have successfully eliminated 28 German tanks. The results of the battle. I will report the results of your battles to the regiment and ask for credit for you."

  Hearing Guchakov's praise, Yegor couldn't help grinning. But when he thought of those comrades who would never come back again, his expression became serious.

"Go down and rest first." Yegor's second company was basically wiped out, and it was useless to stay in the position, so Guchakov arranged for them to rest in the back: "We will do the rest. do it."

  Egor didn't speak, but nodded to Guchakov, and then led the rest of the soldiers along the traffic trench to the back.

After Yegor left with the soldiers, Guchakov called the company commander Narva to him, and said to him: "Comrade Captain, there is no anti-tank team threatening the German tanks in front, and the enemy will soon attack them." Are you ready for the new attack?"

Although his company has been preparing for battle, after hearing Guchakov's question, Narva replied loudly: "Comrade Captain, please rest assured that all the commanders and fighters of the company are ready to fight and are ready to fight back at any time." enemy attack."

  (end of this chapter)