Chapter 1371 Attack at night

   "Misha," Zhukov asked after Sokov finished speaking, "What are you going to do?"

"Comrade Marshal, when I dispatched scouts, my troops were already ready for battle." Sukov replied, "Since it has been determined that the enemy will retreat, I must not let them leave Belgrade so easily." Gorod, I will launch an attack on the German army in a quarter of an hour."

After finishing the conversation with Sokov, Zhukov said to Vasilevsky and Vatutin who were sitting at the table: "Command commanders, Misha's scouts reported to him that the enemy is withdrawing in an orderly manner. It looks like they plan to evacuate Belgorod overnight."

"Comrade Marshal, is this a conspiracy?" As soon as Zhukov finished speaking, Vatutin interjected: "You know, the enemy still has tens of thousands of defenders in Belgorod, including two armored divisions. And a lot of artillery. If they want to retreat overnight, the tanks and artillery will definitely not be taken away, they can only be thrown away. Do you think the Germans would do such a stupid thing?"

When Zhukov fell silent, Vasilevsky continued: "Comrade Marshal, even if the information provided by General Sokov is correct, the enemy really intends to use the cover of night to withdraw from Belgorod. But What can we do, order troops to attack?"

   Zhukov heard what Vasilevsky said, and didn't speak. He just glanced at it with meaningful eyes, and raised his chin, signaling him to continue talking.

Vasilevsky, who received Zhukov's instruction, continued: "You know, the combat order we issued to the troops not long ago was to stand firm and prevent possible night attacks by the enemy. But only an hour later, we ordered the troops From defense to offense. If this order is issued during the day, I have no doubt that it will cause heavy losses to the enemy. But when we attack at night, what should we do with the coordination of so many troops? Falling into chaos, the enemy took the opportunity to counterattack, how should we deal with it?"

  After Vasilevsky finished speaking, there was a silence in the room, and everyone was quietly thinking about what he said. If the troops are ordered to attack overnight, what about the coordination among many troops? If the enemy takes advantage of the chaos of the troops and launches a counterattack by surprise, what should we do?

   "Comrade Vasilevsky," Zhukov said after a long time: "If I understand correctly, do you mean to let our troops stand still and watch the enemy withdraw from Belgorod?"

"Comrade Marshal, I think that under the current circumstances, we should be more cautious and don't act rashly." Vasilevsky said to Zhukov earnestly: "Although the information provided by General Sokov said that the enemy is retreating. , but we don't know whether the enemy is really retreating, or it is a trap to lure our army into the trap."

  Zhukov lightly tapped his fingers to ponder, as if considering what Vasilevsky said. After a long time, he finally nodded slowly, and said: "Comrade Vasilevsky, you are right. If you order the troops to attack across the board, it will be a big problem for so many troops to coordinate operations at night. Once the attack If it doesn’t go well, the German army will launch a counterattack, and maybe the position we took with great difficulty will fall into the enemy’s hands again.”

  Vatutin heard Zhukov say this, with a surprised expression on his face: "Comrade Marshal, do you mean that there is no need to attack?"

"The large forces will continue to stay where they are, and we can send battalion-level combat units to attack the retreating enemy." Zhukov said to everyone: "Even if this retreat is a conspiracy arranged by the Germans, we will not pay too much. price."

   Seeing that Zhukov agreed not to send a large force to counterattack across the board, both Vasilevsky and Vatutin couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. After a while, Vasilevsky asked again: "If the Steppe Front Army and Sokov's troops want to attack the enemy overnight, do we need to ask?"

"No, Comrade Vasilevsky." Zhukov waved his hands and said, "The situation in Konev's place is different from ours. If they attack overnight, I believe they will achieve good results and at the same time they can take over the territory they occupied. The area is connected into one piece, which will be very helpful to our subsequent operations. I think it is not appropriate to interfere too much with the combat determination of the chief of the front army, and it is up to them to decide what to do."

   Konev, who was more than 20 kilometers away, suddenly sneezed non-stop. Susekov, who was sitting on the side, smiled and said according to the Russian tradition: "I wish you health! I wish you health!"

  Konev managed to stop his sneezing, and said strangely: "It's really strange. I haven't left the headquarters today. How could I catch a cold?"

   "Isn't someone talking about you behind your back?" Zakharov said with a smile, "Maybe Major General Sokov is thinking about you in his heart, so you keep sneezing."

"What is he talking about me?" Konev snorted and said, "I have already told him very clearly that the visibility at night is not high and it is not suitable for large corps to fight. In order to avoid confusion, the main force of the front army will not participate. Counterattack at night."

   "Comrade Commander," Zakharov asked with some concern after hearing what Konev said, "Can only one of Sokov's troops launch an attack and achieve results?"

"I believe Comrade Sokov, he must be capable of destroying more enemies." Konev said with a normal expression: "The reason why I didn't order the troops to go on the offensive is to give him more room for expression. Let's see how many enemies he can wipe out before dawn."

   "Are we just going to watch Sokov's troops fight with the tens of thousands of defenders in the city?" Susekov frowned and said, "Once the enemy launches a counterattack, I'm worried they will suffer."

"Don't worry, Comrade Military Commissioner, Sokov will never suffer." Konev said to Susekov with a smile: "Our troops entering the city of Belgorod have already made preparations for battle. Once I find out that Sokov is in a bad situation, I will send troops to support him, and I will never let him fight alone."

  Sokov reported the detected information to Zhukov and Konev respectively. But what he didn't expect was that both of them believed his report, but due to various reasons, they couldn't send troops to cooperate with him. In this way, it means that if Sokov wants to send troops to attack the retreating German army, he can only fight alone.

   Not only Sokov saw this, but even Chief of Staff Sameko also saw it. He looked at Sokov and asked worriedly: "Comrade Commander, neither the Voronezh Front Army nor the main force of our Front Army can send troops, so what should we do next, should we stay in the position and stay still, or attack according to the original plan?"

"Since they are unwilling to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, then we don't care about them." Sukov said decisively: "Chief of Staff, immediately issue orders to all divisions and brigades, let them save a few troops to carry out In addition to the defense, the rest of the troops immediately launched an attack on the enemy."

"clear."

Sokov picked up a pencil, drew a circle in the direction of the South Railway Station, and then tapped twice with the pen, telling Sameko: "Tell Colonel Koida that his 188th Infantry Division must first take the south of the city." railway station, smash the enemy's attempts to withdraw troops by rail transport, and keep as many enemies as possible in the city."

   "Understood." Sameko nodded and said, "I will tell Colonel Koida to concentrate on taking down the railway station so that the enemy cannot leave Belgorod by train."

  The battle soon began.

  Koida knows that a large number of German troops are gathering at the railway station today, trying to leave Belgorod by train here. Therefore, uncharacteristically, he no longer used the 562nd regiment to carry out assaults, but sent the 564th and 568th regiments to detour from the two wings to the train station, intending to occupy the train station in the shortest possible time.

   Cooperating with the two infantry regiments, there is also a tank battalion of the 4th Guards Tank Army. As the offensive order was issued, hundreds of commanders and fighters followed the T-34 tanks and rushed along the street to the railway station in the south of the city.

  Although they were intercepted by small German troops along the way, the enemy's resistance was completely vulnerable to absolute strength. Those exposed firepower points were either directly destroyed by tank guns, or were destroyed at close range by soldiers carrying rocket launchers.

  The train station in the south of the city is brightly lit, illuminating the platform and the surrounding rails clearly. Nearly 10,000 German soldiers gathered in the station, waiting for the train under the command of the officer.

   As soon as they saw Soviet tanks and infantry rushing down the street, the troops in charge of guarding the railway station immediately opened fire with anti-tank guns, mortars and machine guns. The shells landed on the way of the tank and exploded, blasting **** of dazzling flames and puffs of black smoke. The machine gun bullets hit the tank's armor plate like hail, but it did not slow down the tank's forward speed at all.

   Regardless of the anti-tank guns used by the German army, they are all 37mm anti-tank guns with the nickname "stepping stone", which cannot penetrate any Soviet tank at a distance of 200 meters. Although the German army fought lively, the casualties caused to the Soviet army were very limited.

Seeing that the enemy's blocking firepower caused negligible damage to his troops, the commander of the tank battalion immediately sent an order to his subordinates through the vehicle-mounted radio: "speed up, speed up, the enemy's anti-tank guns have no effect on our formation. Without any threat, we must destroy the enemy's defensive positions as soon as possible, and cover our troops from rushing into the railway station smoothly."

   A few minutes later, Soviet tanks rushed to the barricades outside the train station. The German officers and soldiers staying in the fortification saw the Soviet tanks close at hand, and immediately fled in fright. The Soviet tank soldiers took the opportunity to shoot at these enemies with their vehicle-mounted machine guns, knocking them down in pieces like shooting targets .

   Breaking through the German defense outside the train station, the tanks rushed into the train station and rumbled towards the platform where the German army was waiting for the train.

   In the military column closest to the gate of the station, countless soldiers are boarding the train. Seeing the tank rushing in, the soldiers were taken aback, stopped boarding the vehicle quickly, took off their weapons and shot at the tank. When the train driver saw the tank rushing towards his position, he was frightened out of his wits, started the train urgently, and drove south along the railway.

  The German officers and soldiers crowded on the platform opened fire on the rushing Soviet tanks, while others continued to board the vehicles. None of them thought that the train driver started the train hastily without even saying hello. For a while, dozens of unlucky German soldiers were caught under the wheels of the train and were crushed in two on the spot.

  Soviet tanks were shooting soldiers on the platform with machine guns, and bombarding trains in the distance with tank guns, so as to prevent another train from starting urgently and escape from the train station that was about to be occupied. The infantry of the Soviet army also arrived at this moment. They held assault rifles and shot at the crowded German officers and soldiers, causing the enemy to cry and howl with blood.

Although the number of German officers and soldiers staying on the platform exceeded that of the Soviet army, because they did not have solid fortifications and were eager to retreat and had no intention of fighting, when the Soviet infantry accompanied by the tank assault rushed in front of them, they became ready to be slaughtered. The lamb can only be slaughtered by the firepower of the Soviet army.

  After fighting for a while, some soldiers jumped off the platform, used the platform as a cover, and shot at the Soviet commanders and fighters who rushed up; while the other part fled desperately south along the railroad tracks.

  The battle at the station showed a one-sided trend from the very beginning. In less than half an hour, the sound of guns and guns in the station became sparse. The German troops who were eager to retreat had thrown away their baggage and had limited ammunition with them. They would run out of bullets and grenades within a short period of time.

  Guns without bullets are just useless fire sticks. Seeing the Soviet commanders and fighters swarming up, the surviving German officers and soldiers dare not continue to fight. They quickly throw away the weapons in their hands and raise their hands to surrender to the Soviet army.

Knowing that his troops had successfully captured the train station, Koyda quickly called Sokov to announce the good news: "Comrade Commander, I am honored to report to you that my troops have successfully captured the train station and captured We bought two hundred wagons and seven locomotives, in a word, the enemy's attempt to transport troops southward by railway was crushed by us."

   "Well done, Comrade Colonel." Knowing that Koida's troops had successfully captured the train station, Sokov couldn't help feeling ecstatic. Occupying the railway station, regardless of destroying the intention of the German army to use the train to transport troops south, the seized wagons and locomotives also solved the trouble of transporting troops to the direction of Kharkov. At least there is no need for the commanders and fighters to march on foot.

Considering that the Germans were not reconciled to losing the train station, they would definitely launch a crazy counterattack, so they told Koida: "But Comrade Colonel, I want to remind you. The enemy will never be reconciled to the station being occupied by us, and they will definitely find a way to regain Take the station. Your troops must hold the station firmly, and never let it fall into the hands of the enemy again."

   "Comrade commander, don't worry." Koyda assured Sokov: "Even if our division is wiped out, the enemy will never let the train station be taken away again."

  Although Sokov believes that the other party will fulfill his promise, for the sake of safety, he still resists the other party: "Comrade Colonel, if you have any difficulties, remember to call me in time, and I will find a way to solve it for you."

  (end of this chapter)