Chapter 1463 Ambush

  The troops attacking the hilltop position were again repelled by the intensive firepower of the German army. Fortunately, what Sokov was most worried about did not happen. The German troops on the top of the mountain were worried that they would be attacked by Soviet tank fire, so they did not carry out a counter-attack, so that the remaining commanders and fighters retreated safely to the mountainside position.

   "Comrade Commander," Weissbach said to Sokov with a bitter face when he saw that his remaining troops had retreated into the mountainside position again: "Do you think the troops from the Fesky collective farm will be transferred here?"

"Comrade Colonel, in order to seize this high ground, I sent you 3,000 men, plus a tank battalion." Sukov said dissatisfiedly after hearing Weisbach's misfortune, "We fought for hours, and even an hour You can't take down the small hilltop positions, so you still have the guts to ask me to send more troops over?"

   Seeing that Sokov was unwilling to transfer new troops, Weissbach felt a little disappointed. He knew very well that with his current strength and equipment, he couldn't win the high ground at all. If you can't win the high ground, you will definitely lose your position as a teacher.

   While he was feeling down, an officer ran over to report to him: "Comrade Commander, the artillery from the Fisky collective farm has arrived."

  Knowing that the artillery was coming, Weisbach finally had a smile on his face: "Is it two mortar companies?"

   "According to my observation, there should be more than two mortar companies." The officer replied, "I think there are at least seven or eight hundred people."

   "What, there are seven or eight hundred people?" Weisbach was taken aback by the officer's words: "There are more than one hundred people in two mortar companies. Where are the seven or eight hundred people?"

   "It's true, Comrade Commander." Seeing that Weisbach didn't believe what he said, the officer said aggrievedly: "If you don't believe it, you can go and see for yourself."

  Sokov was also eager to know how many reinforcements had come, so he said to Weisbach: "Let's go, Comrade Colonel, let's go and see how many reinforcements have come."

   Soon, the two of Sokov saw the reinforcements who had just arrived. It turned out that Atakuz knew that the attack on the high ground was not going well. In addition to sending two mortar companies according to Weisbach's order, he also sent the most powerful guard battalion.

The commander of the guard battalion stepped in front of the two men, raised his hand to salute Sokov and Weisbach, and then reported loudly: "Comrade commander, comrade commander, the guard battalion is ordered to come for reinforcements, please instruct !"

  Sokov did not return the salute, but nodded at the other party and asked: "Comrade Major, how many of you are here?"

   "The whole battalion has a total of 652 people, plus 118 people from two mortar companies, and the total strength is 770 people."

After hearing this, Sokov turned his head and said to Weisbach: "Comrade Colonel, your deputy division commander is very generous. He actually sent you so many reinforcements at once." He glanced at the guard battalion lined up in Shunli , I thought to myself: The guard battalion is usually the strongest combat force in a division-level unit. Since Atakuz has sent them all here, it seems that he really wants to help Weissbach take the high ground.

   "Comrade Commander," although Weisbach is the commander of the first division, but Sokov is by his side at the moment. What he wants to do, he must first ask for instructions: "How do you think about the arrangement of this army?"

Sokov pointed to the high ground in the distance with his hand, and said: "If you want to take the position on the top of the mountain, it is definitely not enough to rely on the troops on the mountainside. You can place the new troops on the mountainside." Bar."

"Yes, Comrade Commander." After Weisbach agreed loudly, he ordered the guard battalion commander: "Comrade Major, you take your men and the mortar company and rush to the position on the hillside of the high ground, and prepare for the attack." preparation."

  The guard battalion commander stood still, looked around, and asked Weissbach tentatively: "Comrade commander, where is the unit of the 73rd Infantry Brigade?"

   "What do you ask them for?" Weissbach asked alertly.

   "It's like this," the battalion commander saw that Weissbach became suspicious, and quickly explained to him: "Before we set off, Major Guchakov, the commander of the infantry brigade, asked me to know something about his subordinates."

   After figuring out what was going on, Weisbach replied: "Comrade Major, you can't see them here. They have already gone to other tasks."

  While Weisbach was speaking, Captain Mikhaiev was leading two infantry battalions, an artillery company, and a machine gun company, and was marching through the forest with difficulty, preparing to bypass the high ground and launch an attack from behind the enemy. Since the artillery company carried three 76mm guns and a large number of shells, it inevitably slowed down the marching speed of the troops.

   Seeing that he had walked for almost an hour, but still hadn't bypassed the highlands occupied by the Germans, Mikhaiev couldn't help feeling a little anxious, and repeatedly urged the troops to speed up the march.

Seeing Mikhaiev urging the troops to speed up the march, the artillery company commander hurried over to him and said: "Comrade deputy brigade commander, the 76mm artillery we carry is very slow in the woods. If you let the infantry march faster Speed, our company will inevitably fall behind."

  The words of the artillery company commander made Mikhaiev fall into contemplation: If you want to attack the enemy, it is obviously impossible without the cover of artillery. But if the artillery is not thrown away, the marching speed will be affected. Maybe the enemy on the top of the mountain will get reinforcements before reaching the designated target.

   "Comrade Deputy Brigadier Commander," the artillery company commander repeated his meaning when he saw that Mikhaiev had been silent for a long time, and then asked, "Do you have any good ways to resolve this contradiction?"

This time Mikhaiev quickly made a decision: "Comrade Captain, this matter is easy to handle. Don't you have 12 82mm guns in your company? You can order them to move with the main force, and the other three 76mm guns Artillery, it won’t be too late to catch up later.”

The artillery company commander felt that this was a good way to get the best of both worlds, so he nodded and said, "Understood, comrade deputy brigade commander, I will let the platoon carrying the 76mm artillery march slowly behind, and the other two mortar platoons will follow. Troops get excited fast."

  After the slow-moving artillery was removed from the marching queue, the marching speed of the interspersed troops suddenly accelerated a lot. In less than half an hour, we came to the flank of the highland.

While Mikhaiev, the commander of the second battalion and others were discussing how to launch an attack, a scout ran over and reported to Mikhaiev: "Comrade Captain, there is a German army moving here, and it will take another forty at most." They can get here in minutes."

   "Where is the enemy? How many troops are there?"

   "To the west of the highland, it is no more than three kilometers away from here at this time." The scout replied, "There is about one battalion in the force, all of which are all infantry and do not carry heavy weapons."

   "Comrade deputy brigade commander," the second battalion commander asked Mikhaiev after hearing what the scout said, "What should we do next?"

   "According to the original plan," Mikhaiev did not immediately answer the words of the second battalion commander, but said to himself: "We will use two companies to block the enemy's reinforcements, and the rest of the troops will attack the high ground with all their strength."

   "Comrade deputy brigade commander, shall we still implement the original plan?"

   "The situation has changed, and our plan also needs to be adjusted." Mikhaiev said to the second battalion commander: "All of us set up an ambush where the German reinforcements passed, and tried to find ways to severely damage or even destroy this enemy army."

   "Comrade Commander, if everyone goes to set up an ambush, won't it affect the cooperation with friendly forces to seize the high ground?"

"Comrade Second Battalion Commander, I understand your concerns." Mikhaiev explained to the Second Battalion Commander: "Isn't the situation changing? If we divide our troops into two groups, one goes to attack the high ground, and the other goes to ambush The enemy's reinforcements. Once any of the troops does not go well, it will lead to the failure of our plan. Therefore, we can only concentrate our forces first, but ambush the enemy's reinforcements."

   "However, if Comrade Commander blames it, who will bear the responsibility?"

"Comrade Second Battalion Commander, I am the deputy brigade commander of the infantry brigade. If the superiors want to investigate, I will bear all the responsibilities." After Mikhaiev said this, he turned and asked the scouts: "What is there nearby?" Is it a suitable place to set up an ambush?"

   "Yes, Comrade Deputy Brigadier Commander." The scout nodded and said, "There is a hill three or four hundred meters away from here, covered with trees and weeds. Our troops can set up an ambush there."

   "Second Battalion Commander," Mikhaiev and other scouts pointed out the specific location for themselves, and then ordered the Second Battalion Commander: "Order the troops to speed up the march, and be sure to set up an ambush position before the German reinforcements arrive."

  The second battalion commander agreed, and then stood on the side of the road and shouted in a low voice: "pass down, speed up."

  Passing by the commanders of the Second Battalion Commander, when they heard his shout, they also passed on his order: "Pass down, speed up! Pass down, speed up!"

  Five minutes later, the troops reached the high ground by the road.

In the usual ambushes, fortifications must be dug in advance, but today time is running out, and the German reinforcements will pass by the road at the foot of the mountain at any time, so Mikhaiev can only order the soldiers to dig individual bunkers to save precious time.

   Fortunately, the commanders and fighters of the infantry brigade are veterans who have experienced many battles. For them, digging individual bunkers is a very skilled job. The fast-moving fighters dug a bunker half as deep as half a person in only seven or eight minutes, and then helped the comrades beside them dig together.

   However, the speed at which the German reinforcements came was obviously beyond everyone's imagination. Before everyone had dug their individual bunkers, the German army appeared in sight. In order not to let the enemy notice that there was an ambush here, Mikhaiev could only order the soldiers to stop the soil work and hide on the spot in the individual bunker he dug.

  The German commander who was marching on the road never thought that there would be a large Soviet army ambushing on the high ground beside the road. According to his thinking, the tactics of the Soviet army were rigid, they only knew how to concentrate their forces to attack one location, and they would not send troops to carry out any ambushes at all. His march along the way was very safe.

  Especially seeing that the highlands to be reinforced were not far away, the German commander relaxed his vigilance even more. He didn't even send out sharp soldiers, so he led the troops to march swaggeringly on the road.

   After the enemy had completely entered the ambush circle, Mikhaiev decisively gave the order to fire.

   Following the order, more than a dozen light and heavy machine guns of the machine gun company fired simultaneously on the 800-meter-long wide front.

  The rain of bullets slanting down from the hillside knocked down the unprepared German officers and soldiers in an instant. The bullets fired one after another from the machine gun plowed from the front of the German column to the rear, plowing out alleys of flesh and blood. Under the rain of bullets, the living officers and soldiers were knocked down one after another, and even the corpses of the dead soldiers were bounced non-stop by the dense bullets.

But the officers and soldiers of the Viking Division did have two brushes. After a short period of confusion, the German officers and soldiers who were ambushed, in the dense rain of bullets, adopted the tactical action of cats lowering their bodies, quickly looking for a safe place to hide themselves, in order to avoid The deadly bullet was then fired from hiding at the Soviet ambush position.

Seeing that there were almost no running enemies at the foot of the mountain, Mikhaiev knew that the real fierce battle was about to begin, so he shouted at the artillery company commander: "Comrade Captain, immediately use mortars to attack those who are hiding on the roadside or in the ravine." Enemy, blast them out of hiding."

  The artillery company commander agreed loudly, and then ordered his subordinates to shell towards the place where the Germans were hiding. As rows of shells fell, many enemies hiding in ravines or on the side of the road were forced to escape from their hiding places and returned to the middle of the road, where they became targets for machine gun shooters.

Seeing that the Soviets were bombarding his men with mortars, the German commander knew that if he continued, he would only die, so he stood up, waved his pistol, and drove the soldiers out of their hiding places, letting them risk the Soviet army. The hail of bullets rushed towards the hillside.

   Mikhaiev saw from the binoculars that the attacking German soldiers used all the cover available to them, such as ravines, tree trunks, and even dead bodies, to keep rolling while running, skillfully rolling into the blind spot of the Soviet army's shooting. They used alternate cover tactics, a little closer to the Soviet position.

  As the enemy got closer to the position, their shooting became more and more accurate. Those machine gunners who were shooting at the enemy fell under the guns of the German snipers. Due to the sacrifice of a large number of machine gunners, the originally dense machine gun fire became sparse. Seeing that the firepower on the hillside was suppressed, the German soldiers hiding in the safe zone got up according to the officer's command, quickly formed formation while running, and climbed up the hillside at the fastest speed.

Seeing that the enemy was about to enter the bombing distance soon, Mikhaiev was a little anxious, and he shouted to the artillery company commander: "Comrade Captain, hurry up and bombard the charging enemy, and drive them off the hillside." .”

   A minute or two later, shrieking shells streaked across the sky, hitting the German officers and soldiers on the way to charge, and flying one by one. The shrapnel flying around whistled sharply, tearing up more rain of blood, and harvesting the lives of German officers and soldiers one after another.

  Many snipers hiding on the hillside were killed by Soviet artillery shells, and the rest had to move their positions immediately. Without the threat of German snipers, the machine gun firepower on the Soviet positions became dense again, effectively containing the German offensive.

  The German commander hid behind a tree trunk, watching with trepidation the intensive firepower on the hillside, and his subordinates being knocked down one by one. He wanted to retreat, but he was worried that the Soviet army would take the opportunity to catch up; if he didn't retreat, if he continued to fight like this, his troops would not be able to escape the fate of being wiped out.

  In desperation, he could only wave his pistol at the officers and soldiers around him, and shouted sharply: "Hold on, stand up to me, no one is allowed to take a step back, and the Russians must not be rushed over."

  (end of this chapter)