Chapter 1492 Fort area

  The battalion commander of the 1st Battalion of the 546th Regiment of the 182nd Division, Captain Zuminte, and the second company commander, Captain Zelia, were both old subordinates of Sokov. From dawn, the battalion was the vanguard of the whole division, and Gelia's second company was even more sharp knife company.

   Just after the indiscriminate bombing of the German positions by the Soviet bombers, Zelia rushed up with his second company, looking for traces of the German troops in the smoke that had not yet dissipated.

   But the positions here were all blasted into scorched earth, and the fortifications reinforced with logs were also blown to pieces. The commanders and fighters of the Second Company searched the ruins for a long time, but except for the corpses of the German soldiers who had been bombed to pieces, they didn't even find a single gasping one. Seeing this situation, Gelia stomped his feet in anger. All the German troops on the ground were wiped out by the air force. How can this sharp knife company make a difference?

   At this moment, the sound of MG42 machine gun firing suddenly came from a distance.

  Hearing this sound, Zelia suddenly became excited. He led several soldiers along the bombed trenches and ran towards the direction of the gunfire.

   Soon, Zelia saw the civil firepower point that was shooting, and it should have survived the bombing just now. Before Gelia gave an order, a bazooka team had already touched the trench. They stopped seventy or eighty meters away from the fortifications. After loading, the bazooka shooter stood up abruptly and aimed at the enemy's civil firepower point The trigger was pulled.

  After a loud bang, the German firepower point was instantly destroyed. Gelia rushed over with a group of soldiers, and found that the machine gun had been blown into scrap iron, and there were three **** corpses lying in the firepower point, which should be the machine gun shooter, the deputy shooter and the ammunition man.

  The soldiers who followed saw this situation and couldn't help shaking their heads. A soldier even asked Zelia anxiously: "Comrade company commander, didn't the superiors tell us that what stands in front of us is a hard bone? Why do I feel that they are all vulnerable?"

The soldier's words caused a burst of laughter around, and Zelia glared: "What are you all doing here? Be careful that a shell from the Germans will fly over and reimburse you all. Hurry up and continue searching. Is there anyone alive?"

  The soldiers of the Second Company continued to search in the fortifications destroyed by the Air Force. When the friendly troops arrived, they barely found seven or eight German soldiers who had not been killed. The eyes of these soldiers were dull, seeing the Soviet soldiers rushing in front of them, they didn't have any intention of resisting.

   As soon as Gelia arranged for the prisoners to be sent away, Zuminte came over and asked Gelia anxiously: "Captain Gelia, what is the result of your company's battle? How many prisoners have you captured?"

"Here, Comrade Battalion Commander." Gelia pointed to the prisoners who were being escorted away by his subordinates, and said angrily: "We even captured seven or eight prisoners, and the rest were blown up by the air force brothers. Dead. If we continue to fight like this, how can we have any chance to make meritorious deeds?"

  The progress of the 182nd Division was very smooth, but the situation encountered by the 84th Division was much more complicated. They were soon blocked by stretches of the fort area. There are about 50 or 60 reinforced concrete bunkers in the area of ​​the fortress. It was originally a permanent fortification that the Soviet army prepared to resist the German army after the war broke out. As a result, the German army occupied Kharkov before it could be used. It naturally fell into the hands of the German army.

  Now in order to resist the Soviet attack, the German army deployed heavy troops in the fort area. As soon as they saw the approach of the Soviet army, they opened fire violently, causing considerable casualties to the advancing Soviet commanders and fighters.

  Although the area of ​​the fortress was also bombed by Soviet aircraft, the bombing did not cause any substantial damage to the fortification because the walls and roof of the bunker were reinforced concrete with a thickness of one meter. The commanders and fighters of the 84th Division who tried to pass through the fort area were stopped by the intensive firepower of the German army.

   Facing the densely packed bunkers ahead, the commanders and fighters of the 84th Division repeated their tricks, attacking the enemy's bunkers with rocket launchers, trying to quickly clear the obstacles blocking the road, so as to quickly approach the Meliefa Fortress. What they didn't expect was that the rocket hit the surface of the bunker. Although the sound it made was earth-shattering, it couldn't penetrate effectively. When the gunpowder smoke clears, the enemies hiding in the bunker can still shoot wildly through the shooting holes.

   The 252nd Regiment, which launched the attack first, was blocked by this fortification. The battle lasted for more than two hours. Not only did the regiment fail to move forward, but it paid the price of more than half of the casualties.

After the division commander Fomenko learned of the failure of the attack, he was about to send the 254th regiment to replace the 252nd regiment, but was stopped by Belkin, the deputy division commander and head of the 258th regiment: "Mr. Let the mission be completed by our regiment."

   "Leave it to you?" Fomenko looked at Belkin and couldn't help frowning: "Can you do it?"

   Seeing Fomenko’s delay in making a statement, Colonel Manoxin, the political commissar next to him, quickly interrupted and said, “Comrade Commander, since the Deputy Commander is so confident, let them implement it. Maybe they can really break through the enemy’s defense.”

  Since the political commissars have expressed their views, it seems a little unreasonable for Fomenko to disagree. After thinking for a while, he finally nodded and agreed to Belkin's request: "Okay, Comrade Deputy Division Commander, since you are so confident, I will leave it to your regiment to complete the task of breaking through the enemy's fortified area."

After Belkin left, Fomenko asked Manokhin a little unexpectedly: "Comrade Commissar, why do you support Colonel Belkin? You know, after he came to us, he basically stayed at the division headquarters and did not personally I have commanded battles on the battlefield. The German fortress area is a hard bone, and I am worried that not only will he not be able to chew on this hard bone, but his teeth will also be broken."

Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Manokhin smiled and said to Fomenko: "Comrade commander, you are underestimating Colonel Belkin. Don't think that after he came to our division, he basically stayed at the division headquarters and did not go to the division. Participated in any battles. But don’t forget, not only did he come from the 21st Army with the commander, but he was also a partner with the commander.”

After being reminded by Manoshin, Fomenko immediately remembered Belgin's origins. The other party had indeed served as Sokov's political commissar, and the relationship between the two was not bad. He would not bring him to the 27th Army. It is said that the dozens of people who came at that time were all people Sukov trusted.

  Although he knew about the relationship between Belkin and Sokov, Fomenko had never seen the other party directing the battle after all, so he still felt uneasy. Ma Nuoxin saw his worries, and comforted him, saying, "Don't worry, Comrade Commander. If the 258th Regiment really fails to attack, it won't be too late for the 254th Regiment to take over from them."

When Belkin led the 258th regiment towards the fortress area, he thought to himself: The 252nd regiment reported that the enemy's fortifications were strong, and the rocket hit it with only a small hole, which could not penetrate the wall at all. It seems that I have to change it. Only in this way can we avoid repeating the same mistakes.

   Waiting for Belkin's troops to rush to the area near the fortress and seeing the commander of the 252nd Regiment, Belkin shook hands with him and asked with concern, "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, did your regiment suffer heavy casualties?"

  The head of the regiment sighed, and said helplessly: "The enemy's firepower is too strong. We have launched several consecutive attacks, but they were all repelled by the enemy, and more than half of the troops were killed or injured."

Belgin nodded slightly after listening, and then asked: "Have you used rocket launchers to attack the enemy's bunker?" Although he had already learned about the battle situation of the regiment in the battle report, he still hoped to have a dialogue with the regiment commander at this moment. It is also beneficial for my next battle to understand more details.

  The head of the regiment thought for a while, then frowned and said: "The enemy's bunker is too thick. We use rocket launchers to attack, and we can't penetrate the wall of the bunker at all..."

   "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," Belkin heard this, and interrupted the commander: "I want to ask, have your rockets shot through the shooting holes of the enemy's bunker?"

"Shoot in through the shooting holes of the enemy's bunker?!" Hearing what Belkin said, the head of the regiment couldn't help being stunned, but he quickly thought of the crux of the problem, and slapped his thigh heavily in anger, He said angrily: "Oh, how did I forget this. Since the rockets can't penetrate the walls of the bunker, we can shoot the rockets through the shooting holes, so that we can still destroy the enemies in the bunker."

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," Belkin said with a smile on his face when he saw that the regiment leader recognized the shortcomings in commanding operations, "the failure of this attack is certainly a defeat for you. It's worth it, at least you won't make similar mistakes in future battles."

   "You are right, Comrade Deputy Division Commander." The head of the regiment said with emotion: "If you had come over an hour earlier to guide us, our casualties during the attack would have been much smaller."

"It's not too late now." Belkin said with a smile: "We just need to learn about war in war, so that our command ability can be improved." He paused for a moment, then continued, "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, You have been fighting for several hours, and the commanders and fighters should be exhausted, so retreat first and rest, and leave such things to us to complete."

After sending away the regiment command organization of the 252nd regiment, Belkin recruited several battalion commanders in the regiment to the command post and assigned them combat tasks: "The whole regiment is divided into three echelons, with the battalion as the organizational system, and they attack the enemy separately. attack…"

   Before Belkin finished speaking, the second battalion commander rushed to say: "Comrade deputy division commander, I don't think this is appropriate?"

   "What's wrong?"

  The second battalion commander pointed to the map and said to Belkin: "You see, the fort area occupied by the enemy is too wide. If the battalion is used as a unit and put into battle in batches, it may weaken the troops' ability to attack fortifications."

"Comrade Battalion Commander," Belkin looked at the second battalion commander who questioned him, and said with a serious expression, "If we want to break through this fort area, we must eliminate the enemies hidden in it. If we invest too much at once Not only is it easy to cause unnecessary casualties, but what should we do if we encounter the enemy’s counterattack without a reserve force?”

   Hearing what Belkin said, the second battalion commander immediately shut his mouth obediently, and continued to listen to Belkin's assignment of combat tasks.

"...According to my understanding, these bunkers are all reinforced concrete, and the walls are more than one meter thick. The rockets we use to deal with German tanks and fortifications cannot penetrate the walls of the bunkers at all." Belkin said to himself The subordinate said: "So I ask you to get as close to the enemy's bunker as possible, and shoot the rockets through the shooting holes of the bunker,"

  Many problems seem unsolvable, but as long as we change our thinking, we can solve them. Several battalion commanders were considering how to use rockets to penetrate the one-meter-thick reinforced concrete. When they heard Belkin say that the rockets were shot through the shooting holes, they suddenly felt that their eyes lit up. This method is really wonderful. . No matter how thick the walls of the enemy's bunkers are, if the enemy wants to shoot outside, there must be shooting holes. It is too easy to shoot rockets into the shooting holes.

   After finding a way to deal with the German bunkers, the battalion commanders became more relaxed, and a few of them even had a dispute over who should be the first echelon. But after a few arguments, Belkin stopped him: "Okay, don't argue. Didn't I just say that echelons are allocated by battalion number. The first battalion is the first echelon, and the second battalion is the second echelon. And so on."

  The first battalion that launched the attack first, with each bazooka team as a unit, began to attack the enemy's bunker. The bazooka shooters hid in the dead corner of the bunker, and after the ammunition was loaded, they tapped their helmets with their hands, then stood up straight, aimed at the shooting hole of the enemy bunker and pulled the trigger.

   Not to mention, the method Belkin came up with is very effective. In less than ten minutes, five or six bunkers were destroyed by rocket launchers. Belkin, who stayed in the command post, was quite happy to see the enemy's bunkers being destroyed one after another. But he quickly frowned again. At this speed, it would take at least five or six hours to completely clear the German bunkers in the fort area.

   "Report to Comrade Deputy Commander," a voice came from behind him: "The commander of the tank brigade is here!"

  Belkin turned around and saw a tank major standing behind him. Seeing him turn around, the other party quickly put his hand on his forehead and reported to him: "Comrade Colonel, I am Major Bunche, commander of the 37th Tank Brigade, and I am ordered to assist you in breaking through the German fort area."

   "Welcome, Comrade Major." Knowing that the tank unit was here to support him, Belkin couldn't help but beam with joy. He held the opponent's hand and said excitedly: "With your assistance, I think our speed of breaking through the fort area can be greatly accelerated."

   "Comrade Colonel, is the troop attack going well?"

   "Successful, but due to the large number of enemy bunkers, our advance speed is a bit slow. According to the current style of play, it will take five or six hours at the fastest to clear the enemies in the fortress area."

"Comrade Colonel, please rest assured that since we are here, the enemy's bunkers are nothing to worry about." Major Bunch said confidently: "We will definitely destroy all the bunkers of the German army in the shortest possible time and clear the way for the infantry. A passage."

  (end of this chapter)