Chapter 1631 Pontoon Bridge

"Comrade Sokov, I'm calling you because I hope you can cover and assist the 7th Guards Army to cross the river." Zakharov waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and said with a smile: "I didn't expect you Not only has this been considered, but it has been put into practice.”

  Sokov understands the current situation very well, and will never get complacent and get carried away just because of Zakharov's few words of praise. After the other party finished speaking, he said cautiously: "Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front Army, although my troops occupied Jingji Town and temporarily eliminated the threat of the enemy blocking the Dnieper River with artillery fire, if the 7th Guards Army wants to cross the river smoothly, It's still not easy."

"why?"

"The enemy cannot block the river with artillery fire, and they may send out the air force to bomb the troops crossing the river." Although Sokov did not intend to ask Goryunov for help, he still kindly reminded Zakharov: "In order to ensure the crossing of the river It went well, I'm afraid the superior will dispatch the air force to cooperate with General Shumilov's actions."

"You reminded me in time, General Sokov." Hearing what Sokov said, Zakharov said with emotion: "If you hadn't reminded me, I almost forgot that the enemy's air force is still very strong, and they are fully capable. It caused huge losses to the troops crossing the river. I will contact General Goryunov later and ask him to dispatch the necessary fighter planes to provide the necessary air cover for the ground troops."

   "Speed, Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front Army." Sokov warned worriedly: "Whether the 7th Guards Army can establish a stable landing field on the right bank depends entirely on their speed across the river."

"I understand, I understand." Zakharov said repeatedly: "General Shumilov's troops can only reduce losses by crossing the river as quickly as possible. I will discuss this issue with Comrade Commander later and see if we can How to help them."

  ...

  At dawn, engineers from the 7th Guards Army repaired the pontoon bridge on the Dnieper River.

  The pontoon bridge had just been repaired, and the 111th Guards Division, who had been waiting on the shore for a long time, immediately used the company as a unit and adopted a three-way column, trotting across the pontoon bridge, and rushed to the right bank to join forces with the commanders and fighters of the 188th Division there.

The 2nd Guards Regiment, who were the first to cross the bridge, when they reached the right bank, the first company commander saw a lieutenant colonel standing on the bank, and quickly ran over, raising his hand to salute him, with an attitude Respectfully said: "Hello, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I am the company commander of the 1st Battalion and 1st Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of the 111th Guards Division. Who are you?"

"Hello, Comrade Captain." The lieutenant colonel stretched out his hand to hold the hand of the company commander, and replied with a smile, "Let me introduce myself, I am Lieutenant Colonel Majwo, commander of the 562nd Regiment of the 188th Infantry Division. come to welcome you."

  After a few pleasantries between the two, Majwo called an officer and told him, "Comrade Second Lieutenant, take this captain and his troops to the place we have arranged for them."

  The second lieutenant agreed, and then said to the first company commander: "Comrade captain, we have prepared a defensive area for you, and I will take you there."

   After his subordinates left with the first company commander, Majwo continued to stand by the river, waiting for the head of the guards who did not know when he would arrive.

  The second battalion commander, Major Golia, came over and asked, "Comrade commander, do we need to deploy the two anti-aircraft machine guns we captured by the river immediately?"

  The two 14.5mm quadruple anti-aircraft machine guns captured by the Second Battalion, because Sokov once said that they can be used for flat shooting against German armored vehicles and infantry, have always been regarded as treasures by Majwo, and he is not willing to use them easily.

Hearing Golia's question at this moment, after thinking for a while, he nodded slightly and said, "Comrade Major, put those two anti-aircraft machine guns by the river, and if the German planes really want to come, they can be ruthless." teach them a lesson."

  Golia promised, turned around and left, preparing to go back to his camp to gather manpower, and deploy the two captured anti-aircraft machine guns by the river to guard against possible enemy planes.

   Before the anti-aircraft machine guns were deployed, more than a dozen enemy planes appeared in the sky.

The German commander saw countless people moving on the pontoon bridge on the river, and excitedly conveyed an order to his subordinates: "The Russian pontoon bridge was found below, and all the planes immediately lowered their altitude, ready to drop bombs, and blow up the pontoon bridge on the river; Machine-gun fire on the bridge deck and the Russians who fell into the water..."

  The enemy planes that received the order lowered their flight altitude one after another, and swooped down towards the pontoon bridge on the Dnieper River. When the distance was about the same, they successively dropped the aerial bombs carried by the plane.

  However, the aerial bombs that fell from the sky did not hit the pontoon bridge, but fell around the bridge and exploded. Water jets soared into the sky, and the splashes drenched the soldiers on the pontoon bridge into drowned chickens.

  Seeing that the German pilot had missed the target, he pulled the plane up, hovered at high altitude for a while, and then swooped down again. The leading enemy planes dropped their aerial bombs towards the pontoon first, but they still failed to hit the target. However, this time the bombing point was very close to the pontoon bridge, and a dozen unlucky commanders fell into the river one after another when a water column near the pontoon bridge rose into the sky.

  The commanders and fighters who fell into the water, some were cut down by the flying shrapnel, and some were rushed into the river by the blast wave. After falling into the river, the uninjured commanders jumped to the bridge, grabbed the boards, and tried to climb up. After the wounded soldiers fell into the water, they were rushed downstream by the swift river, and the blood from their wounds was quickly diluted by the water flow.

   Majwo, who was standing on the shore, saw this, turned his head to Goria and asked loudly, "Major, when will your anti-aircraft machine gun be in place?"

"Hurry up!" Hearing Majwo urging himself, Golia was a little anxious. He first urged his subordinates, and then turned around and said to Majwo: "Comrade commander, give me another three minutes. We'll be able to deploy the anti-aircraft guns in place."

  Seeing enemy planes dive-bombing the pontoon bridge and the commanders and fighters who were crossing the bridge, the anti-aircraft guns on the left bank opened fire. Clouds of black smoke burst out in the air, and were quickly blown away by the wind.

  In order to avoid the anti-aircraft artillery on the left bank, the enemy planes gradually flew to a position close to the right bank, dropping bombs and strafing at the pontoon bridge and the commanders and fighters on it. Because they didn't see any anti-aircraft fire at this location, they flew at a very low altitude.

  But what the German pilots didn't expect was that it wasn't that there was no anti-aircraft firepower on the right bank, but that it hadn't been deployed for the time being. Seeing that two anti-aircraft machine guns had been deployed, Golia decisively gave the order to fire.

  As the order was issued, two anti-aircraft machine guns fired suddenly, and eight tongues of flame from eight barrels rolled towards the low-flying German aircraft. The German army cluster that had just completed a new round of bombing was suddenly hit by firepower from the ground, and it was pulled up in a hurry like a frightened rabbit.

  But one unlucky plane was hit by the armor-piercing projectile of the anti-aircraft machine gun, pulled up desperately, and flew obliquely towards the German defense area, with long black smoke drawn out from behind the tail.

  Seeing this scene, Majwo waved his fist excitedly, and said excitedly: "It's hit, it's hit, brothers are really great."

  The enemy plane that was shot flew forward not far, and suddenly lost control and fell downward. A black shadow popped out from the cockpit, and then the plane crashed to the ground, and a ball of fire exploded after the explosion. The black shadow just now opened the parachute and landed slowly.

  Seeing the German pilots parachuting, Majwo rushed to the side and shouted: "Come on, come on!"

  A sergeant came to him and asked, "Comrade commander, what instructions do you have?"

"Comrade Sergeant," Majwo pointed to the parachute that was still floating in the air, and said to the sergeant, "You take a squad to bring the German pilot back, and don't let him escape back to the Germans." go."

   "Don't worry, Comrade Commander." The sergeant said confidently: "I will never give him a chance to escape there."

"Don't dawdle, Sergeant." Sergeant Majwo seemed to have a lot to say, so he interrupted him and urged: "The Germans will definitely send troops when they see their pilots parachuting later. Respond, you must catch the pilot alive before theirs. Do you understand?"

"clear."

   After the sergeant took the people away, Magevo turned his attention to the pontoon.

  The bombing and strafing by the German army just now did not blow up the pontoon bridge, but many bridge decks began to burn. Soldiers crossing the bridge had to take the risk of passing through the burning place. Some unlucky warriors, because their movements were not fast enough, when passing through the burning bridge, their clothes and trousers were ignited, and they had to jump into the river. to extinguish the flames on his body.

Golia returned to Majwo, looked at the burning area on the pontoon bridge, and asked Majwo anxiously: "Comrade commander, look, there are several decks on the pontoon bridge that are burning, if you let them burn Go down, and the bridge will burn through in no time."

"Calm down, Comrade Major." Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Majwo said blankly: "Our task is to meet the friendly troops crossing the river. As for the flames on the bridge board of the pontoon, of course there are engineers from the friendly army to put out the fire. "

Hearing Magevo's words, Golia sighed softly, stood by the side without speaking, just silently looked at the burning bridge deck, and the commanders and fighters walking through the fire, and even had to jump into the water them. Although he was worried about their safety in his heart, he was powerless in his position.

   Fortunately, the engineers on the left bank found that the bridge deck of the pontoon bridge was on fire, and immediately came over with various tools and wooden boards. They are going to put out the flames on the bridge deck, and then repair the damaged bridge deck.

  Because of the anti-aircraft firepower on both sides of the strait, the German bombers did not dare to fly too low, so as not to become the target of the anti-aircraft firepower. You can only hover at high altitude, looking for the right time to dive and drop bombs.

  But before the German bombers could find the fighter plane, the Soviet fighter jet fleet came to the battlefield and launched an attack on the German plane. The planes of the two sides fought over the Dnieper River. For a while, dozens of planes from the Soviet and German sides rose and rolled at different heights.

  With no worries, the engineers of the 7th Guards Army rushed to the pontoon bridge, carrying tools and materials to rush to repair the bridge deck damaged by the German aircraft, so that the follow-up troops could pass through smoothly.

  The anti-aircraft firepower deployed on both sides of the strait stopped firing with the arrival of the Soviet fighter planes, so as not to accidentally injure their own people. The anti-aircraft gunners and anti-aircraft machine gunners stood beside their weapons, looking up at the sky, watching the duel between the Soviet and German air forces.

  There was a fighter plane of the Soviet Army that performed particularly well. He either swooped down from a high altitude and shot at the cockpit of the enemy plane, or pulled up quickly from below to attack the belly of the enemy plane. Facts have proved that his tactic is very effective. In just a few minutes, two enemy planes were shot down by him, and one wounded enemy plane dragged a long smoke tail from the Dnieper River. escaped from the sky.

"This pilot is good." The outstanding performance of the fighter was clearly seen by Majwo on the ground. He turned to Goria and said, "Comrade Major, if our air force can have a few more pilots like this, then the first The air supremacy over the Dieper River will be firmly in our hands."

   "That's right," Goria also nodded and said, "We should report this pilot's heroic deeds to the superiors and ask for the honor he deserves."

  The two were talking, Majwo suddenly exclaimed: "My God, what is he going to do?"

  Golia quickly looked up into the sky, and saw that the fighter plane just discussed was rushing towards an enemy plane. But for some reason, the pilot did not fire. Golia thought to himself: Is it because the bullets ran out and the pilot wanted to rush over to collide with the enemy plane?

   It was too late to say it, and then it was too late. Seeing that the two planes were about to collide, the Soviet fighter plane suddenly made a 90-degree rotation, and hit the German plane's wing hard with one wing. The wings of the German plane broke, and then the whole plane lost control, rolled in the air and fell towards the ground, and soon fell headlong into the ground, making an earth-shattering explosion.

  Looking at the fighter plane of the Soviet Army again, although the fuselage shook a little after the level flight, it was obviously able to continue flying.

   Seeing this situation, Majwo couldn't help wiping the sweat from his forehead with his hand, and said with emotion: "This pilot is really great. It's incredible that he can use this tactic to shoot down the enemy plane."

"I really didn't expect that," Goria also echoed: "When I saw the fighter plane colliding with the enemy plane, my heart raised my throat, thinking that both sides would definitely die together. I didn't expect the pilot to be so bold as to think It's a great move to take out the enemy's plane with such a move."

  The Soviet fighters that appeared over the Dnieper River, compared with the German bombers, not only had an advantage in number, but also far surpassed the enemy in maneuverability. Therefore, less than ten minutes after the battle, the surviving German bombers all left the battlefield one after another and flew towards their own airport.

  The German bombers were driven away. Except for the Soviet fighters returning when they ran out of ammunition, the rest of the fighters stayed on patrol over the Dnieper River, ready to destroy the sudden German aircraft at any time.

  The flames on the pontoon bridge, thanks to the efforts of the engineers of the 7th Guards Army, have been completely extinguished. The damaged bridge deck was also replaced or repaired, so that the commanders and fighters crossing the river would not step into the air.

Seeing that the pontoon bridge has basically been repaired, Majwo raised his hand and looked at his watch, and said to Golia: "Now that the pontoon bridge has been repaired, I think the head of the 2nd Guards Regiment will cross the river soon. After he crosses the river , I will hand over the defense to him, and then I can take you to the rear for rest."

  (end of this chapter)