Chapter 2218 Collapse at one touch

  After the start of the new offensive battle, a large number of bombers appeared in the sky above the attacking section of Sokov's troops. Before they flew to the German defense line, they began to drop bombs. This move made the Germans confused. They didn't understand what happened to the Soviet planes, and why they started dropping bombs before they reached the sky above their positions.

   But the next scene made the Germans even more confused. What these Russian planes dropped was not bombs, but smoke bombs. In just a few minutes, a thick white mist rose between the positions of the Soviets and Germany, blocking the German army's vision. At this moment, there was the ear-piercing scream of shells piercing the air. After a while, countless shells landed on the German positions and exploded, bursting into flames, covering the positions in smoke.

  Seeing that the shelling of the Soviet army had begun, the German army quickly withdrew from the first-line position according to the original plan, and retreated along the traffic trench to the second line of defense, leaving only a few observation posts to monitor the movement of the Soviet army. But this time the Germans miscalculated. The smoke bombs dropped by the Soviet bombers seriously blocked the view of the German observation post. They couldn't even see the movement ten meters away, let alone the movement of the Soviet army farther away. .

  Sokov knew that even if there was no wind on the battlefield, the smoke would not last too long, so the shelling of the German positions could not last for two or three hours. Instead, after only half an hour, he ordered the shelling to stop, and ordered the troops at the front to attack and advance towards the German positions.

  The German observation post saw that the Soviet artillery stopped. Because of the smog, they couldn't see the movement of the Soviet army at all.

  But what the Germans didn't expect was that their infantry had just walked halfway, and the silent artillery fire rang out again. The shells seemed to have eyes, and fell on the German line and exploded. The German soldiers near the explosion point were either smashed to pieces in an instant, or were blown away by the blast. The German soldiers under the shelling suddenly lost their positions, some continued to run forward, and some turned around and ran back, trying to get out of the shelling area as soon as possible. But the result of their doing so is nothing more than increased casualties.

   Fortunately, the bombardment didn't take long this time, and it stopped after only a quarter of an hour. But the Germans who retreated to the second line of defense did not dare to act rashly again, fearing that the Soviet army would set them up again. What if they walked halfway and attracted another burst of intensive artillery fire?

   Just when the Germans hesitated, the ground attack of Sokov's troops began. In order to pass through the thick smoke smoothly, the commanders followed Sokov's instructions and fired rockets at the edge of the smoke towards the opposite German position. With the launch of the rocket, the flight track of the rocket soon appeared in the smoke, and the commanders and fighters participating in the attack rushed towards the German position along this passage.

  Because the Germans were confused by Sokov's tactics, they were worried that the other side might have some conspiracy when the bombardment ended so quickly, so they all stayed in the second-line position, and no one dared to return to the first-line position easily, lest they be bombarded again. It was my luck that I was lucky enough to escape the shelling last time. Who knows if I will have such good luck next time. It was precisely because of the hesitation of the Germans that the number of German troops on the first line of defense was pitifully small. Facing the tide of Soviet commanders and fighters pouring into the position, their resistance was like waves in the sea, disappearing without a trace no trace.

  Seeing the Soviet troops occupying the first-line position and continuing to rush towards the second-line position, the German soldiers who did not return to the defensive position in time realized that they had been deceived again and wanted to stop the resistance, but it was too late. Their resistance did not last long, and it ended in failure. The Soviet army successfully occupied the second line of defense of the German army.

   Knowing that the troops had successfully occupied the second line of defense, Sokov was also very happy, and he immediately called to report the matter to Rokossovsky.

   After receiving the call, Rokossovsky listened to Sokov's report, and asked with some hesitation: "Misha, are you really sure that your troops have occupied the two German lines of defense?"

   "Yes, Comrade Marshal." Sokov said confidently: "I trust my subordinates, they will never deceive me about this kind of thing."

   Rokossovsky also understood that Sokov could not do such a lie about military exploits. Even if he wanted to, as long as he sent someone to verify the situation on the battlefield, the truth would be revealed. "Good job, Misha." Now that the opponent's results are confirmed, Rokossovsky told the opponent: "Don't stop, keep moving forward, and must advance to Egypt in the shortest possible time. Erbin area. Do you understand?"

   "Understood, Comrade Marshal." Sokov replied: "My troops will continue to move forward."

After putting down the phone, Sokov said to Sidolin: "Chief of Staff, Comrade Marshal's order to us is to order the troops to continue advancing and must reach the Elbin area in the shortest possible time. You immediately issue an order to the troops, let Taking advantage of the disarray of the German army, they moved forward quickly, chasing the enemy to Elbing."

"Comrade Commander," Sidolin waited for Sokov to finish speaking, pointed to the map and reminded him, "Look, here is a small city called 'Letzen', which can be described as a fortress. A small The bridge separates two large lakes, and Roetzen is located on the east side of the bridge. Even if the Germans deploy a battalion here, even if we use a division, we cannot break through the defense here in a short time. "

Sokov stared at the map for a while, and then showed a relaxed expression on his face: "Comrade Chief of Staff, don't worry, it's not summer. The frozen lake does not pose any threat to our infantry. I think so , sending a division across the small city of Steuben and advancing towards Rosengarten is tantamount to detouring into Loetzen's flank. In this way, Loetzen, far from being able to serve as a fortress, would even fall into our In the encirclement."

There is now a regiment of the 368th Infantry Division of the German Army in the city of Letzen. Colonel Kleiner, the head of the regiment, learned that the Soviet army had broken through the line of defense and was heading towards his own city. Discuss countermeasures.

  When the battalion commanders came to the regiment headquarters for a meeting, when they learned that the large Soviet troops were advancing towards Letzen, they were all frightened out of their wits. An elderly battalion commander said: "Mr. Colonel, the Russians have much more troops than us. Even if we want to stick to our positions, I'm afraid we won't last long."

"No, the task of our regiment is to stick to Lezen, how can we give up casually." The second battalion commander directly rejected the proposal of the first battalion commander, and took the initiative to say to Kleiner: "Mr. Colonel, I think we should hurry up Build fortifications and prepare to meet the Russian attack. You know, this city has the title of 'fortress'. As long as we stick to the east end of the bridge, no matter how many troops the Russians invest, it will be useless, and the command will only increase casualties. "

"I don't know if you have figured out the current situation." The first battalion commander said angrily: "It is winter instead of summer. The lake that could have stopped the Russians from attacking is now frozen. The thickness of the ice is enough Supporting their infantry. In other words, if the Russians want to attack Letzen, they don't have to cross the bridge at all, but rush directly from the ice. Will we be able to stop them then?"

  The words of the old battalion commander made everyone in the room silent. Everyone is very clear in their hearts that under the current circumstances, it is impossible to stop the Russian army. But if you want to retreat, the superior will definitely not allow it, which means that everyone can only stay in the city and wait to die.

   At this time, the chief of staff who had not spoken for a long time spoke: "Since we can't fight, why did we declare Letzen as an undefended city, lest the city be destroyed by the Russians."

  The "undefense" mentioned by the chief of staff, in fact, everyone understands that it is synonymous with "surrender". Everyone was somewhat moved by the chief of staff's proposal, but thinking of their relatives who are still in Germany, they swallowed the words again, and no one dared to be the first to agree with the chief of staff's proposal.

Seeing that no one expressed their opinion, the chief of staff had no choice but to choose Kleine as the target for help: "Mr. Colonel, I don't know what you think about it? Is it resistance, retreat, or sending someone to contact the Russians and announce that the city of Lezen is The city is not fortified?"

  Kleine's relatives are basically in Germany at the moment, and he doesn't have the guts to issue the order to order the troops to surrender, otherwise his family may be sent to a concentration camp. In order to avoid such a tragedy, after repeated thinking, he finally made a painful decision: "Letzen is our German land, how can we give it up easily. In order to defend this land, we must carry out tenacious fighting."

  As soon as Kleiner's words came out, everyone present showed disappointed expressions on their faces. They felt that they might die in this city. But at this moment, I heard Kleiner say again: "Of course our strength is limited, and we cannot resist the crazy Russian attack. After a period of fighting, we are forced to stop resisting, which is also forgiven."

  After listening to Kleiner's words, everyone was taken aback for a moment, and then immediately understood. Kleiner's meaning was obvious: retreating or declaring that the city was undefended was not acceptable. But if the troops find that they cannot stop the Soviet attack with their own strength after resisting in the city, then it seems logical to put down their weapons and surrender.

"That's right, that's right, Mr. Colonel is right." Everyone said quickly: "We must not abandon the city, nor can we voluntarily surrender to the Russians. Facing the Russian attack, we will do our best to resist. But if we find that there is a disparity in strength between the two sides, in order to save more precious lives, we can only endure humiliation and stop resisting the Russians."

Klein heard his subordinates say such absurd words, and nodded his head and said: "Yes, you are all right. Now, you all go back to your respective troops and convey my message to your subordinates." combat order."

   After the battalion commanders agreed loudly, they turned and left the regiment headquarters, and went back to convey the orders of the regiment commanders.

The chief of staff waited for everyone in the room to leave, and said to Kleiner: "Mr. Colonel, I believe that the officers and soldiers of the whole regiment will thank you in the future for the correct decision you made." After a short pause, he He asked again, "Do you need to send someone to contact the Russians?"

Kleiner hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and rejected the chief of staff's proposal: "I think it's better to forget it. We don't know who is in charge of the Russian troops that are about to attack here. Even if we wanted to contact them, we couldn't find them in a short time. When we get to the door, we don’t need to fiddle around. At most, we wait until the Russians arrive in the city, and after we have symbolically resisted for a while, we can just put down our weapons and surrender.”

Now that Kleiner has made a decision, the chief of staff felt that it would be inappropriate for him to persuade him, so he nodded and agreed: "Well, Mr. Colonel, since you have already made a decision, then do it according to your ideas. "

  The Soviet army attacking Letzen was the 3rd Infantry Division commanded by Major General Kirilov. When the troops came to a place not far from Letzen, they stopped advancing, and Kirillov and the chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Miyakov, began to study how to attack the city.

"Comrade Commander," Miyakov pointed to the bridge and said to Kirillov: "This bridge is two to three hundred meters long and has a narrow deck. If we directly send tanks to open the way, once they are destroyed by German anti-tank fighters , it will block the passage on the bridge..."

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Kirilov interrupted Miakov without waiting for him to finish, "you don't have to pass the bridge to capture the opposite city. Look at the frozen lake below, I think the ice should be able to bear the weight of our infantry."

   "So, are you planning to let the infantry attack from the ice?"

"Yes." Kirillov nodded and said his plan: "Let a regiment launch a feint attack on the enemy through the bridge from the front, so that they think our attack is focused on the bridge. The real attack direction , is to rush from the lake to the opposite bank.”

"Well, not bad. Comrade commander, your plan is very good." Miyakov nodded, and then said: "I immediately issued an order to each regiment to divide their troops into three groups and launch an attack on the opposite city at the same time. "

  The next battle became a bit dramatic. As the main force of the frontal attack, in order to make the feint attack more decent, the regiment commander sent two companies to charge across the bridge towards the opposite bank. His idea was very simple, to attract the attention of the Germans and cover the friendly troops to attack from the lake. .

   But what was unexpected was that the two companies participating in the feint attack had just stepped onto the bridge when machine guns fired from the opposite bank. The commanders and fighters hurriedly dispersed, looking for suitable concealment along the way. Unexpectedly, the gunshots on the other side rang for a long time, but no one was injured here. The head of the regiment who was supervising the battle by the bridge discovered through binoculars that the Germans on the opposite bank were actually shooting into the sky.

   This scene shocked him.

   After a long time, he turned his head and said to a battalion commander: "First battalion commander, you rush up immediately with the whole battalion, understand?"

Although the commander of the first battalion didn't know why the regiment leader issued such an order, he chose to obey the orders of his superiors unconditionally, so he rushed to the bridge with the remaining company and called the lying troops to follow. He rushed forward. Although they were on the way to charge, the machine guns on the other side were still firing loudly, but none of the commanders and fighters fell to the ground after being shot. This situation stunned everyone, but they continued to charge ahead.

   As soon as the fast-running commanders reached the east end of the bridge, the gunfire on the German position suddenly stopped, and several white flags were raised immediately. The soldiers holding the white flag waved desperately, fearing that the Soviet commanders and fighters would not see them.

  Bringing doubtful commanders and fighters, they entered the German position in a daze. The Germans put down the weapons in their hands quite cooperatively, and raised their hands to surrender to the Soviet commanders and fighters.

  (end of this chapter)