Chapter 2221 German night attack

  In the intercepted telegram, the Soviet army learned the news of Reinhardt's dismissal.

   When Rokossovsky first heard about this incident, he specifically asked Bogolyubov, the chief of staff who reported the incident: "Comrade Chief of Staff, is this news reliable?"

"Totally reliable, Comrade Marshal." Bogolyubov said excitedly: "This is a telegram sent by the German Army Command to the troops in East Prussia, specifically mentioning the dismissal of Reinhardt and his chief of staff. Absolutely Can't go wrong."

  Seeing that Bogolyubov said so definitely, Rokossovsky knew in his heart that this matter must be true. He nodded and said with relief: "Reinhardt is indeed a strong enemy for us. It is a good thing for us that he was relieved of his post. Regardless of the level of the new German commander, the Germans must at least It took several days to get used to it. And we just took advantage of this rare opportunity to launch a new round of offensive against the enemy."

"That's right, Comrade Marshal." Bogolyubov echoed: "We have been fighting well during this time, and we have defeated the Germans in many areas. If their commander is dismissed, what will happen to the German army?" If the morale of the army is adversely affected, then the battle in the next few days will become extremely smooth."

Just when the Soviet army was rejoicing at the dismissal of Reinhardt, General Hossbach's troops came to the flank of the Belarusian Second Front after a forced march of more than two hundred kilometers. In the Battle of Deng, a surprise blow was delivered to the Soviet army, forcing the Soviet army to withdraw from the area it now occupies.

  It is already early morning at this moment, and the troops opposite the German offensive site are the 109th Infantry Brigade under the 48th Army. Because the position of the brigade is at the rear of the entire group army and the farthest from the combat zone, the brigade commander, Major Sukharev, is not very vigilant. Except for some mobile sentries arranged around the defense zone, no special security was carried out.

  After the 170th Infantry Division of the German Army arrived in this area, it immediately dispatched scouts to carry out reconnaissance, trying to figure out the deployment of the Soviet army and choose a suitable location as a breakthrough. After more than an hour of reconnaissance, the German scouts were pleasantly surprised to find that the security force of the Soviet army here was not strong. Although sentries and mobile sentries were arranged, these officers and soldiers did not seem to be too vigilant, and some even hid in the corner sleep soundly.

  When the German scouts reported the situation on the Soviet positions to the division headquarters, the German division commander couldn't believe it was true. Because he knew very well that the troops on the opposite side were the 48th Army under the command of Sokov, and his friendly troops were frightened by this army. How could their defenses be lax? "Conspiracy, this must be a conspiracy." The German commander thought smartly: "The other party must have noticed my arrival long ago and set up a trap on purpose, waiting for myself to get into it."

   It was precisely because of this consideration that after receiving the report from the scouts, the German division commander chose to stand still. At the same time, he also ordered the scouts to continue to conduct reconnaissance to find out whether there was an ambush in the 48th Army's defense zone.

  Until the second news from the scouts came, saying that the vigilance on the Soviet positions was very lax, and they did not notice the arrival of their own troops at all. At this time, the German division commander finally understood that although the Russians in front of him were also Sokov's subordinates, their vigilance was obviously not that high. If he ordered the troops to attack, he would definitely achieve good results. Although by this time, a lot of precious time had been wasted, but he felt that he could still take a risk, and maybe he could achieve unexpected results.

   In this way, with the help of moonlight, a regiment of the German 170th Infantry Division touched the front of the 109th Infantry Brigade. After reconfirming that the Soviet army had no defenses, it launched an offensive by surprise.

  The officers and soldiers of the 109th Brigade would never have thought that the German army would launch a surprise attack on them at this time. The commanders and fighters who woke up from their sleep rushed out of the shelter with guns in hand, trying to repel the sudden German attack. However, due to the sudden occurrence of the incident, the unprepared commanders and fighters rushed to fight, it was difficult to form a decent resistance, and there were heavy casualties immediately.

  The sound of guns from outside woke Sukharev from his sleep. He sat up from the camp bed and shouted to the outside: "Come, come!"

  Following his shout, a staff officer ran in from the outside and asked respectfully, "Comrade Brigadier, do you have any instructions?"

   "What's going on outside?" Sukharev asked dissatisfiedly, "Where is the sound of guns?"

   "Comrade Brigadier." The staff officer replied: "Listening to the sound, the sound of gunfire came from the position of the first and second battalions. It seems that they were suddenly attacked by the Germans."

"Nonsense." Sukharev interrupted the words of the staff officer: "The Germans have been defeated by us a long time ago. Where will there be Germans forming an organized army? Could it be that they fell from the sky? Immediately send someone to reconnaissance , and report to me after you figure it out.”

Just as the staff left the headquarters, the brigade chief of staff hurried in from the outside and reported to Sukharev: "Comrade brigade commander, the situation seems to be not good. There were dense gunfire from the positions of the first and second battalions. , wouldn’t it be the Germans who attacked us?”

When Sukharev heard this, he felt that what the chief of staff said was reasonable. The first and second battalions would not hear any gunshots inexplicably. Something must have happened. The battalion commanders of the first and second battalions called and asked them what happened."

  The chief of staff agreed, picked up the phone on the table and called the first and second battalions. But unfortunately, the telephones of the two battalions were still unable to get through. At this time, no matter how stupid Sukharev was, he knew that there was a problem with the positions of the first battalion and the second battalion, so that even the communication was interrupted.

   "Chief of staff, immediately contact the battalion commanders of the third and fourth battalions." Sukharev gritted his teeth and said, "It is said that the positions of the first and second battalions have been attacked by the enemy, and let them prepare for reinforcements."

While the chief of staff was giving orders to the troops, Sukharev picked up another phone and called the Army Group Command. He planned to report the attack on his troops to Sokov and West as soon as possible. Dorling reports.

In fact, not long after the battle here started, Sidolin, who was on duty, heard the sound of guns coming from this side. He realized that something was wrong, and quickly sent someone to invite Sokov and Lunev to the headquarters. Study possible situations with them.

   Just then, Sukharev called. As soon as he heard Sidolin's voice, he said urgently: "Comrade Chief of Staff, it's not good, our brigade's position was suddenly attacked by the German army, and fierce fighting is now going on."

   "What, your position was attacked by the German army." Sidolin asked back in surprise, "What kind of force is the enemy?"

"It's not clear yet." Sukharev replied: "The two battalions that were attacked have lost contact with the brigade headquarters, but I have sent someone to contact them. I believe it will not take long to find out what happened. something happened."

"Look clearly, you were attacked by the German army." After Sidolin finished speaking, he began to talk to himself: "It's strange, where did the enemy come from? I remember that there seems to be no success nearby. Where did the organized German troops attack your enemy come from?"

Sokov hurried into the headquarters at this moment, and asked Sidolin who was still on the phone loudly: "Chief of Staff, what happened? Why did I hear gunfire coming from a distance, and The location seems to be in the defense zone where the 109th Infantry Brigade is."

"Comrade commander, you are right. The defense area of ​​the 109th brigade is being attacked by the enemy." Sidolin reported to Sokov: "I am talking to the brigade commander, Major Sukharev. Due to the incident Suddenly, the troops under attack lost contact again, and he temporarily lost track of the enemy's strength."

   "Let him immediately send troops to reinforce the attacked area." Sokov said: "In addition, you hurry up and contact the nearby troops to help the 109th Brigade."

"Major Sukharev, did you hear the commander's order?" Sidolin said into the microphone: "You immediately send troops to reinforce the area under attack, and more reinforcements will rush over to support you. Understand? ?”

   "Understood." Sukharev replied loudly on the other end of the phone: "Please rest assured the chief of staff and commander, I will personally command the troops to reinforce the attacked area."

After putting down the phone, Sidolin looked at the map in front of his eyes and said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, the troops closest to the 109th Brigade are the 122nd Infantry Brigade of Lieutenant Colonel Victor and Colonel Lyuzhkov. 211th Infantry Division."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, we currently don't know the size of the enemy attacking the 109th Brigade's position, so we can't rush all our troops into battle." Sukov thought for a while, and said to Sidolin: "You Let Lieutenant Colonel Victor send two battalions, and Colonel Liuzhikov dispatch a regiment of troops to support Sukharev and the others."

   "Ah, only send such a small force, is it enough?"

"Of course it is enough." Sokov nodded and said: "The main force of our army is now near Elbing and Letzen, and the troops at the headquarters are relatively empty. If you don't know the details of the enemy before, panic Put all the troops into battle in a panic. If the enemy takes the opportunity to attack the empty area, the situation of our army will become extremely dangerous."

   "Do you need to report to Comrade Marshal?" Sidolin asked tentatively.

"Of course." Sokov said affirmatively: "Where did the enemies who attacked our army come from, and how many troops they have, we don't know anything at the moment. So I need the help of Comrade Marshal, see Can you get any useful information from the intelligence department of the Front Army Command."

Sokov picked up the phone and connected to the Front Army Command. Before he could speak, Lunev in a military coat came in from outside, rubbed his eyes and asked, "Misha, what's going on here? Is something wrong?"

  Sokov just wanted to explain to him, when he heard a voice from the receiver: "This is the duty room of the Front Army Command, where are you?"

"I am Sokov, Commander of the 48th Army." Sokov didn't bother to explain what happened to Lunev, so he said directly to the watchman: "I have something important to report to the Marshal or Comrade Chief of Staff. Can you call me?"

The officer on duty learned that Sokov was in a hurry, and regardless of what time it was, he quickly woke up Bogolyubov who was on the night shift: "Comrade Chief of Staff, General Sokov, Commander of the 48th Army, called, Said that there is important information to report to you or Comrade Marshal."

Bogolyubov raised his hand to check the time, and muttered in a low voice: "What time is it, and I still called. What's the matter, I can't wait until dawn." Although he was a little unhappy, he still picked up the Microphone: "I'm Bogolyubov."

   "Hello, Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front Army." Sokov said anxiously: "Not long ago, our 122nd Infantry Brigade was suddenly attacked by the German army."

   "What, your rear guard was suddenly attacked by the German army?" Bogolyubov asked with a face full of shock: "Is this true? How many troops does the German have?"

"Of course it is true." Sokov replied: "As for how many troops they have, we haven't figured it out yet. However, some troops of the 109th Brigade that was attacked have lost contact with the brigade headquarters, so that we cannot Obtain urgently needed first-hand information. I called you just to ask, from the intercepted German intelligence, is there any German unit that will appear near our army's defense zone recently?"

   "No, General Sokov." Bogolyubov said seriously, "I can tell you responsibly that there is no intelligence showing that any enemy troops approached our defense zone."

Seeing that Bogolyubov didn't know the origin of the German army, Sokov couldn't help being puzzled: "Since you haven't obtained any information from relevant parties, where did the Germans come from? It is unlikely that they were withdrawn from other areas." Did you come down?"

"This is unlikely." Bogolyubov stared at the map in front of him, and after seeing the distribution of the situation of the enemy and the enemy clearly, he said: "General Sokov, even if the German troops withdraw, they will not pass through your defense zone. Ah. I am also puzzled by the fact that the enemy attacking you came out of nowhere."

   "Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front Army, I think something is wrong." Sokov said to Bogolyubov: "Look, whether to report this matter to the Marshal immediately so that he can know it."

"Okay, General Sokov, since you requested this, I will send someone to invite the marshal immediately." Bogolyubov said into the microphone: "At the same time, we will try to find out what happened. "

   "Okay, Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front Army, I am waiting for your news."

After Sokov put down the phone, he said to Lunev who looked blank in front of him: "Comrade Military Commissar, the situation is like this. The defense area of ​​the 109th Infantry Brigade of Major Sukharev was suddenly attacked by the German army. The enemy's The attack was so sudden and so intense that Sukharev lost contact with his attacked troops."

"Misha, do you know where the enemy came from?" Lunev asked in a panic, "They won't come to us, will they?" His worry was not superfluous. The main force is near Elbing and Letzen. Although there are two infantry brigades and one infantry division around the headquarters, the troops are too scattered. If the enemy breaks through the defense line of the 109th Infantry Brigade, they will soon be able to rush to the headquarters nearby.

  (end of this chapter)