Chapter 229 Attack (1)

  Ten minutes before the battle started, all commanders above the regiment level gathered in Sokov's forward headquarters. Seeing these school-level officers dangling in front of him, Sokov thought evilly in his heart: If a shell fell at this moment, not only the division-level commanders of the 31st Guards Division would be finished. , but also take the lives of two artillery regiment commanders and a tank brigade commander by the way.

  But this kind of thought just flashed in my mind. If a shell really fell, other people's lives would be lost, and I would not be able to escape the same fate. Sokov calmed down and asked his three commanders: "Are you all ready?"

   "Ready, Comrade Commander." The three regiment leaders replied in unison.

When his eyes turned to Liabinkin and Peter, before he could speak, Liabinkin had already smiled and said: "Comrade Major, we are also ready. Just listen to your order, and we can attack the enemy." The positions were fired."

  Sokov nodded slightly at Liabinkin, and then turned his gaze to Colonel Gustov who repelled him a bit: "Comrade Colonel, have all your tank brigades entered the starting point?"

"Yes, Comrade Major. The 31 tanks of the whole brigade have entered the designated positions, and when the time is up, they can lead the infantry to attack." After Gustov said these words dryly, in order to ease the atmosphere , He went on to say: "But my tank only carries high-explosive bombs. It is no problem to destroy the enemy's fortifications and destroy the enemy's infantry. If I encounter enemy tanks, I will have nothing to do."

"Don't worry, Comrade Colonel." Sokov replied with a smile: "Since the German army did not deploy tanks in the battle a few days ago, I believe that in today's battle, your tank brigade will not encounter enemy tanks either. Your task is to crush the fortifications along the way with your crawlers, and destroy those enemies who dare to resist."

   "Don't worry, Comrade Major." Gustov also replied with a smile on his face, "I will convey your order to every tank soldier."

   Sokov raised his wrist to look at the time, and then said to everyone: "Commanders, it's almost time, let's all go back to our respective units and make the final preparations before the attack."

  As the minute hand on the watch pointed to twelve, Sokov nodded to Potukin, who was holding the microphone, signaling that the shelling could begin. Potukin, who understood, quickly said into the microphone: "The commander ordered: fire~!"

   After just ten or twenty seconds, there was rumbling gunfire outside. Sokov walked to the lookout, raised his binoculars and looked at the German positions in the distance, only to see that the enemy's forward positions had been shrouded in smoke. It seems that the artillery power of the two artillery regiments is really not weak.

After Potukin put down the phone, he walked to Sokov's side, raised his binoculars and looked into the distance, and asked with some concern: "Comrade commander, can the tactics we adopted really take down the outer positions of the German army?" ?”

Sokov, who was observing the enemy's situation, heard Potukin's question and replied without looking back: "I think it should be effective. If the enemy's position cannot be taken down like this, then we can only ask the infantry army That's how to attack."

  Five minutes passed in a flash, but when the artillery fire began to extend, the commanders and fighters of the 1137th regiment, who had already been ready to go, charged towards the enemy's position under the guidance of the tanks of the tank brigade.

  In order to ensure that the infantry can keep up with their own speed, the tanks travel very slowly. The infantry takes platoons as units and follows the tanks step by step, rushing towards the enemy's position.

   Before the troops approached the enemy's forward position, the phone on the table rang suddenly. Sokov put down the binoculars, turned his head to look at the ringing phone, and thought to himself, who would call when the battle just started? He walked over, picked up the microphone, and said, "I'm Major Sokov, where are you?"

"I'm Malinin." Malinin's questioning voice came from the receiver, "Comrade Commander asked me to ask you, what did you do? Why did you only bombard the first line of defense of the German army for a few minutes, and then the artillery fire extended? And the artillery fire has not stopped yet, the infantry charged under the cover of the tanks, what is going on?"

Facing a series of questions from Malinin, Sokov calmly replied: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I reported to Comrade Commander yesterday that when the enemy is bombarded by our army, they usually retreat to the second line of defense. After the bombardment of our army is over, they will return through the communication trench. This time I will use my plan, first bombard the first line of defense for five minutes, wait for the enemy to withdraw to the second line of defense, and then extend the artillery fire to destroy the enemy as much as possible. At the same time, I ordered the troops to charge decisively when the enemy was dodging shelling, so as to achieve the greatest results with the least casualties."

  After patiently listening to Sokov's words, Ma Linin nodded slightly and said, "Understood, Major Sokov, I will convey your exact words to Comrade Commander. I wish you good luck!"

   Putting down the phone, Sokov returned to the lookout and raised his binoculars to look into the distance. I saw that the tanks crushed the barbed wire along the way under the tracks, and it was only one or two hundred meters away from the first position of the German army. At this moment, a tank stopped suddenly. Just when Sokov was wondering, a nearly one-meter-long flame burst out from the muzzle of the gun. The shell fell into the German trench, and then exploded. In the smoke, a German soldier could be seen dancing into the sky, then falling down in pieces.

Seeing this scene, the corners of Sokov's mouth could not help but slightly upturned. He shook his head and said angrily and amusedly: "These tank soldiers! Enemies who can be killed with heading machine guns are actually bombarded with tanks, as if they It seems that the shells I carry are inexhaustible."

Potukin put down his binoculars, smiled and said to Sokov: "Comrade commander, I think these tank soldiers did the right thing. The German soldiers who were killed by tank guns should be observation posts left by the enemy in the first line of defense. Machine gun fire may not be able to kill him. Now that a shell flies past, he will be blasted into the sky, so that the commanders and fighters who are attacking can clearly see it, which is very helpful to boost morale."

   "Comrade Chief of Staff, you are right." Sokov agreed with Potukin's statement. He knew very well in his heart that even if the tanker killed the enemy's observation post with a machine gun, only a few soldiers would see it. Now he was sent to the west with a single shot, but almost all the soldiers who participated in the battle could see that the improvement of morale was self-evident. Seeing the imposing commanders and fighters rushing towards the enemy's position behind the tank, he couldn't help saying with emotion: "The first time the tank brigade fired, it killed an enemy with a tank gun. It's very good."

   It didn't take long for the commanders and fighters of the 1137th Regiment to occupy the first German position. Except for a few people standing firm, they continued to follow the tanks and moved towards the second line of defense that was still under shelling.

   Sokov looked at his watch again, and found that there were only two minutes left before the shelling ended. He quickly turned around and walked to the telephone, picked up the microphone and asked the signalman to connect to the 1135th regiment. When he heard a voice coming from inside, he said decisively: "Colonel Bindasov, it's time for you to play."

  Bindasov was very envious when he saw that Pavel's troops had successfully occupied the first German position and then advanced deep into the enemy. Hearing the order from Sokov at this moment, he immediately replied loudly: "Understood, Comrade Commander, we will attack immediately."

   A few kilometers away from the Sokov command post, a group of commanders stayed in an observation post built on a high ground, observing the situation on the battlefield with binoculars. If Sokov were here, he would be surprised to find that besides Rokossovsky and other group army chiefs, General Zhukov, the commander of the Western Front, was also among them.

  Zhukov saw that the artillery bombarded the German positions for only a few minutes, and then began to extend the fire, and the infantry also followed the tanks to attack. He was very curious about this new style of play, so he ordered Ma Linin to call Sokov to find out what was going on.

   Now seeing the commanders and fighters of the 1137th Regiment occupying the first line of defense of the German army almost without bloodshed, and attacking the enemy in depth without any pause, a rare smile appeared on his always serious face. He put down the binoculars, looked at Rokossovsky who was standing beside him, called him by his nickname, and said, "Koschka, it seems that this little Misha is not simple, and he actually occupied the first line of defense of the German army like this. "

"That's right, he just has a lot of tricks." Regarding Zhukov's statement, Rokossovsky nodded in agreement: "If he had ordered his troops to attack Zhizdra earlier, perhaps the losses we suffered would have been much smaller. many."

"It seems that there is no problem for the commanders and fighters of the 31st Guards Division to seize the outer positions of the German army." Zhukov pouted and said, "I just don't know if they can still perform as they do now in street fighting. so good."

"Don't worry, Comrade Zhukov." Rokossovsky looked at Zhukov and said with a smile on his face: "When the military meeting was held yesterday, I talked with Misha, although he didn't explain to me in detail how to deal with him. The German army is fighting in the streets, but from his appearance, I am afraid that he has a detailed plan in his heart, and we will wait here for his good news."

"In my opinion, in order to speed up his victory, we should also help him." After Zhukov finished speaking, he called a staff officer who came here with him, and told him: "In my name, give the Air Force Group Army a hand immediately." The commander ordered him to immediately dispatch a squadron of fighter jets and a battalion of bombers to Zizdra for support."

After the staff officer walked away, Zhukov explained to Rokossovsky: "After Misha's troops occupied the outer positions of the German army, the enemy will definitely retaliate. Therefore, I sent the air force to support him, and the fighter planes could repel them. The German planes and bombers can bomb targets in the depths of the German army, such as artillery positions and the like.”

  Hearing what Zhukov said, Rokossovsky felt a little sour in his heart. He secretly said that when he attacked two days ago, he asked Zhukov for air support, but was rejected by the other party. Now, seeing that Sokov's troops occupied a position of the German army, they rushed to send air force support. The gap between the two is too big.

Although he was a little jealous of Zhukov's preference for Sokov, Rokossovsky thought that the other party was his subordinate after all, and Zhukov's support for him was equivalent to his support for him, so when Zhukov finished speaking, he laughed. He said: "Comrade general, don't worry, if Major Sokov's troops are in danger, our other troops will not stand idly by, and we will provide timely support."

  The infantry following the tank charge stopped the artillery bombardment when they were less than 50 meters away from the second German position. Although many shells missed and exploded ten to twenty meters in front of the attacking team, fortunately, the shrapnel hit the tank, and the infantry behind did not suffer any damage.

  The German army never dreamed that the Soviet army would extend artillery fire a few minutes after shelling the first line of defense. The officers and soldiers who had just withdrawn from the first line of defense along the traffic trench suffered heavy losses under the intensive artillery fire. After finally waiting for the shelling to stop, before they could recover, they felt the ground under their feet trembling slightly. A German machine gunner looked out from the trench curiously, and saw Soviet tanks lined up neatly The shape rushed up, and behind the tank, groups of infantry could be clearly seen.

Seeing the Soviet army rushing up, the machine gunner quickly turned his head and shouted to those colleagues who were still running out of the soil: "The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming!" He couldn't hear any sound, and his ears had been deafened by the shelling just now.

  The machine gunner quickly put the MG34 machine gun on the pitted trenches that were blown up, aimed at the rushing Soviet tanks, and slammed the trigger. A series of bullets flew out, jingling on the tank body like hail, but it could not slow down the speed of the tank at all.

   The tank that was being strafed stopped, slowly turned the turret, aimed at the position where the German machine gunner was, and fired a shot. With a loud "boom", the gunfire spewed out a long flame mouth, and the shell accurately hit the firepower point, blowing up the machine gun that was firing wildly into a pile of parts, and the machine gunner manipulating the machine gun was blown to pieces.

  The commanders and fighters following the tank saw that they were not far from the enemy's position, so they flashed out from behind the tank one after another, passed the tank in groups, and rushed towards the enemy's position with shouts.

  (end of this chapter)