Chapter 659 Battlefield Fire Brigade (Part 2)

  Sokov's concerned words made Ershakov's nose sour. He reached out and pinched his nose to prevent himself from crying in front of his subordinates because he was too moved. He replied in a low voice: "Don't worry, Comrade Master, we will definitely complete the task alive."

  After putting down the phone, Ershakov said loudly to the three battalion commanders standing in front of him: "Have you all heard what the division commander said? He wants us all to go back alive!"

   "I heard it!" The three battalion commanders replied in unison, and at the same time, their eyes were shining with tears because of excitement.

"If you want to return to Mamayev Post alive, then go back to your respective units immediately, and urge the soldiers to hurry up and repair and strengthen the fortifications." Ershakov said to them in a stern tone: "With solid Fortifications, in the next battle, you will have a higher chance of surviving. Do you hear clearly?"

   "Listen clearly!"

"Go back to the army." Ershakov waved at them and said, "Before the enemy starts to attack, build more air-raid shelters and shelters, so that there will be more soldiers. survived the shelling."

After the three battalion commanders left, the chief of staff of the regiment asked Yershakov with some concern: "Comrade commander, can we really stop the enemy's attack? You know, the 351st regiment is in front of the German offensive. By an hour there were two-thirds casualties."

"Chief of staff, stop talking." Although Yershakov knew that there would be a fierce battle ahead, it was still unknown how many of his troops would survive in the end, but he didn't want the words of the regiment chief of staff to affect his command. The atmosphere in the institute interrupted the other party impatiently: "Since the superior ordered us to block the enemy here, we must do everything possible to block the enemy here so that our friendly troops can retreat smoothly. As for the troops We can ignore the casualties for the time being."

   Before the soldiers of the Guards had built the fortifications, the enemy's shelling began. Because there was not enough shelter, most of the fighters could only stay in the trenches. They huddled up and covered their ears tightly with their hands to prevent the loud gunfire from deafening their ears.

  The German shelling lasted only half an hour before it stopped. When the battalion commanders saw that the enemy's shelling had stopped, they immediately came out of their hiding places, bent over and ran back and forth in the trenches, shouting loudly for the soldiers to enter the firing positions. However, there are only a few soldiers who can immediately enter the position. Most of them are either buried in the mud or sitting in a daze in the trenches. They have not yet woken up from the German shelling.

Fortunately, the Germans thought that after their last round of attack and fierce shelling, there were not many people left on the ground, and they only needed to launch another charge to easily break through the Soviet line of defense and cut off the front line. Go out to the retreat of the Soviet army in the direction of the station, and then eat them little by little.

  However, the Germans soon discovered that they were wrong. When the infantry rushed to more than a hundred meters away from the Soviet position, the heavy fire on the position rang out. The German soldiers rushing to the front seemed to have hit a transparent wall and fell under the dense rain of bullets. The remaining soldiers hurriedly jumped into nearby craters, or hid behind the corpses to avoid the bullets fired from the position.

The offensive mission was a company of the 546th Regiment of the 389th Infantry Division. The German company commander hiding in the crater saw that the firepower on the position far exceeded his imagination, and quickly ordered the communications soldiers squatting aside: "Contact the regiment headquarters immediately, saying that the Russian firepower is too strong, and requesting tank support."

After receiving the report from the front, the head of the German army immediately reported to the division headquarters and asked for the assistance of the Tiger tank, but was scolded by the division commander Yenel: "There are only a few hundred Russians on the position, and one infantry company of yours is 1,000 people. Why use a Tiger tank if we can get rid of them?"

   After the regimental commander who had been scolded by Yenel put down the phone, he felt that his company commander would never ask him for help if he hadn't encountered difficulties. After thinking for a while, he decided to send a tank company temporarily assigned to him to attack the Soviet position.

Yershakov, who was staying in the command post, saw the silhouettes of tanks appearing in the distance and heard the faint roar of the tanks. He quickly counted carefully in the binoculars and found that there were six tanks in total. tank. Thinking of one of the enemy's heavy tanks, he easily killed seven of his own tanks, and now six of them came at once, how could his own troops stop them.

   Just when he was extremely anxious, he suddenly heard the chief of staff at the side say "Hey", and asked curiously: "Chief of staff, what did you see?"

   "Comrade Commander," the chief of staff put down his binoculars, turned his head and said to Yershakov, "Why are all the enemy's Panzer III tanks dispatched? In this way, the anti-tank guns on our position are enough to deal with them."

"What, is the No. 3 tank here?" Yershakov heard the chief of staff say this, and quickly raised his binoculars to carefully observe the German tanks in the distance. Soon he found that what the chief of staff said was true. All he saw were Panzer III tanks equipped with 50mm short-barreled guns. He couldn't help murmuring: "Strange, why did the Germans dispatch the No. 3 tanks? Could it be that these tanks almost wiped out the entire 351st regiment just now?"

  The Soviet anti-tank fighters on the ground were still as worried as Ershakov when they first saw enemy tanks appearing in the distance. When they saw clearly that it was the No. 3 tank with weak armor, they were overjoyed, and quickly set up their anti-tank guns and opened fire on the approaching tank.

   The No. 3 tank has always been used in conjunction with the No. 4 tank, and these No. 3 tanks that appeared in front of the Soviet army were equipped by Yenel to the Tiger tank unit to prevent them from being attacked by Soviet infantry. Since Yenel was unwilling to use the precious Tiger tanks to deal with the defeated Soviet soldiers on the blocking position, the head of the 546th Infantry Regiment could only use the No. 3 tank, which served as a cover, for the main attack.

  There is a fully organized independent anti-tank company on the position, equipped with 27 anti-tank rifles. After the bullets were loaded, none of the anti-tank fighters fired, but quietly waited for the enemy tanks to come within range.

  The company commander of the anti-tank company is a middle-aged man in his forties. His face was blackened by gunpowder smoke from the shelling that ended not long ago. At this moment, he was hiding behind a mound, staring intently at the approaching German tanks, secretly calculating how much time there was left for the fighters to fire.

Although anti-tank rifles can effectively destroy enemy tanks and armored vehicles at a distance of 300 meters, for the sake of safety, the company commander stared at the approaching tank and said to the soldiers beside him: "pass down, there is no My order is that no one is allowed to fire!"

  His order was quickly conveyed to the ears of every anti-tank fighter, and everyone was holding a long anti-tank gun, aiming at the approaching German tanks. As long as the company commander gives an order, they will pull the trigger without hesitation and destroy the tanks driving towards them.

  The German soldiers lying on the ground saw that there was suddenly no movement on the ground, thinking that the Soviet army was frightened by the No. 3 tanks that came to support them. They climbed up from the ground cautiously, held their guns, and quickly approached the Soviet army's position using short leap tactics.

  The commander of the anti-tank company saw that the enemy tank was only two hundred meters away from the position, so he took off the helmet on his head, swung it down, and shouted loudly: "Fire!"

   His shout was drowned out by gunshots and explosions, only heard by two nearby anti-tank fighters. They immediately faced the target they had locked on without hesitation, and pulled the trigger. And the anti-tank fighters beside them, after hearing the movement, knew that the company commander had given the order to fire, and they also fired in turn, shooting at the tanks in front.

  The first round of firing of 27 anti-tank guns caused five of the tanks to lie down. Some bullets missed the tank, but hit a few German soldiers following the tank, and immediately drilled bowl-sized holes in their bodies. Looking at these robes whose bodies were almost smashed by bullets, the surrounding German soldiers fell to the ground again.

And the remaining tank, unaware of the other tanks, had been destroyed by Soviet anti-tank rifles, and was still rumbling forward, trying to quickly rush through the Soviet trenches and hold its position. The Soviet army caused panic. However, its attempt did not succeed. It drove forward for another forty to fifty meters, and was hit by more than a dozen armor-piercing incendiary bombs. In the infantry line, there were two unlucky soldiers on the spot, who were smashed into meat paste.

  Seeing that the enemy's tanks were destroyed, the anti-tank company commander excitedly stood up from his hiding place, raised his pistol and shouted: "Comrades, come with me and drive the Germans away from our position!"

  The company commander of the anti-tank company took the lead in charging, and those soldiers in the company who did not operate anti-tank rifles also carried weapons and followed their company commander to charge forward. Seeing that the commanders and fighters of the anti-tank company were all charging, the commanders and fighters of the first battalion who held on to this section of the position could not hold back anymore, but they all jumped out of the trenches and rushed up bravely.

Those German soldiers lying on the ground were frightened when they saw their tanks being destroyed, but now they saw the Soviet troops rushing towards them like a tide. run back. There were also a small number of soldiers who, while retreating, shot at the charging Soviet troops, trying to slow down the soldiers' charge.

  The number of soldiers who fired was limited and could not stop the soldiers from charging. After a while, they were either shot to death or stabbed to death with bayonets. In the infantry company responsible for the attack, except for seven or eight people who escaped quickly, the rest were lying on the battlefield in disorder.

  Yershakov in the command post was secretly rejoicing after seeing six enemy tanks destroyed by the anti-tank company. He rushed to the telephone, asked the communications soldier to connect to the command post of the first battalion, and asked a battalion commander angrily: "First battalion commander, the task I gave to your battalion is to hold the position. Who gave you the power to let the soldiers Are we going to carry out a counter-charge?"

   Why did the soldiers charge, the commander of the first battalion was also confused at the moment. After being criticized by Yershakov, he quickly argued: "Comrade commander, I did not give an order to countercharge, and I don't know why the soldiers suddenly attacked the enemy..."

"Immediately find out what's going on, and then report to me." When Ershakov was about to put down the phone, he suddenly remembered that the counterattack troops followed the fleeing enemy and rushed into part of the position lost by the 351st regiment. He added: "Since you have recovered some of the lost positions, you should immediately adjust your deployment and rearrange your defenses on these positions."

  The first battalion commander did not expect Ershakov to let him take over those lost positions, so he could only reply with a wry smile: "Understood, Comrade Commander, I will immediately arrange manpower to strengthen the defense there."

   It is a good thing for Ershakov to be able to restore some of the lost positions. After all, more than 2,000 people in a regiment are crowded in a narrow area of ​​no more than 200 meters in length and width. If the enemy's artillery fire density is higher, the troops will suffer very alarming casualties.

  After he finished talking with the commander of the first battalion, he called the commander of the second battalion and ordered him to transfer all the excess troops to the area vacated by the first battalion to strengthen the defense force.

   Perhaps it was the counterattack of the first battalion, which made the chief of staff of the regiment see the dawn of victory. He said to Ershakov with some excitement: "Comrade commander, since the counter-charge carried out by the first battalion can restore a lost position. Then when the enemy attacks next time, we will carry out another counter-charge. All the lost positions of the 351st Regiment have been regained."

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Ershakov said with a serious expression, seeing that his chief of staff was so blindly optimistic, he felt the need to hit and beat: "The counterattack of the First Battalion went very suddenly. The Germans haven't recovered, and even you and I haven't figured out what's going on. As long as the Germans suffer once in this kind of thing, they will learn their lesson next time. Maybe they will find out to deal with our counterattack Therefore, it is better not to take risks casually, as long as we can block the enemy's attack, it is a great victory for us."

   "I see, Comrade Commander." After hearing Yershakov's words, the chief of staff of the regiment immediately realized that he was too optimistic. If it is true to do it again, the Germans may directly bombard the troops carrying out the counter-charge, and use artillery fire to wipe out the soldiers on the way to the charge. "Although we repelled the enemy's attack, we should not take it lightly. Maybe their next attack will be more violent. We must take necessary countermeasures."

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Seeing that the Chief of Staff realized his mistake, Yershakov reached out and patted him on the shoulder, and said, "In any case, we have won a victory, and we can tell the good news to you. Teacher, let the teacher and the others be happy too."

  (end of this chapter)