Chapter 853 Comeback

When he learned that the German army repelled by his regiment turned out to be an engineer battalion, Guzman, the head of the 650th regiment, couldn't sit still. He said to Vasily: "Comrade Captain, I really didn't expect that the enemy who attacked us It turned out to be an engineering unit, and it seems that the enemy's strength is also tight, so that they had to send an engineering unit to attack."

  Vassili guessed that Guzman would have some thoughts when he said this, so he didn't speak, but just looked at the other party silently, waiting for the other party to say the following words.

Sure enough, not long after, Guzman tentatively asked Vasily: "Comrade Captain, since the enemies on the opposite side are all engineers, look, can we launch a counterattack and recover some lost positions from the enemy?" .”

  Guzman's words made Vasily a little moved. If you can really regain some positions from the enemy, I'm afraid the division commander will also look at him with admiration. But he thought about it again, his battalion is now distributed in three different areas, even if he wants to fight back, the troops he can use are very limited. Moreover, if you attack the enemy's position without asking for instructions, you may be criticized by the division commander and regimental commander.

  Thinking of this, Vasily calmed down a lot. He was worried that Guzman would immediately dispatch troops to prepare for a counterattack, and quickly persuaded him: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, our troops are limited. It may be barely enough for defense, but it is far from enough for counterattack." What's more, after we seize the position, we need to divide our troops to guard it. In this way, our troops will become weaker. Once the enemy counterattacks, I am afraid that the position captured after bloodshed and sacrifice will fall into the enemy's hands again."

  If Vasily is Guzman's subordinate, if he replied to Guzman in this way, he would definitely be scolded, and even labeled as "cowardly and panic-stricken". Next, Guzman will find someone to take Vasily's place, and launch a counterattack against the enemy's position according to his plan.

   But Vasily belongs to the 41st Guards Division and came here to help in the battle. Even if the rank is only captain, Guzman, as a lieutenant colonel, can only let him three points. Hearing Vasily's statement at this moment that he was unwilling to participate in the counterattack against the enemy, Guzman could only sigh secretly in his heart and gave up the idea of ​​counterattack. After all, he had too few troops in his hand. The counterattack implemented has no chance of success.

   "What a pity!" Guzman looked at the German positions in the distance without any movement, and said with regret: "What a good opportunity to counterattack, I just missed it..."

   "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel!" Seeing that Guzman hadn't given up the idea of ​​fighting back, Vasili said seriously: "Don't look at the enemy's attack being repelled by us, but if we really want to fight back, I'm afraid we will pay a lot of casualties."

"Comrade Captain, there are no immortals in a war. As long as you can regain the position from the enemy, no matter how much you pay, I think it's worth it..." Guzman stopped abruptly when he finished speaking halfway. Realizing that Vasily said this, there must be some deep meaning, so he turned his head to look at Vasily, and asked in surprise: "What do you mean by the big casualties?"

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, don't look at the enemy attacking us as engineers, but I feel that they are different from the engineers I have seen before." Vasily analyzed to Guzman: "Look, the attack method they just used, Let our previous defensive tactics be ineffective. If we hadn’t used snipers and mortars to deal with them later, I think they would have launched a full-scale attack on us after the assault guns destroyed our firepower.”

"But, Comrade Captain." Although Guzman witnessed the whole process of the battle, it may be that the battle process was so easy that he firmly believed that the repulsed enemy was just an engineer with weak combat effectiveness. How could a well-trained unit be rendered useless by our snipers and mortars? In my opinion, this is nothing more than an engineering unit with extremely poor combat effectiveness."

  Vassili intends to refute Guzman, but considering that the other party’s military rank is much higher than his own, if he argues with him in front of his subordinates, it will affect his WeChat, so he just smiled lightly and did not continue talking.

  Guzman saw that Vasily was silent, and was about to say something more, when he heard the phone ringing not far away, he hurried over and picked up the microphone: "I'm Guzman, where are you?"

"What? A meeting tomorrow night?" After listening for a while, Guzman suddenly showed a surprised expression on his face: "Is this true, Comrade Commander? ... No, no, I don't doubt what you said, I just want to Make sure...don't worry, Comrade Commander, without your order, how dare I let the troops counterattack casually..."

Vasily stood aside, quietly listening to the conversation between Guzman and Lyudnikov, and kept guessing in his heart: If the meeting is held tomorrow night, if it is held at the division headquarters, Lieutenant Colonel Guzman will definitely not be like this Excited, is it a meeting at the army headquarters? At this time, notifying a regiment-level commander to attend a meeting at the headquarters means that there will be a major military operation. Could it be that our army is about to launch a full-scale counterattack against the enemy.

   Just as Vasily was thinking wildly, Guzman had finished talking with Lyudnikov. After he put down the phone, seeing Vasily staring at him intently, he said with a haha: "Comrade Captain, just now the commander reminded me on the phone that without his order, you must never attack the enemy without authorization. It seems that you That's right, if I stick to my opinion and order the troops to counterattack the enemy, I will definitely be reprimanded by the division commander..."

Vasily automatically filtered the nonsense that Guzman said. He was eager to know where the other party would have a meeting tomorrow night, so he asked cautiously: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I seem to have heard Colonel Lyudnikov inform you to go Meeting. May I ask, where are you going to have a meeting tomorrow night?"

"If someone else asked, I would definitely not tell him. But we are comrades in arms fighting side by side, so it doesn't matter if I tell you." Guzman leaned close to Vasily's ear and whispered: "The commander told me tomorrow Follow him to a meeting at the Army Group Headquarters."

   Seeing that Guzman was really going to the Army Group Headquarters for a meeting, Vasily became happier. He looked around and saw that the nearest communication soldier was four or five meters away. As long as he spoke in a low voice, the other party couldn't hear him at all. He approached Guzman and asked in a low voice: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, tell me, does this mean that our army's major counterattack is about to start?"

   "Although the meeting will start tomorrow night, I don't know the content of the meeting for the time being." Guzman said thoughtfully: "But I think your speculation is likely to become a reality."

   "I really envy you!" Seeing that Belkin didn't call him, Vasily guessed that he was not qualified to participate in such a military meeting. While he was happy, he couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. However, in order not to affect Guzman's emotions, he still forced a smile and said: "I can go to the headquarters to attend such an important meeting."

Guzman saw Vasily's thoughts, and didn't know what to say for a while, so he could only raise his hand and patted the other person's shoulder, and said, "Comrade Captain, when I go to the meeting tomorrow, I will leave it to you here." Responsible."

   "Don't worry, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I will never let the enemy approach our position." Vasily assured Guzman: "You can go to the meeting with confidence."

   "The enemy is coming up!" Just as the two were talking, they suddenly heard a series of shouts from outside: "The enemy is coming up!"

   The two quickly looked outside, and sure enough, they saw several assault guns in the distance, leading more than a hundred German soldiers, rushing towards the position.

  Guzman quickly picked up the phone and said into the microphone: "First battalion commander, the battle alert, the enemy is attacking us, immediately order the troops to enter the combat position!"

  After putting down the phone, Guzman raised his binoculars and looked in the direction the enemy came from. After watching for a while, he murmured, "Damn it, why did the enemy change their tactics again, and dare to attack us directly without artillery cover?"

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, this is normal." Vasily on the side said: "We went deep into the enemy's troops and destroyed the enemy's stockpile at the Kotlu bus station and the 654th kilometer station. The enemy's current ammunition and various military uses There is a shortage of materials, so naturally there are not so many shells to bombard us. This is also good, at least we can reduce some casualties when we are defending."

  The German assault guns stopped five or six hundred meters away from the position, and then bombarded the Soviet position with artillery fire to cover their infantry advancing.

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," seeing this situation, Vasily said anxiously to Guzman: "Please contact the artillery immediately and ask them to use artillery fire to destroy those assault guns, otherwise the firepower points on our position will be destroyed one by one by the assault guns." Destroy them one by one."

   Guzman looked at the assault guns in the distance, and found that they were no longer firing blindly aimlessly, and the shells had landed on the position accurately and exploded. Although it is not yet clear what kind of casualties the enemy's shelling has caused to the commanders and fighters on the position, Guzman knows in his heart that if the assault guns keep firing, the commanders and fighters may be suppressed by the artillery fire before the enemy's infantry rushes into the position. I am afraid that it will not be possible to fight back effectively.

Guzman picked up the phone and reported to the division commander Lyudnikov: "Comrade commander, the enemy has launched an attack on our regiment's position again. This time they dispatched a number of assault guns. I ask the artillery to fire immediately and destroy these damned troops." assault guns so that our fighters can calmly destroy the attacking infantry."

   "I see, Lieutenant Colonel Guzman." Lyudnikov said into the microphone: "I will get in touch with the artillery and let them provide you with artillery cover."

After finishing the conversation with Guzman, Lyudnikov looked at Sokov and said with a smile: "Colonel Sokov, the enemy has launched an attack on the position of the 650th regiment, and there are several infantry vehicles accompanying the attack. Assault guns. You see, can the artillery be ordered to destroy these assault guns with artillery fire?"

Sokov had gone out to observe the situation when he heard the sound of guns and guns outside, and when he heard Lyudnikov's request, he nodded and said, "Okay, Comrade Colonel, I will give Sa Major Veitch called and told them to fire at the enemy."

   "Major Savage, this is Sokov." After the call was connected, Sokov didn't say anything nonsense, but asked straightforwardly, "Have you seen the enemy attacking the 650th Regiment's position?"

   "Yes, Comrade Colonel, we saw it." Savage waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and quickly asked for instructions: "I am about to call you to ask whether to fire on the enemy."

  Sokov considered that there were still nearly ten days left before the big counter-offensive. If the shells were exhausted prematurely, he would no longer have any long-range anti-tank weapons, so he tentatively asked: "How many shells do you have?"

   "After these two days of fighting, each gun still has an average of fifteen rounds." Savage reported to Sokov: "Among them ten rounds of high-explosive rounds and five rounds of armor-piercing rounds."

Sokov didn't know when the ammunition would be replenished after the ammunition ran out, so he said cautiously: "Major, you may not get any ammunition replenishment for a long time, so you must save the ammunition and try to Take out the enemy's assault guns with the fewest shells."

  As there is no turret, the entire body of the assault gun is much shorter than that of the tank. It is really impossible for skilled artillerymen to destroy these assault guns by direct shooting at long distances. After receiving this order from Sokov, Savage thought about where his skilled artillerymen were distributed.

  Bliski saw that Savage was standing by the table in a daze after answering the phone, so he asked curiously, "Comrade Major, what happened, why are you standing here in a daze?"

"Comrade Captain," Savage said to Briski with a wry smile, "Colonel Sokov just called me and said that we might not get any supplies for a long time, so he asked us to use the fewest shells to Destroy the enemy's assault guns. I was thinking, where are my skilled gunners now? It is necessary to call them up and use them specifically to deal with the enemy's assault guns."

"Comrade Major, I think your method is feasible." Briski is still very self-aware. Although he has achieved a lot of results in the past two days, he understands very well that his subordinates are only helping those real artillerymen. That's all, without the artillery, relying on the infantry under him, even if the cannon is fired, he doesn't know where the shell will fly. Therefore, he strongly endorsed Savage's proposal: "Skilled artillery should be called up immediately to destroy the enemy's assault guns."

  The skilled artillerymen were distributed in different positions. Savage deployed a dozen or so artillerymen with the best skills to the No. 1 position by telephone. When everyone was there, he decisively issued an order: "Aim at the enemy's assault gun and fire!"

  After the artillery was in position, it immediately aimed at the target quickly, and fired as soon as the shells were loaded. The two test-fired shells failed to hit the target. One shot hit the open space more than ten meters in front of the assault gun, while the other flew directly over the assault gun and landed in a ruined wall behind. .

  Skilled artillerymen are different from those novices. Seeing that the first shell missed, they immediately adjusted the firing angle of the artillery. In the second round of shooting, the shells fired by the five artillery pieces turned the two assault guns into burning torches. Seeing that the enemy's assault guns were destroyed, the artillerymen were greatly encouraged, and fired at the remaining assault guns.

  As all the assault guns turned into piles of burning torches, Savage decisively ordered the artillerymen to replace with high-explosive bombs, bombarding the infantry who were bending over and charging towards the Soviet positions.

  (end of this chapter)