Chapter 869 Reporting layer by layer

After the German attack was repelled, Captain Wittmann, the battalion commander in charge of the battle, hurried to the headquarters of the 577th Regiment and reported to the commander, Lieutenant Colonel Brandt: "Mr. The Russians fought back."

   "What, your attack was repelled?" Brandt frowned and asked, "Didn't you send five assault guns to assist your attack? Why was it repelled by the Russians so quickly?"

   "The assault guns that covered the infantry's attack were all wiped out by a mysterious weapon of the Russians."

"Mysterious weapon?!" Hearing what Wittmann said, Brandt remembered that he didn't seem to have heard any fierce gunfire outside, so he asked in amazement: "What kind of secret weapon are the Russians? If there is no movement, kill all our assault guns?"

"It was snowing too much, so I didn't see it clearly." Wittmann said bitterly, "But according to a surviving soldier, he saw several flaming tails flying out of the bomb crater in front of the Russian position." object, directly hit and destroyed our assault gun."

   "How far away?"

   "About eighty meters."

  "Eighty meters." After repeating the data, Brandt asked rhetorically, "Captain, are your soldiers sure that the Russians are not using anti-tank guns?"

  "Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, I can be sure that the Russians are definitely not using anti-tank guns." Wittmann replied in an affirmative tone: "Except for Tibetans, there is no way to place anti-tank guns in that kind of bomb crater."

  Brandt waited for Wittmann to finish speaking, and walked back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, wondering what new weapon the Russians used to kill the assault guns that covered their infantry attack. But after thinking for a long time, he couldn't figure out what kind of weapon destroyed the assault gun. He walked quickly to the table, picked up the phone on the table, and reported to the division commander Steinmetz: "Mr. Commander, I have an important situation that I want to report to you."

   "What's the situation?" Steinmetz asked casually.

"My third battalion launched an attack on the Russians not long ago. But shortly after the battle started, the five assault guns serving as cover were destroyed by a mysterious weapon of the Russians." Brandt respectfully Reported to Steinmetz: "I would like to ask if the division headquarters has any information about the mysterious Russian weapons."

"It's the first time I've heard of a mysterious weapon." Steinmetz said angrily, "Lieutenant Colonel Brandt, if you feel uncertain about breaking through the Russian positions, just tell me. You don't need to find such lame reasons to cover up your failure."

"No, sir." Seeing that Steinmetz didn't believe him, and even suspected that he had deliberately fabricated lies to cover up the fact of failure, Brandt was a little anxious, and he quickly explained: "What I said is true." It's true, the commander of the third battalion just reported to me that some surviving soldiers saw several smoke-laden objects flying out of the bomb crater where the Russians were hiding. Assault gun. He is with me now, and if you don't believe me, I can ask him to report to you again."

After listening to Brandt's swearing words, Steinmetz realized the seriousness of the problem. He held the microphone and thought for a while, then said: "Lieutenant Colonel Brandt, bring your battalion commander , come to me immediately, I want to find out what happened."

   Seeing Steinmetz put down the microphone, his chief of staff immediately reminded him cautiously: "Your Excellency, this matter is unusual. Do you think it is necessary to report to General Kurzbach immediately?"

   "Wait a minute." Steinmetz waved his hand and said, "It's not too late to report to the commander after Lieutenant Colonel Brandt and his subordinates arrive and I ask what's going on."

   After waiting for about twenty minutes, Brandt and Wittmann arrived at the division headquarters by car.

  As soon as he saw the two people enter the door, Steinmetz pointed to Wittmann and asked Brandt: "Lieutenant Colonel, is this your battalion commander?"

   "Yes, Your Excellency, Commander." Brandt nodded quickly, and said in an affirmative tone, "He is Captain Wittmann, the commander of the 3rd Battalion."

   Steinmetz walked up to Wittmann, looked him up and down, and said coldly: "Captain, now please report to me what you saw on the battlefield."

   After Wittmann respectfully reported what happened on the battlefield to Steinmetz in detail, the latter's face turned livid. He turned to the chief of staff of his division and said: "Chief of staff, it seems that the situation is worse than we imagined. I think it is necessary to report this situation to the commander of the army, General Kurzbach immediately."

  Hearing what Steinmetz said, the division chief of staff twitched violently twice. He said to himself that I suggested you to report to the army commander just now, but you rejected it. Unexpectedly, just after listening to the report, I can't wait to report to the army commander. However, no matter how dissatisfied he was with Steinmetz, he could only hide this emotion in his heart instead of showing it on his face. He nodded slightly and said, "Yes, sir, I will immediately call Report this to the commander."

After receiving a call from the chief of staff of the division, Kurzbach said displeasedly: "Nonsense, if the Russians had this kind of weapon against our army's technical equipment, they would have used it a long time ago, and they would never delay it until now." .I want to ask you, who is providing you with such ridiculous information?"

The chief of staff of the division who had been trained looked at Brandt and Wittmann, who were standing upright in the room, and replied with some embarrassment: "General Kurzbach, Lieutenant Colonel Brandt, commander of the 577th regiment, He and his battalion commander, Captain Wittmann, have just finished reporting to the division commander, do you want to talk to them personally?"

As an army commander, Kurzbach was originally reluctant to talk to unfamiliar subordinates, but in order to find out what happened in the barricade factory, he thought for a while, and then ordered: "Let General Steinmetz Take two of his subordinates and come to my command post immediately."

After the division chief of staff put down the microphone, he said to Steinmetz: "Your Excellency, General Kurzbach ordered you to take the two of them to the army headquarters immediately." Te and Wittmann pursed their lips.

   In this way, Steinmetz brought Brandt and Wittmann to the army headquarters, and reported to Kurzbach in detail about the mysterious weapon that could easily destroy the assault gun that appeared in the barricade factory.

   After listening, Kurzbach asked Wittmann a few more details, then frowned and looked at Steinmetz: "General Steinmetz, how do you see this matter?"

"Your Excellency, Commander!" Steinmetz replied respectfully: "As far as I know, the Americans have been providing military aid to the Russians in a steady stream. I think they may have provided some an anti-tank weapon."

Steinmetz's words reminded Kurzbach, he nodded and said: "You are right, the Russians may have just obtained new anti-tank weapons from the Americans and used them in the barricade factory. I'm calling General Schmidt to see if he knows anything."

After finishing speaking, Kurzbach walked to the telephone, picked up the receiver and put it to his ear, dialed a number, and said to the receiver: "I am General Kurtzbach, please transfer to the Army Group Headquarters to find a staff officer." General Schmidt."

  After waiting for more than a minute, Schmidt's voice came from the receiver: "I'm Schmidt, General Kurzbach, what can you do?"

   "Your Excellency, Chief of Staff." Kurzbach asked with a smile: "I would like to ask, do you know if the Americans have equipped any new anti-tank weapons in the near future?"

"A new type of anti-tank weapon?!" After Schmidt repeated what Kurzbach said, he immediately remembered the information he had just read, nodded and said, "Yes, according to reports from other battlefields, , The Americans have newly invented an individual weapon against tanks, which poses a great threat to our armored forces."

  Hearing Schmidt tell the information he was interested in, Kurzbach slapped the table excitedly, and said proudly: "I guessed right, the Americans really have a new type of anti-tank weapon."

Schmidt was confused by Kurzbach's words, and he asked inexplicably: "General Kurzbach, we are dealing with Russians now, and we can't even see the shadow of Americans. Why did you suddenly ask?" What about the new equipment of the US military?"

   "That's it, Your Excellency the Chief of Staff." Since Schmidt has said that the U.S. military has an anti-tank individual weapon, it is very likely that the U.S. provided the Russians with the weapons that destroyed the assault guns in the barricade factory. "The 577th Regiment of the 305th Infantry Division was attacked by a mysterious weapon of the Russians during the attack on the barricade factory. All five assault guns covering the infantry's attack were destroyed. I think with the current military level of the Russians, Since we couldn’t produce such a weapon, I thought it might come from the Americans, so I called you to check.”

   After chatting with Schmidt for a few words, Kurzbach put down the microphone. I came to Steinmetz and others, and said to them: "I have figured it out. According to the news from other battlefields, the Americans have invented an individual weapon against tanks, destroying assault tanks in the barricade factory. The gun weapon may be the weapon aided by the United States."

After listening to Kurzbach's words, Steinmetz turned his head to look at Brandt and Wittmann, then looked at Kurzbach again and asked: "Your Excellency, I would like to ask, what can I do?" Against this anti-tank weapon?"

"There is no effective way for the time being." Kurzbach shook his head and said: "Because it is only an individual weapon, the infantry using it can hide anywhere and fire at our moving tanks. Even if we Plowing every inch of land where the Russians are hidden will not necessarily destroy them."

"Your Excellency, Commander, if we can't eliminate the Russian anti-tank weapons, then we won't be able to use tanks and assault guns in battle." Steinmetz said with a bitter face: "You also know that due to the bad Due to the weather and the severe shortage of supplies, we were no longer able to provide artillery and air support for our troops when they attacked. Without the support of tanks and assault guns, it would become impossible to capture the Russian positions. "

  Aiming at Steinmetz's defeatist arguments, when Kurzbach was about to criticize him, the phone on the desk rang suddenly. He picked up the microphone and put it close to his ear. He heard Paulus's voice coming from inside, and quickly straightened his body and said, "Hello, Commander, what instructions do you have?"

   "General Kurzbach, I just heard from Schmidt that an American anti-tank individual weapon was found in the barricade factory." Paulus asked briefly on the phone: "Is there such a thing?"

   "Yes, Your Excellency Commander, there is indeed such a thing."

   "What are you going to do with the weapons the Russians have?" Paulus asked.

"Your Excellency Commander, since this is the first time we have come into contact with this weapon, we have yet to find a suitable solution." Kurzbach had just said this when he heard Paulus snorting on the phone. Hastily explained: "But we are researching ways, I believe there will always be a way to deal with this kind of anti-tank weapons of the Russians."

   Paulus was silent on the other end of the phone for a long time before he said: "General Kurzbach, you bring that junior officer who participated in the battle to my headquarters, and I will ask him personally."

  After Kurzbach put down the phone, he said to Wittmann: "Captain, Your Excellency the Commander wants to see you, and you go with me to Glubinskaya immediately."

   "What about us?" Seeing that Kurzbach was only going to take Wittmann alone, Steinmetz stepped forward and asked, "What should Lieutenant Colonel Brandt and I do?"

"General Steinmetz!" Kurzbach looked at Steinmetz and said, "Your Excellency only ordered me to bring Captain Wittmann to him. As for you, he didn't mention it at all. I see you Let’s go back to our respective headquarters first.”

  Glubinskaya, where the Paulus headquarters is located, is about 20 kilometers away from Kurzbach's army headquarters. If the weather is fine, the destination can be reached by car at most half an hour. But now it was snowing heavily and there was thick snow on the road. It took Kurzbach's car an hour and a half to reach Grubinskaya.

   After entering the city, Wittmann saw many civilians shoveling snow on the side of the road, and SS soldiers with live ammunition standing nearby, watching them shoveling snow. He couldn't help asking Kurzbach curiously: "Your Excellency, why are there so many civilians in the city? Don't you worry that there are Russian intelligence personnel among them?"

"Captain, these are all Jews." Kurzbach said coldly: "After they shovel the snow, they will be escorted back to the place where they are held by the SS. Even if there are Russian intelligence personnel hidden among them, they cannot Pass the information here to the Russian troops who are fighting our army."

  (end of this chapter)