The vanguard of the German army advancing towards the Soviet defense zone was the 1st Motorized Battalion Company. The company commander was Lieutenant Schafer. In the battle in February, he once commanded a company of troops to defeat a unit of the Southwestern Front equipped with tanks and
A mixed artillery regiment was formed, and the regiment leader and hundreds of commanders and combatants were captured.
If he had not been injured in the battle in March and was sent to a hospital in the rear for treatment, this time the Imperial Division was rebuilt, with his qualifications he could at least be a battalion commander. The reason why Major Weber, the commander of the motorized battalion, made him
The company serves as the vanguard because it believes in the combat effectiveness of their company.
Seeing that there was still less than one kilometer away from the Soviet position, Shafer ordered the motorcycle team to stop, let the engineers accompanying him get off the vehicle, and used a mine detector to check whether the road ahead was mined by the Soviet army.
.
The terrain here is complex, with hills on both sides. Once the Soviet army planted mines on the road, the tanks behind them would not be able to get around. Therefore, the main task of the company is to clear possible mines on the road ahead.
Lieutenant Colonel Golyachkin, who was staying in the observation post, was observing the enemy in the distance through his telescope, and said: "It seems that Comrade Commander is right. There is really no need to lay mines on this road. Even if it is buried,
Even if a mine is found, it will be cleared by German engineers."
He asked Captain Zu Mingte, the commander of the first battalion standing next to him: "Have all those planks been buried?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander, they are all buried." Zu Mingte quickly replied: "We covered it with three inches of soil, so the enemy's engineers can't find it at all. And even if ordinary trucks drive over it,
It won’t collapse the board.”
After listening to Zumint's answer, Golyachkin nodded and said: "Comrade Commander's thoughts sometimes are really ridiculous. He is not prepared to lay mines in places where enemy tanks pass, but he wants to dig some traps.
Will this stop the German tanks?"
Zumingt is Sokov's old subordinate, but he followed him here from the Sixth Army. Naturally, he unconditionally trusts his judgment. At this moment, he heard his immediate boss, Lieutenant Colonel Golyachkin, say to Sokov
He raised the question and felt very uncomfortable. Out of politeness, he said calmly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, since Comrade Commander arranged it this way, of course he has his reasons. As for whether it has any effect, I don't think it will take long.
It will be confirmed.”
The engineers spent more than half an hour and found no metal reaction on the road, so they reported to Shafer: "Mr. Lieutenant, we did not find any mines laid by the Russians."
But after hearing this, Shafer asked uneasily: "Can you really confirm that the Russians have not laid mines in this area? There may not be metal mines, but there will always be a few wooden mines, right?"
"Mr. Lieutenant," the engineer replied, "the Russian wooden shell mines can only kill and injure people and pose no threat to our tanks at all. As long as our tanks crush them all the way, they can detonate the Russian wooden shells."
Mines will open up a safe passage for our infantry."
After hearing the completion soldier's words, Shafer finally felt at ease. He quickly ordered the radio operator: "Report to the battalion commander, Major Weber, that no Russian mines have been found on the road ahead, and the armored regiment can move in."
After receiving Lieutenant Shafer's report, Major Weber immediately reported the situation ahead to the division headquarters. After Tansen learned that the leading troops of the motorized battalion had approached the Soviet position and found no mines laid by the enemy along the way, he
Instead of immediately ordering the armored regiment to move in, the 2nd Artillery Regiment was ordered to target the Soviet positions and fire.
The reason why he issued such an order was because when the Imperial Division was locked in a deadly fight with the Southwest Front, he was still a regiment commander. At that time, he used fierce artillery fire to wipe out an entire Soviet battalion on the position. After the shelling,
, the whole regiment launched an attack, because all the defenders on the position were killed, and his troops successfully captured the Soviet position without casualties, causing the entire defense line of the Southwest Front to collapse. For this reason, at the end of the battle, he
Later, he received an Iron Cross.
As the order was issued, the artillery hanging on the back of the truck was removed, and the German artillery began to nervously arrange their positions, preparing to bombard the Soviet positions.
Ten minutes later, the shelling against the Soviet troops began.
Since the artillery position was only five or six kilometers away from the Soviet fortifications, and there were firing parameters provided by the artillery observers in front, after two or three test firings, dense artillery shells fell on the simple Soviet field fortifications and exploded.
For a moment, flames shot into the sky, smoke filled the air, and the hill where the Soviet army's position was located turned into an erupting volcano.
Tansen stood in a position with a wide field of vision, looking at the position filled with fire and gunpowder smoke in the distance, with a triumphant expression on his face. He put down the telescope and ordered the chief of staff: "Order the 2nd Armored Regiment, Motorized Battalion,
The 3rd Grenadier Regiment, taking advantage of the favorable opportunity when the Russian positions were hit by heavy artillery fire from our army, quickly advanced along the road towards the Russian fortifications."
After a series of orders were issued, the German tanks, armored personnel carriers and trucks loaded with soldiers that had been parked on the road were restarted and headed towards the Soviet position along the road.
According to the prior agreement, soldiers riding in armored personnel carriers and trucks will get off the vehicle 800 meters away from the Soviet fortifications. Here, there is no need to worry about being accidentally injured by our own artillery fire, and there is still enough space to deploy the troops.
As soon as the German artillery began to test fire, the Soviet troops deployed on the first line of defense hurriedly moved along the communication trenches and secretly moved to the anti-slope position. As for the observation posts, they were placed on the hills. The artillery shells that landed here
, but it was much less than halfway up the mountain. They could leisurely observe the movements of the German troops in the distance.
Goryachkin, who was staying in the observation post of the regiment, was shocked at first when he saw the devastating German artillery fire, and then became calm. He thought to himself: Fortunately, Comrade Commander ordered us to build anti-slope fortifications.
, and ordered us to quickly move our troops to the anti-slope fortifications when being bombarded to reduce the damage caused by enemy artillery fire to our troops. Now it seems that the deployment of Comrade Commander is completely correct, and many soldiers came to the counter-attack
After the slope, he stood outside the trench and smoked, not taking the shelling on the other side of the hill seriously at all.
Zu Mingte, who was standing next to him, quickly said: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you can see it. If we did not build anti-slope fortifications, then our officers and soldiers would have to stay in simple field fortifications and suffer the baptism of enemy artillery fire. I
I can’t believe that after such intensive shelling, there are still a few living people left on the position.”
Goryachkin agreed very much with Zumint's statement. When he was a battalion commander, he had fought in many places. He saw with his own eyes that his comrades were wiped out under the fierce enemy shelling.
.But now that this anti-slope fortification has been launched, it can actually significantly reduce the damage caused by enemy shelling, which is simply a surprise to him.
The 2nd Armored Regiment is almost equipped with Panther tanks. This tank has a good appearance, strong firepower and good mobility. The Germans plan to use it to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks, so they call it the Panzer V tank.
, it was not until February 1944 that it was officially renamed: Panther tank.
In this area close to the Soviet position, the distance between the two hills reached more than 60 meters, which could fully deploy four or five tanks at the same time. Seeing that the terrain here was conducive to the deployment of tanks, the German tank commander immediately
The tanks were ordered to be arranged in a row of five, and as soon as the artillery fire stopped, they would cover the infantry and rush towards the Soviet position.
As soon as the artillery fire stopped, and before the smoke on the hillside cleared, the Germans launched an attack. But what they didn't expect was that the Soviet commanders and soldiers hiding in the anti-slope position heard that the shelling outside had ended, and they also rushed along the communication trench.
, returned to his position and prepared for battle.
The attacking force was still more than 400 meters away from the Soviet position when two loud noises were suddenly heard. Then the German infantry following the tank stared dumbly at the tank opening the way in front of them, which had already rolled over on its side.
Seeing the overturned tank, the German commander began to think quickly: "What on earth is going on? Did it run over a Russian anti-tank mine? I don't think so, if it really hit a mine,
There will definitely be an earth-shattering explosion, but now there are two strange noises, and then two tanks tipped over on the ground. What on earth is going on?"
The frightened German soldiers got closer to the tank and took a closer look. They found that the tank had fallen into a pit and overturned. After they scrambled to rescue the tank soldiers from the tank, they continued to study the Soviet army's tactics.
After studying this trap for a while, they found that the Soviet army dug a pit more than one meter deep and then covered it with a layer of thick wooden boards. The wooden boards could withstand the weight of people and ordinary vehicles and would not fall in even if they were pressed against it.
Trap. But the Panther tank is different. Its dead weight is enough to collapse the wooden planks put up by the Soviet army on the trap.
The overturned tank was definitely unable to participate in the battle. The German commander immediately moved the tanks forward from behind. They covered the infantry and launched an attack on the Soviet fortifications. This time they were attacked more than 200 meters away from their position.
A rocket launcher attack came from the side of the road. A tank driving by the side immediately became a victim, and the tank body was quickly wrapped in flames.
Zhelia, who was staying in the fortifications, saw two tanks running into the trap, causing a rollover incident. He reported the matter to Lieutenant Colonel Goryachkin: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, there are two German tanks.
The tank fell into our trap, and the enemy brought new tanks from behind, but they were destroyed by our anti-tank team."
"Are the infantry on the position ready for battle?" Lieutenant Colonel Goryachkin asked.
"Yes, we are ready for all battles." Zhelia said to Goryachkin while observing the movement outside: "When the enemy's infantry approaches, our soldiers will give them an unforgettable experience."
lesson."
The German tanks were destroyed one after another by the anti-tank team hiding on the side of the road. The German commander was immediately angry. He quickly mobilized his manpower and came towards the location of the anti-tank team, trying to destroy the anti-tank team so that his own tanks could
The attack on the Soviet positions continued.
If they were ordinary troops, the German commander's plan might have succeeded, but now they were facing Soviet troops equipped with assault rifles and having an advantage in firepower. Their infantry had just jumped over the tanks and rushed towards the hillside.
, they were fired upon violently by the Soviet army. The Soviet army's firepower was fierce and accurate. In just a few minutes, almost fifty German soldiers fell into a pool of blood. The remaining German soldiers were frightened and even
He didn't even bother to contain the corpses of his comrades, so he retreated in a hurry.
After the battle, Zhelia reported to Lieutenant Colonel Goryachkin: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, we have successfully repelled the enemy's attack. I believe we can get a few hours of rest."
"The enemy is very cunning, Comrade Captain." Lieutenant Colonel Goryachkin said earnestly: "The closer we are to victory, the more vigilant we must be. Sometimes the bite of a wounded beast will be more painful.
By the way, what are the casualties of your company?"
"Report to Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," Zhelia quickly replied: "In the battle just now, we lost seven soldiers and injured more than 20 soldiers. However, we destroyed nine German tanks. The Germans were on the battlefield.
In addition to the wreckage of destroyed tanks, there were also the bodies of more than 200 German soldiers."
"Not bad, not bad." Although in the battle in the previous two days, the Zheliya company destroyed a vanguard unit of the German army, that battle was nothing compared to today. The last time the German tank company had a chance to fight back
None of them were found, so they were destroyed one by one by the anti-tank fighters ambushing the roadside. It was precisely because of this that Goryachkin was in a particularly happy mood. He was ready to report the matter to the division headquarters immediately and ask the division commander, Colonel Khoklov, to
He was also happy with himself. "Well done. When the battle is over, I will definitely give credit to the soldiers of the anti-tank team."
Tansen never dreamed that before the attack, he ordered the artillery to shell the Soviet position for half an hour. Logically speaking, under such intensive artillery fire, not even a mouse could survive in the hillside position. But
When his own troops launched an attack, countless Russians shot at his own men from the collapsed fortifications. This made Tansen puzzled. Could it be that all Russians were invulnerable to bombing?
If this is really the case, then there is no need to fight the next battle. The opponent is a monster that can't even be killed by artillery. If you let your troops continue to attack, doesn't it mean that they will die? Thinking of this, Tansen asked his staff
The commander said: "Order the withdrawn troops to rest and recuperate on the spot, and at the same time tell the artillerymen to rest for an hour before bombarding the Russian positions. I don't believe that their flesh and blood can withstand our steel and fire."
"
"The commander of the artillery regiment called just now and said they don't have many artillery shells anymore."
"Immediately arrange logistics to send them." Tansen said angrily: "I must use artillery fire to eliminate those cowardly Russians hiding in the fortifications. Let them understand that as long as they dare to go against me, no matter where they are hiding
We can completely eliminate them wherever they are."
This chapter has been completed!