The Germans never dreamed that while the Soviet army was constantly attacking the bridge, they quietly sent an armored unit to successfully cross the river to the left bank through the pontoon bridge set up downstream.
The tank troops crossing the river quickly entered the offensive battle. The German troops deployed at the bridgehead on the left bank were all Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks. These tanks were no match for the T-34 tanks. In less than ten minutes, the tanks parked on the left bank
Six German tanks were hit one after another and burst into flames, while the Soviet army only lost two tanks.
The Soviet troops who occupied the bridgehead on the left bank, under the cover of tanks, launched an attack on the enemy who still controlled the right bank. The German army was desperately sniping the Soviet attack from the right bank, but they did not expect that the bridgehead on the left bank was actually lost, and they were trapped for a while.
A situation of being attacked from both sides.
Although the Panther tank is the nemesis of the T-34, these tanks are parked in the pit. Even if they want to turn the muzzle, they are blocked by the soil on both sides. They can only watch the armor-piercing shells of the Soviet tanks penetrate.
The rear armor of these tanks caused the ammunition in the vehicle to explode. The violent explosion caused disaster to the German soldiers hiding around.
It seemed that the troops attacking from both sides had successfully joined forces on the right bank of the bridge. Sokov breathed a sigh of relief. He put down his telescope and said to Polubyarov: "Comrade General, immediately order your troops to garrison the defenses on the left bank."
Position and be prepared to meet the enemy's attack."
When Polubyarov commanded the troops to move towards the left bank along the bridge that was still smoking, two German bombers suddenly appeared in the sky. After discovering the target on the ground, they immediately dived down, dropping bombs and strafing.
, causing the marching troops on the ground to fall into chaos.
Sokov stared at the sky, frowning, and thought to himself: Zhukov once promised himself that he would send an aviation division to provide air cover for his troops, but where are the aircraft currently serving as cover?
Fortunately, there were not many enemy planes. After five or six minutes, they raised their altitude and flew towards the airport. Seeing that the enemy planes had flown away, the scattered and concealed troops returned to the road again and continued.
Head towards the left bank.
When Major General Fomenko's 84th Division appeared at the bridge, two planes appeared in the sky again. "Damn it, the enemy planes are here again!" As soon as this thought came to Sokov's mind, he heard the march.
The commanders and fighters cheered, and he looked intently in the sky. It turned out that there were only two Soviet aircraft, but he felt inexplicably relieved.
"Comrade Commander," Samoylov said when he saw that all the tank corps had entered the left bank position, and Fomenko's 84th Division was also crossing the bridge in an orderly manner, but Sokov had been standing in front of the temporary headquarters.
In a daze, he asked tentatively: "Shall we go back to the headquarters now?"
"What are you doing back at the headquarters?" Sokov asked casually.
For the sake of Sokov's safety, Samoylov certainly hoped that he would return to the headquarters as soon as possible, so he found a reason that was not too far-fetched: "The communication here is inconvenient, which is not conducive to your command of the troops."
"Comrade Lieutenant." Sokov turned to look at Samoylov and said: "According to our original order, all troops must reach the banks of the Pushor River before dark today. In other words, we are now
I’m going back to the headquarters and I’ll be here again soon. I don’t think there’s any need to go back and forth.”
"Comrade Commander, it's too unsafe here. Let's move to another place." Samoylov was deeply afraid of the enemy who would suffer heavy losses. He found that there were a large number of troops mobilizing here, and there would be a sudden shelling or bombing. By then, Soko
If the husband's life would be in danger, he tactfully persuaded: "This is also for your safety."
Seeing that Samoylov was thinking about his own safety, Sokov looked around and found a forest not far behind. He pointed there with his hand and said: "Then let's go there first."
After a while, when the headquarters is transferred, it won't be too late for us to leave."
Arriving at the woods, Sokov unexpectedly discovered that there were many tents set up in the forest clearing. It could be vaguely seen that this was a field hospital. He turned to Samoilov and said, "Come on, let's go and take a look."
."
The wounded who were sitting silently outside the tent saw Sokov appear, and stood up one after another or with the help of their comrades, and saluted Sokov who was walking among them.
Soon, Sokov saw a familiar face. After staring at the person carefully for a while, he asked tentatively: "Are you Katayeva?"
Katayeva, who was looking embarrassed by Sokov, was stunned when she heard her name being called out. Then she nodded vigorously and said: "Yes, Comrade Commander, I am Katayeva."
."
Sokov smiled at the other party and said friendly: "Katayeva, we have met before."
"Yes, Comrade Commander." Katayeva stared at Sokov for a while, and then she barely recognized the general in front of her. She was the one who was on the road with Cocakin and others on the day they escaped from the enemy.
The commander I met.
After Sokov looked at the other person carefully, he asked curiously: "Which army are you serving as a health worker now?"
"Report to Comrade Commander," Katayeva quickly straightened her body and replied, "I am in the field hospital of the 84th Division."
"Oh, you are the health worker of the 84th Division. I thought you were the health worker of the Tank Army." After expressing his regret, Sokov continued: "Have you seen Rykov and Cocakin recently?
"
"No, Comrade Commander." Katayeva replied expressionlessly: "Since the last review, I have never seen the two of them again, and I don't know where they are now."
"They were incorporated into the tank corps some time ago. I thought you had met them."
"Comrade Commander, can I ask you a favor?"
"What's the matter?" Sokov asked politely: "Please tell me!"
"If you can see Kokkin or Rykov, please tell them that I am now working in the field hospital of the 84th Infantry Division." Katayeva said somewhat cautiously: "Comrade Commander,
I don’t know if this is against discipline, but I still hope you can help me.”
"Don't worry, Katayeva, as long as I see Gucajin or Rykov, I will definitely tell them your whereabouts." In order to dispel the other party's concerns, Sokov said with a smile: "After all, you have been together before.
Experienced life and death."
Upon learning that Sokov was here, the director and political commissar of the field hospital hurried over. Just as they were about to raise their hands to salute, Sokov stopped him: "Dean, political commissar, you must remember this in the future.
One thing, never salute someone with a higher military rank than yourself."
The dean had just joined the army not long ago and he still didn't understand many things. When Sokov said this, he couldn't help but asked in confusion: "Comrade Commander, why is this?"
"On the battlefield, there may be enemy snipers hiding nearby. When you salute someone with a high military rank, you are telling the enemy: look quickly, there is a high-ranking officer here, shoot him quickly!"
Sokov's words made Katayeva burst into laughter. Seeing that Katayeva was laughing as if no one else was around, the political commissar quickly stopped her: "Comrade health worker, be serious, you don't even know what the occasion is.
.”
Katayeva, who was criticized by the political commissar, stuck out her tongue in embarrassment, then bowed her head and stood solemnly behind the dean and the political commissar before daring to speak again. "Comrade health worker," the dean said, worried that Katayeva's presence would arouse Soko's
The husband was unhappy, so he took the initiative to chase him away: "You have nothing to do here. You should hurry up and take care of the wounded."
When Katayeva left, Sokov kept staring at her back until she disappeared into a tent. Sokov's behavior caused the political commissar to misunderstand. Seeing that Sokov was so young, he thought to himself
The commander was so attracted to this female health worker. Could it be that there was some relationship between the two? He secretly wondered whether Katayeva should be given an easy and safe job in order to please Sokov.
Sokov is not a roundworm in the stomach of the political commissar, so of course I don’t know what he is thinking. Sokov looked at the dean and asked: "Comrade dean, do you have enough medical staff in your field hospital?"
"How do you say this, Comrade Commander." The dean said hesitantly: "Due to the long-term operation of the troops, not only the commanders and soldiers suffered heavy casualties, but even the health workers who rescued the wounded on the battlefield also suffered a lot of casualties.
.Although we have made supplements, the number of medical staff is only two-thirds of the prescribed number."
"Comrade Dean, although you are short of one-third of your staff, I can only regret to tell you that I will not be able to provide you with sufficient medical staff in a short period of time."
"I understand, I understand." As soon as Sokov finished speaking, the dean nodded vigorously and said: "In fact, it is not only the field hospital of our division that lacks medical staff, but almost all troops have the same problem."
Although it is temporarily impossible to replenish medical staff for the other party, Sokov is still prepared to equip the other party with sufficient personnel when the time comes. After all, the more medical staff in a hospital, the higher the chance of recovery of the injured: "What you have added
Where do the medical staff come from?"
"Generally, there are two channels." The dean stretched out two fingers and said: "One is to recruit directly from the medical school; the other is to recruit suitable personnel from the medical school or the army for short-term training. The personnel supplemented by the former can be regarded as future employees.
Military doctors are trained; and the latter can only be used as health workers, used to rescue the wounded on the battlefield or take care of the wounded in the hospital."
"It's really not easy for you." Sokov thought that fortunately Asiya had become an assistant military doctor, and she no longer had to brave the enemy's bullets to go to the battlefield to rescue the wounded like before. In a few hours, where she was
The 182nd Division will be stationed in this area. After he can meet with her, it won't be too late to return to the headquarters.
The plan could not keep up with the changes. Since the 182nd Division was marching on foot, it had not reached the designated position by dark. Samek and Lunev took the headquarters members and established a position five or six kilometers away from the river.
New headquarters.
Now that the new headquarters has been established, Sokov naturally has no need to stay outside for a stroll. He can only return to the headquarters with Samoilov and others with the regret of not seeing Asiya.
After Sokov returned to the headquarters, he saw that the place was still busy, so he asked Samyko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, did anything important happen while I was away?
"
"Comrade Commander," Sameko said cautiously: "If it's within the army, then I can tell you that except for the battle with the enemy for the bridge, nothing major happened."
"What about our friendly forces?" Since nothing happened to his own troops, Sokov wanted to know about the situation of the friendly forces so as to deduce the enemy's next move.
"It is said that a tank unit under the Fifth Guards Tank Army encountered a German armored unit in a certain area in Prokhorovka, and the two sides started a fierce battle."
Knowing that tanks had already fought in the Prokhorovka area, Sokov quickly asked: "What was the final battle situation like, and who won?"
"In the decisive tank battle, nearly forty of our army's tanks were destroyed by the enemy, while the enemy's losses were only fifteen." When Samyko saw Sokov hearing that the two sides were locked in a fight, he quickly added: "Fortunately,
The 678th Heavy Artillery Regiment was deployed nearby, and they used 18 152mm howitzers to blast at the location where the enemy tanks were assembled. The enemy had to withdraw from the battlefield after suffering huge losses."
"What is the damage ratio in this battle?" Sokov asked with a frown.
"It's basically one to one." After Sameko said this, seeing the expression on Sokov's face becoming more serious, he quickly said with a smile: "Although the remaining more than 20 tanks are all destroyed.
Our army's heavy artillery was destroyed, but after all, it was the same battle, so it is okay to say that the battle losses were one to one."
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov did not expect that the Soviet tank troops suffered such heavy losses in just a small-scale confrontation between the two sides. He asked tentatively: "Can you figure out the models of our tanks that were destroyed?
"
"Comrade Commander, the tanks equipped by the 5th Guards Tank Army are all T-34 tanks, and there are even KV heavy tanks. I am afraid that only General Katukov's troops have some old tanks.
."
Sokov was silent for a long time, and then asked Samyko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I want to ask you, what kind of battle loss ratio can be achieved if our tank army engages in a firefight with the enemy's large-scale tank force?"
Sokov's question stopped Samyko. After a long time, he answered in an uncertain tone: "Comrade Commander, I think that with the strength of the tank army, if it confronts the enemy's armored forces,
, the battle loss ratio is likely to be three to two, that is to say, we lost three vehicles and the enemy lost two."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, your idea is too optimistic." Sokov realized that although the Imperial Division had been wiped out, the strength of the German armored forces was still strong. He only had a tank corps with more than a hundred tanks in his hands.
If we had a head-on confrontation with the Germans, we would definitely suffer heavy losses. "If our troops were to fight the Germans face to face, I estimate that the battle loss ratio would be at least three to one or four to one."
This chapter has been completed!