When Shechtman received the telegram from Sokov, he sneered and said to the political commissar: "Comrade political commissar, take a look at what is written in the telegram sent to us by the commander?"
Colonel Billing received the telegram, quickly read the contents, and said solemnly: "Comrade Division Commander, it seems that the commander also discovered that something is wrong with the enemy. Under our attack, they retreated too quickly."
He put the telegram on the table and then asked Shechtman: "Comrade division commander, if the commander's analysis is correct and the enemy has set this trap to eat our division, how should we deal with it?"
"My comrade political commissar, don't worry about it." Shechtman waved his hands and said: "If one of our divisions acted alone, I admit that it is possible. But now we are not fighting alone, except for the two behind us.
division, and more troops are coming.
Even if the enemy really sets a trap in the city and surrounds our division, as long as we hold on for a few hours, reinforcements will arrive and complete the encirclement of the enemy. At that time, we can cooperate inside and outside,
Annihilate more enemies and reduce resistance for our next battle."
Regarding Shechtman's statement, Colonel Billing thought about it carefully and felt that it still made some sense. In any case, the 84th and 188th Divisions were now stationed in the outer positions in the north of the city. If he was attacked by the Germans,
, they will definitely come to support in time.
Although other friendly forces had no chance of winning when they were equal in strength to the German army, even if his own army encountered an enemy with superior strength, there was still a possibility of victory. With this thought in mind, he did not ask Shechtman again.
Any objection. He turned to look at the chief of staff next to him and asked: "Comrade chief of staff, what do you think of the commander's order?"
Seeing Colonel Billing asking himself, the chief of staff quickly replied: "Division commander, political commissar, this is what I think about. Since the comrade commander has also made such a judgment, it proves that the enemy is really going to make some conspiracy. To be on the safe side, I
It is recommended that the main force of the division be withdrawn from the city, leaving only one regiment to hold on to the existing position."
"Only one regiment is left to hold on to the occupied position?" Shechtman asked with a frown.
"Yes, there is only one regiment left in the city." The chief of staff explained to Shechtman: "In this way, even if we fall into the enemy's trap, only one regiment will be surrounded. By then our other two regiments will
Then launch an attack on the city and rescue the besieged troops."
"Comrade Division Commander, I think the Chief of Staff's suggestion is good. We can adopt it." Colonel Billing looked at Shechtman and asked, "What do you think?"
"Chief of Staff, which regiment do you think is better left behind?"
"How is Prochenko's regiment?" the chief of staff said cautiously: "Their regiment's chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Vanya, is an old subordinate of the commander. He is very good at dealing with the German surrender at night."
The Prochenko Regiment's designation is the 762nd Regiment. This regiment achieved great results when fighting against the Color Guard Division outside the city of Prokhorovka. There is no doubt that such a heroic team is responsible for the defense of the city.
It was very appropriate. Shechtman immediately agreed with the chief of staff's proposal: "Yes, I think it is more appropriate for Colonel Prochenko's 762nd Regiment to be responsible for the night defense of the city's positions."
Seeing that Shechtman agreed to his proposal, the chief of staff quickly picked up the phone on the table and called the 762nd Regiment: "Hello, the 762nd Regiment? I am the chief of staff of the division. Call me your regiment commander immediately.
Colonel Prochenko spoke."
…………
An hour later, except for the commanders and fighters of the 762nd Regiment, the rest of the troops quietly withdrew from Dergach and entered what became the night fighting position.
Seeing the friendly forces withdrawing from the city one after another, the commander of the 762nd Regiment, Colonel Prochenko, asked his subordinates to bring him two bottles of vodka and some food to go with wine, and then called the chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Vanya, to start drinking.
.
"Comrade Commander," Vanya said hesitantly when he saw the food and wine on the table: "According to the notice from superiors, the enemy may launch an attack on our regiment at night. The military commanders of our two regiments are sitting there.
Isn’t it appropriate to drink here?”
"What's inappropriate?" Prochenko said disapprovingly: "With just two bottles of vodka, how can we drink you and me down? Besides, we have strengthened our patrols. Even if the enemy launches a sneak attack on us, we can still
Respond in the shortest possible time.”
After hearing what Prochenko said, Vanya hesitantly sat across from him and asked uneasily: "Comrade leader, is it really okay for the two of us to drink here?"
"What can be the matter?" Prochenko unscrewed the cap of a bottle of vodka with his hands, poured the wine into two teapots, then pushed one of them in front of Vanya and said to him: "Comrade Chief of Staff
, the temperature is low at night, so we can drink some to keep out the cold, and at the same time, it can be used as a midnight snack to relieve boredom."
Now that Prochenko had already said this, Vanya still refused to drink, which seemed a bit pretentious. He picked up the teapot and said to Prochenko: "Comrade leader, I offer you a toast and wish us the best."
The regiment can achieve more results tomorrow."
Prochenko picked up the teapot, touched it lightly with the teapot in Vanya's hand, and said confidently: "Comrade Chief of Staff, since the division has allowed our regiment to stay in the city and hold its position, it proves that the division commander
The political commissar thinks highly of us and will definitely let our regiment continue to be the main attacker in the next battle."
The wine is good and the food is good food. The two of them were drinking wine and chatting. Somehow the topic came to Sokov: "...Comrade Chief of Staff, you are the commander's old subordinate, and you must be very fond of him."
I know the tactics very well. Tell me, what would you do if the Germans occupied some territory in the city you were holding?"
"According to the character of Comrade Commander," Vanya took a sip of wine gently and continued: "We will definitely use the cover of night to launch a sneak attack on the enemy. We have done this before, directly killing the Germans with rockets.
A regiment-level headquarters disrupted the German offensive steps on the second day..."
"I've heard about this," Prochenko said, nodding. "It is said that after the rocket attack, the entire village was in flames. Except for the search troops, there was no one alive in the village."
"Comrade leader, I remembered something and felt it necessary to report it to you." After hearing the other party say that the village was burned to a sea of flames, Vanya suddenly remembered something important and quickly said to Prochenko: "
In many of the buildings we occupied, there were a large number of gasoline barrels placed."
When Prochenko heard about this for the first time, he seemed a little distracted: "Could it be an empty oil drum used by the German armored forces?"
"No." Vanya shook her head and said, "The gasoline in the oil drum is full. I feel something is wrong."
"What's wrong, my comrade chief of staff." Prochenko raised the teapot towards Vanya again: "Maybe it's the fuel the enemy prepared for their armored forces, but because our attack was too fast,
The enemy didn't have time to move the fuel away..."
"I'm worried that the enemy may have some conspiracy behind leaving so many gasoline barrels."
"Chief of Staff, do you want to say that the enemy is preparing to attack us with fire? Oh, the wind is blowing outside," Prochenko sneezed several times: "It is still summer, and it is so cold at night. It seems that this year's
It’s hard to live in winter.”
As soon as Prochenko said that the wind was blowing, Vanya stood up suddenly, walked to the window and looked outside, and it turned out that the wind was blowing. He looked around, picked up a piece of paper from the ground, and used
He held it out of the window. After a moment, he let go, and the paper was blown away by the wind.
Watching the paper quickly disappearing into the darkness, Vanya said with some worry: "Comrade Commander, something is not good. The southeast wind is blowing now. If the enemy takes the opportunity to launch a fire attack on us, we will be at the disadvantage.
It will be a big loss."
"Fire attack?! Is this impossible? You know, three-quarters of the city is still in the hands of the enemy. If they want to carry out a fire attack, are they not afraid of burning themselves?" Although Prochenko said
Li didn't want to admit it, but at the same time, doubts were aroused in his heart, especially the word "fire attack", which made him feel flustered.
"Comrade Commander, I just said that the enemy is upwind. If they set fire, we are the only ones who will be burned..." Before Vanya could finish her words, she suddenly saw flames bursting out in the distance.
"No, the enemy has set fire!" Vanya shouted as he rushed to the telephone, preparing to alert several battalion commanders under his command.
"Damn it, the enemy really set a fire!" Prochenko walked to the window, looked at the several fires rising in the distance, and said emotionally: "Aren't they afraid of burning their own people?"
"Regiment, commander!..." Before Vanya could make a call, a staff officer broke in from outside the door: "The Germans set fire to the city."
"Why panic? The enemy set fire just to throw us into chaos. Immediately order all personnel in the regiment to prepare for battle and prepare to retreat in response to the enemy's attack!"
"Comrade leader, there are many wooden buildings in the city, and we are downwind. Even if we are not burned to death by fire, we will be killed by the thick smoke." Seeing that the call could not be connected for a long time, Vanya simply turned the phone to
He threw it on the table and said to Prochenko: "The top priority is to move to the north of the city immediately. As long as we exit the city, we will be safe."
Seeing the phone thrown on the table, Prochenko knew that the battalions had not been contacted yet, so he couldn't help but asked Vanya anxiously: "Comrade Chief of Staff, why didn't you call."
"The phone cannot be reached, Comrade Commander." Vanya sighed softly and said: "The enemy has cut off our phone lines before setting fire. Now we can only send communications troops to notify the battalions and quickly evacuate the city.
outside, lest he be burned to death in the fire.”
One after another, the communication soldiers ran out of the regiment command post and went to the battalions to convey the order to retreat. However, the command posts of each battalion were scattered in the streets. Before they could reach the place, they conveyed the order from the regiment headquarters.
By the time it was given to several battalion commanders, the original small flame had turned into a raging flame.
After receiving the order from the regiment headquarters, the commanders of each battalion quickly sent people to convey the retreat order to the companies and platoons below. However, the regiment's one to two thousand commanders and fighters lived in different blocks and buildings respectively. Where could the order to retreat be obtained?
It was communicated to them in time. In addition, the commanders and soldiers were already exhausted after a day of fighting. Many of them were fast asleep at the moment. The people who informed them had no idea how they could wake them up and react in a hurry.
After dispatching all the communications troops, Prochenko and Vanya also left their headquarters and found that there was a mess outside, with groups of soldiers running up and down the streets, and loud shouts one after another.
Thick smoke and flames were already billowing into the sky in the direction of the street entrance. Although it was still a few hundred meters away, with the wind helping the fire, the fire was about to burn along the street.
"Comrade leader, let's retreat." Vanya shouted loudly to Prochenko: "If we don't leave, we won't be able to leave."
Prochenko jumped into his jeep and was about to tell the driver to drive. Suddenly, through the dancing firelight, he saw a dense crowd of people on the street. Hearing the increasingly clear cries, he knew they were residents of the city.
.Needless to think, they were frightened out of their home by the fire.
Seeing Prochenko about to jump out of the car, Vanya grabbed him: "Comrade leader, retreat quickly! If it's later, it's too late!"
"But there are still so many residents on the streets, and the commanders and fighters of our regiment haven't withdrawn yet!"
"Let's go!" Although Vanya didn't know the idiom "Ci Bu Zhang Bing", but seeing the fire getting closer and closer, he knew that if he continued to delay, both himself and Prochenko would be burned to death on this street, so he
He stopped talking nonsense with Prochenko, and while dragging him tightly, he told the driver: "Comrade driver, drive quickly!"
"Get out, I can't abandon my men and the residents of the city to escape for my life." In anger, Prochenko punched Vanya hard in the face and shouted at the driver at the same time.
: "Turn around, turn around immediately and go back to save people."
But Vanya endured the pain on his face and shouted at the driver: "Don't turn around, keep driving forward." After shouting this, he said to Prochenko, "Comrade leader, you are now
If you turn around and go back, you won't be able to save anyone, and you will risk your own life."
Vanya poked her head out of the car door, which was not closed, and shouted to an officer who was about to lead his men back to rescue people: "Comrade Captain, take your people and retreat to the north of the city immediately."
"Comrade Chief of Staff," the officer recognized Vanya and said with a look of embarrassment: "But there are so many residents in front, and they will be engulfed by fire..."
"You idiot! Didn't you see how fierce the fire was?" Vanya shouted at the other party: "No matter how many people you take there, you will die. Hurry up and retreat north!"
The officer looked at the residents and Pao Ze who were running in the distance, and his eyes couldn't help but turn red. He knew very well in his heart that Vanya was right. If he led people to rush forward, he would be destined to die. He gritted his teeth and said,
He shouted to his subordinates: "Everyone listen to my order and retreat to the north immediately! Hurry up, don't wait any longer, retreat to the north!"
Hearing the officer's shout, the soldiers who were originally going to save people could only stop, glanced tearfully at the residents and Paoze in the fire not far away, then turned around and followed Prochenko's jeep toward the police.
Withdrew to the north of the city.
This chapter has been completed!