"Wait a minute, Comrade Major." Just as Major Bunch was about to turn around and leave, he was stopped by Belkin.
He stopped, looked at Belkin with strange eyes, and asked curiously: "Comrade Colonel, do you have anything else to add?"
"Comrade Major, I found that you are very impatient," Belkin said with a smile: "I haven't finished what I said here, and you are in a hurry to leave."
After hearing what Belkin said, Major Bunch scratched the back of his head and smiled sheepishly.
After Major Bunch sat down again, Belkin began to introduce him to the situation ahead: "Comrade Major, the fortress area in front of us was originally a permanent fortification used by our army to deal with the Germans, but it has not been put to use yet.
They were occupied by the enemy. The walls of these bunkers are generally made of reinforced concrete more than one meter thick. If they are directly bombarded with tank guns, it may be difficult to penetrate them. Even if they are barely penetrated, there will be no damage to the defenders inside.
big."
Major Bunch originally thought that the fortifications blocking the road were hastily built by the Germans. As long as his tanks drove up and fired two rounds of shelling, they would be enough to destroy all the fortifications blocking the road. Now he knew that what he was about to face was
The expression on the face became serious as the permanent fortifications were built by the Soviet army themselves.
He frowned and thought for a while, then looked up at Belkin and said: "Comrade Colonel, the mission of our brigade is to help you break through the German defenses. I will listen to you on how to fight next."
Belkin was very satisfied with the modesty shown by Major Bunch. He did not hide his secrets and said truthfully: "Our soldiers have all fired rockets through the firing holes of the bunker to eliminate those hiding in the bunker."
The enemies inside. Judging from the current situation, the effect is pretty good. As long as the rockets can penetrate, basically all the enemies inside will be wiped out."
"Oh, that's it." After hearing what Belkin said, Major Bunch's thoughts suddenly became clear: "As long as the enemy does not have strong anti-tank firepower, our tanks can even drive to thirty or forty meters away from the bunker.
Positional shooting." He said confidently, "The commanders and fighters of the 37th Tank Brigade are experienced in many battles. When shooting at such a close distance, there is no reason why they cannot hit the target."
While Major Bunch and Belkin were discussing the details of destroying the German bunkers, a tank lieutenant colonel came in from the outside. As soon as he entered the door, he asked Major Bunch hastily: "Comrade Brigadier, when are we going to attack?"
After seeing the person clearly, Bunch smiled and introduced to Belkin: "Comrade Colonel, let me introduce to you. This is my deputy brigade commander, Lieutenant Colonel Chukliko."
"Hello, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel!" Belkin extended his hand to Chukliko and said friendly: "Nice to meet you. From now on we will be comrades fighting side by side."
"Hello, Comrade Colonel." Chukliko responded to Belkin politely, but his tone was polite and a bit distant: "I am very happy to fight alongside you."
Major Bunch noticed from Chuklico's attitude that he was a little indifferent to Belkin, and quickly added: "Comrade deputy brigade commander, I just forgot to introduce you. Comrade Commander is the commander of the 73rd Infantry Brigade.
At that time, Colonel Belkin was his political commissar."
Chuklico was very surprised by Major Bunch's words: "Ah, Colonel Belkin was once the political commissar of Comrade Commander?" He confidently looked at the older colonel in front of him and muttered to himself, since he used to be
How did someone who was a political commissar become a military commander now?
Belkin saw Chukliko's doubts and took the initiative to explain to him: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, do you think I, a political worker, became a military officer?"
Seeing Chukliko nodding in affirmation, he continued: "Actually, I served as a military officer before I was transferred to serve as Sokov's political commissar. Now I am just returning to my profession."
After the three chatted for a while, Belkin urged the two of them: "Comrades, commanders, time is tight, so I won't say more. I hope you will clear the German firepower points in the fortress area as soon as possible and open up a passage for our infantry.
"
"Comrade Colonel, due to special circumstances this time, you cannot send infantry to follow our tanks." Chuklico expressed his concern, "If we encounter German anti-tank fighters, our tanks may be in danger."
"You are right, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Belkin agreed with Chukliko's statement: "Although the German army in the fortress area does not have any anti-tank guns, it does not rule out that the enemy will see that our tanks have no infantry.
If you don’t cooperate, send anti-tank soldiers to blow up your tanks with explosives or grenades.”
Seeing that Belkin was also aware of this problem, Chuklico asked tentatively: "Then what is the way to deal with the German anti-tank fighters?"
"Lieutenant Colonel Chuklit, this is what I think about." Belkin said to Chuklit: "I will arrange some sharpshooters to hide in the occupied fortifications. Once the enemy's anti-tank fighters are discovered, they can be eliminated.
them."
"It's just a sharpshooter?" When Chukliko heard what Belkin said, he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed: "Don't you have snipers?" It was also a sniper to kill the enemy, but the marksmanship of the sharpshooter was obviously not comparable to that of the sniper.
Belkin shook his head and said with a wry smile: "Lieutenant Colonel Chukliko, my regiment used to have snipers, but they died in the battle. Our superiors have not given us more snipers until now, so I can only
Deploy soldiers with good marksmanship to provide cover for your tanks."
As the tanks of the 37th Tank Brigade entered the battlefield, the commanders and fighters of the 258th Regiment stopped attacking and instead hid in the occupied fortifications, preparing to wait for the tanks to clear the German bunkers before continuing to advance towards Merefa Fortress.
The Soviet tanks came in groups of two, alternately covering the German bunker. The tank crews, following the instructions of Bunch and Chuklico, aimed at the shooting holes in the bunker and opened fire. The shells were fired through the shooting holes, and soon they heard the sound coming from inside.
There was an explosion, and then large chunks of concrete flew into the air.
Seeing that the artillery bombardment was so effective, the tank crews couldn't help but cheer. However, they were not complacent and restarted their tanks and moved towards the next target.
Since tanks have thick armor, they do not have to worry about bullets fired from bunkers. They can naturally destroy enemy bunkers much faster than infantry. In less than twenty minutes, nearly thirty bunkers were destroyed by Soviet tanks.
.
When the German commander saw that the bunkers were being pulled out one by one by Soviet tanks, he couldn't help but feel anxious. In order to prevent the entire army from being annihilated, he decided to take a desperate risk. He called those bunkers that he could still contact and ordered them to send anti-tank crews.
To destroy those Soviet tanks without infantry cover.
As for the Soviet tank crews, it may be that after entering the battle, the progress was too smooth, and they inevitably underestimated the enemy. In order to speed up the clearing of the German bunkers, they changed the tactic of two tanks forming a group to cover each other.
Five or six tanks crowded in front of the enemy's bunker, scrambling to shoot at the bunker's firing holes.
But none of them discovered that before these bunkers were destroyed, the defenders inside had withdrawn and hid in the trenches next to the bunkers. These German soldiers were very patient. When the bunkers were destroyed by Soviet tanks, they
They lay there motionless as if nothing was wrong. When the Soviet tanks passed in front of them, they rushed out of their hiding places and threw explosive packets or anti-tank grenades at the tanks.
This tactic of the German soldiers was very effective. After the explosions, more than ten tanks of the leading battalion were destroyed.
But when the first battalion commander reported the news to Major Bunch, Bunch immediately became angry: "First battalion commander, what did you do? Didn't you have two tanks as a group and cover alternately? Who asked you to have five or six tanks?
Two tanks are crowded together and driving so slowly, isn’t this a target for the Germans?”
The first battalion commander, who was scolded by Bunch, did not dare to fight back. Finally, after Bunch's words came to an end, the first battalion commander timidly said: "Comrade brigade commander, nearly half of our battalion's tanks have been lost. You have to think of a way."
Ah, otherwise the whole army will be annihilated sooner or later."
Don't forget that Bunch scolded the first battalion commander bloody, but as a tank brigade commander, how could he watch one of his battalions being annihilated by the Germans? He quickly said into the microphone: "One
Battalion Commander, you should stop advancing immediately, retreat two hundred meters, reorganize your formation, and then attack the enemy."
"But, Comrade Brigade Commander." The first battalion commander said anxiously: "The enemy's anti-tank fighters are everywhere. I'm worried that I will be attacked by them when I retreat."
"Don't worry, I will find a way to deal with the German anti-tank fighters."
After ending the call with the first battalion commander, Bunch turned to Chuklico and said: "Comrade deputy brigade commander, please contact Colonel Belkin. I think we need their help now."
"Okay, Comrade Brigadier." Although Chuklico is now the deputy brigade commander, those tank soldiers who are bleeding and dying on the battlefield are all his old subordinates. Hearing the news of their sacrifices, he felt particularly sad.
Sad, after hearing Bunch's instructions at this moment, he quickly replied: "I will immediately contact Colonel Belkin and ask him to send someone to assist us in the battle."
Fortunately, before the attack began, Chuklico was more thoughtful and asked the communications troops to connect a telephone line between the tank brigade headquarters and Belgin's command post to facilitate communication between the two parties. At this moment, Chuklico was prepared for a rainy day.
It comes in handy.
As soon as he heard Belkin's voice coming from the receiver, Chukliko said anxiously: "Hello, comrade colonel, I am Lieutenant Colonel Chuklico, deputy commander of the tank brigade."
"Hello, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Hearing that it was Chukliko who called him, Belkin said with a smile: "I heard from my subordinates that you fought well and destroyed 30 German troops in less than 20 minutes."
Multiple bunkers.”
"Yes, it is true that more than thirty bunkers were destroyed by our tank troops." After Chuklico confirmed the results, he continued: "But we are in some trouble now and need your help."
"Are you in trouble?" Belkin asked nervously: "What trouble?"
"While the 1st Tank Battalion was advancing deep into the fortress area, it was attacked by German anti-tank fighters and lost more than ten tanks." Chukliko asked Belkin nervously: "Comrade Colonel, can you help us eliminate the German army?"
An anti-tank fighter?"
Belkin did not expect that the German anti-tank fighters would be so rampant and kill ten friendly tanks in such a short period of time. If he had ignored it and allowed it to develop, I am afraid that the entire tank brigade would be in the fortress.
area.
After thinking for a while, he replied: "Lieutenant Colonel Chuklico, it seems that just sending sharpshooters to cooperate with you is not enough. More infantry must be sent to ensure that your tanks will not be attacked by anti-tank handguns."
s attack."
After Belkin put down the phone, he called a communications soldier and told him: "Immediately find the battalion commander and tell him to send troops to move with the tanks. You must not let enemy anti-tank fighters get close to our tanks."
The communications soldier loudly agreed, turned around and ran out of the command post.
Shortly after the communications corps left, Belkin received a call from the division commander Fomenko: "My comrade deputy division commander, how is the progress there?"
"Reporting to Comrade Division Commander," Belkin maintained enough respect for Fomenko: "With the cooperation of the tank brigade, we have destroyed half of the bunkers. If everything goes well, we will be able to clear the entire fortress in at most one hour.
enemies of the area.”
"Well done, Comrade Deputy Division Commander." Fomenko originally did not want the Belkin Regiment to perform this task, and was even ready to let the 254th Regiment take over from them, but now he heard that half of the bunkers had been destroyed.
He was very surprised: "I heard from the commander of the 252nd Regiment that the walls of the bunker are made of reinforced concrete more than one meter thick. How did you penetrate such a thick wall?"
"I knew that the wall of the bunker was too thick and the artillery shells could not penetrate it at all, so I chose to shoot the shells through the shooting holes of the bunker. The shells exploded in the bunker, not only killing the enemy, but also causing the explosion of ammunition. According to my
The subordinates reported that they did not find a single living person in the bunkers they occupied."
Knowing that the front was progressing smoothly, Fomenko began to redeploy troops and generals, preparing to wait until Belkin's troops had completely eliminated the enemies in the fortress area before the entire division continued to advance.
The 1st tank battalion operating in the fortress area, with the support of infantry, launched another attack on the enemy's bunker. The German army repeated its old trick, trying to blow up more tanks, but this time the infantry following the tanks were destroyed.
Their plan came to nothing. The anti-tank fighters who rushed out from various places were either shot in the head by sharpshooters hiding in the distance before they could get close to the tank, or were shot into pieces by the infantry following the tank.
When the German commander discovered that his anti-tank crew could not get close to the Soviet tanks, he couldn't help but panic. Looking at the bunkers in the fortress area, they were destroyed one after another under the attack of Soviet tanks, and he suddenly fell into despair.
.
However, as a commander, he did not choose to retreat or surrender to the Soviet army. Instead, he called the commander of the fortress and reported to him the situation here. Finally, he said in a pleading tone: "Your Excellency, Commander, the fortress
The district can't hold on much longer, I beg you to order the artillery to fire at my place. Even if our entire army is wiped out, I will drag a bunch of Russians to be buried with us."
Hearing his subordinates' request, the fortress commander only hesitated for a moment, and then continued: "Okay, I will immediately order the artillery to fire at the fortress area to kill the Russians who rushed inside and resolve the crisis for you."
This chapter has been completed!