"It is possible." Ponejelin said to Kirillov: "Kirilov, you send two more reconnaissance teams to the location of the prisoner of war camp. It is best to get close to conduct reconnaissance and find out what is going on.
Something happened."
"Well, no problem." Kirillov nodded and said, "Actually, there has always been a reconnaissance team operating not far from the prisoner of war camp. I can let them get close to the prisoner of war camp and try to figure out what's going on in the prisoner of war camp.
Case."
"I'm afraid it's not easy to figure out what's going on in the prisoner-of-war camp." Ponejelin had spent time in a prisoner-of-war camp and naturally knew that it was heavily guarded. It was very difficult for scouts to get close, let alone sneak into the prisoner-of-war camp.
He went to find out what was going on inside. He specifically reminded Kirillov: "Let the scouts pay attention to safety. Don't risk your life for a small reconnaissance."
Ponejelin's consideration is correct. The purpose of the scouts going deep into the enemy's rear is to find out the enemy's troop deployment and provide effective information for the commander to formulate operational plans. But if it is to find out a prisoner of war camp
The situation here, and if something unexpected happens, the gain will outweigh the loss.
"Don't worry, deputy commander." Kirillov nodded, as if he had listened to Ponedelin's words, "I will ask them to pay attention to their safety."
The first thing Ponedelin did when he returned to the headquarters was to report to Sokov about launching a prisoner of war camp in the enemy's occupied areas.
After hearing this, Sokov couldn't help but frowned. He walked to the wall, looked up at the map hanging on it, and seemed to be thinking about something.
Ponejelin, who was standing next to him, keenly noticed that Sokov's eyes were fixed on the location of the prisoner of war camp, and he must be thinking about things related to the prisoner of war camp.
"Comrade Deputy Commander." When Sokov looked away from the map, he looked at Ponedelin and asked, "Tell me, how about we send people to liberate that prisoner of war camp?"
"What, sending people behind enemy lines to liberate prisoner of war camps?" Ponjelin asked in surprise: "Is this possible?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander." Sidorin, who had just walked over, happened to hear the conversation between Sokov and Ponedelin, and also echoed: "Go deep into the enemy's rear to liberate a prisoner of war camp.
Isn’t it a bit too risky?”
"I think we can try." Sokov pointed to the map and said to the two of them: "Look, the prisoner of war camp is located five kilometers away from the 3rd Infantry Division and only eight kilometers away from the 211th Infantry Division.
After our people rescue the commanders and fighters in the prisoner of war camp, they can reach the defense area of any division in the shortest possible time."
Regarding Sokov's statement, neither Ponedelin nor Sidorin immediately expressed their opinions. Instead, they stared at the location of the prisoner-of-war camp and began to ponder it seriously, imitating Sokov's behavior just now.
After an unknown amount of time, Ponejelin said: "Comrade Commander, although your plan is risky, it has the possibility of success. I think you can give it a try."
Seeing that Ponedelin agreed to Sokov's plan, Sidorin, who was about to raise objections, swallowed his words and followed the two people's wishes and asked: "I don't know which army you plan to send."
Troops to carry out this rescue mission?"
"How is the 120th Guards Division?" Ponedelin looked at Sokov and asked: "They haven't participated in a battle for a long time. I think the commanders and soldiers may have lost their composure."
"Chief of Staff, call Major General Nikitin and ask him to come to my headquarters."
Ten minutes later, Nikitin, commander of the 120th Guards Division, appeared at the headquarters. After raising his hand to salute Sokov and others, he asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, what is the combat mission for calling me here?"
?"
Sokov turned his head and glanced at Ponedelin beside him, and said with a smile: "Comrade Deputy Commander, it seems that our General Nikitin's intuition is very good. Before we even spoke, he knew that we had a combat mission.
Arrange it for him."
"Comrade Commander, you don't know that the friendly forces have been fighting the enemy non-stop recently, but our troops can only sit on the sidelines and watch the fun. The soldiers have become emotional."
"I think you are the one with the emotions." Sokov joked and then got back to the business: "I called you here today. There is indeed an important task that I want to entrust to you to complete."
When he heard that a task was assigned to his troops, Nikitin immediately straightened his back and said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, please give the order. I will definitely complete the task assigned by you successfully."
Sokov picked up the explanation stick leaning against the wall, pointed to a point on the map, and said to Nikitin: "General Nikitin, there is a German prisoner of war camp at this location, and more than two thousand of us are detained in it.
We are prisoners of war. Your task is to rescue them and bring them safely back to our defense zone."
After seeing the position on the map clearly, Nikitin said with some surprise: "Comrade Commander, we still have to pass through the enemy's defense line. It seems that this will be a tough battle."
"I'm not asking you to attack the fortress, but to launch a sneak attack." Sokov tapped the map twice with his explanatory stick, "You didn't see that there was a gap two kilometers wide in the enemy's defense line.
, your troops can completely pass through here and penetrate deep into the enemy's rear."
Hearing Sokov say that there was a two-kilometer-wide gap in the enemy's defense line, Nikitin quickly got closer and took a closer look, and found that it was really the case. He suddenly had a bold idea in his mind: "Commander
Comrade, how about our division penetrate through that gap and then launch an attack from the enemy's rear?"
"General Nikitin, we are not fully ready to attack yet." Sokov had similar considerations, but he thought that even if he temporarily captured individual German defense areas, it would be very difficult to hold on to them if the other side launched a counterattack.
Now that his troops are short of soldiers, there is no need to fight this kind of war of attrition with the Germans, so he wants to make it clear to Nikitin to prevent the other party from taking over the German positions directly on a whim: "In addition, our
After a long battle, the troops are seriously short of men. It is unwise to rush to attack an enemy with superior strength."
Penetrating through the gap in the direction of the enemy is indeed a very tempting thing for Nikitin. He can even seize part of the German defense area and push the front line deeper into the enemy's defense. But after hearing what Sokov said
Said that he immediately realized that his thinking was too superficial. He only thought about how to capture the enemy's defense zone, but did not consider how to defend it.
"I understand, Comrade Commander." Nikitin assured Sokov: "We will try not to alert the enemy when we penetrate into the enemy's defense zone."
"Yes." Sokov nodded with satisfaction at Nikitin's statement, and then said: "The mission of your division is to liberate this prisoner of war camp, rescue all the prisoners of war held in it, and bring them safely back to our army.
Defense area. There are two routes for your retreat. One is to retreat to the defense area of the 3rd Infantry Division, and the other is to retreat to the defense area of the 211th Infantry Division."
"If you don't need to attack the enemy's defense area, you won't need so many troops." Nikitin waited for Sokov to finish and then said thoughtfully: "I think it is enough to send one regiment to perform the task.
"
"If you want to penetrate through the gap in the German defense joint without alerting the enemy, you can't send too many troops." Sokov said: "I think the strength of a regiment should be enough to liberate a prisoner of war camp.
Already."
After Nikitin returned to his headquarters, he immediately summoned his several regiment commanders and conveyed to them the combat orders issued by Sokov.
After Nikitin finished conveying the order, Colonel Dimitri, the commander of the 334th Regiment, spoke first: "Comrade Division Commander, I don't understand, since we have penetrated through the enemy's defense gaps, why not seize the enemy's position by the way?"
Woolen cloth?"
"The reason is very simple." Nikitin explained: "If we capture the enemy's position, it means that we have driven a wedge into the enemy's defense area. In order to hold this salient, we must invest a large amount of troops.
But our actual situation now is that each unit has a shortage of soldiers. This means that even if we occupy the enemy's defensive positions, it may be difficult to hold them, and it will also consume precious reserves."
Dimitri was a little disappointed when he learned that he could not capture the enemy's position. He then asked: "Then which troops are you going to send to perform this task?"
"Comrade Colonel," Nikitin looked at Dimitri and said, "I plan to send your regiment to perform this task. Are you willing?"
"Yes, of course I am willing." Dimitri felt that he was almost rusty after not participating in the battle for such a long time. Now it was finally his turn to get a combat mission. If he didn't agree quickly, he would be beaten by the other two
If the regiment is snatched away, the soldiers will definitely complain privately when they return to the regiment.
"Colonel Dimitri." Seeing that Dimitri was willing to perform this task, Nikitin explained the next steps to him: "After you capture the prisoner of war camp and successfully rescue the captured personnel of our army, immediately
Take them to move to the defense area of the 3rd Infantry Division or the 211th Infantry Division. No matter which direction you go, there will be our people to meet you."
Dimitri led his 334th Regiment and took advantage of the darkness to enter the gap at the junction of the German defense lines and quickly penetrated to the vicinity of the prisoner of war camp. After arriving at the offensive position, he did not launch an attack hastily, but sent scouts to approach.
Conduct reconnaissance to find out the configuration of German troops in the prisoner of war camp.
At one o'clock in the morning, the scouts sent returned and handed over the intelligence they detected to Dimitri.
Dimitri said to several battalion commanders under his command: "Comrade battalion commanders, the deployment of German troops in the prisoner of war camp has been clarified. The enemy has a sandbag fortification in the direction of the main entrance and a machine gun. Four of the camp's
At each corner, there is a watchtower with sentries and searchlights on duty. The camp is surrounded by a double-layer barbed wire fence, and there are patrolling soldiers in the corridor in the middle."
The first battalion commander first asked for instructions: "Comrade commander, what should we do?"
"In order to quickly capture the prisoner of war camp and prevent the guards from escaping," Dimitri said, "I plan to attack the prisoner of war camp from all sides at the same time."
"What, attack from all sides?" After hearing what Dimitri said, the regiment chief of staff quickly reminded him: "Comrade regiment leader, to seize the prisoner of war camp, we must choose a main attack direction, and then provide assists in several other directions.
.”
Unexpectedly, Dimitri glared at him and said angrily: "The scout said that there are only fifty or sixty German soldiers in the camp at best, but there are more than 1,200 of us. Even if we step on them, we can't do anything."
Trample them all to death. You all immediately return to your respective units and quietly approach the prisoner of war camp. After seeing my signal, immediately launch an attack."
"What signal?" asked the regimental chief of staff.
"A flare."
"Ah, a flare?" the regiment chief of staff said with shock: "Shouldn't a flare be launched? Why should a flare be launched?"
"The reason is very simple," Dimitri said: "After the flares are launched into the air, they can not only serve as our attack targets, but also illuminate the path for our commanders and fighters to attack."
"Okay then." The regiment chief of staff said helplessly: "Comrade regiment leader, just as you said, use flares as a signal to attack."
The plan seems to have no problems, but during execution, various uncertain factors always occur.
When the commanders and fighters of the 334th Regiment quietly approached the prisoner of war camp, the sentry in the south watchtower seemed to hear something. He tried hard to open his eyes and look in the direction of the sound, but it was dark in the distance and he could not see anything.
He couldn't see clearly. He quickly turned the searchlight around and shined it outside the camp, trying to figure out what was making the noise.
But the endless darkness swallowed up most of the searchlight beam, and he still couldn't see clearly what was making the sound that worried him. In desperation, he could only raise the signal gun in his hand and fired a shot into the air.
I wanted to use the light of the flare to see what was outside.
Dimitri never dreamed that he was going to use a flare as a signal to attack, but before the troops could approach the prison camp, a German sentry fired a signal flare.
Seeing the signal flares in the air, the commanders and soldiers who were approaching the prisoner of war camp thought that the attack had begun, and regardless of whether their bodies would be exposed, they straightened up, shouted and rushed towards the prisoner of war camp. It was a good sneak attack.
The battle turned into a formidable battle just because of a flare fired by a German sentry.
Machine guns were installed on the watchtowers. When the sentries heard someone rushing towards the prisoner of war camp, they turned their guns towards the direction of the sound and pulled the trigger without any explanation.
At this moment, the commanders and fighters closest to the prisoner of war camp were seventy or eighty meters away. The sudden sound of machine gun fire caught them off guard. Some soldiers who were unfortunate enough to break into the fire net were shot and fell to the ground.
When the regiment chief of staff saw that the enemy's machine gun on the watchtower had opened fire, and the fire blocked the troops' attack path, he quickly asked Dimitri for instructions: "The enemy's machine gun fire was very fierce, and it tightly blocked the path of our army's advance. If not
Get rid of it as soon as possible, I'm afraid we will pay a lot of casualties."
If it had been somewhere else, Dimitri would have ordered the mortars to fire without explanation, directly destroying the German watchtowers. But now their mission was to liberate the prisoner of war camp, and he didn't know how to carry out artillery bombardment at night.
, will it accidentally injure comrades in the prisoner of war camp?
So after hesitating for a long time, Dimitri gritted his molars and said to the chief of staff: "After ordering the soldiers to get closer, use grenades to blow up the enemy's watchtower. Do not fire unless it is absolutely necessary to avoid accidentally injuring your own people.
."
This chapter has been completed!