Fierce gunshots and grenade explosions resounded all around, suppressing the company commander's shouts. Fortunately, the soldiers around him heard his shouts and passed on his orders orally.
He conveyed it to his comrades. Soon, the shooting from the First Battalion stopped.
Although the shooting from the 1st Battalion stopped, the friendly troops on the opposite side did not know that there was a misunderstanding. They started fighting with their own people and continued to shoot at them.
"What the hell, what's going on?" Seeing that the other party's shooting did not stop, the company commander said angrily: "Don't they see that we have stopped shooting, why are they still firing at us?"
"Comrade Company Commander," the platoon commander said loudly in his ear: "Our equipment is all German-style equipment. In addition, the visibility on the battlefield is low. Maybe the friendly forces on the opposite side mistook us for Germans."
"Then what should we do?" the company commander said, "We can't just lie here and stay still, right?"
"bugler, comrade company commander, we still have buglers in our company." Suddenly an idea flashed in the platoon leader's mind, and he hurriedly said to the company commander: "We can use the bugle sound to communicate with the other side. As soon as they hear the bugle sound, they will
There will be a ceasefire."
"Then why are you still here?" The company commander felt that the platoon leader's suggestion was more reliable, and quickly pushed his shoulder with his hand, and said loudly: "Hurry up and call the bugler.
"
Although the charge bugle was rarely blown during an attack, Sokov's troops were always equipped with several buglers, and there happened to be one in the first battalion and second company. When the company commander heard that the company commander was looking for him, the bugler hurriedly knelt down.
Then he crawled to the company commander's side, raised his voice and asked: "Comrade company commander, what are your instructions?"
The company commander pointed his hand at the friendly troops on the opposite side who were still firing, and ordered the bugler: "We are our own people on the opposite side. You should immediately use the trumpet to contact them and ask them to stop shooting."
In order to better spread the bugle sound to the opposite side, the bugler rolled sideways a few times, rolled into a crater nearby, squatted in it and blew the bugle vigorously. As soon as the bugle sounded, the gunfire from the opposite side started.
It became sparse. When the trumpeter heard it, he thought there was something interesting and quickly started blowing again.
After the gunfire from the opposite side stopped, a man got up from the ground, bent over and walked over cautiously, and at the same time asked loudly: "Which part are you from?"
The second company commander heard that the person shouting was speaking in Russian, and he was sure that the people he had just exchanged fire with were friendly forces. He quickly raised his voice and shouted: "I am the commander of the second company of the first battalion. Which part do you belong to?"
"I am Second Lieutenant Hubal, deputy commander of the third company of the third battalion."
Hearing that the person coming from the other side was a deputy company commander, the second company commander stood up, went to meet him, and said with a wry smile: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, I really didn't expect that we would actually start a fight with one of our own. It's really unfortunate."
"I'm sorry, Comrade Company Commander." Hubal couldn't see clearly the rank of the second company commander, so he could only address him by his position: "I thought I had encountered the Germans, so I ordered to fire. Fortunately, I found out in time that it was a misunderstanding.
Only then did we avoid greater casualties. What should we do next?”
"Continue the attack." The second company commander looked up at the sky. He saw that the horizon in the distance was already turning white. Knowing that it was not long before dawn, he said to Hubal: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, the sky will be dark soon."
Once it lights up, you won’t have to worry about misunderstandings anymore.”
The battle lasted until dawn. The commanders and fighters of the 1st and 3rd Battalions joined forces and jointly launched a fierce attack on the remaining German troops. The original defenders and newly arrived reinforcements in the military camp were all thrown into chaos. They lost what they had lost a few hours ago.
The artillery and trucks that had just been delivered to the military camp were fighting and retreating to the south.
The artillery positions deployed south of the military camp had stopped firing in vain towards the south of the city after dawn. Instead, they aimed their guns at the attacking Soviet troops and used artillery fire to cover the retreat of the infantry.
Seeing that his soldiers suffered a lot of losses under the enemy's artillery bombardment, Vanya's eyes seemed to be spitting out fire. He gritted his teeth and said: "Damn Germans, they are just bullying us because we don't have artillery. Otherwise, otherwise
, I will blow you to pieces sooner or later."
When Vanya was hawking in the direction of the German artillery position, the roar of aircraft engines came from the air. When he saw clearly that it was his bomber coming, he quickly shouted to the communications personnel: "Hurry up and put up the communication cloth."
, to prevent the air force from bombing one of our own people."
Twelve bombers passed over the battlefield where the fierce fighting was taking place and flew directly towards the German artillery position. After a series of indiscriminate bombings, the artillery on the artillery position was destroyed, and large and small craters were surrounded by bombs.
Broken artillery parts, or bloody artillery corpses, even if there were lucky ones who survived, they were missing arms and legs at the moment, covering their wounds, lying on the ground wailing.
After destroying the German artillery, the bombers turned around to deal with the fleeing German infantry. When a bomb fell, the soldiers within 20 to 30 square meters around the explosion point were immediately killed or injured. For the lone soldiers, the pilots used
Airborne machine guns fired at them, beating them to pieces.
Seeing that the German soldiers were defeated by the air force, both the 1st Battalion Commander Vanya and the 3rd Battalion Commander Andrei knew that this was a golden opportunity and immediately ordered all the troops to launch a charge.
At this time, the fighter group also flew over the battlefield. They cooperated with the bombers and increased their attacks on ground targets. They specifically dropped bombs and strafed the enemies where the German soldiers were gathered, making it impossible for the enemies to organize effective resistance and accelerating their retreat.
.
The commanders and fighters of the Third Battalion had conducted two cooperative operations with the Air Force some time ago. Therefore, when they saw the Air Force bombing and strafing the enemy, they rushed towards the bombed or strafed area with familiarity to eliminate the remaining enemies.
The commanders and fighters of the first battalion also followed suit. As soon as the planes finished bombing a certain location, they would immediately swarm up and eliminate the enemies within their sight.
While the commanders and fighters of the two battalions were fighting in full swing with the cooperation of the air force, Sokov was anxious in the fortifications on the left bank. He could only see the smoke, gunfire, and explosions on the other side, but what was the situation there?
, but he didn't know. He shouted loudly at the telegraph operator sitting in the room: "What's going on? Why haven't you made contact with the other side after so long?"
While enduring Sokov's scolding, the operator shouted desperately into the microphone: "This is the brigade headquarters. If the first battalion hears it, please answer. If the first battalion hears it, please answer!"
Then after yelling for a long time, there was still no movement. Sokov pointed at the radio operator and ordered: "Since the call from the first battalion cannot be reached, let's change it to the third battalion. I don't believe that both battalions can't be contacted."
Although the first battalion had been unable to contact the third battalion, it only took two or three minutes for the third battalion to get in touch. Hearing Andre's voice coming from the earphone, Sokov immediately asked loudly into the microphone: "The third battalion
Commander, what's the situation there? Is the First Battalion still fighting? Why can't I contact them?"
"Reporting to comrade brigade commander," Andre's voice was full of joy: "Our battalion and the first battalion are launching an attack on the enemy with the cooperation of the air force. The enemy has been defeated by us and is retreating."
When Sokov heard this, he said to himself, with the cooperation of the air force, it would be a bit embarrassing if you can't defeat a force without air supremacy. But when he heard that Andre did not answer his last question, he added
I asked the question again: "Why can't I contact the First Battalion?"
"It may be that they are chasing the enemy and therefore do not have time to report to you."
"Nonsense, simply nonsense." Sokov said into the microphone: "Captain Andrei, when you see Vanya, ask him to contact me immediately."
But what Sokov didn't expect was that Vanya actually used the radio station of Camp Andre to communicate with him. He asked curiously: "Captain Vanya, where is the radio station of your camp?"
"Report to comrade brigade commander," Vanya said breathlessly: "During the attack just now, a mortar shell from the German army fell next to me and exploded. The operator died on the spot and the radio station was also blown up."
Hearing Vanya say that the shell exploded next to him, Sokov quickly asked with concern: "Captain Vanya, are you okay?"
"It's okay. I just scratched a little on my arm. It's nothing serious."
Although Vanya spoke lightly, Sokov still asked uneasily: "Can you continue to command the operation?" He asked because he wanted to know the actual extent of Vanya's injuries. If he could not continue to command the operation, he planned to
Both battalions were given unified command by Andre.
"Don't worry, Comrade Brigadier." Vanya seemed to have guessed what Sokov was thinking, and quickly replied: "I'm really fine, just a little skin injury, and I can continue to command operations."
"Although the German army was defeated by you, your troops are too few after all. If you rush forward blindly, you will suffer big losses if you encounter an oncoming enemy." Sokov heard that Vanya
He could continue to direct the battle, so he ordered him: "After driving the enemy far away, stop chasing, quickly clean the battlefield, collect those weapons that can still be used, and be ready to retreat to the city at any time. Do you understand?"
"I understand, comrade battalion commander."
Half an hour later, the battle in the south of the city came to an end, with no more than a thousand German troops escaping. After the commanders and soldiers of the 1st and 3rd Battalions stopped chasing, they began to clean the battlefield, collecting all the weapons that could still be used, and preparing to transport them back to the city.
The captured artillery and trucks could not be transported across the Tenebra River, so they had no choice but to blow them up.
In this battle, more than 2,000 German soldiers were killed, and more than 700 people laid down their weapons and surrendered. In addition, there were two to three hundred wounded soldiers who had lost their combat effectiveness and were lying on the ground wailing. Seeing so many wounded soldiers,
Andre found Vanya and discussed with him: "Captain Vanya, look, there are so many wounded people, how should we deal with them?"
Looking at the wounded, Vanya also felt a headache. He did not express his opinion immediately, but asked: "Comrade Andre, what do you think should be done with these wounded?"
"If there are only a few wounded, maybe I will order someone to give each of them a shot to end their pain." Andre said with some embarrassment: "But there are two to three hundred wounded here, we can't kill them all.
Bar?"
"Throw them here and wait for the Germans to rescue them." Vanya has been following Sokov for a long time and knows his style of dealing with things very well. Seeing that Andre doesn't know what to do with these prisoners, she
He then said more subtly: "Whether you can survive or not depends on their tone."
Andre was a little surprised by Vanya's way of handling this. He thought to himself that the Germans had just been repelled by us, how could they come back so quickly? Throwing these wounded people here, many people might be disappointed because they couldn't get enough.
He died after receiving timely treatment. Seeing Vanya's frosty face, he swallowed back what he wanted to say, and then shouted to his soldiers: "Take the prisoners and weapons and prepare to cross the river."
Seeing the troops on the other side crossing the river one after another, Sokov took into account the number of wounded and captured materials they carried, so he transferred a company from Vasily's Second Battalion and rushed to the Tenebra River to help the soldiers who had just fought.
The victorious troops carried supplies and carried the wounded.
When Sokov saw Vanya again, he found that Vanya was not only injured in his arm, but was lying on a stretcher shirtless with a bandage on his waist and abdomen. Seeing this, he quickly stepped forward to hold Vanya's hand.
He said in a reproachful tone: "Captain Vanya, didn't you say your injury doesn't matter? Why didn't you withdraw from the battle in time even though you were injured so seriously?"
Vanya sat up with support, grinned at Sokov, and said: "Comrade Brigadier, don't worry, even though I have many bandages on my body, the injury is really not serious. I will lie down in the health team for two days."
God will be fine."
"Come here," before Vanya could finish speaking, Sokov shouted to several health workers standing aside: "Send Captain Vanya to the health team immediately and let the military medical comrades examine him properly.
one time."
Seeing Sokov urging the health worker to send him to the health team, Vanya had a troubled expression on his face: "But, Comrade Brigadier, I haven't had time to summarize the battle to you yet."
"Let's put the summary aside for now. Treating your injuries is the most important thing right now." After Sokov finished speaking, he said to the soldier carrying the stretcher: "What are you still doing here, instead of following the health workers to the health team?"
After sending Vanya away, Andrei also came to Sokov. After Sokov looked him up and down, he saw that in addition to his face being blackened by gunpowder smoke, his military uniform had several holes.
Outside, almost intact, he said to him: "Captain Andre, Vanya has been sent to the health team. You will report to me later on the entire battle situation."
After hearing Sokov's instructions, Andrei quickly straightened his body and said: "Understood, Comrade Brigade Commander, I will report to you in detail the progress of the entire battle later."
This chapter has been completed!