"I will send troops to rescue you." After the regiment commander put down the phone, he directly ordered the communication soldier: "Get me to the division headquarters immediately. I want to speak to the division commander."
Kofis was awakened from his sleep by his subordinates. He walked to the phone in a daze, picked up the phone and put it to his ear, and asked angrily: "Colonel, what happened?"
"Your Excellency, division commander, something happened." Hearing Kofis's voice, the regiment leader said quickly: "The battalion we went to the south of Mamayev Gang was surrounded by Russians. The battalion commander called me for help.
He called me and said that if we don’t provide support, there is a danger of the entire army being annihilated.”
"What the hell, what is going on?" This news immediately made Kofis sober: "Didn't the Russians in Nangang retreat? How could they be surrounded?"
"I don't know the specific situation." The regiment leader still hasn't figured out how the Soviet army easily recaptured the Nangang position. He can only say vaguely: "My subordinates reported to me that after they occupied Nangang,
They also built fortifications on the east slope and posted guard posts to prevent Russian sneak attacks. But the Russians appeared out of nowhere and caught them off guard."
"How many people are left in the battalion now?" As soon as Kofis and other commanders finished speaking, they immediately asked: "Where are they?"
"They are trapped in the minefield in front of Nangang." The regiment leader said quickly: "Because the Russians have snipers, they are suppressed and unable to move. Your Excellency, division commander, if you don't send someone to deal with them as soon as possible, they will have the entire army
Danger of destruction.”
"I understand." After Kofis finished speaking, he hung up the phone without waiting for the leader to say anything else. He lit a cigarette, took a puff quietly, and then put it out in the ashtray, loudly
He ordered: "Come here, call the chief of staff."
The chief of staff was sitting next to the command room and came over as soon as he was called. While arranging his military appearance, he asked in a panic: "Your Excellency, division commander, what can I do?"
"The battalion that went out to Mamayev Heights was surrounded by the Russians. After a fierce battle, there were only more than a hundred people left in the battalion, and they were all trapped in the minefields."
Kofis said to his chief of staff: "If people are not sent to rescue as soon as possible, they may be in danger of annihilation."
"How to save?" the chief of staff asked rhetorically: "If the Russians really send out snipers, our engineers will be killed by them when they are clearing mines. Don't let the surrounded troops be rescued by then.
Get in more soldiers."
"To rescue our troops from the minefields." Kofis said thoughtfully: "We don't necessarily have to send engineers to clear mines. For example, we can send tanks directly into the minefields. Although those mines can be trapped in
Infantry, but it has no effect on our tanks."
"Russian landmines will indeed not cause much damage to our tanks." Regarding Kofis's proposal, the chief of staff raised objections: "But there is an anti-tank dog team on their position, specially used to deal with it.
Our tanks. The failure of our attack on Beigang yesterday was largely due to the existence of this unit."
The words of the division chief of staff reminded Kofis that in addition to the anti-tank dog company on Mamayev Hill, there seemed to be an anti-tank artillery position. If the tank he sent to rescue was destroyed, it would be really serious.
The gain was not worth the loss. He started walking back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, thinking about how to deal with the anti-tank fire on Mamayev Hill.
After walking back and forth in the room for more than a dozen times, he said to the division chief of staff: "Chief of staff, I remember there seems to be a Russian anti-tank artillery position on Nangang. You call the artillery regiment immediately and ask them to send someone
Monitor Nangang, and once we discover Russian artillery firing, we will immediately suppress it with powerful artillery fire to cover our tanks' smooth entry into the minefield."
"This is a good idea." The division chief of staff nodded and said, "As long as the Russian anti-tank firepower is suppressed, our tanks can enter the minefield and open up a passage for the infantry trapped there."
…………
Just when the German commander was studying how to rescue the besieged troops, Chuikov called Sokov and asked straight to the point: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, I heard gunshots ringing out non-stop at your place. What's the situation now?"
How's it going? Have you surrounded the enemy?"
"Comrade Commander, the German infantry battalion that went out to Nangang has been basically wiped out by us." Sokov was about to call Chuikov, but unexpectedly the other party called him first and quickly reported: "Now they only have
One or two hundred people are trapped in the minefield and cannot escape. It is only a matter of time before they are all annihilated."
"What, the enemy only has one or two hundred people left?" Regarding Sokov's report, Chuikov said in surprise: "In other words, you eliminated more than 600 German soldiers in less than an hour? My
Do you understand correctly?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander, your understanding is completely correct." Thinking of the results achieved by his troops, Sokov replied with some pride: "To be precise, it only took a quarter of an hour for our troops to defeat them all.
We wiped out the enemies who occupied the surface positions in Nangang. And the enemies trapped in the minefields, if they had not been stationed in the forward positions at the foot of the mountain, they would have been wiped out by us at this moment."
"Since we are surrounded, don't let anyone escape." After Chuikov learned about the results of Sokov's troops, he suddenly felt elated. He said with high spirits: "It is also a great achievement to wipe out a German battalion in an organized manner.
I will ask my superiors to take credit for your achievements. Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, please express my gratitude to the soldiers on my behalf for their meritorious service in defending Stalingrad."
After Sokov ended his call with Chuikov, he looked at the group of German officers and soldiers trapped in the minefield and thought for a moment. Then he grabbed the phone in front of him, shook the handle twice, picked up the phone and put it to his ear.
Said: "Chief of Staff? I am Sokov."
"Comrade Brigade Commander, have you seen everything?" Sidorin, who was staying in the tunnel, heard Sokov's voice and said excitedly: "We have completely wiped out the enemies who occupied the surface positions in Nangang.
.The remaining small group of enemies are also trapped in the minefield and unable to move. It is only a matter of time before they are eliminated."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, before the last enemy is eliminated, we must not take it lightly." Sokov was worried that Sidorin underestimated the enemy and quickly reminded him: "Immediately order Lieutenant Porochenko to pull the artillery to the top of the mountain and bombard mines.
Enemies in the area and force them to surrender. If they do not surrender, completely eliminate them."
After receiving Sokov's order, Sidorin immediately ordered Lieutenant Porochenko to pull an artillery gun to the top of the mountain and bombard the enemies trapped in the minefield from a high position to speed up the elimination of them.
Just as Porochenko was directing the artillery to establish a firing position on the top of the mountain, he suddenly heard a scream from the air. As an artillery commander, he could naturally hear that this was the sound of artillery shells flying in the air, and he quickly shouted
After shouting: "Get down!", he threw himself on the ground holding his head.
Fortunately, it was not too dark at this time, and the shooting of the German artillery was not as accurate as during the day. The shells they fired either landed on the position on the west slope and exploded;
The artillery company did not pose any threat. Seeing that the explosion point was far away from his artillery position, Porochenko quickly got up from the ground and ordered his men to continue setting up the artillery position.
Although the soldiers of the artillery company have only been exposed to artillery for a short time, most of them are veteran artillerymen with rich experience, especially many of them who have stayed in German prisoner-of-war camps during those humiliating days.
This made them full of hatred for the Germans. Therefore, as soon as they heard Porochenko's order to fire, they fired directly into the minefield without even testing the fire.
The artillery shell accurately landed among the people lying on the ground, and the blast of air threw a few unlucky people high into the air. When the German soldiers saw the people around them being blown away by the artillery shell, they felt that it was useless to lie on the ground.
He stood up quickly and tried to run to a safe place to hide. In the end, he was either knocked down by bullets fired by sharpshooters or blown up by landmines on the ground before he could even take two steps.
The Soviet shelling became the last straw that broke the will of the German army. Some German soldiers saw that they were either killed by artillery shells or shot to death by Soviet bullets if they stayed in the minefield. They were unwilling to stay here and wait for death, so they hurriedly threw
He lowered his gun and ran towards the Soviet position with his hands raised.
The soldiers who were about to surrender at first were shot dead by the battalion commander, but more and more soldiers could not resist and wanted to surrender. They threw away their weapons one after another and ran towards the Soviet position with their hands raised. In the chaos, the battalion commander
His gun jammed again, and while he was trying to troubleshoot the malfunction, the German lieutenant called two of his subordinates to pick him up and drag him towards the Soviet position.
In the observation post, Sokov saw that the German army's will to resist had been blown away by several artillery shells. He quickly gave an order to the first battalion commander Vanya: "Comrade Captain, the enemy has surrendered. Order the soldiers to stop shooting."
, and began to take in prisoners.”
Following Sokov's order, the Soviet troops stopped firing. After entering the trenches, the surrendered German officers and soldiers were searched and all were driven to a shelter and locked up.
Just as the German army surrendered, the tank detachment that came to rescue them had already arrived not far from the minefield. When the tank commander saw that the people he wanted to rescue had surrendered to the Soviet army, he couldn't help but sigh.
, reported to his superiors: "The troops we want to rescue have surrendered to the Russians. What should we do next? Please give instructions!"
After receiving the report, the German commander was silent for a long time, and finally said: "The rescue has no meaning. In order to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, you should withdraw immediately."
