The battle in the village and town lasted for almost half an hour, and Sokov finally saw a red signal flare rising into the sky to the west of the village and town. This was a signal sent by the three companies, indicating that they had reached the designated attack position.
Sokov put down his telescope, turned around and walked to the table, grabbed the submachine gun placed on it, and said to Belkin, who was still standing in front of the observation port: "Deputy Battalion Commander, I'll go to the machine gun company to reinforce, and I'll leave it to you here." Before Belkin could say anything, he walked out of the observation center with his gun in his arms.
In the traffic trench at the door, the soldiers of the guard platoon squatted or sat, looking at the villages and towns filled with smoke expressionlessly. At this moment, when the battalion commander walked out of the observation center, everyone stood up at the same time. Selyosha hurriedly stepped forward and asked Sokov: "Comrade Battalion Commander, are you ready to attack?"
"That's right." Sokov nodded at Selyosha, and then ordered loudly: "Oleg's third squad, follow me, and the other comrades from the guard platoon stay, and serve as a vigilant here."
"Misha," saw that Sokov did not arrange combat missions for him, the lost Selyosha called the other party's nickname and asked, "Why don't we join the battle?"
"Lt. Seryosha," Sokov raised his hand and patted Selesha on his shoulder twice, saying to him: "Your mission is to protect the safety of the battalion command post. If you want to fight, you will have opportunities in the future."
Vasily and his machine gun company were on standby in the nearby forest. Seeing Sokov hurried over with a guard platoon, he quickly shouted: "Stand up!" Taking advantage of the opportunity of the soldiers standing up, he trotted to Sokov, raised his hand to salute, and said loudly, "Comrade Battalion Commander, all the commanders and soldiers of the machine gun company are ordered to rest, please instruct!"
"Are you all ready?" Sokov asked bluntly.
"The entire company is ready for all combat." Vasily replied loudly: "You can enter the battle at any time!"
Sokov came to the front of the neatly arranged team and said to the soldiers: "Comrades, the soldiers of the Second Company and the Third Company are fighting desperately with the enemy in the villages and towns ahead. Now, it's our turn." He half-turned, pointed in the direction of the villages and towns with the submachine gun in his hand, and ordered loudly, "Scattered formations and move forward!"
The soldiers of the machine gun company, one row of 20 people, followed Sokov and Vasily, and walked towards the village and town with big strides. The sporadic artillery shells fired by the German army from the village and town fell into the queue from time to time and exploded, blowing the queue into gaps. But the soldiers in front fell down, and the soldiers behind immediately filled the gaps.
No one stopped to take care of the fallen comrades around him, because everyone knew in their hearts that if the comrades had already died, even if they stopped to take care of him, they would not be resurrected; and the wounded people who fell to the ground would naturally be treated by the health team later, so they would not have to worry about it. Their task is to rush into the villages and towns as soon as possible, cooperate with the comrades of the 2nd and 3rd companies to eliminate the enemies entrenched in it.
The German army in the villages and towns of Popkovo, especially the anti-tanks, felt like crying and tears when facing several Soviet heavy tanks rumbling. The anti-tank guns hit the tank's body, and except for leaving a few white marks, they could not penetrate the tank's armor at all. As long as the opponent fired a shot, whether the anti-tank gun or the fire point was hit, they would be instantly blown into slag by 152mm heavy shells.
Seeing that anti-tank guns had no effect on this heavy tank, the brave German soldiers rushed out of the hiding ruins with explosives, trying to die with the tank. The final outcome was that the infantry attacked by the tanks were shot into a sieve with submachine guns.
It is not easy to see the troops rushing from the west of the town. It is a light infantry, with only a few machine guns, and there are no heavy weapons at all. The German infantry thought that it would be easy to block the opponent's attack with the firepower points in the town. Unexpectedly, the opponent did not play according to the routine. Except for the machine guns suppressing and shooting their own firepower points on the street, the rest of the infantry actually approached them quickly from the broken buildings on both sides of the street.
It would be fine if the tanks could not stop the opponent's tanks. Even if the tanks broke through the defense line, without the cooperation of infantry, they would not be able to escape the fate of being bombed sooner or later. Who knew that the infantry coming from the west of the town could easily break through several defenses in the west without the cooperation of heavy weapons. Just when the German commander was so angry that he jumped, his subordinates suddenly reported: "Mr. Major, another Russian infantry rushed up, what should we do?"
What to do? Cold salmon! The German major looked at the cannon company rushing into the village with a telescope and decisively issued an order: "Retreat, and immediately withdraw from the town from the northeast."
As soon as his order was issued, a German soldier rushed in and shouted at him: "Major, Mr. Major, no, the Russians were found in the cemetery in the northeast."
"What?" Hearing that he found Soviet troops on his retreat route, the German major was frightened and lost his soul. He grabbed the soldiers' clothes and shouted viciously: "Immediately set up a machine gun on the bell tower of the church to suppress the Russians in the northeast. We must not let them cut off our retreat." The German major's order saved his own life and allowed hundreds of German soldiers to escape from the encirclement.
In the division command, Chernesov saw that the soldiers from Istria had rushed into the town, and he couldn't help but sigh to his chief of staff: "Comrade Chief of Staff, our soldiers have rushed into the town. It seems that this Sokov is really good at fighting."
"Yes, comrade Commander." The Chief of Staff agreed: "If they were transferred to come earlier, maybe the attack we launched yesterday would not have failed."
After a long journey, the first company of Vanya finally arrived at the cemetery in the northeast. Just as they were about to attack the enemies in the villages and towns from here, the two machine guns that the German army had set up on the church bell tower opened fire. The seven or eight soldiers who rushed in the front fell down from the enemy's ammunition, and the one behind quickly lay down and raised their guns to fight back at the church bell tower.
At this moment, Vanya saw an enemy running away from a path a hundred meters away. In order to stop the enemy, he ordered two machine guns to suppress the firepower points on the church bell tower, while ordering the soldiers to use firepower to block the German retreat.
Chapter completed!