In order to ensure that the infantry behind could keep up, the German water and land tanks could only maintain a speed of four or five kilometers per hour. Seeing the German tanks moving in the accumulated water at a snail speed, Geria couldn't help but become a little impatient. He thought to himself: "These tanks that can swim look like light tanks. If there are a few captured 37mm anti-tank guns, they can be wiped out."
However, Geria's concerns soon disappeared. The second platoon leader took two soldiers into the observation room from outside and reported to him: "Comrade Commander, these two are artillery observers, and they are ready to observe here to provide firing parameters for the artillery company in the rear."
"That's great, this is really great." Geria knew that although the number of artillery companies was small, they were all 152mm heavy howitzers. It was easy to clean up the German tanks that were marching in the water pool. He quickly shook hands with the two artillery observers and called them to the lookout for observation.
An observer raised his telescope and looked calmly at the German tank that was heading towards the position. He pointed out a series of shooting parameters to his comrades holding the telephone behind him: "...Rubber 80, distance 2,800 meters, one shot, release!"
The whistling of artillery shells soon came from the air. A shell landed more than 20 meters in front of the German tank and exploded, causing a turbid water column to soar into the sky, and it fell on the body of the water and land tank like raindrops. When the explosion sounded, the German infantry following behind the tank was so scared that they squatted down. The accumulated water that had originally exceeded their knees flooded their mouths and noses, causing many German soldiers to stand up again in a hurry.
Seeing that the first shell did not cause any casualties to the enemy, the observer did not panic, but continued: "Correction of the ruler, move forward twenty meters. One shot, release!"
The second shell fired by the artillery company flew towards the enemy again. However, because the German tanks drove forward for a distance, the falling shells did not cause any damage to it, but they fell in the middle of the infantry formation behind. After a loud "boom", the German soldiers near the explosion point were blown away by blood and flesh, and fell into the accumulated water and could no longer get up.
"Great, hit it! Our comrades are so awesome." Seeing the shell hit the target, the observer shouted excitedly: "It just happened to hit the infantry behind the German tank! Artillery company, firepower covers, firing!"
Porochenko, who was commanding artillery fire in the city, heard the observer say that the second shell fired hit the German infantry, and was overjoyed. He quickly raised the red signal flag in his hand and shouted loudly: "Architecture Company, listen to my order: Fire the artillery!" After shouting, he suddenly waved the flag down.
Several heavy howitzers from the artillery company fired at the same time, covering the area where the German army was located. Because the location of the German infantry was an open area without any cover, and the water on the ground was over knees, they could not lie down and hide, resulting in heavy casualties under the attack of the Soviet artillery fire.
With the guidance of artillery observers, the cannons deployed in the city were as if they had eyes, and accurately smashed into the middle of the enemy's queue. The German infantry near the explosion site were either blown to pieces or knocked down by shrapnel flying everywhere, and fell into the water with a thud. In just a few minutes, the water surface was stained with blood from the German corpses.
After almost wiped out the enemy's infantry, the artillery company aimed at the water and land tanks, and smashed the shells. None of the four water and land tanks escaped, and they were all blown up. The wreckage stopped in the pool of water burned, and none of the tank soldiers inside escaped.
When the German commander saw that his attacking troops were actually bombarded by the Soviet army, he was immediately furious and immediately ordered long-range artillery fire to cover the Soviet artillery positions. Fortunately, Porochenko had long known that his number of artillery was small, and once he launched artillery attacks with the enemy, he would suffer a great loss. Therefore, he arranged the artillery positions very scattered, and even if he was countered by the enemy's artillery fire, he would not cause too much casualties.
Bulks of shells flew in from outside the city and landed on the streets and exploded. Although they only destroyed one of the Soviet artillery, in just a few minutes, the originally spacious and neat streets were filled with bullet craters, bricks, rubble and ruins.
Sokov received a call from Porochenko and learned that the enemy's artillery was bombarding the south of the city, so he said lightly: "I understand, I will find a way to suppress the German artillery fire."
After finishing his call with Porochenko, he ordered the correspondents: "Check me the command of the tank army and find General Rotmistrov. I have important things to report to him."
After the phone was heard, Rotmistrov said in a hurry in the receiver: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what happened? Why is the artillery fire in the south of the city so dense?"
"That's right, comrade General." Sokov and Rotmistrov finished speaking and reported to him immediately: "After the German troops attacking the south of the city were intercepted by our artillery fire, the enemy used long-range artillery fire to suppress the artillery positions in the south of the city."
After Rotmistrov figured out what was going on, he asked tentatively: "Lt. Col. Sokov, do you need our support?"
Sokov thought that there were a large number of artillery in the mechanized brigade of the Tank Army. If the German artillery positions were bombarded, it might be able to suppress the enemy's firepower. So he hurriedly said: "Comrade General, please order the artillery immediately to bombard the German artillery positions to reduce the pressure on the defenders in the south of the city."
Sokov thought that as soon as he finished speaking, Rotmistrov would agree readily. Unexpectedly, after a long time of silence, the other party spoke: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, I can order the artillery to fire, but have you considered the consequences?"
"The consequences, what consequences?" Sokov asked in a daze, "Comrade General, will your artillery fire at the enemy's artillery positions cause any bad consequences?"
"Yes, Lieutenant Colonel Sokov." Rotmistrov replied with a serious expression: "Once we fire the artillery and expose the position of the artillery position, we will definitely be retaliated by German artillery fire. At that time, the buildings in the city will collapse under the shelling, and a large number of innocent citizens will fall into the German artillery fire."
Rotmistrov's words reminded Sokov of the city's more than 100,000 residents, who were ordered by superiors to stick to Kursk at all costs, so they were not evacuated. If the Germans were allowed to bombard the city, it would inevitably cause serious casualties to the residents.
Sokov felt that he was facing a difficult choice. If he did not fire the artillery, his artillery company would be destroyed by the German artillery fire; but if he fired the artillery, the enemy would launch artillery bombardment on the tank army's artillery positions, which would inevitably affect innocent citizens. Thinking of this, Sokov became a little undecided.
Seeing that there was no sound in the earpiece, Rotmistrov guessed that Sokov was in a fierce ideological struggle, and added: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, you are the brigade commander of the infantry brigade. Do you need to provide you with artillery fire support? You only need to say one word."
However, before Sokov made a choice, the German shelling stopped abruptly. Rotmistrov heard the cannon sound and breathed a sigh of relief. Then he said to the microphone: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the enemy shelling has stopped. It seems that you don't have to be in a dilemma anymore."
As soon as the German army's shelling of the city stopped, the officers and soldiers gathered on the river bank launched a charge to the second company's position again. Since the water and land tanks they relied on had been destroyed by the Soviet army's heavy artillery, they could only use machine guns and mortars to suppress the firepower on the Soviet position and cover their companions to charge forward.
The second platoon leader sat cross-legged in the trench, throwing a submachine gun beside him with bullets. He touched the blood on his forehead with lingering fear, recalling the amazing scene just now: he just wanted to see where the German army rushed to. Who knew that as soon as he poked out of the trench, the machine gun bullet that flew away the steel helmet, and a piece of skin on his forehead was rubbed. If he hadn't reacted quickly and squatted down in time, he would have died long ago.
He turned his head and looked at the two warrior corpses beside him. They were all as curious as he did. They leaned out to see where the enemy had reached, but were blown by machine gun bullets. He never dreamed that a few hundred meters away, the German machine gun was still so accurate that he could kill the warrior who had just raised his head. Seeing this situation, he couldn't help but start to slam the drum. If the German army rushed over, could the soldiers defend their positions?
A soldier bent over and ran to him, lowered his voice and said, "Planer Commander, the enemy is less than a hundred meters away from us. Will you open fire?"
"Prepare for battle!" Although the Germans were slow in the water above the knee, if they did not block now, they would soon be able to rush into the trenches. Therefore, he issued a decisive order: "Everyone enters the combat position and be ready to fire at any time!" He picked up his helmet with a hole in the quilt bullet from the ground, tugged it on his head, and replaced the submachine gun with a new drum. He stood up carefully and looked out. He saw seventy or eighty German soldiers bent over, holding guns, and carefully coming towards his position.
Seeing that the enemy was only eighty meters away from the position, he yelled decisively: "Let's fire!" After shouting, he took the lead in pulling the trigger. Although the Popov submachine gun had a bullet capacity of up to 71 rounds, it was difficult to accurately hit the target more than eighty meters away. Although the gunfire sounded on the position, there were few enemies knocked down by bullets, and most of them were still moving forward.
Seeing that the enemy was about to rush to the front of the position, the roar of machine guns suddenly came from the several reinforced concrete fortifications that had been silent. The veterans who used the MG34 general machine gun fired at the dense formation of the German army calmly and shot them into the water in pieces.
The German officers and soldiers who were originally confident of rushing into the Soviet position were intercepted by dense machine gun fire. After knowing that continuing to charge would be to die, they decisively gave up the attack and turned around and ran back.
Geria was not only not surprised when she saw the German attack being repelled, but thought to herself: "We have repelled the German attacks twice. Next, they may shell our positions again, hoping to destroy our positions and destroy the defenders on the positions through fierce artillery fire."
Taking advantage of the opportunity when the German army was still reassembling on the river bank, Geria quickly called Battalion Commander Vasily and asked him for instructions: "Comrade Battalion Commander, we have repelled the enemy's attack. What should we do next? Are we following and chasing?"
"No, no need to pursue." Vasily still had some understanding of the situation on the battlefield. When he heard Geria planned to lead the troops to attack, he immediately spoke to stop him: "Don't forget the water-abundant area in front of the position. Since the enemy passed there, under the tenacious defense of our army, he paid a huge price. If you go to pursue, then the slow-moving soldiers will be slow when passing through the water-abundant area and be beaten by the enemy as a target."
After understanding the situation at the forefront, Captain Vasily called Sokov and reported to him: "Report to the brigade commander, the commanders and soldiers of the second company have successfully repelled the German attack. What should we do next?"
"Immediately organize the soldiers to strengthen the fortifications and rescue the wounded." Sokov was very afraid that Vasily would take it lightly, so he specifically reminded him: "The Second Company of the Second Battalion has repelled the enemy's attack twice in a row. I think the enemy will never be willing to suffer their failure. Next, they will definitely retaliate wildly. You need to prepare in advance. As long as there are solid fortifications, it will not be so easy for the enemy to break through our position."
Sokov was thinking about the artillery company that was bombarded by the German army. As soon as the call with Vasily ended, he immediately called Porochenko and asked with concern: "Comrade Porochenko, what is the loss of your company?"
"Report to the brigade commander," Porochenko said in a heavy tone: "In the enemy's shelling, we had two artillery bombed, and the artillery soldiers sacrificed seven people and more than twenty wounded."
"Transfer the artillery position immediately." Sokov was worried that the enemy's artillery and bombing might follow one after another, so he ordered Porochenko: "After sending the wounded to the military hospital, transfer all the artillery to a new position."
Porochenko smiled bitterly at Sokov's orders, and then said, "Don't worry, comrade brigade commander, I will transfer the remaining artillery and infantry to a new place as soon as possible, so as not to be hit by the enemy's long-range artillery fire again."
Chapter completed!