In order to find the whereabouts of the Tank Brigade as soon as possible, Sokov kept calling in the radio station's words when contacting the search team. He did not realize that his approach was equivalent to exposing himself and his troops to the enemy in disguise.
Based on the intercepted call content, the German surveillance department judged that a small Soviet army had arrived in the Orlovka area and looked for the Soviet tank brigade that broke through its own defense yesterday. He immediately informed the combat troops on the front line of intelligence. Major General Erich Magnus, the commander of the 389th Infantry Division of the German Army, learned that a small Soviet army appeared in his defense zone, immediately dispatched three infantry companies and carried out a comprehensive search with the cooperation of tanks.
Goria led a group of soldiers to dig trenches on the hillside, complaining constantly. He thought to himself: Don’t say that there is no sign of the Germans in this area, even if there are Germans nearby, if they see their soldiers wearing German uniforms, they will definitely think they are their own people and will not have any doubts at all. Sokov ordered him to lead people here to repair fortifications, which was simply unnecessary.
Just as he was complaining about Sokov, a soldier beside him suddenly shouted: "Comrade Battalion Commander, there are tanks coming towards us."
"Where?" Hearing that a tank was coming towards him, Goria asked loudly, while raising his telescope to look around, but he didn't see the shadow of the tank at all, nor did he hear the roar of the tank engine. He raised his hand and slapped the warrior's helmet, and said unhappily: "It's simply nonsense. Where are the German tanks?"
"Yes, Comrade Battalion Commander." The soldier helped the helmet that was beheaded by Goria and said aggrievedly: "I really heard the roar of the tank engine, but the sound was not like our T-34 tank. It should be a German tank team, coming towards us."
"Comrade Battalion Commander, look!" Just as Goria wanted to slap the soldier, a sergeant not far away shouted loudly: "A tank appears in the distance."
Goria looked in the direction of the sergeant's finger and saw a few black dots. These black dots were getting bigger and bigger, and you could vaguely hear the roar of the tank engine. Goria turned his head and looked at the warrior, and said unexpectedly: "You have a good hearing. The German tank is still outside our field of vision. You actually heard the roar of the engine. Sorry, I blamed you wrongly just now, please forgive me."
After apologizing to the warrior, Goria came to the radio operator, grabbed the headphones and the megaphone, and notified Sokov, who was still at the foot of the hillside: "Comrade Brigade Commander, please come to me immediately, and something unexpected happened."
Sokov was sitting in the armored vehicle and was dozing off. When he heard Goriya's report, he suddenly felt an ominous premonition. He turned over and got out of the armored vehicle and ran up the hillside quickly. After seeing Goriya, he asked breathlessly: "Comrade Captain, what happened?"
"Comrade Brigade Commander, look over there." Goria pointed to the direction where the German tank appeared with his hand and said to Sokov: "A German tank suddenly appeared over there."
"How many?" Sokov asked, lifting his telescope and looking into the distance. Without waiting for Goria to answer, he began to count in a low voice: "One, two, three...six, seven, there are actually seven tanks."
After Sokov counted the German tanks, he asked worriedly: "Comrade Brigade Commander, did you say the enemy's tanks come for us?"
"I don't know," Sokov didn't know how to answer Goria's question at all. Although he was wearing a German uniform, he was not afraid of ten thousand, but was afraid of one. If the enemy saw through it, there would be a fierce battle next. Therefore, he ordered Goria: "Let the soldiers prepare for battle. Once the enemy sees out our identities, they will open fire and kill them."
According to Sokov's idea, the German tanks would definitely drive to the foot of the hillside. At that time, he would send people up to collect the tank soldiers' weapons. If possible, he could capture a few more cars. Therefore, when he saw the German tanks rumble towards the hillside where he was, Sokov was still ecstatic.
But what happened next made him a little stunned. The German tanks stopped three or four hundred meters away from the hillside. After they lined up, a tank soldier poked out half of his body in the turret of one of the tanks and sent a signal to Sokov and the others with red and green signal flags.
Sokov saw the dancing tank hand and asked, "Who do you know what flag words are being used to fight at us?"
"Comrade Brigade Commander, I am the signal soldier in the camp." The soldier who once warned Goria straightened his body and reported to Sokov: "The enemy is asking us in flag words which part of us are!"
"Answer them," Sokov saw the signal soldier's belt with red and green signal flags on his lower back, and told him, "Say we are from the 295th Infantry Division."
The signal soldiers agreed, climbed out of the trench, stood on a pile of soil, waved the signal flag in their hands, and conveyed what Sokov said to the German tank soldiers opposite.
The opponent's tank soldiers then asked with a signal flag: "What should the troops of the 295th Infantry Division run to the defense zone of our 389th Infantry Division?"
"We are ordered to come for reinforcements." The signal soldier answered the other party according to Sokov's order.
Unexpectedly, after the signal of the signal soldier was sent, the German tank soldiers were silent and did not send any more signals. Just as Sokov and others were puzzled, they saw the tank soldiers retracted into the tank. As the tank's turret slowly turned, the muzzles aimed at the direction of the hillside.
"Secret, hide quickly." Although Sokov did not know why the German tank soldiers retracted into the tank, when he saw the black hole pointing at the hillside where he was, he also noticed something was wrong and quickly shouted loudly: "Fight alarm, the Germans are about to fire."
As soon as Sokov's shout fell, the German tanks fired. The shells fell on the hillside and exploded, causing large groups of soil. Several soldiers who had not had time to hide were blown away by the explosion's air waves.
Goria, who was squatting in the trenches, asked loudly at Sokov: "Comrade Brigade Commander, what's going on? Why did the German tanks fire at us?"
"Ask me, who am I going to ask?" Sokov was also confused about the German tanks' inexplicable firing. He felt that there was no flaw on his side. Why was it discovered by the Germans in an instant? He poked his head carefully, looked at the tanks that were firing in the distance, and then squatted into the trenches again, looking at Goria: "The cunning Germans, they parked the tanks three or four hundred meters away, which was to bully us without long-range anti-tank firepower and could not pose any threat to their tanks."
"Comrade Brigade Commander, what should we do now?" Goria asked loudly while the shells exploded.
"Transfer, we must leave this damn place before the enemy's infantry arrived." Sokov thought that the 67th Tank Brigade he was going to support had been completely destroyed, and even the brigade commander Colonel Shidjayev was killed. It was meaningless to stay here. The current priority is to transfer, "Immediately organize our troops to leave here in batches."
Goria faithfully carried out the order issued by Sokov, organizing his part to break south in batches based on squads. But he soon discovered that the troops' retreat route was blocked by German tank firepower. The first infantry squad that retreated was bombarded by German tank guns as soon as it left the hillside. Among the ten soldiers in the squad, the farthest-running soldier only ran about 200 meters and fell under the German artillery fire.
"Hell, it's just a hell." Seeing the German artillery blocking the troops' retreat path, Sokov couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed: "Goria, send your people immediately to blow up all the German tanks."
"It's not easy to deal with, comrade brigade commander." Goria said embarrassedly about the order to blow up the German tanks: "The enemy's tanks are three or four hundred meters away from our positions. As soon as our soldiers leave the fortifications, they will become targets of enemy tank guns and machine guns. In this case, sending them to bomb the tanks is no different from sending them to die."
Hearing Goriya say this, Sokov is going crazy and wants to retreat. His retreat is blocked by the German tank artillery fire. Send people to blow up the tanks, and the enemy tanks stop a little far away. If you stay here and do nothing, once the German infantry arrives, they can attack the hillside positions under the cover of the tanks. At that time, they will still be unable to escape the fate of the entire army being destroyed.
The problem that Sokov thought of was Goriya. He looked at the tanks lined up in a row in the distance and kept firing fire, murmured: "It's a pity that there is only one armored vehicle left here. Even if there is one tank, he can compete with the enemy."
The speaker is unintentional and the listener is intentional. Goria's words gave Sokov inspiration. Yes, don't we still have an armored vehicle? Although the armored vehicle cannot be compared with the tank in terms of firepower and armor, its speed is indeed incomparable to the tank. The maximum speed of this half-track armored vehicle can reach 60 kilometers per hour, and perhaps it can use its speed to deal with the German tanks.
Thinking of this, Sokov said to Goria: "Comrade Captain, take your people to defend the position, and I will take people to blow up the German tanks."
When he learned that Sokov was about to take the risk, Goria grabbed him and said nervously: "Comrade Brigade Commander, how can you take the risk easily? You should leave this kind of thing to the soldiers below to complete."
"Comrade Captain," Sokov said to Goria in order to reassure him: "Although the German tanks have strong firepower and thick armor, we can use the speed of armored vehicles to quickly rush to their vicinity, and then the soldiers in the carriage threw anti-tank grenades at the tanks, so that the enemy's tanks can be eliminated."
Goriya knew Sokov's character. Once he decided on something, no one could convince him anymore, so he did not stop him. Instead, he asked tentatively: "Comrade Brigade Commander, do I need me to send a few more people to help you bomb the tank?"
"No." Sokov thought of his car, in addition to the driver, radio operator and Ernst, five soldiers were also there, and they wanted to blow up seven German tanks in the distance. The people should be enough. Therefore, he rejected Goria's kindness, "We have enough staff."
Sokov came to the armored vehicle at the foot of the mountain, looked up at Ernst and the radio operator sitting in the car, pointed his hand at the two of them, and ordered: "You two get out of the car immediately!"
Ernst and the radio operator didn't know what happened, so they came out of the carriage, stood straight in front of Sokov, waiting for his next order. Sokov looked at Ernst and the radio operator and said softly: "We are going to carry out a dangerous mission, so you two will stay here and wait for us to come back."
After saying that, Sokov turned to the armored vehicle and said to the five soldiers in the vehicle: "Comrades, you must have known that on the north side of the hillside, seven tanks are constantly bombarding the hillside behind us. I plan to take you to blow up the enemy's tanks and cover the troops to break through smoothly."
After a soldier waited for Sokov to finish his words, he immediately asked, "Comrade Brigade Commander, I want to ask, how should we blow up the German tanks?"
"After the armored vehicle we were riding in quickly approached the German tank," Sokov bent over and picked up an anti-tank grenade placed on the floor of the carriage and continued: "Just throw this tank to the enemy and blow it up. Do you understand?"
Although everyone knew that this was a life-and-death task, they still answered in unison: "I understand!"
Seeing that the soldiers understood their intentions, Sokov nodded with satisfaction, then bent down and instructed the driver sitting in the cab: "You will increase the speed to the highest later. We must rush to the closest position to the enemy tank as possible, so that the anti-tank grenade thrown by our soldiers can blow up the enemy tank."
After the armored vehicle rushed out from the hillside, it was immediately discovered by German tanks. A tank immediately turned its guns and fired at the armored vehicle that was driving at high speed. However, the shells could not hit the armored vehicle that was driving at high speed.
After the armored vehicle was started, Sokov and others squatted in the car in order to prevent being injured by flying shrapnel. A shell landed five or six meters away from the armored vehicle. The explosion of air waves shaking the body, and the flying shrapnel made the armored plate jingle. Sokov secretly thanked that he was riding an armored vehicle. If it were an ordinary vehicle, even if the air waves did not overturn the car, the flying shrapnel would make the people in the car become hedgehogs.
But when approaching a tank, Sokov saw a soldier standing up suddenly and throwing an anti-tank grenade out. Perhaps because the body of the car was too bumpy, the grenade he threw did not hit the tank, but crossed the tank's body and landed on an open space. Before the warrior could throw a second, the armored vehicle had already passed by the tank and rushed towards another tank.
Sokov saw the soldier squatting down with a frustrated look on his face, and quickly reached out to pat his shoulder, comforting him and said, "Comrade Warrior, don't worry, aim at the next time you shoot."
Chapter completed!