Under the leadership of the warriors, Sokov soon arrived at the place where Bere and Vanya stayed.
Seeing Sokov coming, Bere said to him with a serious expression: "Comrade Brigade Commander, the tank crew led by Captain Sereda, have lost contact with us."
Sokov knew that three tank crews, including Captain Sereda, and more than 20 soldiers, were pioneering the way forward. When he heard that they had lost contact, he couldn't help but ask in a hurry: "Have you sent someone to find them?"
"Look for it," Vanya nodded and replied, "Only the bodies of more than twenty soldiers were found, and it seemed that they were killed in the German bombing. No wreckage of the tank was found. I believe Captain Shereda and the others went elsewhere, but they were unable to contact us for the time being."
"Time is tight, so let's put it aside for the time being about Captain Shereda." Sokov raised his hand and looked at the watch: "We must organize an attack immediately and strive to break through the German defensive positions in the shortest time."
After Sokov finished speaking, seeing Bere frowning and thinking about something with a serious expression, he asked curiously: "Col. Boree, is there any problem?"
"Comrade Brigade Commander," replied Bere, "At present, half of the infantry have not caught up. If we launch a hasty attack with this little force, it may be difficult to succeed."
"Yes, comrade comrade commander." Wanya expressed support for Bere's statement: "I think we should wait. It's not too late to launch an attack on the enemy after all the troops arrive."
"There is no time, the attack must be launched immediately." In order to dispel the concerns of the two, Sokov continued: "I have asked General Guriyev that the enemy's troops on the opposite position are limited and there are no anti-tank weapons. What I mean is to first use the armored battalion to carry out assault, and the infantry then follow up."
"Even if the enemy doesn't have any anti-tank weapons," Bere said with concern: "Once they find that our tanks are not covered by infantry, they can use explosive packs or cluster grenades to blow up our tanks."
"Let Lieutenant Varrenla's ball tank open the way in the front and use a wedge assault." Sokov and Bere said without hesitation: "The ball tank has strong firepower and fast speed, and the enemy's explosive packs and cluster grenades are of no use to it. I think it is possible to easily break through the enemy's position when using it to lead the team to assault."
"Comrade Brigade Commander, our troops are limited." Wanya carefully reminded Sokov: "If we want to leave troops to defend after breaking through the enemy's defense line, our forward assault will become even weaker."
"Comrade Captain, you can rest assured of this." Sokov said to Vanya: "I will discuss with General Guriyev later. Once we break through the enemy's defensive positions, his troops will take over the defense."
Seeing that Sokov had already considered all the issues that should be considered, Bere and Wanya stopped saying anything, agreed, turned back to their respective troops, and made the final preparations before the attack.
Five minutes later, the tank crew commanded by Lieutenant Varenra drove past Sokov in a ball tank. Although Sokov knew in his heart that he was yelling outside, the Varenra who was staying in the tank could not hear them at all. But when the tank passed by him, he still waved the assault rifle in his hand and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Go forward, Varenra! Go crush the German defense line and kill every German you see. Go forward, Varenra!"
When Guriev, who was in the observation center, saw the spherical tanks rushing forward with a group of T-34 tanks, and his eyes almost fell to the ground. He asked in surprise: "My God, what is the round thing in front?"
However, after he finished speaking, no one in the observation center responded because no one knew it was something. This equipment, which was still absolutely confidential not long ago, was shocked when it appeared in front of everyone.
The ball tank traveled very fast, especially Lieutenant Varrenla was eager to establish meritorious service, so the tank traveled very fast, and soon it dropped other T-34 tanks far behind.
The German army, who were standing on the position, were also shocked when they saw a strange tank appearing in their sight. Like the soldiers of the Guard Division, no one knew what kind of spherical things were, which was the new Soviet equipment? However, the German commander on the position, when he saw that the spherical tank had been distanced from the other T-34s, he immediately organized soldiers to climb out of the trench with explosive bags and cluster grenades, and tried to blow up the strange Soviet tank.
The ball tank had a wide field of vision. When the tank soldiers in the car saw the enemy crawling out of the trenches, they guessed that the other party wanted to blow up the tanks, so they used side-by-side machine guns to strafuse them and knocked them down one by one.
Finally, a soldier risked his life to rush to the next to the ball tank, but he found sadly that the explosive packs and cluster grenades he carried could not be placed on the body of such a tank, let alone blowing it up. Just when they were worried, several T-34s following far behind stopped, aimed at the ball tank at the muzzle and fired the cannon. These tanks used grenades. After landing and explosion, the flying shrapnel could only make the armor of the ball tank jingle at most, but the German soldiers near the explosion point were blown away by blood.
A German soldier whose legs were broken by a side-by-side machine gun endured the pain and lay on the road of the ball tank. Seeing that the ball tank was still more than ten meters away, he suddenly pulled the fuse of the explosive pack and tried to die with this strange tank.
With a loud "boom", the tank crew following behind couldn't help but feel a sudden slap in their hearts when they saw the ball-shaped tank being covered by the rising smoke. They instinctively thought: Could it be that the ball-shaped tank is over like this?
However, the smoke of gunpowder dissipated, and they saw that the ball tank was still rushing towards the enemy's position without decreasing speed. The machine guns on the car kept firing, constantly knocking down the German soldiers who had climbed out of the trench. A MG34 machine gun in the trench kept tilting bullets towards the ball tank, but it could not slow down the speed of the ball tank's advance.
Faced with such persistent German machine gunners, the gunners in the tank adjusted the direction of the muzzle and aimed at them. They hit the target with just one shot, blowing the machine gun into parts. Both the main and secondary machine gun shooter and ammunition hand were blown to pieces.
Faced with such invulnerable tanks, the enemies on the position were frightened. Without waiting for their commands, they ran along the traffic trench toward the position behind. The officers unexpectedly did not stop the soldiers' escape, but instead joined them and ran towards the back. When the ball tank rushed to the trench and stopped, there was no living German soldier in the trench except for the corpse.
Seeing Sokov's tank troops rushing to the enemy's trenches one after another, Guriev stopped. The infantry rushing towards the enemy's position was not intercepted by artillery fire. He couldn't help but say in surprise: "What a ghost, was the German position taken down by friendly forces?"
"Comrade General," Sokov's voice came from the door: "I need your help."
Seeing the German resistance and being destroyed like a joke, Guriev was in a very good mood. After hearing Sokov's request, he said carelessly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, if you have anything, just speak up. As long as I can do it, I will support you with all my strength."
"That's right, comrade General." Sokov pointed his finger at the direction where the battle had just ended in the distance and said to Guriev: "I have limited troops in my hands, and I hope your troops can take over the defense."
"No problem, I will send a battalion to replace your defense immediately." After Guriev said this, he asked curiously: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, I think it's strange, why did the German army not shell or bomb you when you attack?"
"Comrade General, this is actually very simple." Sokov said lightly: "The enemy planes did not bomb us. It may be that the ammunition they carried was used up and they just returned to replenish fuel and ammunition. As for why they were not intercepted, I guess our tanks were propelling too fast, so fast that before the enemy could react, we had already rushed to them, so that they had no time to notify the artillery and fire at us."
"You make sense." After listening to Sokov's analysis, Guriev nodded and then asked: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what are you going to do next?"
"There are still hours before dark," Sokov replied, "I plan to continue to move forward and strive to reach Orlovka before dark."
If Sokov said this an hour ago, he would definitely be considered bragging by Guriyev, but after the battle just now, Guriyev felt that Sokov's troops were fully capable of breaking through the four directions of the German army before dark and reaching Orlovka as soon as possible.
Out of concern, Guriev asked again: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, you seem to have fewer people. Look, do you need me to send troops to assist you in the attack?"
Although Sokov was seriously insufficient in his hands, he politely refused Guriyev's proposal: "Comrade General, thank you for your kindness. My troops have their own set of tactics. If they cooperate with strange troops, it may affect their combat effectiveness. However, you can send a small team with a radio station to follow us. Once we occupy a certain German position, you can send troops to take over the defense, so as not to take the Germans back."
His proposal was rejected by Sokov, and Guriyev's face looked very bad. He wanted to have an attack, but the other party seemed to make sense. He lost more than 2,000 people and failed to take the position. They succeeded almost without any loss. Just when he was depressed, he heard Sokov's words and smiled again on his face and quickly replied: "Okay, Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, I will prepare a contact group immediately and act with you. At the same time, the 120th Guards Regiment will follow you and replace the defenses of the areas you occupied at any time."
Sokov left the command center and got on the armored vehicle parked not far away. Yakov, who was waiting in the car, was impatient. When he saw Sokov appear, he looked behind him and asked curiously: "Misha, did General Guriyev send you troops?"
"He proposed to send me troops, but I refused." As soon as Sokov sat down, he ordered the driver: "Drive!"
After the armored vehicle was started, Yakov asked strangely: "Misha, you now have about 30 tanks and more than 500 soldiers. Using such forces, it would be a suicide to break through the four lines of defense of the German army. Since General Guriyev is willing to send troops to you, this is a good thing, why do you refuse?"
"Our troops have experience in combat in the Band and Tan, and the Guards Division may lack experience in this regard." Sokov explained to Yakov: "If I rashly accept the Guards Division's troops, the number of people on the surface will increase, but because the two sides use different tactics, not only will the combat effectiveness not be improved, but it may even have a counter-effect effect."
Yakov pondered for a long time about Sokov's statement, and finally nodded in agreement: "That's right. Although you have few people, your combat effectiveness is incomparable to General Guriyev's troops. You broke through the first line of defense of the German army without any casualties, and the Guards Division lost more than 2,000 people in front of this line of defense. Let two troops with different combat styles fight together, which may really have a counterproductive effect."
Although Yakov agreed with Sokov's statement, his lack of troops always made him worry: "But your troops are limited. If you leave a part of your troops to guard every time you occupy the defense line, the power we can invest in the attack will become weaker and weaker in the end."
"I have agreed with General Guriyev," Sokov replied, "he will send a liaison team to act with us. Once we have occupied the German positions, they will inform the nearby troops to take over the defenses of those positions."
"If this is the case, that would be great." Yakov nodded and said, "After we conquered the enemy's positions, we can continue to advance, and the task of sticking to these positions is the responsibility of the comrades of the Guard Division."
"Pilot operator!" Sokov turned his head and said to the operator: "Contact Colonel Bere immediately and ask if the ball tank is damaged in the battle and whether it can participate in the next battle."
"If you contact Colonel Bere, you can put it aside first." Yakov reminded Sokov: "Since we have broken through the first line of defense of the German army, should you send a telegram to Cuikov and tell him the good news?"
Chapter completed!