The Chief of Staff quickly raised his telescope and looked in the direction Rensky said. He happened to see an object holding white smoke flying out of the crater and hit a moving tank directly, blowing it into a fireball.
"Your Excellency the Division Commander, it is not an anti-tank gun from the Russians." The Chief of Staff put down his telescope and turned his head to Rensky and said: "The artillery shells cannot see the flight tracks. I guess this is a newly developed anti-tank weapon by the Russians."
"Damn Russian." After hearing his chief of staff say, Rensky cursed indignantly and asked back: "Tell me, how should we deal with this new weapon of the Russian?"
"Sir, I think our primary task is to withdraw the offensive troops." The Chief of Staff of the Division suggested to Lensky: "It is not too late to launch a new attack after coming up with a solution to deal with the Russians' new weapons."
Lensky looked into the distance. Although his tank was constantly destroyed by the new Russian weapons, the infantry was only 300 meters away from the opponent's position. At this time, the efforts ahead would be in vain.
Seeing that Rensky was undecided, the Chief of Staff reminded him on the side: "Sir, due to the lack of fuel and shells, we concentrated all the remaining tanks' fuel and shells to this group of tanks. If they were all lost in the attack, our division would have no available tanks."
Can the Armored Division be called an Armored Division without tanks? The Chief of Staff of the Division made Rensky cautious. After weighing the pros and cons, he finally issued an order: "Let the offensive troops be temporarily removed."
But when Rensky's retreat order reached each tank, five more tanks were destroyed by the rocket launcher and parked on the battlefield to burn. The tank soldiers who escaped from the tank did not run far away and were killed by snipers from the Soviet positions. Perhaps in other troops, it was a bit too extravagant to use snipers to deal with the enemy's tank soldiers, but in the Belkin regiment, as long as the enemy can be eliminated, let alone a few snipers, even using new rockets to attack. Moreover, tank soldiers are professional troops. For every German tank soldier killed, one less person could drive the tank. Even if the German army supplemented new tanks, no one could start it.
After the German offensive troops retreated, the infantry did not suffer much casualties. Instead, the tanks that opened the road in front suffered heavy losses. Only six of the twenty tanks could retreat. In addition to those destroyed by the bazooka, two of them broke down during the retreat. The tank soldiers were worried about being attacked by the Soviet bazooka, so they took the initiative to throw away the faulty tanks and retreated with the infantry.
The leaders of the regiments summoned by Lensky knew about the failure of the offense. At the beginning of the meeting, Baron Edelsheim first raised his own question: "Sir, I don't understand why the attack on the Russians would be defeated?" His implication was that in such an area suitable for tank combat, even if he could not break through the Soviet defense, he would not be beaten so badly.
Rensky looked at him and said with a wry smile: "His Excellency Baron, the Russians have a new anti-tank weapon that can destroy our tanks from a distance. If they do not destroy their weapons, even if we launch multiple attacks, they will probably not have any effect."
"New anti-tank weapon?" So far, the Soviet army has only used bazooka on a large scale in barricade factories. The 306th Infantry Division, which was hit hard by the Soviet army, naturally would not talk about such embarrassing things everywhere, so that most German commanders did not know that the Soviet army had a new anti-tank weapon. Since Rensky didn't know, Baron Edelsheim was even more unclear. He asked in a daze: "Secretary Commander, is it the Russian anti-tank gun, which was regarded by our soldiers as some new weapon."
"It's not an anti-tank gun." The chief of staff of the division stood up and shook his head and said, "The Russians who use this anti-tank weapon are all hiding in the craters in front of the position. When they see our tanks approaching, they stand up and attack. According to my observation, the attack distance of this new weapon is about one hundred meters."
"Today I want to find a way to deal with the new anti-tank weapon of the Russians." Rensky added: "As long as they eliminate their anti-tank weapon, our division will continue to advance southward and cut off the front guards of Mamayev."
If Rensky had not mentioned Mamayev, I am afraid that no one present would think of Sokov. When he heard Rensky's words, a commander of the grenadier regiment remembered the matter and asked quickly: "Graduate Commander, I want to ask, which Russian troops are standing in front of us?"
The leader's words stopped Rensky. So far, he really didn't know who his opponent was. He could only say vaguely: "According to the original reconnaissance information, the militia in the Red October factory should be the ones who stick to this area."
After hearing this, the regiment commander sneered and continued, "Sir, Master, do you think the mobs that were temporarily pieced together can block the attack of our tanks? Since they can repel our attack so easily, I want to deploy certain elite Russian troops on the position."
"What, the elite Russian troops?!" The commander's words shocked everyone present. Edelsheim stood up and said tremblingly: "It's not Sokov's troops, right?"
Edelsheim's words made everyone fight a cold war. For them, Sokov's troops were a nightmare. Not only did they kill a regiment commander and battalion commander in their division at the beginning of the war. In recent months, the troops suffered heavy casualties. When the troops were transferred out of the area where Sokov's troops were fighting, there were even officers and soldiers drinking to celebrate. Unexpectedly, after such a long time, they actually wanted to fight Sokov's troops again, which was something that Rensky could not tolerate.
Thinking of this, Lensky hurriedly ordered the Chief of Staff: "Chief of Staff, immediately send reconnaissance personnel to conduct reconnaissance on the Russian positions in front of our division, and find out which Russian unit is the one who is sticking to this area?"
The Chief of Staff realized the seriousness of the problem and did not dare to neglect it. He quickly got up and called the reconnaissance department of the division, asking them to send people immediately to reconnaissance the Russian defenders in front and find out the number of the unit.
In order to stabilize the morale of the army, Rensky said with a forced smile: "Don't be nervous, it is unlikely that the Russians on the front position of our division are Sokov troops."
After hearing what Rensky said, Edelsheim couldn't help but ask curiously: "Sir, why did you say that?"
"It's very simple." Rensky walked to the wall, pointed to a map hanging on the wall, and said to everyone: "As far as I know, Sokov's 41st Guard Division has four regiments. Now, his three regiments are used to attack the 71st and 76th divisions on the front of Mamayev's hill, and have occupied most of the areas; and the other regiment is deployed in the barricade factory. Since the locations of the four regiments have been determined, do you think Sokov can still create new troops?"
The officers were originally afraid of the front guards, fearing that it was Sokov's troops, and their attacks would not only fail, but would also lose their troops. However, after listening to Rensky's analysis, everyone felt that their division commanders made sense. Sokov's subordinates had four regiments, and they were all deployed in important areas, where there was no extra force to be used for their front defense. Perhaps ahead were troops transferred by the Russians from other areas. As long as they found a way to deal with new anti-tank weapons, they would launch a new attack.
"Tell me," Rensky sat down from the wall and looked at his subordinates and asked, "What should we use to deal with the Russian anti-tank weapons."
"Sir, the division commander," as soon as Rensky finished speaking, the artillery commander stood up and asked cautiously: "Can I express my opinion?"
"Yes." Rensky nodded at the other party, reached out and made a gesture, signaling the other party to continue: "Tell me what you think and see if it will be helpful for the next attack."
"According to the description just now, the Russians have hidden anti-tank weapons in the craters in front of the position. We can bombard those craters with artillery fire." The artillery leader said excitedly: "Destroy these anti-tank weapons with artillery fire."
"No, Mr. Colonel, your method does not apply." Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, the Chief of Staff shook his head and made a rebuttal: "As far as I see, the anti-tank weapon of the Russians is a single weapon. If it is bombarded by our army, they may withdraw to the trenches and hide in the trenches. Moreover, our current reserves of shells are limited. Once all the shells are exhausted, our next battle will not be supported by artillery fire."
…………
While Rensky and his subordinates were discussing how to deal with the Belk regiment, the telecommunications department of the Southwest Front heard frequent radio signals from the Gumlak area, which should be the location of the German Army Command. The news was first reported to the Front Army. Vatuting felt that the matter was serious and did not dare to make decisions without authorization, so he reported to Huasilevsky and the Supreme Command.
After learning that the German Army's Army's Army Command might be in the Gumlak area, Stalin immediately called Wasseyevsky and asked him: "Comrade General Staff, how big do you think the German Army Command is in the Gumlak area?"
"Comrade Stalin," Vasilevsky replied respectfully: "Two days ago, our telecommunications monitoring department noticed that Gumlak was busy with radio activities. But because of the information from Rokosovsky, it said that the German command might be located in Lower Chirskaya in the Lower Chirskaya, and turned all his attention to this direction."
Stalin looked at the map spread on the table and said thoughtfully: "Comrade Vasilevsky, see if there is such a possibility. The German command has been in the Gumlak area, and the radio waves that appear in the Lower Chirskaya area may be a bait for the enemy, in order to make our army misjudgment and choose the wrong direction of attack."
After Stalin reminded him, Vasilevsky felt that there was indeed such a possibility. From the perspective of the enemy-to-me situation on the map, Rokosovsky's vanguard troops could reach Lower Chirskaya in half a day at most. With the German officers' greed and fear of death, they would never set the headquarters so close to the front. After understanding this, Vasilevsky nodded and said in agreement: "You are right, Comrade Stalin. The enemy is completely likely to have set up a confusion array for us, so that we can't figure out the specific location of their headquarters. General Rokosovsky may have been deceived."
Seeing that Vasilevsky agreed with his opinion, Stalin showed a satisfied smile on his face. He lit his pipe and put it in his mouth and asked, "So, my comrade General Staff, what are you going to do?"
"Order all the troops participating in the counterattack to carry out centripetal attacks on the Gumlak area." Huasilevsky stared at the location of the Gumlak area and said gritting his teeth: "Since Paulus has set up the headquarters here, we will concentrate our efforts to take it down first and see where he can run towards."
"Once our army has occupied the Gumlak territory," Stalin said with his hand on the map, "Even if Paulus is not captured alive by us, he can only escape to the city. As long as he enters the city, don't think about leaving Stalingrad alive."
"I understand, Comrade Stalin." Vasilevsky replied respectfully: "I will immediately issue an order to the troops of the three fronts to launch a centripetal attack on the Gumlak region."
…………
At around 2 pm, the German scouts reported the reconnaissance to Rensky through the radio station and confirmed that the troops that were standing in the front position were Sokov's shrinking regiments, but they didn't know when they evacuated from the barricade factory and quietly entered the current defensive position.
When he learned that the front defender was the most elite contraction regiment under Sokov, the muscles on Rensky's face twitched violently. He knew very well that if he wanted to break through the defense line that this army was holding, he might not be able to fight all the remaining tanks. Since he could not attack, he could only choose to retreat.
However, without Paulus' consent, he retreated without permission. He was afraid that after he jumped out of the Russians' encirclement, he would be sent to the military court. For this reason, Rensky fell into a dilemma.
"Grand Commander," just as Rensky was helpless, the Chief of Staff came over with a telegram and said to Rensky with a puzzled look: "I just received a telegram from the Army Command, ordering us to stop our actions in the direction of Mamayevgang and immediately move towards Orlovka."
For Rensky, Paulus' retreat order was a timely rain. He had no time to figure out why the other party issued such an order, so he couldn't wait to order the Chief of Staff of the Division: "Chief of Staff, immediately issue orders to the troops, so that they can't wait to transfer to Orlovka."
Chapter completed!