Although the town was full of powerful SS troops, they were also frightened when faced with the Soviet army's desperate fighting style. Seeing the Soviet commanders and fighters coming in like a tide, some soldiers finally became timid.
He was so frightened that he turned around and ran away. His behavior affected other soldiers, and not long after, more and more soldiers joined the fleeing queue.
The adjutant saw the Soviet army breaking through the defense line and approaching the headquarters step by step. He quickly ran into Paul Hausser's bedroom and said anxiously: "Your Excellency, Commander, the situation is not good. The Russians are only a few meters away from the headquarters."
It's less than fifty yards away, and it will be too late if we don't leave."
"What, the Russians are only fifty yards away from here?" Paul Hausser was reluctant to leave just now because he felt that his troops were fully capable of blocking the Russian attack. But it only took less than half an hour.
, the situation became so critical, he quickly got out of bed, put on his boots, and ordered the adjutant: "Get the barrel truck ready immediately, we must leave this dangerous place as soon as possible."
As soon as Paul Hausser and his adjutant left the bedroom, a roaring tank shell hit the small building. After the explosion, a collapsed floor slab hit the floor where Paul Hausser had slept.
On the bed, the solid iron bed was smashed flat. If Paul Hausser had not left, he would have been smashed to pieces at this moment.
When the German officers and soldiers at the headquarters saw that Paul Hausser had escaped on the barrel truck, and how could he stay here to die, they all fled out of the room, followed Paul Hauser's barrel truck, and headed towards
Escape to the south side of town.
The organized resistance was gone, and the resistance organized by the remaining stragglers lasted less than an hour before being completely blocked. After wiping out the German troops in the town of Valki, the tank commander immediately reported the good news to Rybalko:
"Comrade Commander, I have good news for you. We have successfully captured the town of Varki."
"Have you caught Paul Hausser?" Rybalko asked tentatively.
"No." The tank commander who was standing in the German headquarters at this moment replied with some embarrassment: "Comrade Commander, by the time we rushed into the German headquarters, everyone here had already run away, and we couldn't catch him.
Paul Hausser."
Rybalko felt very sorry to learn that he could not capture Paul Hausser. But he thought that Zhukov had repeatedly told him that after seizing Paul Hausser's headquarters, he even organized his own troops to break out.
, then ordered the tank commander: "Forget it if you don't catch it, gather your troops immediately and prepare to break out to the north."
"Breakout?" After hearing Rybalko's order, the tank commander asked in surprise: "Comrade Commander, since we have occupied the town of Valki, we can build fortifications here to resist the German attack."
"Comrade Colonel," seeing that his tank commander actually wanted to defend the town of Varki, Rybalko quickly explained to him: "The purpose of my ordering you to attack the town of Varki is to disrupt the command of the German army.
The system creates conditions for us to break out of the German encirclement. If we continue to stay here and wait for the German troops to surround us from all sides, the only fate waiting for us is the destruction of the entire army. Okay, don't wait any longer, and move the troops quickly."
After Rybalko ended his conversation with the army commander, he immediately sent a telegram to Zhukov, reporting to him on the successful capture of the town of Varki and his preparations for a breakout.
When Zhukov saw Rybalko's call, he nodded happily and said to Sokov: "Misha, Rybalko's troops have successfully occupied the town of Valki. Although they failed to capture Paul Houser alive, they have
Successfully disrupted the German command system, which will be very beneficial to their subsequent breakout operations."
"Although the German army's command system has been disrupted, at the speed of the German army, it may only take two or three hours to return to normal." Sokov frowned and said: "Comrade General, the time they can use is very short.
Therefore, we must speed up, otherwise all our efforts will be wasted.”
"I think Rybalko should understand this truth." Zhukov put the telegram in his hand on the table and said confidently: "I think we don't need to interfere with the commander's determination anymore."
Rybalko realized the seriousness of the problem. After confirming that the town of Valki had been captured, he immediately organized his troops to break out to the north and notified the 15th Tank Corps again, ordering them to speed up and join the main force to jointly escape from the German encirclement.
Jump out.
However, what he did not expect was that the troops of the 15th Tank Corps did not move closer to the north as ordered at this moment, but continued to pursue the fleeing German troops. The person who made this decision was the commander of the Tank Corps.
He originally wanted to follow Rybalko's order to gather his troops and move closer to the north, but one of his tank brigade commanders said: "Comrade Commander, Paul Hausser is fleeing south now. If we take advantage of the victory to pursue him, he will
By making the enemy more chaotic, maybe we can completely reverse our army's current unfavorable situation."
When the tank commander thought about it, it seemed like this was the case. No matter how brave and capable the troops were, once they lost their organizational structure, their combat effectiveness would become vulnerable. The enemies who escaped from Valki Town were just trying to escape and could not organize a decent resistance at all.
, if you lead the troops in pursuit, you will definitely achieve greater results.
It was out of such considerations that the tank commander immediately gave the order to the troops to continue the pursuit. The town just captured was handed over to the infantry for defense.
Dozens of tanks from the Tank Army pursued the Germans in the direction of their escape. Not long after, sporadic German soldiers appeared in sight, because there was waist-deep snow on both sides of the road. These fleeing soldiers
The German officers and soldiers could only run forward along the road. Seeing the Soviet tanks catching up from behind, they could only run away while firing at the tanks in vain with their weapons.
The bullets rattled the armor plates of the tanks, but they did not slow down the tanks at all. On the contrary, the tank soldiers in the tanks could use machine guns to easily kill these German soldiers on the road like target practice.
After chasing for another two or three kilometers, there were more German troops on the road. This made the Soviet tank soldiers extremely happy. They fired with machine guns and shelled them with artillery, making the German soldiers howl like ghosts.
However, when they were fighting happily, a tank rushing at the front was blown into a ball of fire with a loud "boom". A moment later, two tank crews, covered in fire, struggled
They rushed to escape from the tank. They threw themselves into the snow on the roadside and rolled back and forth, trying to extinguish the fire on their bodies.
Before the other tanks could figure out what had happened, several more tanks were hit one after another and ceased fire, then stopped on the road and started burning.
