The German counterattack launched from the town met with only weak resistance. After suffering less than ten casualties, they reoccupied the lost position.
The German commander who retook the position reported triumphantly to Major General Val through the on-board radio on the armored vehicle: "Your Excellency, Division Commander, our men and I have regained the position we lost."
"Very good," after hearing this exciting news, Major General Val quickly reminded the other party: "Order the troops to seize the time to repair the fortifications and be ready to crush the Russian attack."
Major General Val quickly reported to Houser on the retaking of the Zhennan position. He finally said: "Your Excellency, General, in order to strengthen our defense here, I need a lot of cement to build fortifications."
"Major General Val, you also know that this damn spring in Russia has filled all our fortifications with water, and the stored cement has been soaked into blocks. If you need cement, we have to go to the rear to transport it.
"
"Your Excellency, General," seeing that Hauser was unwilling to provide him with cement, Major General Val felt very uncomfortable. He emphasized specifically: "Opposite the defense area of our division is Sokov's troops. I don't know when they will.
Attack us again, I only know that if there are no strong defenses, then the loss of the town of Roginsik is only a matter of time."
Seeing that Major General Val brought out the town of Rojinsik to talk about the problem, Hauser could only choose to give in: "Okay, Major General Val, since you said so, then I can provide you with a certain amount of cement. But you also know
, We don’t have this kind of thing here, it must be transported from the other side of the Dnieper River, so it may take a long time. Before the cement meets, I hope you can block the Russian attack."
Since Hauser was willing to provide cement for his troops, Major General Val felt much more at ease. He quickly replied: "Don't worry, General. As long as my division headquarters is in the town of Rojinsik, the Russians will not even think about moving forward."
further."
When Major General Val said this, he never dreamed that the reason why his troops could retake the position in the south of the town so easily was just a trap dug by Sokov to stabilize his troops in this area.
, in order to implement the next step of the plan.
Starting from the next day, Major General Val found that his nightmare was coming.
The supply convoy had just arrived in the morning, but there was no sign of it in the afternoon. Major General Val couldn't help but became a little anxious. He quickly called Hauser and asked: "General, I would like to ask when your supply convoy will arrive."
arrive?"
"The convoy to provide you with supplies set off three and a half hours ago." Hausser was stunned when he heard Major General Val ask this, and then asked: "Why, it hasn't been delivered yet?"
"No." Major General Val was also surprised. The convoy coming from Barvinkovo only takes an hour and a half at most to reach the town of Rojinsik. Why is there no movement after such a long time?
What? He asked tentatively: "Your Excellency, General, there won't be any accidents on the road, right?"
"Accident, what accident?" After hearing what Major General Val said, Hausser asked with some dissatisfaction: "Do you think that the convoy that provides supplies to you will be attacked by the Russian Air Force like the convoy that delivers supplies to the Skeleton Division?
Bombing?”
However, as soon as Hausser finished speaking, his adjutant ran over and reported hurriedly: "Your Excellency General, this is bad, something happened."
"What happened?" Hausser quickly covered the phone's mouthpiece with his hand and asked his adjutant dissatisfied: "Don't you know that as a German officer, staying calm at all times is a basic quality?
"
The adjutant who was reprimanded by Hausser did not dare to refute and could only stand in front of him with his hands down.
After Hauser finished scolding his adjutant, he asked casually: "Tell me, what happened again? Did you discover guerrillas nearby?"
"Your Excellency, General, have you discovered the guerrillas?" the adjutant replied in a panic: "The convoy transporting supplies to the Imperial Division was bombed by the Russians on the way, and the entire army was destroyed."
"What, the material convoy transporting to the Imperial Division was also bombed by the Russian Air Force?" Hausser shouted in surprise: "Hell, how is this possible? How could the Russians know when we will attack the Imperial Division?"
Where are the troops delivering supplies?”
"Your Excellency, General," the adjutant said cautiously: "As far as I know, the Russians have been flying reconnaissance planes in the sky. He may have discovered traces of the transport convoy, so he called in bombers to help in the battle."
In the excitement of the moment, Hausser did not notice that his hand had moved away from the phone, which meant that what he said could be heard clearly by Major General Wahl on the other end of the phone. But Hausser obviously did not realize that
At this point, he yelled at his adjutant, "Immediately get in touch with Colonel Simon of the Skeleton Division and ask about their defense area. It seems that Russian reconnaissance planes are lingering."
After sending the adjutant away, Hausser realized that what he had just said might have been heard by Major General Val. He said to the microphone with some embarrassment: "Major General Val, don't worry, we will transport supplies for you again soon."
.”
After hanging up the phone, the more Hausser thought about it, the more something was wrong. Why had his transportation lines been bombed by Russian planes recently? He had lost more than a hundred trucks. Although these lost trucks could be recovered in the shortest time,
Resupply will be obtained, but before the new trucks arrive, the supply work for the Skeleton Division and the Imperial Division will be seriously affected.
Hausser quickly called Manstein's headquarters and reported the situation here to Manstein. After listening to Hausser's report, Manstein thought for a long time and finally said: "
General Hausser, I think you may have fallen into a Russian trap. Look at the positions of the Totenkopf and Imperial Divisions. Once their supplies are interrupted due to the Russians' constant bombing, they will not be able to retreat even if they want to.
Come down."
"Why can't we withdraw?"
"You idiot, a born idiot." Seeing that Hauser did not understand what he meant, Manstein couldn't help but cursed angrily: "If the Russians continue to air raid your transportation lines, then the two troops you deployed at the front will
The division will soon face the situation of total annihilation. Even if you find that something is wrong and want to retreat, I am afraid you will not be able to get rid of the Russians in front of you. You must know that the Sokov you are facing is giving me a headache.
.”
Hearing what Manstein said, Hausser was immediately startled into a cold sweat. You must know that he was commanding the three most elite SS divisions in the German army. If they were really annihilated by the Soviet army, then what awaited him would be military
Court. He asked Manstein with a grimace: "Your Excellency, Marshal, what should we do?"
"What should we do? Under the current circumstances, what else can we do?" Manstein roared: "We can only continue to transport supplies to the Skeleton Division and the Imperial Division. In order to ensure that our lines of communication are open, I will dispatch the air force to carry out air operations.
Cover and destroy the Russian air force."
Sokov had long expected that the enemy would send out fighter jets to deal with his air force if he frequently dispatched air force air strikes on the German communication lines. So he gave an order to Colonel Nemtsevich, the commander of the 205th Fighter Aviation Division, to ask him to do so at any time.
It is necessary to ensure that the two fighter squadrons are on standby. Once one's bombers are attacked by the Germans, they will be dispatched immediately.
The day after he issued the order, the bomber formation attacking the transport line of the Skull Division was attacked by two German fighter jets. The German pilots were highly skilled and experienced in combat, and it only took two minutes to shoot down a Soviet bomber.
, injuring one aircraft. Seeing that the remaining two aircraft could not escape the enemy for the time being, they did not dare to retreat towards the airport, lest they would lead the enemy to the field airport.
Fortunately, after Sokov learned of this situation, he immediately ordered the two fighter squadrons that had been at the airport to take off and rush to meet the enemy planes. After a fierce battle, the Soviet army lost another fighter and another
After the bomber, it successfully shot down two German fighter jets.
In this way, in the following days, air battles on the transportation line continued almost every day. Although the Soviet pilots shot down many enemies, they still paid a heavy price.
When Sokov first sent bombers to harass the German transportation lines, Rokossovsky in the rear felt quite happy when he heard the results of the battle every day, but soon he found that the situation had changed.
Not only did the aircraft's fuel and ammunition consumption skyrocket, but the losses to pilots and aircraft were also considerable.
"Major General Sokov," Rokossovsky called the Sixth Army Headquarters and asked Sokov in a stern tone: "Explain to me, what is going on? Why is this happening?
You have lost so many planes and pilots in a period of time?"
"Report to Comrade Commander of the Front Army," Sokov saw that the situation was more serious than he expected. He couldn't help but replied with a wry smile: "The Germans may have noticed my plan and knew that I planned to attack the transportation line to make the border with us
The Imperial Division and the Skeleton Division were trapped in a place where they were running out of ammunition and food, so a large number of fighter planes were dispatched to ensure the safety of their transportation. In order to destroy the enemy's fighter planes, our air force inevitably suffered some casualties."
"Major General Sokov," Rokossovsky knew clearly that what Sokov said was reasonable, but when he thought of the pilots who were injured or killed, he became very angry: "You have to know that when we train a pilot,
What a difficult thing. But in order to implement your plan, you lost more than 20 excellent pilots in just one week, resulting in a decline in the combat effectiveness of the aviation division of your group army. I want to ask you
, when do you plan to stop such air strikes?"
"Comrade Commander of the Front Army," Sokov heard Rokossovsky's voiceover and knew that he wanted to give up the tactic of using the air force to block the enemy's communication lines, so he quickly said loudly: "We are responsible for the enemy's transportation
The line attack has been going on for almost ten days, and the officers and soldiers of the Skeleton Division and the Imperial Division are now facing a situation of running out of food. As long as they persist for two more days, they will basically lose their combat effectiveness, and then we can launch a full-scale attack on them.
"
"If you launch an attack, what results do you think you can achieve?" Rokossovsky asked.
"Report to Comrade Commander of the Front Army," after hearing Rokossovsky's question, Sokov, after pondering for a moment, gritted his molars and said: "If you can provide us with support, replenish the aircraft and aircraft we have recently lost.
Pilot, I can assure you that the attack we launch in three days will be able to severely damage or even completely annihilate these two SS divisions."
Rokossovsky was originally ready to tell Sokov to give up, but when he heard him say that he was sure to severely damage or even annihilate the Skeleton Division and the Imperial Division, his eyes lit up and he quickly asked: "What you said is true.
?"
"Of course it's true?" Sokov replied bravely: "If you can add enough pilots and aircraft for me, then we will be sure that the Germans will not get any weapons before they are attacked by our army.
Supplement. According to the information I have, the enemies of the Imperial Division consumed a large amount of ammunition when consolidating the defense line in the town of Rojinsik, and they were attacked continuously by us afterwards without any replenishment. Suppose
I chose the main line of defense in the town of Rojinsik. After annihilating the Imperial Division, I then detoured to the side and rear of the Skeleton Division to cut off their retreat. By then, there would not be much of a problem in annihilating the enemy."
After hearing Sokov's plan, Rokossovsky stared at the map on the wall for a while and then said: "Okay, Major General Sokov, since you said so, then I choose to believe you. I
I will discuss with the commander of the Air Force Group and ask him to dispatch a few more fighter squadrons to the Red Army Village."
Sokov put down the phone, wiped the sweat from his forehead with his hand, and said to Vitkov and Lunev: "Comrade Military Commissar, Comrade Chief of Staff, and the Commander of the Front Army have agreed to send us a few more fighter squadrons. I
With these fighter squadrons, the chances of destroying the enemy's air force will increase."
Vitkov's attention was obviously not on the air superiority over the transportation line. He asked in surprise: "Comrade Commander, do you really plan to launch an attack on the German troops in the town of Roginsik in three days?"
?"
"I not only want to attack the Imperial Division, but also attack the Skull Division." Sokov pointed to the map and said to the two men: "When these two German divisions are attacked by us at the same time, they cannot interact with each other.
Provide support. Even if the troops as far away as Barvinkovo wanted to come to the rescue, they were too late and could only watch their troops being annihilated by us."
"Comrade Commander," Vitkov waited for Sokov to finish speaking and quickly asked him for instructions: "Should we call together the division commanders for a meeting to let them understand the attack plan?"
