Soon, the only six tanks in the Tank Battalion were divided into three groups, accompanied by the infantry charging along the street. The two tanks were in one group, three meters apart in the middle, and an infantry squad could be placed; each group of tanks was thirty meters apart, but when the tanks in the front were attacked, the tanks in the rear could also provide timely support. Behind the six tanks, there was an infantry battalion, whose mission was that the tanks eliminated the enemy's firepower in important buildings and immediately rushed up to seize the building.
Looking at the tanks and infantry that were leaving, a staff officer asked Pavel: "Lieutenant Colonel, this is the first time I have seen such an attack method. Do you think it works?"
Pavel turned his head and looked at his staff officer and said in a serious tone: "Although this is the first time I have seen this tactic, since it is a tactic deployed by the division commander himself, I believe that the effect in street fighting will definitely exceed our imagination."
At this time, another staff officer came over and reported to Pavel: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, according to the report of the observation post, the troops of the 1135th Regiment had entered the city, and the regiment commander, Colonel Bindasov, was coming to us."
Just as the 1137th and 1135th regiments entered the city gathered, in the command center outside the city, Chief of Staff Potukin also asked Sokov the same question: "Comrade Commander, this is the first time I have heard of the offensive tactics you have arranged for Lieutenant Colonel Pavel. Is it really effective if you say it?"
Sokov told Pavel's tactics that during the Battle of Berlin, the Soviet army used them on a large scale and achieved good results. However, Sokov was unsure of whether he could achieve any results in Zhizdra City. After all, he knew all theories and had not practiced them personally. Pavel and others were just guinea pigs for experiments. Therefore, after hearing Potukin's question, he shook his head and replied bitterly: "This tactic was developed based on the terrain in Zhizdra City. What is the effect? ​​I have to wait for Lieutenant Colonel Pavel's report."
The tanks and infantry advancing along the street were not fast. Whether it was the tankers or infantry, they were nervously observing the buildings on both sides, fearing that an enemy would suddenly emerge from some window.
When they reached halfway through the street, a window on the second floor of the building on the right suddenly opened, and a German soldier holding a submachine gun leaned out and fired below. However, the bullets fired from the submachine gun caused limited casualties to the infantry below. Except for a soldier who was shot and fell down on the spot, the remaining soldiers immediately squatted down and fought back with the help of the cover of the tank body.
Due to the tank gun shooting angle, the first group of tanks could not take any action against the building with German submachine gunmen, but the one on the left of the second group of tanks following immediately stopped, quickly locked the target, and accurately hit the room with artillery fire, blowing the submachine gunmen to the point of flesh and blood.
Just as the firepower point was killed, more Germans emerged from the windows of buildings on both sides of the street, using various weapons to shoot at the tanks and infantry on the street. Some German soldiers even threw down cluster grenades from the window, landed on the street and exploded, emitting a burst of black smoke.
Fortunately, the German soldiers were a little nervous when dropping bombs and threw them too early, so that the grenades fell two or three meters in front of the tank and exploded. The flying shrapnel stumbled on the tank armor plate, but did not cause substantial damage to the tank. The soldiers hiding between the two tanks, due to the obstruction of the tanks, did not cause too much casualties to them. On the contrary, they could hide behind the tanks and shoot at the German soldiers who were leaning out of the building. In order to hit the infantry marching below, the German soldiers had to poke out from the window, which caused a group of tanks and soldiers to attack, and suffered considerable casualties.
Pavel and Bindasov stood side by side at the window of the command post, watching the battle ahead with a telescope. When they saw the enemy shooting from buildings on both sides of the street, they couldn't help but sweat. But what happened next was beyond their expectations. The exposed enemy was either blown to pieces by tank guns or shot to death by soldiers hiding in the middle of the tank.
Seeing this situation, Bindasov said with emotion: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, do you know? When the division commander proposed this tactic, I thought it was quite funny. You know, tanks traveling in cities usually become targets for German anti-tank players because of their slow speed. If we had already lost all our tanks in previous battles, our tanks would have suffered heavy losses, and the infantry would have suffered heavy losses. But today, after adopting this tactic, no matter our tanks did not suffer any losses, the number of infantry injured or injured was limited."
"Yes, comrade Colonel." As soon as Bindasov finished speaking, Pavel added: "We have only suffered one squad of infantry so far, and the enemy's losses are several times as much as ours. If we continue to keep it, the price we pay when we seize the city is much lower than we imagined."
At the end of the street is a square, with a tall church in the middle of the square. The Germans not only built machine gun fire points on the bell tower, but also at the entrance of the church, there were sandbags with machine guns. Dozens of German soldiers hid behind the marble fence and extended the muzzle from the gaps in the fence, aiming at the advancing vacation infantry and tanks.
Seeing that the Soviet troops were only more than 300 meters away from the church, the German machine guns opened fire, and the crossfire formed by the bell tower and the machine guns at the door knocked down the soldiers marching between the two tanks.
Seeing the enemy fire in the church, a tank rushing in front immediately stopped and then opened aside the German machine gun fortification at the entrance of the church. Because the fire was too hasty, the shells were missed and did not hit the German machine gun fire point, but hit the wall of the church. After a loud bang, a large ball of smoke and dust rose up to cover the enemy's fire point. In this way, the tanks in the distance were not easy to aim, and the enemy's machine gun fire point had to temporarily stop shooting because they could not see the target outside.
Although the enemy's machine gun fire point was not visible, it did not affect the tank's shooting at all. As the six tanks lined up in the square, they fired in turn at the location of the enemy's fire point, and soon destroyed the machine gun fire point that was still shrouded in smoke. The German soldiers hiding behind the marble fence were not in a better situation. They were either bombed by shells or killed by Soviet soldiers.
Although the enemies in front of the church were generally eliminated, the machine guns on the church bell tower were still rampant because the tank guns were not elevated enough, causing casualties to the Soviet army.
Seeing the attacking troops being suppressed by fire in front of the church, Pavel quickly ordered a staff officer: "Send a platoon immediately to help the artillery comrades push their artillery forward."
When Bindasov heard Pavel's order, he asked in surprise: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, are you planning to get the artillery battalion close to the fire?"
"Yes," Pavel gave Bindasov a positive answer, "because the tank guns were not fired enough, they could not destroy the German machine gun fire point on the church bell tower. So we can only use artillery to complete this task, in the words of the division commander, this is called bayonets on the cannon."
"It's interesting to have a bayonet on the cannon." Bindasov repeated Pavel's words and then ordered his radio operators to "call Jetrov immediately and order him to lead a battalion of artillery comrades to push the cannon to the square. Once the machine gun fire point on the bell tower was destroyed, he would immediately launch an attack on the church."
With the help of Captain Jetrov's first battalion, the five artillery guns of the artillery battalion were pushed to a distance of 800 meters in just a few minutes. As soon as the artillery was in place, it immediately opened fire at the church in the distance. The shells fired in the first round did not hit the target, but fell around the church and exploded. One of the shells even flew past the church and hit a house more than a hundred meters away, causing gravel on the brick-concrete walls to splash.
Seeing that the first round was missed, the artillery battalion commander immediately ordered the shooting of the corpses to be adjusted and fired again. This time he was lucky, and two shells hit the church. Although they only hit the wall below the bell tower, the German machine gun shooting was paused for a moment.
In the third round of shooting, four shots hit the church shells, and two of them hit the bell tower. Amid the violent explosion, the bell tower collapsed, and the huge marble roof smashed the German machine gunners inside into meat sauce. Seeing that the German firepower point was destroyed, the Jetrov Battalion, which had already approached the square, immediately launched a charge.
Usually 4 or 50 meters in front of the building is an absolute death zone. The commanders and fighters who rushed here will be hit by machine guns, submachine guns, rifles, and even grenades from the Reed Army. If there is insufficient firepower to cover, the body of the commanders and fighters will accumulate here.
However, the firepower points set up in front of the church and above were destroyed by Soviet tanks and artillery. The attacks of Jetrov battalion and friendly forces became extremely smooth. The commanders and soldiers shouted, stepped over the gravel rubble that was still emitting blue smoke, rushed into the church, and started close combat with the surviving German troops inside.
Seeing his troops rushing into the church, the two commanders watching the battle in the distance were all relieved. Pavel turned his head and said to Bindasov: "Comrade Colonel, based on the information we have, the command of the German garrison commander is set up in the church. You see, our soldiers have rushed into the church. Do you need to report this news to the division commander immediately?"
"Yes, comrade Lieutenant Colonel, we should report this good news to the division commander immediately." Bindasov agreed without hesitation about Pavel's proposal. He then said to Pavel in a negotiated taste: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, since we two soldiers rushed into the church together, let's report to the division commander together."
In fact, Sokov, who was waiting for news outside the city, did not care about whether the commander who reported the results of the battle to him, was a single person or a joint letter from two people. He only cared about the progress of the troops. After learning that the troops had rushed into the church where the German command was located, he breathed a sigh of relief, looked down at the map in front of him, and thought in his mind whether he should also put the 1139th Regiment, which was the reserve, into the battle so as to end the battle as soon as possible.
However, before he could make his final decision, the phone rings on the table first. When he picked up the receiver, he heard Rokosovsky's voice coming from it: "Major Sokov, report to me immediately how the progress of the troops in the city is!"
"Report to the commander, comrade," Sokov thought to himself after hearing Rokosovsky's problem. Fortunately, Pavel and Bindasov reported to him in time to the city, otherwise he would not know how to report to Rokosovsky. He said to the microphone: "The 1135th and 1137th Regiments have rushed into the church where the German command is located. I believe that the enemy in the city will soon fall into chaos because of the loss of unified command..."
"I understand what you mean." Rokosovsky said before he could finish Sokov's words, "I will immediately give General Orlov the order to lead the infantry army to attack the city from the north, so as to liberate the city in the shortest time."
After Rokosovsky's phone was hung up, Sokov was still holding the microphone and staring blankly, thinking that the commander thought more thoughtfully than me. I just wanted to send a reserve team to the city from the east, but he took the initiative to send troops to launch an attack from the north, so that the speed of liberating the city would be greatly advanced.
Seeing Sokov in a daze, Potukin guessed that he must be thinking about something. He was afraid that he would interrupt his thoughts, so he stood quietly. It was not until Sokov put down the phone that he asked, "Teacher Commander, don't know what the commander said on the phone?"
Sokov pointed to the map in front of him and said, "The commander intends to order the infantry troops deployed in the north of the city to attack the city and speed up the process of liberating the city."
After tilting his head, Potugin looked at the map, nodded and said, "Comrade Commander's decision is very correct. Once the infantry army launches an attack from the north of the city, the enemy will not be able to draw troops from the north of the city to strengthen the attacked areas. This will be very helpful for us to quickly occupy the city."
"Chief of Staff, call Lieutenant Colonel Ajik and order his troops to enter the city immediately from the east of the city." Sokov said to Portukin with a smile: "I think Lieutenant Colonel is already impatient."
Chapter completed!