Rokosovsky did not expect that his command would be suddenly attacked by the German army. Tank shells fell into the village where the command was located and exploded. Several unlucky wooden houses were hit by artillery fire and were immediately blown to pieces.
"Comrade Commander," Malinin suggested to Rokosovsky, "When confirming that the enemy is approaching the village where the headquarters is located, he hurriedly suggested to Rokosovsky: "The enemy is approaching the headquarters, and we should transfer immediately."
But his proposal was soon rejected by Rokosovsky: "No, Comrade Chief of Staff. Now the enemy is attacking in many areas of our defense zone. If the headquarters moves at this moment, it will cause the troops to lose unified command, thus putting the defense line at risk of being broken."
"What should we do?" Malining said anxiously: "Once the enemy rushes into the village, our headquarters will be in danger of being wiped out."
Rokosovsky also knew that it was extremely dangerous at this moment, but he knew better that if the headquarters was transferred at this moment, he would not be able to contact the troops fighting at the forefront within at least one or two hours. Once the troops that had lost unified command were defeated by the Germans, the defense line would be at risk of being broken. It is precisely because of this that although the situation was critical, Rokosovsky still chose to stay.
Seeing that Rokosovsky was unwilling to transfer, Malinin could only turn around and say to O'God, "Comrade Armored Soldier, I remember there are two armored vehicles in the village. Look, have the armored vehicles sent to provide necessary fire support to the defenders who are defending the village?"
"There is not a big problem for armored vehicles to deal with ordinary infantry." O'Orol said with a serious expression: "But listen to the movement outside, the German army dispatched at least five or six tanks. Our armored vehicles faced the German tanks, which would be the end of death."
Perhaps seeing Rokosovsky's blue face, O'Orgil quickly added: "Of course, although the armored vehicles cannot defeat the German tanks, there is still no big problem with the infantry. I will make arrangements to help the infantry stand firm and never allow the Germans to break into the village."
When Ogor went out to command the defense, Lobachev asked Malining anxiously: "Chief of Staff, where has General Kazakov been?"
Although Lobachev was a political worker, he still understood that if he wanted to destroy German tanks, artillery was indispensable. However, if he wanted to command artillery warfare, he had to find Major General Kazakov, the director of the artillery in the army.
"He went to inspect the troops." Malining asked helplessly: "As for when he will come back, no one can tell."
"The troops of the Defense Command are less than 300, and they lack heavy weapons." Lobachev couldn't help but be anxious when he learned that Kazakov would be back: "If our command is taken down by the enemy, then the defense line may collapse."
"Military Commissioner, don't worry." Rokosovsky comforted Lobachev and said: "Even if the artillery director cannot be found for the time being, it is nothing great. We can ask other troops for help. As long as we persist for a while, we can wait for reinforcements to arrive."
"Comrade Commander, we can ask for help from nearby troops." Malining replied: "But the nearest troops are seven or eight kilometers away. Even if they come to support immediately as soon as they get the news, it will probably take nearly an hour. I am worried that our soldiers will not last for that long."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, tell the soldiers that they must persevere until the reinforcements arrive." Rokosovsky said: "Otherwise, we will be all done."
Malining followed Rokosovsky's orders and when contacting the 316th Infantry Division and the Cavalry Army, he informed the two units of the current danger of the headquarters, hoping that they could send people to reinforce.
The first person who received the rescue order was the 316th Infantry Division. After receiving the telegram, the chief of staff showed a shocked expression on his face. Then he quickly walked to Panfirov and handed him the telegram in his hand: "Comrade Commander, it's not good. The headquarters is being attacked by the enemy, and it may not last long. The commander hopes that we can send someone to reinforce."
After hearing what the Chief of Staff said, Panfirov couldn't help but complain: "Hey, our division's defense zone is being subjected to fierce attacks from the enemy. Where can we draw personnel to reinforce the headquarters?"
The political commissar of the division, Yegorov, hurriedly said: "Comrade Commander, you can't watch our headquarters be taken away by the enemy, right?"
Although Panfirov was complaining, he knew better than anyone else that once something went wrong with the headquarters, the troops that lost their unified command would fall into a chaotic situation of fighting each other, which would lead to the danger of breaking through the defense line of the 16th Army.
"Comrade Political Commissar, I didn't say I would not send troops to reinforce." After Panfirov finished speaking, he ordered his chief of staff: "Go and call the guard battalion commander over."
But when the Chief of Staff called, Yegorov asked Panfirov in a low voice: "Comrade Commander, are you going to send our guard battalion to reinforce?"
"Of course." Panfirov nodded and said, "Now that the headquarters is in danger, we cannot sit idly by, so I sent a more powerful guard battalion to support the headquarters, hoping that they can rescue the headquarters from danger."
Yegorov knew very well that the guards were not only a strong combat force, but also a security guarantee for the division command. If they were sent to rescue the headquarters, it would mean that the division headquarters had lost its ability to protect itself and would be extremely dangerous once it was attacked by the enemy. But Yegorov could distinguish the priorities and knew that once something happened to the headquarters, it would bring serious consequences. Therefore, he could only temporarily not consider the safety of the division headquarters, but first rescued the headquarters.
The guard battalion commander soon appeared in the command center.
After the other party raised his hand to salute, Panfirov said straight to the point: "Comrade Major, I call you over. There is a difficult task to hand over to you to complete."
The guard battalion commander naturally knew that if there were no important tasks, Panfirov would not have summoned him to come urgently. He quickly straightened his back and said, "Comrade Commander, please give orders."
"We just received a call from the headquarters saying that they were attacked by German troops and the situation was extremely dangerous. We asked us to send someone to rescue the siege."
After hearing Panfirov say this, the guard battalion commander immediately understood the purpose of calling him over, and asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, are you planning to let me take people to support the headquarters?"
"That's right." Panfirov nodded, "They may not last long, so you should act quickly."
"Comrade Commander, it's about seven or eight kilometers from us to the headquarters." The guard battalion commander reminded Panfirov: "And we don't have transportation. If we walk over, it will take at least an hour. I wonder if they can hold on for that long."
Panfilov's face changed when he heard the guard battalion commander say this: "Comrade Major, I don't care what you think of, but I must arrive at the headquarters within an hour. Do you understand?"
Although it was a bit difficult to walk seven or eight kilometers in an hour, it should be possible as long as you grit your teeth. The guard battalion commander nodded vigorously and assured Panfirov: "Comrade Commander, I will definitely arrive at the headquarters within an hour."
At this moment, the war at the headquarters was in a white-hot stage.
The two armored vehicles sent by O'Orol were destroyed by artillery shells flying from afar as soon as they arrived at the trenches fortified by the guards. The soldiers in the car had no chance to escape and were burned to death in the car.
Although he saw the armored vehicles that were coming to reinforce were destroyed by the enemy's tanks, the soldiers in the trench were not afraid and were still fighting tenaciously, trying to block the enemies who were trying to rush into the village.
Malinin, who was busy in the command center, was stunned after receiving a call from O'Riole. After a while, he came to Rokosovsky to report: "Comrade Commander, Colonel O'Riole reported that our armored vehicle had just arrived at the position and was destroyed by the German tanks."
After listening to the content of Malining's report, Rokosovsky asked as usual: "What is the situation in Volokoramsk? Have the enemy broken through our army's defense line?"
"Not yet." Seeing that Sokov seemed not to care about the battle outside, Malining reported to the opponent about the war everywhere after a brief shock: "Although the Volokolamsk area defended by the 316th Infantry Division was fiercely attacked by the German army, the enemy's attack was shattered due to the tenacious resistance of the commanders and fighters of the division. The situation in the cavalry army was slightly better. The attacking enemy did not receive the support of tanks, so it was unable to break through the defense line of the cavalry army. The northernmost part of the 126th Infantry Division was fighting tenaciously..."
Colonel O'Orol, who was in charge of commanding the troops outside the village, was standing next to a turntable machine gun holding a pistol. The machine gunner aimed at the coming German tank and pulled the trigger frantically. But unfortunately, the bullet hit the tank body and splashed countless Mars, but there was no way to penetrate the armor, which did not affect the speed of their forward advance.
After firing a plate of bullets, the machine gunner quickly changed the bullet disc, then looked at O'Orol beside him, and his eyes seemed to be asking: "Do you continue shooting?"
O'Orol saw the questions in the machine gunner's eyes, and nodded slowly, signaling him to continue shooting. Although everyone knew that the 7.62mm machine gun bullet was the frontal armor that could not penetrate the tank at all, and the reason for shooting was to do its best.
Just as O'Orgil saw the German tanks getting closer and he was in despair, a strange scream suddenly came from the air, and then a "boom boom boom" explosion sounded. Several shells fell into the attacking German army, and the nearby soldiers were blown up and evaporated into air. The shrapnel splashed around had cut down many German soldiers who were still aggressive just now.
After a brief silence, a soldier suddenly shouted on the position: "It's our own artillery! It's our own artillery!"
After hearing his shouts, the soldiers around him cheered.
Just as the soldiers cheered, a series of whistles from shells slashed through the air came from the air. Several more shells fell to the ground and exploded, and the moving German tanks were shrouded in smoke and flames.
When the smoke cleared, O'Orgil saw a German tank that had overturned beside a crater. A tank soldier crawled out of the hole at the bottom of the tank, but he did not leave immediately. Instead, he turned around and dragged another companion out of the hole, and then supported each other and ran to the distance.
But they didn't run far away, and shells fell to a location not far away from them and exploded, which immediately exploded the two of them into the air. By the time they fell back to the ground from the air, they had already turned into broken corpses.
"Great, this is great." O'Orol judged from the scale of the shell explosion that several heavy artillery were bombarding. He thought excitedly: "It seems that Kazakov learned that the headquarters was in danger, so he ordered the artillery troops to fire at the here to rescue the guards."
A series of shelling bombardments blew up the fierce German army.
Soon, the attack on the headquarters stopped. The two surviving tanks quickly turned around and retreated, and the infantry who had lost the cover of the tank would not attack foolishly, but instead fired randomly while slowly retreating, trying to leave the battlefield as soon as possible.
Seeing the enemy retreating, O'Orol jumped out of the trench and raised his pistol high and shouted: "Comrades, come with me!"
The soldiers of the guards were excited to see the attacking Germans being blown up by the sudden artillery fire. Seeing O'Orol take the lead in charge, they also jumped out of the trenches and shouted to rush towards the retreating enemy.
At the same time, the platoon leader of the guards hidden nearby saw the headquarters' guards attacking the enemy. He was worried that the artillery fire would accidentally hurt his people, so he quickly shouted at the artillery observer: "Comrade Artillery observer, please inform the artillery to stop shooting, otherwise the shells should be hit on his head."
When the artillery observer saw the enemy start to flee, he also provided a set of shooting parameters to the artillery in the distance. At this moment, he saw the headquarters' guards launch a charge, worried that if the artillery continued to be bombarded, he might accidentally hurt his own people. Hearing the platoon leader's shout, he followed the flow and notified the Second Artillery Battalion to stop the shelling, so as not to accidentally hurt his own people.
The battle ended half an hour later, and O'Orol, with a smoke on his face, returned to the headquarters.
When he saw Kazakov who was talking to Rokosovsky, he hurried forward and held the other party's hand and said gratefully: "Comrade Artillery Director, thank you so much. If you hadn't ordered the artillery to fire in time, we might have broken through our position by the Germans."
Unexpectedly, after he finished speaking, Kazakov looked at him with a strange look and said, "Col. Olhoel, you are wrong. The artillery was not organized by me. I am also discussing with the commander, where did the artillery fire come from?"
O'Orgil was stunned after hearing this, and then said in surprise: "What? The artillery was not organized by you? How is this possible? You know, those who caused huge casualties to the Germans were heavy artillery. If it weren't for the artillery troops of the group army, which other troops could have such heavy artillery?"
A word woke up the dreamer. Rokosovsky and Kazakov had just studied for a long time, but they had not figured out what happened to this shelling. At this moment, when they heard O'Orol mention the heavy artillery, they immediately remembered a person in their minds.