When the German 2nd Armored Regiment was attacked by two infantry brigades, Lieutenant Colonel Siknius realized that this was not a small group of harassing troops, but a large army was attacking, so he immediately called to report to the division headquarters. The staff officer on duty held the phone record and hurried to find the division commander Hu Bei, but was stopped by the adjutant sitting outside the door.
The staff officer on duty Yang Yang said anxiously: "The 2nd Armored Regiment is attacked by the Russians. This is the telephone record of the regiment commander."
The adjutant thought that the Soviet army's attack was nothing more than the surrounded troops trying to break through, so after taking the phone record from the staff on duty, he said lazily: "I will report it to the division commander later, so you can go back first." After the staff officer left, the adjutant threw the phone record to the side, and then lay on the chair and continued to close his eyes to rest.
Hu Bei was originally lying on the camp bed with Yi in the house, but the sound of gunfire from outside woke him up. He sat up straight from the bed and shouted at the door: "Come here!"
The adjutant who was closing his eyes at the door, heard Hu Bei's shouting, jumped up from the chair, pushed the door and walked into the room. He straightened his body and asked, "Sir, I wonder what you have to give?"
"Did anything happen outside during my sleep?"
"Nothing big is going on." The adjutant said lightly: "Lieutenant Colonel Siknius of the 2nd Armored Regiment once called and said that they were harassed by the Russians. They should be straitors trying to break through."
Hu Bei did not take the attack on the 2nd Armored Regiment lightly because of the tone of the adjutant. He frowned and looked at the adjutant, and then asked, "Where is the phone record?"
"On the chair outside." After the adjutant said, he hurriedly went out and picked up the call record from the chair, walked into the room and handed it to Hu Bei: "Sir, please see."
After reading the call record, Hu Bei was immediately angry and stood up and slapped the adjutant, cursing: "Why not report such important information immediately? If the Russians rush out of our encirclement, I will kill you with my own hands." After that, he took off the military cap hanging on the wall, slammed his head, and walked out of the bedroom with great strides.
After arriving at the command center, Hu Bei saw that there were only staff on duty and two correspondents inside, so he raised his voice and asked, "Does the 2nd Armored Regiment have a new call?"
"Yes," replied the staff on duty quickly, "Just five minutes ago, Lieutenant Colonel Siknius of the 2nd Armored Regiment called again, saying that they were resisting the Russian attack from the direction of Stalingrad, and the Russians in the encirclement also launched a sudden attack from behind. In order to ensure that the troops were not annihilated, he had issued a retreat order. Retreat to the locations of the 79th Infantry Regiment and the 16th Artillery Regiment to the north?"
When Hu Bei heard this, his eyes almost spit out of fire: "Why don't you report this important situation to me immediately?"
The staff officer on duty glanced at the adjutant behind Hu Bei and replied awkwardly: "I sent you a phone record an hour ago, but you didn't show up for a long time. I thought..."
"Why are you?" Before the staff officer on duty finished speaking, Hu Bei couldn't wait to interrupt him: "Do you know that you are neglecting your duties, and I can send you to the military court at any time."
Hearing Hu Bei say this, the staff on duty sweated down and quickly lowered their heads and said nothing. Hu Bei was eager to understand the situation outside, so he picked up another call record and carefully browsed the contents on it. After reading it, he said to the staff on duty: "Let the Chief of Staff come here!" The staff on duty thought it would bring a scolding, but Hu Bei just asked him to find the Chief of Staff. For a moment, he rushed out of the command center as if he was amnesty.
When the Chief of Staff walked into the command center, he saw Hu Bei sitting at the table looking at the map like frost. He immediately realized that the situation was a little bad, so he hurriedly stepped forward and said hello: "Sir, are you looking for me?"
"Our 2nd Armored Regiment has been defeated by the Russians. At present, Lieutenant Colonel Siknius led his troops to retreat to the defense areas of the 79th Infantry Regiment and the 16th Artillery Regiment." Hubei said to his chief of staff: "Now you call the 16th Motorized Battalion immediately and order them to attack the Russians in this area from the flank."
After Hu Bei finished speaking, the Chief of Staff of the Division read two phone records on the table and asked with some concern: "Sir, from the report of the commander of the Armored Regiment, there are quite a few Russians attacking. We only dispatched one motorized battalion. Can we deal with them?"
"First order the 16th Artillery Regiment to fire at the places where the Russians gather." Hubei said gritting his teeth: "Let the artillery fire cause them to become in chaos, so that they cannot organize effective evacuation. When the day dawns, we can eliminate the Russians in this area with the cooperation of the Air Force."
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Just as Hubei was dispatching troops and preparing to deal with the Soviet army that was about to rush out of the gap in the encirclement, Sokov was also anxious in his command. After learning that the two infantry brigades had seized many German tanks, he quickly ordered the other party: "Immediately use the German tanks to establish defense lines on both sides of the passage to cover the troops in the encirclement to protrude."
As soon as the phone was put down, Cuikov called in: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, it's almost dawn. How is your situation there?"
"Comrade Commander," he heard Cuikov's voice, Sokov quickly reported: "The troops attacking on the right have successfully rescued the troops trapped in the 54th Fortification area; the troops attacking on the left have received the cooperation of the 35th Guards Division in the encirclement when they attacked the 2nd Armored Regiment of the German Army, and have successfully opened a gap. Now I am ordering them to establish defense lines on both sides of the gap to cover the troops in the encirclement to rush out."
After Sokov finished speaking, he frowned and said, "Where is the 54th Fortification Area? I don't seem to hear you arrange defense."
"Comrade Commander, I have ordered the 54th Fortification Area." Sokov was afraid that his decision would anger Cui Kov, so he said carefully: "The landing area is deep behind enemy lines, and there is not enough ammunition and supplies. Even if we leave our troops to hold on, we will be wiped out by the enemy because of the ammunition and food."
Regarding Sokov's statement, Cuikov was silent for a long time and finally said: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, you are the front-line commander. Since you feel that there is no need to stick to the fortification area, then give up. You immediately send the withdrawn troops to the Army Command, where there is still a lack of sufficient garrison troops."
Sokov knew very well that the troops defending the factory area are almost all teams composed of militias from various factories, and their combat effectiveness is limited. If they face the strong attack of the German army, they cannot defend at all. The troops withdrawn from the fortification area can be enriched into the militia units to improve their combat effectiveness. He quickly replied: "I understand, comrade Commander, I will send someone to you immediately."
Just as the commanders and fighters of the 124th Brigade and the 149th Brigade were building a new line of defense, a scream of shaking through the air suddenly came from the air. This was not the first time that the people present had been on the battlefield. They would not understand what the sound meant, and they hurriedly lie down to avoid the upcoming shelling.
The shells of the 16th German Artillery Regiment landed in the camp that the 2nd Armored Regiment had just lost, and bursts of dazzling flames rose and thick smoke rose. The soldiers of the two infantry brigades were relatively calm. They hid in the chosen hiding place to avoid the enemy's shelling. Therefore, although the German artillery bombardment was fierce, the losses caused to them were not large.
On the contrary, those commanders and soldiers who were running out of the encirclement may have been trapped behind enemy lines for too long. Seeing a gap in the encirclement, they rushed out regardless of the whistling sound of shells flying in the air, resulting in many unnecessary casualties.
After finally waiting for the German shelling to stop, it was already dawn. A soldier from the 124th Brigade who was standing in the south discovered the German troops moving towards this side in the distance, and quickly shouted loudly: "Fighting alarm! The Germans are coming!"
Before being bombarded, the 124th Brigade almost completed the construction of the fortifications. At this moment, when the Germans rushed up, they entered the defensive position one after another, preparing to face the enemy. Some soldiers who had worked as tank soldiers drilled into the captured tanks and prepared to use artillery fire and machine guns to destroy the rushing enemies.
At the front of the queue were several motorcycles with standbys, with MG34 universal machine guns mounted on the standby. When the motorcycle was driving, the machine gunners sitting in the standby were constantly firing, wantonly shooting the Soviet commanders and fighters who were exposed to their firepower and running out of the encirclement.
However, their shooting did not last long, and the whistling of shells came from the air, and then a shell fell next to a motorcycle and exploded. The explosion of air waves overturned a motorcycle and threw both the motorcycle and the machine gunners on it out from a distance.
A motorcycle rider was shocked when he saw that the motorcycle driven by his companion was overturned by artillery fire and said insidiously that why the Russians still had artillery? We rushed up like this, wouldn’t we die? Just as he slowed down and was about to stop, he suddenly felt someone slapped him hard on his waist. This was the machine gunner signaling him to speed up. The motorcycle rider had no choice but to rush the accelerator and continue to rush forward.
When the German Second Armored Regiment retreated, the reason why they discarded these tanks was mainly because they had no fuel and could not drive. However, many of them still had shells and machine gun bullets left in them, which were just used by Soviet commanders and fighters to deal with the attacking Germans. As soon as the first shell was fired, they successfully overturned a German motorcycle, which greatly boosted the morale of the Soviet army. The tanks lined up fired at the 16th Mobu Battalion, rushing towards the distance, killing the enemy's attacking queue.
The Germans never dreamed that the Soviet army would use seized tanks to deal with them. Although they were the Mobu Battalion, they had no anti-tank weapons except for a few armored vehicles. Faced with the strong defense in front, they rushed back halfway and turned around.
After Hubei learned of the attack of the 16th Moban Battalion and was repelled, he ordered his chief of staff: "Order the 16th Artillery Regiment to continue firing artillery and destroy all the tanks on the Russian positions."
"Sir, this is not easy to deal with." The Chief of Staff said with some embarrassment: "I have just learned about it. Because our logistics supply has not arrived for a long time, the 16th Artillery Regiment has consumed all the shells in the just-concluded artillery bombardment."
Although there were no artillery soldiers, how could Hubei Ken's Soviet army break through its defense so easily and return to Stalingrad? So he ordered again: "Since the 16th Artillery Regiment has no artillery shells, then order the 79th Infantry Regiment to launch a charge and take down the positions occupied by the Russians."
In order to close the passage opened by the Soviet army, the German army launched repeated charges to the positions held by the two infantry brigades, and even used the air force. However, the attacks they launched were all repelled by the commanders and fighters of the two infantry brigades without exception.
Seeing that the German offensive became more and more fierce, Bolvinov was a little impatient. He called Gorokhov: "Col. Gorokhov, the German offensive is getting stronger and stronger. We can't hold on. When can we withdraw?"
"Can't withdraw!" Gorokhov replied decisively: "The mission of our two brigades is to help the main force of the 62nd Army break through, so we must do everything possible to prevent the Germans from closing this gap. Do you understand?"
"But," said Bolvinov with some anxiety: "The troops in the encirclement are too busy. Look, now seven or eight hours have passed, but there are only four or five thousand troops rushing out. If they are slowing down like this, even if our people are all dead, they will not be able to fully rush out."
Gorokhov was in his mind at this moment and suddenly thought of Sokov. He said to the microphone: "Don't worry, Colonel Bolvinov, I think the commander will find a way to support us."
Sokov also learned about what happened in front of him through various channels. When he found that the troops in the encirclement were too slow to move, after half a day, only a few thousand people escaped, he seemed particularly anxious. He understood that as time went by, the German army's attack would become even more crazy, and the infantry brigade with severe military losses would not be able to stop it.
Thinking of this, he said to Andre: "Captain 3rd Battalion, take your troops with me and go to the place where the infantry brigade fights. They seem to be in trouble, and we want to help them."
Based on Andrei's understanding of Sokov, as long as the troops reached the breakthrough point, they could reverse the current severe situation. Therefore, when he heard Sokov's order, he ran to assemble the troops without saying anything.