"The attack itself is also a good defense." Tepunov muttered a few words and immediately ordered: "Signal Corps, order the second and third battalions to pursue the Germans with all their strength and kill the enemy as much as possible. We don't have time to collect prisoners of war."
The paratrooper brigade really doesn’t have time to take prisoners!
The military education Tepunov received was that enemies who lay down their weapons and raise their hands should not be killed except at special moments. Real soldiers are taboo about killing prisoners, which made Tepunov feel awkward. However, these prisoners of war would not only slow down the troops.
It is also very difficult to place them in the battle, and it is even more possible to escape and continue fighting. In this case, it is better to kill a hundred of them with one shot.
The paratrooper brigade completed the blocking victory on the right wing and immediately launched a small-scale counterattack. It was only eleven o'clock in the morning.
The combat situation on the left wing is also very similar, except that the left wing has fewer reinforcements and lacks heavy weapons.
After all, this is the 707th Division of the German Army, a unit that can be called "masters of bullying civilians". It is really foolish to expect it to have high field combat capabilities.
After a battle, the gap that was originally expanded to three kilometers was not only consolidated, but also expanded to five kilometers.
It was entirely because the Soviet army was worried that the troops would be too dispersed, which would be detrimental to subsequent operations, that Lavrenti ordered the troops not to continue to expand in the east and west directions.
While the fierce fighting on the front line was in full swing, the Soviet command post in the rear was also conducting an intense analysis of the current battle situation.
The assault operation began, and the operation went very smoothly. The degree of success was completely beyond Yang Mingzhi's expectations.
Yang Mingzhi was alone in Catfish Village. After receiving the good news from Lavrenti, he knew that he had to make a surprise trip back to the headquarters.
"Abram!"
"arrive!"
"Come back to Catfish Village with me quickly. It's just you and me. The rest of you will stay here honestly."
Yang Mingzhi got directly into the driver's seat of the jeep. The situation was too urgent, so he had to leave Boboski temporarily without saying goodbye. Then, a jeep drove like crazy towards Catfish Village, and Yang Mingzhi drove out of the highway along the dirt road.
In just over half an hour, we made a clean drift on the road to Catfish Village and stopped at the entrance of the headquarters, even splashing a lot of mud onto the trouser legs of the guard at the entrance.
Yang Mingzhi held the document package and rushed into the headquarters' main office without warning.
He yelled: "Comrades, your general is back at short notice!"
Ignoring everyone's surprise, Yang Mingzhi quickly came to the command table, glanced at everyone, and said straight to the point: "Comrades, I received a telegram from the front line and am here to come back. Lavrenti and the soldiers did a good job."
"Yes... that's good." Yevlov didn't have time to figure out how this man suddenly ran back, "However, Lavrenti has no intention of continuing north. They reported to us that the troops intend to digest the fruits of victory."
"Really?" Yang Mingzhi looked at his watch, "I set out more than forty minutes ago. Did you receive any telegrams during this period?"
"Yes. Germany has indeed sent reinforcements, and we are fighting these enemies."
"How is the situation?" Yang Mingzhi asked.
Yevlov looked confident, "What do you think will happen? We had the upper hand at that time. After all, it was the 707th Division, which was like a chicken and a dog. It was the German commander who foolishly thought that this unit could be put to great use.
.”
"Okay, okay. I still thought that our army would have to go through a lot of twists and turns to break through the enemy's defense line. I never thought that it would be easily broken by our army's rockets. The so-called mine array poses no threat."
Sarinchkin came over and said, "Now that you are here, the defenses of Catfish Village have been prepared. The troops are about to attack Lechicha. How are you going to fight?"
Yang Mingzhi was slightly startled. He just didn't notice that Commissioner Stalin was here.
"Comrade Salinchkin, you should be here at dawn?"
"No, I haven't slept all night and have been here all the time. I think you can only take a nap for an hour or two at most."
"Of course. I'm worried that you may have some doubts and hesitations about the strategy for Lechicha. Anyway, I must have given the order in the end, so I might as well have arrived first."
Yang Mingzhi immediately started working. He received the telegram information from the front line and had a relatively clear estimate of the front line.
According to the intelligence obtained before the war, the German 707th Division and the 734th Division built a defense line north of Homnich. The length of the defense line can be called the "Great Wall". However, their troops were too small, so they had to split the troops into
The battalion and company deployed their defenses at the first level and had no choice but to form a long snake formation.
The Soviet intelligence department had long known about this deployment of the German army, and the confession of the woman named Kaya captured on July 4th further confirmed this.
"If the German army reinforces the gap we created, as long as the enemy's reinforcements are defeated, it will be difficult for them to organize a second round of reinforcements, unless the German army wants their defense line to collapse instantly. The enemy's forces are too scattered, and our army is attacking with superior forces.
One thing, as long as we keep a steady and steady attack, we will have no worries about our attack on Liechcha." Yang Mingzhi's words made everyone in the headquarters full of confidence.
Yevlov added: "According to the telegram, we also captured hundreds of prisoners of war. Many prisoners of war surrendered when they saw that resistance was pointless. Should these people be brought back? My attitude is..."
"No!" Fominqing came over, "Commander, just now we were arguing about this matter. Do you know what Yevlov wants to do?"
"Haha, it's nothing more than shooting."
"You know everything?!"
Yang Mingzhi shrugged: "Stop arguing, I was the commander who heard it. Many people say that I am sometimes too kind, but this time I will be cold-blooded. I ordered Lavrenti to shoot all captured ordinary soldiers. Only
There are officers above the company commander staying. Correspondents, please send a report to the front line immediately."
When Yang Mingzhi was giving the order, his eyes noticed the slight tremor in Salinchkin's eyes. Perhaps the Stalin commissioner would also be shocked by his own order to kill prisoners. This matter really needs to be explained.
Yang Mingzhi looked helpless: "They are not prisoners of war, they are a group of butchers. Even if they are prisoners of war, we don't have time to collect prisoners of war now. Lavrenti and the commanders of the troops on the front line are doing very wisely. They are actively digesting the results of the war.
We have consumed a lot of ammunition and sacrificed many soldiers in this battle. Our supply capacity is limited, and there are obstacles in the supply of ammunition in our inventory. We have to fight against Chicha and be prepared for a hard fight. So we need a lot of ammunition.
Where do these ammunition supplies come from? We can only hope to capture more abundant supplies on the battlefield.
As for those prisoners of war, I will not divide my troops to bring them back. It is better to shoot them in one go. If I get the title of butcher for this, there is nothing I can do."
"Bah! Who would say you are a butcher? Unless you are a sanctimonious fool!" Yevlov was also attacking Fomin, "These fascists, especially these bastards of the 707th Division. They killed ten thousand of us.
Many citizens claim credit, and we must pay with blood."
Just as Yang Mingzhi's order to kill the prisoners was sent to the communications room of the command headquarters, Lavrenti sent another good news.
The little girl who was the correspondent simply jumped into the headquarters, looking completely unnecessarily serious.
"Report, urgent call from the front line!"
"Read it!" Yang Mingzhi shouted suddenly.
"Command Headquarters. Our left and right wings have completed blocking the German reinforcements. The German troops retreated and the gap expanded to at least 5 kilometers. Our army has captured more than 300 prisoners of war. So far, our army has captured a total of 800 prisoners of war.
Should they all be shot?"
"Whatever you say will come!" Yang Mingzhi stamped his feet, "Correspondent!"
"arrive!"
"Order. Lavrenti and all frontline units, our enemy is the German 707th Division. This unit killed more than 10,000 Soviet citizens. All prisoners of war are murderers. Soldiers do not need to feel guilty. They will be executed immediately."
Next, Yang Mingzhi preliminarily formulated a battle plan against Lechicha. That is, the troops would seize the time to digest the results of the battle, collect all the ammunition they could find, and shoot all prisoners of war except officers. After the troops completed this, at three o'clock in the afternoon
A full-scale attack on Lechica was launched.
When the detailed order for the attack on Lechica was sent, the Soviet soldiers on the front line, in accordance with the commander's order, had executed all the ordinary soldiers among the prisoners of war. Most of the soldiers did not feel guilty. Could it be that they executed a group of murderers?
Do you feel guilty? Of course not. They had long wanted to kill these prisoners of war. If it weren't for military discipline, they wouldn't have taken prisoners in the first place.
Since the commander himself issued a clear order, more than 700 selected prisoners of war rushed to one place with bayonets on the originally relatively quiet battlefield, and were then ruthlessly mowed down by machine guns.
The Soviet soldiers numbly opened fire on the equally numb German prisoners of war. When the prisoners of war turned into corpses, the Soviet soldiers immediately began to clean up the battlefield and make final preparations for the upcoming march north to Lechicha.