Balzen served as the commander of the entire army, and even Kovpak had to listen to his deployment for this battle alone.
As for other important commanders of the corps, especially Rudnev, he admired Balzen very much, but regarding this extraordinary siege, it was difficult not to doubt him.
Balzen had power, but he just felt that the burden on his shoulders was extremely heavy.
"If I don't do well in commanding the battle, not only will I be criticized by Kovpak, but I will also be severely criticized by the commander afterwards, and I will even have to go to a military court!" He felt like he was dancing on the tip of a knife, and at the same time he was also
Huge life opportunities.
What happened in Turov City? While the army was having lunch, Balzen quickly asked the retreating troops.
Through the descriptions of various people, he claimed to have understood everything.
It is said that the German army set up a trap and then used reasonable street fighting tactics to defeat the attacking troops.
He returned to Kovpak who was chewing potatoes, squatted down and expressed his speculation: "The German army must have made a trap. And this kind of trap was made by our army a year ago."
"oh?"
"The enemy planted bombs on the roadside and started to explode after our troops entered. Our troops were densely packed, causing heavy casualties. This ambush tactic was used by our army to ambush a German convoy last year. I did not expect the Germans to imitate it.
Learned this tactic."
"So, now that the cause of our army's huge casualties has been identified, do you have any suitable countermeasures?"
"Of course! Once the soldiers have finished eating and drank enough water, they will follow my orders and launch an attack."
The tactics that Balzen thought of were not particularly clever. After all, the Soviet army had a huge advantage in strength. Even if they were able to overwhelm them, they would win, but the casualties would be worse.
In order to avoid excessive casualties, the city must also be captured cleanly. Balzen Assault formulated a set of tactics that he believed to be reliable.
Turov is a small town after all, and there are definitely not many enemies that can be hidden.
He decisively divided the Soviet army into two parts. Rudnev of the first group led his troops to attack frontally along the road, which was actually a feint attack. Popdrinko of the second group made a tactical detour and detoured to the southwest of the town.
After the battle in the southeast began, he led his troops to attack.
In fact, the troops attacking on the road were not just a feint attack. Balzen deployed the reconnaissance team Versigola and his own soldiers, including the heroic sniper Natasha, to attack frontally. All mortars
The artillery team also hit here.
Balzen believed that with this operation, the town of Turov would be captured quickly. However, when the soldiers generally finished eating, the weather began to get bad again.
After noon on August 1, the light rain fell again, and the rain became heavier and heavier, reaching the level of moderate rain.
For any army, such weather conditions are never a good day for an attack. In the Napoleonic era, such weather would have required a truce, because the rain would almost certainly make the muskets wet, and the cannons with separated powder could not be operated.
.
In such weather, the Soviet army's recoilless rifles, which were used to attack fortresses, instantly became useless.
The city of Turov must be captured today, and any weather conditions must be overcome, even heavy floods!
The rain washed Balzen's face well, and his helmet was also crackled by the water droplets. Because Popdrinko's unit, which was responsible for the roundabout operations, had already taken action in advance, the large troops must resolutely brave the rain to carry out operations.
.
The rain extinguished all the bonfires, and the dry clothes of the soldiers were once again soaked.
Many soldiers complained about their bad luck. "Germans, you can just run away. In this way, we can take shelter from the rain in the town at noon."
The frontline soldiers had endless complaints. They arranged their equipment, carried wet luggage, and based on squads (similar to infantry companies), the soldiers half-knelt on the grass, waiting for the order to attack.
In front of the battle, Kovpak's wet leather coat was shiny. He asked in a bad mood: "Comrade Balzen, we must capture Turov. Is it time to take action now?"
"Yes! It's time to act!"
After saying that, Balzen raised the flare gun in his right hand with a serious expression, and a green flare jumped into the air.
"Comrades! Charge!" Kovpak shouted, taking the lead in a new battle.
"Comrade, you are really a lunatic. But I like it!" Balzen truly felt the demeanor of his commander from Kovpak.
Didn't General Berekov often take the lead? The commander took the lead in the attack, and his morale increased unprecedentedly.
The soldiers stood up one after another. According to the instructions of their respective squad leaders, everyone held their rifles with bayonets or bayonets. The muzzles of the guns were slightly raised, and the bayonets were pointed forward aggressively.
Even though the ground became muddy again, everyone rushed forward with all their strength, shouting "Ula" as hard as they could. No one wanted to fall behind, and everyone wanted to prove their courage to others.
There was a distance of more than two thousand meters from the resting place to the battlefield. The troops were hiding out of the range of the Germans. When it was their turn to attack, they had to march a tiring distance.
The distance was actually so close that the German defenders could vaguely see a large number of people in the distance.
The German company commander had no illusions about the second round of Soviet offensive. On the one hand, he urged his subordinates to strengthen the city defense, and on the other hand, he adjusted the deployment of troops.
In fact, his scouts had noticed that some figures had separated from the Soviet army, and their whereabouts were covered by the mist and became a mystery.
After this situation was reported, the German company commander believed that the Soviet army was planning to attack on two fronts!
Take a look at the structure of Turov's town. It is a relatively long and narrow town. His superiors ordered him to lead more than 200 people to defend the town for 48 hours. Facing an enemy with superior strength, this was an impossible task.
The German army is facing the risk of being outflanked and attacked. Any fool should understand that it is necessary to strengthen the defense on the flanks. How could the German company commander not know this? But when he heard shouts from the southeast in the rain, he knew that the Soviet army was attacking fiercely.
here we go.
Most of the Soviet troops would shout "Ula" when charging. This was to boost their own morale, and it could also frighten the enemy.
The roar of the Soviet troops was so alarming that the German troops deployed in the southeast of the town were in danger.
"Gentlemen! Don't be afraid! Remember, you are all hunters. You must use the composure and courage of a hunter to shoot all enemies you see!"
"Always remember! You are soldiers, and the enemy is your prey."
"I forbid you to take risks and shoot close to walls and bunkers. Each soldier should kill at least ten enemies."
The German company commander was in the key defense area in the southeast of the town. He shouted at the top of his voice to the defenders in an attempt to boost morale.
Did morale really improve? No! Many German soldiers felt they had been betrayed by their superiors. Where were the reinforcements? No, there were no reinforcements at all.
To describe the mentality of the German and puppet troops in one word, it is despair.
In despair, some people will faint, while others will fight hard.
The German company commander was not yet awakened to the point of a last-ditch battle. He actually had a way out, which was a wooden bridge leading to the other side. During the two hours of fighting, he ordered the soldiers to place some explosives on the bridge.
This operation was definitely not about blowing up the bridge after the German troops withdrew to prevent the Soviet troops from pursuing them. Rather, it was about blowing up the bridge before the defenders were almost destroyed to prevent the Soviet troops from continuing to harm the north of the Pripet River.
Destroy the railway.
Not a single German soldier was accidentally deployed in a city building, so they used various buildings as bunkers to hide in the hope that the Soviet troops would enter the streets unprepared as they did a few hours ago, so that they could annihilate them without restraint.
However, the Germans responded with roaring shells.
Balzen shot down all the mortars of the Kovpak Corps. Including the existing ones and those captured yesterday, there were twenty 80mm mortars, with as many as three hundred rounds of shells available.
This battle would be the last battle of the troops. Balzen ordered all artillery groups to set up positions one thousand meters away from the target. Each gun position fired alternately, and each gun fired ten rounds.
The mortar shells made a sharp whistling sound above the heads of the attacking troops. They rushed straight to the southeast of the town, turning into magnificent crimson flames and magnificent black smoke. The high temperature at the moment of explosion evaporated a large amount of rainwater, leaving the battlefield after the shelling.
The steam filled the air and actually objectively interfered with the German army's attack.
The reason why Kovpak resisted regular infantry combat was because he already seriously lacked tactical experience. In this critical battle, the Soviet army used 20 gun positions to attack the main force and carried out a small-scale barrage attack.
The German army deployed two platoons of soldiers in the southeast of the city, and almost all of them were German soldiers. They were scattered and hidden in concrete buildings, and they were really hit by heavy shelling.
After all, Turov is located in a remote location, and the overall quality of its concrete buildings is poor. For example, the partitions of the two-story building are very thin, and the overall building is relatively fragile.
The Soviet army captured German-made mortar shells, which were quite powerful. Buildings collapsed under the devastating bombardment, and the defenders suffered heavy casualties.
"Oh, that's terrible! Comrade Balzen, I thought you had some clever plan! It was just to raze the enemy-occupied towns to the ground. If I had known better, I would have continued to be the commander."
When Kovpak saw the smoke filling the air, he knew victory belonged to him.
When the shelling stopped, the Soviet troops also rushed to the city. Now, what stopped them was sporadic bullets from the German army.
The brave soldiers screamed and rushed into the streets full of rubble and human limbs. They knew that many of the dead were comrades who were as close as brothers. They died, and their bodies were blown to pieces by their own artillery fire. What a shame.
sadness?
The grieving and angry soldiers directed their anger at the enemy. They searched the ruins for any enemy who would intervene, so that a German soldier could be besieged by thirty or forty people!
Some German soldiers saw that the situation was over and they did not want to die, so they threw down their guns, raised their hands, and shouted "Don't shoot" in German.
The guerrillas who came over did not shoot, but stabbed him to death with spears and bayonets, as cleanly as killing a wolf.
Kovpak was carrying a submachine gun and was already standing in the alley of the town.
At this point in the battle, the Soviet army had secured victory. He noticed that the enemy's defenders had begun to retreat, so he gave an order: "Brothers, speed up the pursuit and do not allow the enemy to cross the bridge and escape!"
He had just issued the order, and it was unclear whether all his subordinates understood it. At this moment, Balzen led his soldiers up, even the sniper Natasha.
As soon as Balzen came up, he yanked off Kovpak's leather jacket and screamed: "Idiot! You are wearing a leather jacket, don't you tell the enemy that you are an officer! You are the commander of the corps! One bullet will kill you!"
"
"No! I am just a junior officer now, and you are the current commander of the regiment!"
"Ouch! My comrade, I am only temporary. If you die, my commander will have to kill me! Now that our army has entered the town, I find that the enemy's people are running away?!"
"Yes!" Kovpak pointed to the northwest, "There is a wooden bridge there. If I were the German army, I would cross the river at a sprint speed of 100 meters and escape."
"Okay! I will lead my men in pursuit and try to capture the bridge. This will ensure that our army will completely wipe out the defenders."
Kovpak nodded: "I will direct the battle here, you don't have to worry about anything."
"The command authority of the Corps Commander is still in your hands. I will resume my duties." Balzen said no more. He waved his hand: "Warriors of the 84th Guards Division, follow me and cut off the enemy's retreat!"
The German army's second blocking battle can almost be described as a collapse at the first touch.
When the dense artillery shells roared down, the defender's company commander was completely awakened by the bombing. The victory of the previous blocking battle was largely attributed to the Soviet army's underestimation of the enemy's advance. Now the Soviet army did not hesitate to use its own firepower advantage, and the defender's
Mass casualties, no one is dead, how can it not collapse?
The German company commander was slightly injured. He led more than 30 people and ran towards the bridge. Even at this juncture, he had no intention of crossing the river.
A platoon leader who was shot in the arm cried and admonished: "Company commander! Don't worry about the enemy and those idiots from Dongfang Battalion. We only have these dozens of people left. Let's cross the river!"
"Crossing the river? Bah! We are soldiers and must carry out orders!"
"But people are dead, towns..." The platoon leader suddenly stood up, turned around and ran towards the bridge in the middle of his sentence.
This man's actions caused five soldiers to run away with him.
"Schneider! You are going to be a deserter! Even if you can escape now, the military court will still find you guilty!" As he said, the company commander had already raised his Ruger pistol and continued to threaten: "You stop, or I will shoot."
"
Gunfire rang out, and the fleeing platoon leader was shot in the head and fell sideways into the Pripet River.
The German company commander was shocked, and the five soldiers who had followed him to flee also stopped one after another.
Yes, who would have thought that their company commander actually shot and killed the deserter? At least the German officers and soldiers thought that it was the company commander who shot the platoon leader.
That's not the case at all.
Four hundred meters away, smoke was coming from the muzzle of an SVT40. A petite body was lying on the grass, with his cheek pressed firmly against the butt of the gun.
"Hit! The 98th."
"Okay, next one!"
A German soldier on the bridge was looking at his company commander with a dull expression. He was obviously shocked that the company commander executed the deserter. Could it be that I was the next to die? I also ran away.
The soldier guessed correctly. The helmet did not prevent the bullet from penetrating, and the seven-foot-long body fell heavily to the bridge.
Soon enough, another bullet hit another sluggish soldier.
A total of three people were shot dead, and the surviving German officers and soldiers realized that they were being targeted by enemy snipers.
"Hit! The 400th."
"Ula!" The calm Natasha finally could no longer suppress her inner excitement. Now, she had completed her 400th well-documented kill!
She got carried away and stood up, raising her fists in the air in celebration. But before she was happy, the shocked Balzen hit her knees, and she lost her balance and fell to the meadow.
"Silly girl, you are crazy! At a distance of four hundred meters, the enemy's machine gun can beat you into a nest of ants."
Natasha, who instantly realized that she was trying to die, lay down again in despair, planning to continue shooting with the gun.
Igor shook his head and pulled her up by her back collar: "My dear, you need to calm down. Now follow me to a safe area."
"No! I still want to continue fighting. We..."
In the face of absolute power, any of Natasha's sophistry was meaningless. She was grabbed by Igor, who was as strong as a black bear, and brought to a safe area together with the SVT40 that had contributed to the crime. (To be continued.