This night, Yang Mingzhi can take the time to sleep well. He does not need to be too nervous about the future, because being nervous and worried is meaningless. Soldiers are also used to life in the battlefield. They have to fight sooner or later. They will not stand if they can lie down.
If you can sleep, then fall asleep.
At night, Yang Mingzhi ordered the radio operators to remain vigilant and to keep the radio on, waiting for new signals at any time.
Tomorrow, the battle in Homnich will probably begin. They will definitely be able to hold on to this city, Yang Mingzhi firmly believed.
At the same time, the German troops attacked Homnich. As night fell, they were also forced to reorganize.
During this battle, the German 715th Division determined that the main force of the guerrillas was now present. Division Commander Schulz planned this largest military operation for his unit. The order he received was naturally to clear out all guerrillas on both sides of the road. For this reason, he would rather
All surrounding Soviet villages were massacred and burned. Because this action received strong support from superiors, similarly, the officers and soldiers of the 715th Division could not and needed a victory to clear away the evil spirit of winter.
The size of this attacking German force was equivalent to a brigade. They had two infantry regiments and an artillery battalion, with a strength of up to 5,000 people. However, in such cold weather, they were advancing towards Homnich in the wilderness, and their progress was slow.
Not happy.
The baggage situation of these five thousand men was much better than that of the Soviet army. In this battle, the German army had more than a thousand horses to carry supplies and pull artillery.
The two commanders of the German army, Hoffmann and Freud, were ordered to capture Homnich and wipe out the Soviet guerrillas. They were bound to win this battle, but due to the cold weather, their ambitions had to be put on hold.
Like most soldiers, he cut some branches and piled them up, shoveled away the snow, poured gasoline and lit a bonfire to keep warm.
"It's really terrible, with this kind of crazy weather, I tremble all over when I think about how many more days we have to endure this kind of weather," Hoffman complained.
"You're right, but we are lucky. The Soviets built Moscow like an ant's nest, with bunkers everywhere and their soldiers everywhere. What's worse, our soldiers' winter clothes can't be like you and me.
The second-line troops suffered a lot of frostbite from the cold. The Soviets, on the other hand, seemed like a group of brown bears, not afraid of the cold even if their shoulders were bare."
Hoffman shook his head and smiled. "Brown bear? It's a polar bear, right? Your words are very appropriate. These gray animals are indeed like madmen. Yuan said that if we break into the Soviet Union, these Soviet people enslaved by Stalin will support us and become
Natural mercenaries directly helped us overthrow Stalin's rule. However, these stupid guys are resisting us, which is different from what Yuan said."
Having said this, Freud couldn't help but sigh. "Perhaps General Yuan He underestimated the Soviet people's fighting will. We were fighting for Greater Germany, but as a result, we faced people who took up various weapons to resist.
Soviet farmers. Now you and I have to examine our own attitudes. Should we lead them out of Stalin's tyranny, or should we kill all the Slavs and let the Germans invade this land? What are the attitudes of Yuan and Dr. Goebel on this issue?
It’s very contradictory.”
"What you said makes sense. It's better not to say more about this. If the Gestapo in the field finds out, it will be detrimental to you and me." Hoffman stretched out his hands to warm the fire and said, "We are soldiers and obey the orders of our superiors. We
Don't think too much. We will do whatever they ask us to do. Even if they are devils, we can't help it. After all, we are soldiers."
"Yes! Soldiers, those Soviet soldiers are also soldiers, so these people even carried a ball of explosives and died together with our tanks. I think this is also out of their responsibility to obey orders."
Hoffman looked at him sideways. There was something in this man's words, as if such a suicide attack was the most brutal revenge of an individual soldier against the Germans, a life-for-life attack!
These two people were in the German Wehrmacht, and they were ordinary people before joining the army. It's just that the war showed the most cruel side of people. Even if they knew that killing was cruel, they still had to do it.
"You and I will go to rest in a while. Tomorrow we will approach Homnich. We will set up the heavy artillery first, and then the armored vehicles and infantry will charge together. The Soviets will be defeated and surrender." Hoffman sighed.
"I hope so. We will shoot all the prisoners we capture in the future. I hope God forgives our sins, Amen." After Floyd said this, he couldn't help but cross himself.
On the other side of the war, the Soviet troops guarding Homnich had just hurriedly built a defensive line.
The time given to Roshakov was very short. He had to work with his colleagues to command more than two thousand people and try their best to build Homnich into a fortress.
They didn't have many construction materials on hand, but a large amount of bricks and rubble, as well as residents' furniture that had been blown to pieces, and even the corpses of German soldiers that had been frozen into solid ice. For the needs of the war, anything that could serve as "bricks and tiles" was needed.
All were used.
Roshakov and Kravsky's troops were all specialized in positional warfare before receiving special training in guerrilla warfare.
Therefore, Roshakov became more confident in defending the city. After capturing the city, defensive positions began to be built immediately. He stood on a high place and ordered the soldiers: "Comrades, we have to defend this city, here
This is our position. This time, we were ordered to stay here to attract the main force of the Germans. We must build trenches and machine gun bunkers on the periphery of the city just like we did in Ukraine. Everything should be done according to our long-standing tactics.
"
In Roshakov's opinion, his own people are better suited to positional warfare because this is how they are trained.
How to fight positional warfare? According to the soldiers' memories of a few months ago, the Germans were nothing more than precise attacks by the air force. After that, German tanks, self-propelled artillery, armored vehicles and a large number of infantry coordinated to attack the Soviet positions.
Long-range firepower, such as heavy artillery bombardment, must be invested first, followed by the actual advance of the German army.
Roshakov and Kravsky knew this so well that they both gave orders to their subordinates. Even if the snow and soil were frozen hard, mines still had to be laid and positions still had to be dug.
Of course, defensive positions must be built inside the city, especially after the two received more accurate intelligence, establishing multiple defense circles was necessary.
Therefore, before the expected day of war, the Soviet army laid some mines due north of the city.
These mines were made by the blacksmith village. When the infantry stepped on the stumbling block, they suddenly exploded and flew away. Then there was a second explosion, and a large number of fragments made of spent bullet casings flew across. This is Yang Mingzhi's bad taste, anti-infantry
The design concept of land mines is quite easy to replicate, and this battle will be a testing ground for this new type of land mines.
Of course, Roshakov will not pin his hopes of victory on this kind of weapon. He has heavy weapons, three tanks, a large number of machine guns, rockets that can shoot at enemy armored targets, and even anti-tank guns.
Good armament is the key to victory.
The soldiers were busy all day long. The main force of the two battalions was distributed in a fan shape in the north of the city, while the militia battalion served as a tactical reserve.
The artillery company was simply dismantled, and the large-caliber mortars were installed on sleds for mobile operations. The anti-tank guns were pulled to the front line, and they were wrapped in white cloth to complete the camouflage.
On the last day of fighting, Roshakov thought that the defenses had been done well.
All firepower points were sufficiently concealed, and even the tanks were covered with some snow for camouflage.
If you look at it from a distance, Homnage looks like a dead city. It seems to be frozen by ice and snow, with ruins and thick snowdrifts everywhere. Under this appearance, more than two thousand soldiers are dormant, waiting.
With the German attack.
All parties are waiting for the arrival of a new day. The German army is resting, the Soviet army is also resting, Yang Mingzhi is sleeping soundly, and those captured German medical staff deserve to sleep with their eyes closed, even the division commander of the German 715th Division and others.
He also thinks that he will win this battle and sits back and relaxes.
At night, Yang Mingzhi once again ordered the radio operator to report that the new attack location was around the city of Lechica. Theoretically, there might be an enemy headquarters there.
It would be too risky no matter how you think about attacking there with just a thousand people. Yevlov suggested not to do this, but Yang Mingzhi knew better.
However, the Germans were not aware of the changes on the battlefield at all. The 715th Division did not receive the prisoners of war that it was supposed to accept, and there was even a convoy of wounded soldiers that did not arrive in the early morning. These abnormalities did not attract the attention of division commander Schulz
, the arrow must be on the string. All his thoughts have drifted to Homnich in the distance, waiting for the news of the victory of the troops. (To be continued.) 8