The winter is very cold. The heat brought by the south wind from the Black Sea is quickly blown away by the north wind from the Arctic. Homnage is still in the white snow, but there are more bricks and rubble, and there is a darkness outside the city.
battlefield.
Some sporadic flames are still burning, which are the remains of German armored vehicles.
In the city, after the Germans finally fired a few artillery shells, they temporarily retreated.
Roshakov and Kravsky returned to the basement and asked the guards to clean the dust off the desk, and the map reappeared.
"The enemy did not take advantage this time. Maybe they will launch a larger attack." Roshakov frowned and stared at Homnich's position on the map.
"I'm afraid you have thought too much about this. In this battle, we defeated almost two regiments of German troops. These were their combat troops, not logistical personnel. The results we achieved were actually greater. You can compare our results to
, as an attack that defeated half a German division."
"Half a division? What a funny statement." Roshakov sighed: "Half a division has only a little firepower? The enemy's artillery preparations are not a threat at all, and the enemy's attack does not include a single tank. You and I have both seen that.
I can’t imagine what the German army should look like, and the German army in front of us, in terms of firepower and morale, can hardly remind me of those terrifying armies.”
"Perhaps it's because these guys are security forces with poor combat effectiveness and were sent to occupied areas. They are not good at fighting, but they are good at killing ordinary people." Klavsky said contemptuously.
"Yes, so I can conclude that after the enemy withdrew this time, they will not attack for a whole day. As for our results, we report them truthfully. We defeated two German infantry regiments with average combat effectiveness."
"Okay. First, we have to tally up all the results and then report them to the division headquarters and deputy division commander."
The two discussed the countermeasures. The troops must take advantage of the break in the war to rest and recuperate. Each company must count its casualties and consumed ammunition, and these data must be reported.
At the same time, Ninelli was ordered to lead his militia battalion out of the city. The purpose was not to pursue the enemy, but to collect usable weapons and ammunition on the battlefield. He even unplugged the backpacks of German soldiers and took away blankets, water bottles, and even their
The field rations, cylinders and gas masks inside should also be taken away in case the Germans use chemical weapons.
Roshakov gave a special order: "We don't want to take prisoners, but we must also be careful of the wounded German soldiers who are trapped and fighting. If the enemy's wounded soldiers are found, they will be stabbed immediately, and if our wounded are found, they will be pulled back into the city."
There are only a few doctors accompanying the army this time. They are actually soldiers with some medical skills, and the work of rescuing the wounded is in progress. The wailing of the wounded soldiers does not affect other soldiers, because the war has numbed the minds of these veterans.
A few hours later, all the results were tallied up.
The first battalion suffered 76 casualties, the second battalion suffered 88 casualties, and the militia battalion suffered 95 casualties. Among them, more than 200 bodies died on the spot and were collected.
This was undoubtedly a heavy report. Roshakov looked at Klavsky regretfully. "Comrade, there are a total of 259 casualties. We have lost one-ninth of our combat effectiveness. In this battle we
The loss is not small.”
"But compared to the total annihilation of our previous unit, it is very rare for us to achieve such results in the new unit." Klavsky brought out his experience in positional warfare, because this is the normal state of military operations.
It's just that since he led his troops into the swamp and was trained by Belikov himself, the new skills he has mastered are not introduced unexpectedly. The new troops have a very special fighting method, and they also use some novel designs with good combat effects.
Weapons, this is the solid foundation for victory.
Compared with the casualties of our own personnel, the casualties of the German army were worse.
Ninelli led his men to collect a large number of useful things. They took off the armed belts from the corpses of the German soldiers. Unexpectedly, they counted five hundred armed belts in the city. Each belt also had ammunition boxes, which were precious
The ammunition is full.
In the afternoon, Ninelli was still busy. He brought back fifteen general-purpose machine guns, two of which were later found to be out of service, as well as more than fifty spare barrels and a large amount of ammunition. The rifles did not turn into fire sticks.
, he got back more than 400 pieces, including more than 20 MP38 submachine guns. He even got five small-caliber mortars with very little ammunition left.
The good stuff plucked from the dead directly made up for the ammunition consumption of the soldiers. For no other reason than the troops were always equipped with a lot of German weapons.
"The results of this battle are not bad, we will report it to the division headquarters truthfully." Rosakov wrote the words he wanted to send on a note and sent it to the radio operator, and the words were turned into code.
Both Roshakov and Yang Mingzhi were waiting for changes in the war situation. While the defense battle at Homnich was going on, Yang Mingzhi led his troops to the outskirts of the city of Gomel. He discovered several German inspection battles.
In order to cause as much trouble as possible, they destroyed the soldiers and set them on fire, and then prepared to carry out new operations.
Yevlov sat at the base, and he and Yelentina had to wait quietly. The Soviet prisoners who had been rescued immediately armed themselves, and instead escorted a group of German prisoners of war, heading towards Catfish Village. Last night, they received a message from Yang Mingzhi
According to intelligence, a group of captured German medical staff and some medicines were escorted by soldiers straight to Catfish Village.
Finally, the two parties received information from Homnich that the city had defended the enemy's first wave of attacks. Such information was inspiring, and Yang Mingzhi was filled with joy, and he could confidently and boldly carry out the attack in Gomel.
Destroy, first, then capture a village occupied by the Germans.
On the other hand, compared to the series of Soviet victories, the phone at the headquarters of the German 715th Division rang non-stop after daylight arrived.
First, a very bad intelligence came: all Soviet prisoners of war escaped, the road turned into a battlefield, a large number of armored vehicles and truck wreckage were found, a large number of German wounded were neatly shot in the forest, and most of the medical staff were missing.
"Damn it! This is an attack! The intelligence last night was that it was missing. I didn't expect it to be an attack! How bad! In Homnich, you Soviets wiped out my entire battalion and did it right under your nose on this road.
Sabotage. What are our scouts and patrols doing!"
Schultz roared at a group of staff officers. He was so emotional that his beard blew to the sky.
"Division Commander, calm down!" the division chief of staff comforted, "Maybe all of this is an action planned by the enemy, or even from Moscow."
"Oh? Swag, do you have any ideas?"
"some!"
The short staff officer was standing next to the map on the desk, holding a baton.
"What we know now is that the guerrillas captured Homnich, and we have sent our elite infantry regiments to attack. According to those who escaped, they still have tanks. This is not credible. Gustav must have been defeated.
I deliberately said that the enemy was powerful. But they were indeed defeated, but I don’t think the guerrillas could resist the siege battle involving our two regiments and heavy artillery.
As for Lechica, a city where one of our logistics groups is stationed, the road leading to Gomel has been very smooth because there has been no guerrilla activity for a long time. The guerrillas saw this opportunity and launched an attack.
, I think what the Partisans are doing now is more important than Homnich."
"That is to say?" Schultz slowly raised his head, and the other staff officers' eyes also shone.
Swager was like a prophet. He walked around the division headquarters with his hands behind his back and said at the same time: "Gentlemen, there are also division commanders. I think that all this is indeed a Soviet tactic. Their purpose is actually to rescue prisoners of war. After learning
We chose to take action where our troops were weak. But before that, they suddenly attacked Homni and turned from long-term harassment to direct occupation. They exposed their troops just to attract the attention of our large troops. Therefore, we were really fooled.
!”
Suddenly, the crowd was in an uproar. Swag also lowered his head: "This matter is that I did not see clearly the enemy's conspiracy. I have to admit that if the enemy really has such tactics, it is indeed arrogant for us to call them Slavic pigs.
Great performance. The Soviet soldiers are not weak, or they have commanders who are very proficient in combat."
As he spoke, Swager brought out the latest intelligence received: "This is the latest intelligence in the morning. Two checkpoints were attacked and burned down. The enemy used the blood of our soldiers to write the words "Swamp" in Russian on the walls.
This word has to make people think of those who rescued Soviet prisoners of war, attacked wounded troop convoys, and attacked checkpoints. They are the so-called swamp guerrilla brigade? Not only do they exist, but they also have very strong combat capabilities."
Speaking of this, division commander Schultz immediately became surprised. He was also standing next to the map. The distance from the so-called swamp to Lechica was very long, and now it was snowing heavily. They were really the commander of the order.
A troublesome guerrilla?
Schultz looked at Swager with suspicion. "Did those guys have wings on their legs, occupied Homnich, and then ran outside the city of Lechica, a hundred kilometers away?"
"I don't know about that. The intelligence we received is really limited." Swager said, "Maybe we should also strengthen our defense and move our division's troops closer to the division headquarters to prepare for any eventuality."
"Unexpected? What unexpected? Death."
In Schultz's view, his dear chief of staff had said a lot of things that undermined others' ambitions and undermined his own prestige, which was really unpleasant.
Faced with Schultz's question, Swager did not give a simple yes or no answer. He said meaningfully: "Think about how Schneider, the former commander of the 707th Division, died."
"You can't say that!" Schulz became angry when he heard it, but when the messengers broke into the division headquarters with new information, Schulz's anger immediately dropped, staring at such a panting soldier.
.
"Report to the division commander! An urgent message came from the 825th Regiment and the 766th Regiment. The battle to attack Homnich, we..."
"how's it going!?"
"We...we were forced to retreat."
As soon as he heard about the retreat, which was said to be a defeat, Schulz immediately became anxious. He grabbed the telegraph newspaper and looked at the astonishing report on it. His veins were immediately exposed.
"Damn it! Hoffmann and Freud, you are a disgrace to the Third Reich!"
His curses became more serious. When Swag learned of the defeat, he was subconsciously unwilling to accept it. He weakly asked: "What happened to us?"
Without saying a word, Schultz handed the telegraph newspaper over to the stand. Swagger took a look and saw that the number of troops lost in non-combat attrition and combat attrition was as high as 1,300 people! Almost instantly, Swager straightened up.
They were immediately spread to the ground.
When the staff members saw that the chief of staff was unconscious, they quickly gathered around him.
Schultz also quickly put aside his anger, and while supporting his old buddy Swager, he shouted: "Doctor!" (To be continued.) 8