Chapter 265 Schultz was ordered to fight for security
These people who had been captured by the German army will soon resume their status as Red Army soldiers and fight against Germany again in new units.
On the other hand, the German army suffered a politically disastrous defeat in Rechica. Their Nazi party representative was actually killed by the guerrillas who entered the city! And unlike previous assassinations, this time it was a grand and grand operation.
The troops attacked directly, and the defending troops were unable to parry.
The war directly exposed the incompetence of the German 715th Division!
"They are like a bunch of fools, being fooled around by the guerrillas. On the one hand, they said that the main force of the guerrillas was found in Homnich, and on the other hand, they said that the main force of the guerrillas was found in Rechica. In the end, both sides failed! Could it be that these guerrillas came from the sky?
Fallen?" John Cube was very angry.
This defeat was the largest failure on the long road from Mozyr to Gomel in several months. The German army had already paid thousands of casualties in a series of attacks on the road.
Both the 707th Division and the 715th Division suffered heavy casualties. In retaliation, both carried out three strikes on the surrounding Soviet villages in an attempt to eliminate the Soviet threat in this way.
As it turned out, this was clearly sowing the seeds of revenge. John Kube discovered that the defense forces stationed in Belarus were entering a strange circle. When they were attacked, they couldn't find the guerrillas and just like ordinary people venting their anger, they encountered even larger scales.
attack.
Attacks usually occur at night. German soldiers standing guard and patrolling are most likely to be ambushed. Afterwards, their companions often find their hanged corpses in the forest...
The German 715th Division suffered huge losses in this battle. Their casualties were not enough to cause the army to collapse. However, the soldiers' psychological defenses almost collapsed. Two of its three regular infantry regiments have lost their combat capabilities.
The soldiers of Hoffmann and Freud's troops suffered huge psychological trauma. A large number of combat-wounded personnel and non-combat casualties with frostbite gathered in the German Army's First Hospital, and the number was nearly the size of a regiment.
The others were already exhausted, and it would cost them their lives to engage in the defense of Lechica.
The Soviets simply came and went, using exaggerated weapons, as if replicating the blitzkrieg that the Germans were proud of, and instantly broke through the garrison headquarters.
The German army almost encountered an irresistible offensive. Based on this, its superiors did not impose any punishment on the 715th Division.
There is no other reason. This unit has already exhausted its energy. If the punishment continues, a complete collapse will definitely occur.
Hoffmann and Freud, who had been mentally prepared to be arrested by the Gestapo in the field, were later ordered to return to their bases, but no punishment was given to them.
Division commander Schultz ordered the commanders of his three elite regiments to hold a meeting immediately to announce the new orders given to him by his superiors.
There must be no good in the order! Hoffman was very worried, because after a thorough investigation, he found out that he had lied about the military situation, causing his regiment to be hindered by the enemy, and it was not possible to fully and timely reinforce Liechicha.
At the 715th Division Headquarters, Schultz read out the orders from his superiors.
The entire order first accused the 715th Division of its incompetence, but did not include any further punishment. The most critical part was to order the 715th Division to continue to defend the highway, and requested to strengthen patrols in the forests surrounding the highway and establish a large number of observation posts and strongholds.
A thorough investigation of the guerrillas revealed that suspicious individuals were shot directly without trial.
This order encourages soldiers to create no-man's land so that threats on both sides of the highway no longer exist.
After the announcement, Schultz himself had some thoughts. He looked helplessly at his group leaders.
"Gentlemen, our superiors accuse us of being a bunch of fools. In my opinion, they don't understand what we have encountered at all. Who is the fool? We only have one division and it is in the open. Our enemy has no idea at all.
They are not moving around this road, they come from the swamps! They have the ability to attack long distances and penetrate deeply alone and have strong combat effectiveness, but we are just a group of poorly equipped security forces! We still have to defend a large area, even if both sides of the road are completely cleared
In the villages on the other side, the only result that can be achieved is to kill a group of meaningless villagers."
Schultz and his men at least had a sense of honor and opened fire on unarmed ordinary people, and then claimed to have wiped out several guerrillas. That was something that his predecessor, the 7o7 Division, could do, so what was the use of the result?
Hoffman breathed a sigh of relief, he was safe here! He was like this, but hundreds of his soldiers had been killed, and the miserable corpses could not be brought back. Half of the fighting soldiers had lost their fighting ability, and the remaining
The man's mental state almost collapsed. He had to admit: "My troops suffered huge losses, and it will take a long time to rest and recuperate and a large number of personnel to restore their combat effectiveness."
Freud said the same thing.
Schultz shook his head helplessly and said: "You are the main force of our division, and the enemy attacked Lechica, where mainly logistics troops serve as garrison troops. A division has more than 10,000 troops, and the real combat strength is only half
It's normal. The current security war requires our entire army to fight, but the combat capabilities of the logistics troops are very limited." For this reason, he had to order the troops to continue to carry out the orders of their superiors.
"Gentlemen, although no one wants to open fire on ordinary people, this is what military orders are. They require us to continue to eliminate the enemy. There is only one best way to fight for public security - to establish a no-man's land. We must execute the order."
Even if everyone objects, there is nothing that can be done about the order. Including John Kube, who has always opposed the operation of ordinary Soviets by the Wehrmacht, he was questioned by Yuan.
Because the party representative was killed, this happened only half a year after the war started. If such assassinations by guerrillas occurred in every Soviet city under occupation, then what was the point of the German occupation?
The order to create no-man's land to ensure the safety of traffic lines actually became Hitler's order, and Schulz must obey it.
In this way, this war was no longer glorious, which made Schulz even more disgusted.
In this way, after settling down for a while, the German 715th Division launched a retaliatory operation.
Originally, under the iron heel of the German army, not all Soviets were killed. Some people who were obviously powerless were let go. Now, these people are simply defined as "accomplices of the guerrillas" and are controlled.
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Some villages were only controlled by the German army, and puppet troops were set up inside to prevent them from being controlled. Now, all these villagers were gathered together and then brutally massacred. Then, the German army carried out further liquidation and burned the villages to the ground. In the spirit of the Germans
In a meticulous spirit, all the tools that the villagers could use were destroyed, and important cold-proof clothing was gathered together and burned.
On both sides of the road from Lechica to Gomel, many village chiefs lit blazing fires. This section of the road has never been attacked by the Soviet 284th Division. The only battles on this section were to rescue prisoners of war and ambush wounded soldiers.
convoy, the surrounding villagers became targets of German retaliation.
However, the inhumane massacre by the German army not only killed all the villagers, they also found guerrillas in some villages.
The Germans found villagers who resisted on their own. They were classified as guerrillas and then shot directly.
Firing squads often formed groups of ten to execute those they caught. German soldiers also recorded such a scene. During a clearing operation on December 27, five guerrillas were captured.
They were tied up and waiting to be shot. Before the execution, these five people smiled strangely, as if they were mocking the German soldiers. This smile was so disturbing until their death after the execution.
The presence of guerrillas was indeed revealed during the operation, which gave Schulz some psychological relief after committing the massacre. He convinced himself that some of the people killed were guerrillas, but what about the people who were accidentally killed? In the war
There will always be civilian deaths, it's inevitable.
The German army was engaged in massacre, and of course this information would be learned by the 284th Guards Division. These things are not surprising. If they did not engage in massacre, they would not be the Nazi German army.
In response to these actions, we can only respond with an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But first, the Soviet army must prepare for a counterattack, and many problems with weapons must be solved. This depends on Balzen, who returns with a large amount of scrap metal. (