The division's return to camp is not just about arranging columns and going back step by step. Based on the fact that Balzen encountered an enemy armored force blocking the road when passing through the road, this may be a coincidence.?? ?
Yang Mingzhi completely overturned the inferences of some people in the division. He was the most strategic person in the entire division. The other staff officers were just a group of "temporary workers." Yang Mingzhi was not conceited, but they were too optimistic.
Right now, from both sides of the highway to the place where the Dnieper and Pripet rivers meet, the situation between ourselves and the enemy is intertwined!
He concluded that the enemy had a large number of pursuers. The two thousand pursuers he had received information from before might not be all of them.
In fact, just as Yang Mingzhi speculated, a guerrilla brigade of thousands of people appeared in sight. The battle commanded by Chaikov had long been considered a small fight, which was an itch for the German army. But the airport was bombed.
The German army did not hesitate to believe that the initiator was this guerrilla brigade!
Even though the Hoffmann fire rushed to the airport to rescue them, they arrived a step too late and encountered the air force troops who were fleeing in embarrassment.
Koch explained to Hoffman: "We encountered an enemy attack at night. Their number is not large, but their combat effectiveness is extremely terrifying!"
These words were exactly the same as those in the previous battles. Looking back on the previous battles between himself and the enemy, the damn Homnich was really painful forever! Hoffman believed the words of the air force captain because he and his predecessors were so bad.
The look says it all.
After the two reunited, Hoffman reported to the division headquarters, and then he continued to lead the troops toward the still burning airport.
The flames are still burning, especially the gasoline flowing out of the oil depot. They flow with flames and are completely burned into carbon wherever they go. The most frightening thing is not this. Koch guided Hoffman to the original airport.
Deployment. What now? It is completely in ruins. There are several huge craters lying across it, which is where the ammunition exploded. The violent explosion created a large crater, causing the soldiers who went to investigate to collapse on the ground in shock.
Hoffman immediately reported this latest information.
Through this, Schultz realized that he had underestimated the losses.
"Is such an airport worth reusing? Look at Hoffman's report. The runway was full of plane wreckage, all the buildings were burned to the ground, and the most terrifying thing was the explosion of the ammunition depot. The entire runway and nearby woods were destroyed.
Suffering a catastrophic disaster!"
The division commander's angry look was terrifying. Many staff officers in the 715th Division headquarters did not dare to speak. Only Swager could make a difference at this time.
Koch's report contained some valuable intelligence, which led Swager to believe that the enemy's retreat direction was completely opposite to that of the German army. He suggested: "The losses of the Air Force were too great, and they also brought a large number of ordinary people with them.
We need to do a good job in dealing with the aftermath, and we also need to support our troops and continue to move eastward. It is very likely that we will catch up with the enemy when we return."
But after a series of failures, Schultz had to think twice about whether this decision was correct. "Reinforcement of the airport was an order from the group army. We have completed the task and the airport is still in our hands. Before this, we had suffered too many losses in the war with the enemy. If
Let Hoffman continue the search with heavy troops, God knows what they will encounter in the forest! If the whole army is annihilated, I can also take off my hat and go directly to the military court to plead guilty!"
The division commander's will was very low, and Swager continued to advance eastward, which was against military discipline unless the troops could really encircle and suppress the enemy. Is this possible? Just as the division commander guessed, this makes sense. Who can guarantee the enemy's actions?
It's not a trap.
What on earth do the Soviets want to do?! Is the ultimate goal still to invade the city?!
Swager was puzzled and simply ignored it! He and Schultz combined their efforts and simply ordered Hoffman to camp on the spot. After a day of correction, he took the Air Force people back to the barracks and waited for the next order.
However, the development of the war situation was really unexpected. With the emergence of the Gomel Underground Municipal Committee and the Tchaikov Guerrilla Brigade, the German Army Group, which was in an intelligence mess, completely believed that the series of battles around the road must be against the Soviet government.
There are certain connections between organizations.
This force not only exposed its presence, but also went directly south to break through the highway. The poorly equipped guerrillas actually defeated a defense line composed of tanks and armored vehicles!
There have been too many battles on this road, and each time the Germans suffered heavy casualties, including the destruction of cities or strongholds. They were not guerrillas, as if southern Belarus was the front line.
Faced with such a powerful force, who can be sure that they are not planning to attack a certain city? After all, the number of Soviet troops in the swamp exceeds 10,000, and this is what the German army firmly believes!
In order to boost morale, for revenge, and for the stability of the occupied area, the German Army Group decided to carry out an anti-aircraft artillery operation like swatting mosquitoes, that is, to use thunderous strikes to send heavy troops to kill this Soviet unit that was sabotaging all the way!
For this reason, the 715th Division and the 722nd Division received the task of urgently dispatching troops because they were closest to the scene of the accident. Considering that the pressure on the defensive road was still very high, each division could dispatch up to two regiments of mobile troops.
This battle is about honor and even the stability of southern Belarus. Schulz received the order to dispatch two infantry regiments.
This was simply the order he and Swager had dreamed of. This belated order also made Swager quite dissatisfied. "If we had been ordered earlier to continue the pursuit, the enemy might not have broken through the highway."
He was regretting the loss of armored vehicles. The 715th Division relied on Niklaus's armored forces to support the situation. As a result, they did not show a crushing offensive posture. Instead, they suffered heavy losses under the enemy's special weapon attack. Now
His people have suffered losses again!
Schultz couldn't wait to take revenge. He and Swaglas gathered all the staff they could mobilize to brainstorm ideas.
Finally, Swager concluded: "The enemy broke through the road and went all the way south. According to the location of the battle, the best route for them to enter the swamp area is to go along the Dnieper River! Considering their necessarily poor logistics situation, we..."
At this time, a staff officer interrupted Swager at an inappropriate time. This was indeed disrespectful, but this person claimed to have obtained the latest monitoring results!
"We haven't deciphered the Russian code at all, so how do we know what they are talking about? It's just bits and pieces of code." As soon as Swager finished speaking, the staff officer immediately explained that this was the latest code.
intelligence.
"This information does not lie in what the enemy said, but in the approximate location of its source!"
As soon as the staff officer finished speaking, the few heads on Swag's head stood up! He pulled the man over and ordered him to explain everything.
It turned out that the German army was able to estimate the approximate location of the source by monitoring electromagnetic waves. They monitored the signal from the Gomel Municipal Committee, and because this signal always had its own shooting style, the German army was sure that they had found a big fish.
Now Swager was absolutely sure. Draw a line on the map according to the direction of the signal, and the target was on the bank of the Dnieper River.
Military plans began to be formulated immediately. In order to take the lead, they would pursue the target earlier, and secondly, they would be one step ahead of 722 to take all the credit.
Swager and Schultz combined their efforts and simply planned to have Nicklaus take the last armored troops and a large number of jeeps to form a mobile unit of at least one battalion and rush towards the south of the approximate target location!
"Theoretically, our powerful vehicles can run wildly in the wilderness and reach the intended target in one day!" Swager drew a line on the map with a pencil and decided to deploy it here.
With this arrangement, Schultz was convinced of its ultimate success. He was still a little worried. It was very close to the activity area of the swamp guerrillas. Will they launch a counterattack?
Forget it, it would be great if they all mobilized, and the battle turned into a battle! As long as they win the new war, the honor of the 715th Division will be fully restored! (To be continued.) 8