The Soviet army pursued the German troops all the way and drove the German troops out of Volokolamsk in five hours.
During this period, the German army was even surrounded by several units.
Needless to say about the infantry, there were corpses and broken troops everywhere along the way. If it were not for the difficulty of pursuing and searching at night, the number of captured German soldiers would have doubled at least.
What was surrounded was a German armored battalion.
Colonel Jonas was being chased and left a tank battalion to cover him.
This is the 2nd Armored Battalion of the 7th Armored Regiment, with a total of thirty-seven tanks. They chose a narrow area that is easy to defend and difficult to attack to defend and are ready to meet the T34 tank... The T34 tank is not invincible, the armor
The battalion commander, Major Lange, deployed the tanks on both sides of the narrow passage exit. This way, the German tanks could surround the passing T34 from three sides, that is, they could face its side armor.
But Major Lange's deployment in this way underestimated the Fourth Tank Brigade.
The Soviet army did launch several frontal charges, but as expected, they were all repelled by the firepower of German tanks.
However, Major Lange was not too excited in the face of this kind of victory, because he never saw the Russian T34.
"This is not normal!" Major Lange said: "Their tanks should have advanced here long ago!"
"Maybe they know we're ambushing you here!" the adjutant replied.
What the adjutant said may make sense, but Major Lange still felt that something was wrong, because he knew that the Russians' combat thinking was different from theirs. The Russians were unlikely to stop advancing just because they knew there was an ambush ahead. Their political commissars and instructors did not
Allow them to do this.
After thinking about it, Major Lange ordered: "Organize an attack. We have to go through the passage and have a look!"
The adjutant couldn't help but be stunned, and then responded: "Yes, Major!"
Major Langer's approach was to lure the enemy's T34 out, at least to let him feel at ease knowing that the T34 was still on the opposite side.
But Major Lange failed to do so. A tank company successfully passed through the passage. Although two of the tanks were destroyed, they were destroyed by enemy anti-tank guns.
Major Lange soon understood what was going on. Without hesitation, he immediately ordered over the walkie-talkie: "Retreat, repeat...retreat immediately!"
But then it was too late to wake up.
The communications soldier raised his head and looked at Major Lange in shock: "Major, the enemy appears two kilometers behind, and we have no way to retreat!"
"Go to hell!" Major Lange yelled.
This was what he was worried about. If the enemy was not chasing after him from behind, he would probably have taken another route to the front.
As for why the Soviet tanks went around it...of course it was because they built some roads that the Germans "couldn't see" for the tanks to pass through.
"Sir!" Immediately afterwards, the communications soldier asked in panic: "They sent a force to advance towards us from the rear. What is your order?"
Major Lange gritted his teeth and ordered: "Everyone, blow up the tanks and retreat!"
The tank crews were all stunned after hearing the order.
Blow up tanks?
That was a tank battalion with more than thirty tanks in total. They blew up and retreated without even trying to break out?!
To be precise, this is not a "retreat", but rather an "escape".
Of course Major Lange also knew this, but he still gave the order loudly: "Execute the order, immediately!"
"Yes, Major!" the tank crews responded, and then got out of the tank one by one and loaded the tank with explosives or poured gasoline as quickly as possible.
Major Lange's order was correct.
The German tank battalion has no way to retreat. It is obviously not feasible to leave the road and advance into the darkness. It is more likely that they will get stuck in the mud or be blown up by mines.
Retreat along the road...the back road is blocked by T34 again.
A fight with t34?
There is no need to say more about what the result will be. German tanks are simply no match for the T34!
Therefore, Major Lange chose to face reality. The tanks cannot be taken away, and the only ones that can be taken away may be these tank soldiers... Tank soldiers are also an asset, and of course, the more important thing is to save their lives.
So, when the Fourth Tank Brigade arrived here, all they saw were tanks that had been blown up and burned by the Germans themselves, and more than thirty tanks lined up neatly in a defensive formation, with red flames burning on the tanks.
The armor was flying around in the wind, and from time to time, several tanks exploded violently and broke into several pieces.
Having learned a lesson from this, Colonel Jonas no longer dared to use tank troops to cover the rear. His tactic was to use infantry firepower to block the Soviet army, and then engineers quickly laid mines behind, while the main force retreated non-stop.
, it was not until the withdrawal from Volokolamsk that the position was stabilized.
It was not yet 12 o'clock.
Major General Rokossovsky immediately called Zhukov after receiving the news.
"We have recaptured Volokolamsk, Comrade Zhukov!" Major General Rokossovsky said: "Two hours ahead of schedule!"
"Congratulations, Comrade Rokossovsky!" Zhukov said: "You have proved that this tactic is effective, just fight like this!"
After putting down the phone, Zhukov turned his attention to Bulganin.
Bulganin thought for a while and replied: "I will report the results to the Supreme Command!"
Zhukov nodded: "However, I think this tactic is only suitable for the 16th Army. The reason is that they have the fourth tank brigade. The advantage of T34 gives them the advantage to regain the positions they gave up during the day!"
The reason Zhukov said this was because he was worried that the Supreme Command would rashly extend this tactic to the entire army when their brains got hot, and then Moscow would really have no way to recover.
Colonel Jonas retreated in a barrel truck and evacuated to a safe area in less than two hours.
After settling down, Colonel Jonas commanded the troops to retreat and reported to Army Commander Kruger.
"Your Majesty Marshal, that is a trap!" Colonel Jonas said: "We were attacked by a large number of Russian T34s..."
Of course, Kruger had heard the news of the German defeat. In fact, this was completely unexpected by him, because the T34 never appeared, and the German army continued to approach Moscow.
Of course the Russians will not let the German troops enter Moscow, so the T34 will definitely appear.
But Kruger didn't expect it to appear at night.
After thinking about it, Kruger felt that this was reasonable, because the German air superiority could not be exerted at night, but the Russian T34 could run rampant.
"So!" Kruger replied: "It's not the Istria reservoir that we have to worry about!"
Colonel Jonas couldn't help but look embarrassed. His previous judgment could be said to be terribly wrong.