The guerrillas who carried out this plan were commanded by a sergeant named Eliza.
Unlike other guerrillas, Eliza is a female guerrilla. She was originally a communications soldier.
The reason why Eliza was chosen to infiltrate the vicinity of Tula was because during the guerrilla warfare during this period, it was discovered that women were easier to hide behind enemy lines and were more advantageous for operations.
This is normal.
Most young and strong young people have joined the army, so the German army immediately became vigilant when they saw young men in the rear, and would search them several times if nothing happened.
Women were everywhere in the rear, and it was easier for them to chat with German soldiers and obtain information.
Therefore, the main task of Eliza's detachment is actually to obtain intelligence behind enemy lines.
However, precisely because their main task was to obtain intelligence and they had a lot of useful information, the plan went surprisingly smoothly...
Eliza first contacted a train driver and convinced him to join the guerrillas.
Of course, they promised the train driver to quit before the final stage... Before that, the train driver had to teach at least one guerrilla how to drive a train.
Secondly, a scrap carriage was prepared in advance through the train driver's line, and then all the prepared explosives were loaded into this scrap carriage.
In the end, under the leadership of the train driver, a locomotive was stolen, and then an old carriage filled with explosives was picked up halfway to the railway bridge.
All of this went smoothly, and Shulka and Major Zahakavich stayed in front of the radio almost the entire time, listening to the news coming from the headquarters.
Originally this was unnecessary, but Zhukov thought that if anything went wrong, Shulka might be able to help, so he assigned a staff officer to pass the news to the 4th Tank Brigade headquarters in a timely manner.
When the explosives car was picked up at the train station and driven to the railway bridge, Shulka and Major Zahakavich couldn't help but cheer.
Things seem to be half done at this point.
At this time, although the Germans knew that the guerrillas had stolen a locomotive, they did not know what they were doing by stealing the locomotive!
"What's the point of stealing the locomotive?" Captain Lewis of the German Special Operations Team in charge of May Day Town asked strangely: "Drive it somewhere else? Where can they hide it? Tomorrow we just need to go along
The railroad can get it back!”
The adjutant replied: "Maybe these guerrillas just want to cause damage, drive it away and blow it up!"
"No, you fool!" Captain Lewis replied: "That's not what they are doing. If they just want to blow it up, they can do it at the train station without driving it away at all!"
This is indeed true. It would be unnecessary to move the train away and then blow it up.
But this reminded Captain Lewis, who hurriedly walked to the map and asked: "You just said...which direction did they drive away after stealing the train?"
"north!"
"Direction Tula?"
"Yes!"
"God!" Captain Lewis couldn't help but exclaimed: "The railway bridge, they are going to blow up the railway bridge!"
Without thinking, Captain Lewis immediately ordered the signal soldier: "Contact the railway bridge headquarters immediately!"
Logistics and transportation were all handled by the special operations team, so Captain Lewis quickly contacted Second Lieutenant Rummelin, who was in charge of railway bridge security.
"The guerrillas stole the locomotive from us!" Captain Lewis shouted almost hysterically on the phone: "Stop it, it may be heading in your direction, I think their purpose is to blow up the railway bridge!"
Lieutenant Rummelin was a little confused at first and didn't know what Captain Lewis meant. But before he put down the phone, he saw a locomotive coming towards this place with a "rumbling" sound and black smoke.
direction coming.
At that moment, Second Lieutenant Lumolin understood the meaning of the phone call, and immediately ordered his subordinates: "Stop the train! The enemy is controlling it..."
But what made Second Lieutenant Rummelin a little angry was that his subordinates' first reaction was to stand in the middle of the railway and shoot at the train with their guns... which obviously could not stop it.
"Blow up the railroad tracks!" Lieutenant Rummelin ordered loudly.
Upon hearing this, the German soldiers immediately took out grenades, but the grenades were not enough to blow up the railway tracks, and they did not bring the explosive pack with them. For a time, the German soldiers were at a loss and fell into a mess.
This is one of the reasons why Shulka chose to use a train to blow up the railway bridge. It was highly concealed, and it was not that easy to stop it... If Captain Lewis hadn't been smart enough, it would have been until the locomotive rushed onto the railway bridge.
Only after blowing it up did the Germans react.
But things didn't go so smoothly.
At this moment, a "No. 3" tank rushed onto the railway with a "rumbling" sound and blocked the middle.
This is a tank belonging to the 3rd Armored Division. It broke down and was left on the south bank of the Upa River. At this time, it was just repaired and ready to return to the unit... If this were not the case, even it might not be able to function because the German tanks were on
On a cold night, it is easy to get frozen and have difficulty starting.
Then there was a huge, ear-piercing "clang" sound, and the locomotive and the "No. 3" tank collided hard together.
The "No. 3" tank was knocked to one side. The tank body was originally horizontal and was knocked longitudinally. The entire side of the collision was deformed and dented, and the track was also broken.
The train continued to move forward due to inertia, but the moment it collided with the tank, it fell off the track and fell to the side, unable to move.
"Surround them!" Second Lieutenant Lumolin waved his hand and led his men to surround the locomotive.
But soon Lieutenant Rummelin knew that this approach was completely wrong.
Just hearing a loud "boom", Lieutenant Rummelin, his men, and the "No. 3" tank were blown up into the sky in flames.
Shulka and others are still waiting in front of the phone, waiting...
Time passed minute by minute, and it seemed that the time that should have succeeded had passed.
This made Shulka feel a little bad.
Sure enough, Zhukov's frustrated voice came from the other end of the phone: "The plan failed! A Panzer III tank knocked the train off the track, and we failed to blow up the railway bridge!"
Shulka and Major Zahakavich couldn't help but be stunned.
This can be said to be Shulka's first failure, the first plan planned by him that failed.
Although this failure seems to be excusable, because "people decide what to do and what to do depends on God", there is no problem with the plan itself, the problem is that it lacks a little luck.
But failure is failure, and there is no reason to argue.
The consequence of failure is that it is almost impossible to blow up the railway bridge again, because the German army will strengthen the defense of the railway bridge, including the locomotive.
Therefore, the problem of the Fourth Tank Brigade is still unresolved.