After receiving Major Mueller's report, General Kleist immediately asked his adjutant to send reinforcements.
But at this time, the adjutant was in a dilemma.
"General, where should the reinforcements be sent?" the adjutant asked: "We don't know their location!"
"South!" said General Kleist. "Where the gunfire is!"
The adjutant was stunned for a moment, then reluctantly said "yes" and issued the order.
This is easier said than done.
The adjutant knew this clearly, because it was night and the Germans could not send out reconnaissance planes to conduct reconnaissance. Even the Germans on the defense line probably did not know that a Soviet army was bypassing them.
As for the "place with gunshots", you must know that it was the Soviet-German front. Although it had entered a short rest period at night, there were still gunshots everywhere after being delayed for hundreds of kilometers.
The order conveyed by the adjutant could only be: "The enemy will move south from Defense Area 10 and walk for about ten minutes! Stop them!"
But this is just a rough estimate. Without a definite location, finding a team of several hundred people in the unfamiliar darkness with dangers hidden everywhere is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
The person who accepted this task was Captain Lewis. His unit was a reconnaissance unit and could also be considered a quick reaction unit.
As soon as he received the mission, Captain Lewis immediately set off with his troops. A dozen tricycles equipped with machine guns, plus several cars full of soldiers, gathered together amidst a burst of urgent assembly whistles.
Start quickly and go straight to your goal within minutes.
Captain Lewis took a jeep. As soon as he got in the car, he spread out the map, then pointed at the map and said to the adjutant: "The enemy is most likely to be in this position, Defense Area 9!"
"Yes, Defense Zone 9!"
When the convoy arrived at Defense Area 9, they saw gunshots and explosions, and occasionally a few shouts in Russian.
Captain Lewis didn't think much and sent the troops up with a wave of his hand.
The battle was very fierce, with both sides fighting back and forth, and Louis' team even tended to be surrounded by the enemy.
This surprised Louis, and he quickly called for reinforcements on the radio. It wasn't until several rounds of flares were launched into the sky that illuminated the M1935 helmet on the opposite side that Captain Louis discovered the problem...
"Ceasefire, ceasefire!" Captain Lewis shouted angrily: "It's one of our own! Damn the Russians, we were deceived by them!"
Captain Lewis was right, the people fighting with them on the other side were indeed his own people.
Major Gavrilov had already taken this into consideration when formulating the battle plan.
"The enemy will send troops to intercept!" Major Gavrilov pointed at the map and said: "We know that the quick reaction force may only take ten minutes to arrive!"
"Once we get them entangled!" Political Commissar Fuming said, "We won't be able to get away. The Germans around us will soon surround us!"
Of course what they said is right. To the south is the German offensive line. The German troops are like ants and there are so many that they can't be counted. Once they stop, it means they will never get out.
"So we need something to grab their attention!" Shulka said.
"Attract attention?"
After thinking for a while, Shulka pointed to the map and said: "Break out one kilometer south as quickly as possible. The main force will continue south, leaving one platoon behind..."
At this point, Major Gavrilov couldn't help but said "Oh", nodded, and said: "Let them pretend to break out!"
"Yes!" Shulka replied: "Let them break out to the east to attract the attention of the German army in the east. When the enemy's reinforcements arrive, they will attract the attention of the reinforcements, and then let them pay attention to each other!"
"Good idea!" Political Commissar Fuming nodded: "That's it."
The method was certainly a good one, but the problem was that the remaining platoon would not be able to escape. But this was obviously not a problem for the Soviet army, so arrangements were quickly made.
Things developed just as Shulka thought. Under the deliberate provocation of the Soviet army, the two groups of German troops fought together, and their gunfire attracted German troops from other directions to continue to move closer to the battlefield. The Soviet army
The main force took advantage of this moment to fly southward.
During this period, they even encountered a group of German troops who had withdrawn from the battlefield to rest. This group of German troops might have been tired from fighting on the battlefield. Except for a few sentries, the rest were leaning against the bunker or huddled up in the crater to sleep.
.
They were sleeping so soundly that few of them even reacted when the Soviet tanks rumbled up.
But this doesn't seem to be their fault.
First of all, the sound of gunfire and gunfire is loud all around. People who sleep in this environment will automatically block out the sounds of the outside world.
Secondly, they took it for granted that the tanks that would appear here were their own, so they didn't take it seriously even if someone was woken up.
Even the sentries thought so... The sentries had even more reason to think so, because the two tanks themselves were German tanks. Although they were in the dark, they could be recognized by their outlines from a distance.
Therefore, the sentries just stayed away and waved the flashlight in this direction, and then continued to smoke and chat by themselves. They thought this was just a group of friendly troops passing through their defense zone.
It wasn't until the tank increased its horsepower and rushed into the group of German soldiers lying on the ground, crushing him until his flesh and blood flew everywhere that he screamed, that they realized something was wrong.
But it was already too late... The machine gun on the tank was spitting out tongues of fire, and the Soviet soldiers rushed out of the darkness in groups, killing each other indiscriminately. Many German soldiers were still in their sleep.
He died when he realized what was going on.
Major Gavrilov saw that the time was almost up, and then ordered: "Change direction and follow me!"
With that said, he waved his hand and led the soldiers to fight eastward.
When the plan was made, everyone was worried about the breakout plan.
"Can we succeed?" Captain Venyakov said: "As long as there is a problem in any of these links, the consequences will be disastrous..."
The officers couldn't help but turn their attention to Shulka.
"I don't know whether it can succeed!" Shulka replied: "I can only say...it may succeed, and the probability of success is higher than breaking through directly from the east!"
Major Gavrilov nodded in agreement: "Let's fight like this! The focus of this battle is speed. The Germans have always been good at using 'blitzkrieg' to fight. Today, we also use 'blitzkrieg'. Can we
Success depends on whether they can cope with the 'blitzkrieg'!"