Red Moscow

  Chapter 231 Attack (3)

   Soon, the only six tanks in the tank battalion were divided into three groups, and accompanied by the infantry, they charged along the street. Two tanks form a group, with a distance of three meters in the middle, just enough to place an infantry squad; each group of tanks is 30 meters apart, but when the tanks in front are attacked, the tanks in the rear can also provide timely support. Behind the six tanks, there is also an infantry battalion whose task is to rush to seize the important building immediately after the tanks have eliminated the enemy's fire in the important building.

   Looking at the tanks and infantry in the distance, a staff officer asked Pavel: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, this is the first time I have seen such an attack method. Do you think it will work?"

Pavel turned his head to look at his staff officer, and said solemnly: "Although it is the first time I have seen this tactic, since it is the tactic deployed by the division commander himself, I believe that the effect in street fighting will definitely exceed our imagination. "

  At this time, another staff officer came over and reported to Pavel: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, according to the report from the observation post: the troops of the 1135th Regiment have entered the city, and the head of the regiment, Colonel Bindasov, is coming towards us."

Just as the 1137th and 1135th regiments that entered the city converged, in the headquarters outside the city, Chief of Staff Potukin also asked Sokov the same question: "Comrade commander, what attack did you arrange for Lieutenant Colonel Pavel?" It’s the first time I’ve heard of tactics, so tell me, will it really work?”

  Sokov told Pavel about the tactics that the Soviet army used on a large scale during the Battle of Berlin and achieved good results. However, Sokov had no idea what kind of results he could achieve in the city of Zizdra. After all, all he knew was theory, and he had never practiced it himself. Pavel and the others were like guinea pigs for experiments. So after listening to Potukin's question, he shook his head, and replied with a bitter face: "I researched this tactic based on the topography in the city of Zizdra. How effective it is, we have to wait for Pa Lieutenant Colonel Vail's report."

  The tanks and infantry advancing along the street were not moving fast. Both the tankers and the infantry were nervously observing the buildings on both sides, fearing that suddenly an enemy would pop out of any window.

  When they were halfway down this street, a window on the second floor of the building on the right suddenly opened, and a German soldier with a submachine gun leaned out and fired downward. However, the bullets fired by the submachine gun caused limited casualties to the infantry below. Except for one soldier who was shot and fell down on the spot, the rest of the soldiers immediately squatted down and fought back with the cover of the tank body.

Due to the firing angle of the tank guns, the first group of tanks was unable to take any action against the building with the German submachine gunners, but the second group of tanks following behind, the one on the left, stopped immediately and quickly After locking the target, he accurately hit the room with artillery fire, blowing the submachine gunner to pieces.

As soon as this firepower point was eliminated, more Germans appeared from the windows of the buildings on both sides of the street, firing condescendingly at the tanks and infantry on the street with various weapons, and some German soldiers even dropped cluster grenades from the windows , fell on the street and exploded, raising a puff of black smoke.

Fortunately, the German soldiers were a little nervous when they dropped the bomb. They threw it too early, so that the grenade exploded two or three meters in front of the tank. s damage. The soldiers hiding between the two tanks, because of the cover of the tanks, the enemy's intensive shooting did not cause them too many casualties. Instead, they could hide behind tanks and shoot at German soldiers leaning upstairs. In order to hit the infantry marching below, the German soldiers had to lean out of the window. As a result, a group of tanks and soldiers behind were attacked and suffered a lot of casualties.

  Pavel and Bindasov stood side by side at the window of the command post, watching the battle ahead with binoculars. When they saw the enemy shooting from the buildings on both sides of the street, they all broke into a cold sweat. But what happened next was beyond their expectations. The exposed enemies were either blown to pieces by tank guns, or shot to death by soldiers hiding in the middle of the tanks.

Seeing this situation, Bindasov said with emotion: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, do you know? When the division commander proposed this tactic, I still thought it was quite funny. You must know that tanks driving in cities usually have The speed is slow, and it became the target of the German anti-tank fighters. If in the previous battles, our tanks must have been lost, and the infantry would have suffered heavy losses. But after adopting this tactic today, no matter whether our tanks Any losses, but casualties of infantry, were also limited."

"That's right, Comrade Colonel." As soon as Bindasov finished speaking, Pavel added: "So far, we have only suffered casualties of one squad of infantry, while the enemy's losses are several times ours. If we continue to maintain If we go on, when we capture this city, the price we pay will be far lower than what we imagined."

At the end of the street is a square. In the middle of the square is a tall church. The German army not only built a machine gun fire point on the bell tower, but also sandbags with machine guns at the door of the church. There are dozens of German soldiers hiding Behind the marble fence, the muzzle protruded from the gap in the fence and aimed at the advancing holiday infantry and tanks.

   Seeing that the Soviet troops were only more than 300 meters away from the church, the German machine guns opened fire. The crossfire formed by the machine guns at the bell tower and the doorway knocked down the soldiers marching between the two tanks.

  Seeing that the enemy opened fire in the church, a tank rushing in front stopped immediately, and then moved towards the German machine gun fortification at the door of the church. Due to the hasty firing, the shells missed and missed the firepower of the German machine guns, but hit the wall of the church. After a loud noise, a large cloud of smoke rose up, covering the enemy's firepower. In this way, it is difficult for tanks in the distance to aim, and the enemy's machine gun firepower point has to temporarily stop shooting because it cannot see the target outside.

  Although the position of the enemy's machine gun firepower cannot be seen, it does not affect the tank's shooting at all. As the six tanks lined up in the square, they fired at the enemy's firepower point in turn, and quickly destroyed the machine gun firepower point that was still shrouded in smoke and dust. The situation of the German soldiers hiding behind the marble fence was not much better. They were either blown up by shells or killed by bullets from Soviet soldiers.

  Although the enemies in front of the church were mostly wiped out, the machine guns on the bell tower of the church were still raging crazily because of the insufficient elevation angle of the tank guns, causing casualties to the Soviet army continuously.

   Seeing that the attacking troops were suppressed by fire in front of the church, Pavel quickly ordered a staff officer: "Send a platoon immediately to help the artillery comrades push their artillery to the front."

  Bindasov heard Pavel's order and asked in surprise, "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, are you planning to let the artillery battalion approach and shoot?"

"Yes," Pavel gave Bindasov an affirmative answer, "Because the angle of fire of the tank guns is not enough, they cannot destroy the firepower of the German machine guns on the church bell tower. So we can only use artillery to complete this task, In the words of Comrade Commander, this is called bayoneting a cannon."

"It's interesting to put bayonets on the cannons." Bindasov repeated Pavel's words, and then ordered his radio operator, "Call Captain Jetrov immediately and order him to lead a battalion to help the artillery comrades Push the guns to the square, and once the machine-gun fire point on the bell tower is destroyed, immediately attack the church."

  Many people are powerful. With the help of the first battalion of Captain Jetrov, the five artillery of the artillery battalion were pushed to a distance of 800 meters from the church in just a few minutes. As soon as the artillery was in place, it immediately opened fire on the church in the distance. The shells fired in the first round failed to hit the target, but fell around the church and exploded. One of the shells even flew past the church and hit a house more than 100 meters away, blowing up bricks Gravel splashes on the wall of the concrete structure.

   Seeing that the first round was missed, the artillery battalion commander immediately ordered to readjust the shooting elements and fire again. Fortunately this time, two shells hit the church. Although they only hit the wall below the bell tower, they still stopped the firing of German machine guns for a moment.

   In the third round of shooting, two of the four shells that hit the church hit the bell tower. In the violent explosion, the bell tower collapsed, and the huge marble roof smashed the German machine gunners inside into meat sauce. Seeing that the firepower of the German army was destroyed, the Jetrov Battalion, which had already approached the square, immediately launched a charge.

Usually 4 to 50 meters in front of the building is an out-and-out death zone. Commanders and fighters rushing here will be hit by machine guns, submachine guns, rifles, and even thrown grenades from the German army in the building. . If there is not enough fire cover, the corpses of commanders and fighters will pile up here.

However, the German firepower points in front of and above the church have been destroyed by Soviet tanks and artillery. The attack of the Jetrov Battalion and friendly forces has become extremely smooth. The rubble rushed into the church, and started a melee battle with the surviving German troops inside.

   Seeing his troops rushing into the church, the two regiment leaders who were watching the battle from a distance all heaved a sigh of relief. Pavel turned his head and said to Bindasov: "Comrade Colonel, according to the information we have, the headquarters of the German garrison commander is located in the church. You see, our soldiers have already stormed into the church, and we need to send them to the church immediately." Should this news be reported to the teacher?"

   "Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, we should immediately report this good news to the division commander." Regarding Pavel's proposal, Bindasov agreed without hesitation. He then said to Pavel in a negotiating manner: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, since soldiers from our two regiments rushed into the church together, let's jointly report to the division commander."

  In fact, Sokov, who was waiting for news outside the city, didn't care whether the commander who reported the results to him was alone or jointly signed by two people. He only cared about the progress of the troops. After learning that the troops had rushed into the church where the German Army Command was located, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief, looked down at the map in front of him, and wondered whether he should also put the 1139th Regiment as a reserve team into the battle, so that they could be killed as soon as possible. End this fight.

  But before he could make a final decision, the phone on the desk rang first. When he picked up the receiver, he heard Rokossovsky's voice from inside: "Major Sokov, please report to me immediately how the troops in the city are progressing!"

"Report to Comrade Commander," Sokov thought to himself after hearing Rokossovsky's question. Fortunately, Pavel and Bindasov reported the situation in the city to him in time, otherwise he would not be here now. Know how to report to Rokossovsky. He said into the microphone: "The troops of the 1135th and 1137th regiments have already rushed into the church where the German army headquarters is located. Presumably the enemies in the city will soon fall into chaos due to the loss of unified command..."

"I understand what you mean." Rokossovsky said before Sokov finished, "I will immediately give an order to General Orlov to lead the infantry army to attack the city from the north. , in order to liberate the city in the shortest possible time.”

  After Rokossovsky hung up, Sokov was still holding the receiver in a daze, saying that Comrade Commander was more thoughtful than me. I only wanted to send a reserve team to enter the city from the east, but he took the initiative to send troops to attack from the north, so that the speed of liberating the city would be greatly advanced.

   Seeing Sokov in a daze, Potukin guessed that he must be thinking about something, and was afraid of interrupting his train of thought, so he stood quietly aside. It wasn't until Sokov put down the phone that he asked, "Master, what did Comrade Commander say on the phone?"

  Sokov pointed to the map in front of him and said: "The commander intends to order the infantry army deployed in the north of the city to attack the city and speed up the process of liberating the city."

After looking at the map with his head tilted, Potukin nodded and said, "Comrade Commander's decision is very correct. Once the infantry army launches an attack from the north of the city, the enemy will not be able to deploy troops from the north of the city to strengthen the attack. This is very helpful for us to quickly occupy the city."

   "Chief of Staff, call Lieutenant Colonel Ajik. Order his troops to enter the city from the east of the city immediately." Sokov smiled and said to Potukin: "I think Comrade Lieutenant Colonel is getting impatient."

   "Understood," Potukin replied with a smile after waiting for Sokov to finish speaking, "I think Lieutenant Colonel Ajik will be very happy to hear your order."

  (end of this chapter)