Red Moscow

  Chapter 260 Fighting behind the enemy (6)

  In this plan to attack Kursk, there are only two goals that must be won at all costs. One is the German Army Command, where Colonel Kempka, Kursk's garrison commander, is staying; the other is the military warehouse. Although there is only one company of soldiers left in the city, Kempka has placed a platoon of troops in each of these two key departments.

The troops that went straight to the garrison headquarters were commanded by Second Lieutenant Griesa, and Corporal Ernst was indispensable among them. After all, in the entire battalion, only when he spoke German did he not cause the Germans to panic. Suspect.

  But as soon as they arrived at the gate of the garrison headquarters, they were stopped by soldiers on duty. The soldier leading the team was a corporal. He did not show any respect to Ernst because he carried the rank of captain on his shoulders. Instead, he asked in a stern tone: "Mr. Captain, what part do you belong to? what?"

   "We came from the Dim area," Ernst didn't know the number of the nearby German troops, and he didn't dare to say anything casually, so as not to deceive others, he said bravely, "We were ordered to send prisoners of war here."

  Unexpectedly, after hearing this, the corporal looked him up and down, and then stretched out a hand: "Bring it!"

   "What?" Ernst was confused by the corporal's actions, "What are you getting?"

   "What else can it be?" The corporal said with some disdain: "Of course it is your pass to enter and exit here! If you don't have a pass, then you can go back wherever you came from."

Ernst quickly glanced around, and found that there were two soldiers standing outside the door of the building, a machine gunner smoking in the sandbag fortification, and the German corporal who made things difficult for him. No one, he quickly winked at Griza, indicating that he could do it.

  Grisa, who understood, waved his hands at his subordinates, and the soldiers in German uniforms stepped forward one after another and pointed their guns at the German soldiers outside the door. When the German corporal saw the muzzles aimed at him, he couldn't help but panic. He thought that his words offended the other party, and the captain deliberately ordered people to treat him like this.

  The corporal hurriedly smiled and said to Ernst: "Mr. Captain, misunderstanding, this is all a misunderstanding. I think you just came from the front line, you must not have a pass, I will let you in..."

   "No misunderstanding," Ernst said coldly, with a pistol on the corporal's abdomen: "We are the Soviet Red Army!"

   "Ah, it's the Russians!" The corporal was taken aback by Ernst's words, and hastily raised his hands above his head: "We surrender, we surrender!"

   After asking where the German guards lived, Griza left two soldiers to guard the prisoners, and rushed into the building with the rest of the soldiers. Although Grisa and the others rushed into the building, they were discovered by the German soldiers in the corridor, and a gun battle took place. However, the sporadic resistance soon stopped. With an MP40 submachine gun in his hand, Grisa rushed into the garrison commander's office by stepping on the corpse of the German army. He aimed his gun at Ken who had just taken out the pistol from the drawer Colonel Puka shouted loudly: "Raise your hands, or you will be killed!"

   Don’t look at Kempka who couldn’t understand what Grisa was shouting, but seeing the dark muzzle aimed at him, knowing that the situation was over, he carefully placed the pistol on the table, and then raised his hands.

  The detachment led by Grisa easily occupied the German garrison headquarters and captured the commander, Colonel Kempka. The warehouse, which was attacked by the second company commander Vasily himself, also did not encounter any fierce battles. After all, the city had never been attacked by the Soviet army since it was occupied, so the defenders in the warehouse were not very vigilant, and after only a few shots were fired, they put down their weapons and surrendered.

  After successively occupying the garrison commander and the warehouse, the remaining sporadic enemies in the city no longer pose any threat. Therefore, after discussing with Belkin, Sokov decided to report the matter to the Army Group Command.

  Before receiving Sokov's telegram, Rokossovsky was worrying about him. Due to Lidjukov's sacrifice, the situation fell into chaos. Rokossovsky, who was busy dealing with the crisis, inevitably ignored the Istria camp, so much so that he forgot to ask Malinin to send a report to Sokov, and let him Withdraw all troops.

Now that the battle situation has stabilized again, but the Istria battalion suddenly lost contact. Rokossovsky was so anxious that he kept urging the director of the communications army, Maximenko: "Comrade director, keep calling Isis Camp Tela, we must find out where they are now? Are they surrounded by the Germans, or are they breaking through the encirclement and approaching our army?"

   Maximenko finished recording the order, before he let the operator send it. A radio operator suddenly exclaimed, then turned to Rokossovsky who was standing aside and said, "Report to Comrade Commander, I have received a telegram from the Istria Battalion."

  Hearing that there was a telegram from the Istria battalion, Rokossovsky, who was eager to know their situation, snatched the telegram from the operator's hand and looked at it carefully. After reading the above content, he couldn't help saying repeatedly: "Well done, well done! This Sokov did really beautifully!"

   "Comrade Commander, what happened?" Malinin, who had just officially taken over as chief of staff of the Army Group, asked, "What did Sokov say in the telegram?"

  Rokossovsky handed the telegram in his hand to Malinin, and at the same time said excitedly: "Sokov said in the telegram that his troops have occupied Kursk."

"What, captured Kursk?" When Malinin heard the news, his first reaction was that it was impossible. In a city as big as Kursk, let alone a battalion, even if it is a division, it doesn't mean that you can win it. can win. But he felt that Rokossovsky would not ramble, so he quickly took the telegram and carefully browsed the contents.

After seeing the telegram, Ma Linin pondered for a long time, and said: "Comrade Commander, this victory came at a very timely time. Kursk has an important material warehouse for the German army. Once it is occupied by our army, it will definitely affect the enemy's offensive plan. , This buys us precious time to adjust the deployment."

After Rokossovsky went to the map and looked at it for a while, he said to Malinin: "Sokov is really a talent, he is really amazing. Several of our armies fought inextricably with the German army, and his battalion It has changed the situation of the enemy and the enemy in the direction of Voronezh, which is really remarkable."

Marinin carefully reminded Rokossovsky: "Comrade Commander, once the Germans learn that Kursk is lost, they will definitely mobilize heavy troops to recapture Kursk. I am afraid that it will be impossible to rely on a battalion of Sokov. Block the enemy's counterattack."

  (end of this chapter)