Red Moscow

  Chapter 269 New Infantry Brigade (7)

  Although the old man has always had the habit of procrastinating in his work, the emergency meeting held by Belkin's political workers took less than an hour from the notification to the end of the meeting. It seems that this scene made Sokov feel secretly, it seems that it is better to fight, it can actually improve their work efficiency.

  In the evening, the German army shelled the position of the third battalion again. After receiving the news, Sokov said to Belkin: "Comrade Commissar, I will go to the third battalion to take a look, and I will give you the responsibility here."

   "Okay," Belkin knew that Sokov liked to run forward, so he didn't dissuade him, but reminded him with concern: "You should pay more attention to safety."

"I will." When Sukov left the command post, he suddenly stopped and said to Belkin: "Altai's tank company has been deployed on the left flank of the third battalion. We just wait for the enemy's tanks to attack again. They can be ordered to attack from the enemy's flank and try to destroy the enemy's tank force in one fell swoop."

   "Understood," Belkin nodded after hearing this, and said, "As soon as I receive your call from the third battalion, I will immediately order the tank company to attack from the enemy's flank."

  When Sokov left the command post, a thought suddenly came to his mind: "Now that the army is organized into a brigade, it seems necessary to add a chief of staff."

   Sokov took a guard platoon to the third battalion's station in three jeeps and three trucks. Unexpectedly, just after entering the east area of ​​the city, the speed of the vehicle in front slowed down. Sokov thought that the vehicles had to slow down because they were going through the barricades at the intersection, so he didn't take it to heart.

   Unexpectedly, after a while, the car in front actually stopped. Seeing the car stopped, Sokov said to the guard platoon leader sitting in the passenger seat: "Comrade platoon leader, go out and have a look. What happened outside? Why did the convoy stop?"

The platoon leader got out of the car and went to the front to check it out, then came back and reported to Sokov: "Comrade Brigadier, there are comrades from the third battalion ahead who are organizing the transfer of residents, and the road is blocked. I think we need to wait for a while. "

   "Organize the transfer of residents?" After listening to the platoon leader's report, Sokov also opened the door and got out of the car, standing beside the car and looking ahead. Seeing groups of panic-stricken residents carrying all kinds of luggage, under the guidance of soldiers, walking towards the location of his convoy along the street, Sokov couldn't help frowning: "Comrade platoon leader!" , do you know what's going on?"

   "I don't know, Comrade Brigadier Commander." Hearing Sokov's harsh tone, the platoon leader said in a panic, "I'll go and find out." After speaking, he ran forward quickly.

   Not long after, the platoon leader came over with a second lieutenant: "Comrade brigade commander, this is the security platoon leader of the third battalion. He can give you a satisfactory answer to what you want to know."

   "Comrade Second Lieutenant," looking at the platoon leader of the third battalion, Sokov asked with a straight face, "Where are you planning to transfer the residents?"

"That's right, Comrade Brigadier." The second lieutenant obviously knew Sokov's identity, so he replied truthfully: "According to the order of the battalion headquarters, all the residents living here will be moved to a safe place. Maybe it won't be long. , this place will become a battlefield.”

   "Where do you plan to place them?" Sokov asked briefly after the second lieutenant finished speaking.

"Place them in a cinema, station or hotel in the city center." After the second lieutenant answered the question, he said before Sokov asked, "This is a task assigned by Commissar Belgin." Saying that it was arranged by Belkin, Sokov didn't say anything, but waved to the second lieutenant, indicating that he could leave.

  When the residents had almost left, the convoy continued to move forward. Sokov, who was sitting in the car, thought to himself: It seems that Belkin also felt that the third battalion might not be able to hold on to the position in the east of the city, so he took precautions and moved all the residents in this area to a safe place first. But this is also good, if there is a street fight, you don't have to worry about throwing rats.

  The convoy left the city and drove forward for a few minutes before arriving at the position of the third battalion. This defense fortification has a front width of five kilometers and a depth of two kilometers. It is being bombarded by the German army at this moment. In order to prevent the convoy from breaking into the area covered by enemy artillery fire and ruining his life in vain, Sokov ordered the convoy to stop. After some observation, Sokov ordered the soldiers to abandon their vehicles and walk to the battalion command post of the third battalion.

   Fortunately, the enemy's artillery fire was concentrated on the first line of defense of the third battalion, and there were not many shells falling near the battalion headquarters. Therefore, Sokov and his guard platoon could reach Andrei's headquarters smoothly.

  When Andrei saw Sokov appearing in his command post, he couldn't help being surprised: "Comrade Brigadier, why are you here?"

   "Let me take a look at your situation here." Sokov asked bluntly, "How is it? Can you block the enemy's attack?"

   "It should be able to block the enemy's attack," Andre said with a bitter face, "but the casualties are a bit higher. So far, the casualties of the whole battalion have exceeded 500."

   "What, the number of casualties exceeded five hundred?" Sokov was taken aback when he learned of this number. The number of casualties in the third battalion actually reached one-third after only a few hours of fighting with the Germans. He looked through the binoculars at the place that had suffered the most intense shelling and asked, "Which company is the unit that is standing on the first line of convenience?"

   "It's the Second Company, Comrade Brigadier Commander." Hearing Sokov's question, Andrey hurriedly replied: "The First Company suffered heavy casualties in the previous battle, so I replaced the Second Company."

   "Who is the second company commander?" Since it has not been long since it was expanded into a brigade, Sukov is not familiar with the commanders at all levels below, "Is he capable of holding the position?"

"It's Second Lieutenant Yegor. He is a soldier with rich combat experience. He has followed you since Khimki." Andrei said confidently: "I believe he will be able to hold his position." .”

  Sokov knew very well in his heart that the special platoon he followed from Khimki suffered heavy casualties in a series of battles, but the rest of them are now serving as commanders at all levels in the army. Although I am not familiar with Yegor, I believe that he will not disappoint me in the next battle.

  In the first line of defense that was shelled, although the soldiers were hiding in solid reinforced concrete fortifications, under the intensive artillery fire of the German army, some of the fortifications were blown down, and all the soldiers hiding inside were buried alive.

  Seeing the first line of defense shrouded in gunpowder smoke, Sokov gritted his teeth and said, "Damn Germans, they are actually bombarding our army's positions with heavy artillery. Sooner or later, I will let you experience the power of our artillery."

  After the German bombardment ended, the reassembled infantry was reassembled, and under the cover of tanks, they charged towards the position of the third battalion. Sokov picked up the phone on the table and shouted into the microphone: "Comrade political commissar, immediately order Alitey's tank company to attack from the flank of the German army and destroy the enemy's tanks."

  Alitai’s tank company, when detouring from the north to the east of the city of Kursk, two tanks broke down on the road due to a breakdown, and now there are only 18 tanks that can be put into battle. After receiving the order to attack from Belkin, he immediately rushed towards the German troops attacking the third battalion.

  The German tanks were ready to repeat the same trick, stopping 500 meters away from the position, and using tank fire to suppress the third battalion without long-range anti-tank weapons. But this time they miscalculated. Just as they were adjusting their formation, the Soviet tank company had rushed over from the side and attacked them at a distance of three or four hundred meters.

  The tank soldiers stayed in the tank with a very narrow field of vision, and they didn't even notice the Soviet tanks rushing from the flank. When half of the tanks were destroyed by the high-explosive armor-piercing shells fired by the Soviet tanks, the remaining tanks were still slowly adjusting their formation, preparing to bombard the Soviet positions.

  The German infantry who followed behind saw a Soviet tank unit suddenly rushing out of the flanks, and couldn't help but get confused. Some continued to rush forward, some turned around and ran back, and some soldiers charged directly at the Soviet tanks. But before they got close to the tank, they were wiped out by the machine guns of the Soviet tanks.

Sokov saw what was happening in the distance through the binoculars, quickly picked up the phone again, connected to the brigade headquarters, and said to Belkin who answered the phone: "Comrade political commissar, immediately give the artillery company an order to shell The enemy's artillery positions cover the upcoming assault of our army."

  As soon as Sokov put down the phone, he immediately said to Andrei: "Commander of the Third Battalion, our artillery is about to launch an artillery attack on the enemy's artillery position. Now is the best time for you to counterattack. Order the troops to attack immediately."

If he hadn't seen Alitai's tank company, which was destroying the enemy's tanks one by one like a target on the battlefield, Andre might have hesitated even if he wanted to carry out Sokov's order. long time. But at this moment, seeing that the German tanks are constantly being destroyed, the infantry has fallen into chaos, and the artillery positions that may pose a threat to themselves are about to be suppressed by their own artillery fire. Andre hurried to the phone and took He picked up the microphone and issued orders to his subordinates: "Second Company, Third Company, listen to my order, immediately attack across the board, and follow our tanks to destroy the chaotic enemies."

  Although the tank company kept destroying the German tanks, without the cooperation of the infantry, it wanted to launch a counterattack against the enemy with just a dozen tanks from the tank company. Lieutenant Ali Tai felt that this was an act of death. It wasn't until he saw the Soviet infantry jumping out of the trench and charging towards the chaotic German army that he ordered his signal soldiers to use signal flags to notify other tanks to cover the infantry to continue attacking the enemy.

  Sokov frowned when he saw that the connection between the Alitai tank companies was actually done through signal flags. In a small-scale battle like this, it is barely reasonable to use signal flags to communicate. If there are hundreds of tanks fighting in the future, it is obviously unrealistic to use signal flags to communicate. Not only will the smoke on the battlefield block the sight of tank soldiers, but also When the battle is fierce, who cares about the signal sent by the command tank. It seems that after this battle is over, it is necessary to consider installing communication equipment for each tank.

   Nearly a thousand soldiers attacked from the position, followed behind a dozen tanks, chasing the fleeing German troops. Seeing the Soviet tanks rushing out from the flanks, Weber wiped out his own tanks, and covered the infantry to charge towards his position. He quickly ordered the artillery to intercept the Soviet attacking troops with artillery fire.

   But he didn't expect that the artillery had just fired two shots before being suppressed by the heavy artillery in Kursk City, and soon became dumb. Seeing that their artillery fire was suppressed by the Soviet army, the German army became more and more confused. Seeing this situation, the German chief of staff quickly suggested to Weber: "Mr. Colonel, the Russian tanks are coming up. I think it is better to transfer the 14th company and let them deal with the Russian tanks. As long as the Russian tanks are killed , this offensive launched by the Russians will end in failure."

  Weber never dreamed that the Soviet army would launch a counterattack against him, and was caught off guard. After hearing the chief of staff's proposal, he immediately ordered the 14th company to use anti-tank guns to destroy the Soviet tanks.

  After receiving the order, the officers and soldiers of the 14th company immediately unloaded the anti-tank gun from the back of the truck, turned the muzzle, and fired at the Soviet tanks rushing over. As the bombardment was carried out hastily, the shells that occurred in the first round missed. Seeing that the first shell was empty, the anti-tank gunners immediately reloaded and fired a second round.

  In this shooting, although most of the shells missed, two shells still hit the target. However, they did not penetrate the front armor of the T-34, but bounced off, leaving only a few white marks on the armor.

   Seeing that anti-tank guns could not penetrate the armor of Soviet tanks at all, the muscles on Weber's face couldn't help twitching violently. Just when he was about to order the anti-tank artillery company to continue firing, the chief of staff approached him and said anxiously: "Mr. Colonel, I think we should retreat immediately. If we stay any longer, we will become prisoners of the Russians. "

Seeing his subordinates fleeing in a hurry, and the anti-tank artillery company that couldn't penetrate the armor of the Soviet tanks and was still shooting in vain, Weber hesitated for a moment, and then gave the order in a panic: "Retreat, retreat immediately!" After finishing speaking , ordered his driver to turn around and flee first.

The anti-tank artillerymen who were firing saw their infantry running back in a state of panic. They were panicked at first, but now they saw that Weber had left the troops and fled. How could they have the heart to continue fighting and throw away the anti-tank guns? , also followed behind the armored vehicle that Weber was riding in, and fled eastward in a panic.

  (end of this chapter)