Red Moscow

  Chapter 285 Amphibious Tank

  Before the reinforcements from the base camp arrived, Sokov felt that there were more important things to do, so he ordered the staff to call the four battalion commanders and inform them to come to the brigade headquarters immediately for a meeting. The four battalion commanders who had just returned to the battalion headquarters before they had time to drink a sip of water rushed over without hesitation, thinking that Sokov was going to comment on today's military competition after receiving the notice.

  Seeing that all four battalion commanders were present, Sokov said, "Comrade battalion commander, I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"

The battalion commanders may have never heard anyone speak to them in such a tone, so after Sokov asked the question, they hesitated for a while, and the first battalion commander Vanya said carefully: "Comrade brigade commander, then Let’s start with the good news.”

"The reinforcements sent by the base camp will arrive tomorrow at the latest." Seeing that Vanya chose to listen to the good news first, Sokov said with a smile: "As soon as they arrive, we can shrink our defenses and concentrate our forces." Defense in one direction."

   "Great, this is really great." Although the four battalion commanders had known the news that the reinforcements were coming, they were still very happy when they heard Sokov mentioning it. And what made them most happy was undoubtedly the matter of shrinking the defense line. After all, guarding a city with five or six thousand people and simply defending in one direction were two completely different concepts.

  After the room returned to calm, Andre tentatively asked: "Comrade Brigadier, tell me, what is the other bad news?"

  Seeing that everyone's eyes were focused on him, Sokov sighed softly and said: "When the large forces enter Kursk, the warehouse area we are currently controlling must be handed over to friendly forces immediately."

  After listening to Sokov's words, the battalion commanders couldn't help but feel a little bit in their hearts, secretly saying that this is really bad news. If the warehouse area is really handed over to friendly forces, he will no longer be able to receive supplies as he likes now. People can persist without food; but if a gun has no ammunition, it is not even as good as a fire stick.

Vasily, who was in charge of the warehouse, waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and immediately got up and asked, "Comrade Brigadier, should I do something?" For his own sake, he would leave one or two warehouses of supplies.

"All warehouses, if not one is left, will be handed over to friendly troops." When Sokov said this, seeing the embarrassed expressions on the faces of the battalion commanders, he added: "But before the handover work, each battalion should Send people to the warehouse to get the supplies they need."

  "Lieutenant Vasily," Sokov told Vasily: "All the officers and soldiers of our brigade, no matter what materials they want to receive, ammunition, fuel, supplies and combat equipment, as long as they are in the warehouse, they will be distributed in full."

After Vasily, who was full of joy, answered loudly, Sokov turned to several other battalion commanders and said: "In the warehouse we occupied, the weapons and equipment stored are both German and our troops were captured by the enemy. Today, some troops are all equipped with German-style equipment, while others are standard equipment of our army. In the days to come, we can capture the weapons and ammunition required for German-style equipment in battle; and equip our army It may be much more difficult to supply troops with standard weapons. Therefore, you should use the precious time left to replenish enough ammunition and supplies for the troops.”

"Comrade Brigadier," Briski waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and regardless of the fact that the other party had not announced the end of the meeting, he stood up and asked, "Are you allowed to return to the army now? I need to immediately arrange for the commanders and fighters to receive ammunition and supplies. .”

   "Allowed to leave." Sokov nodded at Briski, and then said to everyone: "Time is running out, you all return to your respective troops immediately, hurry up and get supplies. The meeting is over!"

Looking at the backs of the battalion commanders leaving, Belkin asked with some concern: "Comrade Brigadier, if the friendly army takes over the warehouse area and finds that all the warehouses inside are empty, will we have any trouble? "

"What trouble will there be, my Comrade Political Commissar?" Sokov looked at Belkin and asked with some surprise: "Our troops did not leave any receipts when they received the supplies. It is also fair to say that when we occupied the German warehouse district, it was almost empty."

Regarding Sokov's statement that he completely shirked responsibility, the muscles on Belkin's face twitched violently a few times, and then he asked: "But what should we do if the superior wants to investigate this matter thoroughly?" ?”

   Sukov found Belkin's concerns ridiculous. He said to the other party: "Comrade political commissar, don't forget that after we captured Kursk, we added thousands of new recruits. If we don't use the weapons and equipment in the German warehouses, where should we find them? Are they armed?"

Sokov raised his hand and patted Belgin's shoulder twice, and then said: "Don't worry, Comrade Political Commissar, as long as we can stick to Kursk, the superiors will definitely understand our difficulties, absolutely not It will be pursued."

  All the battalions sent their manpower to the warehouse area to collect the supplies they needed. Several battalion commanders had similar thoughts. Anyway, they were free items, so they could move as much as they could. Otherwise, once the friendly army took over the warehouse area, it would not be so easy to get supplies in the future.

In order to bring the supplies back to their respective battalions as soon as possible, the battalion commanders also showed their talents across the sea. Except for an infantry company standing in the west of the city, the rest of the first battalion was sent by Captain Vanya to the warehouse to carry supplies; The captain, Captain Vasili, took advantage of his position to use the military trucks in the warehouse to transport weapons, ammunition and various supplies to the new station of the second battalion; The trucks were requisitioned by Vasily, so he used civilian vehicles, including buses, to help the third battalion pull ammunition and supplies; even the newly appointed commander of the fourth battalion, Captain Briski, used 300 grams of bread a day At the cost of doing it, five or six hundred strong workers were called to help him carry supplies...

Sokov and Belkin went to the warehouse area and saw the lively scene of military and civilian mobilization moving supplies together. They couldn't help but smiled and said: "It seems that these battalion commanders are not simple, they all understand Use their own methods to move as much ammunition and various materials as possible back to their garrison. In the next battle, as long as there is no more consumption of nearly 50,000 rounds of ammunition in one battle, our existing Ammunition lasts a long time."

  The two of them were talking, when suddenly the sound of rumbling guns came from the south of the city. Hearing the sudden sound of gunfire, Sokov couldn't help but turn pale with fright. He quickly rushed into the office in the warehouse area, and asked Vasily who was sitting at the table on the phone loudly: "Captain Vasily, what's the matter?" Why? Why is there gunfire in the south of the city?"

Vasily lowered his nod, looked up at Sokov, and said with a serious expression: "Comrade Brigadier, Commander Zhelia of the Second Company has reported that the enemy is shelling the defensive positions of the Second Company. It seems that they are preparing to cross Teneb once again." Lahe."

"Captain Vasily, tell Zelya to tell the soldiers to be concealed and do a good job of preventing artillery. Minimize the losses of the troops in the shelling." After telling Vasily, Sokov turned to Belkin and said, "Political Commissar Comrade, we are now going back to the brigade headquarters."

   As soon as Sokov returned to his headquarters, he immediately called Rotmistrov. He said hastily in the microphone: "Comrade General, the German army is bombarding our position in the south of the city. It seems that they are going to cross the Tenebra River again and attack our defensive position."

"Don't worry, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." After Rotmistrov finished speaking to Sokov, he immediately comforted him and said, "When the Germans start to cross the river, my artillery will teach them a hard lesson and smash them into pieces." Their attempt to seize positions south of the city."

  The Tenebra River is actually not wide, and the current is not urgent. But after crossing the river, there is still a vast plain soaked by stagnant water. When the German infantry passes through this area, it will be slow to move and become a target for Soviet shooting. This time, the German army, which took advantage of the bombardment and began to cross the river, came prepared. They also specially brought in four amphibious tanks to cover the infantry attack.

  The amphibious tank was originally planned by the German army to attack the English Channel, but it was found to have fatal flaws and was shelved. It was not until after the outbreak of the Soviet-German War that the German army attacked the Brest Fortress that these amphibious tanks took part in the first actual battle when they forcibly crossed the Bug River. This time, in order to effectively break through the Soviet defense in the south of Kursk, the German commander specially borrowed these four tanks from the friendly army to strengthen the firepower of the attacking troops.

  Although these tanks are all modified from No. 3 light tanks, for the Soviet army lacking anti-tank weapons, these tanks still cause them headaches. Zelya looked at the tanks marching in the stagnant water and the infantry hiding behind them, quickly picked up the microphone, and reported to Vasily: "Comrade Battalion Commander, the situation is not very good. During this attack, the enemy Tanks were called out, and our company lacked anti-tank weapons and probably couldn't stop them."

   "Damn it, where did the German tanks come from?" After hearing Zelia's report, Vasya roared angrily, "Could it be that they came from the upper reaches of the river?"

   "Yes, Comrade Battalion Commander, you are right." Hearing Vasily's words, Zelya nodded vigorously, and said in a positive tone, "The enemy's tanks came from the surface of the water."

Vasily had never heard of a tank that could swim. Hearing what Gelia said, he thought that the other party was stunned by the enemy's artillery fire, so he said displeasedly: "Lieutenant Gelia, I don't care what you use. No matter what method you use, you must block the enemy. If you let them rush past your position, what will happen, even if I don’t tell you, you should be able to guess.”

"Understood, Comrade Battalion Commander." From Vasili's tone, Relya heard that the other party did not believe what he reported, but ordered himself to stick to it, so he replied bravely, "Don't worry, we will If there is still one person around, the German tanks will never be let in."

  After putting down the phone, Vasily remembered the swimming tank mentioned by Zelia, and felt that he should report this matter to Sokov, so he picked up the phone.

"What, Captain Vasily, what did you say? Repeat it again." Sokov thought he had heard it wrong when he heard Vasily mentioning a swimming tank, and quickly said into the microphone: "A swimming tank, right now. Rush to the position of the second company? I understand, let Gelia hold on, and we will provide them with artillery support as soon as possible."

  As soon as Sokov put down the phone, Belkin asked curiously: "Comrade Brigadier, I seem to have heard you talking about a swimming tank just now. What's going on here?"

"In order to attack Britain a few years ago, the Germans modified some of the No. 3 light tanks and turned them into amphibious tanks that could swim or lie on the water. But later they found that this tank was useless, so it was temporarily shelved." Sokov explained to Belkin: "Until the Germans attacked the Brest Fortress, they used this tank to force the Bug River. After this battle, I never heard of this tank again. I thought They've been lost in the war, and I didn't expect them to be here."

"Most of the soldiers of the second company standing on the ground are recruits. Seeing the enemy tanks galloping towards them, some people will definitely be scared out of their wits." Belkin carefully reminded Sokov: "If we don't Find a way to destroy the enemy's tanks as soon as possible, then there will be soldiers who desert because of fear."

"Don't worry, comrade political commissar, I won't let the second company desert." Sokov finished speaking, picked up the phone on the table, dialed the artillery company, and said to the company commander Porochenko: "Porochenko Company commander, your company's mission is here."

   Porochenko: "Comrade Brigadier, I follow your orders, please instruct!"

"There are four German light tanks rushing towards the second company's defensive position in the south of the city." Sokov said into the microphone: "The mission of your company is to destroy these enemy tanks with artillery fire." Considering that the artillery company may Not knowing the specific location of the German amphibious tanks, Sokov also deliberately added, "You immediately send artillery observers to the front, and they provide shooting parameters to guide your cannons to bombard."

"Comrade Brigadier, don't worry, we have always had observers staying in the position of the second company." Porochenko waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and immediately stated: "I will get in touch with them immediately and let the artillery Based on the data provided by the observers, the fighters came to destroy the enemy's tanks."

"Very good, Comrade Porochenko, you've done a good job." Sokov affirmed Porochenko's approach of planning for a rainy day, and finally drew a huge pie for the other party: "Wait for us When forming the artillery battalion, I will appoint you as battalion commander."

  (end of this chapter)