Red Moscow

  Chapter 291 A small victory

Fierce gunshots and grenade explosions resounded all around, suppressing the company commander's shouts. Fortunately, the soldiers around him, after hearing his shouts, passed on his orders word of mouth, Pass it on to your comrades in arms. Soon, the firing from the First Battalion stopped.

  Although the shooting from the 1st Battalion stopped, the friendly troops on the opposite side didn’t know that there was a misunderstanding, and their own people fought with their own people, and they kept shooting towards this direction.

   "Damn, what's going on?" Seeing that the other side's shooting didn't stop, the company commander said angrily, "Don't they see that we have stopped shooting, so why are they still firing at us?"

   "Comrade company commander," the platoon leader said loudly close to his ear: "We are equipped with German equipment, and the visibility on the battlefield is low. Maybe the friendly army on the opposite side regards us as Germans."

   "Then what should we do?" The company commander said, "We can't lie here forever, can we?"

"The bugler, Comrade Company Commander, we still have buglers in our company." The platoon leader suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and hurriedly said to the company commander: "We can use the sound of the trumpet to communicate with the opposite side. There will be a ceasefire."

"Then what are you still doing here?" The company commander felt that the platoon leader's proposal was more reliable, so he quickly pushed his shoulder with his hand and said loudly, "Hurry up and get the bugler. "

   Regardless of the attack, the charge horn is rarely blown, but in Sukov's army, there are always several buglers, and there happens to be one in the first battalion and second company. Hearing the company commander looking for him, the bugler hurriedly crawled to the company commander's side, raised his voice and asked, "Comrade company commander, what instructions do you have?"

  The company commander pointed at the friendly soldiers on the opposite side who were still shooting, and ordered the bugle soldiers: "The opposite side is our own people, you should immediately use the trumpet sound to contact them and tell them to stop shooting."

  In order to better transmit the sound of the trumpet to the opposite side, the bugleman rolled sideways a few times, rolled into a nearby bomb crater, squatted inside and blew the bugle vigorously. As soon as the trumpet sounded, the gunfire on the opposite side became sparse. When the trumpeter heard it, there was a play, and he quickly blew it again.

  After the gunfire on the opposite side stopped, a man got up from the ground, bent over and walked over cautiously, while asking loudly, "Which part are you from?"

  The commander of the second company heard the caller in Russian, and was sure that the one who had just exchanged fire with him was a friendly army. He quickly raised his voice and shouted: "I am the commander of the second company of the first battalion. Which part do you belong to?"

   "I am Second Lieutenant Huber, deputy commander of the third battalion and third company."

  Hearing that a deputy company commander was coming from the opposite side, the second company commander stood up, went up to meet him, and said with a wry smile: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, I really didn't expect that we would fight with our own people. It's really unfortunate."

"I'm sorry, Comrade Company Commander." Huber couldn't see the rank of the Second Company Commander clearly, so he could only refer to his position: "I thought I had encountered the Germans, so I ordered to open fire. Fortunately, it was discovered in time that it was a misunderstanding. More casualties were avoided. What should we do next?"

"Continue to attack," the second company commander looked up at the sky and saw that the horizon in the distance had already turned pale. Knowing that it would not be long before dawn, he said to Hubal: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, the sky will soon be over." When the light is on, then there is no need to worry about misunderstandings.”

  The battle lasted until dawn. The commanders and fighters of the first and third battalions joined forces and jointly launched a fierce attack on the remaining German troops. The original defenders in the barracks and the newly arrived reinforcements were in chaos. They lost the artillery and trucks that had just been sent to the barracks a few hours ago, and fought and retreated to the south.

  The artillery positions to the south of the barracks were deployed. After dawn, they stopped futile shooting towards the south of the city. Instead, they aimed their guns at the attacking Soviet army and used artillery fire to cover the retreat of the infantry.

  Seeing that my soldiers suffered a lot of losses under the bombardment of enemy artillery. Vanya's eyes seemed to burst into flames. He gritted his teeth and said, "Damn the Germans, they just bully us that we don't have artillery. Otherwise, you will be blown to pieces sooner or later."

When Vanya was selling in the direction of the German artillery positions, there was the roar of an aircraft engine in the air. When he saw clearly that it was his own bomber, he quickly shouted at the signalman: "Hurry up and put out the contact cloth!" , lest the Air Force blow up its own people."

  Twelve bombers flew over the fiercely fighting battlefield and flew directly to the German artillery positions. After the indiscriminate bombing, all the artillery on the artillery position was destroyed. Around the large and small craters, there were bombed artillery parts, or **** artillery corpses. Missing arms and legs, covering his wounds, lay on the ground and howled.

   destroyed the German artillery, and the bombers turned around to deal with the fleeing German infantry. When a bomb fell, the soldiers within a radius of 20 to 30 square meters around the blast point were either killed or injured. As for the soldiers who were alone, the pilots used the airborne machine guns to shoot and beat them to pieces.

  Seeing that the German soldiers were defeated by the air force, both the commander of the first battalion, Vanya, and the commander of the third battalion, Andre, knew that this was a golden opportunity, and immediately ordered all the troops to charge.

  At this time, fighter jets also flew over the battlefield, and they cooperated with bombers to intensify their attacks on ground targets. Specially bombing and strafing the enemy where the German soldiers gathered together made it impossible for the enemy to organize effective resistance and accelerated their rout speed.

  The commanders and fighters of the third battalion had cooperated with the air force twice in the past, so when they saw the air force bombing and strafing the enemy, they rushed towards the bombed or strafing place with ease and wiped out the remaining enemies. The commanders and fighters of the first battalion also followed suit. As soon as the planes bombed a certain location, they immediately swarmed up and wiped out the enemies in their field of vision.

  While the commanders and fighters of the two battalions, with the cooperation of the air force, were fighting in full swing, Sokov was in a state of anxiety in the fortifications on the left bank. He could only see the gunpowder and the sound of gunfire and explosions on the opposite side, but he didn't know what was going on there. He yelled at the radio operator sitting in the room: "What's the matter, it's been so long, why haven't we got in touch with the other side?"

   While enduring Sokov's scolding, the radio operator shouted desperately into the microphone: "This is the brigade headquarters. Please answer if the first battalion hears it, and please answer if the first battalion hears it!"

   Then after roaring for a long time, there was still no movement. Sokov pointed at the radio operator, and ordered: "Since the first battalion can't get through, change it to the third battalion. I don't believe that the two battalions can't be contacted."

  Although the first battalion could not be contacted, the third battalion only took two or three minutes to get in touch. Hearing Andrei's voice coming from the headset, Sokov immediately asked loudly into the microphone: "Commander of the Third Battalion, how is the situation there? Is the First Battalion still fighting? Why can't they be contacted?"

   "Report to Comrade Brigadier Commander," Andrei's voice was full of joy: "Our battalion and the first battalion are attacking the enemy with the cooperation of the air force. The enemy has been defeated by us and is retreating."

  Hearing this, Sokov said to himself, with the cooperation of the Air Force, it would be a bit too shameful if you still can't defeat an army without air supremacy. But when he heard that Andre didn't answer his last question, he asked the question again: "Why can't the first battalion get in touch?"

   "It may be that they are chasing the enemy and therefore have no time to report to you."

   "Nonsense, it's just nonsense." Sokov said into the microphone: "Captain Andrey, when you see Vanya, let him contact me immediately."

  But what Sokov didn't expect was that Vanya actually used the radio station of Camp Andre to contact him. He asked curiously: "Captain Vanya, where is the radio station in your battalion?"

   "Report to Comrade Brigadier Commander," Vanya said pantingly, "During the attack just now, a German mortar shell landed beside me and exploded. The radio operator died on the spot, and the radio station was also blown up."

  Hearing Vanya say that the shell exploded beside him, Sokov hurriedly asked with concern: "Captain Vanya, are you alright?"

   "It's okay, I just scratched the skin on my arm, it's nothing serious."

Although Vanya said it lightly, Sokov still asked worriedly: "Can you continue to command the battle?" He asked this because he wanted to know the actual injury of Vanya. Both battalions were handed over to Andre for unified command.

   "Don't worry, Comrade Brigadier Commander." Vanya seemed to have guessed Sokov's thoughts, and quickly replied: "I'm really fine, just a little skin trauma, and I can continue to command operations."

"Although the German army was defeated by you, your strength is too small after all. If you rush forward blindly, if you encounter an oncoming enemy, you will suffer a big loss." Sukov heard that Vanya He could continue to command the battle, so he told him: "After driving the enemy away, stop chasing, quickly clean up the battlefield, collect those weapons that can be used, and prepare to withdraw to the city at any time. Do you understand?"

   "Understood, Comrade Battalion Commander."

   Half an hour later, the battle in the south of the city came to an end, and no more than a thousand German troops escaped. After the commanders and fighters of the first and third battalions stopped chasing, they began to clean up the battlefield, collected all the weapons that could be used, and prepared to transport them back to the city. The captured artillery and trucks could only be blown up because they could not be transported across the Tenebra River.

  In this battle, more than 2,000 German soldiers were killed, and more than 700 people surrendered with their weapons. In addition, there were two or three hundred wounded soldiers who lost their combat effectiveness, lying on the ground and howling. Seeing so many wounded, Andre found Vanya, and discussed with him: "Captain Vanya, look, there are so many wounded, how should we deal with them?"

  Vanya also felt a headache when he looked at the wounded. Instead of expressing his opinion immediately, he asked instead: "Comrade Andrei, how do you think these wounded should be dealt with?"

"If there are only a few wounded, maybe I will order someone to give them another shot to end their suffering." Andre said with some embarrassment: "But there are two or three hundred wounded here, and we can't kill them all. Bar?"

"Leave them here and wait for the Germans to rescue them." Vanya had followed Sokov for a long time, and he knew his style very well. Seeing that Andre didn't know how to deal with the prisoners, He said substitutingly: "Whether you can survive or not depends on their tone."

Andre felt a little surprised by Vanya's way of handling it. He thought that the Germans had just been repelled by us, how could they make a comeback so quickly, and leaving these wounded here? died with timely treatment. Seeing Vanya's frosty face, he swallowed back what he wanted to say, and then shouted to his soldiers: "Take the captives and weapons, and prepare to cross the river."

Seeing the troops on the other side crossing the river one after another, Sokov considered the wounded they were carrying and the supplies they had seized, so he dispatched a company from Vasili's second battalion and rushed to the Tnebra River to help the soldiers who had just fought The victorious troops carried supplies and the wounded.

  When Sokov saw Vanya again, he found that his arm was not only injured, but lying on a stretcher shirtless, with bandages wrapped around his waist and abdomen. Seeing this situation, he quickly stepped forward to hold the opponent's hand, and said in a reproachful tone: "Captain Vanya, didn't you say that your injury is not serious? Why did you not withdraw from the battle in time when you were so seriously injured?"

Vanya sat up with support, grinned at Sokov, and said: "Comrade Brigadier, don't worry, don't look at the bandages on my body, but the injury is really not serious. God will be fine."

"Come here." Before Vanya could finish speaking, Sokov shouted at several health workers standing aside, "Send Captain Vanya to the health team immediately, and let the military medical comrades examine him carefully. one time."

  Seeing Sokov urging the health worker to send him to the health team, Vanya showed a troubled expression on his face: "But, Comrade Brigadier Commander, I haven't had time to give you a battle summary yet."

   "Let's put aside the summary for now. The most important thing is to heal your injuries now." Sokov finished speaking, and said to the soldier carrying the stretcher: "What are you still standing here, why don't you go to the health team with the health workers?"

   After seeing off Vanya, Andre also came to Sokov. Sokov looked him up and down, and seeing that his face was blackened by gunpowder smoke, and his military uniform was almost intact, he said to him: "Captain Andrei, Vanya It has been sent to the health team. It will be up to you to report to me about the whole battle later."

  Hearing Sokov's order, Andrei quickly straightened his body and said, "Understood, Comrade Brigadier Commander, I will report to you in detail about the progress of the entire battle later."

  (end of this chapter)