Red Moscow

  Chapter 377 Don't let any one go

   "I will send troops to rescue you." After putting down the phone, the regiment leader directly ordered the communications soldier: "Pick me up to the division headquarters immediately, I want to speak to the division commander."

  Kofes was awakened by his subordinates from his sleep, and came to the telephone in a daze, picked up the receiver and put it to his ear, and asked angrily, "Colonel, what happened?"

"Master Commander, something has happened." Hearing Kofes' voice, the regiment commander said quickly, "The battalion we went to the south of Mamayev Kurgan was surrounded by Russians, and the battalion commander called me for help. Call, if you say no support, there is a danger of annihilation of the entire army."

   "Damn, what the **** is going on?" The news made Kofes sober immediately: "Didn't the Russians in Nangang retreat? How could they be surrounded?"

"I don't know the specific situation." The head of the regiment still hasn't figured out how the Soviet army easily recaptured the Nangang position, so he can only say vaguely: "My subordinates reported to me that after they occupied Nangang, They also built fortifications in the direction of the east **** and sent out guard posts to prevent the Russians from sneaking in. But the Russians came out of nowhere and caught them by surprise.”

   "How many people are left in the battalion?" Kofes and the group leader immediately asked after finishing speaking, "Where are they?"

"Trapped in the minefield in front of Nangang." The head of the regiment hurriedly said: "Because the Russians have snipers, they are suppressed and unable to move. Your Excellency, if you don't send people to them as soon as possible, they will have the whole army." danger of destruction."

   "I see." After Kofes finished speaking, he hung up the phone without waiting for the leader to say anything. After he lit a cigarette and took a puff quietly, he directly extinguished it in the ashtray, and ordered loudly: "Come on, call the chief of staff."

  The chief of staff was sitting next to the command room, and came over as soon as he was called. While arranging his military appearance, he asked in a panic: "Your Excellency, what's the matter?"

"The battalion that went out to Mamayev Hill was surrounded by the Russians. After a fierce battle, there were only more than a hundred people left in the battalion, and all of them were trapped in the minefield." Kofes said to his chief of staff: "If people are not sent to rescue as soon as possible, they may be in danger of being wiped out."

"How to save?" The chief of staff asked back: "If the Russians really sent out snipers, our engineers would be killed by them when they cleared the mines. Don't wait for the besieged troops to be rescued. Go in and get more soldiers."

"We need to rescue our troops from minefields." Kofes said thoughtfully: "It is not necessarily necessary to send engineers to clear mines. For example, tanks can be sent directly into minefields. Although those mines can be trapped infantry, but has little effect on our tanks."

"The Russian landmines did not cause much damage to our tanks." The chief of staff raised objections to Kofes's proposal: "But on their positions, there is an anti-tank army dog ​​team, which is specially used to deal with the tanks. Our tanks. Our failure to attack Beigang yesterday was largely due to the existence of this unit."

The words of the division chief of staff reminded Kofes that in addition to the anti-tank dog company, there seemed to be an anti-tank artillery position on Mamayev Post. The loss outweighs the gain. He walked back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, thinking about how to deal with the anti-tank fire on Mamayev's hill.

After walking back and forth a dozen times in the house, he said to the division chief of staff: "Chief of staff, I remember that there seems to be an anti-tank artillery position of the Russians on the south hill. You call the artillery regiment immediately and ask them to send someone Monitor Nangang, and once the Russian artillery is found to be firing, immediately suppress it with powerful artillery fire to cover our tanks smoothly entering the minefield."

   "This is a good way." The division chief of staff nodded and said, "As long as the Russian anti-tank firepower is suppressed, our tanks can enter the minefield and open up a passage for the infantry trapped there."

  ...

While the German commander was studying how to rescue the besieged troops, Chuikov called Sokov and asked straight to the point: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, I heard the gunfire from your place. What is the current situation?" What's the matter, have you surrounded the enemy?"

"Comrade Commander, the German infantry battalion that went out to Nangang has been basically wiped out by us." Sokov was about to call Chuikov, but unexpectedly the other party called him first, and quickly reported: "Now they only have The next two hundred people are trapped in the minefield and cannot escape, and it is only a matter of time before they are wiped out."

"What, there are only one or two hundred enemies left?" Regarding Sokov's report, Chuikov said in surprise: "That is to say, you eliminated more than six hundred German soldiers in less than an hour? My Do you understand me right?"

"That's right, Comrade Commander, your understanding is completely correct." Thinking of the results his troops had achieved, Sokov replied with some complacency: "To be precise, it took only a quarter of an hour for our troops to complete the entire battle. We wiped out the enemies occupying the surface positions of Nangang. And the enemies trapped in the minefield, if they were not stationed in the forward positions at the foot of the mountain, we would have been wiped out by us at this moment."

"Since it's surrounded, don't let any one escape." After learning about the results of Sokov's troops, Chuikov suddenly felt elated. I will give credit to my superiors for your achievements. Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, please express my gratitude to the soldiers on my behalf for the feats they have established in the defense of Stalingrad."

After finishing the call with Chuikov, Sokov looked at the group of German officers and soldiers trapped in the minefield and thought for a while, then grabbed the phone in front of him, shook the handle twice, picked up the microphone and stuck it to his ear, Said: "Chief of Staff? This is Sokov."

"Comrade Brigadier, have you seen everything?" Sidolin, who was staying in the tunnel, said excitedly after hearing Sukov's voice: "The enemy occupying the surface position of Nangang has been completely wiped out by us. The remaining small group of enemies are also trapped in the minefield and cannot move, and it is only a matter of time before they are eliminated."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, until the last enemy is wiped out, we must not take it lightly." Sukov worried that Sidolin would underestimate the enemy, and quickly reminded him: "Immediately order Lieutenant Porochenko to pull the artillery to the top of the mountain and bombard the mines." Enemies in the region, forcing them to surrender. If they do not surrender, destroy them completely."

  After receiving Sokov's order, Sidolin immediately ordered Lieutenant Porochenko to pull a cannon to the top of the mountain, condescendingly bombard the enemies trapped in the minefield, and speed up their elimination.

Just as Porochenko was commanding the artillery to establish a firing position on the top of the mountain, he suddenly heard a scream from the air. As an artillery commander, he could naturally hear the sound of artillery shells flying in the air, and hurriedly shouted One cry: "Lie down!" After shouting, he threw his head on the ground.

Fortunately, the sky was not too bright at this time, and the German artillery's shooting was not as accurate as during the day. The shells they fired either landed on the position on the western **** and exploded; The artillery battery posed no threat. Seeing that the bombing point was far away from his artillery position, Porochenko quickly got up from the ground and ordered his subordinates to continue to arrange artillery positions.

Although the soldiers of the artillery company have been exposed to artillery for a short time, most of them are old gunners with rich experience, especially many of them have stayed in German prisoner-of-war camps. During those humiliating days, Fill them with hatred for the Germans. So when Porochenko gave the order to fire, he fired directly into the minefield without even a test shot.

  The shell accurately landed on the crowd lying on the ground, and the blast blast threw a few unlucky ghosts high into the air. Seeing that the people around them were blown away by shells, the German soldiers felt that lying on the ground was not safe, so they stood up quickly and tried to run to a safe place to hide, but they didn't take two steps, either they were knocked down by the bullets fired by the sharpshooter, or they were killed. The mines on the ground exploded.

  The shelling of the Soviet army became the last straw that crushed the will of the German army. Some German soldiers saw themselves left in the minefield, and were either killed by shells or bullets from the Soviet army. He didn't want to stay here and wait to die, so he quickly dropped the gun in his hand and ran towards the Soviet army's position with his hands raised high.

  The soldiers who were about to surrender at the beginning were shot and killed by the battalion commander, but more and more soldiers couldn't hold back and wanted to surrender. They threw away their weapons one after another, and rushed to the Soviet army's position with their hands raised high. In the confusion, the battalion commander's gun jammed again. Just as he was trying to troubleshoot the problem, the German lieutenant called two of his subordinates to set him up and dragged him towards the Soviet position.

Sokov, who was in the observation post, saw that the will of the German army to resist had been blown up by several shells, so he quickly gave an order to the first battalion commander Vanya: "Comrade Captain, the enemy has surrendered, order the soldiers to stop shooting , and began to take prisoners."

  Following Sokov's order, the Soviet army stopped shooting. After the German officers and soldiers who surrendered entered the trenches, after a search, they were all driven to a bunker and locked up.

   Just as the German army surrendered, the tank unit that came to rescue them had already arrived not far from the minefield. When the tank commander saw that the people he wanted to rescue had surrendered to the Soviet army, he couldn't help but sighed and reported to his superiors: "The troops we want to rescue have surrendered to the Russians, what should we do next? Please advise!"

  After receiving the report, the German commander was silent for a long time, and finally said: "Rescue is meaningless. In order to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, you should withdraw immediately."

  (end of this chapter)