Red Moscow

  Chapter 449 Armored Vehicles vs Tanks

  In order to find the whereabouts of the tank brigade as soon as possible, Sokov always used plain language on the radio when contacting the search team. He didn't realize at all that what he did was tantamount to exposing himself and his troops to the enemy in a disguised form.

The monitoring department of the German army judged from the intercepted call content that a small Soviet army came to the Orlovka area, looking for the Soviet tank brigade that broke through its own defense line yesterday, and immediately dispatched the combat troops on the intelligence front. inform. Major General Erich Magnus, the commander of the 389th Infantry Division of the German Army, learned that a small Soviet army had appeared in his defense zone, so he immediately mobilized three infantry companies, and with the cooperation of tanks, launched a massacre. Comprehensive search.

  Golia led a group of soldiers to dig trenches on the hillside, complaining incessantly. He thought to himself: Not to mention that there are no Germans in this area at all, even if there are Germans in the vicinity, seeing his group of soldiers in German uniforms, they will definitely think they are their own people, and there will be no such incidents at all. what doubts. Sokov ordered himself to bring people here to repair the fortifications, which was unnecessary.

   Just as he was slandering Sokov, a soldier beside him suddenly shouted: "Comrade Battalion Commander, there are tanks coming towards us."

   "Where is it?" Hearing that a tank was coming towards him, Goria asked loudly while raising his binoculars to look around, but he didn't see the shadow of the tank at all, nor heard the roar of the tank's engine. He raised his hand and slapped the soldier's helmet, and said angrily, "It's nonsense, where are the German tanks?"

"That's right, Comrade Battalion Commander." The soldier helped the helmet that was crooked by Golia, and said aggrievedly: "I really heard the roar of the tank engine, but the sound is not like our army's T-34 Tanks, it must be a German tank squad, are coming towards us."

   "Comrade battalion commander, look!" Just as Golia was about to slap the soldier, a sergeant not far away shouted loudly, "There are tanks appearing in the distance."

  Golia looked in the direction of the sergeant's finger, and sure enough, he saw several black spots. These black spots were getting bigger and bigger, and the roar of the tank engine could be faintly heard. Golia turned to look at the soldier, and said with some surprise: "Your hearing is good, the German tanks are still out of our sight, and you actually heard the roar of the engine. I'm sorry, just now I wronged you, please forgive me."

After apologizing to the soldiers, Golia came to the radio operator, grabbed the headset and microphone, and informed Sokov who was still at the foot of the hillside: "Comrade Brigadier, please come to me immediately, Something unexpected happened."

   Sokov was sitting in the armored vehicle and dozed off, but when he heard Goria's report, he suddenly had an ominous premonition. He turned over and got off the armored vehicle, and quickly ran up the hillside. After seeing Goliath, he asked out of breath, "Comrade Captain, what happened?"

   "Comrade Brigadier, look over there." Goria pointed to the direction where the German tanks appeared, and said to Sokov, "Suddenly a German tank appeared over there."

   "How many cars are there?" Sokov asked as he raised his binoculars and looked into the distance. Before Golia could answer, he began to count in a low voice: "One, two, three... six, seven, there are actually seven tanks."

  Golya waited for Sokov to finish counting the German tanks, and asked worriedly: "Comrade Brigadier, do you think the enemy tanks are coming towards us?"

"I don't know," Sokov didn't know how to answer Goliath's question. Although he was wearing a German uniform, he was not afraid of 10,000 but just in case. There was a fierce battle, so he told Goliath: "Let the soldiers prepare for battle, and as soon as the enemy knows who we are, shoot and kill them."

  According to Sokov's thinking, the German tanks would definitely drive to the foot of the hillside, and he would not help but send people up to hand over the tank soldiers' weapons. If possible, he could capture a few of them and go back. Therefore, when he saw the German tanks rumbling towards the hillside where he was, Sokov felt ecstasy in his heart.

   But what happened next made him a little dumbfounded. The German tanks stopped at a distance of three or four hundred meters from the hillside. After they lined up, a tank soldier leaned out from the turret of one of the tanks and gave Sokov and the others a red and green signal flag. Send signal.

  Seeing the dancing tanker, Sokov hurriedly asked to the left and right: "Which one of you knows what kind of semaphore the German tanker is sending us?"

   "Comrade Brigadier, I am the signal soldier in the battalion." The soldier who had warned Goria straightened his body and reported to Sokov: "The enemy is asking which part we belong to with a semaphore!"

   "Answer them," Sokov told the signal soldier, seeing the red and green signal flags on his belt on his back waist, and ordered him, "Say that we belong to the 295th Infantry Division."

  The signal soldier agreed, climbed out of the trench, stood on a mound, waved the signal flag in his hand, and conveyed what Sokov said to the German tank soldiers on the opposite side.

  The opposing tank soldier then asked with a signal flag: "The troops of the 295th Infantry Division, what are you doing in the defense area of ​​our 389th Infantry Division?"

   "We were ordered to come for reinforcements." The signalman replied according to Sokov's order.

  Unexpectedly, after the signal soldier sent out the signal, the German tank soldiers fell silent, and did not send any more signals for a long time. Just when Sokov and the others were wondering, they saw the tank soldier retreat into the tank. Following the slow rotation of the tank's turret, the muzzles were all aimed in the direction of the hillside.

"Hidden, hide quickly." Although Sokov didn't know why the German tank soldiers retracted into the tank, but when he saw the black muzzle pointing at the hillside where he was, he also noticed that something was wrong, and quickly shouted loudly : "Battle alert, the Germans are about to fire."

   As soon as Sokov shouted, the German tanks fired. The shells landed on the hillside and exploded, setting off large lumps of soil. Several soldiers who hadn't had time to hide were blown away by the blast.

   Goria, who was squatting in the trench, asked Sokov loudly: "Comrade Brigadier, what's going on, why are the German tanks firing at us?"

   "You ask me, who should I ask?" Sokov was also confused about the inexplicable firing of German tanks. He felt that there seemed to be no flaws on his side. How could the Germans see through it all at once? He poked his head out cautiously, glanced at the tanks firing in the distance, squatted back into the trench again, and faced Golia: "Sly Germans, they parked the tanks three or four hundred meters away to bully us Without long-range anti-tank fire, they couldn't pose any threat to their tanks."

   "Comrade Brigadier, what should we do now?" Goria asked loudly, taking advantage of the gap between shell explosions.

"Transfer, we have to get out of this damned place before the enemy's infantry arrives." Sokov thought that the 67th tank brigade he was going to respond to had been completely destroyed, and even the brigade commander, Colonel Shidjayev, was also killed. , It doesn't make any sense for your own troops to stay here, the current priority is to transfer, "Immediately organize our troops to leave here in batches."

  Golia faithfully carried out the order given by Sokov, organized his own part into squads, and organized them to break out to the south in batches. But he soon discovered that the retreat route of the troops was blocked by German tank fire. The first infantry squad to retreat was bombarded by German tank guns as soon as it left the hillside. The soldiers far away only ran two hundred meters before falling under the German artillery fire.

   "Damn, it's a hell." Seeing the German artillery blocking the troops' retreat route, Sokov couldn't help becoming a little annoyed: "Goria, immediately send your people to blow up all the German tanks."

"It's hard to handle, Comrade Brigadier Commander." Regarding the order to blow up the German tanks, Golia said in embarrassment: "The enemy tanks are three or four hundred meters away from our position. As soon as our soldiers leave the fortifications, would be the target of enemy tank guns and machine guns. In this case, sending them to blow up tanks is no different from sending them to die."

   Hearing what Goria said, Sokov was going crazy and wanted to retreat, but the retreat was blocked by the German tank fire; send someone to blow up the tank, the enemy tank stopped a little far away. If you stay here and do nothing, as soon as the German infantry arrives, they can attack the hillside position under the cover of tanks, and they will still be unable to escape the fate of the entire army.

  What Sokov thought of, Goria also thought of. He looked at the tanks lined up in the distance and kept firing their guns, and murmured, "It's a pity that we only have one armored vehicle left here. Even if there is one tank, we can compete with the enemy."

  The speaker is not interested, but the listener is interested. Goria’s words inspired Sokov. That’s right, don’t we still have an armored vehicle? Although an armored vehicle cannot compare with a tank in terms of firepower and armor, its speed is indeed unmatched by a tank. The top speed of this half-track armored vehicle can reach 60 kilometers per hour, and it may be possible to use the speed to deal with German tanks.

  Thinking of this, Sokov said to Golia: "Comrade Captain, take your men to hold the position, and I will take people to blow up the German tanks."

   Knowing that Sokov was going to take risks, Golia grabbed him and said nervously, "Comrade Brigadier, how can you take risks so easily? Let the soldiers below do this kind of thing."

"Comrade Captain," Sokov said to Golia in order to reassure him, "Despite the fierce firepower and thick armor of the German tanks, we can use the speed of the armored vehicles to quickly rush to their vicinity, and then The fighters in the carriages throw anti-tank grenades at the tanks, so that the enemy tanks can be destroyed."

Golia knew Sokov's character, once he decided something, no one could persuade him, so he didn't stop him, but asked tentatively: "Comrade Brigadier, I need to send a few more people to assist you Are you going to blow up tanks?"

   "No need." Sokov thought that in addition to the driver, radio operator and Ernst, there were five soldiers in his car, which should be enough to blow up seven German tanks in the distance. So he rejected Goliath's kindness, "Our current manpower is enough."

  Sokov came to the armored vehicle at the foot of the mountain, looked up at Ernst and the operator sitting in the carriage, pointed at them with his hand, and ordered: "You two get out of the car immediately!"

   Ernst and the radio operator didn't know what happened, so they hurried out of the carriage and stood straight in front of Sokov, waiting for his next order. Sokov looked at Ernst and the radio operator and said softly: "We are going to carry out a dangerous mission, you two should stay here and wait for us to return."

After finishing speaking, Sokov turned around and got on the armored vehicle. He said to the five soldiers in the vehicle: "Comrades, I think you already know that on the north side of the hillside, seven tanks are constantly shelling the hillside behind us. I plan to Take you to blow up the enemy's tanks and cover the troops to break through smoothly."

  A soldier waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and immediately asked: "Comrade Brigadier Commander, I would like to ask, how should we bomb the German tanks?"

"After our armored vehicle quickly approached the German tank," Sokov bent down to pick up an anti-tank grenade placed on the floor of the car, and continued: "Just throw this at the enemy tank and blow it up. Understand." Yet?"

  Although everyone knew that this was a narrow escape mission, they still answered in unison: "Understood!"

Seeing that the soldiers understood their intentions, Sokov nodded in satisfaction, then bent down and ordered the driver sitting in the cab: "In a moment, you increase the speed to the highest speed, we must rush to get as close as possible to the enemy tanks." position, so that the anti-tank grenades thrown by our soldiers can blow up the enemy's tanks."

   After the armored vehicle rushed out from the back of the hill, it was immediately spotted by German tanks. One tank immediately turned its muzzle and fired at the high-speed armored vehicle, but the shells could not hit the high-speed armored vehicle at all.

  After the armored vehicle started, Sokov and the others crouched in the compartment in order to prevent being injured by the flying shrapnel. A shell landed five or six meters away from the armored vehicle. The air wave from the explosion caused the body to shake, and the flying shrapnel made the armor plate jingle. Sokov secretly rejoiced that he was riding in an armored vehicle. If it was an ordinary vehicle, even if the air wave did not overturn the vehicle, the flying shrapnel would turn the people in the vehicle into hedgehogs.

   But when approaching a tank, Sokov saw a soldier standing up abruptly and throwing an anti-tank grenade out. It might be because the body was too bumpy. The grenade he threw didn't hit the tank, but went over the body of the tank and landed on an open field. Before the soldiers could throw a second bomb, the armored vehicle had already passed by this tank and rushed towards another tank.

  Seeing the soldier squatting down in frustration, Sokov quickly reached out and patted him on the shoulder, comforting him and said, "Comrade soldier, don't worry, aim at the point next time you shoot."

  When the armored vehicle approached the second tank, the soldier stood up again, waved his hand violently, and threw the anti-tank grenade in his hand. With the sound of an explosion, the German tank burst into flames, and in a short while, the entire tank was engulfed in flames.

  (end of this chapter)