Red Moscow

  Chapter 517 Factory Defense Battle (13)

In fact, Briski was quite aggrieved, and ordered all the commanders and fighters on the ground to fire. Since the sky was too dark, and there were many bomb craters as cover, not to mention that they could not hit the enemy, and it was a waste of ammunition; however, the number of people shooting Forget it, the enemy can quickly approach the position under the cover of night.

  At this time, the German sneak attack troops were still 40 to 50 meters away from the trenches. If the position was not fully fired, the enemy's grenades could be thrown into the trenches soon. Once the grenade falls in the trench and explodes, the enemy may rush into the trench before the smoke clears. So Briski gritted his teeth and gave the order for full fire.

  As the order was issued, all the guns on the position began to shoot together. At the same time, in order to prevent the German army from approaching the position quickly, many soldiers threw grenades. In the case of limited visibility, the power of grenades is far greater than that of bullets. As soon as the German army jumped out of the crater and bent over to rush towards the Soviet position, countless grenades fell under their feet and exploded. The shrapnel splashed by the violent explosion and the flying bullets intertwined with each other, forming a deadly firepower net, blowing up and knocking down the charging German army in pieces.

The German officers and soldiers who came to attack were all veterans with rich combat experience. Seeing that the Soviet army had formed an insurmountable fire net with machine guns, submachine guns, rifles and grenades, they did not bite the bullet and continue to rush forward. The crater was retracted. They squatted in the crater, quickly checked the guns and ammunition, observed the surrounding environment with their eyes, and determined their location. Judging the location of the Soviet army and the approximate number of people based on the feeling of bullets flying overhead. The officers with rich combat experience even thought about a new combat plan in their minds, preparing to lead the soldiers to conduct an assault again.

   Sokov, who was hiding behind and observing, with the help of the flames from the explosion, could vaguely see a lot of black shadows shaking in the distance, but he couldn't see clearly what kind of troops the enemy had. He worried that once these enemies lurked in front of the position, as soon as the enemy's shelling started after dawn, they would be able to take advantage of the favorable opportunity for the defenders to avoid the shelling and suddenly charge towards the position, and it would be impossible to defend against.

Just when Sokov was in a hurry, he accidentally saw the dozens of sharpshooters sitting in the factory building. He couldn't help but his eyes lit up, and he quickly shouted at the sharpshooter captain he appointed: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, come here!" I'm here for a while."

  Hearing Sokov's shout, the captain held his gun, bent over and ran to Sokov. He knelt down and asked in a low voice, "Comrade Brigadier, what instructions do you have?"

   "Comrade Second Lieutenant, take your men to the roof immediately." Sokov thought of the sharpshooters hiding on the roof and driving tracks during the daytime battle, which had caused great casualties to the enemy. Now the enemy is hiding in the bomb crater. Although the commanders and fighters who stick to the position are shooting and dropping bombs desperately, they can cause very limited losses to the enemy. Therefore, the sharpshooters can only be used to eliminate those hiding in the bomb crater Enemy: "Fire flares first to see where the enemies are hiding, and then use the guns in your hands to destroy them all."

"Understood, Comrade Brigadier, let's go to the roof." After the captain finished speaking, he got up, bent over and ran back to the place where the sharpshooters gathered, and shouted to them in a low voice: "Comrades, let me go to the roof. The guns in our hands, destroy those enemies hiding in the craters."

  As the sharpshooters took to the roof, the situation on the battlefield quickly developed in favor of the defenders. Those enemies hiding in the crater were forty or fifty meters away from the Soviet trenches. At such a distance, the grenades could not be thrown, and the bullets would not turn, so naturally they could not hit anyone. But the situation of the sharpshooters on the roof was different. Under the light of the flares, they could clearly see the enemies hiding in the trenches, and then killed them one by one as if they were fixed targets. In the crater.

   There were no more than 100 German soldiers in the sneak attack. During the charge, more than 40 people were killed or killed by the Soviet army, and the rest were hiding in the bomb crater. Although they could avoid the bullets and grenades fired from the Soviet positions, they could not avoid the bullets flying from above their heads. In less than ten minutes, these German officers and soldiers who were ready to attack again at any time turned into a massacre. corpse.

The telephone lines on the roof and downstairs were still usable. After confirming that almost all the enemies hiding in the bomb crater were killed, the captain of the sharpshooter immediately called Sokov and reported emotionally: "The brigade Comrade Chang, the enemies hiding in the bomb craters were almost all killed by us."

   "Really?" Sokov didn't expect that the sharpshooter would kill all the German officers and soldiers who were attacking in a short period of time on the roof, but he still asked cautiously: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, are they really wiped out?"

  The captain hesitated for a moment, and then replied: "Comrade Brigadier, as long as the targets we found were eliminated. So far, we have not found any active targets that have survived."

   "I see, Comrade Second Lieutenant." After listening to the other party's report, Sokov said with satisfaction: "You have done a good job. When you return to Mamayev Post, I will ask the political commissar to apply for medals for you."

Knowing that the enemy had been wiped out, and listening to the bean-popping gunshots outside, Sokov's heart was bleeding. Seeing that there was not much ammunition in stock, Briski was still like a prodigal, and he had nothing to lose. Let the subordinates play non-stop in a restrained manner. After making the phone call, Sokov said angrily, "Okay, Comrade Captain, order your subordinates to stop shooting and stop wasting bullets. The enemies have all been wiped out by the sharpshooters on the roof."

When Briski heard what Sokov said, he didn't even have time to cover the microphone, and shouted to the people in the command post: "Hurry up and order to stop shooting, the enemy has been wiped out by the sharpshooters on the roof." With the order As soon as it was released, the dense gunfire became sparse at first, and soon stopped completely.

Sokov waited for the gunshots outside to stop, and told Briski: "Comrade Captain, after dawn, you immediately send people to clean up the battlefield, and try to collect more usable weapons and ammunition to come back. Just like you did just now. Fire the gun, at least one base of ammunition is used up, find a way to replenish more, understand?"

   "Comrade Brigadier," Briski asked hesitantly, "I want to ask, why wait until dawn to clean the battlefield instead of now?"

"No, you can't go out now." Sokov explained to Briski: "It's too dark outside, if you take the soldiers to clean up the battlefield now, even if there are Germans who were not killed, you will find out No, it will cause unnecessary casualties."

After listening to Sokov's explanation, Briski thought to himself, what the brigade commander said seemed to make sense, he went out to clean up the battlefield, not to mention the possibility of encountering sniper enemies, even if he didn't, some weapons and ammunition were not enough. easy to find. Since this is the case, then wait a few more hours until dawn before sending someone to clean up the battlefield.

As soon as the battle here ended, Guriyev called. After hearing Sokov's voice, he asked straight to the point: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what happened to you? Why did I hear the gunshots? What about intensive?"

   "Comrade General, it's nothing serious, just a small group of enemies sneaked up." Sokov quickly replied, "But they have been wiped out by us."

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," Guriyev knew very well in his heart that his troops were able to hold their positions during the day because of the small troops sent by Sokov to attack the German 24th Armored Division, preventing them from entering the battlefield on time. Thereby reducing the pressure on one's own defense. It is precisely because of this that Guriyev said very politely: "If there is anything that needs our help, please feel free to ask, and we will try our best to support you."

  Although Sokov thought that he had nothing to do with the help of the guards, he still politely replied to Guriyev's hospitality: "I will, Comrade General. Thank you!"

   While the battle was going on, Sokov kept Balshak's destroyer battalion south of the plant and did not let them participate in the battle. The reason why he wanted to do this was because the commanders and fighters of the destroyer battalion had no experience in night combat. If they were allowed to participate in the battle, not only would they not be able to achieve any results, but on the contrary, they would cause a lot of unnecessary sacrifices.

Hearing that the battle on the other side of the factory was over at this moment, Balshak, who couldn't sit still for a long time, ran over and asked Sokov about the situation of the battle: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the gunshots outside Stopped, has the enemy's attack been repelled by us?"

"It was not repulsed, but wiped out by us." Seeing the appearance of Balshak, Sokov felt that he could ask them to help when cleaning the battlefield, so as to reduce the work intensity of the commanders and fighters of the fourth battalion. Asked in a tentative tone: "Major Balshak, I plan to send troops to clean up the battlefield after dawn and collect weapons and ammunition that can be used to supplement us. I wonder if you can send some people to assist our army to disturb the battlefield."

  Bolshak replied carelessly: "No problem, just ask how many people you want, even if you want everyone, I can agree to your request."

   "Don't worry, Major Bolshak, I won't want all of you." Sokov stretched out a finger and said to Bolshak, "Give me a hundred people, that's enough."

"Don't worry, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I will arrange it as soon as possible." After Balshak finished speaking, he suddenly remembered something, and asked with some perplexity: "But now that the battle is over, you can definitely send it now." People go to clean the battlefield, why wait until dawn? You know, once the sky is bright, the enemy can see everything here through the telescope."

"Not now, it's too dark outside." Sokov shook his head and said, "If I order the soldiers to clean up the battlefield now, they may not be able to see where the German weapons and ammunition are, and they may even be attacked by those who have not yet come." The dead German soldiers attacked. For the safety of the commanders and fighters, I decided to wait until dawn before letting them clean the battlefield."

"You are very thoughtful." Balshak figured out why Sokov didn't send someone to clean up the battlefield now, nodded his head and said approvingly: "This will prevent our soldiers from being sacrificed needlessly. "

After Balshak left, Sokov sat down on a pile of rubble and began to think in his mind: When he heard the first mine explosion, he thought it was a German scout sneaking in; until the second explosion sounded, Only then did I realize that the enemy had sent a small army to attack. Fortunately, mines were planted in the factory area, otherwise the enemy would not find out until they touched the front. Maybe the two sides are engaged in repeated tug-of-war in the trench outside the factory building at this moment.

  Sokov felt that if he wanted to defend this place, he could not defend for the sake of defense. He had to find a way to disrupt the deployment of the German army to reduce the pressure on his own side. Thinking of this, he picked up the phone, called Cousteau who was hiding in the basement, and said straight to the point: "Comrade workshop director, I wonder if you can find me some comrades who are familiar with the surrounding terrain?"

"What do you want comrades who are familiar with the terrain to do?" Cousteau had just asked this question, and immediately guessed an idea, and asked tentatively: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the German army launched a surprise attack on us tonight, do you want to An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and send someone to sneak attack them?"

Seeing that Cousteau had guessed his intentions, Sokov laughed twice, and then jokingly said: "Comrade workshop director, you know too many military secrets, it's not good, be careful, comrades from the Ministry of Internal Affairs will invite you You are going to be investigated."

   "Stop, stop," Cousteau stopped Sokov even though he knew he was joking, "Don't make this kind of joke, otherwise people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs will find out, and you and I will be in trouble."

"Okay, Comrade Workshop Director, I'm not joking." Sokov restrained the smile on his face, and said seriously: "Since the enemy can sneak attack us, then we can also sneak attack them. I want you to ask a few people who are familiar with the terrain Comrade, I intend to sneak attack the enemy at the right time."

"There are a few old comrades in the workshop who participated in the battle to defend Tsaritsyn. They have worked in the factory for decades and know the surrounding terrain well." Cousteau said earnestly : "I will contact them immediately and ask them to act as guides for you to carry out the sneak attack mission."

After completing the question of the guide, Sokov began to consider which branch should carry out the sneak attack mission: the members of the destroyer battalion are almost all workers in the assembly workshop. They should be familiar with the surrounding terrain, but their combat effectiveness But it's not satisfactory. It's okay to fight defensive battles during the day, but if you fight at night, your combat effectiveness may be greatly reduced. Therefore, the troops involved in the sneak attack should preferably be Briski's Fourth Battalion. Sokov picked up the phone and said into the microphone: "Comrade Captain, put aside the work in your hands and come to me immediately. I have something to discuss with you."

  (end of this chapter)