Red Moscow

  Chapter 574 Four Lines of Defense (Part 2)

  Led by the soldiers, Sokov soon arrived at the place where Bely and Vanya stayed.

   Seeing Sokov approaching, Bely said to him with a serious expression: "Comrade Brigadier Commander, the tank crew led by Captain Sereda has lost contact with us."

  Sokov knew that three tank crews, including Captain Sereda, and more than 20 soldiers, would open the way as the vanguard. Hearing that they lost contact at this moment, I couldn't help asking anxiously: "Have you sent someone to look for them?"

"I found it," Vanya nodded, and replied, "Only the bodies of about 20 soldiers were found, and they seemed to have died in the German bombing. No wreckage of any tanks was found. Presumably, Captain Sereda and the others went to other places." It’s just that they can’t get in touch with us for the time being.”

   "Time is running out, and we will temporarily put aside the matter of Captain Sereda." Sokov raised his hand and looked at his watch: "We must organize an attack immediately and strive to break through the German defensive positions in the shortest possible time."

  After Sokov finished speaking, he saw that Bely was frowning and thinking about something solemnly, so he asked curiously, "Colonel Bely, is there any question?"

   "Comrade Brigadier," Bely replied: "At present, half of the infantry has not caught up. If we rush to attack with this force, I am afraid it will be very difficult to succeed."

"Yes, Comrade Brigadier." Vanya expressed support for Bely's statement: "I think we should wait until all the troops have arrived before launching an attack on the enemy. "

"There is no time, and the attack must be launched immediately." In order to dispel the concerns of the two, Sokov continued: "I have already asked General Guriyev, the enemy's strength on the opposite position is limited, and there are no anti-tank weapons. I It means that the armored battalion is used to carry out the assault first, and the infantry will follow up."

   "Even if the enemy doesn't have any anti-tank weapons," Bely said with great concern, "Once they find that our tanks have no infantry cover, they can use explosives or cluster grenades to blow up our tanks."

"Let Lieutenant Valenra's ball tank open the way in front and use a wedge-shaped assault." Sokov waited for Bely to finish speaking, and said without hesitation: "The ball tank has strong firepower and fast speed, and the enemy's explosives Packs and cluster grenades are useless against it, and I think it should be easy to break through the enemy's position if you use it to lead an assault."

"Comrade Brigadier, our troops are limited." Vanya reminded Sokov cautiously: "If we break through the enemy's line of defense and leave troops behind for defense, our ability to charge forward will become even weaker. "

"Comrade Captain, you can rest assured about this." Sokov said to Vanya: "I will discuss with General Guryev later that once we break through the enemy's defensive position, his troops will take over. defense."

   Seeing that Sokov had considered all the issues that should be considered, Bely and Vanya said nothing more, agreed, and turned back to their respective troops to make the final preparations before the attack.

  Five minutes later, the tank crew commanded by Lieutenant Valenra drove the ball tank past Sokov. Although Sokov knew in his heart that even if he yelled outside, Valenra and the others in the tank couldn't hear them at all. But as the tank passed him, he still waved his assault rifle and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Go ahead, Valenra! Go crush the German defenses and kill every German you see. Go forward, Varenra!" Lianla!"

When Guriyev, who was staying in the observation post, saw a ball tank leading a group of T-34 tanks rushing forward, his eyeballs almost fell to the ground, he asked in surprise: "My God, the round tank in front What is that thing?"

  However, after he finished speaking, no one in the observation center answered the call, because no one knew what it was. This kind of equipment, which was kept in absolute secrecy not long ago, shocked everyone when it appeared in front of everyone.

  The speed of the spherical tank was very fast, especially Lieutenant Valenra was eager to make achievements, so the speed of the tank was very fast, and it fell far behind the other T-34 tanks in a short while.

The German soldiers standing on the ground were also stunned when they saw a strange tank appearing in their field of vision. Like the soldiers of the Guards Division, no one knew that this spherical thing was actually a Soviet tank. What new equipment? However, the German commander on the ground saw that the distance between the ball tank and the other T-34s had opened up, so he immediately organized soldiers and climbed out of the trench with explosive packages and cluster grenades, trying to blow up this strange tank. Soviet tanks.

  The ball tank has a wide field of vision. When the tank soldiers in the car saw the enemy crawling out of the trench, they guessed that the enemy was coming to blow up the tank, so they fired at them with parallel machine guns and knocked them down one by one.

Finally, a soldier risked his life and rushed to the side of the ball tank, but sadly found that the explosive packs and cluster grenades he carried could not be placed on the body of this tank, let alone blow it up up. Just when they were worried, several T-34s that followed far behind stopped, aimed their muzzles at the ball tanks and fired. These tanks used grenades. After the explosion on the ground, the shrapnel flying horizontally could only make the armor of the ball tanks jingle, but the German soldiers near the bombing point were blown to pieces.

A German soldier, whose legs were broken by parallel machine guns, endured the pain and lay down on the road ahead of the ball tank. Seeing that the ball tank was still more than ten meters away, he ignited the fuse of the explosive package. Try to die with this outlandish tank.

   There was a loud "boom", and the tank crew following behind saw that the spherical tank was covered by the rising smoke, and couldn't help but thumped in their hearts, thinking instinctively: Is this the end of the spherical tank?

  However, when the smoke cleared, they saw that the ball tanks were still rushing towards the enemy's positions at an unabated speed, and the machine guns on the tanks kept firing, constantly knocking down the German soldiers who climbed out of the trenches. An MG34 machine gun in the trench kept slanting bullets towards the ball tank, but it couldn't slow down the ball tank's forward speed at all.

  Facing such persistent German machine gunners, the gunner in the tank adjusted the direction of the muzzle and aimed at them, and hit the target with only one shot, blowing the machine gun into parts, and blowing the main and auxiliary machine gunners and ammunitionists to pieces.

   Facing such an invulnerable tank, the enemies on the ground were terrified, and before their commander gave an order, they all ran along the traffic trench to the rear position. The officer unexpectedly did not stop the soldiers from fleeing, but instead joined them and ran back together. When the ball tank rushed to the front of the trench and stopped, there was no living German soldier in the trench except for the corpse.

When Guriyev saw that Sokov's tank troops rushed to the enemy's trenches one after another and stopped, and the infantrymen who were rushing to the enemy's position were not intercepted by artillery fire, he couldn't help but said in surprise: "What the hell, the Germans!" The position was taken down by the friendly army like this?"

   "Comrade General," Sokov's voice came from the door: "I need your help."

Seeing the German resistance being destroyed like a child's play, Guriyev was in a particularly good mood. After hearing Sokov's request, he said carelessly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, if you have anything to say, just ask, as long as it is me If you can do it, I will support you with all my strength.”

   "It's like this, Comrade General." Sokov pointed to the direction where the battle had just ended in the distance, and said to Guriyev, "I have limited troops. I hope your troops can take over the defense."

"No problem, I'll send a battalion to take over your defense right away." After Guriyev finished speaking, he asked curiously: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, I find it very strange why the Germans didn't attack when you were attacking." Shelling or bombing you?"

"Comrade General, this is actually very simple." Sokov said lightly: "The enemy planes did not bomb us. It may be that the ammunition they carried ran out, and they just returned to replenish fuel and ammunition at this moment. As for why they were not attacked. For interception, I think our tanks are advancing too fast, so fast that the enemy has not reacted, we have already rushed in front of them, so that they have no time to notify the artillery to intercept and shoot us."

   "You make sense." After listening to Sokov's analysis, Guriyev nodded, and then asked: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what do you plan to do next?"

   "It's still a few hours before dark," Sokov replied, "I plan to keep pushing forward and try to reach Orlovka before dark."

If Sokov had said this an hour ago, Guriyev would definitely think it was bragging, but after the battle just now, Guriyev felt that Sokov's troops were fully capable before dark. Continuously break through the four directions of the German army and reach Orlovka as soon as possible.

   Out of concern, Guriyev asked again: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, you seem to have fewer people. Look, do you need me to send troops to assist you in attacking?"

Although Sokov's troops were seriously insufficient, he tactfully rejected Guriyev's proposal: "Comrade General, thank you for your kindness. My troops have their own set of tactics. If you cooperate, it may affect the combat effectiveness. However, you can send a small unit with a radio to follow us. Once we occupy a German position, you can send troops to take over the defense, so as not to Take the Germans back."

  My proposal was rejected by Sokov, and Guriyev's face was very ugly. You want to get angry, but what the other party said seems to make sense. They lost a position that more than 2,000 people didn't take, and they succeeded with almost no loss. Just when he was feeling depressed, he heard what Sokov said behind him, and he immediately smiled again, and quickly replied: "Okay, Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, I will prepare a contact team right away, and I will go with you Action. At the same time, the 120th Guards Regiment will follow behind you and take over the defense of the areas occupied by you at any time."

  Sokov left the headquarters and got into an armored vehicle parked not far away. Yakov, who was waiting impatiently in the car, saw Sokov appearing, looked behind him, and asked curiously: "Misha, did General Guriyev send you troops? "

   "He offered to send me troops, but I refused." As soon as Sokov sat down, he told the driver: "Drive!"

After the armored vehicle started, Yakov asked strangely: "Misha, you now have about 30 tanks and more than 500 soldiers under your command. With such a force, if you want to break through the four lines of defense of the German army, it will be suicide. Since General Guriyev is willing to send troops to you, it is a good thing, why did you refuse?"

"Our troops have experience in infantry-tank coordinated operations, while the Guards Division may lack experience in this area." Sokov explained to Yakov: "If I rashly accept the troops of the Guards Division, on the surface It seems that the number of people has increased, but because the two sides are using different tactics, not only will the combat effectiveness not be improved, but it may even be counterproductive."

Regarding Sokov's statement, Yakov pondered for a long time, and finally nodded in agreement and said, "That's right. Although you have a small number of people, your combat power is unmatched by General Guriyev's troops. You are in With almost no casualties, they broke through the first line of defense of the German army, while the Guards Division lost more than 2,000 people in front of this line of defense. It is really beneficial to have two troops with different combat styles fighting together. It could be counterproductive."

Although Yakov agreed with Sokov's statement, the lack of troops still worried him: "But your troops are limited. If you leave some troops to guard every time you occupy the defense line, in the end we will The forces that can be invested in the attack will become weaker and weaker."

"I have already spoken to General Guriyev," Sokov replied, "and he will send a liaison team to accompany us. Once we have captured the German positions, they will call nearby units to replace those defense of the position."

"If this is the case, that would be great." Yakov nodded and said, "After we conquer the enemy's positions, we can continue to move forward, and the task of holding on to these positions will be handled by the comrades of the Guards Division." Responsible."

   "Radio operator!" Sokov turned to the operator and said, "Get in touch with Colonel Bely immediately and ask if the ball tank was damaged during the battle and whether it can participate in the next battle."

"You can let go of the matter of contacting Colonel Bely." Yakov reminded Sokov: "Since we have broken through the first line of defense of the German army, should you send a telegram to Chuikov with the good news?" tell him?"

  If Yakov didn't remind, Sokov really didn't expect to announce the good news to Chuikov. He hurriedly added to the radio operator: "Send a report to the commander first and tell him about our breakthrough of the German defense line. Then get in touch with Colonel Bely."

  (end of this chapter)