Red Moscow

  Chapter 587 A small victory

  After finishing the call, Sokov said to Yakov with a relaxed face: "Colonel Bely has already sent people to reconnaissance. From which direction we will break out, let's wait for the results of his reconnaissance."

"Misha," Yakov frowned, and said thoughtfully, "I think we should find a way to open up the road to the east. After all, it is too risky to break through from the west or north. Shen, is the end of the entire army's destruction."

"Yakov, I have ordered Colonel Gurdiyev's troops to counterattack the eastern position." Seeing that Yakov was still stubborn, Sokov did not argue with him, but said calmly : "If we can regain the position, we will break out from there; otherwise, we will consider the problem of breaking out from other directions."

   "I want to go to the 308th Division," Yakov immediately proposed in order to dissuade Sokov, "I want to see how Colonel Gurdiyev and the others regained their positions."

   "No, Yakov, this is absolutely not possible." As for Yakov's request, Sokov has already rejected it: "It's too dangerous there, I can't let you take risks."

"Misha, don't forget, I am a soldier and a commander." Seeing that Sokov refused his request, Yakov couldn't help feeling a little anxious: "When the soldiers are fighting **** battles, how can I Can you hide away?"

"Yakov, I think it is necessary to remind you that you are only an officer of the weapons and equipment department, not a front-line commander." How dare Sokov let Yakov take risks? At that time, he couldn't get away with it, so he said firmly: "Your task is to provide us with weapons to fight the enemy, not to charge forward."

After he finished speaking, he saw Yakov opened his mouth, as if he wanted to justify something, and then continued: "Of course, if it comes time for you to take up arms and fight, I also hope that you will stay by my side, Fight side by side with me..."

   "Tanks, the enemy's tanks." Guchakov, who was standing on guard at the side, suddenly exclaimed: "The enemy's tanks are coming towards us."

  Sokov heard Guchakov say that he had spotted an enemy tank, so he quickly raised his binoculars and looked into the distance. In the lens of the telescope, he saw twelve German tanks lined up in a wedge-shaped formation, heading in his direction, and behind them were ten armored transport vehicles full of soldiers.

   Seeing this situation, Sokov quickly put down the binoculars, grabbed the telephone at the side, and connected to the command post of the first battalion: "Captain Vanya, the German tanks are coming, order the soldiers to prepare for battle."

After Yakov waited for Sokov to finish calling Vanya and Tenev, he asked, "Misha, we don't have long-range anti-tank weapons in our position. Would you like to send some soldiers with anti-tank grenades?" , go out to hide in the bomb crater in front of the position, wait for the enemy tanks to approach, and blow them up by surprise?"

   "It's not necessary." Sokov shook his head and said, "Colonel Bely will soon attack from the flanks and defeat the German armored forces."

   As soon as he finished speaking, the operator reported to him: "Comrade Brigadier, Colonel Bely wants to talk to you."

Sokov grabbed the earphone and the microphone, and said bluntly: "Comrade Colonel, have you seen the enemy's tank?" After receiving a positive answer from Bely, he continued, "You can choose the right one later. When the timing is right, we must destroy as many enemy tanks as possible. Understand?"

   "Don't worry, Comrade Brigadier Commander." Bely said confidently, "Even though the enemy has more tanks and armored vehicles than us, there should be no problem in destroying this group of enemies."

  The German tanks stopped seven or eight hundred meters away from the position and began to bombard the Soviet position with artillery fire. The soldiers in the armored transport vehicle jumped out of the vehicle one after another, bent over and made short leaps, and rushed towards the Soviet army's position quickly. Seeing the enemy's infantry rushing over, the machine gun fire points on the position immediately started firing.

   Sokov on the hill saw that the enemy was still seven or eight hundred meters away, and the machine guns on the guard camp started firing, and he was so angry that he almost cursed. He picked up the phone, took over Tenev's command post, and asked angrily: "Comrade Major, what's the matter with you? The enemy is still a few hundred meters away, and you start shooting, worried that the enemy's tanks will use you as a target." hit."

  It may be to confirm what Sokov said, the enemy tanks soon ended aimlessly and blindly firing, but targeted the exposed machine gun fire points on the guard camp position, and opened fire one by one. Although a lot of shells were missed, three of the four exposed machine gun fire points were destroyed by German artillery fire, and the remaining machine gun was so frightened that it stopped firing and moved its firing position to another location.

  In just ten minutes, the German infantry advanced more than 200 meters. Sokov looked at the small village where the tank battalion was ambushing, and thought to himself: Colonel Bely, when will you attack? If this continues, the enemy will rush to the front of our position.

"Why is the tank battalion not attacking yet?" Seeing the enemy approaching the position, not only Sokov was anxious, but Yakov also felt like an ant on a hot pot. He held up his binoculars and kept looking in the direction of the village. He kept muttering in his mouth: "If we drag it on any longer, the enemy should rush into our position."

   Fortunately, Bely didn't make Sokov and the others wait too long. After a while, the tanks of the tank battalion appeared in the sight of Sokov and Yakov. The one rushing to the front was actually that strangely shaped spherical tank. Other tanks fired and had to stop temporarily to fire, but it could shoot while moving.

  Stopped near the German tanks shooting in the distance, suddenly there was a puff of mud rising into the sky, which was the Soviet tanks shooting. Unfortunately, due to the distance, the shells fired by the Soviet tanks fell on the open ground and exploded, failing to hit the target.

   "Damn, what's going on with these tanks!" Seeing the firing of Soviet tanks, but none of them could hit the enemy, Yakov couldn't help being anxious: "Why didn't they hit a single target? How do these tank soldiers usually train?"

Sokov turned his head and glanced at the agitated Yakov. He didn't express his opinion, but he thought to himself: "Shooting at a distance of 1500 meters, the hit rate is low, and many tank soldiers are Novice, unable to hit the enemy's tank, it's nothing more than normal."

  The galloping Soviet tanks quickly rushed to a range of 1,000 meters. They stopped and fired again, and finally achieved results. A German Panzer III tank was hit and immediately started to catch fire. Only two tank soldiers who were covered in fire escaped.

"Great, really great!" Seeing a German tank burning in place, Guchakov exclaimed excitedly: "Comrade Brigadier, did you see that? The tank battalion destroyed a German tank." .”

"What are you yelling!" Yakov said to Guchakov: "Only one tank was destroyed, and the Germans still have eleven tanks and ten armored vehicles." Although Yakov was reprimanding Guchakov Husband, but Sokov noticed that the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned, as if he was very happy.

  The German tanks, which were shelling towards the Soviet positions, did not notice the Soviet tanks rushing from the flanks, and continued to shell. The armored vehicles parked behind them found the Soviet tanks, and the machine gunners in the compartment quickly turned their guns and aimed at the Soviet tanks to shoot. Since these machine guns are not equipped with armor-piercing bullets, don't see the loud noise, but they didn't cause any damage to the Soviet tanks.

   At 800 meters, the Soviet tank fired for the third time, and this time two more tanks and an armored vehicle were destroyed. Seeing this situation, Yakov was already a little impatient. He turned to look at Sokov and asked tentatively, "Misha, can you order the troops to attack?"

"Wait a little longer," Sokov saw that the remaining nine tanks were still shelling towards the position. If they attacked at this moment, it would be tantamount to letting the soldiers die in vain, so he said cautiously: "Wait until our Let the tanks rush in front of the enemy, as long as all the enemy's tanks are destroyed, then their attack will end in failure."

  But when the Soviet tanks entered 700 meters, 600 meters, and 500 meters, they also fired a round of salvos. The closer the distance, the higher the hit rate. After the five rounds of shooting, eight tanks and seven armored vehicles of the German army were destroyed and burned on the battlefield. The billowing black smoke could be seen even several kilometers away.

  The infantry of the German army realized that the tank troops covering their attack had been completely wiped out. Wherever they had the courage to continue attacking forward, they all turned around and ran back. Sokov saw that the German infantry had lost the courage to continue fighting, so he picked up the phone again and said to Tenev: "Comrade Major, the enemy is about to run, you attack immediately and chase this enemy. Remember, we There are no conditions for taking prisoners now, do you understand?"

Tenev heard Sokov's off-screen voice, and said that no prisoners would be kept, and quickly replied: "Don't worry, Comrade Brigadier Commander, I will lead the troops to attack immediately. According to my observation, these enemies are very stubborn. It doesn't look like we will surrender to our army, we will definitely wipe out the stubborn enemies cleanly and thoroughly."

  Seeing that Tenev had realized his intentions, Sokov smiled on his face: "Good luck, Comrade Major! Act now, and don't let the Germans get away."

  When Sokov assigned the task to Tenev, Yakov also heard what he said, and asked cautiously: "Misha, you mean to wipe out all the enemies without keeping a single prisoner?"

"Yakov, didn't you hear what Major Tenev said just now?" Sokov deliberately pretended to be confused about what Yakov said: "These enemies seem very stubborn. If you want them to surrender, I'm afraid it will not be an easy task. In order to prevent them from causing unnecessary casualties to us, it is necessary to eliminate them all."

  The ball tank parked behind the German armored vehicle, and used several machine guns on the sphere to shoot at the retreating German infantry. The soldiers who rushed to the front immediately fell down. Seeing that the situation was not good, the soldiers who followed immediately lay down on the ground and fought back with the weapons in their hands. There were even soldiers who took out the grenades they carried with them and threw them at the ball tanks.

   The grenade hit the arc-shaped armor plate, bounced back immediately, and fell into the German queue and exploded. Seeing that the grenade he threw had no effect, but instead killed and injured many of his own people, the soldiers who threw the bombs stopped throwing bombs, but aimed their weapons at the ball tanks and fired in vain.

The German soldiers who lost the cover of the tanks are a group of lambs waiting to be slaughtered. Facing the Soviet tanks that came to block the way, and the Soviet infantry who came up from behind, they knew that it was meaningless to continue to resist, and most of them put down. He took out his weapon and tried to surrender to the Soviet commanders who rushed up.

  But the Soviet commanders and fighters had received orders that no prisoners would be left in this battle, so after rushing up, they still shot at the soldiers who raised their hands high. Seeing that the Soviet army had no intention of ceasefire, the surviving German soldiers hurriedly bent down to pick up the weapons on the ground, intending to fight each other to the death. However, the Soviet tanks parked not far away would not give them such a chance. A few shells flew over and blasted the German soldiers to pieces.

   The one-sided battle lasted only ten minutes before it was over. All German tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed, and all infantry fell in a pool of blood.

Major Tenev, who rushed up with the troops, saw that the enemy had been wiped out, and hurriedly shouted to his subordinates: "Hurry up and clean up the battlefield, collect usable weapons, and then return to the position immediately, the Germans may die immediately." The bombardment is about to start toward us."

   Seeing that the battle was over, Sokov contacted Bely through the intercom. He said bluntly, "Colonel Bely, return to the small village immediately and wait for my further orders."

   "Understood." Belei agreed, and through the car radio, he notified all the tanks to return to the small village, leaving only the soldiers of the guard battalion here to clean up the battlefield.

"Misha, the enemy's combat effectiveness is not very good." Seeing that the troops easily wiped out a German army, Yakov suddenly gained confidence, and he said to Sokov: "I guess Colonel Gurdiyev and the others It should be possible to retake the eastern position from the enemy's hands. In this way, we have smashed the German army's attempt to cut off our retreat."

"Yakov, this is just a small victory. The enemy is still stronger than us." Sokov was afraid that Yakov would get carried away, and quickly reminded him: "The next battle will be even more tragic. I hope you You can prepare yourself mentally.”

  (end of this chapter)