Chapter 1319: Holt took the bait (Part 2)

  Chapter 1319 Hult took the bait (Part 2)

  The First Artillery Division still has 96 artillery pieces of various calibers, including 38 artillery pieces above 122 mm.

  After learning that the attacking German army had entered the position of fire coverage, Terenga immediately gave the order to his artillery to fire.

  Received Jielenga's firing order, each artillery regiment fired towards the enemy's position according to the shooting parameters provided by their respective artillery observers.

  The flames and thick smoke produced by the violent explosion rose up in front of the Soviet positions, and German tanks or armored vehicles were destroyed by heavy artillery from Hubei; German soldiers were blown to pieces.

  The soldiers standing on the ground saw that the enemy was defeated by the artillery fire, and they didn't care about hiding. They all stood up from the trenches and cheered loudly.

When Hort learned from General Herlein that the attacking force had been heavily bombarded by the Soviet army, he couldn't help but become furious. He quickly ordered Mei Linjin: "Chief of Staff, contact the Air Force immediately and let them bomb the Russian artillery positions." .Only by destroying the Russian artillery positions can our attacking forces break through the Russian defenses."

  The bomber formation of the German army soon approached the running position of the First Artillery Division, and began to lower the altitude, bombing the ground targets on time. But Jierenga had already guessed that after the shelling began, he might be attacked by enemy planes, so he deployed two battalions of 37mm anti-aircraft artillery near the artillery position early to serve as air defense cover.

  Division Commander Telenga had been instructed by Sokov in advance, and he knew that in order to maximize the advantages of anti-aircraft artillery fire, he must use the method of concentrated fire. Therefore, he divided the 54 double-linked 37mm anti-aircraft guns into nine groups. Each group of six anti-aircraft guns is a hexagon. No matter which direction the enemy planes come from, they can be attacked with the same intensive firepower. intercept.

  When the enemy plane just entered the range, the anti-aircraft artillery fire on the ground opened up.

  The German pilots are veterans who have experienced many battles, and they don't take ground anti-aircraft artillery fire seriously at all. A leading HE-111 bomber took the lead in lowering the altitude, preparing to drop bombs on the artillery positions on the ground, but was fired by the anti-aircraft guns below.

  Intensive high-explosive incendiary bombs tore through the armor of the German bomber and beat the driver to pieces on the spot. The bomber, which lost its pilot and was wounded again, began to dive into a high platform with billowing smoke and deflagration. There was black smoke, and none of the five members of the plane survived, and they were all burned to coke in the fire.

  Seeing that an enemy plane was easily shot down, the anti-aircraft gunners on the ground suddenly cheered. Then, they locked a Ju87 Stuka that swooped down, and met it with intensive anti-aircraft fire.

   The JU87 Stuka that was shot was hit, and the high-explosive incendiary bomb caused several smoking fire holes on the fuselage. Before the German pilot could pull the plane up, the tail of the plane was hit by ground artillery fire again.

  The bomber lost half of its tail, and suddenly lost the air, hovering and falling towards the ground. The pilot couldn't care less about dropping bombs, desperately trying to control the plane to go straight, but the plane fell to the ground on its own, and soon turned into a ball of fire, and then turned into a burning torch.

  Although ground anti-aircraft artillery fire has posed a considerable threat to the enemy's bomber fleet, in air defense operations, it is the ground air defense units that suffer the most. After shooting down several German bombers one after another, the air defense firepower points were successively destroyed by the aerial bombs dropped by the enemy planes.

   Fortunately, before the empty units were lost, the artillery unit gained valuable transfer time. Although some of the artillery was still destroyed in the bombing of enemy planes, most of the artillery was preserved.

  The Soviet artillery moved its position, and the artillery cover provided by the defenders naturally stopped. The attacking Grossdeutschland Division successfully rushed to the front of the 188th Division's position and started a brutal battle for position with the Soviet army.

In his command post, Koyda saw his soldiers fighting hand-to-hand with the enemy who rushed into the trench. He stomped his feet anxiously. He turned his head and asked the chief of staff beside him: "Chief of staff, is there any way we can support them?" ?”

   "Comrade Commander." The chief of staff replied with a wry smile, "Except for a guard platoon and dozens of signal soldiers and staff officers, we don't have any troops here."

   "Move up the guard platoon." Seeing the critical situation ahead, Koyda gritted his teeth and decisively issued a difficult order: "We must block the enemy, and we must not let them pass through our division's defense line."

"Comrade division commander," the chief of staff was anxious when he learned that Koida planned to put all his troops into battle, "we only have such a few people left, if we kill them all, our division will become an empty number. "

  Kaida didn't know what the chief of staff said. But in the face of such a ferocious attack by the German army, his own strength is not enough to give the enemy teeth. What he was thinking at the moment was not how to defend the position to smash the enemy's attack, but to find a way to delay the time when the position fell.

   Therefore, he knew that it would be useless to send the guard platoon into the battlefield, but he still gritted his teeth and gave the order: "Chief of Staff, obey the order, and immediately order the guard platoon to go into battle. Be sure to block the enemy's attack."

  The battle for the position was extremely cruel. The Soviet commanders had just repelled the enemy who rushed in front of them, but the vehicle-mounted machine gun on a tank parked nearby was knocked down. After these commanders and fighters fell, there was a gap in the defense line again, and German soldiers took the opportunity to rush over and occupy this section of the trench.

  But how could the Soviet commanders and fighters allow the enemy to easily occupy their positions? Seeing that this section was lost, immediately the commanders and fighters who were standing in other sections rushed over to counterattack the enemy occupying this place.

  Kaida's guard platoon arrived at the most intense area of ​​fighting in less than five minutes. But their arrival was just enough to prevent the situation on the defense line from deteriorating rapidly, and it seemed impossible to completely repel the enemy's attack.

   Seeing this situation, Koyda turned around and said to the chief of staff: "Chief of staff, immediately ask for help from the 81st Guards Division, and ask them to provide us with support, otherwise the frontline position may be lost."

  Koida discovered that the first line of defense was in jeopardy, and Major General Marankin, who stayed on the second line of defense, also discovered this problem. He called his chief of staff and asked, "Chief of staff, it seems that the 188th Division in front can't stand it anymore. How much troops can we deploy to support them?"

   "Comrade General," the chief of staff said to Marankin after hearing this: "If I were you, I would not easily send troops to support the 188th Division."

   "Aren't you going to support the 188th Division?" Hearing what the chief of staff said, Marankin couldn't help being taken aback, and then asked: "Chief of staff, are we just going to die instead of saving?"

"Comrade General, look at the enemy who is attacking the first line of defense. There are tanks and armored vehicles as cover, and there are at least two battalions of troops. Even if we rush there to reinforce, I am afraid it will not be of much use." Chief of Staff In order to let Marankin understand that he is not timid, he took the initiative to explain to him: "Once our reinforcements are lost in the first line of defense, and there is no way to repel the enemy's attack. When the enemy attacks us, What kind of force shall we use to stop them?"

Marankin, who originally wanted to go for reinforcements, suddenly became hesitant when he heard what the chief of staff said: don't send troops for reinforcements, it's just a matter of life; What little power was left was lost. When the enemy launches an attack on the second line of defense, I have no power to stop their attack.

Thinking of this, he gritted his molars and asked the chief of staff: "Chief of staff, tell me, what should we do? If we just watch the 188th Division being wiped out by the enemy and the enemy occupies the first line of defense, surely They will take advantage of the momentum to attack us, and with our strength, we won't last long."

"I think you should call General Sokov," the chief of staff suggested to Marankin. "It doesn't feel like Soko to resist such a large German assault force with such a small force and not send troops to support it." General Husband’s style. Maybe he has other arrangements, you can ask him on the phone.”

  Although there is no telephone line directly connected to the Sokov headquarters, they can be directly contacted through the telephone. Marankin followed the advice of the chief of staff and contacted Sokov.

When he heard Sokov's voice coming from the headset, Marankin hurriedly said into the microphone: "General Sokov, the enemy is now doing all they can to launch powerful fortifications against the position defended by the 188th Division. Seeing that they are almost unable to resist, please give us instructions on what we should do!"

Unexpectedly, Sokov's answer surprised Marankin: "General Marankin, the task of your division is to stick to the second line of defense. No matter how critical the situation on the first line of defense is, you should not go to rescue, just defend it well." Your position is fine."

Marankin thought that Sokov was not ignorant of the situation on the battlefield, and he also intentionally reminded him: "General Sokov, the enemy has rushed into our army's first line of defense and is engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the commanders and fighters of the 188th Division. Judging from the current situation, our army is in a very unfavorable situation, and if we don't send reinforcements to them, the position may be lost at any time."

   "Comrade Commander," but Sokov said in a stern tone: "I emphasize again, you only need to guard the second line of defense, and don't meddle in other people's business. Do you understand?"

  Malankin gave the earphone and microphone to the communication soldier with a wry smile, and said to the chief of staff: "Major General Sokov's order is very clear, that is, let us stick to our positions and ignore the first line of defense."

After saying this, Marankin walked out of his headquarters, found an unoccupied position in the trench, raised his binoculars to look at the first line of defense where the battle was fierce, and muttered: "Don't let me take care of it." Nosy, are you going to let me watch the friendly army's position fall?"

  However, after watching it for a short time, the worry on his face disappeared, and even a smile appeared on his face. He saw through the binoculars that a team of hundreds of people came out from the flank of the German army. They used a weapon carried on their shoulders that looked a bit like a chimney to deal with German tanks.

  I saw objects with white eyes flying out of the chimney, directly hitting the body of the German tank, causing a series of explosions. The German infantry who lost the cover of tank fire were also driven out of the trenches by friendly commanders.

Seeing this scene, Marankin laughed twice, and said, "No wonder Sokov didn't panic at all when he learned that the first line of defense was tight. It turned out that he had already arranged reinforcements nearby, and when both sides fought When you are almost exhausted, if you attack by surprise, the enemy will not be able to hold on."

   The same scene was also seen by Keida.

When he saw a troop rushing out from the flank, he first thought that Marankin had sent troops from the 81st Guards Division to reinforce him, but then he thought, no, Marankin's troops were behind him, and this reinforcement troop But it came from the enemy's flank. It should be that other infantry divisions rushed over for reinforcements.

   "Chief of staff, which unit is here?" Keida turned to ask his chief of staff.

  The chief of staff raised his binoculars and carefully observed the commanders in the assault team, trying to find one or two familiar faces. But after observing for a while, he put down the binoculars in disappointment, shook his head and said to Koida: "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I don't know any of the commanders in the team, and I don't know which unit they belong to. "

The German army was about to occupy the first line of defense. Unexpectedly, a new army was killed from the oblique stab. Seeing that the tanks and armored vehicles covering their attack were destroyed one after another by the opponent, they had no intention of fighting again and withdrew from the Soviet army one after another. The position retreated in a panic towards the rear.

When Holt had just learned that the Grossdeutschland's attack had ended in failure again, Melinzin told him even more distressing news: "Your Excellency, I have just received reports from the 11th and 17th Panzer Divisions. , the Russians in the direction of Oboyan launched a counterattack by surprise, which put our two armored divisions into a passive position."

Huot hurried to the map, looked at the map that had already left the city center several times, and finally frowned and asked Mei Linjin: "Chief of Staff, tell me, why did the Russians in the Oboyan area act at such a time?" , suddenly launched an attack on our army?"

   "The reason is very simple," Meilinjin analyzed to Huot: "They must know that Sokov's troops have cut off our retreat, and they are trying to take joint actions with the other side to encircle our department."

"They are dreaming." Holt slapped the map with his hand, and ordered Meilinjin sharply: "Call back the commanders of the 11th and 17th Armored Divisions and order them to stop the Russians at all costs." More than an hour. In addition, the troops that have already left the Oboyan area are all engaged in battle, and the road to Belgorod must be opened in the shortest possible time."

"Your Excellency, Commander," Mei Linjin saw that Huot was a little impatient at the moment, and quickly reminded him: "The places where the Russians set up blocking positions are not conducive to the deployment of large-scale armored forces. If we remove the troops from the Oboyan area, If they are all put into battle, I am afraid it will not be possible to deploy at all, and the troops that can maintain contact with the Russians can only have at most one regiment."

"Chief of Staff, if we want to get through the road back to Belgorod, we must adopt new tactics." Huot frowned and said, "After every attack is repelled, it will take a few more hours. Only then can the offensive be re-launched. Now the wheel tactics can be adopted. If one division fails to attack, another division will be ordered to fight immediately. The Russians must not be given a chance to breathe. Facing our offensive with such a large intensity, they will not be able to last long. "

  (end of this chapter)