Chapter 1389: Southbound (below)

  Chapter 1389 Going South (Part 2)

  After the two discussed the battle plan, Major Bunch began to issue combat orders through the car radio: "Attention all crews, attention, crews, drive off the road immediately and enter the nearby forest to ambush."

  The forest is more than 120 meters away from the road. At such a short distance, even if the Soviet army is at a disadvantage in terms of tank numbers, they can easily deal with the tanks on the road. In order to better destroy the German tanks, Guchakov also placed five anti-tank teams in the grass between the road and the forest.

   After waiting for more than ten minutes, the German reinforcements in October Town appeared in Guchakov's vision. Although he was less than 100 meters away from the road, he could see the enemy clearly even without binoculars, but he still stood on the command tank and held up the binoculars to observe the enemy's situation.

After looking at it for a while, he stuck his head into the open turret mouth, and said to Major Bunch inside: "Comrade Major, the enemy has about twenty tanks, basically Panzer III or Panzer IV tanks, and no Panther tanks have been found." And Tiger tanks. About two battalions of infantry, moving with the tanks."

  Major Bunch waited for Guchakov to finish speaking, and said with a smile: "Major Guchakov, if we want to destroy the enemy's tanks, we can only use armor-piercing bullets, and the infantry will be handed over to you to destroy."

"No problem." Guchakov said carelessly: "In front of you, in addition to deploying five anti-tank teams, I also deployed eight machine guns, which can completely suppress the enemy's charge." He did not tell the other party Well, his trump card is the new type of rocket launching position arranged at the edge of the forest, which is a sharp weapon against the German troops.

   Marching at the front of the German line was a No. 4 tank, the commander of which was a second lieutenant named August. He protruded half of his body from the tank turret, constantly looking at the surrounding environment. But when the reinforcements began to enter the ambush circle set up by Guchakov, August felt something was wrong. Apart from the sound of their own marching, there was silence around them. Look up at the sky, there is not even a bird except the wind. It was too quiet, and the silence became more and more terrifying. He felt his scalp numb for no reason, his heartbeat accelerated and his vest was cold, as if he was being stared at by something.

  August looked at the forest on the side of the road. Although he didn't know what was wrong, he felt uneasy no matter what. He asked the driver to stop the tank, ready to observe the surrounding situation before moving on. He turned his head and shouted at the infantry walking beside the tank, "Hey, Corporal!"

  Following his shout, a corporal squeezed out from the crowd, ran to the side of the tank, looked up at August and asked, "Mr. Second Lieutenant, what instructions do you have?"

  August pointed to the forest by the roadside with his hand, and ordered the corporal: "Corporal, I think there seems to be something in the forest, please take a few people there to have a look."

  Although the corporal was very reluctant to do this kind of job to find the way, the other party's military rank was much higher than his own after all, so he had no choice but to call a few subordinates and leave the road with their guns in hand, ready to go to the forest to search.

   Seeing a few German soldiers preparing to come over to search, Guchakov couldn't help but secretly exclaimed that it was a pity that this plan would never keep up with the changes. No matter how carefully he realized it, accidents would still happen.

  He lowered his head and said to Major Bunch in the tank: "Comrade Major, seeing that the enemy has already noticed our existence, it is obviously impossible to wait for them all to enter our ambush circle, so we can only act in advance."

   "Understood." Major Bunch agreed, and then used the car radio to inform his subordinates: "Attention all crews, pay attention to every crew. According to the location, lock the corresponding target."

   Standing on the tank, Guchakov suddenly noticed that the semicircular tank turret was slowly turning, and stopped when the muzzle pointed at the leading German tank in the distance. Knowing that the tank was about to fire, he quickly shouted to the soldiers behind him, "It's going to fire, quickly cover your ears!"

   As soon as he covered his ears, he heard a bang, and a meter-long flame spewed out from the long and thick gun barrel, causing the entire car body to shake violently. If everyone hadn't made preparations long ago, someone would definitely get out of the car.

   Guchakov saw the fired shells and flew towards the tank in the distance. A moment later, there was a huge collision sound, and the body of the German No. 4 tank shook violently.

Seeing that the tank shook for a while, but there was no movement, Guchakov wondered: "Could it be a dud, otherwise why didn't it sound?" Just as he was thinking, there was a huge explosion, and a pillar of fire was like Like a volcanic eruption, it erupted from the open hatch, only rushing to a height of 20 to 30 meters. Then, the ammunition in the car exploded, directly blowing the turret into the sky. The turret that fell from the sky smashed the two German soldiers who had no time to dodge into meat paste.

  Now that Major Bunch's tank opened fire, his subordinates were not to be outdone, and fired at the German tanks parked on the road. The armor-piercing shells fired by seven of the tanks hit the target accurately, turning the German tanks into burning torches on the road. The other four vehicles that missed the target also knocked down the crowded German soldiers.

  The German army who was suddenly attacked suddenly became confused. Some ran around like headless chickens, and some curled up on the ground holding their heads and howling desperately. And the German corporal who took his subordinates off the road to reconnaissance saw that the troops on the road were attacked by unknown sources, so he dared to go to the forest to reconnaissance, so he fell to the ground in fright to avoid the shrapnel flying around .

   Seeing the tanks firing, the infantry ambushing in the grass did not dare to show weakness. The soldiers of the anti-tank team stood up from the grass with the bazooka on their shoulders, aimed at the enemy's tank and pulled the trigger. As soon as they finished shooting, they squatted down and waited for their comrades to help them reload the ammunition.

  The German army was well-trained after all. After a short period of panic, the officer who recovered first, brandished a pistol, drove his subordinates off the road, and charged towards the position of the Soviet tanks and anti-tank teams.

In this matter, the eight machine guns hidden in the grass opened fire. Under the violent machine gun fire, the front row of infantry quickly fell down in the grass, but the soldiers behind continued to charge without fear. The corpse of the companion rushed forward. In the dense firepower network of the Soviet army, more German soldiers fell, their bodies overlapped with those who died in the previous attack, and they were beaten non-stop by the impact of bullets.

  Seeing the enemy charging so desperately, Guchakov hurriedly shouted at Major Bunch: "Comrade Major, hurry up and bombard the enemy with high-explosive bombs to cover our charge."

   "Understood." Major Bunch replied briefly, and then conveyed an order to his subordinates through the vehicle radio: "Attention all crews, attention, all crews, immediately change to high-explosive bombs to cover the infantry's charge."

Guchakov, who was standing on the tank body, saw the high-explosive bomb fired by the tank battalion, which fell into the enemy's line and exploded. The blast wave threw one enemy after another into the air, and after disintegrating in the air, they fell apart again. When the ground fell, he drew his pistol, turned half-turned and shouted at the commanders and fighters hidden in the forest: "Comrades, for the motherland! For Stalin! Go forward! Go!"

   After shouting the slogan, Guchakov waved his pistol, jumped off the tank, and rushed towards the enemy with several subordinates. Seeing that Guchakov took the lead in the charge, the commanders and fighters hidden in the forest jumped up from the ground one after another, held their weapons, shouted "Ula", and rushed towards the enemy ahead.

  The German officers and soldiers, who were suppressed by the firepower of the Soviet army's machine guns, saw hundreds of Soviet army commanders rushing out of the deep forest. What started as a retreat turned into a rout.

  Since the enemy has fled, Guchakov's infantry and Major Bunch's tanks follow the enemy not far or near. Once it is found that the enemy has begun to flee to the sides, use tank guns or machine gun fire to drive the enemies on both sides back to the road, forcing them to open the way for themselves in front.

   In this way, the German army fled in front, and the Soviet army chased behind.

  When the rout approached Kazakhya Compass Town, the German officers and soldiers stationed outside the town saw that their troops were retreating towards the town under the pursuit of the Soviet army. For fear of accidentally injuring their own people, the German commanders on the ground did not dare to order to shoot, and could only watch the Soviet tanks and infantry rushing in front of them.

  The tanks took the lead in breaking through the outer positions of the German army, but they continued to rush towards the town without stopping at all. In addition to leaving behind a company to wipe out the remnants of the enemy, Guchakov also rushed into the town of Compass in Kazakhia with two other companies.

   After entering the town, Guchakov unexpectedly discovered that there seemed to be more defenders in the town than he had imagined. They hid in buildings on both sides of the street and threw anti-tank grenades and explosives at the tanks driving on the street. Two tanks were unable to dodge and were immediately blown up by the enemy.

   Seeing this, Guchakov hurriedly handed over to Captain Egor, the commander of the second company, and told the other party: "Comrade Captain, immediately send a platoon to follow the tanks. We must not let the enemy blow up our tanks again."

"Comrade Battalion Commander," Yegor waited for Guchakov to finish speaking, and quickly reminded him: "There are more German troops in the town than we imagined. Should we stop first and wait until the main force arrives before continuing?" It's not too late to attack."

"I can't stop." Guchakov didn't know that he was at a disadvantage in terms of military strength, but if he stopped at this time, it would give the Germans time to adjust their deployment. When the main force arrived, they might have to pay huge casualties. Therefore, he decisively rejected Yegor's proposal: "If we stop now, the enemy will have a breathing space, and they can use this time to readjust their defensive deployment. I don’t know when the main force will arrive, if they arrive, the enemy has already perfected the defense, and if we want to seize the town, we will pay huge casualties.”

"Commissioner," Guchakov called the telegrapher who was following him after he had sent Yegor away, and told him, "Send immediately to regimental headquarters that our battalion has successfully penetrated into Kazakhstan." Luopan Town, there are more defenders in the town than we imagined, with our current strength, it is impossible to capture the town, so we ask the main force to come over as soon as possible for reinforcements."

  Unexpectedly, after Guchakov finished speaking, he saw the operator in a daze, so he couldn't help raising his voice and asked, "Comrade operator, why haven't you sent the report yet?"

   "Comrade Battalion Commander," the radio operator said with a mournful face, "the radio was broken at some point, and we couldn't get in touch with the regiment headquarters."

   Knowing that the radio was broken and has lost contact with the regiment headquarters, Guchakov couldn't help being anxious: "Then why don't you fix it quickly?"

   "It can't be repaired, Comrade Battalion Commander." The operator showed Guchakov the part of the radio that was hit by bullets: "The parts are broken, and the battery is also punctured. It cannot be repaired at all."

The telephone cannot be repaired, which makes Guchakov a little crazy. You must know that the combined strength of himself and the tank battalion can only disturb the defenders in the town. Not only can they not destroy them, but they may even be surrounded by them .

   Just when he was extremely anxious, he accidentally saw a two-wheeled motorcycle lying on the side of the road. The owner of the car was lying on all fours beside the car, already dead.

  Guchakov walked over to pick up the motorcycle, turned around and asked the operator: "Can you ride a motorcycle?"

   "Yes, Comrade Battalion Commander, I can ride a motorcycle." The radio operator explained to Guchakov: "As a signal soldier, being able to ride a motorcycle is a basic skill..."

"Okay, don't talk about it." Guchakov handed the motorcycle to the operator, and ordered without any explanation: "You immediately ride this motorcycle back the same way, ask for help from the first army you encounter, and say Our situation is very critical, so they must rush over to reinforce us in the shortest possible time."

   After hearing this, the radio operator asked stupidly: "Comrade Battalion Commander, but our current situation is not critical at all."

  Guchakov stared at him, and said dissatisfiedly: "It doesn't mean that there will be no critical situation later. You must know that the enemy's strength is much larger than ours."

  The operator who had been trained did not dare to refute, so he quickly got on his motorcycle and headed towards the north of the town. The thought in the radio operator's mind was that if there were no friendly troops on the road, then I would rush to October Town and ask for help from the friendly troops occupying there, and let them rush over to reinforce the battalion commander and the others.

   Soon after the radio operator left, the situation in the town began to turn bad, just as Guchakov had ordered. The recovered German army took advantage of the superiority in numbers and oppressed from several directions at the same time, forcing Guchakov and Major Bunch to withdraw the remaining troops to a nearby hospital and use the buildings here to resist the German attack.

When Major Bunch saw Guchakov poking in from the open hatch again, he sighed and said to him: "Major Guchakov, our shells are almost exhausted, and there are not many bullets left in the machine gun. In the next battle, you can only rely on your infantry."

   "Don't worry." Guchakov said with a smile: "As long as one of our infantrymen is alive, we will definitely ensure your safety."

  (end of this chapter)