Chapter 1775: The final breakout (below)

  Chapter 1775 The Final Breakout (Part 2)

  Stermelman chose night time to break out of the siege, considering that the visibility at night is limited, as long as the troops do not make too much movement, they will not be discovered by the Soviet army. Moreover, there will be fog in the early morning of February every year. Even if the Soviet army hears any movement, they dare not leave their positions easily under the condition of limited visibility, which is conducive to their breakthrough operations.

Facts have proved that Stemmelman's judgment is completely correct. During the breakout operation in the first two days, the Viking Division and the 72nd Infantry Division led by General Giller were not blocked by the Soviet army, and they went smoothly. Entering the defense zone of the 18th Tank Army, the distance to rescue the Baker Heavy Armored Regiment was only two or three kilometers away.

  The German troops stationed near Height 239 received an order to break out of the encirclement from Stemmelmann. Under the cover of night, they quietly moved to the north, planning to follow the vanguard commanded by General Giller and jump out of the encirclement of the Soviet army. In order to prevent too much noise during the operation, they had to abandon their tanks, armor and cars, and marched northward quickly by marching on foot.

When the   army chief of staff withdrew with the troops directly under the army, he asked Stemmelman unwillingly: "Mr. Commander, are you really not going to break through with us?"

Stemmelman shook his head and said with a wry smile: "We still have thousands of disabled wounded. As the commander of the army, I can't leave them alone. I want to be with them." He held the chief of staff hands, and said emotionally, "Good luck, see you outside the encirclement!"

  Although the Germans tried their best to conceal their whereabouts, in the middle of the night, many sounds that could be ignored during the day became extremely clear.

   Now stick to the 252nd Infantry Division on the 239 Heights, the division commander is Lieutenant Colonel Kirillov. Although his time with Sokov was not long, he learned a lot of useful things. In order to prevent the German army from sneaking into the position at night, he sent the most capable soldiers to take charge of the sentries on duty at night, and told them to report immediately if they found anything unusual.

  That night, five soldiers were assigned to be on duty. The corporal leading the team was a veteran with ten years of military experience. He had fought in different areas and had rich battlefield experience. While on duty, he vaguely heard some strange sounds coming from a distance. He tried his best to look in the direction of the sound, but he couldn't see anything.

  A soldier saw the corporal staring at the distance non-stop, leaned over and asked, "Comrade corporal, what did you find?"

   "I heard some faint movement in the distance, but it was too dark to see anything clearly."

   "So what should we do?"

   "Go and invite the company commander over and let him have an idea!"

  The company commander came back soon, and he asked the corporal: "Hey, I said veteran, what did you find?"

   "Comrade company commander, look!" The corporal pointed to the location where the sound came from in the distance, and said to the company commander: "There is a sound coming from a distance of one verst from here. It seems that there are troops moving."

  The company commander held up the binoculars and looked in the direction of the veteran's finger. He adjusted the focus and scanned the area over and over, but it was too dark for him to see anything clearly.

   "Veteran," the company commander put down his binoculars, turned to the corporal and said, "Fire two flares and see what's going on."

  Although the corporal was carrying a flare, he did not dare to launch it without the order of his superior. Hearing the company commander's order at this moment, he agreed, raised the signal gun, and fired two flares into the air.

  As the flares lifted into the sky, the company commander raised the binoculars again. After a while, he couldn't help being shocked, because he saw countless black figures marching in the distance, needless to say, they must be Germans.

  His breathing became short of breath, he hurriedly put down the binoculars, and said to the corporal: "Veteran, you bring someone to watch here, I'll call the battalion headquarters."

  Although the corporal didn't have a telescope, he also saw a dark shadow in the distance. The moment he saw this scene, he first thought that the Germans wanted to break out, but the direction of breaking out was no longer Height 239, but was preparing to break out to the north.

  The company commander returned to his command post, and made a detailed report to the battalion commander over the phone to see what he saw. The battalion commander did not dare to neglect, and called the head of the regiment again; the head of the regiment called Kirillov again to report.

  Kirilov, who got the news, did not report to Sokov immediately, but took people up to the high ground. He planned to see the situation with his own eyes and report it after confirming that it was correct, so as to avoid any oolong incident.

  When he came to the top of the mountain, the garrison battalion that stood firm had entered the position and was ready for battle. Seeing Kirillov's appearance, the battalion commander hurried over and reported: "Comrade commander, our battalion is ready for battle and can be ready at any time..."

   "Comrade Major," Kirillov glanced at the rank of the battalion commander, and then asked, "Is there any new movement by the Germans?"

   "They are continuing to move northward, probably preparing to break out of our encirclement from the friendly line of defense."

   Kirillov followed the battalion commander to the observation post, raised his binoculars and looked into the distance. The empathetic battalion commander made a gesture to the company commander at the side, signaling him to arrange for someone to fire flares, so that the division commander can observe the movement on the battlefield more clearly.

With the help of the light from the flares, Kirillov saw clearly the movement of the German army in the distance, picked up the phone in the observation post, connected to the artillery regiment of the division, and ordered: "I am Lieutenant Colonel Kirilov, you Immediately send artillery spotters to the hilltop position and let them indicate the targets for the artillery."

  After calling the artillerymen, Kirillov asked the communications soldier to connect to the group army headquarters, planning to personally report the situation to Sokov.

The person who answered the phone was Smirnov. After hearing Kirillov's voice, he asked: "Lieutenant Colonel Kirillov, I received a report that flares appeared over the 239 Heights. What's going on? thing?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff, I'm about to report this matter." Kirillov explained on the phone: "The sentinel soldiers heard movement in the distance and thought it was the German army preparing to launch a night attack again. , only to find that the enemy is moving north under the cover of night."

   "What, the Germans are moving north?" Hearing Kirillov's report, Smirnov asked in disbelief, "Are you sure?"

"It's completely confirmed, Comrade Chief of Staff." Kirillov replied in an affirmative tone: "I have carefully observed that the Germans are indeed moving north. It is estimated that they found that they could not break through from 239, so they made a new breakthrough. Point, choose the lot in our friendly forces."

  When Smirnov was about to ask again, Sokov, who got the news, happened to walk in: "Comrade Chief of Staff, what happened at Height 239, why are flares fired?"

It was Koshkin who tipped off Sokov. He knew that Sokov was very concerned about the affairs of Height 239 recently, so he privately greeted several staff officers on duty. He can report to Sokov immediately.

   "Comrade Commander," seeing Sokov coming, Smirnov hurriedly reported to him: "Lieutenant Colonel Kirillov reported that they found that the Germans were moving on a large scale."

"The Germans are moving on a large scale?" Sokov couldn't help but be surprised when he heard the news: "Which direction are they moving?" He thought to himself, the Germans would not want to take advantage of the darkness to bypass 239 High ground, and launch a new attack from the side and rear.

  In order to find out what was going on, he took the phone in Smirnov's hand, and asked Kirilov on the other end of the phone directly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, tell me, what's going on?"

"Comrade Commander, according to my observations, the German troops are moving." Kirillov truthfully reported to Sokov: "It seems that they have given up their attempt to attack Height 239 and plan to go north through friendly neighbors. The defense zone of the troops, merged with the German troops who came to meet them, and jumped out of our encirclement together."

Although Sokov knew very well in his heart that Kirillov's judgment was correct, he still asked out of prudence: "Are you sure the enemy is moving instead of trying to bypass Height 239 and attack you from the side and rear?" Attack?"

"I'm not sure, Comrade Commander." Kirillov did not give Sokov an affirmative answer, but said euphemistically: "However, I saw that the enemy's tanks, armored vehicles, and even trucks were not used. Most of the troops marched on foot, and even the wounded were lying on stretchers and being carried away by other soldiers."

Sokov has already confirmed at this moment that the Germans are preparing to break through to the north, otherwise they would not even bring tanks and armored vehicles, and even discard the trucks that can transport the wounded, which shows that they do not want to disturb their own troops when they act . After thinking about this, Sokov quickly asked: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, have you taken any measures?"

"I ordered the artillery observers to rush to the top of the hill to provide targets for the artillery regiment of the division." Kirillov said here, raised his hand to look at the time, and then replied: "Comrade commander, it will take another twenty minutes at most." In minutes, our artillery can shell the Germans."

"Just relying on the artillery of your division's artillery regiment will not cause too many casualties to the Germans." Sukov said: "I will let General Tsarev, the artillery commander of the army, contact you. Don't forget Also provide him with the parameters of the shelling. With the support of the artillery of the group army, it must be able to inflict heavy damage on the German army."

   After finishing the call with Kirillov, Sokov connected the call of Tsarev's headquarters again.

  An artillery staff officer answered the phone. He didn't recognize Sokov's voice, but said lazily: "Comrade General has already rested. If you have anything to do, call back at dawn!"

  When Sokov heard this, he immediately became angry: "I am Sokov! Let General Tsarev get up and answer the phone immediately. I have important combat tasks to assign."

When the artillery staff officer heard Sokov's self-introduction, he was startled into a cold sweat, and hurriedly said: "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I didn't know it was you. Please wait a moment, and I will immediately ask General Tsarev to answer the phone. "

When Tsarev heard that Sokov himself called him, he immediately turned over and rolled off the camp bed. Without even putting on his boots, he ran to the table barefoot, picked up the microphone and pressed it to his ear: "You Well, Comrade Commander, I am Tsarev. Do you have any instructions?"

"Our troops at Height 239 observed that the German troops in the distance seem to be moving northward, intending to jump out of our encirclement from the defense zone of our friendly troops." Sokov briefly introduced the situation, and told Tsarev: "You immediately get in touch with Lieutenant Colonel Kirillov and ask him to share the target parameters of the shelling with you."

"Lieutenant Colonel Kirilov?" Since Kirilov had not been acting as the commander of the 252nd Division for a long time, Tsarev did not know what position the other party held now, so he asked Sokov inexplicably: "Commander Comrade, can you tell me what position he holds now and how to contact him?"

Hearing Tsarev's question, Sokov immediately realized that the other party might not know what position Kirillov was holding, and quickly explained to him: "Lieutenant Colonel Kirillov is now the acting commander of the 252nd Infantry Division. The division is now stationed at Height 239."

   Hearing Sokov's explanation, Tsarev immediately understood how to contact Kirillov, and quickly replied: "Understood, I will get in touch with Lieutenant Colonel Kirillov immediately."

  ...

Stemmelman, who was in charge of breaking the rear, stood on the pedal outside the cab of a truck, grabbed the door with one hand, waved the other hand, and kept calling in a low voice: "Hurry up behind, follow up!" , don't fall behind! Keep quiet, no one is allowed to speak!"

  The troops following Stemmelman's rear are just the remnants of the Walloon Assault Brigade of the Viking Division, plus some troops directly under the army. The total strength is no more than a thousand people. However, there were nearly 3,000 wounded who were transferred with them, and except for some medical soldiers who were responsible for carrying the wounded, they were all Ukrainians recruited from the local area.

   Civilians who have not undergone military training are naturally not comparable to the well-trained German army. Their slow moving speed inevitably slows down the marching speed of the rear troops.

  Looking at the team slowly moving forward and listening to the various voices made by the civilians accidentally, Stemmerman couldn't help feeling anxious. Although the temperature at night was as low as twenty degrees below zero, his back was still covered with cold sweat.

He glanced in the direction of Highland 239, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart, if the troops holding on to the highland were not commanded by that person, maybe he could give it a go, maybe he would be able to break through this damned highland and rush over to meet the oncoming troops. The 1st Armored Division joined forces.

  In the end, because of the appearance of that person, all my plans fell through. First, when the Walloon Assault Brigade attacked Heights 239 at night, it was bombarded inexplicably. Not only did the troops suffer heavy casualties, but even the brigade commander was killed by the artillery fire. Although the attack in the next few days caused a lot of casualties to the defenders, they still failed to take this **** high ground.

When flares were raised on the high ground one after another, Stemmerman realized that his breakout operation had been discovered by the defenders on the high ground. In desperation, he could only raise his voice and urge the troops to speed up the march. Try to get out of this **** area before the defenders of the highlands can react.

  Transfer at night is already a difficult operation, and there are still a considerable number of civilians in the army. At this moment, seeing flares flying into the sky in the distance, and hearing Stammerman's hoarse shouts, the officers, soldiers and civilians who were crowded together suddenly began to fight for the road with each other, and the scene became extremely chaotic.

  (end of this chapter)