Chapter 2091:

  Chapter 2091

After assigning combat missions to his subordinates, Panov called Batov, told him about his plan, and finally said: "Comrade Commander, before our army attacks, we hope to receive artillery fire from the artillery of the group army." support."

Regarding Panov's request, Batov readily agreed: "No problem. Before your tanks attack, I will shell the enemy's defensive positions for an hour to destroy as many enemy fortifications as possible. In order to reduce the resistance you encounter when attacking."

  The designation of the Don River Tank Army is the 1st Guards Tank Army. The army was formed in Moscow Oblast in July 1942. The original designation was the 26th Tank Army.

   Shortly after its formation, it was incorporated into the 5th Tank Army. Before mid-November, it was transferred to the Stalingrad area for offensive preparations. On November 19, 1942, the 2nd Echelon of the 5th Tank Army entered the battle, broke through the German defensive positions in the Brinovsky and Korotkovsky sections, and went south to Perelazovsky , Karachi direction rapid development of offensive. On the night of November 21, Lieutenant Colonel Filipov of the army led the detachment, driving swaggeringly on the road with headlights on, and entered the Don River Ferry in the Karachi area. The Germans mistook it for their own retreating tank column and did not stop it, allowing it to rush towards the only bridge on the Don River. It was precisely because of the German's paralysis that they were wiped out by the advance detachment. The advance detachment then established a perimeter defense and held the bridge until the main force arrived.

  The tank army participated in the battle to encircle and wipe out the German army under the city of Stalingrad, and achieved brilliant results, so it was awarded the title of Guards and was renamed the 1st Guards Tank Army. Later, he won the honorary title of the Don River Tank Army again because of his outstanding achievements in the Don River battle.

  The offensive battle officially kicked off the next day. Hundreds of cannons from the 65th Army fired at the enemy's defensive positions, and the rising smoke soon enveloped the German positions.

  Seeing that the shelling was about to end, more than 80 tanks from the 19th Tank Brigade rushed to the German positions that were still covered by artillery fire and gunpowder smoke. In order to shorten the impact distance of the infantry, before the tank brigade attacked, the brigade commander, Colonel Filipov, let the accompanying infantry take tanks to participate in the charge.

When the tank brigade was still five or six hundred meters away from the German position, the artillery fire of the group army began to extend, and the German observation post in the trench also discovered the Soviet tank group. The comrades sounded the battle alarm.

   The German officers and soldiers who received the alarm responded quickly. They rushed out of the bomb holes and shelters where they were hiding, and entered their respective combat positions. After a while, two mortars fired at the Soviet tanks rushing over.

  Because it was fired hastily, the shells were not accurate at all. The two shells in the first round both fell a hundred meters away from the Soviet tanks, and did not cause any casualties at all.

   Seeing that the first round of attack did not work, the German mortar crew immediately readjusted the shooting angle and fired at the approaching tank group again. This time the shells fired were on target, one of them missed, and the other one landed next to the tank and exploded. The flying shrapnel hit the two soldiers sitting on the tank, causing them to fall headfirst from the tank. down.

Colonel Filipov, who was driving a tank in the middle, saw this, and quickly notified his subordinates through the car radio: "Everyone pay attention, everyone pay attention. The enemy is about to start shelling us. In order to reduce unnecessary casualties of infantry, let all dismount and walk. Repeat, dismount all infantry at once."

   Hearing Filipov's order, all the tanks slowed down, and the captains lifted the top hatches one after another, telling the infantry sitting on the tanks to get off and follow the tanks to attack.

  Filipov's order was issued in time, and the next moment, the machine guns on the German positions began to shoot. Fortunately, the infantry had already disembarked from the tank, and followed the tank and advanced towards the German position. The bullets fired by the machine gun basically hit the tank, splashing countless sparks, but the threat posed to the infantry behind the tank , but is almost negligible.

  When the tanks were still fifty or sixty meters away from the trenches, they stopped one after another, bombarded the exposed firepower points with tank guns, and shot the German infantry with machine guns, covering their own infantry to charge forward.

  The Soviet army's style of play quickly confused the Germans. According to the experience of the German commanders, didn't the Soviet army always charge with infantry, and the tanks followed behind to cooperate? In a blink of an eye, the tanks opened the way in front, and the infantry followed behind.

  In this way, under the cover of the tank brigade, the commanders and fighters of the 304th Infantry Division easily captured the first line of defense of the German army. Leaving the necessary troops, clearing out the remnants of the enemy and consolidating the fortifications, the rest of the troops rushed towards the depth of the German defense.

   Panov saw that the 19th Tank Brigade covered the infantry and took down the first line of defense of the German army, so he called Batov and reported the good news to him.

  Batov was really overjoyed after hearing this, and said repeatedly: "Well done, General Panov, your subordinates are really good. Let them make persistent efforts and strive to reach the bank of the Narew River as soon as possible."

  The Soviet commanders and fighters who captured the German position were like a rainbow. Under the cover of the tank brigade, they soon launched an attack on the second line of defense of the German army. Although they encountered stubborn resistance here, after two hours of fierce fighting, they succeeded in occupying the second line of defense of the German army.

  The two directions leading to the Narew River have been broken by the Soviet army, and Batov is very excited, which means that he may transfer more troops to the Narew River and launch a forced crossing operation.

   Rokossovsky learned from the Air Force that Soviet troops had appeared on the banks of the Narew River. He couldn't help feeling ecstatic, and quickly called Batov himself to verify the authenticity of the information.

  Hearing Batov's voice, Rokossovsky asked straight to the point: "Batov, how is the situation there? When will you reach the bank of the Narew River?"

"Comrade Commander, I'm just about to report to you." Batov reported to Rokossovsky excitedly: "My troops have broken through two German defense lines in a row, and now the vanguard has arrived. On the banks of the Narew River."

Rokossovsky was overjoyed when he learned that the vanguard had reached the bank of the Narew River, and he said into the microphone: "Batov, your soldiers are very fast, you have to take advantage of the Germans before If you regain your senses and launch the river crossing operation in time, the chances of success will increase.”

"Understood, Comrade Commander," Batov replied on the phone: "I have given an order to the Chief of Engineers to immediately transport the crossing equipment to the Pultusk region, where we are going to cross the Narew River. .”

"Batov, you have done a good job." Rokossovsky said approvingly: "I believe that your troops will be able to complete the task of forcibly crossing the Narew River and establishing a landing site on the left bank of the river within the stipulated time. "

"Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Now that my vanguard has reached the bank of the Narew River, in a short time, before the Germans recover, I will immediately order the troops to launch a river crossing operation, and it will definitely be completed. An order given to him by his superiors. Batov assured Rokossovsky: "We will meet the deadline."

After putting down the phone, the high-spirited Batov called his Chief of Staff Glebov and told him: "Comrade Chief of Staff, immediately issue an order to the 304th and 311th Infantry Divisions to cross the river and let them speed up their actions. Attack the other side before the Germans come to their senses."

   But Glebov reminded Batov: "Comrade Commander, our river-crossing equipment will not be transported to the river until the evening at the earliest. I am afraid it is too early to start the river-crossing operation now?"

Unexpectedly, Batov glared at him and said: "Chief of Staff, if we wait for the river crossing equipment to reach the river before launching the river crossing operation, then the Germans must have been prepared for it, and our troops will definitely pay for it during the forced crossing." Huge casualties. Notify the troops who arrived earlier, and cut wood by the river to make rafts. Without special river crossing equipment, we can successfully reach the left bank area even with rafts.”

Seeing that Batov had already made a decision, Glebov knew that no matter what he said, he could not change the other party's mind, so he could only nod and agreed to the other party's proposal: "I will immediately notify the vanguard and let them cut wood on the spot to make Raft, and launch the crossing operation as soon as possible."

  Two hours later, the 304th Infantry Division took the lead in launching the river crossing operation.

   At the beginning, there was still silence on the other side of the river. When the raft reached the middle of the river, there was still no movement on the opposite bank. Just when the division commander in the observation station on the bank thought that the crossing was about to succeed, the opposite river bank seemed to be resurrected, and various light and heavy weapons fired at the commanders and fighters on the raft at the same time.

  Because there was no shelter on the raft, most of the commanders and fighters were standing. As a result, as soon as the gunfire from the opposite bank rang out, they became the targets of the enemy. Immediately, many people were shot, some of them fell into the river and were floated downstream along the river; some fell directly on the raft. The remaining commanders quickly squatted or lay down, using the bodies of their comrades as cover, and fired towards the firepower point on the opposite bank.

The division commander in the observation post, seeing his subordinates falling under the rain of German guns and bullets, immediately shouted to the chief of staff behind him: "Chief of staff, fire! Hurry up and order the artillery regiment to fire, we must destroy the German army on the left bank Firepower to cover our river crossing troops landing."

  Five or six minutes later, more than a dozen 76.2mm artillery pieces of the divisional artillery regiment opened fire, successfully destroying part of the firepower points on the left bank, allowing some rafts in the area to land smoothly.

But at this moment, two machine guns that had been muted by artillery fire came back to life. They fired crazily, forming a cross-fire net with dense bullets, knocking down the soldiers who had just jumped off the raft, and blood stained the river. .

  Although the artillery observer at the rear found the fire point of the revived machine gun, he was worried about accidentally injuring his own people because of the cover of the soldiers who landed, so he could only watch the two machine guns raging.

  When the division commander saw this, he cursed angrily: "Damn, what's the matter with this artillery, seeing our commanders and fighters fall in pieces under the enemy's machine gun fire, why didn't they fire to suppress it?"

"Comrade commander, don't worry." The chief of staff on the side explained to him: "Our soldiers and the enemy are mixed together. If we fire rashly, the enemy's firepower point may not be hit, and it will cause even greater damage to the attacking troops. casualties."

   "Then what should we do?" The division commander asked angrily: "Should we just watch the enemy's machine guns wipe out all our troops?"

"Comrade commander, under the current situation, it is impossible to provide effective artillery support." The chief of staff suggested to the commander: "It is better to withdraw the troops first, and then order the artillery to fire towards the opposite bank to destroy all the marked firepower points. "

  After listening to the chief of staff's suggestion, the division commander thought for a long time, finally sighed, and said helplessly: "Okay, Comrade Chief of Staff, just follow what you said, first withdraw the troops, and launch an attack after clarifying the situation."

  The forced crossing was unsuccessful, and the remaining crossing troops withdrew to the right bank one after another, preparing to regroup before launching a new attack on the enemy on the left bank. When Colonel Filipov saw that the infantry began to retreat, he didn't figure out what was going on, so he drove the tank directly outside the headquarters of the 304th Infantry Division.

  The soldier in charge of guarding the division headquarters saw a tank approaching the division headquarters, stopped it quickly, and asked loudly, "Hey, tank man, what division are you from? What are you doing here?"

After the tank stopped, the top hatch was opened, and Filipov got out of the tank, and said loudly to the soldiers blocking the way: "I am Colonel Filipov, commander of the 19th Tank Brigade, where is your division commander?" place?"

Fortunately, the soldiers knew that the troops were following the 19th tank brigade. After hearing the identity of the other party, they quickly said politely: "Comrade colonel, the division commander is in the nearby observation post. I can take you there to find him. But your tank ..."

   "I understand." Filipov jumped off the tank and said to the soldiers, "My tank will stay here. Hurry up and take me to see your division commander."

   When he came to the observation post of the division headquarters, Filipov saw the commander of the 304th division, and asked straight to the point: "Comrade commander, your troops have clearly landed on the left bank, why did you retreat?"

"Colonel Filipov," the division commander explained with a bitter face: "The enemy's firepower on the left bank is too strong. Even if our troops successfully landed, they would not be able to develop in depth. Instead, casualties continued. After careful consideration, I decided to First withdraw the troops to regroup, and use this time to use artillery fire to destroy those exposed firepower points, and after confirming that the threat is eliminated, launch another forced crossing operation to the left bank."

"It turned out to be like this, I understand." Filipov figured out why the infantry division withdrew to the right bank after the failed landing, and said to the division commander: "Comrade commander, I can order the tanks of the tank brigade to stop by the river. Directly use tank fire to bombard and destroy the German firepower on the opposite bank, and cover the infantry comrades to cross the Narew River smoothly."

   "Thank you so much!" The division commander extended his hand to Filipov and said in a friendly tone: "Comrade Colonel, with your fire support, I believe that the German defense line will definitely be broken by us."

"Don't be so polite, Comrade Commander." Filipov said with a chuckle: "The mission of our brigade was to help you break through the German defenses. Now that you have broken through two land defenses in a row, the next step is to help you break through the German defenses. They have broken through their defense line on the water. Don't worry, we will definitely assist you with all our strength."

  (end of this chapter)