Chapter 360: Defense (below)

  Chapter 360 Defense (Part 2)

There are nearly a thousand people in the third battalion. If they are all used to attack the artillery positions of the German army, the troops cannot be fully deployed, so Sokov began to form troops: "The task of attacking the artillery positions will be completed by the eighth company of Second Lieutenant Egor. The 7th company sent out a guard to the south to monitor the enemy in that direction; the 9th company of Lieutenant Guchakov set up defenses to the north of the artillery position to prevent the German infantry regiment from rushing over to support after hearing the movement..."

  After issuing a series of orders, Sokov stood up straight and asked the three company commanders: "Have the missions been clarified?"

   "It's clear!" The three company commanders replied in unison.

   Just when Sokov was about to let them carry out his orders, a few people hurried over from a distance. From their appearance, Sokov guessed that they were scouts sent by Andre. Then he turned his head and told Andre: "Andre, it seems that your scout is back, go over and ask what happened."

  Andre nodded, trotted up to meet him, and asked the scouts who had just returned to learn about the situation. Seeing the return of scouts, several company commanders guessed that the situation might have changed, so they did not leave, but stood still and waited.

After a while, Andrey walked back to Sokov and said to him: "Comrade Brigadier, the scouts reported that the German infantry regiment stationed in the north began to move south. It may be that the front attack is not going well. They rushed to help."

   "All the infantry regiments drove away, or only part of them?" Sokov asked briefly.

  Andrei understood Sokov's character and knew that he would definitely get to the bottom of it, so when he asked the scouts about the situation, he asked them very carefully. Hearing Sokov's question at this moment, he replied without hesitation: "The enemy has left a company to guard the camp, and the rest of the troops have already left."

"Comrades company commanders, the enemy's situation has changed, and we need to make some adjustments to our combat deployment just now." After learning about the situation outside, Sokov said to the three company commanders: "The troops attacking the artillery positions are still from the Eighth Company. As the main force of the enemy has rushed to the south, the strength of the Seventh Company, which was originally planned to be deployed in the south, appears to be somewhat weak. Let's see, apart from leaving two platoons in the north to monitor the enemy, the rest of the Ninth Company Several platoons are used to strengthen the Seventh Company."

  After adjusting the deployment, Sokov asked casually: "Do you have any questions?"

  He thought that everyone would say no in unison, but as soon as the words fell, the seventh company commander raised his hand and asked cautiously: "Comrade Brigadier, can I say a few words?"

   "Say it!"

  The Seventh Company Commander turned his head and glanced at Lieutenant Guchakov, and then asked: "Comrade Brigadier, since our company and the main force of the Ninth Company are acting together, I would like to ask, who should have the unified command of the troops?"

  When Sokov heard the question from the Seventh Company Commander, he felt that it made sense. If the two companies had five hundred people, without a unified command, they would easily fall into chaos. Therefore, after staring at the two of them for a while, he said, "For this operation, Lieutenant Guchakov, commander of the Ninth Company, will be in charge of commanding, and you will be his deputy. Do you understand?"

"Understood." Although Sokov only let himself be Guchakov's deputy, the Seventh Company Commander didn't show any dejected expression on his face. Instead, he readily agreed: "I will cooperate with Lieutenant Guchakov to complete the task." Good job for this mission."

  The company commanders went back to assemble their troops and prepared to rush to their respective combat locations. Sokov ordered the radio operator who followed him: "Get in touch with the 124th and 149th brigades immediately and ask them how the situation is going there?"

   It took about ten minutes before I received a call back from the two brigade commanders. The situation on the south side that Gorokhov was defending was better. Because they had a batch of captured tanks as bunker fortifications, and the Germans had not many offensive troops, they fought very easily.

   On the north side where Borvinov insisted, the situation is much worse. The Germans launched wave after wave of violent attacks on his position, and even rushed into the trenches twice. Fortunately, Borvinov himself led the guard company and drove the enemy out with bayonets and hand grenades.

Seeing that the area where Borvinov was standing was in danger, Sokov couldn't help frowning. He thought of the infantry regiment that had just been transferred from the forest area. If this unit also invested in the attack on the 149th Brigade, Bolvinov and the others simply couldn't hold their ground. Once the position is lost, not only will the breakthrough be opened, it will be closed by the enemy; at the same time, the enemy will also threaten Gorokhov's rear.

  Thinking of this, he said to the radio operator in a stern tone: "Send a report to Colonel Borvinov, ordering him to stick to his position at all costs. If he loses his position, I will shoot him."

After sending a tough telegram to Borvinov, Sokov raised his hand to look at his watch, and then said to Andrei: "Captain Andrei, judging from the current situation, the situation of the 149th Brigade is very bad. Therefore, your actions must be fast, and immediately attack from the enemy's rear after taking out the enemy's artillery positions."

   "Understood." Andre replied confidently: "In a quarter of an hour at most, we can clean up the enemy's artillery position, and then concentrate our forces to attack the enemy's rear and rescue the 149th Brigade."

  The artillery of the German army may never have dreamed that there would be Soviet troops appearing near them, so that no defense was established at all. The sentinel on duty saw the Soviet army appearing at the edge of the forest. Just as he yelled, he was hit on the forehead by a flying bullet. He threw his body back and fell straight on his back to the ground.

  As soon as the sniper killed the enemy sentinel, Second Lieutenant Yegor jumped up from the ground first, brandished his pistol, and shouted hoarsely: "Comrades, follow me! Go forward~!"

  The soldiers jumped up from the ground one after another, held the weapons in their hands, shouted and rushed towards the German artillery positions.

  The warning issued by the German sentry alarmed the artillerymen who were resting on the position. Seeing the Soviet soldiers rushing from the edge of the forest, they rushed to the place where the light weapons were piled up, trying to prevent the Soviet army from seizing the position. However, the number of guns in the artillery is small after all. An artillery regiment is not as good as an artillery company in close combat without infantry cover.

  The soldiers ran the distance of more than 100 meters in only a dozen seconds. The soldiers in the front row threw stringed grenades towards the most densely populated area of ​​the enemy. A series of explosions sounded, and pieces of German artillery were cut down by the flying shrapnel. Some died on the spot, while others were wounded and survived, falling to the ground, covering their wounds and howling.

  The soldiers equipped with submachine guns took the opportunity to step forward and shoot at the surviving enemies with the submachine guns in their hands, frantically harvesting their lives. After just two or three minutes, corpses were strewn all over the artillery position.

  Second Lieutenant Yegor rushed to a cannon, shot dead a wounded soldier who tried to pull off a grenade and died with the surrounding soldiers, and then shouted loudly: "Don't dawdle, quickly clean up the battlefield and wipe out the remnants of the enemy."

  Although the number of the German army is almost twice that of the Soviet army, because most of the artillery has no weapons, they have little power to parry the Soviet soldiers who rushed up. In less than a quarter of an hour, except for more than a hundred people who voluntarily surrendered, the rest were either shot to death or killed by grenades.

  Before the battle started, Sokov and Andrei were at the edge of the forest, finding a position with a wide view, and observing the progress of the battle from there. Seeing that the soldiers of the Eighth Company took down the artillery position so quickly, they were also very surprised to arrive. He turned to Andre and said, "Comrade Captain, your subordinates have done a good job. Let's go to the artillery position to have a look."

Second Lieutenant Yegor, who commanded the soldiers to clean up the battlefield, saw Sokov and Andrei approaching, and hurried over to report to them: "Brigade Commander, Battalion Commander, our company has eliminated 385 enemies in the battle that just ended. , captured 179 people, and also seized 32 artillery pieces, as well as a batch of light weapons and supporting ammunition."

   "Comrade Brigadier," Andrei waited for Egor to finish his report, then turned to Sokov and asked, "This batch of artillery may not be able to be pulled back. How do you think about it?"

"If this batch of artillery falls into the hands of the Germans again, they will continue to bombard us." Sokov ordered without hesitation: "Blow up the artillery immediately, and blow up all the guns. Let the soldiers We put grenades in the barrels and we blow up these guns."

   "Comrade Brigadier," Yegor said hesitantly when he heard Sokov's order, "It's a pity that all the cannons were blown up."

   "What's the pity?" Andre scolded his subordinate with staring eyes: "Are you planning to leave all these artillery pieces to the Germans and let them deal with us?"

"Comrade Brigadier, please listen to my explanation." Yegor looked at Sokov and said, "In addition to capturing 32 artillery pieces, we also captured more than 100 shells. These shells are fired."

Sokov thought that the front was full of fire, but these artillerymen were idle, there were no shells, but there were more than a hundred shells, which was beyond his expectation, so he decisively said to Egor : "Comrade Second Lieutenant, let the soldiers who have been artillerymen in the company immediately shoot out these shells, and let the Germans taste the taste of their own shells."

  It was a pleasant thing for Egor to be able to bombard the German troops with German artillery shells. He agreed loudly, then turned around and ran towards the place where there were most soldiers, shouting loudly as he ran: "Who has been an artilleryman, who has been an artilleryman? Come to me immediately and assemble!"

Following his shout, many soldiers gathered around him soon, saying in one go: "Comrade company commander, I have been an artilleryman, and I used to be a gunner." "I am a loader. "...

   Seeing so many former artillerymen popping up at once, Andrei smiled and said to Sokov: "Comrade Brigadier, it looks like the Germans are going to suffer."

  (end of this chapter)