Chapter 820: The Germans were beaten (middle)

  Chapter 820 The Germans were beaten up (2)

  As soon as the Soviet bombardment and bombardment of the German front ended, the two infantry divisions of the 24th Army that participated in the attack went into battle. It was the 173rd Infantry Division that attacked the defense area of ​​the German 113th Infantry Division; it was the 233rd Infantry Division that attacked the defense area of ​​the German 60th Motorized Division.

  In order to make the Germans think that the Soviet army really launched a counterattack, the commander of the group army, General Galanin, even put the only 217th tank brigade into the battlefield, and cooperated with the 233rd infantry division to attack the German motorized division defense area.

  A series of actions of the Soviet army convinced Paulus that the Russians were preparing to take major military actions in the region. He kept asking Schmid to urge the two division commanders who were attacked, and let them put the follow-up troops into the competition for the forward position as quickly as possible.

  Garanin knew that the attack ordered by his superior was just a diversionary operation, and there was no need to consume too much of his own strength. Therefore, after the two divisions successfully captured the forward positions of the German army, he ordered the troops to turn to the defense on the spot, strengthen the existing fortifications, and prepare for the German counterattack.

The two infantry division commanders and one tank brigade commander who participated in the attack were puzzled by Garanin's order, but they, who were accustomed to obeying, did not question the order of their superiors, but ordered the troops to stop attacking the Germans in time. The second line of defense advanced and turned to defense on the spot.

   Fortunately, Garanin's order was issued in time, otherwise the attacking troops would meet head-on with the reinforcements from the German army. On the open ground without fortifications to rely on, no matter how heroic the Soviet commanders and fighters were, they could not have the German infantry covered by tanks and armored vehicles.

  The Soviet commanders and fighters who turned to the defense in time, relying on favorable terrain, carried out tenacious resistance to the German army trying to regain their position, and successfully repelled their two consecutive attacks.

Paulus immediately asked Schmid to summon the commanders of the 4th, 7th, 11th, and 51st Infantry Corps, as well as the commander of the 14th Armored Corps, to the headquarters after receiving calls from the two division commanders. Study possible next troop movements.

After several army commanders arrived, Paulus said to them straight to the point: "Your Excellencies, two hours ago, the Russian 24th Army launched an attack on our army in the Kacharinskaya area. From the analysis of the situation on the battlefield, they tried to isolate our troops located in the small bend of the Don River, and cooperated with the 66th Army on their left to annihilate them..."

"Your Excellency, Commander," as the 60th Motorized Division belongs to the 14th Panzer Corps, the commander of the corps, Lieutenant General Helmut Schlemmer and others Paulus immediately stood up and said: " I would like to ask, why did our intelligence troops not detect this attack launched by the Russians in advance?" After he arrived at the headquarters, he learned from Schmid that the Russians had already occupied the forward positions of two divisions. And repelled two counterattacks by his own side. Regarding the surprise attack of the Soviet army this time, he raised his own doubts, "If the intelligence department cannot give a reasonable explanation, I am worried that similar situations will reappear in the future. By then Our situation will be even worse."

"General Schlemmer, don't be in a hurry, please sit down first." Schmid saw that after Schlemmer said this, Paulus's face was particularly ugly, and he hurried out to smooth things over: "Our grievances against the Russians Reconnaissance relies on collective farm workers who are close to Germany, or some residents who have escaped from the cities. However, in the areas controlled by the Russians, the activities of these civilians are greatly restricted, so they cannot provide us with information in a timely manner. Useful information."

"Don't worry, General Schlemmer." Paulus looked at Schlemmer and said, "I have ordered the 289th and 295th Divisions of the 51st Infantry Corps to start gathering immediately and prepare to rush to the battle area to reinforce you 60th Motorized Division."

Paulus's words made Kurzbach, the commander of the 51st Infantry Corps, a little bit impatient. After all, the two divisions mentioned by the other party were from his infantry corps. For Paulus's leapfrog command, He felt very dissatisfied in his heart. After coughing lightly, he said to Paulus: "Your Excellency, the two infantry divisions you mentioned have been greatly weakened after a long battle. The 289th Division belongs to the Of the seven infantry battalions, four are weakened and three are largely depleted; the situation in the 295th Infantry Division is even worse, with six infantry battalions to which it belongs, all in a weakened state, and the engineer battalion has been depleted .”

"General Kurzbach," seeing that Kurzbach questioned his deployment, Paulus said disconcertedly, "I am going to use your two divisions to attack the Russian flank attacking the 14th Panzer Army's defense area." You should know that when the Russians attack, they always don't care about the head and the tail, and their flanks are usually very fragile. Not to mention two divisions, even two regiments can cut them down."

  After listening to Paulus' words, Kurzbach thought about it carefully, and it seemed that this was really the case. Although the Russians have more troops than themselves, if they compete on the battlefield, a heavily reduced infantry battalion of their own can block the onslaught of a regiment of the opponent. Now the commander uses two divisions to deal with the two divisions of the Russians, which is overkill.

Thinking of this, Kurzbach no longer felt so disgusted with Paulus' leapfrog command, and he asked tentatively: "Your Excellency, I would like to ask, after smashing the Russian offensive this time, can you give us some supplements?" Force?"

"Don't worry, General Kurzbach." The person who answered his words this time was Schmid. The chief of staff of the army group said with a smile: "After smashing the Russian offensive, the commander will be taken from the reserve army." , replenish at least half of your troops."

Seeing that Paulus was willing to add troops to himself, Kurzbach stopped talking and listened quietly to Paulus's next deployment: "...in addition to sending the 289th and 295th divisions westward for reinforcements, the attack The troops of the Barricade Factory and the Dzerzhinsky Factory stopped the offensive temporarily and turned to the defensive on the spot, preparing to reinforce the critical situation when necessary..."

  ...

While Paulus was at his headquarters, deploying measures to his commanders in response to the Soviet attack, the guerrillas hiding in the Nadezhda area, under the command of Guchakov and others, moved towards the captured Soviet army. Movement of the 564th kilometer station and the Kotluba station occupied by the Germans.

   Guchakov never dreamed that he planned to command hundreds of people to launch an attack on the station where the German army was hoarding supplies. But after the battle plan was reported, the development of the matter exceeded his imagination. Not only the headquarters of the group army and the headquarters of the front army knew about it, but even the headquarters personally asked about it. Even in order to ensure the success of the offensive, the base camp even used the regular army to launch a feint attack in the north to contain the main force of the German army and create favorable conditions for the guerrillas.

Guchakov divided the offensive force into two, half of which was commanded by the eldest brother Mishiga among the Ignatov brothers, who was responsible for attacking the 564th kilometer station; while the other half was commanded by the second brother Vovga, Go with yourself to attack the Kurt Luban Station. Of course, other guerrilla captains also have their own tasks. For example, a captain with a beard is responsible for leading his men to block the enemy who may be reinforced in the east; a red-haired captain is in charge of the block task in the west.

When the two captains were about to leave with the blocking guerrillas, Guchakov specially emphasized to them: "Comrades two captains, the troops you can use are limited and the combat power is not strong. If people confront each other head-on, it is very likely that the entire army will be wiped out."

  When the two captains received the order to block the attack, they learned that there were only seventy or eighty guerrillas who joined them in the battle, and they couldn't help feeling cold. They knew very well that their own strength was not enough for the Germans to squeeze their teeth. It was almost impossible to prevent the German reinforcements from arriving before the station fell.

Hearing Guchakov say this to them at this moment, he seemed to see a glimmer of life, and the bearded man hurriedly asked, "Comrade commander, do you have any good methods so that we can block the enemy without destroying the entire army?" ?”

"There is a way." Guchakov nodded, and replied, "Just use your guerrilla tactics to deal with the enemy." When he said this, he saw the two men with confused faces. He explained to them specifically, "You only need to destroy the railway and lay mines on the road, and it is possible to block the enemy."

"But, Comrade Commander." The red-haired said with a bitter face, "Even if we destroy the railways and lay mines on the roads, the effect of slowing down the German army's advancing speed will be very limited. The Germans on the train are far away They can see the rails that were blown up, and they can quickly repair the rails carried on the train; as for the mines on the road, as long as the Germans have engineers, they can clear the mines in a short time..."

  After listening to the red-haired complaint, Guchakov was shocked, because Sokov put forward solutions one by one in the telegrams sent to him because the other party was worried. He said: "Comrade captain, don't worry, listen to me slowly. To destroy the enemy's rails, you don't need to blow up the rails. You only need to remove the screws connecting the rails and sleepers at the turning section, so that the German trains would derail on a turn, and you could inflict heavy casualties on them without firing a single shot.

   As for the enemy's sappers, there is no need to worry. You find some soldiers with good marksmanship and ambushes on both sides of the road. Once you see enemy engineers clearing mines on the road, kill them. As long as the enemy engineers are killed, the remaining infantry is nothing to worry about. "

  Guchakov's explanation made the eyes of the two guerrilla captains shine. They never dreamed that there was such a good way to deal with the enemy that frightened them, and they immediately felt a little more confident. After all, the two had fought guerrilla battles behind enemy lines for a long time, and they still had some experience in how to use guerrilla tactics. The bearded Hu said excitedly: "We can also plant more enemies in the area where the train derailed, even if the enemies on the train Before they are all dead, if they want to leave the accident site, they will inevitably step on the mines we planted. In this way, we have no problem blocking the enemy for a few hours or even a day."

"Now that you know what to do, let's go as soon as possible." Guchakov raised his hand and looked at his watch: "It takes a lot of time to buy landmines." After speaking, he stretched out his hand to the two, " Wish you guys good luck!"

  A large number of guerrillas moved in the direction of the two stations. No matter how concealed they were, but after all, there were so many people, they would still be discovered by the station defenders. Regardless of the troops standing in the station, most of them were transferred to the north, but there was still a company of troops left in the station.

As soon as a large number of guerrillas were moving in the direction of the station, the German company commander responsible for defending the Kotlu bus station realized that something was wrong, and quickly called the battalion commander to report: "Mr. Long, I found a large number of armed men approaching the station from several directions at the same time."

   "What, a large number of armed personnel?" The German battalion commander couldn't help being taken aback when he heard the news. He hurriedly asked, "Can you confirm their identities?"

"I saw through the binoculars that, except for a few of these people who were wearing Russian military uniforms, they were all wearing civilian clothes, and they had all kinds of weapons in their hands." After talking about what he saw, the company commander acted decisively. A judgment was made: "I think they are guerrillas! And there are quite a few of them, probably thousands of people."

"Damn it, Captain, you haven't woken up yet, have you?" Hearing this, the battalion commander immediately asked in a suspicious tone: "Do you think a bunch of mob guerrillas have the guts to attack our heavily guarded station? How could the Russians gather so many guerrillas in a short period of time?"

"Mr. Major, don't you know?" The company commander hurriedly replied: "An hour ago, it was said that the northern defense area was attacked by the Russians. The situation is very critical. Most of the defenders in the station have been transferred. Now there is only one company under my command."

The words of the company commander made the battalion commander aware of the seriousness of the problem, but his subordinates did not have many troops at their disposal. After a brief consideration, he said into the microphone: "Captain, I still have a platoon in my hand. You immediately send them over to support you. Also, I will immediately report this matter to my superiors to get you more reinforcements."

  After the German battalion commander put down the phone, he immediately called to report the matter to the regimental commander. After the head of the regiment heard the news, his first reaction was that his subordinate hadn't woken up, or was drunk when he was clearly awake. Before he could come to a correct conclusion, the chief of staff of the regiment came over and reported to him, "Mr. Colonel, I just received a call from the 564th kilometer station. A large number of armed men were found outside their station, and they seemed to be preparing to attack the station. attack."

  If only armed men appeared outside the Kotlu bus station, the head of the regiment could understand that the commander of the station was not awake or drunk, but the same information came from the 564th kilometer station, and the problem was serious. He pondered for a while, and said into the microphone: "I see, Major. I will report this matter to the division immediately."

   Seeing the head of the regiment put down the phone, the chief of staff of the regiment asked tentatively: "Mr. Colonel, a large number of hostile armed personnel suddenly appeared near the two stations. I don't know what this means?"

The head of the regiment glared at his chief of staff, and said angrily: "What does it mean, don't you know? It is obvious that the Russians are planning to attack our station. You know, there are a lot of military supplies there. , Once it is occupied by the Russians, it will be a disaster for our army."

  (end of this chapter)