Ten minutes before the battle started, all commanders above the regiment level gathered at Sokov's forward headquarters. Seeing these school-level officers dangling in front of him, Sokov thought evilly: If a shell fell at this moment, not only the division-level commanders of the 31st Guards Division would be completely destroyed. , but also took the lives of two artillery regiment commanders and a tank brigade commander.
However, this thought only flashed through my mind. If a shell really fell, the lives of others would not be saved, and I would not be able to escape the same fate. Sokov calmed down and asked his three regiment leaders: "Are you all ready?"
"Ready, comrade division commander." The three regiment leaders replied in unison.
When his eyes turned to Lyabinkin and Peter, before he could speak, Lyabinkin had already smiled and said: "Comrade Major, we are also ready. As long as you give your order, we can attack the enemy." The position opened fire."
Sokov nodded slightly at Lyabinkin, and then turned his attention to Colonel Gustov, who was a little repelled by him: "Comrade Colonel, have all your tank brigades entered the starting point?"
"Yes, Comrade Major. All 31 tanks of the entire brigade have entered the designated position. We are just waiting for the time to lead the infantry to attack." After Gustov said these words dryly, in order to ease the atmosphere , he continued: "But my tank only carries high-explosive bombs. It can destroy the enemy's fortifications and eliminate the enemy's infantry. But if it encounters the enemy's tank, I will have nothing to do."
"Don't worry, Comrade Colonel." Sokov replied with a smile: "Since the German army did not invest tanks in the battles in the past few days, I believe that your tank brigade will not encounter enemy tanks in today's battle. Your mission is to use the tracks to crush the fortifications along the way and destroy those enemies who dare to resist."
"Don't worry, Comrade Major." Gustov also replied with a smile: "I will convey your order to every tank soldier."
Sokov raised his wrist to check the time, and then said to everyone: "Comrade commanders, it's almost time. Let's go back to our respective units and make final preparations before the attack."
As the minute hand on the watch pointed to the twelve position, Sokov nodded to Potukin, who was holding the microphone, indicating that the bombardment could begin. Potukin, who understood the situation, hurriedly spoke into the microphone: "Commander's order: fire~!"
Just ten or twenty seconds later, the rumble of cannons was heard outside. Sokov walked to the lookout, raised his binoculars and looked at the German positions in the distance. He saw that the enemy's forward positions had been shrouded in smoke. It seems that the artillery power of the two artillery regiments is really not weak.
After Potukin put down the phone, he walked to Sokov's side, raised his telescope and looked into the distance, and asked with some concern: "Comrade division commander, can the tactics we use really capture the German outer positions?" ?”
Sokov, who was observing the enemy's situation, heard Potukin's question and replied without looking back: "I think it should be effective. If this still fails to capture the enemy's position, then we can only attack the infantry corps." That’s how we carried out a strong attack.”
Five minutes passed quickly, but when the artillery fire began to extend, the commanders and fighters of the 1137th Regiment, who were already ready to attack, launched a charge towards the enemy's position under the guidance of the tanks of the tank brigade.
In order to ensure that the infantry could keep up with its own speed, the tanks drove very slowly. The infantry followed the tanks step by step in platoon units and rushed towards the enemy's position.
Before the troops could approach the enemy's forward position, the phone on the table suddenly rang. Sokov put down his telescope and turned to look at the phone that was ringing non-stop. He thought to himself that the battle had just started, who could the call be? He walked over, picked up the phone, and said: "I am Major Sokov, where are you?"
"I am Ma Lining." Ma Lining's questioning voice came from the receiver, "Comrade Commander asked me to ask you, how did you do it? Why did you only bombard the German first line of defense for a few minutes and then extend the artillery fire? ? And before the artillery fire stopped, the infantry launched a charge under the cover of the tanks. What on earth is going on?"
Facing a series of questions from Malinin, Sokov calmly replied: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I reported to Comrade Commander yesterday that the enemy usually retreats to the second line of defense when being shelled by our army. After our army's bombardment was over, they returned through the communication trenches. This time I used the trick and bombarded the first line of defense for five minutes. After the enemy retreated to the second line of defense, I then extended the artillery fire to eliminate the enemy as much as possible. At the same time, I ordered the troops to decisively launch a charge at a favorable opportunity when the enemy was avoiding artillery fire, so as to achieve maximum results with minimum casualties."
After Malinin patiently listened to Sokov's words, he nodded slightly and said, "I understand, Major Sokov, I will convey your original words to the comrade commander. I wish you good luck!"
Putting down the phone, Sokov returned to the lookout, raised his telescope and looked into the distance. I saw that the tanks had crushed all the barbed wire fences along the way under their tracks, and they were only a hundred or two hundred meters away from the first German position. At this moment, a tank suddenly stopped. Just as Sokov was wondering, a nearly one-meter-long flame appeared from the muzzle. The shell fell into the German trench, and then an explosion occurred. In the smoke, a German soldier could be seen dancing and flying into the sky, then falling to pieces.
Seeing this scene, the corners of Sokov's mouth couldn't help but turn up slightly. He shook his head and said angrily and funny: "These tank soldiers! The enemies who can clearly be killed with directional machine guns actually want to bombard them with tanks, as if they It’s like the cannonballs we carry are endless.”
Potukin put down the telescope and said to Sokov with a smile: "Comrade division commander, I think these tank soldiers did it right. The German soldiers killed by the tank guns should be the enemy's observation posts left in the first line of defense. If they use Machine gun fire may not kill him. Now a shell flies over and blasts him into the sky, so that the commanders and soldiers who are attacking can clearly see it, which is very helpful to improve morale."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, you are right." Sokov agreed with Potukin's statement. He knew very well that even if the tank crew killed the enemy's observation post with a machine gun, only a few soldiers would see it. Now he was sent directly to the west with one shot, but almost all the soldiers participating in the battle could see it, and the improvement in morale was self-evident. Seeing the vigorous commanders and combatants rushing behind the tanks and rushing towards the enemy's position, he couldn't help saying with emotion: "The tank brigade fired for the first time and killed an enemy with a tank gun. The effect produced looked like It’s very good.”
It didn't take long for the commanders and fighters of the 1137th Regiment to occupy the first German position. Except for a few people who were left to hold on to their positions, they continued to follow the tanks and move towards the second line of defense, which was still under shelling.
Sokov raised his hand and looked at his watch again, and found that there were only two minutes left before the bombardment ended. He quickly turned around and walked to the telephone, picked up the receiver and asked the communications soldier to connect to the 1135th Regiment. When he heard a voice coming from inside, he said decisively: "Colonel Bindasov, it's your turn."
Bindasov felt extremely envious when he saw Pavel's troops successfully occupying the first German position and advancing deeper into the enemy. At this moment, after hearing the order issued by Sokov, he immediately replied loudly: "Understood, comrade division commander, we will attack immediately."
A few kilometers away from the Sokov command post, a group of commanders stayed in an observation post built on high ground, observing the situation on the battlefield with telescopes. If Sokov were here, he would be surprised to find that in addition to Rokossovsky and other group army leaders, the commander of the Western Front, General Zhukov, was also there.
Zhukov saw the artillery bombarding the German positions for only a few minutes before he began to fire extended shots, and the infantry also followed behind the tanks. He was very curious about this new style of play, so he ordered Malinin to call Sokov to find out what was going on.
Now when he saw the commanders and fighters of the 1137th Regiment occupying the German army's first line of defense almost without a fight, without making any pause, and launching an attack deep into the enemy, a rare smile appeared on his usually serious face. He put down the telescope, looked at Rokossovsky standing next to him, called him by his nickname and said: "Koschka, it seems that this little Misha is not simple, he actually occupied the first line of defense of the German army like this. "
"Yes, he is full of clever ideas." Regarding Zhukov's statement, Rokossovsky nodded in agreement: "If he had ordered his troops to attack Zizdra earlier, maybe the losses we would have suffered would have been smaller. many."
"It seems that the commanders and fighters of the 31st Guards Division will have no problem in seizing the German outer positions." Zhukov said with a sigh: "I just don't know if they can still perform as well as they do now in street fighting. so good."
"Don't worry, Comrade Zhukov." Rokossovsky looked at Zhukov and said with a smile: "I talked to Misha during the military meeting yesterday, although he did not tell me in detail how to deal with it. The Germans are fighting in the streets, but from the looks of him, I'm afraid he already has a detailed plan in mind, so we'll just wait here for good news about him."
"I think, in order to speed up his victory, we should help him." After Zhukov finished speaking, he called a staff officer who came with him and ordered him: "Immediately, in my name, give the Air Force Group The commander gave an order to immediately dispatch a fighter squadron and a bomber group to Zizdra for support."
After the staff walked away, Zhukov explained to Rokossovsky: "After Mischa's troops occupy the German outer positions, the enemy will definitely retaliate. Therefore, I asked the air force to dispatch to support him, and the fighter planes can repel the enemy." The incoming German aircraft and bombers can bomb targets deep within the German army, such as artillery positions and the like."
Hearing what Zhukov said, Rokossovsky felt a little sour in his heart. He secretly said that when he attacked two days ago, he asked Zhukov for air support, but was rejected by the other party. Now, just seeing Sokov's troops occupying a German position, they hastily dispatched air force support. The gap between the two is probably too big.
Although he was a little jealous of Zhukov's preference for Sokov, Rokossovsky thought that the other party was his subordinate after all, and Zhukov's support for him was tantamount to his support, so when Zhukov finished speaking, he laughed He said: "Comrade General, don't worry. If Major Sokov's troops are in danger, our other troops will not stand idly by and we will provide timely support."
When the infantry following the tank charge were less than fifty meters away from the German second line of position, the artillery regiment's shelling stopped. Although many artillery shells missed and exploded ten or twenty meters in front of the attacking team, fortunately, the shrapnel hit the tanks and the infantry following behind did not suffer any damage.
The Germans never dreamed that the Soviets would extend their artillery fire just a few minutes after shelling the first line of defense. The officers and soldiers who had just retreated along the communication trenches from the first line of defense suffered heavy losses under the intensive artillery fire. They finally waited until the bombardment stopped, but before they could recover, they felt the ground beneath their feet shaking slightly. A German machine gunner curiously looked out from the trench and saw Soviet tanks lined up in neat lines. The figure rushed up, and behind the tank, groups of infantry could be clearly seen.
Seeing the Soviet troops rushing up, the machine gunner quickly turned to his colleagues who were still running out of the dirt and shouted: "The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming!" After shouting several times, he found that he had no idea what he was doing. He couldn't hear any sound. His ears had been deafened by the shelling just now.
The machine gunner quickly placed the G34 machine gun on the trench that was riddled with holes, aimed at the overcoming Soviet tanks, and suddenly pulled the trigger. A series of bullets flew out, hitting the tank body like hail and clanking, but it could not slow down the tank's speed at all.
The tank that was strafed stopped, slowly turned the turret, aimed at the position of the German machine gunner and fired a shot. There was a loud "boom", and the artillery fire sprayed out a long flame. The artillery shell accurately hit the fire point, blasting the machine gun that was shooting wildly into a pile of parts, and the machine gunner operating the machine gun was blown to pieces.
The commanders and soldiers following the tank saw that they were not far away from the enemy's position, so they rushed out from behind the tank, crossed the tank in groups, and rushed towards the enemy's position with shouts.
