Soon, the only six tanks of the tank battalion were divided into three groups, and accompanied by the infantry, they launched a charge along the street. Two tanks are in a group, three meters apart in the middle, just enough to place an infantry squad; each group of tanks is thirty meters apart, but when the tank in front is attacked, the tank in the rear can also provide timely support. Behind the six tanks, there is an infantry battalion. Their task is to rush up and seize the building after the tanks eliminate the enemy firepower in the important building.
Looking at the tanks and infantry retreating in the distance, a staff officer asked Pavel: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, this is the first time I have seen such an attack method. Do you think it is feasible?"
Pavel turned to look at his staff and said solemnly: "Although this is the first time I have seen this tactic, since it is a tactic personally deployed by the division commander, I believe that the effect in street fighting will definitely exceed our imagination. "
At this time, another staff officer came over and reported to Pavel: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, according to the report from the observation post: the troops of the 1135th Regiment have entered the city, and the regiment leader, Colonel Bindasov, is coming towards us."
Just as the 1137th and 1135th regiments entered the city to join together, at the headquarters outside the city, Chief of Staff Potukin also asked Sokov the same question: "Comrade Division Commander, the attack you arranged for Lieutenant Colonel Pavel This is the first time I’ve heard of this tactic, tell me, will it really be effective?”
Sokov told Pavel's tactics that the Soviet army used on a large scale during the Battle of Berlin and achieved good results. But Sokov was not sure what kind of results he could achieve in Zizdra City. After all, all he knew were theories and he had never practiced it himself. Pavel and the others were just the guinea pigs for the experiment. Therefore, after listening to Potukin's question, he shook his head and replied bitterly: "I researched this tactic based on the terrain in Zizdra City. How effective it will be remains to be seen. Lieutenant Colonel Weir’s report.”
The tanks and infantry advancing along the street were not moving very fast. Both the tankers and the infantry were nervously observing the buildings on both sides, fearing that enemies might suddenly appear from any window.
When they were halfway along the street, a window on the second floor of the building on the right suddenly opened, and a German soldier with a submachine gun leaned out and fired downwards. However, the bullets fired by the submachine guns caused limited casualties to the infantry below. Except for one soldier who was shot and fell on the spot, the remaining soldiers immediately squatted down and used the cover of the tank body to fight back.
Due to the firing angle of the tank guns, the first group of tanks was unable to take any action against the building with the German submachine gunners. However, the tank on the left in the second group of tanks that followed immediately stopped and quickly After locking the target, he accurately hit the room with artillery fire, blowing the submachine gunner into pieces.
As soon as this firepower point was eliminated, more Germans appeared from the windows of the buildings on both sides of the street. They used various weapons to shoot condescendingly at the tanks and infantry on the street. Some German soldiers even threw cluster grenades from the windows. , fell on the street and exploded, sending up a plume of black smoke.
Fortunately, the German soldiers were a little nervous when they dropped the bomb, and they threw it too early. The grenade landed two or three meters in front of the tank and exploded. The flying shrapnel clanked on the tank's armor plate, but it did not cause any substantial damage to the tank. s damage. The soldiers hiding between the two tanks were shielded by the tanks, and the enemy's intensive shooting did not cause them too many casualties. On the contrary, they could hide behind the tanks and shoot at the German soldiers leaning out upstairs. In order to hit the infantry marching below, the German soldiers had to lean out of the window. As a result, they were attacked by a group of tanks and soldiers from behind, and suffered a lot of casualties.
Pavel and Bindasov stood side by side at the window of the command post, looking through binoculars at the battle ahead. They couldn't help but break into a cold sweat when they saw the enemy shooting from the buildings on both sides of the street. But what happened next was beyond their expectations. The exposed enemies were either blown to pieces by tank guns or shot to death by soldiers hiding among the tanks.
Seeing this situation, Bindasov said with emotion: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, do you know? When the division commander proposed this tactic, I thought it was quite funny. You know, tanks driving in the city usually have Due to its slow speed, it became a target for German anti-tank fighters. In previous battles, all our tanks would have been lost long ago, and the infantry would also have suffered heavy losses. But after adopting this tactic today, no matter whether our tanks or not Any losses, but the number of infantry casualties were also limited.”
"Yes, Comrade Colonel." As soon as Bindasov finished speaking, Pavel added: "So far, we have only suffered casualties in one squad of infantry, while the enemy's losses are several times ours. If we continue to maintain If we go down, the price we pay when we capture this city will be far lower than we imagined."
At the end of the street is a square, with a tall church in the middle. The Germans not only built a machine gun firepower point on the bell tower, but also had a sandbag fortification with machine guns at the door of the church, and dozens of German soldiers were hiding there. Behind the marble fence, the muzzle was extended from the gap in the fence and aimed at the advancing holiday infantry and tanks.
Seeing that the Soviet troops were only more than 300 meters away from the church, the German machine guns opened fire. The crossfire formed by the machine guns in the bell tower and the door knocked down the soldiers marching between the two tanks.
Seeing the enemy opening fire in the church, a tank rushing in front stopped immediately, and then opened towards the German machine gun fortification at the door of the church. Because the artillery fire was too hasty, the shell missed and missed the German machine gun fire point, but hit the wall of the church. After a loud noise, a large cloud of smoke and dust rose up, covering the enemy's firepower point. As a result, it is difficult to aim at a tank in the distance, and the enemy's machine gun fire point has to temporarily stop shooting because it cannot see the target outside clearly.
Although the location of the enemy's machine gun firepower point cannot be seen, it does not affect the tank's shooting at all. As the six tanks lined up in the square, they fired in turns at the location of the enemy's firepower point, quickly destroying the machine gun firepower point that was still shrouded in smoke. The situation of the German soldiers hiding behind the marble fence was not much better. They were either blown up by artillery shells or killed by bullets from Soviet soldiers.
Although the enemies in front of the church were generally eliminated, the machine guns on the church bell tower were still raging crazily due to the insufficient elevation angle of the tank guns, causing casualties to the Soviet army.
Seeing that the attacking troops were suppressed by fire in front of the church, Pavel quickly ordered a staff officer: "Send a platoon immediately to help the artillery comrades push their artillery to the front."
When Bindasov heard Pavel's order, he asked with some surprise: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, do you plan to have the artillery battalion come close to fire?"
"Yes," Pavel gave Bindasov an affirmative answer. "Because the firing angle of the tank guns was not enough, they could not destroy the German machine gun fire point on the church bell tower. So we could only use artillery to complete this task. In the words of Comrade Division Commander, this is called bayoneting the cannon."
"It's interesting to put bayonets on cannons." After Bindasov repeated Pavel's words, he then ordered his radio operator, "Call Captain Jetrov immediately and order him to lead a battalion to help the artillery comrades. The artillery was pushed to the square, and once the machine gun fire point on the bell tower was destroyed, it immediately launched an attack on the church."
With the help of Captain Jetrov's battalion, the five artillery pieces of the artillery battalion were pushed eight hundred meters away from the church in just a few minutes. As soon as the artillery was in position, it immediately opened fire on the church in the distance. The first round of shells fired failed to hit the target. Instead, they landed around the church and exploded. One of the shells even flew past the church and hit a house more than 100 meters away, blowing up bricks. Concrete structure wall with rubble splash.
Seeing that the first round missed, the artillery battalion commander immediately ordered to readjust the shooting and fire again. Fortunately this time, two shells hit the church. Although they only hit the wall below the bell tower, they still paused the German machine gun fire for a moment.
In the third round of firing, two of the four shells that hit the church hit the bell tower. In the violent explosion, the bell tower collapsed, and the huge marble roof smashed the German machine gunners inside into pulp. Seeing that the German firepower was destroyed, the Jetrov battalion, which had already approached the square, immediately launched a charge.
Usually 4 to 50 meters in front of a building is an out-and-out death zone. Commanders and fighters who rush here will be hit by machine guns, submachine guns, rifles, and even grenades thrown from the building. . If there is not enough fire cover, the corpses of commanders and soldiers will pile up here.
However, the German fire points in front of and above the church had been destroyed by Soviet tanks and artillery. The attack of Camp Jetrov and the friendly forces became extremely smooth. They rushed into the church with rubble and started a close battle with the surviving German troops inside.
Seeing their troops rushing into the church, the two regiment leaders who were watching the battle from a distance both breathed a sigh of relief. Pavel turned to Bindasov and said: "Comrade Colonel, according to the intelligence we have, the headquarters of the German garrison commander is located in the church. You see, our soldiers have rushed into the church and need to be moved immediately. Should I report this news to the division commander?"
"Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, we should report this good news to the division commander immediately." Bindasov agreed with Pavel's proposal without hesitation. He then said to Pavel with a sense of negotiation: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, since soldiers from our two regiments rushed into the church together, let's jointly report to the division commander."
In fact, Sokov, who was waiting for news outside the city, didn't care whether the commander reporting the results to him was a single person or two people jointly. He only cared about the progress of the troops. After learning that the troops had rushed into the church where the German headquarters was located, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He looked down at the map in front of him and wondered whether he should also put the 1139th Regiment as a reserve into the battle so that he could fight as quickly as possible. End this battle.
But before he could make a final decision, the phone on the table rang first. When he picked up the receiver, he heard Rokossovsky's voice: "Major Sokov, report to me immediately on the progress of the troops in the city!"
"Report to Comrade Commander," Sokov thought to himself after hearing Rokossovsky's question. Fortunately, Pavel and Bindasov reported to him the situation in the city in time, otherwise he would not have been able to do so now. Know how to report to Rokossovsky. He said into the microphone: "The troops of the 1135th and 1137th Regiments have rushed into the church where the German headquarters is located. Presumably the enemies in the city will soon fall into chaos because of the loss of unified command..."
"I understand what you mean." Rokossovsky said before Sokov could finish: "I will immediately give General Orlov an order to lead the infantry corps to attack the city from the north. , in order to liberate this city in the shortest possible time."
After Rokossovsky hung up the phone, Sokov was still holding the phone in a daze, saying to himself that Comrade Commander was more thoughtful than me. I only wanted to send reserves into the city from the east, but he took the initiative to send troops to attack from the north, which would greatly speed up the liberation of the city.
Potugin saw that Sokov was in a daze and guessed that he must be thinking about something. He was afraid of interrupting his thoughts by speaking, so he stood quietly aside. It wasn't until Sokov put down the phone that he asked: "Division Commander, I wonder what Comrade Commander said on the phone?"
Sokov pointed at the map in front of him and said: "The commander plans to order the infantry troops deployed in the north of the city to launch an attack on the city and speed up the process of liberating the city."
Potukin tilted his head and glanced at the map, then nodded and said: "Comrade Commander's decision is correct. Once the infantry army launches an attack from the north of the city, the enemy will not be able to deploy troops from the north of the city to strengthen the attack." This will be very helpful for us to quickly occupy the city."
"Chief of Staff, call Lieutenant Colonel Ajik. Order his troops to enter the city from the east of the city immediately." Sokov smiled and said to Potukin: "I think Comrade Lieutenant Colonel is impatient to wait."
"Understood," Potukin waited for Sokov to finish, then replied with a smile: "I think Lieutenant Colonel Ajik will be very happy when he hears your order."
