In this plan to attack Kursk, there were only two targets that must be captured at all costs. One is the German command headquarters, where Colonel Kempka, the garrison commander of Kursk, stays; and the other is a military warehouse. Although there was only one company of troops left in the city, Kempka deployed a platoon of troops in each of these two key departments.
The troops that went straight to the garrison headquarters were commanded by Lieutenant Grisa, among whom Corporal Ernst was indispensable. After all, in the entire battalion, he was the only one who would not arouse the Germans' anger when he spoke German. Suspect.
However, as soon as they arrived at the gate of the garrison headquarters, they were stopped by soldiers on duty. The soldier leading the team was a corporal. He did not show any respect to Ernst because he carried the rank of captain on his shoulders. Instead, he asked in a stern tone: "Mr. Captain, which part do you belong to? Come here to do this." What?"
"We came from the Tim area," Ernst didn't know the numbers of the nearby German troops, and he didn't dare to say anything casually for fear of betraying others. He said bravely, "We were ordered to send prisoners of war here."
Unexpectedly, after hearing this, the corporal looked him up and down, then stretched out a hand: "Bring it here!"
"What?" The corporal's behavior confused Ernst: "What can I give you?"
"What else could it be?" the corporal said with some disdain: "Of course it's your pass to enter and leave here! If you don't have a pass, then go back to where you came from."
Ernst's eyes quickly glanced around and found that except for two soldiers standing outside the door of the building, a machine gunner smoking inside the sandbag fortification, and the German corporal who was making things difficult for him, he saw no one else. No one was there, so he quickly winked at Grisa, signaling that he could take action.
Grisa, who understood the situation, waved to his men, and the soldiers in German uniforms stepped forward and pointed their guns at the German soldiers outside the door. When the German corporal saw the guns pointed at him around him, he couldn't help but panic. He thought that his words had offended the other party, and the captain deliberately ordered people to treat him like this.
The corporal hurriedly smiled and said to Ernst: "Mr. Captain, there is a misunderstanding. This is all a misunderstanding. I think you just came from the front line and you must not have a pass. I will let you in right now..."
"There is no misunderstanding," Ernst said coldly, holding his pistol against the corporal's abdomen: "We are the Soviet Red Army!"
"Ah, it's the Russians!" The corporal was startled by Ernst's words and hurriedly raised his hands above his head: "We surrender, we surrender!"
After asking where the German soldiers serving as guards lived, Grisa left two soldiers to guard the prisoners, and he rushed into the building with the remaining soldiers. Although after Grisa and the others rushed into the building, they were discovered by German soldiers in the corridor, and a shootout broke out. However, the sporadic resistance soon stopped. Holding a P40 submachine gun in his hand, Grisa rushed into the garrison commander's office stepping on the corpses of the German soldiers. He raised his gun and aimed it at Ken, who had just taken out the pistol from the drawer. Colonel Puka shouted loudly: "Put your hands up, or I'll beat you to death!"
Even though Kempka couldn't understand what Grisa was shouting, he saw the black muzzle of the gun aimed at him and knew that the situation was over. He carefully placed the pistol on the table and raised his hands.
The squad led by Griza easily captured the German garrison headquarters and captured the commander, Colonel Kempka. The warehouse that was attacked by the second company commander Vasily personally led the troops, also did not encounter any fierce fighting. After all, this city had never been attacked by the Soviet army since it was occupied. Therefore, the defenders in the warehouse were not very vigilant. They only fired a few shots before laying down their weapons and surrendering.
After successively occupying the garrison commander and warehouse, the remaining sporadic enemies in the city no longer posed any threat. Therefore, after discussing with Belkin, Sokov and Belkin decided to report the matter to the army headquarters.
Before receiving Sokov's telegram, Rokossovsky was worried about him. Due to the sacrifice of Lidyukov, the situation fell into chaos. Rokossovsky, who was busy dealing with the crisis, could not help but ignore the Istria camp and even forgot to ask Malinin to send a message to Sokov to ask him Withdraw all the troops.
Now that the war situation has stabilized again, the Istrian battalion suddenly lost contact. Rokossovsky was so anxious that he kept urging the director of the communications corps, Maximenko: "Comrade director, keep calling Istria." Camp Tra, we must find out where they are now? Are they surrounded by the Germans? Or have they broken through the encirclement and are moving closer to our army?"
Maximenko finished recording the order and asked the radio operator to send it out before he could. A telegraph operator suddenly exclaimed, then turned to Rokossovsky who was standing aside and said: "Comrade Commander, I have received a telegram from the Istria Battalion."
Hearing that there was a telegram from the Istrian camp, Rokossovsky, who was eager to know their situation, actually snatched the telegram from the operator's hand and read it carefully in front of his eyes. After reading the above content, he couldn't help but said repeatedly: "Well done, well done! This Sokov did a great job!"
"Comrade Commander, what happened?" Malinin, who had just officially taken over as chief of staff of the group army, asked, "What did Sokov say in the telegram?"
Rokossovsky handed the telegram in his hand to Malinin and said excitedly: "Sokov said in the telegram that his troops have occupied Kursk."
"What, captured Kursk?" When Malinin heard the news, his first reaction was that it was impossible. A city as big as Kursk, let alone a battalion, even a division, could not be taken. Can be taken. But he felt that Rokossovsky would not talk nonsense, so he quickly took the telegram and read its contents carefully.
After seeing the telegram, Malinen pondered for a long time and said: "Comrade Commander, this victory comes at a very timely time. Kursk has an important material warehouse for the German army. Once it is occupied by our army, it will definitely affect the enemy's offensive plan. , This buys us valuable time to adjust our deployment."
Rokossovsky walked to the map and looked at it for a while, and then said to Malinin: "Sokov is really a talent, he is really amazing. Several of our army groups were inextricably linked to the German army, and he fought with one battalion. It is really remarkable that the situation between the enemy and ourselves in the direction of Voronezh has changed."
Malinin carefully reminded Rokossovsky: "Comrade Commander, once the Germans learn that Kursk is lost, they will definitely mobilize heavy troops to retake Kursk. I am worried that it will not be possible to rely on Sokov's battalion alone." Block the enemy's counterattack."
