Before the attack began, Vanya ordered the mortar squad to bombard the German position. There are two purposes for doing this: one is to plunge the enemy into chaos so that one's own troops can successfully complete the charge over a distance of several hundred meters; the other is that the artillery fire can provide lighting when destroying the enemy's fortifications and tents. , indicating the direction of attack for commanders and fighters.
The sound of artillery was an order. The commanders and soldiers who were ready for battle rushed out of the forest shouting "Ula!" and rushed towards the military camp a few hundred meters away with flames rising into the sky. The German army, which was stunned by the sudden artillery fire, was in chaos, and no one organized a corresponding defense.
It was not until the assault force approached the military camp fifty or sixty meters that the Germans came to their senses. Two machine gunners hiding in the fortifications that were not destroyed by artillery fire began to shoot at the rushing commanders and soldiers. Two dark red tongues of fire whipped towards the dense crowd like fire whips, knocking down the charging warriors in pieces.
Sokov, who was staying in the position south of the city with the third battalion, saw the blazing fire on the other side of the Tenebra River and heard the roar of gunfire. He knew that the first battalion's attack had officially begun. He immediately said to Andre who was standing next to him: "Captain Andre, you have seen and heard the fire and gunfire on the other side. Next, it is your turn to take the stage."
"Comrade Brigadier, please rest assured." Andrei waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and immediately expressed his position: "Our Third Battalion will never betray your trust, and we will definitely cooperate with the comrades of the First Battalion to eliminate the enemies across the river."
Just as the commanders and fighters of the third battalion were carrying river crossing equipment, leaving the fortifications and preparing to wade through the wide water area and rush to the Tenebra River, the enemy's long-range artillery fired. Since the commanders and fighters of the first battalion were fighting fiercely near their barracks, in order to avoid accidentally injuring their own people and to prevent the Soviet army from taking advantage of the chaos to send reinforcements, they fired at the waterlogged area in front of the second company's position.
The screams of cannonballs piercing the air were heard in the air, and then one after another, the cannonballs landed in the water area and exploded, making a huge explosion, and water columns carrying mud rose into the sky. Then it fell on the soldiers who were wading in the water.
Such shelling has long been accustomed to the soldiers of the third battalion. Although soldiers continued to fall under gunfire, the soldiers behind still moved forward without hesitation. As for the wounded who fell in the water, no one glanced at them, so comrades from the health team would naturally come to rescue them later. All they had to do was to cross the Tenebra River as quickly as possible to support the fighting on the other side. Comrades who fight against the enemy.
Zheliya, who was standing in the observation post with Sokov, said with emotion: "Comrade Brigade Commander, despite the high proportion of recruits in the third battalion, the soldiers behaved very calmly in the face of the enemy's shelling."
Zheliya's words reminded Sokov of the fact that when the Third Battalion was defending the eastern suburbs of the city, it suffered heavy shelling from the Germans for two days in a row. Now, this kind of sporadic shelling is simply child's play for them, and no one will panic. Weird. He turned to Zheliya and said: "Zheliya, if your company is like theirs and holds out for two days under the fierce German artillery fire, the commanders and soldiers will also disdain such artillery fire."
"Comrade Brigadier, I heard that the reinforcements sent to us by the base camp will arrive soon." Zheliya thought of the unsatisfactory performance of his men in the two days of battle, so he changed the subject in time and asked: "Is this all true?"
"Yes, it's true." Sokov nodded and said firmly: "If there are no accidents, they will rush to the city after dawn. At that time, I can concentrate all the troops in the south of the city. Focus on defense.”
"Comrade Brigadier, there is a question that I have never thought about." Zhelia continued after a moment of silence: "Logically speaking, Kursk is an important link in the German army's circular defense line. Why did they The counterattack they carried out was not strong? Do they not want to take back the city at all, but this is not consistent with common sense? "
"It's not that they don't want to take back Kursk, but they don't have the strength at the moment." Sokov explained to Zhelia: "You should know that the German army has assembled heavy troops in the directions of Bryansk, Orel and Voronezh, and they are fighting against Our troops are in a confrontation. Their 6th Army and 4th Tank Army are currently rushing towards the Don River with all their strength, trying to advance towards the Caucasus and Stalingrad. We suddenly occupied Kursk, disrupting the German army's original plan. For combat deployment, it will take a very long time for them to mobilize heavy troops to retake the city. Such a long time is enough for us to deploy sufficient troops to defend this important city."
"So that's it." After listening to Sokov's words, Zheliya said with a look of realization: "No wonder my absolute enemy's attack is not as good as the previous battles. I thought that after our winter After the counterattack, the enemy's combat effectiveness was greatly weakened. It turned out that they were temporarily unable to mobilize their troops."
After Zhelia finished speaking, he suddenly remembered that Sokov had mentioned Stalingrad, and asked curiously: "Comrade Brigade Commander, I just heard you mention Stalingrad. Do you really think that the enemy will attack Outside Stalingrad?"
"That's for sure, Comrade Zhelia." Sokov looked at Zhelia and said seriously: "The Germans' attempt to attack Moscow failed, and they will definitely change their goals. Once they occupy Stalingrad, they will If we can cut off our communication with the Far East, no matter how many troops we have gathered near Moscow, they will gradually lose their combat effectiveness due to the lack of weapons, ammunition and various supplies."
Regarding Sokov's statement, Zheliya said with some disapproval: "Comrade Brigadier, I think the real purpose of the Germans should be the oil in the Caucasus. Only when they have enough oil can they ensure that they More aircraft, tanks and armored vehicles will not be paralyzed due to lack of fuel."
After Sokov waited for Zheliya to finish speaking, he raised his hand and slapped him on the back of the head: "The Germans need oil. Who did you hear this from?"
"Who else could it be, of course Comrade Commander of the battalion." Zhelia said with some embarrassment: "During a meeting in the camp some time ago, someone asked him where the enemy's next attack direction would be. He specifically said that , if the Germans want to launch so many planes, tanks, armored vehicles and cars, they will need a huge amount of fuel. And the purpose of their continued attack to the south is to get the oil they need, and the Caucasus oil fields in the south That’s their ultimate goal.”
After listening to what Zheliya said, Sokov couldn't help but fell silent. He didn't expect Second Battalion Commander Vasily to have such a strategic vision. In real history, if Hitler had not been eager to obtain oil from the Caucasus and ordered Hotter's 4th Tank Army to turn around and attack the Caucasus, but had continued to cooperate with Paulus's 6th Army to rush towards Stalingrad. , whether this city named after the supreme commander himself can be defended is a question.
Don't look at the information reported to Moscow by the leaders of Stalingrad City, who repeatedly emphasized what kind of solid defenses were established around and within the city, enough to withstand enemies from any direction. But these words are all cliches. No matter how good the fortification is, if there are no defenders to defend it, it is just a decoration. At this moment, Stalingrad can almost be regarded as an empty city. If the German army really rushes over, the only people who can organize to resist are the militiamen in various factories and hastily armed citizens. With such weapons, it would be impossible to block the elite German troops who were armed to the teeth and experienced in hundreds of battles.
"Comrade Brigade Commander, what are you thinking about?" Seeing that after Zheliya finished speaking, Sokov suddenly became silent and stood in a daze at the lookout, he asked with concern: "Are you too tired? Take a break?”
Zheliya's voice woke Sokov out of his thoughts. He waved his hand to the other party and said: "It's okay, Comrade Zheliya, I'm fine. It's just that something suddenly occurred to me and I was a little lost in thought. By the way, have our troops reached the Tenebra River?"
Because the light outside was too dark and visibility was low, the only way to see clearly the movements of the troops outside was by the firelight generated by the explosion of German artillery shells. While Sokov was in a daze, Zheliya carefully observed the situation outside. When he heard Sokov's question, he quickly replied: "Comrade Brigade Commander, some soldiers carrying kayaks have approached the special area." Niebra River, trying to get the kayak into the water."
The soldiers carrying the kayak or wooden boat came to the river, threw it into the water with a pop, and then climbed up. The seven or eight soldiers did not wait for the commander to give orders, and began to use paddles or the engineer shovels they carried with them to start digging desperately. boating. When they reached the other side, before the boat docked, the soldiers jumped into the knee-deep water and ran quickly towards the shore.
Before setting off, Sokov had told Andrei that after crossing to the other side, he should adopt the tactics of fighting chaos with chaos. There was no need to assemble the troops, but use squads and platoons as units to rush and attack the enemy in depth. Defeat the enemy in one breath. After Andrei returned to the army, he passed Sokov's order to the company and platoon commanders below. He specifically emphasized: "Comrades, company and platoon commanders, in order to quickly join the comrades of the first battalion, after crossing the river, There is no need to regroup the troops, but squads and platoons are used as units, and they immediately go into battle. While the enemy has not yet recovered, they break into the depth of their defenses and join forces with the first battalion that is fighting fiercely with the enemy. Do you understand?"
The platoon commanders of each company faithfully carried out the orders of Sokov and Andrei. After the troops crossed the river, they did not regroup at all. When a squad came over, only one squad went into battle; when a platoon came over, only one platoon went into battle.
Despite the large number of German troops, half of the troops had just arrived and before they had time to familiarize themselves with the environment, they were attacked by a battalion, which immediately disrupted the organization. After nearly an hour of fierce fighting, the German army, which suffered heavy casualties, barely stabilized its position. At this moment, the troops of the third battalion crossed the Tenebra River again and launched an attack from another direction. The German commander had to hurriedly mobilize troops to meet the attack.
Suddenly, intensive gunfire and grenade explosions came from the north of the German barracks, which attracted Vanya's attention. He looked in that direction for a while and felt that it was definitely not his troops that caused the German army to be in chaos there. Seeing this, he quickly ordered the telegraph operator beside him: "Send a telegram to the brigade headquarters immediately and ask if any reinforcements have crossed the river?"
Within minutes of sending his telegram, he received a reply. Belkin told him in the telegram that the troops of the third battalion had successfully crossed the river, and asked him to cooperate with the third battalion to regain the initiative on the battlefield. At daybreak they would be supported by air force and artillery.
After reading this telegram, Vanya couldn't help but dumbfounded. He thought that although he knew that his superiors had sent reinforcements, his subordinates did not know. According to the original battle plan, the three companies would just attack forward. If they found oncoming troops, they would open fire without saying a word. That's it. But now that reinforcements are coming, it is easy for misunderstandings to occur. If one of them fights with one of his own people, the problem will be serious.
Thinking of this, Vanya quickly called a few communications soldiers and ordered them: "Go to the company commanders immediately and tell them that friendly troops are crossing the river to support us. In order to prevent misunderstandings, let them slow down their attack. speed."
Although Vanya dispatched the communication troops in time, the battlefield at this moment was already in chaos. Not to mention finding a few company commanders, the communication troops who sent the order were completely lost after running very far.
The first battalion and the second company that rushed into the German barracks were charging forward when they suddenly saw a group of people rushing over in the distance. They thought it was a German counterattack force and hurriedly opened fire in that direction. The dense bullets immediately knocked the opponent down, but the opponent did not collapse because of this. Instead, he lay down on the spot and started shooting with them.
After fighting for a while, a platoon leader of the second company felt something was wrong. Why was there the sound of Popov submachine gun shooting from the opposite side. He quickly crawled to the company commander's side on hands and knees and shouted to him: "Comrade company commander, something seems wrong!"
"What's wrong?" The company commander, who was shooting with a submachine gun, asked without looking back, "What problem did you find?"
"Why is there the sound of Popov submachine guns on the other side?" The platoon leader quickly replied: "Could it be our own troops?"
Hearing what the platoon leader said, the company commander hurriedly stopped shooting and listened for a moment. Sure enough, he heard the sound of Popov submachine guns and Mosin-Nagant rifles among the gunshots coming from the opposite side. His first reaction was : Damn, why are we fighting with our own people?
The company commander quickly shouted loudly: "Stop shooting, stop shooting, don't fight anymore!"
