When the engineer company blew up the bridge over the Aksay River, Andre and the commanders and fighters of the third battalion heard the huge explosion and the rising black smoke. Seeing that their retreat was blocked, some people would inevitably become panicked, especially the soldiers of the Ninth Company who had been prisoners of war. Some even cried: "The bridge was blown up, we are finished, wait until the Germans come up , we will become prisoners."
Crying warriors inevitably have a negative impact on other warriors around them. At this moment, Lieutenant Guchakov, commander of the ninth company, came over, looked at the soldier without any explanation, and slapped him several times. After the other party calmed down, Guchakov said angrily: "Don't say that the Germans haven't come yet. Even if they come, what's so scary? Can't we kill them with the weapons in our hands?"
"But...but...comrade company commander." The soldier who was slapped stammered, "As soon as the two bridges on the river exploded, our retreat was cut off."
"Although the bridge was blown up, we can still move from other places." Guchakov glanced at the soldiers present one by one, and then said: "Everyone pack your things immediately, we are ready to move. .”
In fact, there is nothing to pack. In addition to weapons, the soldiers always carry a backpack with ammunition, food and some personal items in it. He said he was going to leave, just put his things on his back and leave. In less than five minutes, the two hundred soldiers of the Ninth Company formed a neat square formation, waiting for the battalion commander Captain Andre to give the order to set off.
Not long after, the soldiers of the Seventh and Eighth Companies lined up in four columns and passed the location of the Ninth Company at a rapid marching speed. When he saw the eighth company commander, Second Lieutenant Yegor, passing by him, Guchakov specifically asked: "Second Lieutenant Yegor, have you seen the battalion commander?"
"The battalion commander and the troops directly under him are still behind." After Yegor finished speaking, he waved his hand to Guchakov and said: "Lieutenant Guchakov, let's go first and wait for you in front."
After a while, Guchakov saw Captain Andrei walking towards this direction with a group of people. He hurriedly went up to meet us and asked respectfully: "Comrade Battalion Commander, can our Ninth Company set off?"
Andrei walked up to Guchakov, put his hand on his shoulder, held him and walked forward, and at the same time said: "Lieutenant Guchakov, judging from the current situation, where our battalion is located The location may have been discovered by the Germans. Now I need your company to stay and cover the entire battalion's retreat. How about it, are there any questions?"
Guchakov did not expect that Andre would let his company stay behind. After hesitating for a moment, he shook his head and said: "No problem, I will resolutely obey your order."
"Although your company is responsible for the task of blocking the rear, there may not necessarily be a battle." Andrei said to Guchakov: "Two or three kilometers further downstream, there is a small town, where your company is responsible for blocking. Let's do the mission. After the main force of the battalion crosses the river, I will send the communications troops to notify you of the retreat."
Guchakov brought his ninth company to the town. Due to the rush of time, he had no time to build fortifications outside the town, so he scattered the soldiers in various rooms, waiting for the Germans to come and beat them. Caught off guard.
Of course, not all houses had his men in them. Every house where soldiers were hiding had two bricks or an equal number of stones placed at the door; and in houses without bricks or stones, booby traps were placed on the door. As long as the Germans who rashly break in push the door, they can be blown to pieces.
Time passed minute by minute, but there was no movement from the German army. Guchakov, who was staying in the town cinema, was so anxious that he would call the observation post in the east of the town almost every few minutes and ask: "How is it?" Is there any movement?"
"No, Comrade Commander." The observation post heard Guchakov's voice and immediately replied: "So far, I have not found any Germans."
Putting down the phone, Guchakov called a soldier and ordered: "Go to the observation post in the west of the city and ask if the battalion commander has sent someone to notify us of our retreat."
Although there are two observation posts in the east and west of the town, since there are only two telephones in the company, when the communication corps was laying the lines, Guchakov did not hesitate to order one of them to be installed in the observation post in the east of the town. You can keep abreast of the German army's movements at the company headquarters. As for the observation post in the west of the town, it is obviously not as important as that in the east of the town. Therefore, when he wants to inquire about any news, Guchakov always asks the soldiers to go there.
Just waiting around like this, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the roar of tank engines came from the east side of the town. This time, without waiting for Guchakov to call, the observation post took the initiative to call: "Comrade company commander, we heard the roar of tank engines coming from a distance. Judging from the sound, there were at least five tanks. "
"I got it." Guchakov put down the phone and immediately called several soldiers and told them: "Go out immediately and sound the alarm so that the soldiers are ready for battle."
"Understood." Several soldiers agreed and trotted out of the cinema. Soon the sound of whistles came one after another on the street. According to the prior agreement, if the soldiers hear one long and two short whistles, it means that the German army is about to attack, and everyone must be ready for battle.
Seven or eight minutes later, the observation post called Guchakov again: "Comrade company commander, the enemy's tanks have appeared in our field of vision. There are six tanks in total, followed by two hundred soldiers."
According to Guchakov's idea, the streets in the town are narrow. After the German tanks enter the town, they will find a way to use cluster grenades to blow up the two tanks that are opening the way and the ones behind them, and the remaining tanks will be blocked. On the streets, let your troops destroy them. As for the infantry, once they lose the cover of the tanks and have no terrain advantage, they will be severely damaged if not completely wiped out by firepower from the buildings on both sides.
Unexpectedly, the German tanks stopped four to five hundred meters away from the town and fired at the buildings in the town. As the two rounds of shelling ended, several buildings on the edge of the town collapsed. Except for a few soldiers who reacted quickly and escaped in time, the rest were buried in the rubble.
The reason why the German tank crew opened fire was that they saw that the town was too quiet, so they fired a few shots casually and asked for directions. Unexpectedly, they blasted out the Soviet soldiers hiding in the building. The German commander saw that the Soviet troops were hiding in the town, but had no firepower to fight back. He thought that the town was just a group of stragglers, so he gave the troops an order to attack.
The tanks opened the way, followed by the infantry, rushing toward the town. When they were still more than a hundred meters away from the town, the survivors hiding in the ruins shot at them. The bullets fired by the soldiers jingled against the tank's armor plate, but could not slow down the tank's movement at all.
For those Soviet soldiers hiding in the ruins, the German tank crews fired at them with machine guns. The infantrymen following the tanks also leaned out half of their bodies from time to time and pulled the triggers towards the Soviet soldiers' hiding positions to kill the emerging Soviet soldiers. The army soldiers were defeated. ...In this way, the German army successfully rushed to the edge of the town with casualties so weak that they were almost negligible.
The German commander saw that the Soviet resistance had ceased and strengthened his judgment that it was just a straggler. He ordered the tanks to park outside the town while the infantry dispersed into the town to search. The German soldiers divided into several groups, cautiously entered the town, and walked forward along the streets.
A German soldier walked to a building and saw that the door was closed. Eager to know if there was an enemy inside, he grabbed the handle and twisted it, then pushed it inside. Just hearing a loud "bang", the soldier and several nearby soldiers were suddenly enveloped in a cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, they saw that the reckless soldier had been blown to pieces, while several other soldiers fell to the ground howling.
"Be careful, there are booby traps in the building." A German corporal not far away said loudly: "Don't open the door casually."
But in order to clear out the Soviet troops in the town, these buildings must still be entered even if they knew there was danger. The German sergeant came up with a good idea. He walked to the side of a building, smashed the window glass with the butt of his gun, threw the stringed grenade in, and squatted on the ground with his hands on his ears.
Soon, two consecutive explosions were heard in the house, and even the closed door was blown down. It was a booby trap hidden behind a door, detonated by a grenade. Seeing that this method worked, the German corporal couldn't help but be overjoyed. He quickly urged everyone around him: "Have you all seen it? The Russians buried booby traps behind the door. Just throw the grenade in to detonate the mines inside."
When the surrounding soldiers heard what the corporal said, they also followed suit. After smashing the window glass, they threw the smoking grenades in. After some grenades were thrown in, they detonated booby traps laid by the Soviet army and blew open the closed door. But what was unexpected was that two grenades thrown into the house were actually thrown out from the inside, landed in the middle of the German army and exploded, killing and injuring several people on the spot.
Before the Germans could recover, the previously silent street seemed to come to life. Countless gun muzzles were stretched out from the windows on both sides of the street, shooting at the German soldiers standing on the street, killing them in batches. Knock down.
"Retreat, retreat quickly!" Seeing the soldiers being suddenly attacked in the town, the German commander immediately understood that his men had been ambushed and quickly ordered them to withdraw from the town.
