Early the next morning, the northern and southern hills of Mamayev Hill were simultaneously shelled by German artillery.
Sokov, who was staying in the tunnel, listened to the faint sound of artillery outside and knew that this was a precursor to a large-scale German attack. He issued orders to the battalion commanders over the phone, asking them to immediately enter surface positions after the enemy's shelling ended and prepare to block the attacking enemy.
In the past, Sidorin was responsible for assigning tasks. Seeing Sokov solemnly assigning tasks to the battalion commanders, Sidorin approached Belkin and whispered: "Comrade Political Commissar, have you noticed that the brigade commander seems to be a little strange today?"
Belkin nodded: "Yes, I noticed it too. You know, you are usually responsible for these tasks. But today he personally called each battalion commander. After assigning tasks, he repeatedly Tell the other side some things to pay attention to. It looks like the next battle will be very fierce."
After Sokov finished calling the battalion commanders, Belkin asked: "Comrade Brigadier, isn't it the chief of staff who usually assigns tasks to each battalion? Why did you personally give the battalion commander today? Are we on the phone?"
In Sokov's memory, the German army launched a continuous fierce attack on Mamayev Heights in three days on September 1315, and fought here with the 13th Guards Division that had just arrived in Stalingrad. The brutal tug-of-war resulted in the death and injury of Rodimtsev's troops.
Although there are tunnels in Mamayev Heights that are difficult to destroy by enemy artillery fire, the next battle will still be extremely fierce if the enemy is to prevent the enemy from seizing the city's commanding heights. That's why Sokov called the battalion commanders. Deploy defense matters to them personally. Hearing Belgin's question at this moment, he hesitated for a moment and replied: "Comrade Political Commissar, didn't you hear that the two hills we were holding were heavily shelled by the Germans? This shows that the Germans A large-scale attack on Mamayev Kurgan will soon begin."
Belkin tilted his head and listened to the movement outside. Since the headquarters was deep underground, the sound of artillery had become very soft. He listened for a while before he nodded and said: "Yes, Comrade Brigade Commander, outside The shelling was very violent." After sitting up straight, he said disapprovingly, "The enemy will conduct such a shelling before every attack. I don't think anything is wrong."
"Before the enemy's previous attacks, the target of the artillery bombardment was either the North Hill or the South Hill, but they never shelled both hills at the same time." Sokov said with a straight face: "This means that once the shelling is over, the enemy will There will be a fierce attack on two hills at the same time, and I estimate that the battle will be extremely fierce."
Maybe it’s because every German attack on Mamayev Hills ended in a disastrous defeat. Not to mention political commissar Belkin, even Chief of Staff Sidorin didn’t realize that the shelling before the German attack today was different from usual. What's the difference.
…………
When Mamayev Heights came under heavy shelling, the German 21st Grenadier Regiment launched another attack on the Central Railway Station. Based on the scout's report, Colonel Lungek adjusted his tactics promptly after learning that no less than one battalion of garrison troops had been added to the station. He did not attack the station directly, but made the employee dormitory area near the station a new target of attack.
The reason he made this decision was that the Soviet army concentrated its main forces at the station and the defense in the dormitory area was weak. Once you occupy the dormitory area, you can use it as a starting point for attacking the station to shorten the impact distance. If the station can be captured and the station is at arm's length, even if the Soviet army launches a counterattack against the station, it can still attack the Soviet army from the side and rear.
The station staff dormitory is about one kilometer away from the station. There are more than fifty four-story buildings. Although the Soviet army did not deploy many troops here, and the defenders were mainly composed of militiamen composed of railway employees. But it is not easy for the Germans to occupy this place.
As Major Haydon's troops rushed forward along the street, they were fired upon by a Maxim heavy machine gun, and many soldiers were killed on the street. When they hid against the walls of buildings on both sides of the street, they were attacked by cold shots from the buildings on both sides. In just a few minutes, twenty German soldiers were killed and more than thirty others were injured to varying degrees.
Seeing that the situation was not good, Haydn quickly called the regiment leader Lengek: "Mr. regiment commander, when our battalion was attacking the dormitory area, it was attacked by cold guns. It is difficult to continue to move forward. Please provide us with support. "
After receiving the call from Major Haydn, Lengerk immediately rushed over with two tanks to support him. Since Lungek determined that the defenders in the dormitory area did not have anti-tank weapons, he ordered the infantry to rush forward behind the tanks.
Facing the oncoming tanks, the soldiers and militiamen hiding behind the windows of the house hurriedly started shooting. Although the bullets hit the armor plate like hail, they did not stop the tank from advancing at all.
The infantry following the tank had many ways to deal with the exposed firepower points. They rushed against the wall to the window where the soldier was, threw the white-smoking grenade in, and after a loud bang, hid behind The house was cleared of any warriors or militiamen.
There were some firepower points that were inaccessible. The tanks that were opening the way in front stopped and turned their muzzles. They only needed to blast there with one shot. Then the whole world became silent and the German army could move forward again.
Although the German tanks and infantry were constantly clearing the Soviet fire points hidden in the buildings, they never discovered the location of the Soviet heavy machine guns. As long as the Soviet heavy machine gun fires, it will take away the lives of several German soldiers.
Haydn was furious at the casualties this ghost-like heavy machine gun had caused to his men, but there was nothing he could do about it. Although the tank brought by the regiment leader Lengok has destroyed many Soviet firepower points, so far, no one has discovered the location of the heavy machine gun. Even if the tank wants to destroy it, it cannot find the target. .
Seeing Haydn being so rude, Lungek said calmly: "Major, as a commander, you must always remain calm on the battlefield, so that you can defeat your enemy. Do you understand?"
"Mr. Colonel," Haydn said with some hesitation: "This Russian machine gun poses a great threat to us. If we don't eliminate it, we will not be able to occupy the entire residential area."
"According to my guess, the Russian heavy machine gun must be hidden behind the window of some building. Because the muzzle of the gun does not stick out of the window, our people cannot detect it at all." Lengek held up his telescope. While observing, he said: "So we have to be patient and find this heavy machine gun of the Russians. As long as the machine gun is killed, the Russian resistance in the dormitory area will collapse."
About three hundred meters away from Lungek and Haydn, there was a half-collapsed building. In the ruins of the building, there were two soldiers wearing steel helmets, a man and a woman, lying on a pile of rubble. In the middle, a man is holding a rifle with a scope, aiming at the soldiers moving on the street in the distance. The woman is Zina from the sniper team of the Guard Company, and the man is Vasily who was just arrived from the 42nd Guards Regiment by Sokov last night.
When Zina received a sniper mission with Vasily early this morning, she felt particularly uncomfortable. She didn't understand what her superiors would do to arrange for her and a new recruit to perform such a mission. She was worried that Vasily would panic and expose the target during the mission, causing the mission to fail and even threatening the lives of the two people. Therefore, she specifically said to the company commander Seryosha: "Comrade company commander, how can you let me take a new soldier to carry out such a dangerous mission? Maybe a shell will land and explode fifty meters away from him. He will be so frightened that he will run around like a frightened rabbit..."
When Zina said this, Vasily was standing not far from her. He just smiled honestly and did not express any opinion. For Seryosha, the guard company commander, he was not willing to let Vasily perform such a task, but this matter was personally explained by Sokov, and he could not object. Faced with Zina's complaints, he could only say helplessly: "Comrade Zina, letting the new soldier Vasily carry out such a sniper mission was personally arranged by the brigade commander, and his orders can only be carried out unconditionally. Do you understand?"
After hearing that Seryosha moved out of Sokov, Zina knew that no matter how much she objected, she could only accept this reality, so she nodded and said helplessly: "Okay, comrade commander, since it is an order from the superior. , I resolutely obey. But I want to declare to you in advance that this is the only time, and I will never perform such a mission with him again in the future."
Zina took Vasily to the staff dormitory area and found an inconspicuous ruin to hide. In order to prevent Vasily from firing randomly due to nervousness and exposing his target, Zina also reminded him specifically: "We are snipers, not ordinary soldiers, so our attack targets are not ordinary German soldiers, but officers, machine gunners, Gunner, signalman; you can't just shoot until I give the order to shoot. Do you understand?"
The good-tempered Vasily waited patiently for Zina to finish speaking, then nodded and replied angrily: "I understand."
When the German troops rushed in from outside the dormitory area, Zina's heart was in her throat. She was deeply afraid that Vasily would lose his composure and shoot at the enemy without obeying his orders, so she used the corner of her eye to shoot from time to time. A glance at Vasily. Seeing Vasily holding a sniper rifle and lying there motionless like a sculpture, she felt a little more at ease.
Lengek and Haydn stood at the window of the command post, raised their binoculars and searched the buildings on the roadside bit by bit, trying to find the location of the Soviet heavy machine guns. He searched very carefully. He stopped at almost every window above the second floor of a roadside building. After looking at it for a while, he suddenly said: "Major, I found a Russian heavy machine gun."
"What, found it?" When Haydn heard what Lungek said, there was an expression of surprise on his face, and he quickly asked: "Mr. Captain, where is it?"
Lengek held the telescope, pointed in the distance, and said: "Look at the building No. 17 on the right side of the street, in the leftmost window on the third floor."
Haydn looked along the direction provided by Lungek. After looking for a moment, he said with some doubt: "Mr. Commander, do you really think the Russian heavy machine gun position is there? I saw that the windows were full of It’s closed.”
"Major, just because the windows are closed, we tend to ignore these places when searching for targets." Lengek explained to Haydn with a smile: "But if you look carefully, the bottom two glasses of the windows are gone. , the heavy machine gun installed in the house was shooting outside through the glassless window."
Although Lengerk had spoken so clearly, Haydn was still a little dubious. He did not immediately order the signalmen to get in touch with the tank and let them attack the window. Instead, he continued to raise his telescope to make sure. Seeing that Haydn had not carried out his order for a long time, Lengek guessed that the other party might still have doubts about what he said, so he did not speak, but raised his telescope and looked in another direction.
After waiting for about two or three minutes, Haydn saw a half-foot-long flame coming out of the window. He couldn't help but trembled. He secretly said that it seemed that the regiment leader was right. The Russians had indeed hidden their heavy machine gun in the window. If the leader hadn't been careful, he would certainly not have been able to discover this firepower point.
Haydn quickly put down the telescope, turned around and shouted to the telegraph operator not far away: "Contact the tanks in front immediately and ask them to attack the first window on the left side of the third floor of Building 17..."
After receiving the order, the German tank immediately turned its muzzle and aimed at the window where the Soviet heavy machine gun was located and fired a shot. After the shell flew in through the window, an explosion occurred soon after. A Soviet soldier and some machine gun parts were lifted out of the house and fell straight downstairs.
"Mr. Commander," Haydn couldn't help but dance with excitement when he saw that the tank took out the Soviet heavy machine gun position with one shot: "Our tanks took out the Russian heavy machine gun."
"Major," Lengek raised his hand to look at his watch and said to Haydn: "Now that the Russian heavy machine guns have been killed, I hope you can completely occupy this residential area before noon. Do you understand?"
"Understood, Mr. Leader." Haydn saw that the heavy machine gun fire point that posed the greatest threat to him had been eliminated, and he immediately became confident. He quickly assured Lungek: "I will definitely capture this before noon. Residential area." Lengek nodded, then left the command post with an accompanying staff officer and walked outside.
There was a black car parked outside the building. After Lengek came out of the building, the accompanying staff officer quickly walked to the car, bent down and opened the door, and respectfully asked Lengek to get in the car. But he soon saw that a cloud of blood mist splashed on Lengek's chest without warning, and then his boss spun around in a circle and fell softly. The staff officer was stunned by this scene, and just stared at Lengek falling to the ground dumbfounded.
