Sokov's concerned words made Yershakov's nose sore. He reached out and pinched his nose to prevent himself from being too moved and crying in front of his subordinates. He replied angrily: "Don't worry, Comrade Commander, we will definitely complete the mission alive."
After putting down the phone, Yershakov said loudly to the three battalion commanders standing in front of him: "Did you all hear what the division commander said? He wants us all to go back alive!"
"I heard it!" the three battalion commanders replied in unison, with tears in their eyes due to excitement.
"If you want to return to Mamayev Heights alive, then return to your respective units immediately and urge the soldiers to seize the time to repair and strengthen the fortifications." Yershakov said to them in a stern tone: "With solidity Fortifications, you will have a higher chance of surviving in the next battle. Do you hear me clearly?"
"Listen clearly!"
"Go back to the troops." Yershakov waved to them and said: "Before the enemy starts attacking, build more air-raid shelters and shelters, so that more soldiers can fight against the enemy's bombing and Survived the bombardment.”
After the three battalion commanders left, the regiment chief of staff asked Yershakov with some worry: "Comrade regiment commander, can we really block the enemy's attack? You know, the 351st regiment cannot stand in the face of the German offensive. By the hour there were two-thirds casualties.”
"Chief of Staff, stop talking." Although Yershakov knew that the next step was a fierce battle, and it was still unknown how many of his troops would survive until the end, he did not want the words of the regiment chief of staff to affect his command. He interrupted the other party impatiently: "Since our superiors ordered us to block the enemy here, we must do everything we can to block the enemy here so that our friendly forces can retreat smoothly. As for the troops We can temporarily ignore the casualties."
Before the soldiers of the Guards had finished building the fortifications, the enemy's shelling began. There were not enough shelters, so most of the soldiers could only stay in the trenches. They huddled up and covered their ears tightly with their hands to prevent their ears from being deafened by the huge sound of artillery.
The German shelling lasted only half an hour and then stopped. When the commanders of each battalion saw that the enemy's shelling had stopped, they immediately came out of their hiding places, bent over and ran back and forth in the trenches, shouting at the top of their lungs for the soldiers to enter the shooting positions. However, only a few soldiers could enter the position immediately. Most of them were either buried in the soil or sitting in the trenches in a daze. They had not yet woken up from the German shelling.
Fortunately, the Germans thought that after their last round of attack and fierce shelling, there were not many people left on the position, and they only needed to launch another charge to easily break through the Soviet defense line and cut off the front line. Go out to the retreat of the Soviet troops in the direction of the station, and then eat them bit by bit.
However, the Germans soon discovered that they were wrong. When the infantry rushed to more than a hundred meters away from the Soviet position, light and heavy firepower began on the position. The German soldiers who rushed at the front seemed to have hit a transparent wall and fell one after another in the dense rain of bullets. The remaining soldiers jumped into nearby bomb craters or hid behind corpses to avoid bullets fired from their positions.
The one responsible for the offensive mission was a company of the 546th Regiment of the 389th Infantry Division. The German company commander, who was hiding in the bomb crater, saw that the firepower on the position was far beyond his imagination, and quickly ordered the communications soldiers squatting aside: "Immediately contact the regiment headquarters and say that the Russians' firepower is too strong and ask for tank support."
After receiving the report from the front, the German commander immediately reported to the division headquarters and asked for the assistance of Tiger tanks. However, he was scolded by the division commander Jenel: "There are only a few hundred Russians on the position, and you have an infantry company. If you can get rid of them, why use Tiger tanks?"
After being scolded by Jenel, the regiment commander put down the phone and felt that his company commander would never ask for help if he had not encountered difficulties. After thinking for a while, he decided to send a tank company temporarily assigned to him to attack the Soviet position.
Yershakov, who was staying in the command post, saw the outlines of tanks appearing in the distance and heard the faint roar of tanks. He quickly counted them carefully through the telescope and found that there were six tanks in total. tank. Thinking of one of the enemy's heavy tanks, he easily killed seven of his own tanks. Now six of them came at once. How could his own troops stop them.
Just when he was extremely anxious, he suddenly heard a "Huh" sound from the Chief of Staff on the side, and asked curiously: "Chief of Staff, what did you see?"
"Comrade Commander," the Chief of Staff put down his telescope and turned to Yershakov and said, "How come the enemy only dispatched Panzer III tanks? In this way, the anti-tank guns on our position are enough to deal with them."
"What, it's the Panzer III that's coming?" Yershakov heard what the Chief of Staff said, and quickly raised his telescope to carefully observe the German tanks in the distance. Soon he discovered that what the Chief of Staff said was true. All he could see were Panzer III tanks equipped with 50mm short-barreled guns. He couldn't help but murmured: "Strange, why did the Germans dispatch Panzer III? Could it be that these tanks almost wiped out the 351st Regiment just now?"
The Soviet anti-tank fighters on the position were still as worried as Yershakov when they first saw the enemy tanks appearing in the distance. When they saw clearly that it was the weakly armored Panzer III tank, they were overjoyed. They quickly set up their anti-tank guns and opened fire on the approaching tanks.
Panzer III tanks have always fought in conjunction with Panzer IV tanks, and these Panzer III tanks that appeared in front of the Soviet army were equipped by Jenel to the Tiger tank detachment to prevent them from being attacked by Soviet infantry. Since Jenel was unwilling to use the precious Tiger tanks to deal with the defeated Soviet troops on the blocking position, the commander of the 546th Infantry Regiment could only use the Panzer III tank, which was responsible for the cover, to carry out the main attack.
There is a complete independent anti-tank company on the position, equipped with 27 anti-tank rifles. After the bullets were loaded, none of the anti-tank fighters fired, but quietly waited for the enemy tanks to come into range.
The commander of the anti-tank company is a middle-aged man in his forties. His face was blackened by gunpowder smoke from the shelling that ended not long ago. At this moment, he was hiding behind a mound, staring intently at the approaching German tanks, secretly calculating how much time was left for the fighters to open fire.
Although anti-tank rifles can effectively destroy enemy tanks and armored vehicles at a distance of three hundred meters, for the sake of safety, the company commander stared at the approaching tanks and said to the soldiers beside him: "Pass this down, no My order, no one is allowed to fire!"
His order was quickly conveyed to the ears of every anti-tank soldier. Everyone held long anti-tank guns and aimed at the approaching German tanks. As long as the company commander gives the order, they will pull the trigger without hesitation and destroy the tank heading towards them.
The German soldiers lying on the ground saw that there was suddenly no movement on the position, and thought that the Soviet army was frightened by the Panzer III tank that came to support them. They carefully climbed up from the ground, holding their guns and using short leap tactics to quickly approach the Soviet position.
Seeing that the enemy tank was only two hundred meters away from the position, the commander of the anti-tank company took off the helmet on his head, swung it downwards, and shouted loudly: "Fire!"
His shouts were muffled by gunfire and explosions and were heard only by two nearby anti-tank men. They immediately and without hesitation pulled the trigger on the target that had been locked in front of them. The anti-tank men beside them, after hearing the movement, knew that the company commander had given the order to fire, and they also opened fire in turn, shooting at the tanks in front.
The first round of firing from 27 anti-tank guns brought five of the tanks to their knees. Some bullets missed the tank, but hit several German soldiers following the tank, and immediately drilled bowl-sized holes in their bodies. Looking at these robes whose bodies were almost broken by bullets, the German soldiers around them fell to the ground again with a roar.
The remaining tank, unaware that the other tanks had been destroyed by Soviet anti-tank rifles, was still rumbling forward, trying to quickly rush through the Soviet trenches and hold its position. The Soviet troops caused panic. However, its attempt did not succeed. It drove forward another forty or fifty meters and was hit by more than a dozen armor-piercing incendiary bombs. The vehicle's ammunition exploded, knocking off the turret and hitting the car behind it. In the infantry formation, there were two unlucky soldiers on the spot who were smashed into pulp.
Seeing that all the enemy tanks had been destroyed, the anti-tank company commander excitedly stood up from his hiding place, raised his pistol and shouted: "Comrades, follow me and drive the Germans away from our position!"
The commander of the anti-tank company took the lead in the charge. Those soldiers in the company who did not operate anti-tank rifles also held weapons and followed their company commander forward. Seeing that the commanders and fighters of the anti-tank company were charging, the commanders and fighters of the first battalion who were holding this position could not hold back any longer, so they jumped out of the trenches and rushed forward bravely.
The German soldiers lying on the ground were originally frightened when they saw that their own tanks were destroyed. But now they saw the Soviet troops coming like a tide on the position. How could they dare to fight? They quickly got up from the ground, turned around and headed towards Running back. There were also a few soldiers who retreated while firing at the advancing Soviet troops, trying to slow down the charging speed of the soldiers.
The number of these soldiers who fired was limited and could not stop the soldiers' charge. In a short time, they were either shot to death or stabbed to death with bayonets. Except for the seven or eight members of the attacking infantry company who managed to escape quickly, the rest were lying in a mess on the battlefield.
In the command post, Yershakov was secretly rejoicing after seeing six enemy tanks destroyed by an anti-tank company. Suddenly he saw the commanders and fighters of the first battalion launching a countercharge against the enemy, and he couldn't help but get angry. He rushed to the telephone, asked the communications soldier to connect to the command post of the first battalion, and asked the first battalion commander angrily: "First battalion commander, the task I gave your battalion is to hold the position. Who gave you the authority to let the soldiers Are we going to carry out a counterattack?"
Why did the soldiers launch the charge? The battalion commander was also at a loss at this moment. After being criticized by Yershakov, he quickly defended: "Comrade commander, I did not give an order to counterattack, and I don't know why the soldiers suddenly launched an attack on the enemy..."
"Find out what's going on immediately and report to me." Just as Yershakov was about to put down the phone, he suddenly remembered that the counterattack troops followed the fleeing enemies and rushed into part of the position lost by the 351st Regiment, and added: "Now that you have restored some of the lost positions, you should immediately adjust your deployment and rearrange defenses on these positions."
The first battalion commander did not expect that Yershakov would actually let him take over the lost positions. He could only reply with a wry smile: "Understood, comrade commander, I will immediately arrange manpower to strengthen the defense there."
It is a good thing for Yershakov to restore part of the lost positions. After all, more than 2,000 people in a regiment were crowded into a narrow area of less than 200 meters in length and width. If the density of enemy artillery fire was greater, the troops would suffer shocking casualties.
After he ended the call with the commander of the first battalion, he called the commander of the second battalion and ordered him to transfer all the excess troops to the area vacated by the first battalion to strengthen the defense.
Perhaps it was the first battalion's counterattack that allowed the regiment chief of staff to see the dawn of victory. He said to Yershakov with some excitement: "Comrade commander, since the countercharge carried out by the first battalion can restore a section of the lost position. Then when the enemy attacks next time, we may carry out another countercharge. All the positions lost by the 351st Regiment were regained."
"Comrade Chief of Staff," seeing his Chief of Staff being so blindly optimistic, Yershakov felt the need to give it a beating, and said with a serious expression: "The counterattack of the First Battalion was carried out very suddenly, don't say The Germans haven't come to their senses, and even you and I haven't figured out what's going on. As long as the Germans suffer a loss in this kind of thing, they will learn a lesson next time, and maybe they will figure out how to deal with our counterattack method. Therefore, it is better not to take risks casually. As long as we can block the enemy's attack, it will be an amazing victory for us."
"I understand, comrade commander." After hearing Yershakov's words, the regiment chief of staff immediately realized that he was too optimistic. The success of the counterattack just now did have a huge element of luck. If they were to follow the same pattern again, the Germans might directly bombard the troops carrying out the counterattack and use artillery fire to wipe out the soldiers on the way to the charge. "Although we repelled the enemy's attack, we cannot take it lightly. Their next attack may be more violent, and we must take necessary countermeasures."
"Comrade Chief of Staff," seeing the Chief of Staff realizing his mistake, Yershakov reached out and patted him on the shoulder and said, "No matter what, we have won a victory, and we can tell him the good news. In the division, let the division commander and the others be happy too."
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