The German commander who was directing the battle from behind never dreamed that the Soviet position in front was about to be taken, but intensive gunfire and the explosion of grenades rang out around him.
"What's going on?" The German commander squatting in the trading trench stood up and wanted to see what happened. Unexpectedly, as soon as he stood up straight, he saw something with a long flaming tail flying towards him. After a loud bang, the German commander and his temporary command post were engulfed in fire and smoke.
The Soviet army that launched the attack from the rear of the German army was the reinforcements led by Captain Vasily. Originally, according to convention, the reinforcements should directly enter the defensive position to strengthen the defense and then wait for an opportunity to repel the enemy's attack. But as Sokov's old subordinate, Vasily is naturally not as rigid as other commanders in the use of tactics.
He felt that even if the troops were placed in a frontal defensive position, they would only be in a stalemate with the enemy. It was better to use the high mobility of the troops to detour behind the enemy and catch the enemy by surprise.
The next battle proved that Vasily's decision was completely correct. The enemy focused all its attention on the position that was about to be conquered, and did not notice the Soviet troops outflanking at all. After successfully taking over the German temporary command post, the troops divided into two groups and launched attacks on the high ground on the left and right flanks.
The German troops deployed on the high ground discovered the Soviet troops rushing up from behind and quickly turned their guns to block them. But on the high ground with few fortifications, they could not withstand the tide of troops coming up. The mortars and machine guns had just turned around, and before they had time to fire, they were blasted into the sky by new rockets carried by the Soviet army.
The battle lasted only ten minutes, and the exhausted German army was completely destroyed. Except for those who were killed, the remaining 70 or 80 officers and soldiers obediently put down their weapons and surrendered.
As soon as the battle ended, Vasily took Paulkosky and Guchakov and hurried to the company command post of the guard company.
With the dim light in the room, Vasily saw Sokov sitting by the wall talking to Seryosha. He quickly stepped forward and raised his hand to salute: "Comrade division commander, Lieutenant Vasily, commander of the first battalion of the 122nd Guards Regiment, is reporting to you. : Our battalion has been ordered to come to the rescue, please give instructions!"
"Captain Vasily, you arrived just in time." Seeing that it was his old subordinates who came, Sokov showed a smile on his face. He stood up and shook hands with Vasily and others, and at the same time said: "If you come five minutes later, , I’m afraid our entire army has been destroyed.”
"Comrade Division Commander," Vasily thought that when he entered the position, he found that he did not see many people in the trenches, so he asked tentatively: "I would like to ask, how many people are left in the guard company?"
"There are 21 people who can still breathe on the position." Seryozha said angrily: "Including the first unit of the third platoon left in the city, our company has 55 people left. In this battle, We lost 160 people."
"Among the number of people who died, there were also soldiers from the Samoylov Guard Platoon." Sokov added casually, and then continued to ask: "Captain Vasily, where is the main force of the 122nd Regiment now?"
Vasily raised his hand to look at his watch and replied: "Comrade division commander, according to the marching speed of the follow-up troops, they should arrive in Luhansk in half an hour."
"Comrade Captain," Sokov looked at Vasily with a smile and asked: "I would like to ask why your troops did not appear directly on our position after they arrived, but went back behind the enemy in a roundabout way. Woolen cloth?"
"That's it, Comrade Division Commander." Vasily was afraid that Sokov would misunderstand, so he quickly explained: "When we were almost here, the leading soldier reported to me that the fighting here is fierce. I considered that if the troops were to enter directly The soldiers are not familiar with the terrain, which may cause confusion. They may not be able to resolve your crisis, but will make the situation even more chaotic, so they took it upon themselves to lead the troops back to the enemy's rear."
"Captain Vasily, your approach may or may not be right." After Sokov said this, he saw Vasily's confused look and explained to him: "On the battlefield How to use tactics depends on the actual situation. For example, in today's battle, you are taking a risk, betting that you can defeat the enemy from the rear before they occupy our position. But you are completely leading the troops to detour behind the enemy's rear, and at the same time, you are deploying Dedicate part of our troops to strengthen the defense of our positions, so that even if the attack from the enemy's rear is frustrated, we can sustain it for a longer period of time."
"Comrade Commander, I was wrong." After hearing Sokov's words, Vasily immediately realized his negligence and quickly admitted his mistake to Sokov with a red face: "I will not make similar mistakes again in the future."
"Your next task, in addition to consolidating the existing positions, is to conduct a search nearby to see if there are any remaining enemies." Sokov said: "Although the enemy's sneak attack failed this time, no one can Guarantee that they will not send troops to take risks again."
"Understood, Comrade Division Commander." Vasily straightened his body and replied: "I immediately ordered people to lay mines and pull up barbed wire in front of the position so that the enemy who made a sneak attack could not easily approach our position."
Sokov said "hmm", and suddenly remembered the garrison company that escaped before the battle, and asked specifically: "Captain Vasily, did you encounter any of our troops on the way here?"
"Our army's troops?" Vasily was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said firmly: "No, we haven't encountered them." After saying this, he asked with some confusion, "Comrade division commander, if there are any nearby Our troops, why don’t they come to reinforce us?”
Seryosha who was next to him sneered and said: "The Germans have not even rushed into the city, but they have greased their feet. How can they come to reinforce us?"
"What?" Seryosha's words shocked Vasily: "At this time, there are still people who dare to escape from the battlefield."
"I guess this unit has never fought against the Germans, so when they heard that the Germans were attacking, they were immediately frightened and panicked." Sokov pursed his lips and said, "I will report this to the front army. Report to the headquarters and let the superiors deal with these people who are greedy for life and afraid of death."
"Comrade Commander," Vasily waited for Sokov to finish speaking, then offered: "It's not very safe here yet. I think you should go back to the city first. Maybe you can catch up with the regiment commander and the others to enter the city."
Sokov knew very well that as long as he stayed here, Vasily would not feel at ease, so he decided to return to the city immediately. After Lieutenant Colonel Papuchenko arrived with his troops, he could still deploy defenses. Thinking of this, he stood up and shouted toward the door: "Lieutenant Samoilov!"
Following his shout, Samoylov, covered in dust and with a bandage on his head, ran in from outside, straightened his body and asked: "Comrade division commander, what are your instructions?"
"Take the rest of your men and come with me back to the city."
"Comrade division commander," Samoylov said hesitantly after hearing Sokov's order: "I only have three men left. I'm worried that with only such a few people around you, it will be unsafe on the road. "
