Early the next morning, Sokov was awakened by a rapid knock on the door.
He knew that if something urgent had not happened, his subordinates would not be in such a hurry to wake him up. He rolled out of bed, without even bothering to put on his boots, and rushed to the door and opened it.
Outside the door was a staff officer from the division headquarters. Seeing Sokov opening the door, he quickly raised his hand to his forehead and saluted: "Comrade division commander, something economic has happened. Chief of Staff, please come to the division headquarters immediately."
"What happened?" Sokov asked quickly.
"Traces of the enemy were found in a village south of the city."
Although the German army had harassed Luhansk many times, each battle took place in the west of the city. This was the first time that traces of the enemy were found in the south of the city. So Sokov asked cautiously: "Is the news reliable?"
"Completely reliable." The staff officer nodded and replied: "A man escaped from the village and reported it to our soldiers. After receiving the report, Lieutenant Colonel Papuchenko immediately sent men to the village for reconnaissance."
Sokov then asked a few more questions, but when he saw that the staff couldn't explain clearly, he didn't waste any more time. He hurriedly put on his boots, put on his military coat, and followed the staff to the division headquarters.
"Comrade Division Commander," Sidorin came up to Sokov as soon as he saw him and reported to him: "Lieutenant Colonel Papuchenko just called and said that traces of Germans were indeed found in that village. "
"How many enemies are there and what are their equipment?" Sokov asked in succession: "Did Lieutenant Colonel Papuchenko take any measures?"
"According to Lieutenant Colonel Papuchenko's report, there are about twenty enemies in the village. They used the wooden houses in the village to establish two firepower points." Sidorin suggested to Sokov: "Now the Lieutenant Colonel has deployed a The infantry of the company are rushing to the village. Comrade division commander, in order to eliminate this group of Germans as soon as possible, I suggest that two more tanks be sent to join the battle."
"Agree." In order to prevent long nights and nightmares, Sokov naturally hoped to eliminate this enemy as quickly as possible, so he readily agreed to Sidorin's request. He faced Bely and said: "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, please send two tanks to cooperate with the infantry's actions and strive to destroy the enemy in the shortest possible time."
"Misha, I think we should send two more self-propelled artillery to join the battle." Bely reminded Sokov: "The enemy has already occupied a favorable terrain in the village. If they have anti-tank weapons, they may cause the loss of our tanks. If the self-propelled artillery fires outside the village and destroys the wooden houses occupied by the enemy, it will also facilitate our infantry to enter the village and clear it out."
"Bombard the village with self-propelled artillery?" After hearing Bely's suggestion, Sokov hesitated and asked: "Will this accidentally injure the villagers in the village?"
"Comrade Commander, there are no villagers in that village anymore." Xidorin heard this and gritted his teeth and said: "After the German army entered the village, they drove all the villagers to the grain drying field in the middle of the village and killed them all with machine guns. Among them was a villager who was seriously injured. After he regained consciousness, he struggled to climb out of the village and rushed to report to us. If he hadn't happened to meet one of our patrols, I'm afraid he wouldn't have been able to deliver any news before he died. "
"Chief of Staff, just as the deputy division commander said, in addition to two tanks, two more self-propelled artillery will be sent to try to eliminate this enemy force in the shortest possible time." Sokov opened the samovar on the table and gave himself Putting a cup of hot tea on the table, he added: "Remember, no prisoners will be taken in this battle. All captured German officers and soldiers will be shot on the spot. We will not accept the surrender of such two-legged beasts."
Sidorin originally thought that Sokov would order the captured German officers and soldiers to be let go, and he was quite worried. When he heard this special order, he immediately replied in a loud voice: "Yes, division commander, I will help you immediately." Pass on the order."
Bely's judgment was accurate. As soon as the two T-34 tanks arrived at the entrance of the village, they were attacked by German rocket launchers. This kind of bazooka rocket launcher captured by the German army is still very effective against the common T-34 tanks. However, the two tanks sent by Belly are both T-34/85, with a 75 mm thick armor plate on the front of the body. , blocking the attack of the Bazooka rocket launcher.
Don't look at the rocket launched by Bazooka, it accurately hit the body of the tank and exploded into a dazzling fire. But when the fire dissipated, except for a circular dent, the tank was not destroyed.
The tank stopped in place, slowly turned its muzzle, and fired a shot at the wooden house where the German anti-tank fighters were hiding. The wooden house suddenly collapsed with the explosion, and none of the two German anti-tank fighters hiding inside was killed. Can run out.
The two SU-122 self-propelled guns, which were more than 100 meters behind the tank, also chose a suitable shooting position and fired directly at the place where the Germans might be hiding in the village. Because of Sokov, the two self-propelled artillery that came out in advance can directly blast the wooden house that hits the wooden house with every shell fired, and the enemies inside will be blown to pieces.
Enemies with only light weapons have never seen such a formation. They knew that hiding in the wooden house would only lead to death, so they escaped one after another, choosing to hide by the well or behind a broken wall made of stone. But no matter where they were hiding, they would soon be discovered by the artillery, and a single shell would blow them to pieces.
In less than five minutes, there were only five or six German soldiers left alive in the village. I don't know who took the lead in shouting: "Stop fighting, we surrender." His words soon resonated, and the other living German soldiers also shouted. Some even tied a white handkerchief to the muzzle of the rifle. He raised it high over the broken wall where he was hiding and waved it as hard as he could.
Seeing the German troops in the village raising the white flag, the tanks parked at the entrance of the village started up again and rumbled towards the village. The tank driver was very smart. He was worried that there were Germans hiding in the house, so he deliberately knocked down a corner of the house and caused the entire house to collapse. Even if there were Germans hiding inside, they would be crushed to death by the collapsing buildings.
There are tanks clearing the way in front, and the infantry behind them also rush forward to search the collapsed houses. If they see there are still living soldiers, they will immediately give them a shot; if they are corpses, they will be pulled out from the rubble and hidden in the ruins. In the open space next to it. After checking all the houses and ruins and finding that there were no enemies, the company commander ordered the surrendered German officers and soldiers to be dragged to the villagers they had killed and executed.
The entire battle lasted less than twenty minutes and ended with the Soviet victory. In this battle, a total of 25 German soldiers were killed, while the Soviet army only paid the price of sacrificing 3 people, wounding 11 people and injuring one tank.
