Bronnikov knew very well that his argument was feeble. Not to mention the commander present, even he could not convince himself. If the Wehrmacht was besieging the factory, there might be some upright officers who would treat the captured wounded for humanitarian purposes. But now there are SS troops known for their brutality outside the factory. If the wounded fall into their hands, they may not have any chance of survival.
Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, Captain Qi Wen objected: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, how can you leave our wounded with the enemy? Isn't this sending them to a dead end?"
"Captain Chivin, these wounded are all our comrades-in-arms. Do you think I am willing to let them fall into the hands of the Germans?" Bronnikov said solemnly: "Don't say that we will carry out a breakout operation next. Even if the enemy takes the initiative to make way for us, it will take us a long time to move them out without enough transportation."
Captain Chiwen didn't know that what Bronnikov said was reasonable, but he still couldn't bear to abandon hundreds of wounded people to break out. He took a chance and asked: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, is there anything other than this?" Otherwise, is there nothing we can do?"
"No." Bronnikov shook his head and said: "If we want to successfully break out of the enemy's encirclement, we can only reluctantly abandon the wounded."
As soon as he finished speaking, the command post suddenly became extremely quiet. At this point, things were in a dilemma. Breaking out with the wounded would definitely become a drag on the breakout troops, and might even lead to the failure of the breakout; leaving them behind would be equivalent to letting them die.
Just when everyone was in a dilemma, a wounded man lying on a stretcher spoke up. He said with difficulty: "Comrade commanders, if you want to break out, you will definitely need someone to cover you. Why don't you give this task to us wounded men?" .”
The wounded man who spoke was a lieutenant of the 25th Guards Division. His legs were blown off by artillery shells during the battle. Several of his soldiers carried him off the battlefield on a stretcher. Bronnikov saw that he was seriously injured, so he ignored him when assigning tasks. Now that he heard that he was willing to take on this arduous task, he pondered for a moment and said: "Comrade Lieutenant, you are all seriously injured." , how can you participate in the battle?"
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," the injured lieutenant looked at Bronnikov and said with a sad smile: "We are all a drag on the troops. If you take us with you, you may not be able to break through the German encirclement at all. But it is better to let We leave the rear to block the enemies rushing up from behind, so that you can concentrate your efforts to break out from the front."
"But the seriously wounded are all lying on stretchers and unable to move," Captain Chiwen said with a frown, "How can they fight?"
"This is very simple." The lieutenant continued: "Put us in the fortification, and give us a gun and a grenade. When the enemy rushes up, the gun is used to destroy the enemy; the grenade is left for Our own, and we will never allow ourselves to become prisoners of the Germans.”
Bronnikov held the lieutenant's hand tightly and said after a long time: "Comrade Lieutenant, as long as we can successfully break through, we will definitely avenge you."
After Captain Chivin waited for Bronnikov to finish speaking, he asked cautiously: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, when will we break through?"
"We will carry out the breakout operation at four o'clock in the morning." Bronnikov looked at his watch and said to everyone in the room: "Although it is already dawn at that time, the Germans should still be sleeping. We can attack They were caught off guard. Also, when operating during the day, the troops are not easily dispersed."
The breakout time was quickly approaching.
In order not to be noticed prematurely by the enemy, after the breakout operation began, Bronnikov did not take the lead in using Captain Chivin's tank company. Instead, he ordered the infantry to quietly approach the enemy's position, preparing to first kill the sentries on duty, and then Quickly occupy enemy positions.
However, the infantrymen who quietly approached the enemy's position were discovered by a sentry when they were still more than thirty meters away from the position. Seeing that the sentry was about to warn, a Soviet soldier pulled the trigger without hesitation and knocked down the enemy sentry with one shot. However, in the stillness of the early morning, the sudden gunfire sounded as shocking as a cannon.
Seeing that the target had been exposed, the commander leading the team jumped up from the ground, raised his pistol just above his head, and shouted: "Brothers, follow me forward!"
Seeing the commander standing up first, the crawling soldiers also stood up from the ground, held their weapons, and rushed towards the enemy's position shouting "Ula".
The Soviet army acted quickly, and the German army responded quickly. When the Soviet soldiers had just rushed to the edge of the trench and before they had time to jump down, the German army's shouts and sporadic gunshots came from the position, and the officers and soldiers of both sides started a melee.
After a few minutes of melee, the Soviet army successfully occupied the first German trench. When they were preparing to continue to expand their victory, the German tanks deployed not far away opened fire. The artillery shell landed in the ranks of Soviet commanders and fighters and exploded. The soldiers near the explosion point were immediately blown away by the air waves, but the remaining soldiers used the cover of the craters and ruins to quickly approach the enemy tanks.
Bronnikov, who was directing the battle in the command post behind, saw that the enemy tanks had opened fire, and quickly ordered Captain Qi Wen: "Comrade Captain, now it is your tank's turn to go on stage. You must destroy the enemy tanks as soon as possible. Tear a gap in the enemy's defense line."
The four tanks of the tank company drove out from their hiding places, stopped three to four hundred meters away from the German tanks, adjusted the position of one muzzle, and then opened fire on the opponent. Due to too hasty firing, only one of the four shells hit the target, breaking the track on one side of the German tank.
Seeing that the four shells only interrupted the tracks of the German tanks, Captain Chiwen shook his fist angrily, and then ordered all the tanks: "Reload again, this time we must destroy the enemy tanks."
Soon, the reloaded Soviet tanks once again aimed at the German tanks and fired. This time they were lucky, hitting three out of four times. The armor-piercing bullet caused the ammunition in the vehicle to explode, blowing the turret of the German tank into the sky.
Soon after the battle started on the east side of the factory, Tansen, who had set up his headquarters in the west, received the news. He quickly ordered that in addition to the defenders on the east side, the troops on the other three sides would attack the factory at the same time, trying to pass this method to crush the Soviet breakout operation.
However, the German troops who rushed into the factory encountered resistance from the seriously wounded. However, the combat effectiveness of the seriously wounded soldiers was not comparable to that of healthy soldiers. The areas they defended were quickly lost to German attacks. But at the last moment of their lives, the wounded soldiers fired the grenades without hesitation and died together with the oncoming German troops.
The desperate fighting style of the seriously wounded soldiers frightened the German officers and soldiers who tried to break through their positions. Every time an explosion sounds, the enemy will temporarily stop the attack, wait until there is no movement in the front position, and then cautiously restart the attack.
When the German troops stormed into the factory from three sides, a soldier promptly reported to Bronnikov: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the enemy has attacked us from the north, west and south, and has now rushed into the factory."
When Bronnikov heard the soldiers' report, he just nodded slightly and continued to observe the ongoing breakout battle to the east with his telescope. He said with his usual expression: "I understand. Report to me if there is any new situation."
Seeing Bronnikov's indifferent expression, the militia captain next to him thought he had not heard the soldier's report clearly, so he quickly approached him and said loudly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the enemy has rushed in from the north, west and south." The factory, with just a few hundred of our seriously injured people, cannot stop them at all.”
"Comrade Captain," Bronnikov put down the telescope, turned to look at the militia captain and said, "What do you want me to do, send people to reinforce the wounded? If we do this, at best, we will lose the position. It will only be delayed for a while, but the force we use to break through will be weakened, causing the breakout to fail. We are now racing against time to see whether we will break through the enemy's defense first, or the enemy will rush to us first."
Hearing what Bronnikov said, the militia captain fell silent. He only thought for a moment and realized that Bronnikov was not being alarmist. Sending troops to reinforce those areas under attack would definitely disperse the troops, resulting in insufficient assault force to break through the enemy's defense line.
Seeing the enemies rushing into the factory and advancing step by step towards the temporary command post, Bronnikov couldn't help but feel extremely anxious. However, in order not to cause panic among the commanders and fighters, he still forced himself to remain calm and continued to observe the breakout operations to the east. He secretly thought to himself that fortunately the factory was as big as a medium-sized city. It would take some time for the enemy to rush to him. As long as the assault force could break through the enemy's defense line before then, he would still have a glimmer of hope.
When the battle lasted until six o'clock in the morning, a group of enemies rushed in from the south, less than 200 meters away from Bronnikov's command post. Seeing this, the militia captain anxiously said to Bronnikov: " Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the enemy has rushed up, let's get out of here quickly, otherwise we will become prisoners of the enemy."
When Bronnikov saw the enemy appearing not far away, he panicked for a while, but he understood better that if he left with the people from the command post at this moment, it would definitely affect the morale of the commanders and soldiers, so he called a Named a sergeant, he ordered him: "Comrade sergeant, have you seen the enemy rushing from the south?"
"I saw it."
"I'll give you two classes of people, you go and block them."
It would be simply impossible to block the German attack with the strength of two squads on open ground. But because the factory had been shelled and bombed, there were masonry and rubble everywhere, which was very beneficial to the defenders. The soldiers commanded by the sergeant relied on these terrains and fortifications to hold back enemies twice as many as themselves.
Bronnikov knew very well that his argument was feeble. Not to mention the commander present, even he could not convince himself. If the Wehrmacht was besieging the factory, there might be some upright officers who would treat the captured wounded for humanitarian purposes. But now there are SS troops known for their brutality outside the factory. If the wounded fall into their hands, they may not have any chance of survival.
Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, Captain Qi Wen objected: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, how can you leave our wounded with the enemy? Isn't this sending them to a dead end?"
"Captain Chivin, these wounded are all our comrades-in-arms. Do you think I am willing to let them fall into the hands of the Germans?" Bronnikov said solemnly: "Don't say that we will carry out a breakout operation next. Even if the enemy takes the initiative to make way for us, it will take us a long time to move them out without enough transportation."
Captain Chiwen didn't know that what Bronnikov said was reasonable, but he still couldn't bear to abandon hundreds of wounded people to break out. He took a chance and asked: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, is there anything other than this?" Besides, is there nothing we can do?"
"No." Bronnikov shook his head and said: "If we want to successfully break out of the enemy's encirclement, we can only reluctantly abandon the wounded."
As soon as he finished speaking, the command post suddenly became extremely quiet. At this point, things were in a dilemma. Breaking out with the wounded would definitely become a drag on the breakout troops, and might even lead to the failure of the breakout; leaving them behind would be equivalent to letting them die.
Just when everyone was in a dilemma, a wounded man lying on a stretcher spoke up. He said with difficulty: "Comrade commanders, if you want to break out, you will definitely need someone to cover you. Why don't you give this task to us wounded men?" .”
The wounded man who spoke was a lieutenant of the 25th Guards Division. His legs were blown off by artillery shells during the battle. Several of his soldiers carried him off the battlefield on a stretcher. Bronnikov saw that he was seriously injured, so he ignored him when assigning tasks. Now that he heard that he was willing to take on this arduous task, he pondered for a moment and said: "Comrade Lieutenant, you are all seriously injured." , how can you participate in the battle?"
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," the injured lieutenant looked at Bronnikov and said with a sad smile, "We are all a drag on the troops. If you take us with you, you may not be able to break through the German encirclement at all. But it is better to let We leave the rear to block the enemies rushing up from behind, so that you can concentrate your efforts to break out from the front."
"But the seriously wounded are all lying on stretchers and unable to move," Captain Qi Wen frowned and said, "How can they fight?"
"This is very simple." The lieutenant continued: "Put us in the fortification, and give us a gun and a grenade. When the enemy rushes up, the gun is used to destroy the enemy; the grenade is left for Our own, and we will never allow ourselves to become prisoners of the Germans.”
