The vanguard of the German army advancing towards the Soviet defense zone was the 1st Motorized Battalion Company, whose commander was Lieutenant Shafer. In the February battle, he once commanded a company of troops to defeat a mixed regiment of the Southwest Front equipped with tanks and artillery, and captured the regiment leader and hundreds of commanders and fighters.
If he hadn't been injured in the battle in March and sent to a hospital in the rear for treatment, this time the Imperial Division would be rebuilt, and with his qualifications he could at least be a battalion commander. Major Weber, the commander of the motorized battalion, asked his company to serve as the vanguard because he believed in the combat effectiveness of their company.
Seeing that there was still less than one kilometer away from the Soviet position, Shafer ordered the motorcycle team to stop, let the engineers accompanying him get off the vehicle, and used a mine detector to check whether the road ahead was mined by the Soviet army. .
The terrain here is complex, with hills on both sides. Once the Soviet army laid mines on the road, the tanks behind them would not be able to get around. Therefore, the company's main task is to clear possible mines on the road ahead.
Lieutenant Colonel Goryachkin, who was staying in the observation post, observed the enemy in the distance through the telescope and muttered: "It seems that Comrade Commander is right. There is really no need to lay mines on this road. Even if it is buried Even if a mine is found, it will be cleared by German engineers."
He asked Captain Zu Mingte, the commander of the first battalion standing next to him: "Have all those planks been buried?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander, they are all buried." Zu Mingte replied quickly: "We covered it with three inches of soil, so that the enemy's engineers could not find it at all. And even if ordinary trucks drove over it, It won’t collapse the board.”
After listening to Zumint's answer, Goryachkin nodded and said: "Comrade Commander's thoughts sometimes are really ridiculous. He is not prepared to lay mines in places where enemy tanks pass, but he wants to dig some traps. Will this stop the German tanks?"
Zu Mingt is Sokov's old subordinate, but he followed him here from the Sixth Army, so he naturally trusts his judgment unconditionally. At this moment, when he heard that his immediate superior, Lieutenant Colonel Goryachkin, had questioned Sokov, he felt very uncomfortable. Out of politeness, he said lightly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, since Comrade Commander has arranged it this way, Of course there is a reason for it. As for whether it has any effect, I think it won't be long before it can be confirmed."
The engineers spent more than half an hour and found no metal reaction on the road, so they reported to Shafer: "Mr. Lieutenant, we found no mines planted by the Russians."
But after hearing this, Shafer asked uneasily: "Can you really confirm that the Russians have not laid mines in this area? There may not be metal mines, but there will always be a few wooden mines, right?"
"Mr. Lieutenant," the engineer replied, "the Russian wooden shell mines can only kill and injure people and pose no threat to our tanks at all. As long as our tanks crush them all the way, they can detonate the Russian wooden shells." Mines create a safe passage for our infantry."
After hearing the completion soldier's words, Shafer finally felt at ease. He quickly ordered the radio operator: "Report to the battalion commander, Major Weber, that no Russian mines have been found on the road ahead, and the armored regiment can move in."
After receiving Lieutenant Shafer's report, Major Weber immediately reported the situation ahead to the division headquarters. Tansen learned that the leading troops of the motorized battalion had approached the Soviet position and that no mines planted by the enemy were found along the way. However, he did not immediately order the armored regiment to move in. Instead, he ordered the 2nd Artillery Regiment to aim at the Soviet position and fire.
The reason why he issued such an order was because when the Imperial Division and the Southwest Front were locked in a deadly fight, he was still a regimental commander. At that time, he used fierce artillery fire to wipe out an entire Soviet battalion on the position. After the bombardment, the entire regiment launched an attack. Because all the defenders on the position were killed, his troops successfully captured the Soviet position without casualties, causing the entire defense line of the Southwestern Front to collapse. For this, he received an Iron Cross after the battle.
As the order was given, the artillery hanging on the back of the truck was removed, and the German artillery began to nervously arrange their positions, preparing to bombard the Soviet positions.
Ten minutes later, the shelling against the Soviet army began.
Since the artillery position was only five or six kilometers away from the Soviet fortifications, and there were firing parameters provided by the artillery observers in front, after two or three test firings, dense artillery shells fell and exploded in the simple Soviet field fortifications. For a time, the sky was filled with flames and smoke, and the hill where the Soviet army's position was located turned into an erupting volcano.
Tansen stood in a position with a wide view, looking at the position filled with fire and smoke in the distance, with a triumphant expression on his face. He put down his telescope and ordered the chief of staff: "Order the 2nd Armored Regiment, Motorized Battalion, and 3rd Grenadier Regiment to take advantage of the favorable opportunity when the Russian positions were hit by our army's heavy artillery fire and quickly move toward the Russians along the highway. The fortifications are advancing.”
After a series of orders were issued, the German tanks, armored personnel carriers and trucks full of soldiers parked on the road were restarted and headed towards the Soviet position along the road.
According to the prior agreement, soldiers riding in armored personnel carriers and trucks will get off the vehicle 800 meters away from the Soviet fortifications. Here, there is no need to worry about being accidentally injured by one's own artillery fire, and there is still enough space to deploy the troops.
As soon as the German artillery began to test fire, the Soviet troops deployed on the first line of defense hurriedly moved along the traffic trench and secretly moved to the anti-slope position. As for the observation posts, they were placed on the hills. There were far fewer artillery shells falling here than on the mountainside. They could leisurely observe the movements of the German troops in the distance.
Goryachkin, who was staying in the regimental observation post, was shocked at first when he saw the devastating German artillery fire, and then became calm. He thought to himself: Fortunately, Comrade Commander ordered us to build anti-slope fortifications, and ordered us to quickly move our troops to the anti-slope fortifications when being shelled to reduce the damage caused by enemy artillery fire to our troops. It now seems that Comrade Commander's deployment was completely correct. After arriving at the reverse slope, many soldiers stood outside the trenches and smoked, without taking the shelling on the other side of the hill seriously.
Zu Mingte, who was standing next to him, said quickly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you can see it. If we did not build anti-slope fortifications, then our officers and soldiers would have to stay in simple field fortifications and suffer the baptism of enemy fire. I I can’t believe that after such an intensive bombardment, there were still a few living people left on the position.”
Goryachkin agreed very much with Zumint's statement. When he was a battalion commander, he had fought in many places. He saw with his own eyes that his comrades were wiped out under the fierce enemy shelling. . But now that the anti-slope fortification was launched, it was able to significantly reduce the damage caused by the enemy's shelling. He was simply surprised.
The 2nd Armored Regiment is almost equipped with Panther tanks. This tank has a good appearance, strong firepower, and good mobility. The Germans plan to use it to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks, so they call it the Panzer V tank. , it was not until February 1944 that it was officially renamed: Panther tank.
Close to the Soviet position, the distance between the two hills reached more than 60 meters, which could fully deploy four or five tanks at the same time. Seeing that the terrain here was conducive to the deployment of tanks, the German tank commander immediately ordered the tanks to be arranged in a row of five. Once the artillery fire stopped, they would cover the infantry and rush towards the Soviet position.
As soon as the artillery fire stopped, and before the smoke cleared from the hillside, the German army launched an attack. But what they didn't expect was that when the Soviet commanders and fighters hiding in the anti-slope position heard that the shelling outside was over, they also returned to their positions along the communication trenches and prepared for battle.
The attacking force was still more than 400 meters away from the Soviet position when two loud noises suddenly sounded. Then the German infantry following the tank stared dumbly at the tank opening the way in front of them, which had rolled over on its side.
Seeing the overturned tank, the German commander began to think quickly: "What on earth is going on? Did it run over a Russian anti-tank mine? I don't think so, if it really hit a mine, There will definitely be an earth-shattering explosion, but now there are two strange noises, and then two tanks tipped over on the ground. What on earth is going on?"
The frightened German soldiers got closer to the tank and took a closer look. They found that the tank had fallen into a pit, causing it to overturn. After they scrambled to rescue the tank soldiers from the tanks, they continued to study the Soviet trap. After studying for a while, they discovered that the Soviet army dug a pit more than one meter deep and then covered it with a layer of thick wooden boards. The wooden board can bear the weight of people and ordinary vehicles, and will not fall into a trap even if it is pressed on. But the Panther tank was different. Its dead weight allowed it to collapse the wooden boards put up by the Soviet army on the pit.
The overturned tank was definitely unable to participate in the battle. The German commander immediately moved the tanks forward from behind, and they covered the infantry to attack the Soviet fortifications. This time they were attacked by a rocket launcher from the roadside more than 200 meters away from their position. A tank driving along the side suddenly became a victim, and the tank body was quickly wrapped in flames.
Zhelia, who was staying in the fortifications, saw two tanks running into the trap, causing a rollover incident. He reported the matter to Lieutenant Colonel Goryachkin: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, there are two German tanks. The tank fell into our trap, and the enemy brought new tanks from behind, but they were destroyed by our anti-tank team."
"Are the infantry on the position ready for battle?" Lieutenant Colonel Goryachkin asked.
"Yes, we are ready for all battles." Zhelia said to Goryachkin while observing the movement outside: "When the enemy's infantry approaches, our soldiers will give them an unforgettable experience." lesson."
The German tanks were destroyed one after another by the anti-tank team hiding on the side of the road. The German commander was immediately angry. He quickly mobilized his manpower and came towards the location of the anti-tank team, trying to destroy the anti-tank team so that his own tanks could The attack on the Soviet positions continued.
If they were ordinary troops, the German commander's plan might have succeeded, but now they were facing Soviet troops equipped with assault rifles and having an advantage in firepower. As soon as their infantry jumped over the tanks and rushed towards the hillside, they came under heavy fire from the Soviet army. The Soviet firepower was fierce and accurate. In just a few minutes, almost fifty German soldiers fell in a pool of blood. The remaining German soldiers were so frightened that they did not even bother to restrain the corpses of their comrades, and retreated in a hurry.
After the battle, Zhelia reported to Lieutenant Colonel Goryachkin: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, we have successfully repelled the enemy's attack, and I believe we can get a few hours of rest."
"The enemy is very cunning, Comrade Captain." Lieutenant Colonel Goryachkin said earnestly: "The closer we are to victory, the more we must be vigilant. Sometimes the bite of a wounded beast will be more painful. "
Zhelia, who was staying in the fortifications, saw two tanks running into the trap, causing a rollover incident. He reported the matter to Lieutenant Colonel Goryachkin: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, there are two German tanks. The tank fell into our trap, and the enemy brought new tanks from behind, but they were destroyed by our anti-tank team."
"Are the infantry on the position ready for battle?" Lieutenant Colonel Goryachkin asked.
"Yes, we are ready for all battles." Zhelia said to Goryachkin while observing the movement outside: "When the enemy's infantry approaches, our soldiers will give them an unforgettable experience." lesson."
The German tanks were destroyed one after another by the anti-tank team hiding on the side of the road. The German commander was immediately angry. He quickly mobilized his manpower and came towards the location of the anti-tank team, trying to destroy the anti-tank team so that his own tanks could The attack on the Soviet positions continued.
If they were ordinary troops, the German commander's plan might have succeeded, but now they were facing Soviet troops equipped with assault rifles and having an advantage in firepower. As soon as their infantry jumped over the tanks and rushed towards the hillside, they came under heavy fire from the Soviet army. The Soviet firepower was fierce and accurate. In just a few minutes, almost fifty German soldiers fell in a pool of blood. The remaining German soldiers were so frightened that they did not even bother to restrain the corpses of their comrades, and retreated in a hurry.
After the battle, Zhelia reported to Lieutenant Colonel Goryachkin: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, we have successfully repelled the enemy's attack, and I believe we can get a few hours of rest."
"The enemy is very cunning, Comrade Captain." Lieutenant Colonel Goryachkin said earnestly: "The closer we are to victory, the more we must be vigilant. Sometimes the bite of a wounded beast will be more painful. "
