There was a busy scene outside the division headquarters in Koida. Communications soldiers were setting up antennas and pulling telephone lines. Troops in company and platoon sizes passed by the house from time to time. There were two soldiers with assault rifles at the door, watching with vigilance. of the surrounding environment.
Seeing Sokov's arrival, the two sentries quickly stood at attention and saluted. After Nodding to them, Sokov asked: "Is your division commander inside?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander." A sentry replied respectfully: "The division commander is assigning tasks inside."
Walking into the headquarters, Sokov saw Koida and his chief of staff standing at the table, assigning tasks to several regiment commanders with their backs to the door. Seeing Sokov enter the door, Koida quickly interrupted the chief of staff, trotted to Sokov, straightened his body and reported: "Comrade Commander, our division is assigning combat missions, please give instructions!"
In the eyes of everyone, Sokov came to the table, looked down at the map spread out on the table, and then asked Koida: "Comrade Colonel, how do you plan to deploy your defense?"
"Comrade Commander, the frontal width of the defensive position we took over is seven kilometers wide." Koida reported to Sokov: "I plan to put the 562nd and 564th regiments on the front line, and the 568th regiment and the artillery regiment will be deployed. On the second line."
"No, the troops cannot be deployed like this." Unexpectedly, Sokov shook his head after hearing this and said: "Although our defense front is seven kilometers wide, it is impossible for the enemy to launch an attack on such a wide front at the same time. You only need to Just put a regiment on the only main traffic road and block the enemy's way."
Regarding Sokov's deployment, Koida said hesitantly: "Is the strength of one regiment too thin?"
"Don't worry, Comrade Colonel." Sokov said to Koida: "According to the intelligence we have, the German troops attacking your division's defense area are at best one tank battalion and one infantry battalion. We will use a regiment to deal with it. They are more than enough.”
"If this is the case, then I will place the 562nd Regiment in the first-line position and immediately withdraw the 564th Regiment to the second-line position."
"Wait a minute, Comrade Colonel." Sokov pointed to the right wing of the defensive position and said to Koida: "Your right wing is the 305th Infantry Division. After a brutal battle, their remaining forces have been There are less than two thousand people. I am worried that their position will be broken through by the enemy, so I order you to put the 564th Regiment, which has withdrawn from the front-line position, behind them. Once the enemy achieves a breakthrough in the friendly defense zone, our troops can also Stop them in time."
Sokov's arrangement made Koida a little dissatisfied. He muttered to himself: He had placed two regiments in the front, and he was worried that he would not be able to stop the enemy's attack. Unexpectedly, Sokov not only asked him to withdraw from the front-line position A regiment was sent out, and this regiment was also transferred to strengthen the friendly defense area.
Although he had ideas in his mind, he could only unconditionally execute the orders given by Sokov. Koida called the commander of the 564th Regiment and told him: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, have you heard everything? Comrade Commander ordered your regiment to station in the friendly defense zone on the right wing and make all battle preparations until the enemy breaks through the friendly positions. , you must stop them at all costs."
At ten o'clock in the morning, the German shelling began.
Sokov stood at the lookout of the observation post, raised his telescope and looked into the distance, and found that the location where he was bombarded by the enemy was the area defended by the 562nd Regiment. He put down the telescope, turned to Koida beside him and said, "Comrade Colonel, have you seen everything? Those positions being bombarded are the positions where the Germans are preparing to break through."
When the shelling just started, Koida carefully checked all the positions on the front of the defense through the telescope and found that the areas that were bombarded were indeed positions near the road as Sokov said. Those areas without road access were not attacked by artillery fire. It seemed that the enemy did not bother to waste artillery shells on these unimportant targets.
After the bombardment, before the smoke cleared, the German ground troops launched an attack. The fifteen tanks in front formed a wedge formation and rushed towards the position of the 1st Battalion of the 562nd Regiment. The German infantry trotted behind the tanks.
The commander of the first battalion is Captain Guchakov. His two company commanders, Captain Narva and Captain Yegor, are both Sokov's old subordinates and have rich experience in defensive warfare. Seeing the German tanks and infantry rushing past, Guchakov was not panicked at all. He gave Narva and Yegor an order through the phone: "Ignore the enemy tanks and use machine gun fire to destroy the infantry following the tanks." , isolate them from the tanks. As long as the enemy infantry is eliminated, when those tanks approach our position, use rocket launchers to eliminate them."
When the enemy tanks and infantry were still more than two hundred meters away from the position, the machine guns on the position opened fire. The dense bullets avoided the tanks that were opening the way in front and were all shot at the infantry following behind, knocking down a large number of them in an instant.
The officers and soldiers of the German 6th Armored Division never dreamed that the Soviet troops they encountered today were actually different from those they had encountered before. The enemy did not waste bullets to shoot at the tanks rushing in front, but used them specifically to shoot at tanks. infantry. The Germans were immediately stunned. As scores of soldiers fell, the remaining soldiers hurriedly found a safe position, hid and fired at the Soviet positions in the distance.
The German tanks, which had lost their infantry cover, were still moving forward menacingly. The tank crews still wanted to rush to the Soviet position and use their tracks to flatten the opponent's position as before. But just as these tanks approached the Soviet trenches, Russian soldiers suddenly emerged from the craters in front of the positions one after another. They did not charge with anti-tank grenades or bundles of cluster grenades as the tank crews were familiar with. Come up, but carry a chimney on your shoulders and aim at yourself in a half-crouching position. Soon, the tank soldier saw an object trailing a long white smoke flying out of the chimney and flying towards his tank.
At such a close distance and the enemy tanks were driving so slowly, there was no way those anti-tank fighters with rocket launchers could miss them. Just like that, in less than two minutes, fifteen German tanks that had been showing off their power not long ago were killed by Soviet rocket launchers and stopped in place and burned.
Some tank soldiers who were lucky enough to escape from the tanks stumbled back, but were called out by the infantry covering the anti-tank soldiers with assault rifles. They fell to the ground one after another and could never get up again.
Guchakov saw that the enemy tanks were destroyed and the infantry began to retreat. He quickly called Narva and Yegor: "Comrades, company commanders, the enemy has begun to retreat. I order you to attack immediately and fiercely." Beat them up."
A moment later, the soldiers in the trenches shouted "Ula!", scrambled out of the trenches, and rushed towards the defeated German army with weapons in hand.
"Well done, brothers." Koida, who was staying in the observation post, saw that his troops decisively launched a counterattack when the German army was defeated. He couldn't help but beam with joy and said repeatedly: "I Give them credit!"
