The attack on the small village involved not only the 483rd Tank Battalion, but also an infantry battalion from the 300th Infantry Division. After five minutes of rapid artillery fire, the infantry, guided by tanks, launched an attack on the village.
When the troops launched an attack on the village, Colonel Timofevich, the commander of the 219th Tank Brigade, said to Weisbach, the commander of the 300th Division who was supervising the operation: "Comrade Colonel, only one infantry battalion is sent to participate in the attack. Isn't the strength too small? Point? If the attack does not go smoothly, we will need to continue to increase our troops."
After hearing what Timofevich said, Weisbach looked at him strangely and asked in confusion: "Colonel Timofevich, are you so unsure of our soldiers?"
"It's not that I don't have confidence, Colonel Weisbach." Timofevich replied with a wry smile: "Not long ago, when I commanded the troops to attack this village, I didn't take the enemies in the village seriously at all. As a result, the battle ended , I don’t know how many enemies were destroyed, but I lost more than two-thirds of my tanks, and I almost lost the ability to continue fighting.”
Weisbach understood what Timofevich was worried about, so he arranged for him to say: "Colonel Timofevich, don't worry. There are many reasons for the failure of your brigade's attack. I think if there were infantry accompanying it at that time, it would be The action of covering the tanks might have wiped out the enemies in the village long ago."
After hearing what Weisbach said, Timofevich suddenly didn't want to talk to him. He felt that the other party was mocking him. In order to resolve the embarrassing situation, he raised his telescope and looked at the charging troops in the distance.
Seeing tanks and infantry entering the German minefields, Timofevich couldn't help but feel his throat rising. You know, his tank brigade lost a total of 11 tanks in the minefields, and the wreckage of these tanks is still there today. It's burning in the minefield.
But what Timofevich was worried about did not happen. I don’t know whether all the mines in the minefield were crushed in the previous round of attack, or were detonated in the recent shelling. Anyway, when the troops passed through the minefield, The imagined explosion did not occur.
When he saw the troops passing through the minefield and approaching the village, Timofevich began to worry again. He was afraid that anti-tank guns or tanks would fire from behind a certain wooden house to destroy the moving Soviet tanks; he was also afraid that In the gully beside the village, German machine guns suddenly fired, knocking down the soldiers who were charging forward in pieces.
"Colonel Timofewicz," Weisbach put down the telescope and turned to ask Timofewicz: "Did you really engage in a fierce battle with the enemy in this village?"
"It goes without saying, Colonel Weisbach." Faced with Weisbach's question, Timofevich looked very angry. He pointed to the still burning or smoking tank wreckage in the distance and said, "That's The tanks of our brigade were destroyed by the enemy.”
Weisbach saw the wreckage of the tank and understood that Timofevich had not lied. Instead, he asked doubtfully: "Colonel Timofevich, I would like to ask how many enemies there are in the village and why they were killed in such a short period of time." Did it cost you so many casualties within a short period of time?”
Hearing Weisbach's question, Timofevich replied with an embarrassed look: "I'm sorry, Colonel Weisbach, I don't think I can answer your question. Because whether it is outside the village or in the village, I saw no sign of the enemy, only my tanks, one after another being hit and bursting into flames."
After hearing this, Weisbach boldly put forward his hypothesis: "So, there may be only German tanks and anti-tank guns in the village, and there is no infantry at all."
"It's possible." Timofevich carefully recalled that after his own tank was destroyed by the Germans, the tank soldiers who escaped from the tank basically escaped to a safe place smoothly. In this way, the German army in the village had no infantry at all. If he had the infantry to cooperate with him during the attack, the huge casualties he suffered might really be avoided.
While talking, tanks and infantry rushed into the village, but there was still no reaction from the enemies in the village. This made Weisbach and others very confused: "What on earth is going on? Why is there no movement from the enemies in the village. "
"Comrade Division Commander," Deputy Division Commander Atakuz, who had always remained silent, suddenly sneered and said, "I think the enemies in the village may have withdrawn from the other side of the village when our army launched the artillery bombardment."
"This is impossible." Atakuz's words caused a huge reaction from Timofevich: "On the other side of the village, I sent tank soldiers to monitor. If the Germans really withdraw from the village, they will Will definitely report to me as soon as possible."
Atakuz sneered and asked: "Comrade Colonel, please explain why our troops have rushed into the village, but the enemy still hasn't moved?"
Timofevich's heart skipped a beat. It had been more than three hours since he wanted to withdraw his troops from the village. Maybe the Germans had already retreated. Thinking of this, he turned to Weisbach and said: "Comrade Colonel, I have an ominous premonition. Maybe the Germans in the village have withdrawn from the village after severely damaging our brigade. What we are attacking now is just an empty place." A village of one.”
"An empty village?" After Weisbach repeated Timofevich's words, his heart was full of questions.
Timofewicz saw that Weisbach was dubious, and quickly added: "You know, it has been three hours since our brigade withdrew from the village. The Germans may have been worried about our retaliation, and they might have withdrawn long ago. The village.”
"Comrade Deputy Division Commander," Weisbach was still skeptical about Timofevich's statement. However, in order not to hurt the other party's self-esteem, he turned to look at Atakuz and asked, "What do you think of this?" Something?"
Atakuz glanced at Timofevich on the side, and then turned his gaze back to Weisbach: "Comrade division commander, it's hard to say this. Until now, the enemy in the village has not moved at all. Why?" It looks like they have already withdrawn. But it seems inappropriate to easily judge that the enemies have withdrawn just based on the fact that the enemies in the village did not fight back."
After saying these ambiguous words that neither side could offend, Atakuz added one last sentence: "Fortunately, our troops have already rushed into the village. We will know the answer soon as to what happened."
As soon as he finished speaking, a green flare went up in the village, indicating that the troops had occupied the entire village.
"Comrade division commander, look quickly, it's a signal flare fired from the village." Atakuz couldn't help but feel ecstatic when he saw the signal flare rising into the sky, and quickly said to Weisbach: "This means that our troops have occupied the village. "
Weisbach also saw the signal flare in the air, but he did not speak immediately. Instead, he listened to the movement outside and found that he could not hear any gunshots or explosions. He turned to Timofevich and said: "Timofevich Colonel Mofevich, it seems you are right. All the enemies in the village evacuated the village before our attack began. What our troops occupied was just an empty village."
"Comrade division commander, how do you know it's an uninhabited village?" After hearing what Weisbach said, Atakuz asked unconvincingly: "Maybe our commanders and soldiers have encountered the enemy in the village."
"Comrade Deputy Division Commander," Weisbach said to Atakuz in a pleasant tone: "You will know if you listen carefully. There were no gunshots or explosions in the village, which proves that our commanders and soldiers did not do anything at all in the process of occupying the village. There was no fighting. What does this mean? It means that all the enemies in the village have long since escaped, and all we captured was an empty village."
After Weisbach said this, he asked a staff officer standing not far away: "Is the maintenance station chief here?"
"Yes, Comrade Division Commander, he is already here." The staff officer replied, "He is now outside the observation post."
"Invite him in quickly."
After a while, the staff officer came in from outside with a man wearing dark blue casual clothes and a peaked cap: "Comrade division commander, this is the station commander of the maintenance station."
Weisbach extended his hand to the middle-aged man with gray hair and said friendly: "Hello, Comrade Station Commander, I am Colonel Weisbach, commander of the 300th Division. This is Timo, commander of the 219th Tank Brigade. Colonel Fevitch, the tanks you want to pull back to the maintenance station belong to their brigade."
After shaking hands with the station commander, Timofevich asked politely: "Comrade station commander, more than 40 of our tanks were destroyed by the Germans. How long will it take you to drag the wreckage of these tanks to the maintenance plant?"
The maintenance station director received an order to bring people here to pull out the destroyed tanks, but he did not expect that there would be more than 40 tanks, and he was stunned. After a long time, he murmured: "Comrade Commander, I didn't expect that so many tanks were destroyed by the enemy. Our maintenance station only has three armored tractors that can tow tanks. I think it takes two at the fastest. It will take days to tow all the wreckage to the maintenance station."
Hearing that it would take two days to drag so many tank wrecks to the maintenance station, the muscles on Timofevich's face couldn't help but twitch violently. After taking a deep breath, he asked tentatively: "Comrade station commander, then I want to ask you, how many of so many destroyed tanks can be repaired?"
"It's hard to say, Comrade Commander." The maintenance station leader replied: "We have to see the damage to the tank before we know whether the tank can be repaired."
"Where are those tanks?" Timofevich pointed to the 11 tanks in the minefield and asked impatiently: "How many of them can be repaired."
"I'm sorry, Comrade Commander." The maintenance station director looked at the still burning tanks, shook his head and said, "These tanks are no longer worth repairing. At best, we can only take some usable parts from them and assemble them." On other tanks that can be repaired.”
The attack on the small village involved not only the 483rd Tank Battalion, but also an infantry battalion from the 300th Infantry Division. After five minutes of rapid artillery fire, the infantry, guided by tanks, launched an attack on the village.
When the troops launched an attack on the village, Colonel Timofevich, the commander of the 219th Tank Brigade, said to Weisbach, the commander of the 300th Division who was supervising the operation: "Comrade Colonel, only one infantry battalion is sent to participate in the attack. Isn't the strength too small? Point? If the attack does not go smoothly, we will need to continue to increase our troops."
After hearing what Timofevich said, Weisbach looked at him strangely and asked in confusion: "Colonel Timofevich, are you so unsure of our soldiers?"
"It's not that I don't have confidence, Colonel Weisbach." Timofevich replied with a wry smile: "Not long ago, when I commanded the troops to attack this village, I didn't take the enemies in the village seriously at all. As a result, the battle ended , I don’t know how many enemies were destroyed, but I lost more than two-thirds of my tanks, and I almost lost the ability to continue fighting.”
Weisbach understood what Timofevich was worried about, so he arranged for him to say: "Colonel Timofevich, don't worry. There are many reasons for the failure of your brigade's attack. I think if there were infantry accompanying it at that time, it would be The action of covering the tanks might have wiped out the enemies in the village long ago."
After hearing what Weisbach said, Timofevich suddenly didn't want to talk to him. He felt that the other party was mocking him. In order to resolve the embarrassing situation, he raised his telescope and looked at the charging troops in the distance.
Seeing tanks and infantry entering the German minefields, Timofevich couldn't help but feel his throat rising. You know, his tank brigade lost a total of 11 tanks in the minefields, and the remains of these tanks are still there today. It's burning in the minefield.
But what Timofevich was worried about did not happen. I don’t know whether all the mines in the minefield were crushed in the previous round of attack, or were detonated in the recent shelling. Anyway, when the troops passed through the minefield, The imagined explosion did not occur.
When he saw the troops passing through the minefield and approaching the village, Timofevich began to worry again. He was afraid that anti-tank guns or tanks would fire from behind a certain wooden house to destroy the moving Soviet tanks; he was also afraid that In the gully beside the village, German machine guns suddenly fired, knocking down the soldiers who were charging forward in pieces.
"Colonel Timofewicz," Weisbach put down the telescope and turned to ask Timofewicz: "Did you really engage in a fierce battle with the enemy in this village?"
"It goes without saying, Colonel Weisbach." Faced with Weisbach's question, Timofevich looked very angry. He pointed to the still burning or smoking tank wreckage in the distance and said, "That's The tanks of our brigade were destroyed by the enemy.”
Weisbach saw the wreckage of the tank and understood that Timofevich had not lied. Instead, he asked doubtfully: "Colonel Timofevich, I would like to ask how many enemies there are in the village and why they were killed in such a short period of time." Did it cost you so many casualties within a short period of time?”
Hearing Weisbach's question, Timofevich replied awkwardly: "I'm sorry, Colonel Weisbach, I don't think I can answer your question. Because whether it is outside the village or in the village, I saw no sign of the enemy, only my tanks, one after another being hit and bursting into flames."
"It's possible." Timofevich carefully recalled that after his own tank was destroyed by the Germans, the tank soldiers who escaped from the tank basically escaped to a safe place smoothly. In this way, the German army in the village had no infantry at all. If he had the infantry to cooperate with him during the attack, the huge casualties he suffered might really be avoided.
