"Comrades, if you want to defeat the enemy, you cannot rely solely on frontal combat. We also have to send small teams to the enemy's back." Sokov remembered the Brandenburg squad that was annihilated that day, and decided to deal with the enemy in the same way: "The commanders and fighters sent behind the enemy must not only have rich combat experience, but also need everyone to understand German, so that they will not be easily seen by the enemy after wearing German uniforms."
"Comrade Commander," Colonel Gorishne couldn't help but ask curiously: "Why should all the soldiers sent behind enemy lines understand German?"
"A few days ago, the German army sent a Brandenburg squad to assassinate me and put our army in chaos. Even if we discovered and eliminated them, we did not make a big mistake." Sokov saw that not only Gorishne had questions, but other commanders also had questions, so he took the opportunity to explain to everyone: "Think about it, if the soldiers we sent spoke German, everyone could disguise themselves as enemy commanders and issue various wrong commands to the enemy; or continue to attack everywhere in German uniforms, making the enemy dangerous. If the rear of the enemy becomes a mess, they can only draw troops to maintain stability in the rear, and then the number of enemies will be greatly reduced."
After Sokov's explanation, the division commanders present finally understood why the soldiers sent to the enemy's back need to understand German. It turned out that the commander wanted to turn the enemy's rear into a huge ups and downs. They all stood up and expressed their opinions, saying that when they returned to the army, they would immediately select the right candidate and send them to the enemy's rear to perform missions.
After listening to the statements of each division, Sokov continued: "Comrades Commanders, I only remind you one thing: Now we are competing with the enemy for time. Send a small team behind enemy lines earlier to disrupt the enemy's rear. The threats we will be less than the next year, which will be more conducive to us taking the initiative on the battlefield."
…………
Just as Sokov's subordinates returned to their respective troops and began to select soldiers who went deep into the enemy's back, Popov's troops began to break through.
This fast cluster of four tanks and one infantry army, after a series of fierce battles, only 137 tanks were left, and only six motorized battalions could fight were left, and the rest were empty numbers. Due to the exhaustion of fuel, many tanks could not be activated. In this case, Popov decided decisively: infantry should be the vanguard of breaking through, and all tanks stayed in place to confuse the enemy and prevent his breakthrough from being discovered too early by the enemy.
The German troops besieged Popov's rapid cluster were the 7th and 11th Armored Divisions, the Vikings and the 333rd Infantry Division, which was crippled by Sokov's troops. The enemy believed that Popov and his men either continued to advance towards Zaporoze or broke through in the direction of Ijum, so they concentrated their main forces in these two directions. On the way east, except for the 333rd Infantry Division more than 100 kilometers away, there were only some company-level troops.
The commander of the breakout vanguard was Captain Belko. He led all the commanders and fighters of the battalion, and with the help of the night, he quietly approached a defense area of ​​the enemy. Looking at the barbed wire fences pulled on the road in the distance, the sandbag fortifications on the hillside, and the black machine gun muzzles, he said to several company commanders under him: "Comrades, in order to expose the target before early, we must use sneak attacks to eliminate the enemy that blocked our way."
The German troops stationed here never dreamed that the Soviet army would choose this direction to break through. They just fired a flare into the air every quarter of an hour as usual.
The flares rising into the air shone the surrounding snow as bright as daylight. The Soviet commanders and soldiers who were crawling towards the enemy's positions quickly stopped and lay motionless on the snow so as not to be discovered by the enemy. When the light dimmed, they continued to crawl forward.
Everything seemed to be going well, but when the soldiers continued to crawl towards the enemy's position along the cut wire, they accidentally triggered the mines in the minefield.
The explosion in the minefield alarmed the German soldiers who had not yet fallen asleep. The machine guns deployed on the hillside immediately fired at the position where the fire was rising. The MG42 machine gun newly loaded with German troops were firing wildly, and the bullets made the snow powder and soil on the ground fly everywhere.
Seeing that the enemy's machine gun fire blocked the soldiers' path forward, Berco knew that the sneak attack was no longer realistic, so he decisively ordered nearby light and heavy machine guns to fire, suppress the enemy's machine gun fire, and cover the troops trapped in the minefield to rush forward.
The troops who stayed here were officers and soldiers of the 61st Motorcycle Battalion of the 11th Armored Division of the German Army. The German company commander, who was staying in the command post, heard the dense gunfire sounding under the hillside and immediately realized that he had been attacked by the regular Soviet army. He quickly called the battalion headquarters and reported to the battalion commander what had happened here.
After hearing this, the battalion commander immediately shouted at him: "Captain, you must defend your position at all costs. I will send troops to reinforce you immediately."
After the battalion commander put down the phone, he immediately arranged the second company to rush to support the first company that was being attacked. Then he called the division headquarters to report what happened here. The person who answered the phone was Colonel Wink, the chief of staff of the division. He was shocked when he learned that the defense area of ​​the 61st Motorcycle Battalion was attacked by the Soviet army. He quickly asked: "Major, how many Russians are attacking your defense area? Do they have heavy weapons?"
"There are quite a few people." The battalion commander had just asked the company commander about the situation of the battle and knew a little bit about the situation in the firefighting area. When he heard the chief of staff of the division ask, he quickly replied: "There are no heavy weapons except machine guns."
"Then what measures have you taken?"
"I have sent out the Second Company to reinforce the attacked Company." The battalion commander reported: "I believe that it will not take long before the Second Company will be able to reach its destination."
"You should closely observe the movement and report to me any new situation." Colonel Wink said: "I want to report this situation to the division commander immediately."
After Wink put down the phone, he quickly walked to the house of General Balk and knocked on the door: "Sir, the information is not good, and our troops are attacked by the Russians."
Balk, who had just lying on the bed, heard Wink's voice and came to the door in his pajamas. After he opened the door, he said with concern: "Where was attacked by the Russians at our location."
"Sir," Wink reported: "The defense zone of the 61st Motorcycle Battalion was attacked by the Russians, and their offensive was extremely fierce."
"The defense zone of the 61st Motorcycle Battalion?" Barke was stunned at first, and then asked back: "Aren't they stationed in the east of the Russians? How could they be attacked by the Russians?"
"I think the Russians may have discovered that we had arranged heavy troops on their retreat route, so they chose the direction of breaking out to the east." Wenk said: "Sir, the division commander, I suggest sending troops to reinforce immediately to prevent the Russians from protruding our encirclement from the east."
"I think it's not to report it for the time being." Balk waved his hand and said, "At present, we don't know whether the attack on the Russians in the 61st Motorcycle Battalion is just a test of a small army, or is it really going to break through? If it's just a sneak attack, our hastily report this situation may affect the correct judgment of Your Excellency the Marshal."
Chapter completed!