When the commanding heights outside the city were found to be lost, how could the German army give up? They immediately dispatched troops to launch a counterattack, trying to regain the heights from the Soviet army.
Andre saw the German tanks coming from the distance and the densely packed infantry following behind him. He knew that the next battle would be a fierce battle, so he quickly called the sixth company commander Yegor: "Captain, the enemy's tanks are coming. You immediately send a few anti-tank teams to quickly enter the craters in front of the position to hide, ready to destroy the enemy's tanks."
When the sixth company commander arranged a rocket launcher team and entered the crater in batches in front of the position, Andrei asked the radio operator to send a telegram to the regiment commander to report the situation here to him, and at the same time asked the other party to send reinforcements to support him as soon as possible.
After Yershakov learned that the Second Battalion had successfully seized the highlands, he immediately called the first battalion commander and said to him: "Comrade Major, the Second Battalion has successfully occupied the highlands in the east of the city. The task of your battalion is to rush over immediately, take over the defense from the Second Battalion, and then nail it there like a nail, without any step back."
After receiving the order, the first battalion commander immediately agreed loudly, and then led his troops to the high ground in the east of the city.
If Sokov was here, he would definitely scold the other party when he heard the order issued by Yershakov. The German army in the city had limited strength. If they concentrated their forces to counterattack the highlands in the east, the troops in the city would be weakened. What the frontier commander had to do at this moment was not to strengthen the defense of the highlands in the east, but to take advantage of the situation to attack the defenders in the city. As long as the Red Army village was taken down, the German troops attacking the highlands would collapse without fighting.
When the first battalion arrived at the foot of the high ground, the German tanks were only four hundred meters away from the trenches. Twelve tanks posed in wedges and pushed towards the trenches. Even across a hill, the commanders and soldiers of the first battalion could hear the roar of the tank engines and feel the slight tremor on the ground.
"Comrade Battalion Commander," the first company commander came to the battalion commander and asked curiously: "Can the enemy use tanks to fight on such a steep high ground?"
When the battalion commander heard the roar of tanks sounded across the hills, he immediately realized that something was wrong. It was obvious that the high ground was steep in the east and flat in the west, so that the Germans could put the tanks into battle. If he led the troops up at this moment, he might have to fight head-on with the Germans.
Thinking of this, he quickly issued an order to his troops: "Stop moving forward, build fortifications on the spot, and prepare for defense?"
Several company commanders who did not understand the order asked one after another: "Battery Commander, we have already reached the foot of the highlands, why should we stop?"
"Yes, didn't the superiors ask us to take over the defense of the Second Battalion? Why stop moving forward?"
“…”
Faced with the doubts of his subordinates, the first battalion commander waited for everyone to calm down again and said, "Now the enemy is launching an attack on the second battalion's position. If we go to receive defense at this moment, it will inevitably cause unnecessary panic. In that case, it will be very fatal to our army. The enemy can take advantage of our change of defense and launch a fierce attack, and the front line may collapse. I think it's better to wait until the second battalion repels the enemy's attack."
On the top of the hillside, Andrei was secretly happy when he saw the troops of the first battalion coming over. He thought that the regiment commander was very considerate and actually sent the first battalion to support him. Unexpectedly, when the first battalion arrived at the foot of the mountain, he stopped moving forward and began to build fortifications on the spot. Such operations made Andrei a little confused. He explained to his chief of staff and took two soldiers down the mountain.
"The First Battalion Commander," Andrey found the First Battalion Commander and asked straight to the point: "Aren't you here to take over our defense? Why did you stay at the foot of the mountain to build fortifications?"
"Major Andre, I was about to inform you, but I didn't expect you to come down first." The first battalion commander repeated the remarks he had just said to his subordinates, and he finally emphasized: "Don't worry, since the regiment commander ordered us to take over your defense, it would not be too late for us to go up again after you repelled the German attack."
Andre thought carefully and it seemed that what the other party said was somewhat reasonable. If the first battalion really entered the position at this moment, it would probably cause a brief chaos on the position, and it might lead to heavy casualties in the enemy's attack. So he just said briefly: "Comrade Major, after we repel the German attack, we will hand over the defense with you."
Looking at Andre's back as he walked away, the battalion commander couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. The temperature outside was still below zero, but the first battalion commander's forehead was filled with sweat.
After the German tanks approached the position, the rocket launchers hidden in the craters were ordered to shoot at the tanks. A rocket dragging white smoke directly pierced at the moving German tanks. Some tanks were hit and soon stopped in place and remained motionless, but more tanks continued to move forward.
The infantry following behind the tank found that there were many Soviet anti-tank soldiers in the crater in front of the trench, so they quickly caught up, chose a suitable position to set up the machine gun, and fired at the Soviet anti-tank soldiers.
Don't see that the rocket launcher is an anti-tank weapon, but when the rockets are launched, they must stand up straight or half-squat, exposing most of their bodies to the enemy's firepower. That's it. Several rocketers just stood up from the crater, and before they could shoot, they were shot into sieve by the enemy's bullets. Without even saying a word, they fell directly into the crater.
The Sixth Company originally arranged seven anti-tank positions in front of the position, but due to the development of machine gun firepower of German infantry, these anti-tank positions were basically lost in less than ten minutes. Seeing that the German tanks were getting closer and closer to their positions, Yegor became anxious and shouted to the left and right: "Go out and blow up all the German tanks."
With his orders, five or six soldiers soon held an anti-tank grenade in each hand, climbed out of the trench with their hands and feet, and crawled towards the German tanks in the distance. But their whereabouts were soon noticed and immediately bombarded by tank guns and machine guns. The effort was not great, and the soldiers who went out were all killed.
Just when Yegor was planning to send people to bomb the tank, Andre came back from the foot of the mountain. Seeing Yegor's blind command, he quickly stopped him and ordered: "Attack the infantry behind the tank with a new rocket. As long as the enemy's infantry is killed, their tanks will not pose any threat to us without the support of the infantry."
The reflector of the new rocket was swung toward the position. In less than a minute, more than twenty rockets flew towards the dense German infantry formation. After a series of explosions, countless broken limbs flew into the air, waiting for the smoke to dissipate. The attacking queue, which was originally crowded, could no longer see a few people standing.
"Yegor," Seeing that many German infantry were destroyed by rockets, Andre issued a new combat order to Yeegor: "If you want your people to go out and bomb tanks, you must leave a lot of these German tanks."
The tanks that lost their infantry cover were a group of lambs to be slaughtered in front of the anti-tank hands. Although the tank soldiers used car-mounted machine guns to knock down many Soviet soldiers who rushed towards them, more soldiers rushed to the tanks and threw out anti-tank grenades that were enough to destroy the tanks.
Seeing that the tanks leading the attack were all reimbursed by the Soviet army one by one, the soldiers following behind were frightened. They had no courage to continue fighting, so they retreated one after another.
Repelled the German attack, wiped out more than a dozen tanks, and killed more than 200 soldiers. After completing his mission, the Second Battalion handed over his defense to the first battalion at the foot of the mountain.
After the troops retreated from the top of the mountain, Andrei said to several company commanders: "Since the first battalion has just dug trenches here, let's rest here. Maybe when will our battalion still have to go up."
Yegor expressed doubts about Andre's statement: "Comrade Battalion Commander, the strength of the counterattack enemy does not look very good. I think the first battalion's troops can completely block them. We may not have any combat missions before the large army arrives."
Everything that happened next proves that Andre was foresighted.
After the German counterattack against the highlands failed, the city's defenders were ready to shrink their forces and defend the Red Army village with all their might, so as not to allow the Soviet army to occupy the place. However, at this moment, his adjutant reported to him: "Mr. Colonel, the troops of the Imperial Division arrived. They heard that the highlands east of the city were occupied by the Russians and were ready to fight back there."
When the commander learned that it was the imperial teacher who had come, the commander felt much more at ease. He said to the adjutant: "Tell the other commander that they have any requirements. Even if they ask, we will try our best to satisfy them."
After contacting the commander of the Imperial Division, the adjutant reported to his superiors: "Mr. Colonel, the 5th and 6th Infantry Companies of the Imperial Division, and a tank company, they hope that you can use artillery fire to bombard the highlands and cover them to attack the highlands."
"Okay." The German commander naturally would not refuse the request made by the imperial division. He quickly ordered his adjutant: "Immediately order all artillery fire and aim at the Russian positions on the high ground to fire."
Ten minutes later, the German commander's order was implemented. More than 70 artillery pieces of different caliber fired at the top of the mountain. Although the Second Battalion stationed at the top of the mountain had reinforced fortifications after taking over the defense, these simple field fortifications could not be known by the bombardment of artillery fire.
Without a cover, the soldiers could only curl up in the trenches to avoid German shelling. From time to time, people were blown away by the explosion of shells or were knocked down by flying shrapnel. The health workers became the busiest people on the entire position, and shouts were shouting at them one after another.
While the health officer was treating the wounded, the stretcher carried the bodies of the sacrificed soldiers out of the trenches and placed them on the back slope of the hillside. When the battalion commander saw the bloody corpses of the soldiers, more and more in front of him, his whole body began to tremble unconsciously.
And the commanders of the Second Battalion at the foot of the mountain also saw this tragic image. After the muscles on Yegor's face twitched violently, he said to Andre: "Comrade Battalion Commander, our battalion has not suffered more than 400 casualties from the attack to the defensive battle just now, right? But look at the corpses placed on the hillside, there are at least 200, and there are still many that have not been taken out."
"There are no strong fortifications on the top of the mountain." Andre said to his subordinates: "Under the enemy's dense artillery fire now, such a dense formation is equivalent to letting the soldiers die. I am very worried that if the German shells continue to bombard like this, after the shelling is over, the first battalion will probably be damaged more than half."
"Then I will prepare the soldiers for combat and be ready to take over the defense of the first battalion at any time."
Andre nodded and said to the company commanders: "I would like to remind everyone here that once our battalion goes up to the top of the mountain to defend again, only one company can enter the position at a time. In this way, even if it is violently bombarded by the German army, we can reduce casualties."
After the shelling, two infantry companies of the Imperial Division rushed towards the position that was still emitting smoke under the guidance of the tank company. They did not use dense formations like the previous group of defense soldiers attacking, but were in groups of three or five, scattered very wide, following behind the tanks and trotting forward.
The soldiers of the imperial divisions were very skilled and tactical. When they ran to the position two hundred meters, many Soviet commanders and soldiers had not yet woken up from the shelling just now. Several awake soldiers found the enemy rushing over and shouted loudly. Then they only felt their mouths moving, but they could not hear any sound. It turned out that their ears had been deafened by the shelling not long ago.
Since you can't hear it, can you only shoot at the enemy? I hope other comrades can see their own shooting, follow them to shoot at the enemy, and eliminate all the enemies trying to regain their positions.
The machine guns on the position began to shoot, but often before a single shuttle was finished, the machine gunner fell head-on on the machine gun, and the deputy shooter next to him took over his position, but he suffered the same fate after not long after fighting. The reason for this situation is that there are many sharpshooters in the Imperial Master. Although their level is not as good as professional snipers, it is easier to deal with machine gunners with obvious targets.
Fortunately, when the German army was more than fifty meters away from the position, most of the surviving commanders and fighters re-entered their positions. They kept firing and dropping bullets at the charge of the German army, and with their best efforts, they stopped the enemy from rushing into their positions.
Chapter completed!