Sokov's troops unexpectedly occupied Donetsk and the Red Army village, posing a threat to the rear of the German army. As a result, the enemy's attack on the front line of Kharkov-Bergorod weakened, and the Soviet army, which was being beaten to the point of being embarrassed, gained a precious respite.
Although Golikov's Voronezh army had a large number of troops, it was too dispersed. When he was attacked on the Kharkov-Bergorod line, he could not mobilize the reserve team to provide reinforcements. As the enemy's offensive weakened, he could transfer troops from areas where the war was not fierce, to support areas where the situation was critical.
Antonov called Golikov at Stalin's order: "General Golikov, Comrade Stalin asked me to ask you, with your current strength, can you defend your existing defensive positions?"
"Comrade Antonov," Golikov and Antonov were friends before the war, so they didn't have to worry about speaking: "If you ask this question for two days, I will definitely tell you that we cannot defend it. But now, with Sokov's troops gaining a foothold in the front line of Donetsk-Red Army Village, seriously threatening the German army's retreat, so the chance of us defending the existing area is much greater."
"Is there a possibility of a counterattack?" Antonov asked tentatively: "If your troops can join forces with Sokov's troops, then the situation on the entire battlefield will become beneficial to us, and it is entirely possible to drive the enemy to the other side of the Dnieper River again."
"Comrade Antonov, you should understand that the reason why we are in such a bad situation is entirely because our troops are far away from the logistics supply base." Golikov explained to Antonov: "If there is not enough fuel and ammunition, then our tanks and cannons will become a pile of scrap iron. When the enemy rushed over, all we can do is to blow up these technical equipment and prevent them from falling into the hands of the Germans."
"General Golikov, you should know that now that the German army has occupied Kursk, we need to replenish you from Moscow, and we need to go around a big circle." Antonov said with a wry smile: "The distance between this circle is not close, and the roads and bridges have been damaged to varying degrees. The materials transported from Moscow will take as long as three days to reach. If you can take Kursk and open this line of transportation, our transportation time will be shortened from the original three days to 28 hours."
"If Sokov's troops were stationed near Kursk, I believe he had the ability to capture Kursk in a short time. After all, he had commanded his troops to capture Kursk last year." Golikov said helplessly on the phone: "It's a pity that his troops are in Donetsk - the Red Army Village, which is too far away from us. With our existing strength, we cannot liberate Kursk at all."
"That's a pity." Antonov said to Golikov before hanging up the phone: "General Golikov, I think it's necessary to remind you that Major General Sokov's troops are not as powerful as we imagined. They may be able to hold the Germans back for a week or two, but if they want to completely crush the enemy, they can only rely on you."
"Wait a minute, Comrade Antonov." Golikov noticed that Antonov was about to hang up the phone and asked quickly: "I want to ask, how is General Vatujing's Southwest Front?"
"What else can it do?" Antonov said with a wry smile: "His troops were defeated by the German army. Although they retreated to a safe area to re-encase the troops, it is not possible to restore combat effectiveness in a short period of time."
"So, they will not be able to enter the battle for at least a few months?" Golikov asked tentatively.
"Yes, General Golikov." Antonov replied in a positive tone and said politely: "Good luck!" Before Golikov could say anything else, he hung up the phone.
"Chief of Staff," Golikov called Major General Korgenievic to the front as soon as he dropped the phone and asked, "How many reserve teams do we have now?"
"Seldom, commander comrade." Corgenievic replied: "There are only two divisions that can be used now, and they are greatly weakened after fierce battles. This amount of troops is barely enough for defense in individual areas. But if you want to use it for attack, it is far from enough."
Seeing that the Chief of Staff guessed his thoughts, Golikov couldn't help but smile bitterly: "The current situation is really a headache. If a simple defense is carried out, it can certainly block the enemy's attack. However, if the enemy eliminates Sokov's troops, it will focus its strength again in the area we defend. Whether it can block them at that time will not be optimistic."
"A few days ago, when we were in danger, Sokov's troops supported us in time, forcing the attacking imperial division to withdraw the battle." Khrushchev interrupted: "The enemy who is now attacking in the direction of Donetsk, not only the imperial division, but also the flag guard division and the skeleton division have transferred the main force over. I am worried that Sokov's troops will not be able to stop the crazy attack of these three SS divisions."
"But what can we do, Comrade Khrushchev." Hearing Khrushchev say this, Golikov could only explain with a wry smile: "You have just heard from the Chief of Staff that we only have two greatly weakened infantry divisions in our hands. It may be barely enough to defend with such forces; but it is far from enough to attack."
"Can we just watch Sokov's troops be destroyed by the enemy?" Khrushchev said unhappily: "Will they retake their hands before attacking us?"
Seeing Khrushchev getting angry, Golikov quickly explained: "Military Commissioner, I think we should send a telegram to Sokov to understand the real situation there before deciding whether to send troops to reinforce."
"Okay," Khrushchev nodded in response to Golikov's proposal, "Send Sokov immediately and ask him how it's going there."
...
When Sokov received a telegram from Golikov, the city was bombed by the German army. Sokov was dictating the telegram to the radio operator in the basement: "...The Red Army Village is being brutalized by the Luftwaffe. I hope the Front Command can send planes to support us..."
When the radio operator sent a message, Chief of Staff Vitkov handed him Golikov's telegram: "Comrade Commander, this is General Golikov, the commander of the Voronezh Front, sent you a telegram."
After reading the telegram, Sokov showed a faint smile on his lips. He said to Vetkov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, General Golikov sent this telegram because the current situation made him a little undecided. Keep holding on. Once the enemy eliminates us, he will turn around to deal with them. Send troops to reinforce. Their troops are seriously insufficient for supply. I am afraid that the reinforcements will not go halfway and will be severely damaged or destroyed by the enemy because of exhaustion of ammunition and food."
"Then how should we reply to this telegram?" Vetkov asked Sokov and said, "We can't let them stay still, right?"
"Chief of Staff, call General Golikov back." Sokov and Vitkov immediately expressed his opinion after he finished speaking: "Let them take advantage of the favorable opportunity of weakening the German offensive, seize the time to repair fortifications and improve the defense system to fight against a new round of attacks that the German army may launch."
"What about us here?" Witkov said in surprise: "Doesn't you really need the help of friendly forces?"
"We need friendly attacks, but it does not mean they need to come here." Sokov explained to Vetkov: "As long as they can defend their existing positions and launch a counterattack or two from time to time, they will provide the most support to us."
With the arrival of the fighter fleet sent by Rokosovsky, the German bombers who were bombing the city saw that the situation was not good, and quickly turned around and retreated to the west. The Soviet fighter jets were not willing to let them go, and they followed closely behind.
As soon as the bombing was over, Sokov came from the basement to the city streets with smoke. The streets were in chaos. Among the people running back and forth were Sokov's subordinates and the residents of the city. At this moment, they were running around like headless flies. Wherever there were many people, they instinctively ran toward and towards.
Sokov quickly arrived at the headquarters of the 41st Guard Division and asked Cidolin who had just finished calling: "How is the situation at the forefront?"
"The 125th Regiment has just repelled a German attack and is catching up on time to clean the battlefield."
"How is the casualties in the troops?"
"Not counted yet," Cidolin replied, "but the casualties are about one-third."
When Sokov learned that the casualties of the 125th Regiment had reached one-third, he couldn't help but feel a little slack. Unexpectedly, in just a few hours, the 125th Regiment lost one-third of its troops. If this kind of fighting style was followed, the troops would be completely destroyed in just two days. He thought to himself: If you fight outside the city, without decent fortifications, you can't fight this battle.
"Comrade Commander," Sidolin asked Sokov for advice: "Do you order Colonel Bere's tank brigade to attack?"
"I think it's OK." Sokov and Bereh appointed the strategy, when the German troops attacked the 125th Regiment's position, Bereh's tank brigade unexpectedly rushed out from the side to destroy the enemy's tanks, armored vehicles and infantry. However, after the battle started, as German planes were hovering in the air, Sokov was worried that he would send troops as surprise troops to attack at this moment, and perhaps send heads to the German pilots. Therefore, he remained silent. Now the enemy's plane has been driven away, and even if the entire tank brigade attacked, he probably would not have to worry about being attacked by air. "When the enemy attacks again, he ordered Colonel Bereh to attack from the flanks and teach these robbers a lesson."
The German army, who had suffered losses in the rocket launch, launched another attack, and seemed very cautious. Behind each tank, two armored vehicles were passing through. The machine gunners on the armored vehicles kept adjusting the direction of the muzzle, preparing to shoot the target without hesitation once they found it.
This tactic of the German army can precisely restrain the Soviet anti-tank soldiers. After all, when a rocket occurs, those soldiers must stand up from their hiding places and shoot in an upright or half-squat way. Usually, they are the first choice targets of enemy machine gunners during the shooting process.
After losing several anti-tank teams, Yershakov noticed the insidiousness of the German tactics. In order to avoid unnecessary sacrifices from more soldiers, he adjusted his tactics and hid in the craters to snipe the machine gunners who emerged. If the machine gunners on the armored vehicles were killed, the German tanks would lose cover, which would help the soldiers destroy the enemy's targets with rocket launchers within range.
Seeing that their offensive tactics were ineffective, the Germans immediately stopped the attack, retreated their troops, and made adjustments. Two hours later, they launched a new attack again. The troops that were put into battle this time were composed of twelve tanks and thirty armored vehicles. They lined up at one time, divided into four rows, and rushed towards the Soviet positions.
When the enemy was less than five hundred meters away from the trench, a green signal flare rose into the sky. The Tank Brigade, which had been ready to go, immediately launched the tank and rushed to the side of the German offensive troops with a roar.
The vision in the tank is very narrow. The reason why they dare to attack the Soviet positions was entirely because there were armored vehicles loaded with soldiers behind them, machine guns on the armored vehicles, and soldiers in the vehicles could easily destroy the Russian anti-tank hands.
But what the Germans did not expect was that dozens of Soviet tanks covered with snow rushed towards the German offensive troops from the side. Although there was a tiger tank among them, its side armor could not resist the attack of the Soviet 85mm tank guns, and they were hit and caught fire and stopped on the wasteland to burn.
The soldiers on the armored vehicles saw Soviet tanks rushing from the side, either using machine guns to shoot, or select vehicles, find a crater to hide, and shoot at the Soviet tanks rushing towards them.
Although bullets fired by different weapons jingled on the armor plate, they did not slow down the speed of Soviet tanks at all. Some tank soldiers stopped at one or two hundred meters away from the German armored vehicles and bombarded with tank guns. At such a close distance, for tank soldiers, the German armored vehicles were a ready-made target.
Some armored vehicles were directly bombarded into a fireball. The soldiers who did not have time to jump off the vehicle were either bombed to death on the spot or burned to death. Some armored vehicles saw that the situation was not good and were about to turn around and escape, but were knocked over by the tanks driving over, and the soldiers in the vehicle were either killed or injured.
Chapter completed!