"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov saw that Sidolin misunderstood his intentions, and quickly explained to him: "I gathered my troops not to let them hold on to Balvinkovo, but to move to a new place to look for opportunities to attack the weakness of the German army."
"Comrade Commander, please be honest." Cidolin continued: "If three German military advisors gather together, their strength will be extremely strong. Not to mention that we are a division, even if we are a group of troops, it may not be easy to defeat them."
"That's right, if these three German divisions were concentrated together, let alone our division, even a group of troops would not be their opponents. General Popov and General Rebarko have proved this with bloody facts." Sokov pointed to the map and said to Cidolin: "After darkness, order the two battalions that were cut off to quickly move towards Balvinkovo. Remember, during the transfer, the greater the movement, the better."
"If their actions are discovered by the enemy, the enemy will definitely follow us and pursue us." Sidolin reminded Sokov again: "I am worried that once the enemy's movement speed is too fast, they will be able to follow our retreating troops and rush into our defense line."
"After it gets dark, I plan to order the troops to move eastward." Sokov said to Cidolin with a smile: "In the enemy's illusionary position, there is no one with our troops at all. Even if the enemy occupy these areas, what impact will it have on us?"
Sokov's words made Sidolin confused. He asked in confusion: "Comrade, I don't understand what you mean. Can you explain it to me?"
"Comrade Chief of Staff, according to my judgment, the enemy's imperial division is now the weakest of the three divisions." Sokov pointed to the map and explained to Sidolin: "I plan to let the troops go back to the back of the imperial division and find an opportunity to beat them hard. If possible, maybe we can directly take down the German division command."
Cidolin did not comment on Sokov's statement. He pointed to the location of the two infantry battalions that were now broken and asked Sokov tentatively: "Comrade Commander, are you planning to give up the commanders and fighters of these two battalions?"
"Give them aside? How is this possible?" Sokov continued: "The reason why I let them make some noise when retreating is to attract the attention of the enemy and attract them to the Balvinkovo ​​region. In the night, the enemies cannot see each other clearly, so they can kill each other here."
After listening to Sokov's explanation, Sidorin's eyes suddenly shone: "Comrade, your plan is really wonderful. When the enemy came to a strange place at night and was attacked, his instinctive reaction was to fight back. In this way, they could fight with their own people."
"In order to prevent the Germans from discovering flaws too early, the two battalions that were cut off must be equipped with a certain number of German weapons." Sokov said: "In this way, when they have misunderstandings, even if they hear the sound of German equipment shooting from the opposite side, they will mistakenly think that they are fighting with our army."
"Who are the battalion commanders of the two battalions now that are cut off?"
"One is Major Brisky, the commander of the first battalion of the 124th Regiment, and the other is Major Shamrih, the commander of the third battalion of the 125th Regiment."
Hearing these two familiar names, Sokov nodded slightly and said, "They are old commanders of the infantry brigade and are very familiar with my tactics. I feel very relieved to let them perform this task."
After dark, the 122nd Regiment, except for leaving a company on the position to monitor the enemy, the rest of the troops moved to the east with the main force of the 124th and 125th Regiments. Some soldiers felt that they had just arrived outside the city of Balvinkovo ​​before dark. They were about to go to bed, but they were inexplicably going to transfer again, and they couldn't help but complain. Fortunately, the grassroots commanders of each regiment were basically from infantry brigades. Understanding Sokov's tactics, they explained to the complaining soldiers. After the explanation of the grassroots commanders, after the complaints of the soldiers disappeared, they all faithfully executed the orders of superiors and used the cover of the night to quietly move towards the east.
In order to prevent the enemy from discovering that the troops had been transferred, Sokov left two radio stations outside the city of Balvinkovo, constantly giving out radio signals, making the enemy think that the command of the Guard Division was still staying in the suburbs of the city.
At one o'clock in the morning, the Brisky camp was ordered to evacuate its current defensive position and move towards Balvinkovo. They followed Sokov's orders and deliberately made noise when they began to retreat, alarming the German scouts hiding nearby.
Seeing that the Soviet army was about to retreat, the German scout immediately reported the news. When he learned that the Soviet army was about to retreat, the German commander was unhappy. He thought to himself that this damn Russian army had wiped out the forces of his two battalions in more than a day. How could they easily escape? He quickly issued an order to pursue his troops.
With the order issued, the German troops, who were about to rest, gathered again. They pursued the Russian troops fleeing towards Balvinkovo, and were ready to completely destroy the troops that disturbed their sleep.
At the same time, Shamrikh Battalion also took the troops of the flag guard division to retreat towards Balvinkovo. As a commander with rich combat experience, Major Shamrikh felt that Sokov's plan was too risky, because at this time the troops heading to Balvinkovo, in addition to their own battalion, also had a battalion of friendly forces. What if both sides regard the other side as the enemy, what should they do if they misunderstand? Or if they seem to regard the pursuing enemy as the other side, they rushed over to meet with the other side and suffered losses?
He felt that Sokov had not explained these issues clearly, so he kept sending scouts to the direction where Brisky camp was located to conduct reconnaissance and keep abreast of the other party's movements.
Less than two kilometers away from the city, a scout brought the officers of Brisky's camp to meet Shamrich. After seeing Shamrich, the officer said to him: "Comrade Major, our battalion is one kilometer to your left at this moment. Please get closer to us as soon as possible so that we can retreat according to the route designated by our superiors."
When she learned that friendly troops were only one kilometer away from her, Shamrich immediately gave an order to his troops, "Leave a company to block the enemy, and the rest of the troops rushed to the left wing to join the friendly troops."
The 9th Company, commanded by Deputy Battalion Commander Captain Yakuda, was the 9th Company, commanded by Deputy Battalion Commander. Shamrich told him: "Comrade Captain, you only need to stay here for an hour, and then you can withdraw from the position and follow the signs left by us and jump out of the enemy's encirclement."
"Don't worry, Comrade Battalion Commander." Yakuda replied, "We promise to complete the order."
The vanguard of the Flag Guard Division quickly chased after them. They were hit by the sailors here and were defeated and retreated on the spot. After half an hour, after receiving reinforcements, they launched another attack, but unfortunately they still failed and finally retreated.
The third attack began one hour later. This time, the commander of the attack was Major Hansen, the battalion commander of the 2nd Battalion of the German First Regiment. He first ordered the mortars to launch a shelling attack on the Soviet position, and then rushed forward with his troops. Seeing that the battalion commanders took the lead in charge, which stimulated the blood of the soldiers, they shouted and rushed towards those positions that were still blazing with fire and smoke.
This time the Soviet army's position was very quiet, and when the German soldiers rushed into the position, there was no gunshot. Hansen frowned when he saw this situation. He called a company commander and asked, "What the hell is going on? Why did the Russians disappear without a single shot?"
"Mr. Major," replied his subordinates: "I guess it was the artillery fire we had just shot out the Russians. They felt that staying on the position would definitely be a death, so they gave up their positions without permission and fled without regard to the orders of their superiors."
Hansen felt that what his subordinates said was somewhat reasonable. After nodding, he ordered the radio operator to report the news of occupying the Soviet position to the division headquarters, and said that he planned to lead his troops to pursue Balvinkovo, asking his superiors to contact friendly forces and provide support to him.
On the right wing of Hansen Camp, a battalion of the Imperial Division also seized the empty Soviet positions and was advancing towards Balvinkovo.
More than ten minutes later, the two battalions met in the darkness.
Both sides regarded each other as the Soviet army and fired without saying a word.
Sokov's previous layout played a role at this moment. Logically speaking, when the German army heard that the weapons used by the other party were German equipment, they would definitely be more careful and wonder if there was a misunderstanding with friendly forces. However, because Sokov equipped the two battalions of the rear who were cut off the rear with a large number of German weapons, the officers and soldiers of the flag guard division and the imperial division who had exchanged fire with the rear with the rear were regarded as Soviet troops, and naturally they would not show mercy when fighting.
At this time, the two battalions and a company that remained in the German encirclement successfully jumped out of the German encirclement along the passage left in advance.
Hearing the sound of gunfire and explosions behind him, Brisky smiled and said to Shamrich, "Comrade Navy, the battle is so lively. When the enemy finds out that they are fighting with their own people, there will be little casualties."
Shamrich said with emotion: "It is better to use the division commander's strategy. Let us lead the enemy to a place and let them kill each other, so that we can calmly jump out of the German encirclement from the designated channel."
"Order the troops to speed up." Brisky said to his company commander: "We are going to jump behind the Imperial Division, but beat them hard."
…………
Colonel Ximeng, the acting division commander of the Skeleton Division in the city, heard a fierce battle outside the city, and received a telegram from the Flag Guard Division headquarters. He learned that the two friendly troops had arrived outside the city and were fighting fiercely with the Russians there. He quickly considered an infantry battalion in the south of the city. Under the cover of tanks, he rushed to the fierce battle area to assist friendly troops in annihilation of the Russians there.
However, what Colonel Xi Meng did not expect was that when two German troops, who had already been fighting, saw a large army coming from afar, they thought it was the Soviet reinforcements, immediately stopped attacking each other, turned their guns, and opened fire at the troops coming out of the city.
The three most elite SS advisors of the German army opened fire on their imaginary enemies in the dark. In the battle, not only the officers and soldiers of any division were extremely tenacious. Even if they were seriously injured, they would fire grenades and die with the "enemy" rushing up around them.
When Sokov led his troops into the enemy's back, all the commanders and soldiers were wearing German uniforms. Even in the subsequent battle, they were still wearing this outfit. So much so that the German officers and soldiers who were fighting in the melee, with the help of the fire generated by the explosion or the lighting of burning objects, they could see clearly that the people around them were wearing the same uniform as themselves, but they thought they were Russians wearing makeup, and instead fought more intensely.
The more heroic the officers and soldiers act, the greater the casualties they cause to their friendly forces.
The three division commanders soon found that they had lost contact with the frontier troops. They realized something was wrong and sent someone to inquire about the news. Only then did they find that it was their own people fighting with their own people. The troops sent to stop not only did not stop the melee between the three parties, but instead made the situation worse and also involved them in the battle group.
Knowing that the situation was getting worse, the three division commanders immediately called and discussed what methods to stop the melee. In the end, it was Colonel Ximeng who proposed to fire a large number of flares into the air, making the battlefield like daylight, so that the troops in the melee could see clearly that it was their own people, not the enemy, who were fighting with them.
His suggestion was quickly approved by the other two division commanders, and soon, countless flares rose on the battlefield. At the same time, the troops that were not involved in the battle group were also contacting with military signals.
In this way, after more than half an hour of struggle, the three parties who were fighting finally stopped. In order to avoid another misunderstanding, the troops of the three divisions retreated for a kilometer and reassembled.
After dawn, the three division commanders came from different places to the melee at night. Seeing the destroyed tanks and corpses on the battlefield, Xi Meng said with heartache: "Two generals, what's going on? Why did the troops of our three divisions have misunderstandings here? Are they fighting with their own people?"
The commander of the Flag Guard Division said in anger: "My subordinates told me that they had originally bitten the retreating Russians tightly, but unfortunately they were attacked by friendly forces, and all the Russians fled."
"Gentlemen, it is not the time to hold the responsibility." said the Imperial Division Commander: "What we should consider is how to report this unfortunate news to General Hauser."
Chapter completed!