The expected attack time was delayed by an hour than expected. Because after Poluboyarov's subordinates took over the German equipment, they still needed some time to adapt and contact us for cooperation during the attack.
Katukov couldn't help frowning when he learned that friendly forces could not arrive at the battlefield on time. He turned his head to look at Sokov, "Comrade Sokov, the time for your troops to arrive at the battlefield should be delayed, which means that our original attack time would be delayed. Do you have any good ways to prevent the Germans from using this time to strengthen their fortifications?"
"Comrade General, if the Germans cannot use this time to build fortifications, the best way is to launch artillery on the enemy's positions." Sokov was not sure whether Katukov knew that when the Germans encountered artillery attacks, they would transfer to the second line of defense in time, and specifically explained to him: "Every time the enemy was bombarded by our army, they would leave only a few soldiers to serve as observation posts, while the other soldiers were transferred to the second line of defense. If we kept bombarding the enemy's positions, they would likely retreat to the second line of defense, so that our shells would hit the empty space."
"Comrade Sokov, I have some understanding of what you are talking about." Katukov asked Sokov curiously: "Is there any way to crack this kind of enemy move?"
"Comrade General, this is how I think about it." Sokov felt that it would be possible to find a way to make the Germans dizzy, and the next plan would be successful: "First order your artillery to launch artillery on the enemy's positions. Stop after five minutes of artillery shooting, and stop again after another quarter of an hour, and stop after five minutes. After so many times, the Germans will be confused by us. They don't know whether our army was preparing for artillery fire before the attack, or just want to suppress them with artillery fire."
"Well, this is a good idea." Sokov's bad idea made Katukov's eyes lit up: "We used to shell the enemy's positions, and each time we bombarded for more than an hour, and the enemy had enough time to move to the rear. But if we bombarded a few minutes at a time, the enemy would be a little confused, and we couldn't figure out whether we wanted to attack or were bluffing."
After saying this, Katukov stood up straight, called the Chief of Staff to himself, and told him: "Comrade Chief of Staff, immediately call the commander of the artillery of the group army and ask him to use two artillery regiments to attack the enemy's positions. As Comrade Sokov said, shelling every quarter of an hour, five minutes each time, makes the enemy unable to understand our intentions."
When Sokov gave Katukov the chief of staff was standing not far away. When he heard Sokov's words, he thought to himself that if he really bombarded the enemy's positions in this way, it would definitely make the enemy dizzy. After Sokov finished speaking, he stared at Katukov nervously, fearing that his commander would reject Sokov's suggestion. At this moment, he heard Katukov's orders, and immediately agreed excitedly, turned around and called the artillery commander.
The shelling began soon.
The two infantry battalions of the 230th Infantry Division of the German Army stationed on the position were commanding a lieutenant colonel deputy commander. He heard the roar of artillery shells from the air, and quickly ordered the troops to retreat into the second position in an orderly manner, intending to let the Soviet army waste artillery shells on positions without anyone. But to their surprise, they had just retreated to the second position, and the Soviet artillery fire actually stopped.
When the German lieutenant colonel heard that the Soviet artillery stopped, he was very puzzled. He also found a position with a wide view and carefully observed the movements of the Soviet army. After a while, although he did not find any signs of attack from the Soviet army, he did not dare to take it lightly. He quickly ordered the troops who retreated to the second line of defense and returned to the first line of defense along the traffic trench.
Unexpectedly, the German army had just entered the first line of defense slowly, and the Soviet artillery bombardment began again, killing many unprepared German officers and soldiers. Seeing that the situation was not good, the German lieutenant colonel quickly ordered the troops to withdraw from the second line of defense to avoid the Soviet artillery bombardment.
However, the Soviet army's artillery time was still short. After only a few minutes of progress, it stopped again. The German lieutenant colonel learned the lesson just now and did not dare to order the troops to return to the first line of defense to avoid being bombarded by the Soviet army. But after waiting for a long time, he saw that there was no movement on the Soviet position, so he could only order the troops to return to the first line of defense again. As soon as the troops were halfway through this time, the Soviet artillery shells fell on the first line of defense again and exploded, frightening the German officers and soldiers who were returning to the position so that they turned around and ran away.
In this way, within an hour, the Soviet army carried out four artillery bombardments on the German positions, which stunned the officers and soldiers who were standing on the positions. When they heard the sound of artillery sounds again, the troops staying on the first line of defense were no longer in a hurry to withdraw the second line of defense. They were worried that they might have to hurry back as soon as they arrived at the second line of defense, so as not to be exhausted to death before the Russian ground attack began.
Katukov, who was staying in the observation center, saw the German army's embarrassment through the telescope, and patted Sokov on the shoulder excitedly: "Comrade Sokov, your method is really wonderful. After several rounds of shelling, the Germans were completely in chaos. I think if you launch an attack at this time, even if you don't use your plan, you can successfully seize the enemy's position."
At this moment, Poluboyarov came over and reported to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, our attacking force has reached its designated position and can be put into battle at any time."
Sokov smiled and nodded, then said to Katukov: "Comrade General, my troops are in place, and your troops can attack the enemy."
Katukov made a gesture to his chief of staff, who immediately issued an attack order to the attacking troops by phone. With the order issued, more than 30 tanks of the 100th Tank Brigade immediately started. With the huge roar, they drove towards the enemy's positions, and the soldiers of an infantry regiment were following the tanks.
Seeing that the Soviet attack began, the German lieutenant colonel immediately began to issue orders, ordering the troops standing on the first line of defense to resolutely block the Soviet offensive. The German officers and soldiers who received the order entered their respective shooting positions, set up their guns and prepared to shoot.
The anti-tank artillery pushed their anti-tank artillery from a hidden place, revealing only the muzzle and half the sound of the gun, aiming at the Soviet tanks that were rumbling. When the Soviet tanks were still four or five hundred meters away from the trench, the German anti-tank artillery fired decisively.
The whistling shells first fell on the marching tanks and exploded left and right, causing streams of mud to soar into the sky. Then, their shooting accuracy was much better. In a short while, three Soviet tanks were destroyed and stopped on the battlefield to burn. After the tank soldiers covered in fire escaped, they either rolled on the spot and extinguished them, or with the help of the infantry nearby, they put out the fire on their bodies and trotted back to the attacking starting position.
Half of the tanks attacked by the 100th Brigade of Tanks had one or another faults, so that when only three or four hundred meters away from the German position, half of the tanks broke down and could only stop on the spot as fixed turrets, and used tank guns to bombard the firepower points on the German position to cover the infantry to advance forward.
Seeing this, Sokov, who was staying in the observation center, said to Katukov: "Comrade General, can I let my troops appear?" Seeing Katukov nodding and saying yes, he turned around to Poluboyarov standing behind him and said, "Comrade Commander, please convey orders to your subordinates and let them join the battle immediately. Remember, the play should be performed like a little, so that the enemy will be deceived."
"Don't worry, comrade Commander." Poluboyarov said with a smile: "The Germans may have dreamed that a German infantry that broke out from behind the Russians and equipped with German tanks was actually disguised by our people. I believe that when they find something wrong, it is too late."
Ten minutes later, a "German troops" equipped with more than 20 tanks emerged from the rear of the Soviet army. First, the tanks lined up and fired at the Soviet tanks that were shooting at the German positions. In a short while, seven or eight Soviet tanks were hit and caught fire. Of course, if someone on the German army carefully observed, they would unexpectedly find that before the Russian tanks destroyed by friendly tanks, thick smoke would appear on the body of the car, as if someone had put a cigarette can on it.
Shortly after the tank battle began, the Soviet infantry advancing to the German positions turned around to face the "German troops" that appeared behind them. The officers and soldiers on both sides were shooting continuously, and people were constantly being shot and falling to the ground. Most of the officers and soldiers who fell to the ground rolled into nearby bullet craters.
The German lieutenant colonel, who was staying on the second line of defense, suddenly saw a friendly mechanized unit popping up from behind the Soviet army and opened fire fiercely with the Soviet army. He couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise. He called a staff officer beside him and asked, "Do you know where this unit came out?"
The staff officer looked in the direction of "fighting fiercely" in the distance and said thoughtfully: "I heard that part of the Imperial Division's troops were separated from the rear of the Russians. I wonder if it was this troops."
The German lieutenant colonel carefully looked at the symbols on the tanks and soldiers in the distance, and said in surprise: "Yes, I saw their 'Wolf Kiss' mark, which must be the breakout imperial division unit."
After the staff officer and the German lieutenant colonel finished speaking, he asked tentatively: "Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, have we ordered our troops to attack and help them enter our positions?"
"There is no need for this, our people will continue to hold their positions." After hearing this, the German lieutenant colonel shook his head and said, "I believe they have the strength to break through the Russians' siege and come to meet with us." The reason he said this was because the SS officers and soldiers were too arrogant. Even if they went out to rescue them, they probably wouldn't give him any good face. Why bother to make things boring?
The effort was not long, and the "German troops" that rushed out of the Soviet position successfully penetrated the Soviet army's ranks and rushed to the German position. Although the defense officers and soldiers who were in the position did not usually like the SS, they could not help but cheer when they saw that they repelled the Soviet attack and successfully rushed over to meet with them.
After the tanks crossed the trench, they continued to sail towards the second line of defense behind, following the infantry behind, some jumped into the first trench, while others continued to follow the tanks to the second line of defense.
"What's going on?" The German lieutenant colonel saw the tanks heading straight towards their location, and asked the staff in a panic: "Why don't they stay on the first line of defense, but they are going to drive towards our second line of defense?"
Although the staff officer felt that the tanks were all stationed on the first line of defense, which was conducive to attacking during counterattacks. However, when he saw the tanks heading towards the second line of defense, he thought in his heart that perhaps these tank soldiers had just escaped from the Russian encirclement and were still in a state of terror, and needed to find a safe place, and the second line of defense was obviously safer than the first one.
After seeing the tanks and infantry entering the second line of defense of the German army, Sokov put down his telescope and said to Katukov: "Comrade General, the time is ripe. You can let your troops launch an attack again. This time you will definitely take down the enemy's position."
With Katukov's order, three red signal flares rose into the air, which was a signal of attack. Thousands of commanders and fighters who were ready to go on the starting position shouted and jumped out of the trenches and rushed towards the German positions in the distance.
Seeing the Soviet army launching another attack, the German officers and soldiers in the position quickly prepared for combat, and even anti-tank guns aimed at the Soviet tanks mixed in the middle of the infantry. But just as the German officers and soldiers were ready for combat, dense gunshots suddenly sounded behind them, and the submachine guns and rifles in the hands of the "SS officers and soldiers" opened fire together. This was a one-sided massacre. At the near distance, the German officers and soldiers who were shot had no chance to survive. In just one minute, the trenches were lying all over the trenches and weapons all over the ground.
The German Lieutenant Colonel discovered the internal strife in the first line of defense through a telescope. He was stunned and murmured: "What the hell is going on? Why do the SS officers and soldiers attack my soldiers?"
The staff advised him was also stunned. He didn't know why the SS, who had just entered the position, fired at his own people? This cannot be blamed for his slow reaction, but the German tanks and SS equipment that made them mistakenly think that the troops from the rear of the Soviet army were the remnants of the Imperial Division.
Just when the two were at a loss, the staff officer suddenly saw a tank parked in the position, and the turret was slowly turning. Soon, the black muzzle was aimed at the command center. The staff officer realized that the so-called remnants of the imperial division might be disguised by the Russians. He quickly grabbed the German Lieutenant Colonel, pulled him and ran outside, shouting: "Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, no, those SSs were disguised by the Russians..."
Chapter completed!