Before the attack began, Vanya ordered the mortar team to launch artillery attacks at the location of the German army. There are two purposes for this: one is to put the enemy into chaos and enable his troops to successfully complete the charge of these hundreds of meters. The other is that when artillery fire destroys the enemy's fortifications and tents, it can make the flames light act as a illumination and point out the direction of the attack for commanders and fighters.
The sound of artillery was an order. The commanders and soldiers who were ready for battle shouted "Ula" and rushed out of the forest and rushed towards the military camp where the flames soared into the sky hundreds of meters away. The German army, who was dizzy by the sudden artillery fire, was in chaos, and no one organized the corresponding defense.
It was not until the assault troops approached the barracks that the Germans came to their senses. Two machine gunners hiding in fortifications that were not destroyed by artillery fire began to shoot at the commanders and fighters who were rushing up. Two dark red tongues of flames sucked towards the dense crowd like fire whips, knocking down the soldiers who were charging in pieces.
Sokov, who was staying on the south position of the third battalion, saw the flames on the other side of the Tenebra River, and heard the gunshots, and knew that the attack of the first battalion had officially begun. He immediately said to Andre, who was standing next to him: "Captain Andre, you have seen and heard the fires and gunshots on the other side. Next, it's time for you to appear."
"Comrade Brigade Commander, please rest assured." Andrei and Sokov finished speaking and immediately expressed their opinion: "Our Third Battalion will never let down your trust. We will definitely cooperate with the comrades of the First Battalion to eliminate the enemies on the other side of the river."
Just as the commanders and fighters of the Third Battalion carried the crossing equipment and left the fortifications, preparing to rush into the wide water-stabilizing area and rushed to the Tenebra River, the enemy's long-range artillery fired. Since the commanders and fighters of the First Battalion were fighting near their barracks, in order to avoid accidentally hurting their own people and to prevent the Soviet army from sending reinforcements in the chaos, they fired fired into the water-stabilizing area in front of the Second Company's position.
The screaming sound of shells slashing through the air came from the air, and then one after another of them fell into the water accumulation area and exploded, making a huge explosion. The water columns with mud soared into the sky, and then scattered on the warriors who were wading in the water.
Such artillery attacks have long been accustomed to the soldiers of the Third Battalion. Although soldiers kept falling down in the artillery fire, the soldiers behind them still moved forward without hesitation. As for the wounded people who were pouring in the water, no one looked at them, so later, comrades from the health team will come to rescue them. All they have to do is to cross the Tenebra River as soon as possible and support their comrades who are fighting against the enemy on the other side.
Geria, who stood in the observation center with Sokov, said with emotion: "Comrade Brigade Commander, although the proportion of recruits in the third battalion is high, the soldiers are very calm in the face of enemy shelling."
Geria's words reminded Sokov of the German bombardment for two consecutive days when the Third Battalion was defending the eastern suburbs of the city. Now such sporadic shelling is simply a pediatric department for them, and it would be strange if someone panics. He turned his head and said to Geria: "Geria, if your company is like them, and if the German fire is strong for two days, the commanders and soldiers will disagree with such artillery fire."
"Comrade Brigade Commander, I heard that the reinforcements sent by the base camp will arrive soon." Geria thought of his subordinates who performed poorly in the past two days of battle, so she asked in a timely manner: "Is this all true?"
"That's right, it's true." Sokov nodded and said affirmatively: "If there is no accident, they will arrive in the city after dawn. At that time, I can concentrate all my troops in the south of the city for key defense."
"Comrade Brigade Commander, I have never figured out a problem." Geria continued after a moment of silence, "Realistically speaking, Kursk is an important link in the German ring defense line. Why did they not fight back after being occupied by us? Do they don't want to retake the city at all, but this is not in line with common sense?"
"It's not that they don't want to retake Kursk, but that they don't have this strength at the moment." Sokov explained to Geria: "You should know that the German army gathered heavy troops in Bryansk, Orel and Voronezh to confront our army. Their 6th Army and 4th Tank Army are currently rushing towards the Don River with all their might, trying to advance towards the Caucasus and Stalingrad. We suddenly occupied Kursk and disrupted the German army's original combat deployment. It took a very long time for them to mobilize heavy troops to recapture the city. Such a long time is enough for us to deploy enough troops to defend this important city."
"So that's how it is." After hearing Sokov's words, Geria said with a sudden realization: "No wonder my enemy's attack is absolutely not as good as those previous battles. I thought that after our winter counterattack, the enemy's combat power was greatly weakened. It turned out that they were unable to draw troops for the time being."
After Geria finished speaking, he suddenly thought that Sokov had mentioned Stalingrad, and asked curiously: "Comrade Brigade Commander, I just heard you mention Stalingrad. Do you really think that the enemy will rush outside Stalingrad?"
"This is for sure, Comrade Geria." Sokov looked at Geria and said seriously: "If the Germans' attempt to attack Moscow fails, they will definitely change their targets. Once they occupy Stalingrad, they can cut off our traffic from the Far East. In this way, no matter how many troops we gather near Moscow, they will gradually lose their combat effectiveness due to the lack of weapons, ammunition and various supplies."
Geria said somewhat disagreeably about Sokov's statement: "Comrade Brigade Commander, I think the real purpose of the Germans should be the Caucasian oil. Only when they have enough oil can they ensure that so many planes, tanks and armored vehicles will not be trapped due to lack of fuel."
After Sokov waited for Geria to finish speaking, he raised his hand and slapped him on the back of the head: "The Germans need oil, who did you hear this?"
"Who else can it be? Of course it is the battalion commander." Geria said a little embarrassedly: "When a meeting in the camp some time ago, someone asked him where the enemy's next attack direction was. He specifically said that if the Germans wanted to launch so many planes, tanks, armored vehicles and cars, they would need huge amounts of fuel. Their purpose of continuing to attack the south was to get the oil they needed, and the Caucasus oil field in the south was their ultimate goal."
After hearing Geria's words, Sokov couldn't help but remain silent. He did not expect that the second battalion commander Vasily also had such a strategic vision. In real history, if Hitler was not eager to obtain the Caucasus oil and ordered Hot's 4th Tank Army to turn to attack the Caucasus, but continued to cooperate with Paulus's 6th Army and rush towards Stalingrad, whether this city named after the Supreme Commander himself could be defended is a question.
Although the leaders of Stalingrad City reported to Moscow, they repeatedly emphasized what kind of solid defenses were established around the city and within the city to resist enemies from any direction. But these words were clichés. No matter how good the fortification was, if there were no defenders to defend, it would be a decoration. At this moment, Stalingrad could almost be regarded as an empty city. If the German army really rushed over, they could organize their resistance, only militias in various factories and citizens who were armed hastily. With such an armed force, it would be a fantasy to block the elite German army who were armed to the teeth and had been through many battles.
"Comrade Brigade Commander, what are you thinking?" After Geria saw that he had finished speaking, Sokov suddenly remained silent, but stood in the lookout mouth in a daze, and asked with concern: "Are you too tired and need a rest?"
Geria's voice woke Sokov from his contemplation. He waved his hand to the other party and said, "It's okay, Comrade Geria, I'm fine. But suddenly I thought of something, and I was a little fascinated. By the way, has our troops arrived at the edge of the Tenebra River?"
Because the light outside is too dark and the visibility is low, if you want to see the movements of the troops outside, you can only rely on the flames generated when the German shells explode. When Sokov was in a daze, Geria carefully observed the situation outside. At this moment, when he heard Sokov ask, he quickly replied: "Comrade-Comrade, some soldiers carrying kayaks have approached the Tenebra River and are trying to put the kayaks into the water."
The soldiers carrying kayaks or wooden boats came to the river and threw them into the water with a thud. Then they climbed up to seven or eight soldiers. Without waiting for the commander to give orders, they began to row desperately with oars or engineer shovels he carried with them. When they arrived on the other side, before the boat was docked, the soldiers jumped into the knee-deep river and ran quickly towards the shore.
Before departure, Sokov had instructed Andre that after crossing to the other side, he should adopt the tactic of chaos against chaos, and do not gather the troops, and use squads as units to rush towards the depth of the enemy, and defeat the enemy in one breath. After Andrei returned to the army, he passed Sokov's order to the company platoon leader below. He specifically emphasized: "In order to quickly meet with the comrades of the first battalion, after crossing the river, he does not need to regroup the troops, but start fighting immediately with the squads as units. While the enemy has not yet come back to his senses, he breaks into their defense depth and meets with the first battalion that is fighting fiercely with the enemy. Do you understand?"
The platoon leaders of each company faithfully carried out the orders of Sokov and Andrei. After the troops crossed the river, they did not gather again. One squad came, one squad was put into battle; one squad came, and one squad was put into battle.
Don’t see that the German troops were large, but half of the troops had just arrived and had not had time to get familiar with the environment, they were attacked by the first battalion and were immediately disrupted. After nearly an hour of fierce fighting, the German army, which suffered heavy casualties, barely stabilized its position. At this time, the troops of the third battalion crossed the Tenebra River and launched an attack from another direction. The German commander had to hurry to draw troops to face it.
Suddenly, dense gunfire and grenade explosions came from the north of the German barracks, which attracted Vanya's attention. He looked in that direction for a while, feeling that the one who made the German army messed up was definitely not his troops. Seeing this, he quickly ordered the radio operator beside him: "Immediately send a telegram to the brigade department and ask if there are any reinforcements crossing the river?"
His telegram was sent out a few minutes after he received a call back. Belkin told him in the telegram that the troops of the Third Battalion had successfully crossed the river, so that he and the Third Battalion could cooperate with them to stand firm in the initiative on the battlefield. When the day dawns, they will receive support from the air force and artillery.
After reading the telegram, Vanya couldn't help but feel a little amused. He thought that although he knew that his superiors had sent reinforcements, his subordinates did not know that according to the original combat plan, the three companies would just attack forward. Anyone who found the oncoming troops would just open fire without saying a word. But at this moment, it was easy to have misunderstandings when reinforcements came towards him. If they fought with their own people, the problem would be serious.
Thinking of this, Vanya quickly called several communication soldiers and told them: "You should go and find the company commanders of each company immediately and tell them that friendly troops have crossed the river to support us. In order to prevent misunderstandings, let them slow down the attack."
Although Vanya sent out the communications soldiers in time, the battlefield was already in chaos at this moment. Not to mention finding several company commanders, they were completely lost after running far.
The first and second companies of the German military camp were charging forward, and suddenly they saw a group of people rushing towards the distance. They thought it was the German counterattack force, so they quickly opened fire on the other side. The dense bullets immediately knocked down the other side, but the other party did not disperse because of this, but lay down on the spot and fired against them.
After a while of fighting, a platoon leader of the second company felt something was wrong. Why was there a sound of Popov's submachine gun shooting opposite him? He quickly climbed to the company commander with his hands and feet, and said loudly to him: "Comrade Commander, it seems something is wrong!"
"What's wrong?" The company commander, who was shooting with a submachine gun, asked without looking back: "What problem did you find?"
"Why is there a sound of Popov's submachine gun opposite?" The platoon leader quickly replied, "Can it be our own troops?"
Hearing the platoon leader say this, the company commander hurriedly stopped shooting. After listening for a moment, he heard the sound of Popov submachine guns and Mosinnagan rifles among the gunshots from the opposite side. His first reaction was: It was broken, why did we fight with our own people?
Chapter completed!