Sokov's concerning words made Yershakov's nose sore. He reached out and pinched his nose so that he would not cry in front of his subordinates because he was too moved. He replied in a muffled voice: "Don't worry, comrade instructor, we will definitely complete the task alive."
After putting down the phone, Yershakov shouted at the three battalion commanders standing in front of him: "Have you all heard what the commander said? He wants us all to go back alive!"
"I heard it!" the three battalion commanders replied in unison, and tears flashed in their eyes because of excitement.
"If you want to return to Mamayev's hill alive, then go back to your respective troops immediately and urge the soldiers to hurry up and repair and strengthen the fortifications." Yershakov said to them in a stern tone: "With solid fortifications, you will have a higher chance of survival in the next battle. Have you heard it clearly?"
"I heard it clearly!"
"Go back to the army." Yershakov waved to them and said, "Before the enemy has not started attacking, build more air raid shelters and shelters, so that more soldiers can survive the enemy's bombing and shelling."
After the three battalion commanders left, the regiment chief of staff asked Yershakov with some concern: "Comrade Commander, can we really block the enemy's attack? You must know that the 351st Regiment suffered two-thirds of the casualties in less than an hour in the face of the German offensive."
"Chief of Staff, stop talking." Although Yershakov knew that the next battle would be a fierce battle, and it was still unknown how many people would survive in the end of his army, he did not want the words of the regiment chief of staff to affect the atmosphere in the command post, so he interrupted the other party impatiently: "Since the superiors ordered us to block the enemy here, we must do everything we can to block the enemy here so that our friendly forces can retreat smoothly. As for the casualties of the troops, we can not consider it for the time being."
Before the soldiers of the Guards built the fortifications, the enemy's shelling began. There was not enough shelter, so most of the soldiers could only stay in the trenches. They curled up and covered their ears with their hands tightly to prevent the huge sound of cannons from causing their ears to be deaf.
The German shelling lasted only half an hour before it stopped. When the battalion commanders saw that the enemy shelling stopped, they immediately came out of their hiding place, bent over and ran back and forth in the trenches, shouting at the soldiers to enter the shooting position at the top of their voices. However, only a few soldiers who could enter the position immediately. Most of them were either buried in the soil or sat in the trenches in a daze. They had not yet woken up from the German shelling.
Fortunately, the Germans thought that after their last round of attack and violent artillery attacks, there were no few people left on the position. They just needed to launch another charge to easily break through the Soviet defense line, cut off the retreat route of the Soviet army that was leaving the station, and then eat them little by little.
However, the Germans soon discovered that they were wrong. When the infantry rushed to more than 100 meters away from the Soviet position, the light and heavy firepower on the position sounded. The German soldiers rushing in the front seemed to hit a transparent wall and fell down in the dense rain of bullets. The remaining soldiers quickly jumped into nearby bullet craters, or hid behind corpses to avoid bullets shot from the position.
The offensive mission was a company of the 546th Regiment of the 389th Infantry Division. The German company commander hiding in the crater saw that the firepower on the position was far beyond his imagination. He quickly ordered the communications soldier who was squatting beside him: "Immediately contact the regiment headquarters and said that the Russians' firepower was too strong, so he asked for tank support."
After receiving the report from the frontier, the German regiment commander immediately reported to the division headquarters and asked for the assistance of the Tiger tank, but was scolded by the division commander Jenell: "There are only a few hundred Russians on the position, and you can get rid of them with an infantry company. Why use Tiger tanks?"
After the commander who was scolded by Jenell, he put down the phone, he felt that his company commander would never ask for help if he had not encountered difficulties. After thinking for a while, he decided to send a tank company temporarily assigned to him to attack the Soviet position.
Yershakov, who was staying in the command post, saw the outlines of tanks appearing in the distance. He heard the roar of tanks coming from a vague sound. He quickly counted carefully in the telescope and found that there were six tanks in total. Thinking of a heavy enemy tank, he easily killed seven of his own tanks. Now six of them came at once. How could his own troops stop it?
Just when he was extremely anxious, he suddenly heard the Chief of Staff beside him say "Huh" and asked curiously: "Chief of Staff, what have you seen?"
"Comrade Commander," the chief of staff put down his telescope and turned his head to Yershakov and said, "However, the enemy dispatched tanks No. 3? In this way, the anti-tank guns on our positions are enough to clean up them."
"What, is the No. 3 tank coming?" Yershakov heard the chief of staff say this, and quickly raised his telescope and carefully observed the German tanks in the distance. Soon he found that the chief of staff said that it was true. Tank No. 3 equipped with 50mm short cannons appeared in his field of vision. He couldn't help but murmur: "Strange, how could the Germans dispatch the No. 3 tank? Could it be that these tanks almost destroyed the 351st Regiment just now?"
The Soviet anti-tank players on the position were as worried as Yershakov when they saw the enemy tanks appearing in the distance. When they saw clearly that the No. 3 tank was coming, they were overjoyed and quickly set up their anti-tank guns and opened fire at the coming tanks.
Tank No. 3 has always been in cooperation with tank No. 4, and these tanks No. 3 that appeared in front of the Soviet army were equipped by Jenell to the Tiger tank team to prevent them from being attacked by Soviet infantry. Since Jenell was unwilling to use precious Tiger tanks to deal with the remnants of the Soviet army on the blocking position, the commander of the 546th Infantry Regiment could only use the No. 3 tank, which was responsible for cover missions, to fight the main attack.
There is an independent anti-tank company with complete structure on the position, equipped with 27 anti-tank rifles. After the bullets are loaded, none of the anti-tank players fire, but quietly waits for the enemy's tanks to enter the range.
The company commander of the anti-tank company was a middle-aged man in his forties. His face was blackened by the gunfire that ended not long ago. At this moment, he hid behind a pile of soil, staring at the approaching German tanks, and secretly calculating in his heart how much time there is to let the fighters open fire.
Although anti-tank rifles can effectively destroy enemy tanks and armored vehicles at a distance of 300 meters, for safety reasons, the company commander stared at the approaching tank while saying to the soldiers beside him: "Pause it down. Without my order, no one is allowed to fire!"
His orders quickly reached the ears of every anti-tank hand. Everyone was holding long anti-tank guns and aiming at the approaching German tanks. Only with the company commander's order would they pull the trigger without hesitation and destroy the tanks heading towards them.
The German soldiers lying on the ground suddenly saw that there was no movement on the position, and they thought the Soviet army was frightened by the No. 3 tank that was coming to support. They carefully got up from the ground, held guns, and used the tactic of short leap forward to quickly approach the Soviet position.
When the anti-tank company commander saw that the enemy's tank was only two hundred meters away from the position, he took off the helmet on his head, waved it down suddenly, and shouted loudly: "Let's fire!"
His shouts were covered by gunfire and explosions, and only two nearby anti-tank soldiers heard them. They immediately pulled the trigger without hesitation that the target had been locked in front of them. The anti-tank soldiers beside them, after hearing the movement, knew that the company commander had issued an order to open fire, and also opened fire one by one, firing at the tanks in front.
The first round of shooting of 27 anti-tank guns caused five of the tanks to lie down. Some of the bullets failed to hit the tanks, but hit a few German soldiers following the tanks, and suddenly holes as big as bowls were drilled into their bodies. Looking at the robes that were almost broken by bullets, the German soldiers around them lay on the ground again.
The remaining tank did not notice that the other tanks had been destroyed by the Soviet anti-tank rifles, and were still rumbling forward, trying to quickly rush through the Soviet trenches, causing panic to the Soviet army that were holding their positions. However, its attempt did not succeed. It drove for another forty or fifty meters and was hit by more than a dozen armor-piercing incendiary bombs. The ammunition of the vehicle exploded, and the turret was directly blown away and smashed into the infantry queue behind. On the spot, two unlucky soldiers were smashed into meat sauce.
Seeing that all the enemy tanks were destroyed, the anti-tank company commander stood up from his hideout excitedly, holding his pistol high and shouted: "Comrades, come with me and drive the Germans away from our positions!"
The company commander of the anti-tank company took the lead in charge. The soldiers in the company who did not operate anti-tank rifles also carried weapons and followed their company commanders forward. Seeing that the commanders and fighters of the anti-tank company were charging, the commanders and fighters of the first battalion who were holding this position could not hold back, but they all jumped out of the trenches and rushed up bravely.
The German soldiers lying on the ground were originally frightened when they saw the tanks on their side being destroyed. Now they saw the Soviet army rushing over like a tide, and they dared not fight. They quickly got up from the ground, turned around and ran back. There were also a few soldiers who retreated and shot at the Soviet army rushing up, trying to slow down the speed of the soldiers' charge.
The number of these soldiers who fired the gun was limited and could not stop the soldiers from charging. In a short while, they were either shot to death or stabbed to death by bayonets. Except for seven or eight infantry companies who were in charge of the attack, the rest were lying on this battlefield.
Yershakov, who was in the command post, was secretly happy after seeing six enemy tanks destroyed by anti-tank companies. Suddenly, he saw the commanders and soldiers of the first battalion launch a counter-charge to the enemy. He couldn't help but get angry. He rushed to the telephone and asked the communications officers to connect to the command post of the first battalion. He asked the first battalion commander angrily: "First Battalion Commander, the task I gave your battalion is to hold the position. Who gave you the power to let the soldiers carry out counter-charge?"
Why did the soldiers launch a charge? The first battalion commander was confused at this moment. After being criticized by Yershakov, he quickly defended himself: "Comrade Commander, I did not issue an order to counterattack, and I don't know why the soldiers suddenly launched an attack on the enemy..."
"Learn what's going on and report to me." When Yershakov was about to put down the phone, he suddenly remembered that the counterattack troops followed the fleeing enemy and rushed into some of the positions lost by the 351st Regiment, and added: "Since you have restored some of the lost positions, you can immediately adjust your deployment and re-arrange your defenses on these positions."
The first battalion commander did not expect that Yershakov would actually allow himself to take over the lost positions, so he could only reply with a wry smile: "I understand, comrade Commander, I will arrange personnel immediately to strengthen the defense there."
It is a good thing for Yershakov to be able to restore some of the lost positions. After all, more than 2,000 people in a regiment are crowded in a narrow area of ​​only 200 meters in length and width. If the enemy's artillery density is higher, the troops will experience very shocking casualties.
After finishing the call with the first battalion commander, he called the second battalion commander and ordered him to transfer all the excess troops to the vacant area of ​​the first battalion to strengthen his defensive power.
Perhaps it was the counterattack of the first battalion that allowed the chief of staff to see the dawn of victory. He said to Yershakov with some excitement: "Comrade Commander, since the counterattack of the first battalion can restore a lost position. Then when the enemy attacks the next time, we will carry out another counterattack, and we may be able to regain all the lost positions of the 351st Regiment."
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Seeing that his chief of staff were so blindly optimistic, Yershakov felt that he needed to hit him, and said seriously: "The counter-charge of the first battalion was very sudden. Not to mention that the Germans had not come back to their senses, even you and I didn't understand what was going on. As long as the Germans suffered a loss once, they would learn lessons next time. Maybe they would find a way to deal with our counter-charge. Therefore, it is better not to take risks casually. As long as they can block the enemy's attack, it would be an amazing victory for us."
"I understand, Comrade Commander." After hearing Yershakov's words, the Chief of Staff immediately realized that he was too optimistic. The success of the counter-charge just now did have a great chance. If we really do it again, the Germans might directly shell out the troops that carried out counter-charge and eliminate the soldiers on the way to charge. "Although we have repelled the enemy's attack, we cannot take it lightly. Maybe their next attack will be more fierce. We must take necessary measures."
Chapter completed!