Red Moscow

Early the next morning, Sokov was awakened by a hasty knock on the door.

He knew that if something urgent hadn't happened, his subordinates wouldn't be so anxious to wake him up. He rolled over and got out of bed, without even putting on his boots, he rushed to the door and opened it.

Outside the door was a staff officer of the division headquarters. When he saw Sokov open the door, he quickly raised his hand to his forehead to salute: "Comrade commander, something economical has happened. The chief of staff please come to the division headquarters immediately."

"What happened?" Sokov asked quickly.

"In a village south of the city, traces of the enemy were found."

Don’t see that the German army has harassed Luhansk many times, but each time the battle took place in the west of the city, and it was the first time that the enemy was found in the south of the city, so Sokov asked cautiously: “Is the news reliable?”

"It's completely reliable." The staff officer nodded and replied: "A person escaped from the village and reported it to our soldiers. After receiving the report, Lieutenant Colonel Papchenko immediately sent his men to the village for reconnaissance."

Sokov then asked a few more questions. Seeing that the staff officer couldn't explain clearly, he put on his boots in a hurry, put on his military coat, and followed the staff officer to the division headquarters without wasting any more time.

"Comrade Commander," Sidolin greeted Sokov as soon as he appeared, and reported to him: "Lieutenant Colonel Papchenko just called to say that there were indeed traces of Germans in that village. "

"How many enemies are there, and what is their equipment?" Sokov asked a series of questions: "Has Lieutenant Colonel Papchenko taken any measures?"

"According to Lieutenant Colonel Papchenko's report, there are about 20 enemies in the village. They used the wooden houses in the village to set up two firepower points." Sidolin suggested to Sukov: "Now the Lieutenant Colonel has dispatched a The infantry of the company is rushing to the village. Comrade division commander, in order to eliminate this group of Germans as soon as possible, I suggest sending two more tanks to participate in the battle."

"Agreed." Sokov, in order to prevent nights and dreams, naturally hoped to eliminate this enemy as soon as possible, so he readily agreed to Sidolin's request. He turned to Bere and said, "Comrade deputy division commander, please send two tanks to cooperate with the infantry and try to destroy the enemy in the shortest possible time."

"Misha, I think we should send two more self-propelled artillery to join the battle." Bely reminded Sokov: "The enemy has already occupied a favorable terrain in the village. If they have anti-tank weapons, it may cause the loss of our tanks. If the self-propelled artillery fires outside the village and destroys the wooden houses occupied by the enemy, it will also help our infantry to enter the village and clear it."

"Bombard the village with self-propelled artillery?" Hearing Bely's suggestion, Sokov hesitated and asked, "Will this accidentally injure the villagers in the village?"

"Comrade Commander, there are no more villagers in that village." Hearing this, Sidolin gritted his teeth and said, "After the German army entered the village, they drove all the villagers to the grain drying ground in the middle of the village, and killed them all with machine guns. One of the villagers who was seriously injured, after regaining consciousness, struggled to crawl out of the village and rushed to report to us. If he hadn't happened to meet one of our patrol teams, he might not have passed any news before he died. "

"Chief of staff, according to what the deputy commander said, in addition to the two tanks, send two more self-propelled artillery, and try to destroy this group of enemies in the shortest possible time." Sokov opened the samovar on the table and gave himself Putting a cup of hot tea on, he added: "Remember, no prisoners will be kept in this battle. All captured German officers and soldiers will be shot on the spot. We do not accept the surrender of such two-legged beasts."

Sidolin thought that Sokov would order the captured German officers and soldiers to be let go, and he was quite worried. Hearing this special order, he immediately replied loudly: "Yes, commander, I will help you immediately." Pass the order."

Bely's judgment was accurate. As soon as the two T-34 tanks drove to the entrance of the village, they were attacked by German rocket launchers. This bazooka rocket launcher captured by the German army is still very effective against the common T-34 tanks, but the two tanks sent by Bely are both T-34/85, with 75 mm thick armor plates on the front of the car body , blocking the bazooka attack.

Regardless of the rocket fired by the bazooka, it accurately hit the tank's body, blasting out a dazzling flame. But when the flames dissipated, the tank was not destroyed except for a circular dent.

The tank stopped in place, turned its muzzle slowly, aimed at the wooden house where the German anti-tank fighters were hiding, and the wooden house suddenly collapsed amidst the sound of the explosion. can run out.

The two SU-122 self-propelled artillery, more than 100 meters behind the tank, also chose a suitable shooting position, and fired directly at the place where the Germans might be hiding in the village. Because of Sokov, the two self-propelled artillery that came out in advance, every shell fired can directly blow up the wooden house that hits, and immediately blow up the enemies inside.

Enemies with only light weapons have never seen such a battle. Knowing that hiding in the wooden house would lead to a dead end, they escaped one after another, choosing to hide by the well or behind a broken stone wall. But no matter where they hide, they will soon be discovered by the artillery, and a shell will blow them to pieces.

In less than five minutes, there were only five or six German soldiers alive in the village. I don't know who took the lead and shouted: "Don't fight, we surrender." His words quickly resonated, and the rest of the living German soldiers also shouted, and some even tied white handkerchiefs to the muzzles of their rifles. He lifted it high above the broken wall where he was hiding, and waved it desperately.

Seeing the German army in the village raising the white flag, the tanks parked at the entrance of the village started up again and rumbled towards the village. The tank driver was very clever. He was worried that there were still Germans hiding in the house, so he deliberately knocked down a corner of the house and caused the whole house to collapse. Even if there were Germans hiding inside, they would be crushed to death by the collapsed houses.

There were tanks opening the way in front, and the infantry behind rushed up to search the collapsed houses. When they saw that there were still living soldiers, they immediately shot him; if it was a corpse, they pulled it out of the ruins and hid in the in the open space next to it. After inspecting all the houses and ruins and finding that there were no enemies, the company commander ordered the surrendered German officers and soldiers to be dragged to the side of the villagers killed by them for execution.

The entire battle lasted less than 20 minutes, and ended with the victory of the Soviet army. In this battle, a total of 25 German soldiers were killed, while the Soviet army only paid the price of sacrificing 3 people, wounding 11 people and wounding a tank.