Red Moscow

After a fierce battle, the Belko Battalion finally occupied the German position. Leaving a small number of soldiers to meet the troops behind, Major Belko led the soldiers to pursue the fleeing enemies.

However, less than a kilometer after chasing, they encountered the German army who came to reinforce them, and the two sides immediately launched a fierce battle. The machine guns in the sidecars of the German motorcycles spewed out flames, and the soldiers with weapons followed closely behind. They shot while advancing, and threw grenades from time to time, and advanced quickly with the help of the smoke from the explosion.

All of a sudden, gunshots, explosions, and screams of pain rang out. People kept falling, both Germans and Soviet soldiers. Captain Belko picked up a rifle with a bayonet from the ground, rushed forward bravely, and fought the bayonet with the oncoming enemy.

The German army, which has always paid attention to the output of firepower, is naturally no match for the Soviet army in terms of stabbing. They withdrew from the battlefield one after another, hid in the distance, and fired machine guns and mortars at the mixed crowd, completely ignoring whether the machine guns or mortars would accidentally injure their own people.

A mortar shell with a screaming sound fell beside Belko who had just stabbed a German soldier, and the soil from the blast wave scattered on Belko's body like a goddess. His body shook twice, and he fell limply to the ground.

"Battalion Commander," seeing Bielko fall, a soldier next to him rushed up, shook his body vigorously, and shouted anxiously: "How are you, how are you?"

After waking up, Belko stood up staggeringly with the support of the soldiers, a stream of blood dripped down his cheeks from his forehead, but he still shouted loudly to the soldiers around him: "Comrades, don't Stop, charge for me, and continue to charge forward!" In order to set an example, he rushed towards the enemy not far away without even having time to bandage the wound on his head.

Seeing that the battalion commander took the lead in charging, his soldiers were naturally not to be outdone, and followed closely behind him with weapons in hand, bravely rushing towards the enemy.

After rushing to a place more than ten meters away from the enemy, the soldiers took out grenades one after another, pulled the string, and threw them towards the enemy's gathering position, blowing up the enemy's position to billow with smoke.

The battle ahead quickly reached Popov's ears. He asked the chief of staff: "How is the situation ahead, have you broken through the German defense line?"

"Report to Comrade Commander," replied the Chief of Staff: "Captain Belko's battalion, which launched an attack on the German 61st Motorcycle Battalion's defense area, has successfully broken through the enemy's first line of defense. However, due to reinforcements from the second line Hurry up, their progress was blocked, and the troops suffered heavy casualties."

"Chief of staff, send reinforcements to them immediately, and break through the three German defense lines before dawn." Popov was afraid that the chief of staff would not take his opinion seriously, and specifically emphasized: "We do not have air supremacy on the battlefield. At daybreak, the enemy's planes will appear in the sky and bombard our offensive troops indiscriminately, and if we try to break through the enemy's defense line at that time, we will inevitably pay a huge price."

"Understood, Comrade Commander," replied the Chief of Staff, "I'll send them reinforcements immediately."

Popov sent reinforcements to the vanguard battalion that was fighting fiercely in front, and General Balck, the commander of the German 11th Armored Division deployed on their south side, was also gathering the 111th Panzergrenadier Regiment, intending to order them to rush to the 61st Motorcycle The reinforcements of the defense area of ​​​​the car battalion blocked the breakout troops of the Soviet army.

This time, Balck and the chief of staff, Colonel Wenk, reached an agreement. The Soviet army attacking the 61st Motorcycle Battalion was not doing any probing operations, but was preparing to break out from that direction. As they assembled their troops, they called Manstein.

Originally, Manstein had already fallen asleep, but when he heard the adjutant said that Balck had an urgent report, he quickly sat up from the bed, took the phone in the adjutant's hand and asked, "General Balck, are you calling me so late?" , is there anything urgent?"

"Your Excellency Marshal," Balck waited for Manstein to finish speaking, and said respectfully, "Have the Russians begun to break through to the east?"

"What, the Russians broke through to the east?" Manstein asked in surprise: "General Balck, who told you this news?"

"It's my subordinate, the commander of the 61st Motorcycle Battalion stationed in the east." Balker respectfully reported: "The Russians launched an attack on his defense zone two hours ago. Now the first The line of defense has been breached, and the troops holding on to the second line of defense are staunchly resisting."

When Manstein heard this, he covered the microphone with his hand and told the adjutant standing beside him: "Go out and find out, is the Russian armored unit still in its original position?"

After the adjutant left, Manstein let go of his hand and continued to ask: "General Balck, since the Russians broke through your defense zone, have you taken any measures?"

"Yes, Your Excellency the Marshal." Balck replied: "I have ordered the 111th Panzergrenadier Regiment to assemble and be ready to reinforce the attacked section at any time."

"Our troops are mainly concentrated in the north, south and west, but the defense in the east is the weakest." Manstein said with some annoyance: "Even if we want to mobilize troops, it will take at least one day. In order to prevent the Russians from us It is far from enough for you to send a grenadier regiment to escape from the encirclement. You should immediately send the 15th armored regiment in that direction."

"However, Your Excellency the Marshal." Regarding Manstein's proposal, Balck said with a wry smile, "Our tanks are short of fuel, and they might collapse halfway through the drive."

"Your fuel is low, and the Russians are also short of fuel." Manstein said on the phone: "But you still have to drive the tanks to the route they want to retreat, which is a victory. When their tanks appear in the When you're in sight, your tanks can shoot them all like a target. Got it?"

After listening to Manstein's explanation, Balck felt that it was very reasonable. As long as his tank was placed on the only way for the Soviet army to break through, even if the tank ran out of fuel, it could be used as a fixed turret to destroy passing Soviet tanks. or infantry. After thinking about this, he quickly nodded and said, "Understood, Your Excellency Marshal, I will immediately order the 15th Armored Regiment to assemble."

When it was just dawn, Popov and his group headquarters appeared at the place where the Belko camp had fought fiercely. Popov, who was sitting in the jeep, saw corpses lying on the side of the road, both German and Soviet. The blood from their bodies stained the snow on the road red, turning this road into an out-and-out bloody road.