Red Moscow

"Major General Sokov," Zhukov asked sternly into the microphone, "tell me honestly, has your position been breached by the Germans?"

Sokov heard that Zhukov did not call his nickname, but called his surname and military rank in a stern tone, and immediately realized that he had given up the position without authorization, so he couldn't help replying a little guilty: "Comrade Marshal, I The troops are still holding their positions..."

"I'll ask you again." Zhukov asked sternly again without waiting for Sokov to finish, "Has your position been breached by the Germans?"

"No, Comrade Marshal." Sokov heard that Zhukov was angry. If he reported truthfully at this moment, he might add fuel to the flames, so he decided to play with words and pick out words: "My troops are still sticking to the assigned positions. Not a single inch of ground was lost to the Germans."

Knowing that the German army did not break through Sokov's defense line, Zhukov's anger weakened a bit. He slowed down his tone and asked puzzledly: "Since the Germans didn't break through your position, why did they appear outside Prokhorovka in such an extreme time? What's going on here?"

"Comrade Marshal," Sokov considered that Zhukov might not understand the situation here, and explained to him: "Yesterday the enemy broke through the friendly line of defense on our right wing and occupied their position. In order to prevent the enemy from attacking our troops, Forming an encirclement, I organized the troops to counterattack and restore the lost positions. However, due to the heavy losses of the troops in the battle, I was unable to defend the wide front, so I shrunk the troops to the main position last night and prepared to continue the stalemate with the enemy .”

"Major General Sokov, as far as I know, didn't you transfer all the troops from the direction of Oboyan?" Zhukov waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and his tone became severe again: "Don't you have enough troops? To hold the position on the right wing, while the enemy swaggers past you and attacks Prokhorovka?"

"Comrade Marshal, I only added three brigades to the main defensive position. The rest of the troops were placed on the banks of the Pushol River as a reserve force, and at the same time prevented the enemy from launching a forced crossing operation." Sukov knew that he was in such a situation. Answer, it was difficult to satisfy Zhukov, and added specifically: "Although I don't have too many troops for the defense of secondary positions, I have sent ten anti-tank squads equipped with fire groups. area to attack the enemy."

"An anti-tank squad equipped with a firepower team?" Sokov's words aroused Zhukov's interest: "Then can you tell me, roughly how many people are in your squad?"

"Ten people, Comrade Marshal." Sokov replied: "A squad is ten people, and ten squads is a hundred people. The task I gave them was to use guerrilla tactics to attack enemy tanks, Armored vehicles, and trucks to transport troops or fuel, ammunition."

"Ten squads, one hundred people." After repeating the data that Sokov said, Zhukov said disapprovingly: "With just this few people, what threat can they pose to the Germans?"

"Comrade Marshal, although the squad I sent has only a hundred people, their role will definitely not be worse than that of a regiment fighting positional warfare." In order to further convince Zhukov, he also specifically mentioned a situation that happened in Stalinger. Battle examples during the Battle of Stalingrad: "During the Battle of Stalingrad, on a small hill south of Kletskaya, four soldiers from the 84th Regiment of the 33rd Guards Division, with the four anti-aircraft troops they carried, The tank rifle destroyed 15 enemy tanks. I believe that the ten anti-tank squads I sent will achieve more brilliant results than them.”

The battle example mentioned by Sokov was seen by Zhukov in the battle report reported by the 62nd Army. At that time, he still felt that four anti-tank fighters destroyed 15 German tanks without any casualties. But after verification afterwards, it was found that this classic battle example was actually true.

Now when Sokov said that the ten anti-tank squads he sent could achieve greater results, Zhukov only thought for a moment before agreeing with the other party's statement. You must know that the rocket launchers equipped by Sokov's troops are much more effective against German tanks than anti-tank guns.

"Then let your anti-tank squad act quickly." Zhukov said into the microphone: "Now the enemy has arrived at the city of Prokhorovka and is fighting fiercely with our army. If your anti-tank squad can quickly If it plays a role, it can also reduce the pressure on the defenders."

The ten anti-tank squads sent by Sokov were scattered on the vast battlefield 15 kilometers wide and 30 kilometers deep. Like a drop of water falling into the sea, they immediately lost their traces. They cleverly used terrain such as ravines, bomb craters, trenches, and woods to attack German tanks and armored vehicles that appeared in front of them with rockets.

The battalion commander of the 1st Battalion of the 84th Marine Brigade is Lieutenant Commander Shamrih. After receiving the order from the brigade commander to send an anti-tank unit to harass the enemy, he immediately called the platoon leader Sergeant Hollor and ordered He said: "Comrade sergeant, according to the order of our superiors, our battalion is going to send an anti-tank unit to harass the enemy's transportation line. After discussing with the deputy battalion commander, I decided to entrust you with this glorious task." Done. Immediately go and pick nine fighters, carry a rocket, and as much ammunition as possible, to carry out the mission. Remember, the commander wants you to fight guerrilla warfare, not positional warfare, so don't wait all the time In one place, it takes one shot to change another place. Do you understand?"

Sergeant Holol was a veteran who had participated in the Battle of Stalingrad and was also an old subordinate of Sokov, so he was naturally clear about this guerrilla tactic. Hearing Shamrih's question, he quickly and loudly replied: "Understood, Comrade Battalion Commander, when we harass the enemy, we will definitely change positions at any time so that the enemy can't find us."

After selecting the members of the team, Holol quietly set off before dawn. Unlike the other squads, he controlled the activity area close to his own position, but moved in the direction of the Pusol River.

By dawn, Holol had already walked seven or eight kilometers with his team. The anti-tank man carrying the bazooka felt a bit overwhelmed, and complained: "Comrade sergeant, our ambush position is too far away from our army's position."

As soon as he finished speaking, the ammunition hand with a few rockets on his back echoed: "That's right, Comrade Sergeant, we were exhausted after a day's forced march, and we could set up an ambush near the position. Why did we leave?" How far away?"

When Holol saw his soldiers complaining, he stopped and said to them: "Comrades, I know everyone is tired, but there is a reason why I didn't choose to set up an ambush near our army's position."

"Is there a reason?" The anti-tank man asked puzzledly, "What is the reason?"

"That's right, setting up an ambush in an area close to the position not only does not require you to travel far, but also allows you to quickly withdraw to our position once you find that the situation is critical." After Hollor finished talking about the advantages of setting up an ambush near the position, He went on to say: "At that time, did you ever think that just because it is close to our army's position, the enemy will definitely not choose to pass there in order not to conflict with us. Even if an enemy wants to pass here, it will definitely remain extremely high. This will bring certain difficulties to our ambush. On the contrary, if we choose the location of the ambush far away from our army's position, the enemy will relax his vigilance when passing through these areas, so that we can easily Eliminate them."

After the soldiers listened to Sergeant Holol's words, although they were still dubious in their hearts, they were used to obeying their superiors, so they stopped talking, but followed Holol's back and continued to walk forward.

After walking another kilometer or two, there was the sound of rumbling guns in the distance. Sergeant Hollor looked in the direction of the gunfire, knowing that the German army was about to attack, so he decided to look for a suitable place nearby to hide. He looked around and found that the simple road passed by a forest, and there was a long ravine outside the forest. Seeing such a terrain, Sergeant Hollor couldn't help being overjoyed, and hurried over with people to conduct a careful survey.

After getting closer, Hollor found that the gully was about 50 meters away from the road, and one end of it extended into the woods. After seeing the terrain clearly, Hollor nodded secretly. He thought to himself: This ditch is only more than 50 meters away from the road. Anti-tank fighters hiding in the ditch can easily destroy the German tanks on the road. Moreover, this gully is connected to the woods. If the battle fails, he can lead people to retreat into the woods along the gully.

Thinking of this, he immediately ordered everyone: "Comrades, let's choose the ambush site here. I think everyone must be very tired after such a long march, so take the time to rest before the enemy comes. "

Everyone hid in the ravine, some began to close their eyes and rested their minds, while others began to eat and drink. The anti-tank man sitting next to Holol quietly listened to the sound of rumbling guns in the distance, and whispered to Holol: "Comrade Sergeant, tell me, how long will it take for the enemy to reach us? "

"I just took a look. It is about eight to ten kilometers away from the position that was bombarded." Holol replied: "Even if the enemy starts to attack the position immediately after the shelling stops, it must be rushed It will take two or three hours to arrive at our place at the earliest."

However, Holol was just an ordinary sergeant, and he was not qualified to know many things. For example, he was completely unaware of Sokov's order to abandon the secondary position and concentrate all his troops in the main position. According to his thinking, it would take at least an hour for the German army to break through the position after the bombardment, and then rush here, at least two or three hours had passed.

But what he didn't expect was that what the attacking Banner Guard division was attacking was an unguarded position. Since there was no resistance, the tanks naturally advanced towards the depth of the Soviet defense after breaking through the position.

When Hollor saw a large number of German tanks appearing, he was dumbfounded. He didn't expect that from the time he ordered the ambush position to the appearance of the German armored troops, only forty minutes had passed.

Seeing Holol's stunned look, the anti-tank fighters on the side also had lingering fears, and he asked in a panic, "Comrade Sergeant, the German tanks are coming, shall we do it?"

"Do it, what do you do?" Holol glared at the anti-tank man, and said sharply, "You haven't seen twenty or thirty tanks approaching, and you think you can destroy them with a bazooka you carry. Are there so many tanks?"

"Then what shall we do?" the anti-tank man asked.

"The enemy is powerful, we can't face it head-on." Holol quickly ordered the members of the squad: "Everyone obeys my order and immediately moves along the ravine to the woods, so as not to be discovered by the approaching enemies."

What happened next proved that Holol's decision was completely correct. They had just retreated into the woods when they saw two three-wheeled motorcycles approaching and stopped by the ravine. The two German soldiers who came down from the sidecar looked into the ditch for a while, shot two shuttles, and threw a grenade. After confirming that there were no hidden Soviet troops, they got back on the motorcycle and followed the tank. Yan highway continues to advance eastward.

The soldiers hiding in the woods looked at the German armored troops passing by, and they were all silent. They thought to themselves: If Holol hadn't ordered everyone to hide in the woods, but had continued to hide in the gully, Maybe at this time, the Germans have discovered it and started a firefight.

The members of the squad were all discerning, and none of them was so arrogant that they thought they could escape in front of twenty or thirty German tanks, as well as a number of armored vehicles and three-wheeled motorcycles. If a fight really broke out, even if the bazooka equipped by the squad could destroy one or two German tanks, the destruction of the entire army would be unavoidable.

After this group of German troops passed by, before Hollor and others came out of the woods, they saw new German troops appearing again. The troops marching along the road this time included not only tanks, armored vehicles and motorcycles, but also infantry on foot and artillery units that had been pulled by trucks.

Seeing this situation, Holol couldn't help but take a deep breath. If the enemies passing by today were all of this size, then they would have no chance at all. As long as the fire is fired, the enemy will rely on the advantages of firepower and numbers to easily destroy them all.

Seeing this situation, the anti-tank man also felt panicked. He leaned close to Hollor's ear and whispered, "Comrade Sergeant, the situation is not very good. Look, should we withdraw?"

"No, I can't retreat." Holol, who was riding a tiger, knew very well that retreating at such a time would easily expose the target, and he would not escape the fate of being wiped out by the enemy. Therefore, the only choice is to continue to hide, wait until the enemy's large troops pass by, and then find an opportunity to attack the small troops that are left behind: "Tell everyone, wait patiently, the enemy's troops cannot be infinite, wait After the passage of these large groups of troops, there may be individual small troops passing by, and then we can use them as our ambush targets."

In the next hour, there were still a lot of German troops passing in front of the squad. Through their clothing, the soldiers recognized the Banner Guard Division as the first to pass, followed by the Skeleton Division.