Red Moscow

"Comrade Commander, do you think we should send an artillery division to Kazakhya Compass Town?" Sameko waited for Sokov to end the call, and asked cautiously: "In this way, the defenders can Get the necessary artillery support!"

Regarding Sameko's proposal, Sokov did not immediately express his position, but asked rhetorically: "Comrade Chief of Staff, when the 84th Division advanced to the town of Compass in Kazakhya, the commander of the 4th Guards Tank Corps Poluboyarov The general once sent a tank brigade with him, where is the tank brigade now?"

Sameko didn't expect Sokov to ask such a question. He quickly lowered his head and searched the map for a while, then pointed to a forest north of Kazakhya Compass Town and said, "The tank brigade wants to avoid possible air strikes. , are now hidden in this forest.”

"That's right," Sokov nodded slightly and said, "The tank brigade under General Poluboyarov is now hidden in this forest. Before the main force launches a full-scale attack on Kharkov, they will No action will be taken so as not to expose the strength of our military prematurely."

If it were at another time and place, Sokov would definitely not hesitate to transfer the artillery division to the town of Kazakhya Compass to assist the 84th and 188th divisions in the town to defend. But in this way, his true strength is bound to be exposed. If Kenfu uses all his power against himself, not only will Kazakia Compass be unable to defend, but even the loss of October Town will be a matter of time.

"So, General Fomenko and Colonel Koida can only use their existing strength to resist the German attack?"

"General Konev has promised that he will send the air force to bomb the German artillery positions to reduce the pressure on our army's defense."

Hearing that Konev planned to dispatch the air force to bomb the German artillery positions, the pressure on Sameko's heart suddenly eased a lot: "Comrade Commander, as long as our air force starts bombing the German artillery, then attack the Kazakhya compass." The German troops in the town will no longer be able to receive artillery support, and the Fomenko Division and the Koida Division can completely rely on the weapons they have to block the enemy's attack."

...

The shelling of the outer positions of Compass Town in Kazakhia had not stopped before the German ground forces launched an offensive. After more than two years of fighting, the Germans, who suffered repeatedly under Sokov, also learned to be smart. They knew that if they waited for the shelling to end before launching an attack on the Soviet positions, the Soviets would have enough strength to redeploy their defenses. , So he adopted Sokov's usual tactics, taking advantage of the time when the shelling did not stop, approaching the Soviet army's position as close as possible, and preparing to launch an attack as soon as the shelling ended.

The 568th Regiment, which was shelled, finally restored contact with the division headquarters with the help of the divisional communications company commander, but the price paid was that more than 20 communications soldiers died, and even six soldiers were killed by the enemy. Intensive artillery fire blasted the body to pieces, and nothing was left.

As soon as the call was made, Koyda couldn't wait to ask: "Hello, Lieutenant Colonel Kasatkin, how is the situation there?"

"The situation is very bad, Comrade Commander." Lieutenant Colonel Kashatkin shouted at the top of his voice amidst the deafening artillery fire: "The enemy is shelling us fiercely, and some positions have been destroyed by artillery fire..."

"Can you hold it?" Keida asked.

After a moment of silence, Kasatkin replied: "Comrade commander, if the Germans want to pass through our positions, unless they step on the dead bodies of all of us..."

"Damn it, I don't want any corpses." Before Lieutenant Colonel Kashatkin could finish speaking, Koyda interrupted him: "I want you to live, to stop the German attack alive. Do you understand?"

Kasatkin didn't want to survive, but he felt that his seemingly solid command post was like a small boat in a stormy sea under the enemy's shelling, and it might capsize at any time. Gritting his teeth, he replied, "I'll do my best."

When the German offensive troops were more than two hundred meters away from the Soviet position, the shelling stopped abruptly. The terrible rumble disappeared and was replaced by silence. In fact, this is an illusion. The Soviet commanders and fighters on the ground were a little deaf, and many of them could not hear any sound at all.

Soon, a few soldiers who had just emerged from the shelter discovered the German tanks approaching in the distance, and the line of skirmishers behind them that could not be seen. They hurriedly shouted loudly to warn other comrades in arms who had not found the enemy, but they could only see their mouths opening and closing, but could not hear any sound.

Fortunately, the commanders and fighters holding the outer positions all had rich combat experience. Even if they couldn't hear any sound, as the shelling stopped, they knew that the enemy would launch an attack, and they ran out of their hiding places one after another.

Come out and see, good guy, the enemy's tanks and infantry are flooding towards their positions. Seeing this, the company platoon leaders quickly used gestures to issue orders to the soldiers, ordering them to enter the combat positions and prepare for battle.

When the anti-tank team saw the enemy's tanks, they all stopped at a distance of two hundred meters from the position. The German tanks are brought closer to destroy the German tanks more accurately.

However, the Germans seemed to have been guarding against the Soviet anti-tank team for a long time, and the tanks that were standing still fired at the anti-tank team that jumped out of the trench. The shells landed beside the soldiers and exploded. The unlucky soldiers were blown away by the blast, and the soldiers who escaped the shells hid in the craters. After the enemy shells exploded, they jumped out of the craters and rushed down. A crater.

The infantry following the tanks, seeing the Soviet anti-tank fighters approaching quickly, hid behind the tanks and fired. In the dense firepower, several anti-tank fighters just raised their heads from the crater, and before they jumped out, they were shot into blood gourds by random guns.

In this way, in less than five minutes, the ten anti-tank teams that attacked were basically lost.

"Damn, who told you to attack without authorization." Lieutenant Colonel Kasatkin, who was staying in the regiment command post, remembered stomping his feet when he saw this. He called a communication soldier and told him, "Go and inform the three battalion commanders. , no one is allowed to send anti-tank fighters without my order."

The order was passed on quickly, and the battalion commanders controlled the anti-tank teams in time to prevent them from going out to die in vain. Even so, 15 anti-tank groups were wiped out by the enemy, causing the 568th regiment to basically lose its anti-tank capabilities

The first battalion commander saw the German infantry crouched down, holding guns in a scattered formation, and quickly approached his position. He couldn't help feeling a little flustered, and quickly called Lieutenant Colonel Kasatkin for help: "Comrade commander, the enemy Coming up, how do we stop them?"

"First battalion commander, calm down! As a commander, you must first be calm." Lieutenant Colonel Kasatkin said into the microphone: "If the enemy's tanks are still standing still, your anti-tank team will be completely lost. , don’t worry. Now it’s only the German infantry rushing towards you, and the current firepower of your battalion is enough to destroy them.”

After being reminded by Lieutenant Colonel Kashatkin, the somewhat panicked first battalion commander finally calmed down and began to assign combat tasks to his subordinates. Although after a period of recovery, the hearing of most commanders and fighters has recovered to a certain extent, but they still need to shout at them loudly so that they can hear the orders given clearly.

Although the long-range artillery fire of the German army stopped, the tanks parked 200 meters away were constantly bombarding the Soviet positions with tank guns. Although the shells could not fall directly into the trenches, the flying shrapnel still came out to those The commanders and fighters caused a certain degree of casualties.

When the German infantry entered the range of 100 meters, the machine guns, assault rifles, and submachine guns on the position fired at the same time. The intensive firepower made the German soldiers charging forward seem to hit a transparent wall. The body paused first, then fell backwards or fell to the ground.

The remaining German soldiers quickly lay down on the spot. These veterans with rich combat experience did not shoot blindly, but relied on their own instincts, quickly raised their heads, and raised their guns to shoot in the direction of the bullets. After a few shots, he lay down on the ground again, listened carefully to the sound of the Soviet army firing, and chose the timing of the next shot.

Experienced veterans can roughly judge the location of Soviet soldiers from the gunshots and explosions on the battlefield. When they hit the target, they immediately retracted their bodies and got down again.

Some unlucky fighters were unfortunately hit by enemy bullets while changing magazines, and fell on their backs in the trench, and the gunfire on the ground suddenly became sparse.

The German officers and soldiers lying on the ground quickly approached the Soviet positions by using available bunkers such as bomb craters or dead bodies. They are all experienced, and none of them will charge straight up, but keep rolling while running, so that the Soviet bullets cannot hit themselves. After rolling into the shooting blind spot of the Soviet soldiers, they fired again.

Just when the Soviet army's defense line was in jeopardy, a belated bomber formation appeared over the battlefield.

Seeing the overwhelming bomber fleet, the Soviet commanders and fighters cheered, while the Germans were in mourning.

A fighter group immediately lowered its altitude and launched an attack on the ground target. They threw aerial bombs at the tanks and machine-gunned the German infantry rushing towards the Soviet positions, beating the enemy to howl and flee in all directions.

The German commander saw that his infantry was only 50 or 60 meters away from the Soviet trenches, but the attack fell short due to the appearance of Soviet aircraft. In desperation, he could only send out a signal to order the attacking troops to retreat.

Seeing the German troops under attack by the air force begin to retreat, Lieutenant Colonel Kashatkin couldn't help but secretly heaved a sigh of relief. He quickly reported to Koida: "Comrade commander, the enemy has begun to retreat."

"The enemy retreated?"

"Yes," Lieutenant Colonel Kashatkin reported truthfully: "Seeing that the enemy is only a few tens of meters away from our position, but our air force appeared on the battlefield at this time, and they launched an attack on the German tanks and infantry on the ground. Attack, the enemy couldn't resist and began to retreat."

Knowing that the German army was retreating, Koyda felt much more relaxed. He told Kasatkin: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, please write a detailed report to me immediately, and at the same time, while the enemy is retreating, you should organize your forces immediately." Repair the fortifications and prepare for the next attack of the enemy."

Lieutenant Colonel Kashatkin did not dare to neglect, and while ordering his subordinates to rush to repair the fortifications destroyed by artillery fire, he asked the chief of staff of the regiment to write a detailed report.

An hour later, Koida received a report from Lieutenant Colonel Kashatkin. After reading the report of the 568th regiment, he said to Mashkov and the chief of staff: "Comrade Commissar, Comrade Chief of Staff, according to the report of Lieutenant Colonel Kashatkin, their anti-tank group did not perform at all after the enemy launched an attack. Any effect will be annihilated by the enemy."

The chief of staff of the division hurriedly said: "Comrade commander, should we report this situation to the commander and ask him to add some anti-tank forces for us. Otherwise, when the enemy's next attack begins, our soldiers will be killed because of lack of anti-tank forces." tank weapons while watching enemy tanks break through our lines."

"The chief of staff is right." The political commissar Mashkov agreed with the statement of the division chief of staff: "The 568th regiment has basically lost its anti-tank capabilities. There's nothing the tank can do about it."

Seeing that the political commissar and the chief of staff had reached an agreement, Koyda nodded, then picked up the phone, connected to the group army headquarters, and reported the situation here to Sokov.

Sokov received a call from Koida and was somewhat surprised to learn that all the anti-tank forces of the 568th regiment had been lost. After he asked about the details of the battle, he couldn't help but fell into deep thought and began to think about how to deal with the enemy's tanks.

Although he didn't hear Sokov speak, Koyda didn't dare to hang up the phone easily. According to his understanding of Sokov, the other party was thinking about a solution to the problem at the moment.

After some time, Sokov's voice finally came from the receiver: "Colonel Koida, unfortunately, I don't have any anti-tank weapons to replenish for you. You can only allocate weapons from another regiment to the No. 568 regiment."

Although Sokov's answer was already expected by Koida, he still felt extremely disappointed when he really heard Sokov say that.

Fortunately, Sokov guessed what was on his mind, and continued: "Colonel Keda, if the anti-tank operations in the defensive battle are still fought like you, no matter how many anti-tank weapons I add to you, it won't work." .”

"Why?" Keida asked in surprise.

"The effective range of the bazooka is only more than 100 meters. If the enemy's tank stops 200 meters away, our anti-tank team can only stare blankly. If we attack forcefully, the machine guns and tank guns on the enemy tank can destroy them. Even if there are a few who slip through the net, they will be shot and killed by the infantry covering the tank before they rush into the effective range."

Hearing Sokov explain the key to the problem, Koyda quickly asked: "Comrade Commander, what can we do to effectively destroy the enemy's tanks?"

"It's very simple, change the way of fighting." Sokov said into the microphone: "You can let the enemy tanks pass through the trenches and destroy the infantry behind. In this way, the enemy tanks will lose the cover of the infantry , you can attack from the side or the rear of the tank, and you can easily destroy the enemy tank whether you use a bazooka or an anti-tank grenade.”