Red Moscow

The offensive tactics formulated by Sokov, let alone beyond the expectations of the Germans, even ordinary Soviet commanders and fighters, when they heard this style of play, their faces were bewildered. But not to mention, the effect of this tactic is very good. The German 5th Jaeger Division is considered to be a unit with relatively strong combat effectiveness. It was still defeated in a short period of time. In less than an hour, it was forced to abandon its position and retreat southward. . Once they withdrew, the weak 592nd Division became a lone army.

Just when the 3rd Infantry Division occupied the positions of the 5th Jaeger Division of the German Army and was about to launch an attack on the defense area of ​​the 592nd Division, the troops of the 120th Guards Division also passed through the town of Pultusk smoothly and appeared at the front of the German defense line .

Nikitin, commander of the 120th Guards Division, received a call from the commander of the 339th regiment: "Comrade commander, friendly troops have been found on our left flank."

"Friendly army?" Nikitin asked, "Have you figured out which army it is?" According to his thinking, the troops appearing on the flank of the German 592nd Division at this moment may be the 1st or 1st Guards who came out of the town. A part of the 6th Division specifically asked, "Is it the Guards Division?"

"No, Comrade Commander." Unexpectedly, the head of the 339th Regiment replied, "It's a unit of the 3rd Infantry Division."

"The troops of the 3rd Infantry Division?" Nikitin said with some surprise, "Why did they appear in our attack area?"

When Sidolin assigned the mission to Nikitin, he only said that their division should pass through the town of Puutusk and attack the German 592nd Division south of the town. Nikitin was so surprised when he heard that the 3rd Rifle Division had appeared on the flank of the target.

However, Nikitin's mood quickly returned to calm, and he ordered his subordinates: "You immediately send someone to contact the friendly troops to find out why they appear nearby."

After finishing the conversation with his subordinates, Nikitin called the headquarters again, wanting to get some information from Sidolin. Hearing Sidolin's voice coming from the receiver, Nikitin quickly asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I need to report to you. Not long ago, one of my regimental commanders reported to me that On their flanks appeared units of the 3rd Infantry Division. I want to ask, what is going on here?"

"General Nikitin, the situation is like this." Hearing the other party's question, Sidolin also realized that he had made a mistake in arranging the mission, and quickly explained to the other party: "According to the deployment of the headquarters, your division will attack the south of the town. The 592nd People's Grenadier Division, and General Kirillov's 3rd Infantry Division attacked the German 5th Jaeger Division. Since their attack times were different, I did not explain this to you when assigning tasks... "

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Nikitin said in a complaining tone after hearing Sidolin finish, "our divisions are all Guards divisions, and General Kirillov's 3rd Rifle Division is just an ordinary infantry division, like The important task of dealing with the German 5th Jager Division should be entrusted to us. I assure you, I only need one day at most to defeat the 5th Jaeger Division."

"Hehe," who knows that Sidolin laughed twice after hearing this, and then said: "General Nikitin, you may not know that the German 5th Jaeger Division has been attacked by the 3rd Infantry Division. Rout, their positions south of the town of Pultusk have all fallen into the hands of our army. As for why the 3rd Infantry Division appeared on your flank, it should be that General Kirillov wanted to get rid of the 592nd by the way Teacher."

Perhaps because he was worried about Nikitin's delay, Sidolin urged him: "General Nikitin, I want to remind you that if you keep chatting with me on the phone, maybe General Kirilov's troops will be killed." Take the lead in attacking the 592nd Division."

Knowing that Kirillov's troops might attack the enemy before him, Nikitin couldn't hold back his composure. After putting down the phone, he called the heads of the regiments and said anxiously: "Listen! Now, the friendly forces appearing on the flanks of the 339th Regiment are the 3rd Infantry Division that just defeated the 5th Jager Division of the German Army. They will attack the 592nd Division of the German Army. If you don’t move faster, then seize the town The honor of the southern position will be taken away by our allies. Do you understand?"

"Understood." The three regiment leaders replied loudly: "We will immediately command the troops to launch an attack."

A quarter of an hour later, troops from the 120th Guards Division took the lead in attacking the German 592nd Volksgrenadier Division. And Kirillov's 3rd Infantry Division also entered the battle half an hour after the offensive battle started.

Originally, the 3rd Infantry Division could launch an attack before the 120th Guards Division, but Kirillov rejected the proposal of the Chief of Staff Miyakov, but said to him earnestly: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I understand you The 592nd Division of the German Army is nothing more than a semi-militarized unit, not only poorly equipped, but also poorly trained. If we attack immediately, we can defeat them in an hour at most. But the superiors put the task of attacking this unit , handed over to the 120th Guards Division of General Nikitin, if we attack first, it is tantamount to robbing the opponent's credit, which will cause unnecessary trouble."

"Then shall we stand still?"

"No." Kirillov shook his head and said, "We launched an attack on the 592nd Division half an hour after the friendly army's offensive began. In this way, even if we achieved greater results than the friendly army, Nikitin The general couldn't find anything to say."

The 592nd People's Grenadier Division of the German Army was not established for a long time. The quality of the soldiers was uneven and the equipment was poor. It was deployed to the south of the town of Pultusk. A teacher is in charge. But what they didn't expect was that before the Soviet offensive started, the German headquarters fell into Sokov's trap and transferred the main force to the wrong direction for defense, so that the 592nd Division had to take on the defensive task of an independent direction. .

Facing the attack of two Soviet divisions, the resistance of the 592nd Division seemed negligible. Those civilians who had just picked up their weapons didn't have any fighting power. Facing the flood of Soviet commanders and fighters, most of them fired a few shots indiscriminately and then obediently raised their hands and surrendered.

With the defeat of the German army south of Puutusk Town, the German 129th Division and a regiment of the 5th Jaeger Division in the town fell into the siege of the Soviet army. Although they are still resisting tenaciously in the face of attacks from all directions, because they have been cut off from supplies, once the ammunition is exhausted, their fate is either to be wiped out or to lay down their weapons and surrender.

It was only a matter of time before the German troops in the town were wiped out. Sokov personally called Rokossovsky to report to him the results of the troops: "Comrade Marshal, my troops have successfully captured Puutu. The German position south of the town of Sk, and part of the German 129th Infantry Division and the 5th Jager Division in the town, have fallen into the encirclement of our army, and it is only a matter of time before they are wiped out by our army."

"Good job, Misha." Rokossovsky said: "Your 3rd Army on the left and 2nd Shock Army on the right are still fighting fiercely with the enemy. They have encountered stubborn resistance, and I am afraid it will take a long time." It took two days to take the German positions."

Sokov knew very well in his heart that he was able to take the German position so smoothly, it was entirely because the German commander fell into his trap and diverted the main force away from his main attack direction, otherwise he might be like his allies, At this moment, the battle with the German army has fallen into a stalemate. Before the friendly army has achieved a breakthrough, it cannot continue to advance, otherwise it may become a lone army, and once it is cut off from the two wings by the German army, it will fall into an encirclement. So he asked cautiously: "Then do we have any new tasks?"

Rokossovsky heard the meaning behind Sokov's words, and after a moment of silence, he said: "Misha, the task of your army group is to consolidate the existing area and prepare for the German counterattack. The captured positions must never be given back to the Germans. Do you understand?"

"Understood, Comrade Commander." Sokov replied loudly: "I will order the troops to turn to the defensive on the spot and prepare for the German counterattack."

Knowing that the north and south positions of the town of Pultusk were lost, and that part of the 129th Infantry Division and the 5th Jaeger Division trapped in the town were in a desperate situation, the German commander was furious. After sweeping the things on the ground, he cursed angrily: "Damn it, why did the Russians attack so violently? We lost almost three divisions in the morning after the battle."

When the commander of the German army got angry, the chief of staff didn't dare to talk at all. After he finally calmed down, he said cautiously: "Your Excellency, you must know that the troops attacking Pultusk town were commanded by the demon Sokov. The 48th Army. This man has always been scheming, and many of our generals have suffered from him."

Hearing what the chief of staff said, the German commander thought of his own grievances, spent 10,000 pounds to buy a piece of false information, and based on the content of the information, he transferred the main force to the wrong area for defense, which led to the chaos of the battle. When it started, his troops fell into a passive state.

Although fake pounds were used to buy information, if the information bought was fake. Thinking of this, the German commander felt disgusted as if he had eaten a dead fly. He looked at his chief of staff and asked, "Is the intelligence officer back?"

"He's back," replied the Chief of Staff. "He's just outside the door. Would you like to see him?"

"Bring him in!"

Soon, the intelligence officer appeared in front of the German commander. Before the Commander could speak, he took the initiative to say: "Your Excellency Commander, everything is clear, and now Henrik's family has arrived in the Danzig area."

"What, their whole family has arrived in the Danzig area?" The commander frowned and asked, "What's going on? Why are they in the Danzig area?"

Ever since the intelligence officer knew that he had been deceived, he had been holding back his evil fire, and wanted to settle accounts with Henrik who had provided him with false information. When the commander asked him to continue to investigate the matter, he took people to the place where Henrik's sister's house was located, and launched an investigation to the nearby neighbors.

After some inquiries, a neighbor said that he saw a truck parked in front of Henrik's house in the early morning of the previous two days. After a while, the Henrik family came out of the house and got into the truck. As for where the truck went, he didn't know. Fortunately, he also took down the license plate number of the truck.

The intelligence officer took down the license plate number of the truck and immediately rushed to the nearby Gestapo office, learned the owner's information from them, and then followed the clues to find the truck on a nearby street and arrested the driver.

When the driver was arrested, he thought that his black market business had been discovered. Usually, this kind of situation can be settled by making a phone call to the officials whom you bought. But what he never dreamed of was that the reason why he was arrested was not because of black market business, but because of sending the Henrik family away. The intelligence officer took it for granted as an accomplice of the Henrik family After he was captured at the Gestapo office, he was greeted with torture.

Although the driver is burly, he is a coward. As soon as those instruments of torture were put in front of him, he was so frightened that he confessed all the black market business he had done in the past few years, even the officials he had bribed, all of them. Speak up.

The intelligence officer, who was eager to make meritorious service and atone for his crime, heard the driver say so many names, and after recording all of them, handed them over to the Gestapo to arrest them. As for whether he would arrest the wrong person, it was out of his consideration. Anyway, as long as he could escape, he would rather arrest three thousand by mistake than let one go.

Just like that, he originally wanted to arrest Henrik's family, but he didn't expect the driver to confess so many people, so he unceremoniously ordered them all to be arrested.

After his subordinates reported to him that everyone on the list had been arrested, the intelligence officer nodded, and then asked the driver: "I heard that you drove Henrik's family away a few days ago, is there such a thing? "

"Yes, yes." The driver thought that he was only sending a few people away, and there would be no serious crime, so he agreed without hesitation: "I sent a friend and his family away."

"Where did it go?"

"Gtansk." The driver said without hesitation, "I heard they plan to take a boat to London from there."

Hearing that Henrik's family was going to go to London by boat, the intelligence officer became even more convinced that Henrik had deliberately provided false information to him, and now that it was about to be exposed, the whole family fled ahead of time. Thinking that whether he could catch Henrik was related to his own life or death, he gritted his teeth and asked, "Where do they live in Getansk now?"

The driver didn't dare to be negligent, and quickly told the current residence of Henrik's family, and finally asked the intelligence officer tremblingly: "Sir, I have already told everything I know, can you let me go home?"

"Go home?" The intelligence officer snorted coldly after hearing this, and said, "We still need to verify what you said to make sure that what you said is true, and we will consider letting you go home."

From the intelligence officer's words, the driver heard that the other party seemed to want to find Henrik's family as soon as possible, so he offered: "Sir, if you want to find the family as soon as possible, I can take you there, and I guarantee that none of them will escape."

The intelligence officer was also worried that he would send someone over at this moment, and the Henrik family ran away early. Since the driver volunteered, he thought for a while, and then agreed: "Okay, I want to ask for instructions. If Shangfeng agrees, I will let you You take people to Getansk to arrest people."