Ten minutes before the battle started, all the commanders at the regiment level and above gathered in Sokov's frontier command. Seeing these school-level officers swaying in front of him, Sokov thought evilly: If a shell fell down at this moment, not only would the division-level commanders of the 31st Guards Division be completely destroyed, but they would also have to take the lives of two artillery regiment commanders and a tank brigade commander.
However, this thought just flashed through his heart. If a shell really falls, others will be unable to protect their lives and he will not be able to escape the same fate. Sokov calmed down and asked his three commanders: "Are you all ready?"
"It's ready, comrade of the division commander." The three commanders answered in unison.
When his eyes turned to Liabinkin and Peter, before he could speak, Liabinkin had already smiled and said, "Comrade Major, we are ready. Just listen to your order and you can fire at the enemy's position."
Sokov nodded slightly at Liabinkin, and then turned his eyes to Colonel Gustov who was a little repulsive: "Comrade Colonel, have your tank brigade entered the departure location?"
"Yes, Comrade Major. All 31 tanks in the brigade have entered the designated position. They can guide the infantry to launch an attack when the time comes." After Gustov said this dryly, in order to ease the atmosphere, he continued: "But my tank only carries high-explosive bombs, destroying the enemy's fortifications and eliminating the enemy's infantry. If I encounter the enemy's tank, I will have no choice."
"Don't worry, comrade Colonel." Sokov replied with a smile: "Since the Germans did not put into tanks in the battle a few days ago, I believe that in today's battle, your tank brigade will not encounter enemy tanks. Your mission is to use tracks to crush the fortifications along the way and eliminate those enemies who dare to resist stubbornly."
"Don't worry, Major." Gustov also replied with a smile: "I will convey your order to every tank soldier."
Sokov raised his wrist and looked at the time, then said to everyone: "Comrades Commander, it's almost time. Let's go back to their respective troops and make the final preparations before the attack."
As the minute hand on the watch pointed to the twelve position, Sokov nodded at Pottojin, who was holding the microphone, indicating that he could start shelling. Pottojin, who understood it, quickly said to the microphone: "Teacher Commander: Fire the gun~!"
In just ten or twenty seconds, there was a rumbling sound of cannons outside. Sokov walked to the lookout, raised his telescope and looked at the German positions in the distance. He saw that the enemy's frontier positions were shrouded in smoke. It seemed that the power of the artillery fire of the two artillery regiments was really not weak.
After putting down the phone, Potukin walked to Sokov, raised his telescope and looked into the distance, and asked with some concern: "Comrade Commander, can the tactics we use really take over the German army's peripheral positions?"
Sokov, who was observing the enemy situation, heard Potukin's question and replied without looking back: "I think it should be effective. If we can't take the enemy's position like this, then we can only carry out a strong attack like the infantry army."
Five minutes passed in a flash, but when the artillery fire began to extend, the commanders and fighters of the 1137th Regiment, who were already ready to go, launched a charge towards the enemy's position under the guidance of the tank brigade.
In order to ensure that the infantry can keep up with their own speed, the tanks travel very slowly. In platoons follow behind the tanks step by step and rush towards the enemy's positions.
Before the troops could approach the enemy's frontier position, the phone ringing on the table suddenly rang. Sokov put down his telescope, turned his head and looked at the phone that was ringing constantly, thinking that the battle had just started, who would have called? He walked over, picked up the microphone, and said, "I am Major Sokov, where are you?"
"I am Malining." Malining's questioning voice came from the receiver. "Comrade Commander asked me to ask you, what did you do? Why did the artillery fire extend and fire after only a few minutes of bombardment on the first line of defense of the German army? And before the artillery fire stopped, the infantry launched a charge under the cover of the tank. What was going on?"
Faced with a series of questions from Malining, Sokov calmly replied: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I reported to the commander yesterday that when the enemy was bombarded by our army, they usually retreated to the second line of defense to avoid it. After our army's shelling was over, they would return through the traffic trench. This time I used the trick, first bombarding the first line of defense for five minutes, and after the enemy retreated to the second line of defense, the artillery fire was extended to eliminate the enemy as much as possible. At the same time, I ordered the troops to launch a decisive charge when the enemy avoids shelling, so that the maximum results can be achieved with the minimum casualties."
After listening to Sokov patiently, Malining nodded slightly and said, "I understand, Major Sokov, I will convey your original words to Comrade Commander. I wish you good luck!"
After putting down the phone, Sokov returned to the lookout, raised his telescope and looked into the distance. He saw the tank crushing the barbed wire along the way under the tracks, only one or two hundred meters away from the first position of the German army. At this moment, a tank suddenly stopped. Just as Sokov was puzzled, a nearly one-meter-long flame came out of the muzzle, and the shell fell into the German trenches. Then an explosion occurred. In the rising smoke, a German soldier could be seen flying into the sky with his hands and feet and falling down in pieces.
Seeing this scene, Sokov's mouth couldn't help but curl up slightly. He shook his head and said angrily and amusedly: "These tank soldiers! The enemies who can obviously be killed with a heading machine gun actually have to be bombarded with tank guns, as if they can't use up all the shells they carry."
Potukin put down his telescope and said to Sokov with a smile: "Comrade Commander, I think these tank soldiers are doing very well. The German soldiers killed by tank guns should be the observation posts left by the enemy in the first line of defense. If they are fired with machine guns, they may not be able to kill him. Now a shell flew over and bombarded him into the sky, so that the commanders and soldiers who are attacking can clearly see that this is very helpful in improving morale."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, you are right." Sokov agreed with Potukin's statement. He knew very well that even if the tank killed the enemy's observation post with a machine gun, only a few soldiers saw it. Now he directly sent him to the West with one shot, but almost all the soldiers participating in the war could see it. The increase in morale was self-evident. Seeing the officers and soldiers with a strong aura followed behind the tank and rushed towards the enemy's position, he couldn't help but sigh: "The first time the Tank Brigade fired, he killed an enemy with a tank gun, and the effect produced seemed very good."
Not long after, the commanders and fighters of the 1137th Regiment occupied the first position of the German army. In addition to leaving a few people to hold on to the position, they continued to follow behind the tanks and head towards the second line of defense that was still under shelling.
Sokov raised his hand and looked at his watch again. He found that there were only two minutes left before the end of the shelling. He quickly turned around and walked to the telephone, picked up the microphone and let the communications soldiers connect to the 1135th Regiment. When he heard a sound from inside, he said decisively: "Col. Bindasov, it's time for you to come on stage."
When Bindasov saw Pavel's troops successfully occupying the first position of the German army and advancing deeper into the enemy, he was extremely envious. At this moment, when he heard the order issued by Sokov, he immediately replied loudly: "I understand, comrade in the division command, we will attack immediately."
A few kilometers away from the Sokov command post, a group of commanders stayed in an observation center built on the high ground, using telescopes to observe the situation on the battlefield. If Sokov were here, he would have been surprised to find that in addition to the leaders of the army such as Rokosovsky, the commander of the Western Front, General Zhukov, was also among them.
Zhukov saw the artillery bombarding the German positions for only a few minutes, and the infantry also attacked behind the tanks. He was curious about this new style of play, so he ordered Malinin to call Sokov to find out what was going on.
Now when he saw the commanders and fighters of the 1137th Regiment occupying the first line of defense of the German army almost without any pause. Without any pause, he launched a rare smile on his face, which had always been serious. He put down his telescope, looked at Rokosovsky standing beside him, and called the other party's nickname and said, "Koschika, it seems that this Xiaomisha is not simple, and he actually occupied the first line of defense of the German army in this way."
"Yes, he just has many ideas." Rokosovsky nodded in agreement with Zhukov's statement: "If he had ordered his troops to attack Jizdra earlier, perhaps we would have suffered much less."
"It seems that there is no problem for the officers and fighters of the 31st Guards Division to seize the German peripheral positions." Zhukov pursed and said, "I just don't know if this unit's performance in street fighting can still be as good as it is now."
"Don't worry, Comrade Zhukov." Rokosovsky looked at Zhukov and said with a smile: "I talked to Misha when the military meeting was held yesterday. Although he did not tell me in detail how to fight street battles with the German army, I think he had already had a detailed plan in his heart. Let's wait for his good news here."
"I think we should help him in order to speed up his victory." After Zhukov finished speaking, he called a staff officer who came here with him and told him: "Immediately, in my name, to give the commander of the Air Force Army, that he immediately dispatched a fighter squadron and a bomber brigade to Zedra for support."
After the staff officer left, Zhukov explained to Rokosovsky: "After Misha's troops occupy the German peripheral positions, the enemy will definitely retaliate. Therefore, I asked the air force to dispatch to support him. Fighters can repel German aircraft and bombers can bomb targets in the depths of the German army, such as artillery positions."
When Rokosovsky heard Zhukov say this, he felt a little sour. He secretly said that when he attacked two days ago, he asked Zhukov for air support, but was rejected by the other party. Now he just saw that Sokov's troops occupied a German position, so he hurriedly sent air force support. The gap between the two is too big.
Although he was a little jealous of Zhukov's preference for Sokov, Rokosovsky thought that the other party was his subordinate after all, and Zhukov's support for him was equivalent to his support. Therefore, as soon as Zhukov finished speaking, he smiled and said, "Comrade General, don't worry, if Major Sokov's troops encounter danger, our other troops will not stand by and watch, and we will provide support in time."
The infantry following the tanks charged, and the artillery regiment's artillery regiment's shelling stopped when they were less than fifty meters away from the German second position. Although many shells had deviated and fell more than ten or twenty meters in front of the attacking team and exploded, fortunately, the shrapnel were hit on the tanks, and the infantry following behind did not suffer any damage.
The German army never dreamed that the Soviet army would extend artillery fire a few minutes after the first line of defense was shot. The officers and soldiers who had just retreated from the first line of defense along the traffic trench suffered heavy losses under the dense artillery fire. After finally waiting for the artillery to stop, they felt the ground under their feet tremble slightly before they recovered. A German machine gunner curiously looked out from the trench and saw Soviet tanks rushing up in neat formations. Behind the tanks, there could be clearly seen groups of infantry soldiers.
Seeing the Soviet army rushing up, the machine gunner quickly turned his head and shouted to his colleagues who were still running out of the soil: "The Russians are here, the Russians are here!" After shouting a few times, he found that he could not hear any sound at all, and his ears were already deaf when the shells just now hit.
The machine gunner quickly mounted the MG34 machine gun on the trench that had been blown up, aimed at the Soviet tanks that rushed over, and suddenly pulled the trigger. A series of bullets flew out, stumbled on the tank body like hail, but it could not slow down the speed of the tank at all.
The tank that was fired stopped, slowly turned the turret, aimed at the location where the German machine gunners were located and fired. With a loud "boom", the artillery fire spurted out a long flame hole, and the shells accurately hit the fire point, blowing the machine gun that was shooting wildly into a pile of parts, and the machine gunner who was operating the machine gun was blown to pieces.
Chapter completed!