The German army came faster than Sokov imagined. Thirty-six hours after Kursk was liberated, a German vanguard appeared in the east of the city.
This German unit was the 297th Infantry Division of the 6th Army of Paulus, and the division commander was Major General von derrebel. The division was originally advancing towards the Don River. After Paulus learned that Kursk had lost, he was afraid that his transportation line would be cut off, so he ordered Drebel to lead his troops to turn around and retake the city.
When Drebel received Paulus' order, his troops were marching towards the Don River and it would take at least two days to gather the troops. But Paulus ordered him to attack Kursk from the east in the morning of the next day. Drebel, who was helpless, could only send the 523rd Infantry Regiment behind the temple to equip them with artillery and tanks, and rush towards Kursk first.
After the scouts arranged in the east discovered the enemy advancing towards Kursk, they immediately reported to the battalion headquarters. Andrei learned that the enemy had been found near the city, he did not dare to neglect it, so he quickly reported to Sokov.
When Sokov learned that there were traces of German troops in the east of the city, his heartbeat suddenly accelerated. He didn't expect the enemy to come so quickly. He quickly asked to the microphone: "Captain Andre, how many troops the enemy has? Have you figured it out?"
"According to the scout report, the enemy probably has a regiment of troops, and there are a large number of tanks and cannons." Andrey said loudly on the phone: "Comrade Brigade Commander, I am setting up defenses, and I hope you can provide us with artillery fire and tank support."
"Preserve your position and I will provide you with artillery fire support." After Sokov finished his call with Andre, he picked up another phone and said to the microphone: "Let Porochenko and Alitai come to my command post."
A few minutes later, the two company commanders came to the command post. Sokov walked up to them and asked, "Comrades, the German vanguard has arrived in the east of the city and may attack us at any time. I would like to ask, can you provide artillery support to the Third Battalion?"
As soon as Sokov finished speaking, the two company commanders replied in unison: "No problem."
"Is it really okay?" Sokov asked suspiciously when he saw the two of them agree so readily.
Tank Company Commander Alitai quickly stepped forward and replied loudly: "Report to the brigade commander, since the tanks seized in the warehouse are all our T-34 tanks, the soldiers can perform proficient operations."
"The situation of our artillery is similar." As soon as Alitai finished speaking, Porochenko continued: "The artillery piled up in the warehouse should have been seized by the German army, and they are all standard artillery of our army."
When Sokov learned that the tanks and artillery in the warehouse were standard weapons seized by the German army from the Soviet army, he felt much more at ease. Even though the tank company and the artillery company were just formed yesterday, the soldiers in the company could still skillfully use the tanks and artillery they equipped.
"We only know that the enemy invaded had an infantry regiment, plus a large number of tanks and artillery." Sokov said to the two company commanders: "In order to avoid exposing our army's strength, we do not intend to put tanks and artillery into battle too early. When the enemy's living forces are consumed during the attack, we will use tanks and artillery to beat the enemy to a fallen water."
When the German army was five or six kilometers away from Kursk, the vanguard discovered that there were a large number of Soviet troops in the field fortifications ahead, and hurriedly reported to the regiment commander Colonel Weber: "Mr. Colonel, our vanguard discovered that there were a large number of Russians stationed in the field fortifications."
After listening to the report of his subordinates, Weber ordered his chief of staff: "Chief of staff, contact the artillery battalion and ask them to bombard the Russian fortifications with artillery. After the artillery was completed, he sent the 1st Company, 2nd Company, and 13th Company to launch an attack on the Russian positions."
"Do you need to send the 14th Company?" asked the chief of staff cautiously.
"No," Weber said indifferently: "According to the information we have, there are only a few hundred Russians who attacked Kursk, and there are no heavy weapons, let alone tanks. The 14th Company still stayed on standby and sent them to the battlefield after the Russian tanks appeared."
When the German army began to shell the third battalion position, five soldiers from the reconnaissance companies lurked on a hill far away from the city. They were carefully observing the gathering German army. Among these reconnaissance soldiers, except for one of them, the rest were inexperienced recruits. Therefore, while using a telescope to observe the movements of the enemy, the veteran kept teaching the recruits: "... The German infantry regiment has three infantry battalions, each infantry battalion under its jurisdiction, and a machine gun company. The machine gun company is usually equipped with a mortar platoon. The company number of the infantry regiment is composed of the 1st Company to the 12th Company, and there is also a 13th Company composed of short-range short-range support artillery led by horses, and an anti-tank company with 12 37mm anti-tank guns, with the number of the 14th Company..."
The position of the Third Battalion was shrouded by artillery smoke. Because there were many new soldiers on the position, they had never been bombarded by the enemy. At this moment, when they saw dazzling fireballs rising everywhere on the position and rolling black smoke, they couldn't help but get into chaos. They ignored the shouts of commanders at all levels behind them, but ran around like headless flies until they were hit by German artillery shells and were blown to pieces; or they were hit by flying shrapnel, screaming and falling into a pool of blood.
After the shelling lasted for half an hour, it finally stopped. Andre immediately contacted the company commanders by phone and asked them to report the losses. Before the companies reported the losses, Andre saw more than a dozen German tanks lined up in an offensive formation from the observation hall, and were heading towards his position in a mighty manner. Behind the tank were groups of murderous German infantry.
Seeing this, Andrei did not care about the losses of the counting troops and quickly ordered the company commanders of each company: "Be prepared for combat immediately and fire immediately as soon as the enemy enters the range."
Then, he called Sokov's command. As soon as he heard Sokov's voice, he said excitedly: "Comrade Brigade Commander, the enemy has just launched a shelling of our camp for half an hour, causing us great losses. Now the German tanks and infantry have come up, and I ask the Brigade Department to provide artillery support and artillery support!"
"I will provide you with artillery fire support when the right time is right." Sokov said to Andre in a stern tone: "Your mission now is to defend your position at all costs. Do you understand?"
Chapter completed!