The tank team sent by Director Peter wandered around the assembly workshop for several times, which made the German scouts hiding from a distance and observing with an illusion that they had received reinforcements from at least one tank brigade.
Lieutenant General Sangne, the commander of the 100th Hunter Division, saw that he had launched two attacks on the north side of the factory, ended in failure. When he was gathering troops to prepare for another attack, the chief of staff of the division came over with a telegram and reported to him: "Your Excellency the Division Commander, you have just received a report from the scouts. The Russians sent an additional tank brigade to the assembly workshop north of the factory."
"What, the Russians sent an additional tank brigade?" Sanne received the telegram, and after reading the above content, he frowned and asked, "Our artillery and air force kept shelling and bombing the Volga River. How did their tank troops cross the river?"
Faced with Sanne's doubts, the Chief of Staff shrugged his shoulders, spread his hands, and said helplessly: "I'm sorry, Master Division, I don't think I can answer your question. However, the scouts carefully lost the number of tanks of the Russians to the Russians, and came to this conclusion. I think the news that the Russians sent a tank brigade to the assembly workshop should be trustworthy."
"How could this happen?" After hearing the Chief of Staff of the Division, Sanne frowned and said, "On the way to the north, the 24th Armored Division was attacked by Russian artillery fire. Due to heavy casualties, they were unable to come to cooperate with us. And here the Russians sent another tank brigade. It seems that the battle here in the Red October Factory is not easy to fight."
"Secretary Commander!" Chief of Staff asked respectfully: "What should we do next?"
"Order the troops on the north side of the factory to stand by." Sanne ordered the division chief of staff: "Target all artillery at residential areas, find a way to eliminate the Russian Guard Division entrenched in this area first, and then turn around to deal with the Russians inside the factory."
"I understand," Chief of Staff quickly agreed, "I'll give orders now."
Because Sanne ordered the direction of the attack to be adjusted, the German army in the north of the factory did not launch a new round of attack before dark. Seeing that the enemy stopped attacking, Ballsak and Cousto had new ideas. They found Sokov to discuss: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, since the Germans are not attacking, we might as well go sneak attack at night. Even if we cannot cause major losses to the enemy, it can disrupt their attack steps."
"Nonsense, it's simply nonsense." After hearing the two of them's proposals, Sokov immediately denied it: "We have no idea about the enemy's defense situation and how many troops we have, so we rashly launched sneak attacks. Maybe in the end, the enemy failed to eliminate them, but instead lost all our only strength."
Although his proposal was rejected by Sokov, Ballshaq still said unwillingly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, our workers are very familiar with the terrain of this area. Even if the night attack cannot achieve any results, they can escape unscathed."
"Major Ballshak," Sokov was worried that Ballshak would secretly take the soldiers of the destroyer battalion to sneak attack the German army with him on his back, so he specifically reminded him: "The Germans suffered our losses during the day and would definitely dream of revenge. I think the reason why they did not launch an attack later may be that they were confused by the fake tank troops we sent, so they dare not act rashly. I can tell you clearly now that the enemy must have deployed a lot of scouts outside the factory area, and are secretly monitoring us. If you want to lead troops to sneak attack, maybe just after leaving the factory, the Germans will know that you have set out and they can set up a trap before you can jump into it."
After listening to Sokov's words, Ballshax thought for a long time and felt that what the other party said made sense, so he nodded and said, "Okay, Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, I think you convinced me, so you will cancel the sneak attack plan."
"Comrade in the workshop," Sokov shouted at Cousto after seeing Ballshaq give up his adventurous night attack plan, "I have something to leave to you to complete."
"Please give me instructions, comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Cousto said respectfully: "We will definitely complete the tasks you assigned us well."
Sokov raised his hand and pointed at the roof, saying, "Comrade in the workshop, the anti-aircraft gun position on the roof is no longer usable, but the remaining four anti-aircraft guns are always a hidden danger. Once the building is subjected to a huge shock, the roof may collapse. If the anti-aircraft gun falls from above, it is very likely to smash the soldiers who are staying below to death. Therefore, I beg you to send professionals to dismantle the anti-aircraft guns and put them down from the roof."
The reason why Sokov issued such an order was to consider dismantling anti-aircraft guns, which was a trivial matter for the workers in the assembly workshop, and it was not difficult. Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, Cousto nodded and said, "Don't worry, comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I immediately sent skilled workers and crane workers to the roof and put down the anti-aircraft guns left on it."
"Comrade in the workshop, if the roof collapses, it will kill people." Sokov reminded Cousto: "So when the roof is being constructed, remember to evacuate the staff below."
When Cousto arranged for workers to go up the roof and dismantle the anti-aircraft guns, Ballshaq asked tentatively: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, after these four anti-aircraft guns were put down from the roof, do you still plan to use them as anti-tank guns?"
"Yes, Major Ballshak." Sokov nodded and said with certainty: "Although anti-aircraft guns must be within a distance of four hundred meters before they can penetrate the frontal armor of German tanks, it is better than having our soldiers rush up with explosive bags and cluster grenades to blow up the tank."
Cousto sent the best workers to the roof to dismantle anti-aircraft guns. Because he was afraid of exposing his target, he attracted German shelling or night bombings. Before dismantling, the workers first covered the anti-aircraft guns with canvas, then hid inside the canvas, and used the lighting of flashlights to dismantle the parts of the anti-aircraft guns.
This kind of thing is easy to say, but it is not so simple to do. Four groups of people were working at the same time, and it took nearly two hours to dismantle the four anti-aircraft guns into parts. Just as the crane was planning to use simple equipment to put these parts down from the roof, a fire suddenly rose up in the direction close to the wall, and then a dull explosion sounded.
Sokov, who was talking to Ballshak in the corner of the factory, heard the explosion and stood up suddenly, looked at the direction where the fire appeared, frowned and said, "Someone stepped on the landmine."
Ballsak also heard the explosion, and he stood up and looked towards the wall of the factory. However, because the light was too dark, he only saw a piece of black dust and could not see anything clearly. He asked Sokov tentatively: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, is it a sneak attack force sent by the German army?"
Sokov listened, but heard nothing. He shook his head and replied, "There was only one explosion. It seemed that it was not a sneak attack force sent by the Germans. It might be a few scouts or engineers who accidentally stepped on the mines buried by us."
"Do you need to issue a combat alarm?" Ballsack learned that it might be the enemy who entered the factory, and asked nervously: "If it is really a sneak attack force sent by the Germans, we can give them a head-on attack."
Headache? Hearing Ballshak say this word, Sokov couldn't help but smile bitterly. He thought to himself: According to the combat effectiveness of the fight against the fighter battalion and the militia, in the night war, the counter-assault will probably fall into chaos due to poor command. If one fights with one's own people, it will be more than worth the loss.
At best, the German scouts were several German soldiers, and even the hares who had run over. In order to explode, they called all the soldiers to prepare for battle, which was too much of a problem. Sokov once again rejected Ballshaq's proposal: "No need, let the observation post and the machine gun on duty pay attention to it, and confirm that there are enemies close to the factory, it is not too late to shoot again."
After more than ten minutes, an explosion sounded again more than 100 meters away from the factory. The observation post fired a flare, illuminating the open space in front of the position as day. They carefully observed the surrounding environment with the help of the light of the flare, hoping to find the enemy close to it. However, until the flare was extinguished, they did not find any moving objects on the open space.
When Sokov received a call from an observation post, he couldn't help frowning when he learned that he had not noticed his movements. He thought to himself, it was a damn thing. Two landmines were detonated in succession, but he did not find that the enemy was approaching the position. What was going on?
To be safe, he immediately said to the observation post: "Try two more flares and notify the machine gun on duty to shoot immediately once a suspicious target is found."
The observation post agreed and soon fired two flares into the air to observe the situation in front of the position. Sokov found a hidden place, raised his telescope, and carefully checked the situation in front of the position with the help of the light emitted by the flares. During the daytime battle, many German soldiers were killed on the position, and now their bodies were lying in the open space. Sokov used the telescope to sweep the corpses back and forth twice, but found no abnormalities.
Just as he moved the telescope to another direction, he suddenly shook his whole body, feeling that the corpses lying in the open space seemed to be more than they could see during the day. He pointed the telescope at the corpses again, and began to count them patiently. After counting for a while, he found that at least twenty more corpses were found.
The flares were extinguished, and Sokov felt that the light outside the factory was dimmer than just now. He quickly picked up the phone next to him and took over the observation post. He shouted to the microphone: "In the German corpses that were shot during the day, there should be living German soldiers hiding, and immediately ordered the machine gun to shoot at these corpses."
After receiving Sokov's order, the observation post immediately fired a flare again. At the same time, the machine gun on duty also sounded, and the dark red flame mouth was like a fire whip, harshly sucking the corpses lying on the ground. The corpses that were shot in front were bounced up and down by bullets. However, Sokov discovered that a corpse was moved not far away and quickly rolled into a nearby bullet crater.
"My God, there are really Germans approaching." Sokov saw the body rolling into the crater next to him, and confirmed that an enemy was secretly approaching the factory. He quickly called Brisky and said to him: "Comrade Captain, there are unknown German soldiers approaching your position. Immediately organize the soldiers and destroy this enemy."
"I understand, comrade comrade commander." Brisky and Sokov finished speaking, immediately expressed his opinion: "I will immediately organize people and eliminate all the Germans that have been touched."
Shortly after putting down the phone, the gunshots outside the factory became denser. Since the enemy was hiding, more than 100,200 meters away from the Soviet position, the grenades could not be thrown so far. Brisky ordered the only two 82mm mortars in the battalion to shell the enemy's position.
The German soldiers who came to touch were very cunning. Instead of shooting back immediately, they hid in the bullet craters to avoid the bullets fired by the Soviet army. Some experienced soldiers quickly climbed out of the bullet crater while the Soviet soldiers changed their magazines, rolled into another crater, and approached the Soviet positions step by step.
Sokov heard gunfire and explosions outside, but through the telescope, the effect was not obvious, so he called Brisky again and said angrily: "Comrade Captain, what did you do? Before the enemy's shadow was seen, you just shoot desperately. Don't you know that our ammunition reserves are limited? Once the bullets are exhausted and the enemy rushed up, what should you do? Are you fighting with them for bayonets?"
Brisky, who was scolded by Sokov, quickly ordered the soldiers to stop shooting, but only asked the sharpshooters to shoot at the suspicious corpses, hoping to eliminate the German soldiers disguised as corpses in this way.
However, the Germans seemed to be prepared. After seeing the shooting on the Soviet positions became sparse, they threw grenades one after another. The grenades fell on the open space and exploded, and the smoke generated blocked the defenders' sight. The Germans took advantage of this short time to jump from the crater, jumped quickly into another crater, and then threw grenades... In this way, the Germans used this tactic and rushed to less than fifty meters away from the position in just two or three minutes.
Chapter completed!