Sokov's troops unexpectedly occupied Donetsk and the Red Army Village, posing a threat to the German rear. As a result, the enemy's attack on the Kharkiv-Belgorod line weakened, and they were being beaten.
The unbearable Soviet army gained a precious breathing space.
Although Golikov's Voronezh Front had a large number of troops, they were too dispersed. Therefore, when the Kharkov-Belgorod line was attacked, he was unable to mobilize reserves for reinforcements. As the enemy's offensive weakened, he
Troops can be mobilized from areas where the fighting is not intense to support areas where the situation is critical.
Antonov called Golikov on Stalin's order: "General Golikov, Comrade Stalin asked me to ask you, with your current strength, can you hold the current defensive position?"
"Comrade Antonov," Golikov and Antonov were friends before the war, so they didn't have to worry about speaking: "If you ask this question in two days, I will definitely tell you,
We can't hold it. But now that Sokov's troops have established a foothold on the Donetsk-Red Army Village line, seriously threatening the German army's retreat, we have a much greater chance of holding the current area.
.”
"Is it possible to implement a counterattack?" Antonov asked tentatively: "If your troops can join forces with Sokov's troops, then the situation on the entire battlefield will become favorable to us and push the enemy towards us again.
On the other side of the Dnieper River, it is completely possible."
"Comrade Antonov, you should understand that the reason why our situation has become so bad is entirely because our troops have been far away from the logistics supply base." Golikov explained to Antonov: "If not
Without enough fuel and ammunition, our tanks and artillery will become a pile of scrap metal. When the enemy rushes over, all we can do is to blow up these technical equipment to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Germans.
"
"General Golikov, you should know that now that the German army has occupied Kursk, if we want to supply you from Moscow, we need to go around a long circle." Antonov said with a wry smile: "The distance of this circle is not big.
It's so close, and the roads and bridges have been damaged to varying degrees. It will take three days at the fastest for the supplies shipped from Moscow to arrive. If you can capture Kursk and open up this transportation line, our transportation time will be
, it can be shortened from the original three days to 28 hours.”
"If Sokov's troops are stationed near Kursk, I believe he has the ability to capture Kursk in a short time. After all, he commanded the troops to capture Kursk last year." Golikov
He said helplessly on the phone: "It's a pity that his troops are in Donetsk - the Red Army Village at the moment. They are too far away from us. With our current strength, it is impossible to liberate Kursk."
"That's such a pity." Antonov said to Golikov before hanging up the phone: "General Golikov, I think it is necessary to remind you that Major General Sokov's troops do not have us.
As powerful as we imagine, they may be able to hold the Germans back for a week or two, but if we want to completely crush the enemy, we still have to rely on you."
"Wait a minute, Comrade Antonov." Golikov noticed that Antonov was about to hang up the phone and quickly asked: "I want to ask, how is General Vatutin's Southwest Front?"
"What else can he do?" Antonov said with a wry smile: "His troops were defeated by the Germans. Although they retreated to a safe area to re-contain the troops, it is not possible to restore combat effectiveness in a short time."
"So, they won't be able to fight for at least a few months?" Golikov asked tentatively.
"Yes, General Golikov." After Antonov answered in a positive tone, he politely said: "I wish you good luck!" Before Golikov could say anything else, he hung up the phone.
.
"Chief of Staff," as soon as Golikov put down the phone, he called the Chief of Staff, Major General Korzhenevich, and asked, "How many reserves do we have on hand now?"
"Very few, Comrade Commander." Korzhenevich replied: "The reserves that can be used now are only two divisions, and they are divisions that have been greatly weakened after fierce battles. These forces are used in individual areas.
For defense, it is barely enough. But if you want to use it for offense, it is far from enough."
Seeing that the chief of staff had guessed his thoughts, Golikov couldn't help but smile bitterly and said: "Today's situation is really troublesome. If we carry out pure defense, we can certainly block the enemy's attack. But if we wait for the enemy to eliminate Sokov's
After the troops are released, they will re-concentrate their strength on our defensive areas. Whether we can stop them then, the situation is not optimistic."
"A few days ago, when we were in danger, Sokov's troops supported us in time, forcing the attacking Imperial Division to withdraw from the battle." Khrushchev interjected: "Now we are launching in the direction of Donetsk
The attacking enemies include not only the Imperial Division, but also the SS Division and the Totenkopf Division, which have also transferred their main forces. I'm worried that Sokov's troops will not be able to block the crazy attack of these three SS divisions."
"But what can we do, Comrade Khrushchev." Hearing what Khrushchev said, Golikov could only explain with a wry smile: "You just heard the chief of staff mention it, and now we have
There are only two greatly weakened infantry divisions. Using such strength for defense may be barely enough, but if it is used for offense, it is far from enough."
"Are we just going to watch Sokov's troops being wiped out by the enemy?" Khrushchev said displeasedly: "Are we going to wait until they have their hands free before they attack us again?"
Seeing that Khrushchev was angry, Golikov quickly explained: "Comrade Military Commissar, I think we should send a telegram to Sokov to understand the real situation there before deciding whether to send troops for reinforcements."
"Okay," Khrushchev nodded to Golikov's proposal and said, "Send a telegram to Sokov immediately and ask him how the situation is there."
…
When Sokov received the telegram from Golikov, the city was being bombed by the Germans. Sokov was in the basement, dictating the telegram to the telegraph operator: "...the Red Army village was being brutally bombed by the German Air Force.
I hope the front army headquarters can send aircraft to support us..."
When the telegraph operator was sending the message, Chief of Staff Vitkov handed him Golikov's telegram: "Comrade Commander, this is a telegram sent to you by General Golikov, commander of the Voronezh Front."
After reading the telegram, Sokov showed a faint smile. He said to Vitkov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the reason why General Golikov sent this telegram is that the current situation makes him a little hesitant. Continue to hold on.
Well, once the enemy eliminates us, they will turn around and deal with them. Send troops to reinforce us. Their troops are seriously short of supplies. I am afraid that the reinforcements will not reach the halfway point and will be killed by the enemy because they have run out of ammunition and food.
Seriously damaged or destroyed.”
"Then how should we reply to this message?" Vitkov asked Sokov: "We can't let them stand still, right?"
"Chief of Staff, please call General Golikov back." Sokov waited for Vitkov to finish and immediately expressed his opinion: "Let them take advantage of the favorable opportunity when the German attack weakens, seize the time to repair fortifications and improve defenses.
system to resist a new round of attacks that the German army may launch."
"What about us here?" Vitkov said in surprise: "Do we really not need the help of friendly forces?"
"We need friendly forces to attack, but that doesn't mean we need them to come over." Sokov explained to Vitkov: "As long as they can hold their current positions and launch one or two counterattacks against the enemy from time to time, they will be the most harmful to us.
support."
As the fighter group sent by Rokossovsky arrived, the German bombers that were bombing the city saw that the situation was not good and quickly turned around and retreated towards the west. Wherever the Soviet fighter planes were willing to let them go, they also
Followed by.
As soon as the bombing ended, Sokov came from the basement to the smoke-filled city streets. The streets were in chaos. Among the people running back and forth were both Sokov's men and the residents of the city. At this moment, they looked like
They were scurrying around like headless flies, instinctively running to wherever there were many people.
Sokov quickly came to the headquarters of the 41st Guards Division and asked Sidorin, who had just made a phone call: "How is the situation at the front?"
"The 125th Regiment has just repelled a German attack and is seizing the time to clean up the battlefield."
"What are the troop casualties like?"
"We haven't calculated the statistics yet." Sidorin replied: "But the number of casualties is about one-third."
Knowing that the casualties of the 125th Regiment actually reached one-third, Sokov couldn't help but feel a little bit in his heart. Unexpectedly, in just a few hours, the 125th Regiment lost one-third of its troops. If according to the
With this method of fighting, the entire army would be wiped out in less than two days. He thought to himself: If we fight outside the city without decent fortifications, we really can't fight this battle.
"Comrade Division Commander," Sidorin asked Sokov for instructions: "Do you want to order Colonel Bely's tank brigade to attack?"
"I think it's okay." The strategy originally designated by Sokov and Bely was that when the large German troops attacked the 125th Regiment's position, Bely's tank brigade unexpectedly rushed out from the side and destroyed the enemy's tanks and armored vehicles.
and infantry. However, after the battle started, because there were German aircraft lingering in the sky, Sokov was worried that sending troops as a surprise attack at this moment might kill the German pilots. Therefore, he remained silent. Now the enemy planes have been
Drive them away. Even if the entire tank brigade attacks, there is probably no need to worry about being attacked by air strikes. "When the enemy attacks again, order Colonel Bely to attack from the flank and teach these bandits a lesson."
The Germans, who had suffered losses with rocket launchers, appeared to be very cautious when they launched their attack again. Behind each tank, there were two armored vehicles passing. The machine gunners on the armored vehicles kept adjusting the direction of the muzzle, preparing to attack the target at all once they found it.
Shoot him without hesitation.
This tactic of the German army was able to restrain the Soviet anti-tank fighters. After all, when those soldiers wanted to fire rockets, they had to stand up from their hiding places and shoot in an upright or semi-crouched position. Usually they would shoot while shooting.
, which is the preferred target of the enemy machine gunner.
After losing several anti-tank groups, Yershakov realized the insidiousness of the German tactics. In order to prevent more soldiers from paying unnecessary sacrifices, he adjusted the tactics and had sharpshooters hide in the craters to snipe and kill those tanks.
If the machine gunner emerges and kills the machine gunner on the armored vehicle, the German tanks will lose their cover, which will help the soldiers use rocket launchers to destroy enemy targets within the range.
Seeing that their offensive tactics were ineffective, the Germans immediately stopped the attack, withdrew their troops and made readjustments. Two hours later, they launched a new attack again. This time the troops entering the battle consisted of twelve vehicles.
Composed of tanks and thirty armored vehicles, they lined up at a time, divided into four rows, and rushed towards the Soviet position.
When the enemy was less than 500 meters away from the trench, a green signal flare rose into the sky. The tank brigade, which had been preparing for the attack, immediately launched its tanks and roared towards the side of the German attacking force.
The field of vision in the tanks is very narrow. The reason why they dare to attack the Soviet positions is entirely because they are covered by armored vehicles full of soldiers behind them. The machine guns on the armored vehicles and the soldiers in the vehicles can easily destroy the Russian anti-tanks.
hand.
But what the Germans didn't expect was that dozens of Soviet tanks piled with snow quickly rushed towards the German offensive troops from the side. Although there was a Tiger tank among them, its side armor could not stop the Soviet troops.
Attacked by the army's 85mm tank cannon, they were hit one after another and burst into flames, burning brightly on the wasteland.
When the soldiers on the armored vehicles saw the Soviet tanks rushing from the side, they would either use machine guns to shoot at them, or they would choose the vehicle, find a crater to hide, and shoot at the Soviet tanks rushing towards them.
Although bullets fired from different weapons clanged against the armor plates, they did not slow down the advance of the Soviet tanks at all. Some tank crews stopped one or two hundred meters away from the German armored vehicles and bombarded them with tank guns.
At such a close distance, the German armored vehicles were a ready target for the tank crews.
Some armored vehicles were directly bombarded into a ball of fire. Soldiers who did not have time to jump out of the vehicle were either killed on the spot or burned alive. Some armored vehicles saw that the situation was not good and were about to turn around and escape, but were driven over.
The tank overturned and the soldiers in the vehicle were killed or injured.
The tank following behind saw that its comrades actually used a collision method to deal with the German armored vehicles. They immediately imitated the example and drove the tank directly to rush over, knocking the armored vehicle over directly, and used machine guns to shoot at the soldiers who jumped out of the vehicle.