Uzakov did not answer immediately. Instead, he grabbed the submachine gun placed on the table, put on a steel helmet, and said to the chief of staff: "Let the first battalion commander pay attention, and I will go outside to take a look."
Hearing that the brigade commander wanted to go outside to take a look, the chief of staff grabbed his hand and said anxiously: "Comrade brigade commander, it's too dangerous outside. It's better to let others figure out the situation."
"Chief of Staff, if I don't understand the enemy situation outside, how can I command the battle?" Uzakov knew that the Chief of Staff was worried about his own safety, so he comforted him and said, "Don't worry, I just went to the bell tower of the church.
Won’t go outside the town.”
Although Uzakov had already stated that he would not go outside the town, the chief of staff was still worried and called a guard platoon leader when he went out and ordered him to lead someone to protect Uzakov's safety.
Uzhakov came to the bell tower of the church, raised his binoculars and looked at the area of firefight.
Since the moon had been obscured by dark clouds, he, like the soldiers who were on guard duty outside the town, could only see the muzzle flash when the gun was fired, and could not see how many enemies there were at all.
Uzakov thought for a while, then turned around and told the guard platoon leader standing behind him: "Comrade platoon leader, go back immediately and tell the chief of staff and ask him to order the battalion commander to launch illumination bombs."
"Fire flares?!" Upon hearing Uzakov's order, the guard platoon leader froze.
"Comrade platoon leader, why are you standing there in a daze?" Seeing the guard platoon leader standing still, Uzhakov said with a bit of laughter and laughter: "Now I can't see the enemy's situation clearly at all, and I can't command the battle. Let's.
The first battalion immediately launches flares, and I can figure out the enemy's strength and distribution, so that I can make correct judgments."
The guard platoon leader responded, turned around and ran down the bell tower.
A few minutes later, Uzakov heard a faint banging sound above his head, and at the same moment, a dim white light illuminated everything around him. He quickly raised his telescope and looked toward
Looking at the place where the firefight was taking place, I could see five or six black figures lying in the ravine on the left, shooting from time to time. On the right, in the open space more than thirty meters away, there were several corpses lying in random directions.
The remaining people were lying on the ground, firing back at the enemy.
Just when he was about to put down the telescope and turn around to return to the command post, he unexpectedly saw a group of black figures in the distance through the telescope lens, bending over and running towards the fighting area.
"Damn it, are the Germans adding reinforcements again?" Uzhakov thought to himself, and moved his eyes closer to the camera again, carefully observing the group of approaching black figures.
The black figures seen by Uzakov were the soldiers led by the deputy company commander. They came to support their comrades who were encountered nearby. Just when the deputy company commander felt that the light was too dark and could not see clearly where the enemy was,
However, two flares rose in the sky, clearly illuminating the Germans' hiding position. Now that they could clearly see the enemy's position, they quickly found bunkers and shot at the promising targets.
The German soldiers who carried out the ambush never imagined that a small force would emerge from behind them. According to their thinking, even if the Soviet army wanted to support them, the reinforcements would come from the town, so there were dedicated people monitoring the direction of the town.
But unexpectedly, the enemy actually appeared from himself.
In just a few minutes, three soldiers were shot to death. The remaining three soldiers hid in the ravine and kept changing their positions to shoot, so that the deputy company commander and others did not dare to approach easily.
Seeing this situation, Uzakov turned around and walked down the bell tower and returned to his command post. He picked up the phone and said to the first battalion commander: "First battalion commander, have you clearly seen the enemy's location?"
"Yes, Comrade Brigade Commander." A battalion commander quickly replied: "You can see it very clearly."
"Now that you have clearly seen the position of the Germans, what are you still doing?" Uzhakov said loudly into the microphone: "Kill them all with mortars immediately."
After receiving the order, the battalion commander immediately ordered the mortar platoon to set up only six mortars and bombard the enemy's hiding position. The shells flew past, landed beside a ditch, and exploded.
Black smoke mixed with soil rose into the sky.
The mortar gunner's shooting speed was very fast. The shell over there had just hit the ground, and the new shell over here had already been fired. The shell exploded and caused countless mud balls to rise into the sky.
on the German soldiers inside.
Seeing that the enemy was suppressed by artillery fire and unable to move in the ravine, the first battalion commander quickly sent out another platoon of soldiers, carrying two machine guns, and went forward to a position less than fifty meters away from the ravine.
The enemy cannot escape.
When one of the German soldiers was unfortunately directly hit by an artillery shell, his body was scattered in pieces by the blast of air. The other soldier was frightened. He quickly raised his hands in the air, stood up from the ravine, and shouted loudly.
: "Stop firing, surrender, I surrender!"
However, his shouts were covered up by the rumbling sound of artillery, and the surrounding Soviet soldiers could not hear his shouts at all. On the contrary, the machine gunner not far away saw a German soldier emerging from the ravine.
He immediately pulled the trigger on him. After a burst of intense gunfire, the German soldier was hit by more than a dozen bullets and fell on his back in the ravine.
Mortars fired more than ten rounds at a time, and the ravine area was shrouded in black smoke. Seeing this, the first battalion commander knew that the enemy was almost dead, so he issued the order to attack.
When soldiers from the first battalion rushed forward, they found only six German corpses in the ravine, and not a single one alive.
When the deputy company commander saw that the enemy had been eliminated, he stood up, walked over, and asked the soldiers loudly: "Brothers, I am the deputy company commander of the third battalion and ninth company. Which part do you belong to?"
"We are in the first battalion." A sergeant came over and said to the deputy company commander: "I will take you to see our battalion commander."
After meeting the first battalion commander, the deputy company commander followed the first battalion commander to Uzakov's command post.
"Comrade Deputy Company Commander," Uzakov asked after waiting for the Deputy Company Commander to reveal his identity, "Why did you come back to town overnight? Did something happen?"
"Yes, Comrade Brigade Commander." The deputy company commander reported to Uzakov: "There were Germans sneak attack on our position. The company commander was worried that the enemy might have some conspiracy, so he ordered me to come back overnight to report to you." Then,
He made a detailed report to Uzakov about how he accidentally discovered two groups of enemies while sleeping in the village.
After listening to the deputy company commander's report, Uzakov said thoughtfully: "Comrade deputy company commander, if according to what you just said, the enemies who bypass your defense line are two parts, and one part goes to sneak attack your position.
They were eliminated by you. But the other part quietly came outside the town, are you planning to attack our headquarters?"
"Comrade Brigade Commander, I don't think so." Regarding Uzakov's statement, the Chief of Staff shook his head and retorted: "If they are planning to attack our headquarters, I don't think they will be able to do so when the deputy company commander and others appear.
, they rashly opened fire to expose their target. There were only six of them, while we had more than 3,000 people. It would be too far-fetched to use six people to deal with more than 3,000 people. Therefore, I think their purpose of coming was,
It’s not a sneak attack on the headquarters.”
While the two were analyzing the reasons for the appearance of German soldiers outside the town, the phone on the table rang. The chief of staff picked it up and listened for a moment, then quickly handed the phone to Uzakov and said respectfully: "Comrade Brigade Commander,
It's a call from the commander."
Uzhakov took the phone and put it to his ear. Sure enough, he heard Sokov's voice coming from inside: "Lieutenant Colonel Uzhakov, someone reported to me that they heard the news from Yakovsky where you are.
There were gunshots and cannon fire from the direction of Wo Town. What is going on and why didn't you report it to me?"
"Comrade Commander, only a few German soldiers have been eliminated by us." Faced with Sokov's doubts, Uzakov said with a smile: "I think you must have fallen asleep, so there is no reason for this."
Little things bother you."
Uzakov's guess was correct. Sokov had already fallen asleep, but was woken up by Chief of Staff Samyko. The latter reported to him: "Comrade Commander, I just received a report from the observation post.
There were gunfire and artillery sounds from the direction of Yakovlevo, and it seemed like a battle was going on."
In order to facilitate the command of operations, Sokov's headquarters has been moved from the Pushol River to a place less than five kilometers away from the town of Yakovlevo. In the dead of night, gunfire and gunshots can indeed be heard from the direction of the town.
Explosion.
Since the town of Yakovlevo is the closest stronghold to the enemy, Sokov is very concerned about everything that happens there. After learning that there were gunshots and explosions coming from the direction of the town, Sokov quickly asked Samyko
: "Do you have any report from Lieutenant Colonel Uzakov?"
"No." Samyko shook his head and said, "Lieutenant Colonel Uzakov didn't call."
The war was imminent, and any small negligence might lead to a big mistake. Sokov, who knew this truth well, took the initiative to call Uzakov and asked what happened outside the town.
After listening to Uzhakov's detailed report, he frowned and thought for a while, then asked: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what do you think these Germans lurking outside your town want to do?"
Uzakov was stunned by Sokov's words. After a long time, he murmured: "Comrade Commander, I think this should be a German scout. In order to find out our deployment, he even prepared
Capture some sentries."
"Since you think they are scouts, have you found the radio they used?" Sokov asked.
Hearing Sokov's question, Uzakov quickly covered the microphone with his hand and asked the battalion commander standing nearby: "First battalion commander, after you eliminated those enemies, did you find the radio they carried.
"
"No." The battalion commander shook his head and replied, "It's too dark outside, and we didn't find any radio stations."
"Immediately arrange manpower to search, and we must find the enemy's radio station. Move quickly!" After assigning the task to the first battalion commander, Uzakov released his hand covering the microphone and said to Sokov: "Commander
Comrade, I have ordered my subordinates to go to where the Germans are hiding to search for the radios they carry. I believe it won’t take long to get results.”
After listening to Uzakov's report, Sokov always felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't tell what was wrong for a while, so he began to think hard.
When Uzhakov heard no one speaking on the receiver, he thought Sokov had hung up the phone. But after listening carefully, he could vaguely hear the voice of someone speaking in the opposite headquarters. He could only wait patiently and think
Hear what Sokov has planned next.
I don't know how much time passed, but Sokov still couldn't figure it out. He said into the microphone: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, how many troops have you deployed at the outpost you established in the south of the town?"
"There are more than a hundred people in one company." Uzhakov replied: "Their deputy company commander is in front of me now."
"The deputy company commander is in front of you?" When Uzakov reported to Sokov just now, he mentioned that the deputy company commander came back from the outpost to report, but Sokov did not take it to heart at all, but this time
At that moment, he felt something was wrong: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, if something happens at the outpost, I can contact you by phone. Why would the deputy company commander of the company go to the town to report the situation to you in person?"
"Comrade Commander, the situation is like this." Upon hearing Sokov's question, Uzakov replied with some embarrassment: "Due to the severe shortage of communication equipment in our brigade, we did not lay telephone lines for the outposts.
Therefore, after the German sneak attack occurred, the deputy company commander could only come back and report to me in person."
When Sokov heard this, he immediately understood that something was wrong. He quickly said into the microphone: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, if my judgment is correct, the enemy lurking outside your town is not a scout and has no plans."
Attack your headquarters. Their mission is to cut off the connection between the outpost and you."
"Ah, the enemy's mission is to cut off the connection between the outpost and us?" Uzakov asked puzzledly: "Why would the enemy do this?"
Uzhakov's reply caused a hint of anger to appear on Sokov's face: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, don't you understand yet? Since there is no telephone contact between you and the outpost, if anything happens, you can only communicate through communication
Soldiers came to deliver the message.
As long as the enemy cuts off the connection between you, then even if they occupy the outpost, you will not know it. At that time, the enemy can use the outpost as the starting point for the attack and launch an attack on the town of Yakovlevo where you are stationed. You
Understand?"
"No way?!" Sokov's words scared Uzakov out of his wits, but he still took a chance and said: "The Germans have just been defeated by our army, how could they do anything?"
As soon as Uzhakov finished speaking, a dull sound came from outside, which frightened him. This time, he didn't bother to cover the microphone with his hand, and couldn't wait to ask: "What is the sound?"
The deputy company commander on the side said quickly: "It sounds a bit like the sound of artillery."
"The sound of gunfire? Where did it come from?"
The chief of staff said in an uncertain tone: "The sound seems to be coming from the direction of the outpost."
Before Uzhakov could speak again, several more dull loud noises came from outside, and then the sounds became denser and clearer, making the people in the command post tremble. They were all commanders with rich combat experience.
Naturally, one can hear the constant noises, which are obviously shelling.
Sokov also heard the voice on the phone and quickly asked: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what happened?"
"Report to comrade brigade commander," Uzakov replied in a panic: "It should be the enemy shelling our outpost."
"Hell!" Sokov couldn't help but become impatient when he learned that the outpost was bombarded by the enemy: "Then why don't you send troops to reinforce them quickly? Are you going to wait until they are wiped out by the enemy before sending troops?"
"No, Comrade Commander." Uzakov was frightened by Sokov and was a little incoherent: "I will immediately assemble the troops, send people to conduct reconnaissance, figure out the Germans' intentions, and then send troops to reinforce."