The two forces quickly joined forces. After they eliminated the German troops who were blocking the north gate, they protected the residents who escaped from the sea of fire and hurriedly evacuated outside the city.
Prochenko and Vanya left the city through the north gate. When they turned back, they found that the entire north of the city had turned into a sea of fire. Although they were far apart, they still felt waves of heat rushing towards them, and their whole bodies felt burning pain. Again
Looking at the soldiers and residents who escaped from the city with him, he found that they were all in a smoky and miserable state.
Thinking of those subordinates who died in the fire and the residents of the city, Prochenko's eyes turned red. He raised his hand and wiped it on his face, cursing and said: "Damn it, even from such a distance, the smoke is still so thick
Smoky eyes."
Next to him, Vanya felt like a mirror, but he refused to expose it. He did not expose Prochenko's lies in public, but echoed: "Yes, the fire was so strong that the smoke made my eyes blur."
Can’t open it.”
"Colonel Prochenko," a lieutenant colonel in the distance walked towards the two of them and asked from a long distance away, "Are you okay?"
"Lieutenant Colonel Ivan, thank you for your concern." It was clear that the person coming was Lieutenant Colonel Ivan, the leader of the 764th Regiment. After a long sigh, Prochenko said sadly: "But many of my subordinates and residents have stayed.
In the city."
Ivan looked at the burning city and said through gritted teeth: "Damn Germans, they burned countless innocent residents to death with this fire. Sooner or later we will get back this blood debt from them."
After saying this, Lieutenant Colonel Ivan said to Prochenko: "Comrade Colonel, the division commander has an order to take you to see him once you are rescued."
Prochenko suffered such a big loss and was originally embarrassed to see Shechtman, but when he heard what Ivan said, he did not dare to disobey his order. He could only bite the bullet and said to Vanya: "Chief of Staff, I
Go see the division commander, you stay here to take care of the troops."
Just when Vanya agreed and was about to stay, he heard Ivan say: "Chief of Staff Vanya, the division commander asked you to follow Colonel Prochenko."
Hearing what Ivan said, Vanya readily agreed, but Prochenko's heart began to beat: his troops were attacked by German fire and were driven out of the city. At this time, the division commander saw
Are you planning to take yourself to a military court?
With such questions, Prochenko followed Ivan to the location of the division headquarters.
When he saw Prochenko and others walking into the headquarters, Colonel Billing took the initiative to greet them, shook hands with everyone one by one, and said, "Thank you for your hard work, comrades!"
Shechtman came to Prochenko, looked at this subordinate who was as black as a kitchen king, slapped the other man's arm with both hands, and said excitedly: "Comrade Prochenko, I feel relieved to see that you are still alive.
Already."
"I'm sorry, Comrade Commander." Prochenko lowered his head and said with a look of shame: "I only took a small number of soldiers and residents of the city to evacuate. The rest either died in the sea of fire or fell to the ground.
Under the enemy's gun."
"I know, I know." Shechtman sighed and said: "Comrade Commander has long reminded me that I should worry about any conspiracy by the Germans. I thought he was neurotic. Unexpectedly, his judgment was
Correct, the enemy retreated so quickly when facing our attack just to dig a hole for us to jump into.
Comrade Prochenko, I'm sorry for you, the soldiers who died and the residents of the city. If I could have followed the commander's order and strengthened the security in the city, maybe such a tragedy would not have happened."
As soon as Shechtman finished speaking, Vanya intervened and said: "Comrade division commander, the enemy has already planned to set fire to the city. No matter how good our security work is, it will be difficult to prevent the enemy from setting fire."
Seeing the surprised expression on Shechtman's face, Vanya continued: "When I was blocked at the north gate, I went to the roof with the regiment commander to observe the enemy's situation. I found that the enemy was using a flamethrower.
They set fires, and they also placed oil barrels in many buildings, so that as soon as they started setting fires, the fires could spread in a very short period of time, causing huge casualties to us who were downwind."
"The enemy is really too cunning." Shechtman said through gritted teeth: "Sooner or later we will recover this blood debt from the Germans and make them pay back ten times a hundred times for the crimes they committed today."
"Comrade Division Commander," the Chief of Staff came over from the side and handed the telegram he just received to Shechtman: "This is the telegram just sent by Comrade Commander."
"A telegram from Comrade Commander?" Knowing that it was a telegram from Sokov, Shechtman did not dare to neglect this time and quickly looked at it carefully. The content of the telegram was very simple, which was to order Shechtman
Withdraw all troops from the city immediately to avoid unnecessary losses.
After reading the telegram, Shechtman showed an annoyed look on his face. The reason why things have developed to this point is because he underestimated the enemy. He handed the telegram in his hand to Colonel Billing and said with a wry smile: "Comrade Political Commissar
, take a look at the telegram from Comrade Commander. He said that in order to avoid unnecessary losses, the troops in the city should be withdrawn as soon as possible. If I had listened to him earlier and withdrawn all the troops in the city, I am afraid that I would have suffered as much as I did now.
The loss will be much smaller."
"Comrade division commander, now is not the time to regret." The chief of staff reminded Shechtman, "The troops in the north of our city paid a huge price under the German fire attack. I am worried that when the fire weakens later,
The Germans will take the opportunity to attack, should we prepare for battle?"
Shechtman felt that what the Chief of Staff said was very reasonable. Considering that there were very few soldiers left in the 762nd Regiment, he decided to hand over the defense task to Lieutenant Colonel Ivan’s 764th Regiment: "Lieutenant Colonel Ivan
, order your men to move to defense on the spot and be ready to meet the German attack at any time."
"Understood, comrade division commander." Lieutenant Colonel Ivan replied resoundingly: "Our regiment promises to complete the tasks assigned to us by our superiors."
…………
Besides, Sokov, who was far away in October Town, couldn't help but become anxious since he received the news that the Germans had set fire to the city and that the commanders and fighters of a regiment were trapped behind the enemy's rear. He called Samyko to him and asked him:
: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the enemy has launched a fire attack on our troops occupying the north of the city. Do you have any good ideas?"
"No." Sameko shook his head and said with a wry smile: "Delgach is an ancient city. There are a large number of wooden houses in the city. As long as there is a fire, the entire street is usually swallowed up by the fire. We
The only thing we can do is to withdraw the troops from the city, and we will count every one we can."
"Especially tonight, the wind is very strong. If the enemy really sets fire, even if we give the order to retreat in time, it is still unknown how many people can escape safely."
"Chief of Staff, what you just said is right: if you can withdraw one by one, it will save seeds for our army." After Sokov said this, he ordered Samyko: "Send electricity to Shechtman immediately.
Report, ordering them not to launch a counterattack into the city, but to find a way to rescue the trapped troops."
After Samyko waited for Sokov to finish speaking, he immediately asked: "Do we need to order Major General Gritsenko's 384th Division to quickly approach Dergach to support the troops there?"
"Wait a minute, Comrade Chief of Staff, under the current circumstances, Major General Gritsenko's troops are not suitable to rush to Dergach immediately." When Sokov said this, he saw a look of confusion on Samyko's face.
With an expression on his face, he explained: "Since the enemy launched a fire attack on our troops entering the city overnight, they will take a series of actions next. If Major General Gritsenko's troops also gathered in Dergach's city
Outside, it is very likely to be surrounded by German troops."
"No way, Comrade Commander." Regarding Sokov's statement, Samyko expressed doubts: "You know, our main force is attacking the Kharkov defense zone, and the enemy simply cannot draw out enough
With our four divisions holding together, we cannot defeat the enemy with their existing strength."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, as commanders, we must not underestimate the enemy." Sokov reminded the other party: "You must know that General Kenff of the German Army is not an ordinary general. He has rich command experience and knows how to
Use tactics. Otherwise, our several armies will not be able to stop his combat group outside Prokhorovka."
Sokov's words made Samyko sober up. He understood that the reason why he despised the enemy so much may be related to the fact that the army has been invincible since the Battle of Kursk. Any powerful enemy is in front of the 27th Army.
It was vulnerable, and countless victories made Sameko inevitably have the idea of underestimating the enemy. He thought that General Kenf's troops were still the same as those German troops that they had fought against before. As long as the commanders and soldiers fought fiercely, they would be defeated.
It will be beaten to pieces.
After realizing his mistake, Samyko quickly apologized to Sokov: "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, it was me who was carried away by the consecutive victories and felt unnecessary underestimation of the enemy. I will give it to Gerry right now.
Major General Cenko sent a telegram ordering their troops to temporarily stop their advance and switch to defense on the spot to prepare for possible counterattacks by the German army."
After listening to Samek's thoughts, Sokov showed a smile on his face: "Comrade Chief of Staff, that's right. Only when we don't underestimate the enemy can we truly defeat the enemy. By the way, Poluboyaro
Where is General Husband's tank corps?"
"General Polubyarov's tank brigade covered the 254th Division's rush into Dergach during the day, then stopped fighting and retreated to peripheral positions to rest."
When Lunev heard what Samyko said, he couldn't help but asked curiously: "Comrade Chief of Staff, can I ask, why do the tanks of the Tank Army not participate in street fighting, but have to retreat to peripheral positions? It is because of insufficient fuel and ammunition.
?"
"Comrade Military Commissar," Seeing Lunev being full of curiosity about this issue, Samyko explained to him: "The streets in Dergach are too narrow and there are many wooden buildings. If our tanks participate in street fighting
, as long as one tank after another is destroyed by the enemy, then our tank column can only stop like a dead snake on the street and be attacked by German anti-tank fighters from all directions, and finally turn into piles of burning waste.
iron."
Lunev, who figured out what was going on, nodded thoughtfully and said, "So, not only are we unable to use tanks in the city, but the enemy is also unable to use tanks?"
"Comrade Military Commissar, that's not necessarily the case." Sokov interrupted: "Our tanks are attacking, and they may be attacked at any time from the buildings on both sides of the road. The enemy's tanks are used for defense.
They can hide in places we never thought of and attack our troops with tank guns or machine guns, causing us huge casualties.
If we only attack with infantry, the new rockets and rockets possessed by our soldiers can destroy the enemy's fire points and hidden tanks. After clearing the enemies in the city, we will put the tanks into battle to participate in the attack on Halko
husband's attack."
Speaking of Kharkov, Lunev remembered another key thing: "Comrade Commander, according to the original plan, our troops should capture Dergach during the day today, but the Germans came like this.
Launching a fire attack will completely disrupt our plan. In this case, can we still meet up with the 98th Guards Division on time and seize the bridge over the Oude River?"
Lunev's concerns are also what Sokov is worried about now. The Germans are not stupid. The 98th Guards Division pretends to be the enemy and lurks behind enemy lines. Over time, it will inevitably be exposed, which will lead to its own plan to seize the bridge.
Failure was imminent. If the bridge over the Oude River could not be captured, the only option would be to organize troops to force a crossing, and the casualties would definitely be far beyond what one imagined.
"Comrade Commander," Seeing Sokov lost in thought, Samyko said cautiously: "Since the 98th Guards Division is in danger of being exposed, it's better for us to take the risk."
"Taking risks?!" Sokov looked at Samyko and asked, "How to take risks?"
"While the attention of Combat Group Kenf was attracted by our army in Dergach, Colonel Chuvashov was ordered to organize troops to capture the bridge on the Oud River by surprise."
"What happens after the bridge is captured, my comrade chief of staff?" Sokov asked noncommittally: "Are they ordered to hold on there until the main force arrives?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander, that's how I think about it." Sameko replied truthfully: "With their current strength, even if they are besieged by one or two German divisions, they can still hold on for a day or two.
.As long as we capture Dergach, we can rush over and join them immediately."
When Runev heard what Samyko said seemed to be very reasonable, he couldn't help but feel a little moved. He said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, I think what the Chief of Staff said is reasonable. With the equipment and equipment of the 978th Guards Division,
In terms of combat effectiveness, when surrounded by enemies, there is no big problem in holding on for a day or two."
Although Luniev and Samyko reached an agreement, Sokov still shook his head and said: "Don't forget that most of the commanders and fighters of the 98th Guards Division are equipped with assault rifles. That gun is on the battlefield.
It can indeed crush the enemy's firepower, but its consumption of ammunition is also huge. When the 98th Guards Division set out, it only carried two basic ammunition. If the enemy's offensive is fierce, their ammunition will be consumed quickly.
Empty.
You think, what use can an assault rifle have without bullets?"