The fortress commander picked up another phone and said into the receiver: "I am the fortress commander. The artillery immediately opened fire on the fortress area to provide fire coverage there."
He gave the order to fire so decisively, not because he did not condone the life and death of his men, but on the contrary, his approach could rescue his men from the predicament. He knew very well that the bunkers in the fortress area,
They are all made of reinforced concrete up to one meter thick, and some are even as thick as two meters. Even if they are hit by artillery shells, they are unlikely to be destroyed. But the Soviet infantry and tanks exposed in the open ground are in such a dense environment.
Under the attack of artillery fire, all that awaited them was ashes and ashes.
However, the Soviet commanders and fighters did not know that the German army was about to open fire on this area and continued to advance deeper into the fortress area. At this moment, there was a scream in the air, and then countless artillery shells fell and exploded in the fortress area.
.Since the German artillery was familiar with the coordinates of this area, it did not need the guidance of artillery observers or test firings, but fired directly.
Several sudden explosions outside the tank frightened Major Bunch. Just listening to the movement outside, he knew it was definitely a large-caliber artillery. He was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat. Although the falling shells did not hit the car where Major Bunch was riding.
It was a tank, but the impact point of the bullets was very close, and the shrapnel struck the armor steel plate.
Not only Major Bunch was scared, but the commanders and fighters of the 1st Battalion of the 258th Regiment who assisted the tank attack were also frightened by the sudden bombardment. As infantrymen, they naturally knew the power of large-caliber artillery. If nothing else, several rounds fell nearby.
The exploding shells turned dozens of meters around the explosion point into a death zone. Almost a platoon of soldiers were wiped out, and soldiers who were closer were even blown to pieces.
Belkin, who was in the rear command post, heard the rumble of artillery coming from outside and rushed to the lookout hole. Looking at the smoke rising everywhere in the fortress area, he immediately realized that the tank brigade and his troops were being attacked.
When he saw the enemy's fierce shelling, he ordered to hide on the spot and called the division headquarters to prepare to report the situation here.
Fomenko, who received Belkin's call, thought the other party had some good news to tell him, and said with a smile: "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, are you going to tell me that your 258th Regiment has occupied the entire fortress?"
district."
"Sorry, Comrade Commander, I think what I want to tell you is bad news."
"Bad news, what bad news?" Fomenko asked in confusion: "Did the enemy's reinforcements arrive and launch a counterattack against you?"
"No, the enemy did not launch a counterattack." Belkin gritted his molars and said sadly: "The artillery of Merefa Fortress is shelling the fortress area, causing great casualties to my troops."
"What, the enemy is shelling the fortress area?" Manokhin, who was standing nearby, happened to hear the content of Belkin's report to Fomenko. He asked in surprise: "Isn't the enemy worried that the artillery fire will accidentally injure one of his own people?"
"Of course there is no need to worry." Fomenko shook his head and said to Manokhin: "Comrade Political Commissar, the enemies in the fortress area are hiding in the fortifications of reinforced concrete buildings. Such shelling poses no threat to them at all. On the contrary.
, our tanks and infantry exposed on the open ground will suffer heavy casualties under German artillery fire."
"Then what should we do?" Manoxin asked in a panic: "We can't just watch the enemy use artillery fire to wipe out all our troops who entered the fortress area, right?"
"Comrade Political Commissar, after all, there are many safe areas in the fortress area. If the enemy wants to eliminate the 258th Regiment, it will not be easy." After Fomenko said this, he said to Belkin on the other end of the phone.
Said: "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, immediately organize the troops to hide, and it will not be too late to launch an attack after the enemy's shelling is over."
After putting down the phone, Fomenko walked back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, thinking about how to solve the current dilemma. After walking back and forth in the headquarters for more than a dozen times, he stopped and said to the Chief of Staff: "Chief of Staff
Comrade, immediately notify Colonel Rusuf to come to the division headquarters, I have important tasks to entrust to him."
While the chief of staff was on the phone, Fomenko ordered someone to call the group army headquarters, preparing to report the situation here directly to Sokov.
When the voice of Chief of Staff Samyko came from the receiver, Fomenko quickly said politely: "Hello, Comrade Chief of Staff."
"General Fomenko, did you encounter any difficulties in your attack?"
"Yes, Colonel Belkin personally commanded the 258th Regiment and was about to occupy the fortress area. However, he was suddenly bombarded by the German fortress artillery and suffered considerable losses..."
When Samyko heard that something happened to the troops commanded by Belkin, he quickly covered the microphone and reported to Sokov, who was chatting with Lunev: "Comrade Commander, General Fomenko reported that the 258th Regiment of the Division is about to occupy
The enemy's fortress area was attacked by artillery fire from the fortress, and now the troops have suffered extremely heavy casualties."
He was deeply afraid that Sokov would not pay attention to this kind of report, so he specifically added: "The 258th Regiment is personally commanded by Colonel Belkin."
If Samyko had not said the latter sentence, Sokov would not have connected the 258th Regiment with Belkin. After all, there were so many troops in the entire army group, and it was impossible for him to clearly remember the name of each commander. But
When he learned that the matter was related to Belkin, he became nervous: "Colonel Belkin was not injured, was he?"
The focus of military commissar Lunev was obviously different from Sokov. He asked Samyko tentatively: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I don't quite understand that the German army rashly fired at the fortress area without worrying about accidentally injuring their own people.
?"
"There is no accidental injury." Sokov said: "The enemies are hiding in thick reinforced concrete buildings, and no matter how fierce the artillery fire is, the damage caused to them is very effective. But our tanks and infantry in the open area,
There will definitely be heavy casualties.”
"Then what should we do?" Samyko asked Sokov for instructions: "Now that the troops of the 1st Artillery Division have crossed the river, should we order them to bombard the enemy's fortress and prevent the enemy's artillery from continuing to bombard the fortress area?"
"No." Regarding Samek's proposal, Sokov rejected it without hesitation: "We don't know the specific location of the German artillery. Even if it is an artillery strike, I am afraid it will not have much effect, but it will easily expose the specific location of our artillery.
"
"Then what should we do?" Thinking of the officers and soldiers of the 84th Division bleeding and dying every minute, Sameko became particularly emotional: "Are we watching helplessly as our men and our comrades were killed by the enemy's artillery fire?
Destroy it?"
"Comrade Chief of Staff, let me stress it again." Sokov said in a stern tone: "I just said that using artillery is of little significance. When did you say you won't support them?"
Hearing what Sokov said, Samyko immediately realized that he had wrongly blamed Sokov. After apologizing to the other party, he continued: "Then how should we support them?"
"Artillery cannot destroy the artillery of the German fortress, but what about the air force?" A smile appeared on Sokov's face again: "I think the main use of the air force to bomb the fortress can force the German artillery to stop bombarding."
"This is a good idea." Sameko said excitedly: "I will call the front army headquarters and ask them to send planes to Merefa Fortress to bomb the German artillery positions."
Konev learned that the German army was violently shelling the fortress area, causing heavy casualties to the troops who invaded that area. He quickly called Goryunov, the commander of the 5th Air Force Army, and said straight to the point: "Comrade Air Force Lieutenant General
, I am going to assign you a difficult task now."
"Please tell me, General Commander!"
"It's like this. A unit of the 27th Group Army that invaded the fortress area was attacked by artillery from Merefa Fortress." Konev said concisely and concisely: "Your air force immediately dispatched to attack the artillery positions in the German fortress.
Carrying out fierce bombing force the enemy to stop shelling our troops."
"Understood, Comrade Commander." Goryunov replied clearly to Konev: "My bomber formations will take off one after another in half an hour to bomb the German Merefa Fortress."
Just as Konev, Sokov and others were trying their best to rescue the troops who were shelled in the fortress area, the commanders and fighters of the 258th Regiment had received Belkin's order and retreated into the bunkers that had already been occupied.
Inside, there to avoid German artillery fire. Major Bunch's tank was broken into pieces, and its body was tightly attached to the north of the bunker to avoid artillery fire from the Merefa Fortress in the south.
However, despite this, more than 30 tanks of the tank brigade were turned into piles of burning scrap metal by the enemy's shelling. The tank crews in these destroyed tanks either died on the spot when the tanks were shot, or they were lucky.
After escaping from the tank, they fell under enemy fire. The number of tank soldiers who were able to escape into the bunker was less than one-third of the actual number.
Major Bunch returned to his command post. After learning the approximate number of casualties of the troops from Chuklico, his eyes could not help but turn red. He did not expect that with victory in sight, the fierce shelling of the German army caused the cooked
The duck flew.
"Comrade Brigadier," Chuklik asked, seeing Major Bunch's frustrated look, "What should we do next?"
"What else can we do?" Major Bunch said with a wry smile: "We can only continue to hide and wait for the enemy's shelling to end before deciding whether to attack or retreat."
"I think the order from our superiors is to continue the attack." Chuklico said to Major Bunch: "After all, we are the only ones who can cooperate with the 84th Infantry Division's attack."
"I'm worried that the few remaining tanks are simply not enough to cope with the fierce battle."
"Since we have suffered such heavy losses, I think our superiors will definitely take our actual situation into consideration and give us priority in replenishing supplies."
After hearing what Chuklico said, Major Bunch stared at him for a long time, and finally nodded and said: "Comrade Deputy Brigade Commander, what you said makes sense. In any case, we are now affiliated with the 3rd
27th Group Army, and the superiors’ level of supply to the 27th Group Army has always been very high.”
The sound of artillery coming from outside suddenly became sparse. Major Bunch listened to the movement outside and said with some wonder: "It's strange why the enemy's shelling has become sparse. Are they planning to stop the shelling?"
"There is a possibility." Chuklico said to Major Bunch: "The enemy may feel that if they continue to bombard us, they will not cause much damage to us, so they are ready to stop the bombardment."
"Comrade Deputy Brigadier, tell me." Bunch felt that Chuklico's analysis was very reasonable, so he asked, "Is there any conspiracy in this?"
"Conspiracy, what conspiracy?"
"The reason is very simple. When the Germans saw that their shelling could not achieve greater results, they pretended to stop the shelling." Bunch boldly expressed his thoughts: "Are they ready to wait for us to complete the assembly and start again?
During the attack, what if there was another sudden round of artillery fire?"
Bunch's words scared Chuklico into a cold sweat: "Isn't it possible?!" He thought to himself that if the Germans really planned this, it would be really terrifying.
The shelling outside soon stopped. Listening to the silence outside, the two began to discuss whether they should go out to gather the troops and launch a new round of offensive with the infantry.
To be honest, both of them wanted to immediately gather the tanks scattered everywhere and launch the final attack on the remaining bunkers. But at this moment, neither of them dared to issue such a gathering order. In case the Germans
Is there really any conspiracy that will bring disaster to the tank brigade?
Fortunately, the sudden ringing of the phone liberated the two of them from their hesitation. Chukliko picked up the phone and heard that it was Colonel Belkin calling: "Hello, is this Lieutenant Colonel Chuklico? I'm not
Erjin.”
"Hello, Colonel Belkin." After greeting the other party, Chuklik asked tentatively: "Are you calling us because you want the tanks to regroup and cover the infantry to launch a new attack?"
"Comrade Colonel," Chuklico glanced at Bunch and said hesitantly: "We are considering whether we should order the remaining tanks to assemble."
"It's this time, what are you still thinking about?"
"We are worried that this is a trap set by the Germans to deliberately lure us into the trap."
"What kind of trap, what deliberately lured you into the trap?" Belkin said in confusion: "Lieutenant Colonel Chukliko, what on earth are you talking about? I'm confused."
"That's it, Comrade Colonel." Chuklico glanced at Bunch again, and then continued: "We think the enemy suddenly stopped shelling, it may be a conspiracy. They have laid a trap for us to jump in, as long as we have the remaining
When the tanks complete their assembly and once again cover the infantry for the attack, they will launch a new round of artillery fire."
After figuring out what was going on, Belgin said with some laughter and tears: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, it turns out you don't know that the reason why the Germans stopped shelling the fortress area was because their artillery positions were severely bombed by our air force. The enemy
The artillery positions have been destroyed, how can we carry out artillery bombardment here?"