When he learned that the leading troops of the 18th Guards Army on the left wing had advanced to a place 18 kilometers away from Uman, Kurishenko became a little bit impatient. He said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, no matter what,
, our division is your old army. Now that we have such a good opportunity to make meritorious deeds, you can’t let us sit on the bench here."
After hearing this, Sokov looked sideways at Shtemenko who was sitting next to him, and then said with a smile: "Comrade Deputy Chief of General Staff, look, our commanders heard that there was a war, and each one was more active than the other.
.”
When he faced Kurishenko again, he said seriously: "General Kurishenko, the attack on Uman has just begun, and there are still many battles to be fought. Don't worry that there will be no battles for you, just hurry up.
Rest and recuperate. When you are needed, you can pull the troops out at any time."
While Sokov and Shtemenko were having dinner at the headquarters of the 41st Guards Division, the 233rd Division of the 57th Army had already approached the town of Golovanivsik and was preparing to launch an attack on the town overnight.
After receiving Chumakov's call, the division commander, Colonel Yesenin, immediately assured him: "Comrade Commander, don't worry. I will deploy an attack immediately, and we can capture the entire town before dawn."
Chumakov had no doubts about Yesenin's statement. Today, he and his friendly troops broke through the four lines of defense of the German army. The enemy who had retreated to the town had only two battalions of troops, and he used a full division to defeat them.
Dealing with them was no small matter. So he smiled and said: "Well, comrade colonel, when we take the town of Golovanivsik, I will personally ask the commander for credit for your division!"
After Yesenin put down the phone, he ordered the commander of the 699th Regiment to be called. He said to him: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the Army Commander has an order for our division to seize the town of Golovanivsik overnight. Your regiment is the vanguard of the entire division.
How is the group? Do you have confidence?"
It may be that after the troops of the 57th Army entered the battlefield, they fought too smoothly, so that the commanders of each unit had the idea of underestimating the enemy. After listening to Yesenin's words, the regiment commander patted his chest and said, "Comrade division commander, we
When has our regiment ever let you down? Don't worry, our regiment will definitely be able to capture the town of Golovanivsik before dawn. If you don't object, I want to lead the troops after the enemies in the town are eliminated.
Keep rushing towards Uman."
In the afternoon battle, thanks to the support of the airborne troops, Yesenin's division successfully broke through the fourth line of defense of the German army. At this moment, in Yesenin's mind, the German troops in the town were vulnerable, and it would be impossible to defeat them before dawn.
It's a bit too flattering to them. If we spend the afternoon as we did in the afternoon, maybe the battle can be resolved in one or two hours. If we can continue to advance towards Uman after occupying the town and achieve certain results, maybe by the end of the battle, our own
The unit may also be reorganized into a Guards Division.
Thinking of this, Yesenin's head began to heat up. He nodded and said to the regiment leader: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, then I will wait for the good news of your victory."
The leader of the 699th Regiment knew that there were many buildings in the town. If artillery fire preparations were carried out before the attack, the enemy might withdraw from their position and hide in the buildings in the town. Then his troops would have to engage in street fighting with the enemy.
Street fighting is the most time-consuming thing. He didn't want this to happen, so he rejected Yesenin's suggestion of artillery preparations and planned to use a sneak attack to capture the town of Golovanivsik.
In order to capture the town as quickly as possible, the whole regiment secretly approached the town under the cover of darkness, intending to rush into the German army's position unexpectedly and annihilate their main force outside the town, so that the next battle would be easier to fight.
Unexpectedly, when they were still more than 300 meters away from the town, the troops that were quietly moving forward were spotted by the German guard post. After he sent out the signal, rows of large and small fires suddenly flashed on the position, and they were heading towards
The officers and men who were approaching the fortifications seemed to have hit a transparent power grid, shaking and falling in large pieces.
But the commanders and soldiers were panicked. They immediately dispersed into small groups and continued to rush forward quickly, intending to rush to the front of the enemy's position as soon as possible. By then, the enemy's firepower would no longer be a threat to them.
Seeing that the firepower network composed of machine guns, rifles and submachine guns could not stop the Soviet troops from advancing, the Germans set up mortars and began bombarding them. The shells landed in the Soviet ranks and exploded, with shrapnel flying everywhere.
The nearby commanders and fighters were cut down. But as soon as someone fell here, new commanders and fighters immediately stepped forward to take over.
The German firepower was fierce, but it did not slow down the advance of the Soviet commanders and fighters. After a moment, the fast commanders and fighters were less than a hundred meters away from the position, but at this moment, something unexpected happened. Two rows
A barbed wire fence suddenly appeared, blocking the way of the commanders and soldiers.
Since it was already dark when the Soviet army arrived at the outskirts of the town, no one noticed that there was a barbed wire fence as high as half a man in front of the German position. In fact, even if someone saw it, they would think it was a bush.
The commanders and soldiers who were blocked by the barbed wire seemed a little flustered. Some tried to retreat, but the people behind them blocked their way; some were hung on the barbed wire and could not move forward or retreat.
The German troops on the position discovered the Soviet commanders and fighters who were blocked in front of the barbed wire fence, and immediately fired several machine guns at them. At the same time, screams rang out one after another, and people were shot everywhere.
Since Soviet commanders generally rushed to the front, after being fired upon by German machine guns, they either died or were seriously injured and were unable to continue to command the battle. The soldiers who lost their command were at a loss and crowded in front of the barbed wire fence. At the same time, they were in a dilemma.
Under German machine gun fire, casualties continued to increase.
The soldiers who were squeezed in front of the barbed wire fence were not willing to sit back and wait for death, so they used the bayonets in their hands to chop at the barbed wire fence. However, the bayonet was not the best tool for cutting the barbed wire. Although the cuts caused sparks to fly, they never cut off the barbed wire fence. Some of them were not able to cut the barbed wire fence.
The soldier tried to climb over the barbed wire in front of him, but was caught on the barbs and couldn't escape.
More and more soldiers gathered in front of the barbed wire, and it became like a human wall. The German army immediately concentrated all its firepower and fired wildly in this direction. The bullets shot out countless blood mist in the crowd. The soldiers in front fell in pieces.
Down, while the soldiers behind were still pouring up. In this way, countless soldiers fell under the intensive firepower of the German army.
The commander of the 699th Regiment, who was at the command post behind, was stunned when he saw that his troops suddenly stopped advancing and suffered heavy casualties under the intense German firepower.
He wanted to find out what was going on, so he sent a correspondent to understand the situation. Unexpectedly, he sent several correspondents in succession, but no report was received. He couldn't help but panic, and quickly called the division commander Yesenin: "Comrade division commander, the situation looks like
It’s not good, my troops’ attack has been thwarted.”
"The attack was frustrated?" Yesenin asked after hearing this: "What happened? Why was it frustrated?"
"I don't know, comrade division commander." The regiment commander replied tremblingly: "My troops seem to be blocked by some obstacles and cannot continue to move forward. The German army's firepower is being furiously outputted at them. It is estimated that the casualties at this moment are very high.
heavy."
"Didn't you send someone to check the situation?"
"We have sent four or five correspondents in a row." The leader said aggrievedly: "But so far, none of them have come back, so I don't know what happened."
"Can you clearly see the situation on the enemy's position?" Yesenin asked.
"The light is too dark to see clearly," the regiment leader said. "You can only see the flame mouth of the weapon and the fire produced when it explodes. The rest cannot be seen clearly."
"Immediately ask someone to shoot two flares to see what's going on ahead."
"But if we use flares, our whereabouts will be exposed."
Regarding the regiment leader's reply, Yesenin really couldn't laugh or cry: "Our actions have been discovered by the Germans a long time ago. If we don't use flares to see clearly the situation in front of the enemy's position, we will pay a heavier price. I order you to launch flares immediately
, find out what happened in front of the enemy's position."
Now that Yesenin had given the order, the regiment leader did not dare to refute. He quickly called a staff officer and ordered him to shoot flares in the air to find out what was happening in front of the position outside the town.
The flare quickly rose into the air, and it was the regiment leader who could clearly see the situation ahead. He opened his mouth in surprise and looked at the scene in front of him. He never dreamed that the two barbed wire fences in front of the German position blocked the advance of the troops.
Road. And the soldiers crowded in front of the barbed wire fence were suffering constant casualties under the intensive firepower of the German army.
Seeing this situation, the regiment commander knew that if he hesitated for a moment, all the commanders and fighters of his regiment might be wiped out, so he quickly issued an order to the staff officer on the side: "Retreat, order the troops to retreat immediately."
Although he issued a retreat order in time after clearly seeing the situation on the battlefield, it was still a little late. There were more than 1,900 commanders and fighters in the whole regiment engaged in the battle, and no more than 300 retreated, and most of them had blood on their bodies.
With injuries.
Seeing the Soviet retreat, the Germans stopped shooting. They were worried that the Soviet retreat was to facilitate artillery fire. If they continued to shoot, the muzzle flash exposed in the darkness would become the best target for the opponent's artillery.
.
When the leader of the 699th Regiment saw that less than 300 of his troops had withdrawn, he suddenly broke into a cold sweat. Because of his mistake, not only did the entire regiment suffer almost all casualties, but it also affected the overnight operation to seize the town of Golovanivsik.
.If his superiors hold him accountable, he will definitely lose his head.
Although he felt uneasy, it was obviously impossible not to report such a big thing. He could only call Yesenin and report to the other party in detail what happened here.
After hearing this, Yesenin couldn't help being shocked. A full infantry regiment suffered almost all casualties in less than half an hour. It would definitely have a negative impact on morale and the next battle would be difficult to fight. He quickly reported to Army Commander Chuma
Kokov called and reported to him the failure of the 699th Regiment's attack.
After Chumakov heard this, he suddenly became angry and said: "Colonel Yesenin, I entrust your regiment with such an important task to complete because I believe you have the ability to capture the town. But what is the actual situation? Not only are you not able
After seizing the position, we lost a main force group, so how can we fight the rest of the battle?"
"I'm sorry, Comrade Commander." Yesenin said humbly: "This failure is due to our lack of preparation. Please give me another chance. I will organize an attack immediately. I assure you that this time Goluo will be defeated."
The town of Vanivsik was taken."
"The attack is suspended and the troops are allowed to withdraw and rest." Although Chumakov also wanted to capture the town of Golovanivsik overnight, considering that the 699th Regiment's attack failed, it would have an adverse impact on the morale and morale of the troops.
Influence.
"Stop the attack?!" Yesenin asked in surprise: "Then what do you tell Comrade Commander?"
"I will explain it to the commander myself, so you don't have to worry about it."
After Chumakov ended his call with Yesenin, he raised his hand and looked at his watch. It was already ten o'clock in the evening. He estimated that Sokov should have returned to the army headquarters, so he called the headquarters to report the failure of the attack.
.
Unexpectedly, the person who answered the phone was Smirnov. When he learned that Chumakov wanted to find Sokov, he took the initiative and said: "Comrade Commander is now at the headquarters of the 41st Guards Division. If there is anything you need,
, tell me the same thing, I can convey your thoughts to the commander."
Chumakov hesitated for a while, and then said: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I have bad news to tell you."
"Bad news, what bad news?" As soon as Smirnov said this, he guessed a possibility and asked quickly: "General Chumakov, it's not you who attacked the town of Golovanivsik.
Did the attack fail?"
"Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff, you guessed it right." Chumakov said with a heavy heart: "A regiment responsible for the offensive mission was tenaciously blocked by the German army before it entered the town. There are more than 1,900 people in the regiment.
, less than 300 people survived."
After hearing this, Smirnov couldn't help but gasped: "What, there are so many casualties? General Chumakov, please tell me quickly, what happened?"
Chumakov did not dare to neglect, and quickly reported to Smirnov in detail the fact that the 699th Regiment planned to make a sneak attack at night, but the attacking troops were blocked by the barbed wire fence set up by the Germans, unable to advance, and suffered heavy casualties.
After hearing this, Smirnov's expression on his face became solemn: "General Chumakov, this matter is of great importance. I need to report it to the commander immediately. I am here to remind you, whether it is Colonel Yesenin
, or the group leader, I’m afraid he will be punished, so you have to be mentally prepared in advance.”
Hearing what Smirnov said, Chumakov realized that both Yesenin and the regiment commander might be punished. Out of concern for his subordinates, he tentatively asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, this attack failed.
There are many reasons, please see if you can say a few nice words to the commander and don't punish them too harshly."
"General Chumakov," Smirnov said sternly: "I will report what happened in the town of Golovanivsik to Comrade Commander. As for how to deal with your subordinates, it will be decided by the Commander.
It’s up to comrades to decide, no matter what I say, I’m afraid it won’t have any effect. You’d better not worry about others, and think about what you would do if you were also punished.”