Although they negotiated with the German commanders and said that the safe passage for civilians would only be open for two hours, no one expected that there would be between five and six thousand people in these villages and residential areas used as fire support points by the Germans.
The elderly and children accounted for the majority. The old ones and the young ones were not very fast. In addition, the road was muddy, so their moving speed was even slower.
Seeing that two hours were coming, Ismailov couldn't help but murmured as he looked at the endless refugee team. A staff officer next to him asked in a low voice: "Comrade division commander, it will be two hours soon."
, do you need to fire yellow flares?"
According to the prior agreement, when the Soviet army fires a yellow signal flare, it means that the passage will be closed. No matter how many civilians have not left, the Soviet army will not hesitate to take military action against the fire support point.
After hearing this, Ismailov gently shook his head and said: "Didn't you see that there are still so many old people and children who have not left our encirclement? What should they do if the passage is closed now? Should we let them go back and die?
?"
"However, the time given to us by our superiors is almost up." The staff officer said, "If the attack time is delayed because of this, and your superiors blame it, you may be punished."
"I'll call the commander first and ask him what he means." Ismailov felt that he should report the real situation here to Sokov to see if he could extend the time for opening the channel.
After the call was connected, Sokov understood that Ismailov was calling to ask for instructions on whether he could delay the closure of the passage, so he said directly: "Comrade Colonel, since the passage open to civilians is in your division.
defense zone, then you can decide whether to extend the opening time of the channel or end it early based on the actual situation. Do you understand?"
After receiving Sokov's authorization, Ismailov suddenly felt confident. After putting down the phone, he said to the staff beside him: "Comrade Commander said that it is up to us to decide when to close the channel. There is no need to ask anyone again."
Please ask for instructions from the headquarters.”
After hearing this, the staff officer immediately beamed with joy: "Comrade Division Commander, so long as there are still civilians who have not been evacuated, it doesn't matter even if the passage is opened until tomorrow?"
"How is this possible?" Ismailov immediately rejected the other party's statement and said with a straight face: "Extend it for another hour at most. You immediately take a German translator, ride over, use the loudspeaker to tell the civilians, and ask them to speed up.
Speed, we don't have much time left for them."
The staff officer agreed, called a German translator, took a jeep with a loudspeaker, and headed towards the group of refugees walking in the distance, urging them to speed up so that they would not have to wait to die in the village or residential area after the passage was closed.
Under the urging of the loudspeaker, the German civilians quickened their pace. They knew what would happen next. If they could not leave before the passage was closed, they might die in the subsequent artillery fire.
When the last civilian left the encirclement through the passage set aside by the Soviet army, Ismailov raised his hand and looked at the time. The entire passage was open for a total of three hours and twelve minutes. He ordered the staff around him: "Close the passage.
, and at the same time fire a yellow flare into the air."
Sokov learned that the passage for civilians to evacuate had been closed, he nodded slowly, and then ordered Sidorin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, call General Potapov and say that the civilians in the fire support point have been evacuated. They
We can fire without any scruples. It is best to use intensive artillery fire to level all these fire support points to reduce the casualties of our attacking troops."
After making the call, Sidorin carefully reminded Sokov: "Comrade Commander, did you say that among the civilians who were evacuated from the passage, were there any German officers and soldiers who took off their military uniforms?"
"Definitely." Sokov nodded and said: "The new troops formed by the German army now recruit a large number of children, old people, and even women. If they don't want to sacrifice their lives for the Germans, they can sneak in as long as they throw away their weapons.
After all, most people don't have regular military uniforms. As long as they don't have weapons, they look no different from civilians. But their escape is also a good thing for us. Not only do we have fewer enemies to fight, but we also have fewer enemies to fight with.
It will undermine the enemy's morale and demoralize them."
After Sidorin chatted with Sokov for a while, he called Potapov: "General Potapov, the civilians in the fire support point have been evacuated, you can start firing!"
"Okay, Comrade Chief of Staff." When Potapov learned that all civilians in the shelling area had been evacuated, he felt much more at ease and quickly replied: "I immediately organized artillery to target those German fire support points.
Conduct artillery bombardment.”
A few minutes later, hundreds of artillery pieces of various calibers deployed in West Od River County fired at the fire support point occupied by the German army. In an instant, the area was shrouded in fire and smoke, and buildings of various shapes were
It collapsed and caught fire under the artillery fire. The German officers and soldiers hiding inside either hid in nearby air raid shelters or scurried around like headless flies to avoid the intensive artillery fire.
The shelling finally stopped after an hour. The German officers and soldiers in the fire support point were congratulating themselves on surviving. Unexpectedly, the next moment, rockets with long flame tails streaked across the sky again and plunged into the German position.
, making an earth-shattering explosion. In the raging flames, countless masonry rubble, human body parts and weapon fragments were thrown into the air by the explosion air waves, and then scattered down like heavenly flowers.
Several Guards rocket launcher battalions only fired one round and then stopped firing again. The entire battlefield fell into silence.
At this moment, three red flares suddenly rose in the sky, which was a signal for attack.
Then, the song "Holy War" suddenly sounded from the radio that was urgently placed on the starting position. The nearby commanders and soldiers thought they heard it wrong at first, but they heard the melody of the song coming from all around.
, then I realized that it was singing coming from the radio.
The first to jump out of the trenches were the commanders at all levels. They held their pistols high and shouted to the commanders and soldiers in the trenches half sideways: "Comrades, move forward with me!"
Soon, the sound of "Ula" like a roaring mountain and a tsunami came from all directions. Thousands of commanders and soldiers jumped out of the trenches and rushed towards the distant fire support point with weapons in hand.
The fire support points established by the German army were all houses in villages and residential areas, and some trenches were built around the buildings to use cross fire to block the Soviet attack path, which led to the Soviet army's first attack.
The attack ended in failure. However, after the previous artillery preparations, all the buildings in the fire support point were destroyed. The German army could only establish defensive positions in dilapidated trenches or masonry rubble to block the Soviet attack.'
But their resistance seemed so insignificant in front of the powerful Soviet army. Soon, the Soviet army rushed into the smoke-filled fire support point, started close combat and hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, and occupied the position in a very short period of time.
Take the initiative.
Knowing that the troops on the West Bank had successfully occupied the German fire support point, Sokov showed a smile on his face. He said to Sidorin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I will leave it to you to take charge of this place. I plan to go to the West Bank to have a look."
.”
Hearing Sokov said he was going to the West Bank, Sidorin showed a bitter expression on his face: "Comrade Commander, I think we should wait until we move the headquarters to the West Bank before you go to the frontier to inspect, okay?"
"No, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov shook his head and said: "We have been fighting on both sides of the Oder River for two days. I can only know what is going on at the front through phone calls or the results from the front troops.
Understood. I still want to go there and have a look in person to see what the landing site on the west bank is like."
"Misha." Runev next to him interrupted: "If you don't object, I want to go and have a look with you."
Sokov felt that with the battle going to this level, if he and Lunev were to go to the West Bank, they would not encounter any dangers along the way, so he nodded in agreement: "Okay, Comrade Military Commissar, then you will come with me.
Go to the West Bank and leave the work here to Chief of Staff Sidorin."
Ten minutes later, Sokov and Lunev rode in a jeep and headed towards the Oder River under the protection of a security company led by Koshkin.
Along the way, you can see convoys heading towards the river, as well as troops marching on foot. Occasionally, you can see trucks coming from the direction of the river, with wounded people transported from the front lying in the carriages.
"Misha, it seems that our troops have suffered a lot of casualties." Lunev looked at the wounded people lying in the carriages of more than a dozen trucks passing by, and couldn't help but frowned: "I really didn't expect this breakthrough.
The German defense line actually had to pay such a high price."
But Sokov was a little dissatisfied. According to his observation, the dozens of trucks that had just passed by did not transport more than 200 wounded people. In a battle of this scale, one or two hundred wounded people were nothing. Such casualties were simply negligible.
.
"Stop, stop!" Just as Sokov was deep in thought, he suddenly heard Koshkin, who was sitting in the passenger seat, shout: "Park the car on the side of the road."
After the car stopped and saw Koshkin preparing to open the door and get out of the car, Sokov quickly asked: "Koshkin, what happened?"
"Comrade Commander, look!" Koshkin pointed to the roadside with his hand and said, "There is a firing squad there, preparing to shoot people."
Hearing that there was a firing squad outside to kill people, Sokov couldn't help but be shocked. Could it be that there were deserters in his army? He quickly looked out the car window and saw a row of people standing on the right side of the road.
Soldiers holding rifles, and in front of them were five soldiers wearing officer uniforms, including a female officer.
"What the hell, what is going on?" Sokov felt strange. If the people who were to be shot were deserters, then they should be mostly soldiers, but now the people who were to be shot were all officers. In order to find out what happened
What was going on? He also pushed open the car door and followed Koshkin towards the location of the firing squad.
Seeing the firing squad, under the command of a lieutenant, aiming their guns at the five officers, Sokov quickly shouted: "Stop, put down the guns!"
The lieutenant who was directing the execution was about to have a seizure when he heard someone stopping him, but when he turned his head, he saw Sokov, accompanied by Koshkin, walking toward him with long strides, and hurriedly ordered his men:
"Put down the gun!" Then he jogged up to Sokov and raised his hand to salute him.
"Comrade Lieutenant." Sokov glanced at the officers not far away and asked with a straight face: "What's going on? Why should they be shot?"
"Report to Comrade Commander," the lieutenant replied quickly: "They are German spies. They killed several of our soldiers. We caught them and are preparing to execute them."
Sokov looked at the officers and found that they did not look like German spies in any way, so he asked with a straight face: "Comrade Lieutenant, what evidence do you have to prove that they are German spies? If you have evidence, show it to
Let me take a look."
The lieutenant quickly took out a military ID card from his pocket, handed it to Sokov, and said: "Comrade Commander, one of our checkpoints was attacked an hour ago, and all three soldiers on duty were killed. etc.
When I arrived with my people, I picked up this military ID card on the ground. At this moment, these officers came over and said that they had to perform a special mission and asked me to allow them to pass. I asked them to show their ID cards, but they said that the ID cards were in
They were robbed on the road, and I accidentally discovered that one of them looked exactly like the photo on his military ID, so I immediately arrested them all. Although they all said they were Soviet officers, I could conclude that they were German spies."
"Nonsense, absolutely nonsense." After hearing this, Sokov scolded the officer: "How could you so hastily conclude that these officers are fake Germans based on a military ID card you picked up? What if they
They are our own people. Do you know what the consequences will be if you shoot them without any reason?"
After hearing what Sokov said, the lieutenant did not dare to speak anymore and could only lower his head and say nothing.
Sokov turned to Koshkin behind him and said: "Captain Koshkin, go and bring those officers over. I want to ask them personally what is going on. How come all their documents were lost inexplicably?"
, and one of them will miraculously appear here at the checkpoint."
Koshkin agreed and ran towards the five officers with a few soldiers.
After first untying the officers, he brought them to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, I have brought you all the people."
Sokov nodded to Koshkin, and then said to the unfamiliar-looking officers: "Introduce yourself, I am the commander of the 48th Group Army, Sokov. Can you tell me your identity and explain clearly why you are here?"
Appear here?"
"General Sokov." As soon as Sokov finished speaking, an elderly major officer said: "This is purely a misunderstanding, and your subordinates did not listen to our explanation at all, so they insisted that we
It's the Germans who are pretending to be here, and they want to shoot us all. If you had come a little later, I'm afraid we would all be shot."
"Yes, Comrade General." The female officer also added: "We have told the lieutenant that we are performing a special mission. Because of a small accident, all the documents were lost, but he did not give any
When we had a chance to defend ourselves, he ordered us to be shot."