The tank detachment sent by Factory Director Peter circled the assembly workshop several times, giving the German scouts who were observing from a distance the illusion that they had received reinforcements from at least one tank brigade.
Lieutenant General Sannei, commander of the 100th Jaeger Division, saw that his two attacks on the north side of the factory ended in failure. When he was gathering troops to prepare for another attack, the division chief of staff came over with a telegram and told him
The report said: "Your Excellency, Division Commander, we have just received a report from the scouts that the Russians have sent an additional tank brigade to the assembly workshop in the north of the factory area."
"What, the Russians sent an additional tank brigade?" Sannei took the telegram and after reading the above content, he frowned and asked: "Our artillery and air force are shelling and bombing the Volga River non-stop. Their
How did the tank troops cross the river?”
Faced with Sannei's question, the division chief of staff shrugged, spread his hands, and said helplessly: "I'm sorry, Mr. Division Commander, I don't think I can answer your question. But the scouts carefully defeated the Russians."
We came to this conclusion based on the number of tanks. I think the news that the Russians sent a tank brigade to the assembly workshop should be believed."
"Hell, how could this happen?" After hearing the words of the division chief of staff, Sannei frowned and said: "On the way north, the 24th Armored Division was attacked by Russian artillery fire. Because of heavy casualties, it was unable to catch up.
Come and cooperate with us in the battle. And the Russians have sent an additional tank brigade here. It seems that the battle here at the Red October Factory will not be easy to fight."
"Your Excellency, division commander!" the division chief of staff asked respectfully: "What should we do next?"
"Order the troops attacking the north of the factory area to stay put." Sannei ordered the division chief of staff: "Aim all artillery at the residential areas, find a way to first eliminate the Russian Guards Division entrenched in this area, and then turn around to deal with the interior of the factory area.
of Russians.”
"Understood," the division chief of staff quickly agreed, "I'll go give the order right away."
Because Sannei ordered to adjust the direction of the attack, the German army in the north of the factory did not launch a new round of attack before dark. Seeing that the enemy was no longer attacking, Borschak and Cousteau had a dispute.
With new ideas, they went to Sokov to discuss: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, since the Germans are not attacking anymore, we might as well go for a sneak attack at night. Even if we can't cause heavy losses to the enemy, we can still disrupt their offensive steps."
"It's nonsense, it's just nonsense." After hearing the two people's suggestions, Sokov immediately denied it: "We have no idea about the enemy's defense situation and how many troops there are, so we recklessly carried out a sneak attack. Maybe in the end,
The enemy failed to be eliminated, but instead lost what little strength we had."
Although his proposal was rejected by Sokov, Bolshak still said reluctantly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, our workers are very familiar with the terrain in this area. Even if the night attack cannot achieve any results, they can still protect the whole body."
And retreat."
"Major Bolshak," Sokov was worried that Bolshak would go behind his back and secretly lead soldiers from the annihilation battalion to attack the German army, so he reminded him specifically: "The Germans suffered our losses during the day, and they must be dreaming.
They all wanted revenge. I think the reason why they did not launch an attack later was that they were confused by the fake tank troops we sent, so they did not dare to act rashly. I can tell you clearly now that the enemy must have deployed a lot of troops outside the factory area.
The scouts are secretly monitoring our place. If you want to lead your troops for a sneak attack, maybe as soon as you leave the factory, the Germans will know that you are setting out, and they can set a trap in advance for you to jump in. "
After listening to Sokov's words, Bolshak thought for a long time and felt that what the other party said made sense, so he nodded and said: "Okay, Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, I think you have convinced me, then
Cancel the sneak attack plan."
"Comrade workshop director," Sokov shouted to Cousteau after seeing that Bolshak gave up the risky night attack plan: "I have something to entrust you to complete."
"Please give your orders, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Cousteau said respectfully: "We will definitely complete the tasks you give us well."
Sokov raised his hand and pointed toward the roof and said: "Comrade workshop director, the anti-aircraft gun position on the roof is no longer usable, but the remaining four anti-aircraft guns placed on it are always a hidden danger. Once the building is greatly shaken,
There is a possibility that the roof will collapse, and the anti-aircraft gun falling from above will most likely kill the soldiers below. Therefore, I beg you to send professionals to disassemble the anti-aircraft gun and lower it from the roof."
The reason why Sokov issued such an order was because dismantling the anti-aircraft gun was a trivial matter for the workers in the assembly workshop. Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, Cousteau nodded and said:
"Don't worry, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I will immediately send skilled workers and crane workers to the roof to lower the anti-aircraft guns left on top."
"Comrade workshop director, if the roof collapses, people will be killed." Sokov reminded Cousteau: "So when construction is on the roof, be sure to remember to evacuate the workers below."
When Cousteau arranged for workers to go to the roof to dismantle the anti-aircraft guns, Borschak asked tentatively: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, after these four anti-aircraft guns are lowered from the roof, do you still plan to use them as anti-tank guns?"
"Yes, Major Bolshak." Sokov nodded and said affirmatively: "Although the anti-aircraft artillery needs to be within a distance of four hundred meters to penetrate the frontal armor of the German tank when used on the ground, it can always penetrate the frontal armor of German tanks.
It’s better than letting our soldiers rush up with explosive packets and cluster grenades to blow up tanks.”
Cousteau sent his best workers to the roof to dismantle the anti-aircraft guns. Afraid of exposing the target and attracting German shelling or night bombers, the workers first covered the anti-aircraft guns with canvas before dismantling them, and then hid under
Inside the canvas, with the help of flashlight lighting, I began to disassemble the parts of the anti-aircraft gun.
This kind of thing is easy to say, but not so easy to do. Four groups of people were working at the same time, and it still took nearly two hours to dismantle the four anti-aircraft guns into parts. Just when the crane was about to use a simple
When putting these parts down from the roof, a fire ball suddenly appeared near the wall, followed by a dull explosion.
Sokov, who was talking to Bolshak in the corner of the factory building, heard the explosion, stood up suddenly, looked at the direction of the fire, frowned and said: "Someone stepped on a landmine."
Bolshak also heard the explosion. He also stood up and looked towards the factory wall, but because the light was too dark, he only saw a dark area and could not see anything clearly. He tentatively asked Soko
Husband: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, is this a sneak attack unit sent by the German army?"
Sokov listened carefully, but did not hear anything. He shook his head and replied: "There was only an explosion. It seems that it was not a sneak attack force sent by the Germans. It might have been a few scouts or engineers who accidentally stepped on it."
The mines we laid."
"Do we need to issue a combat alert?" Borschak learned that the enemy might have entered the factory and couldn't help asking nervously: "If it is really a sneak attack force sent by the Germans, we can give them a head-on attack."
Head-on attack? Hearing Bolshak say this word, Sokov couldn't help but secretly smile. He thought to himself: According to the combat effectiveness of the annihilation battalion and militia, a counterattack in a night battle would probably fall into chaos due to poor command.
, if you fight with your own people, you will lose more than you gain.
The people who entered the factory were at best a few German scouts, or even hares that ran by. It would be too much to call all the soldiers up to prepare for battle just for an explosion. So Sokov refused again.
Borschak's suggestion: "No need, let the observation posts and machine guns on duty pay attention to observe and confirm that there are enemies approaching the factory, and it will not be too late to shoot."
Ten minutes later, another explosion was heard more than a hundred meters away from the factory. The observation post fired a flare, illuminating the open space in front of the position like daylight. They used the light of the flare to carefully observe the surroundings.
environment, hoping to detect the approaching enemy. However, until the flares went out, they did not find any moving objects in the open space.
Sokov couldn't help but frown when he received a call from the observation post and learned that his movements were not detected. He thought to himself, what a hell, two landmines were detonated in succession, but no enemy was approaching.
Position, what the hell is going on?
To be on the safe side, he immediately told the observation post: "Fire two more flares and notify the machine gun on duty to shoot immediately if a suspicious target is found."
The observation post agreed, and soon launched two more flares into the air to observe the situation in front of the position. Sokov found a hidden place, raised his telescope, and carefully inspected the situation in front of the position with the help of the light emitted by the flares.
Situation. During the day's battle, many German soldiers were killed on the battlefield, and now their corpses were lying in the open space. Sokov used his telescope to scan the corpses twice, but found nothing.
What an anomaly.
Just when he moved the telescope to another direction, he was suddenly shocked and felt that there seemed to be more corpses lying in the open space than he had seen during the day. He pointed the telescope at the corpses again and patiently began to
After counting for a while, he found that there were at least twenty more corpses.
The flare went out, and Sokov felt that the light outside the factory was darker than before. He quickly picked up the phone next to him, took over the observation post, and said loudly into the phone: "Among the corpses of the German soldiers who were shot during the day,
There should be live German soldiers hidden, and machine guns should be ordered to shoot at these corpses immediately."
After receiving Sokov's order, the observation post immediately fired the illumination bomb again. At the same time, the machine gun on duty also rang out. The dark red flame was like a fire whip, lashing hard at the corpses lying on the ground.
The corpse that was shot in the front bounced up and fell down after being hit by bullets, but at this moment Sokov noticed that a corpse not far away moved and quickly rolled into a nearby crater.
"Oh my God, there are really Germans approaching." Sokov saw the body rolling into the crater next to him, and confirmed that there were indeed enemies sneaking towards the factory. He quickly called Brischi.
, said to him: "Comrade Captain, an unknown number of German soldiers are approaching your position. Organize the soldiers immediately to destroy this enemy."
"Understood, Comrade Brigadier." Briski waited for Sokov to finish speaking and immediately expressed his position: "I will immediately organize the manpower to eliminate all the Germans who come up."
Shortly after putting down the phone, the gunfire outside the factory changed from sparse to intensive. Since the enemy's hiding place was still more than 100 to 200 meters away from the Soviet position, grenades could not be thrown that far, so Briski ordered the battalion to
The only two 82mm mortars in the tank were shelling the enemy's position.
The German soldiers who came up were very cunning. They did not fire back immediately. Instead, they hid in the crater to avoid the bullets fired by the Soviet soldiers. Some experienced soldiers climbed out quickly while the Soviet soldiers were changing their magazines.
The bomb crater rolled into another crater, approaching the Soviet position step by step.
Sokov heard gunshots and explosions outside, but through the observation of the telescope, the effect seemed not obvious, so he called Briski again and said angrily: "Comrade Captain,
How did you do it? Before the enemy's shadow was seen, you were shooting desperately. Don't you know that our ammunition reserves are limited? Once the bullets are gone and the enemy rushes up, what will you do? How will you fight with them?
Fighting with a bayonet?"
Briski, who was scolded by Sokov, quickly ordered the soldiers to stop shooting, and only asked the sharpshooters to shoot at the suspicious corpses, hoping that in this way, the German soldiers disguised as corpses would be eliminated.
However, the Germans seemed to be well prepared. When they saw that the shooting on the Soviet position became sparse, they threw grenades one after another. The grenades landed in the open space and exploded, and the smoke produced obscured the sight of the defenders. The Germans
Just use this short time to jump out of the crater, quickly jump into another crater, and then throw the grenade... In this way, the German army used this tactic to rush to a distance of less than 50 meters from the position in only two or three minutes.
meters place.
Sokov only saw countless black figures, under the cover of gunpowder smoke, approaching the defensive position of the fourth battalion. He couldn't help but become a little anxious. He picked up the phone again and scolded Briski: "Comrade Captain, what on earth are you doing?"
What's going on? The Germans are approaching your position, but you seem to be helpless. Are you really prepared to wait for the Germans to rush up and fight you with bayonets? If they rush forward some distance, they can use grenades.
They have thrown themselves into your trenches, quickly find a way to repel them."