When he learned that the German army repelled by his regiment was actually an engineer battalion, Guzman, the commander of the 650th regiment, could not sit still. He said to Vasily: "Comrade Captain, I really didn't expect that the enemy who attacked us
It is actually an engineering unit. It seems that the enemy's troops are so short that they have to send an engineering unit to attack."
Vasily guessed that Guzman must have some thoughts when he said this, so he said nothing and just looked at the other person silently, waiting for the other person to say what he said next.
Sure enough, not long after, Guzman asked Vasily tentatively: "Comrade Captain, since the enemies on the opposite side are all engineers, do you think we can launch a counterattack to recover some lost positions from the enemy?"
.”
Guzman's words made Vasily a little excited. If he could really regain some positions from the enemy, I'm afraid the division commander would also be impressed by him. But then he thought about it, and his battalion is now distributed in three different areas.
Even if a counterattack is to be carried out, the available troops are very limited. Moreover, if one attacks the enemy's position without asking for instructions, he may be criticized by the division commander and regimental commander.
Thinking of this, Vasily calmed down a lot. He was worried that Guzman would immediately mobilize his troops to prepare for a counterattack, so he quickly persuaded: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, our troops are limited and may be barely enough for defense;
But it is far from enough to use it for counterattack. Moreover, after we seize the position, we still need to divide our troops to guard it. In this way, our force will become even weaker. Once the enemy counterattacks, I am afraid that the position captured through bloodshed and sacrifice will be lost again.
back into the hands of the enemy."
If Vasily was Guzman's subordinate, he would definitely be scolded if he replied to Guzman in this way, and he would even be labeled as "cowardly and panicked". Next, Guzman will
Find someone to take Vasily's position and launch a counterattack against the enemy's position according to his plan.
But Vasily belongs to the 41st Guards Division and is here to help in the battle. Even if his military rank is only captain, Guzman, as a lieutenant colonel, can only give him three points. At this moment, after hearing Vasily’s statement, he was unwilling to participate in the battle.
When the enemy counterattacked, Guzman could only sigh secretly in his heart and gave up the idea of counterattack. After all, he had too few troops. Without the cooperation of friendly forces, the counterattack carried out had no chance of success.
"What a pity!" Guzman looked at the silent German positions in the distance and said with regret: "What a great opportunity to counterattack, but I just missed it..."
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel!" Seeing that Guzman had not given up the idea of counterattack, Vasily said seriously: "Although the enemy's attack has been repelled by us, if we really want to counterattack, I am afraid we will pay a lot of casualties."
"Comrade Captain, there are no immortals in a war. As long as we can regain the position from the enemy, no matter how high the price is, I think it is worth it..." Guzman stopped abruptly just after finishing half of his words.
He realized that Vasily must have some deep meaning when he said this, so he turned to look at Vasily and asked in surprise: "What do you mean by heavy casualties?"
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, although the enemies attacking us are just engineers, I feel that they are different from the engineers I have seen before." Vasily analyzed to Guzman: "Look at the attack method they just used.
This made it difficult for our previous defensive tactics to be effective. If we had not used snipers and mortars to deal with them later, I estimate that they would have launched a full-scale attack on us after the assault guns destroyed our firepower points."
"But, Comrade Captain." Although Guzman witnessed the whole process of the battle, perhaps the battle was so easy that he firmly believed that the repulsed enemy was just a group of engineers with weak combat effectiveness. "If it is really
How could a well-trained unit be rendered unable to fight back by our snipers and mortars? In my opinion, this is just an engineering unit with extremely poor combat effectiveness."
Vasily wanted to refute Guzman, but considering that the other party's military rank was much higher than his own, if he argued with him in front of his subordinates, it would affect his WeChat account, so he just smiled lightly and did not continue.
Seeing that Vasily was silent, Guzman was about to say something more when he suddenly heard the phone ringing not far away. He quickly walked over and picked up the phone: "I'm Guzman, where are you from?"
"What? There will be a meeting tomorrow night?" After listening for a moment, Guzman suddenly showed an expression of surprise on his face: "Is this true, Comrade Commander? ...No, no, I don't doubt what you said, I just
I want to confirm... Don't worry, comrade division commander, without your order, how dare I let the troops carry out a counterattack..."
Vasily stood aside, listening quietly to the conversation between Guzman and Lyudnikov, constantly guessing in his mind: If there was a meeting tomorrow night at the division headquarters, Lieutenant Colonel Guzman would definitely not be like this.
Excited, is it going to the group army headquarters for a meeting? At this time, notifying a regiment-level commander to go to the headquarters for a meeting means there is a major military operation. Could it be that our army is going to launch a full-scale counterattack against the enemy?
Just when Vasily was thinking wildly, Guzman had finished talking to Lyudnikov. After he put down the phone, he saw Vasily staring at him intently, so he said with laughter: "Comrade Captain, the division commander was just here
He reminded me on the phone that without his order, I must not attack the enemy without authorization. It seems that you are right. If I insist on my opinion and order the troops to counterattack the enemy, I will definitely be blamed by the division commander..."
Vasily automatically filtered out the nonsense Guzman said. He was eager to know where the other party would have a meeting tomorrow night, so he asked cautiously: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I seem to have heard Colonel Lyudnikov inform you to go there."
Meeting. Can I ask, where will you go for the meeting tomorrow night?"
"If someone else asked, I would definitely not tell him. But the two of us are comrades fighting side by side, so it doesn't matter if I tell you." Guzman leaned close to Vasily's ear and whispered: "The division commander asked me to
Go with him to the group army headquarters for a meeting."
Seeing that Guzman was indeed going to the Army Group Headquarters for a meeting, Vasily's mood became happy. He looked around and saw that the nearest communications soldier was also four or five meters away. As long as he spoke in a low voice, the other party was basically
Inaudible. He approached Guzman and asked in a low voice: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, please tell me, does this mean that our army's major counterattack is about to begin?"
"Although the meeting will only start tomorrow night, I don't know the content of the meeting yet." Guzman said thoughtfully: "But I think your speculation is very likely to become reality."
"I really envy you!" Seeing that Belgin did not call him, Vasily guessed that he was not qualified to participate in such a military meeting. Although he was happy, he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. But in order not to affect Gus
Despite Mann's mood, he still forced a smile and said: "I can go to the headquarters to participate in such an important meeting."
Guzman saw Vasily's thoughts and didn't know what to say for a moment. He could only raise his hand and pat the other person on the shoulder and said: "Comrade Captain, when I go to the meeting tomorrow, I will leave this place to you."
Take responsibility."
"Don't worry, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I will never let the enemy get close to our position." Vasily assured Guzman: "You can go to the meeting with confidence."
"The enemy is coming up!" Just as the two were talking, they suddenly heard a series of shouts from outside: "The enemy is coming up!"
The two people quickly looked outside, and sure enough they saw several assault guns in the distance, guiding more than a hundred German soldiers towards the position.
Guzman quickly picked up the phone and said into the receiver: "First battalion commander, battle alarm, the enemy is attacking us, order the troops to enter combat positions immediately!"
After putting down the phone, Guzman raised his telescope and looked in the direction from which the enemy came. After looking for a while, he murmured: "Damn it, why did the enemy change their tactics again? There is no artillery cover.
Dare to attack us directly?"
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, this is normal." Vasily on the side said: "Our troops went deep into the enemy's rear and destroyed the enemy's supplies hoarded at Kotluban Station and the 654th Kilometer Station. The enemy's current ammunition and various military supplies
We are facing a shortage of supplies, so naturally there are not so many artillery shells to bombard us with. This is good, at least we can reduce some casualties during defense."
The German assault artillery stopped five or six hundred meters away from the position, and then bombarded the Soviet position with artillery fire to cover their infantry's advance.
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," seeing this, Vasily said to Guzman anxiously: "Please contact the artillery immediately and ask them to use artillery fire to destroy those assault guns. Otherwise, the fire points on our position will be attacked one after another by assault guns.
Destroyed one by one."
Guzman looked at the assault guns in the distance and found that they were no longer firing aimlessly and blindly. The shells had accurately landed on the position and exploded. Although it was not yet clear what the enemy's shelling had done to the commanders and soldiers on the position.
What kind of casualties, but Guzman knew in his heart that if the assault gun kept firing, I am afraid that before the enemy infantry rushes into the position, the commanders and soldiers may not be able to effectively fight back under the suppression of artillery fire.
Guzman picked up the phone and reported to division commander Lyudnikov: "Comrade division commander, the enemy has launched another attack on our regiment's position. This time they dispatched multiple assault guns. I request the artillery to fire immediately to destroy these damned vehicles."
assault guns so that our soldiers can calmly eliminate the attacking infantry."
"I understand, Lieutenant Colonel Guzman." Lyudnikov said into the microphone: "I will get in touch with the artillery right away and ask them to provide you with artillery cover."
After ending the call with Guzman, Lyudnikov looked at Sokov and said with a smile: "Colonel Sokov, the enemy launched an attack on the position of the 650th Regiment, and there were several infantry vehicles accompanying the attack.
Assault guns. Do you think we can order the artillery to destroy these assault guns with artillery fire?"
When Sokov heard the sound of gunfire outside, he went out to observe the situation. At this moment, when he heard Lyudnikov's request, he nodded and said: "Okay, comrade colonel, I will call Sakov immediately."
Major Veitch called and told them to fire on the enemy."
"Major Savage, this is Sokov." After the call was connected, Sokov didn't say anything nonsense, but asked directly: "Have you seen the enemy attacking the 650th Regiment's position?"
"Yes, Comrade Colonel, we saw it." Savage waited for Sokov to finish and quickly asked for instructions: "I am about to call you and ask for instructions whether to fire at the enemy."
Sokov considered that there were nearly ten days left in the major counterattack. If the artillery shells were used up prematurely, he would no longer have any long-range anti-tank weapons, so he asked tentatively: "How many artillery shells do you have left?"
"After these two days of fighting, each gun still has an average of fifteen rounds of shells." Savage reported to Sokov: "Among them, there are ten high-explosive shells and five armor-piercing shells."
Sokov didn’t know when the artillery shells would be replenished after they were fired, so he said cautiously: “Major, you may not get any ammunition replenishment for a long time, so you have to save your artillery shells and strive to
Use the fewest shells to take out the enemy's assault guns."
Since the assault gun does not have a turret, the entire body is much shorter than a tank. It is necessary to use direct fire from a long distance to destroy these assault guns. It is really impossible for non-skilled artillerymen to do it. Savage received Sokov
After giving this order, I thought about the positions where my skilled artillerymen were distributed.
Briski saw Savage standing at the table in a daze after answering the phone, so he asked curiously: "Comrade Major, what happened? Why are you standing here in a daze?"
"Comrade Captain," Savage said to Briskey with a wry smile: "Colonel Sokov just called me and said that we might not be able to get any supplies for a long time, and asked us to use the least amount of artillery shells.
Destroy the enemy's assault guns. I'm thinking about where my skilled gunners are now. It's necessary to gather them up specifically to deal with the enemy's assault guns."
"Comrade Major, I think your method is feasible." Briskey is very self-aware. Even though he has achieved considerable results in the past two days, he understands that his subordinates are just serving as a basis for the real artillery.
That's it, without the artillery, relying on the infantry under his command, even if the cannon is fired, there is no telling where the artillery shells will fly. Therefore, he strongly agreed with Savage's plan: "Skilled artillery should be summoned immediately.
Destroy enemy assault guns."
Skilled artillerymen were distributed in different positions. Through the phone call, Savage deployed a dozen of the most skilled artillerymen on Position 1. When everyone arrived, he decisively issued the order: "Aim.
Enemy assault gun, fire!"
After the artillery was in position, it quickly aimed at the target and fired as soon as the shells were loaded. The two test shells failed to hit the target, and one hit the open space more than ten meters in front of the assault gun.
The other shot flew directly over the assault gun, landed in the ruins behind and exploded.
Skilled artillerymen are different from those novices. When they saw that the first artillery shell missed, they immediately adjusted the shooting angle of the artillery. In the second round of shooting, the shells fired by the five artillery guns knocked the two assault guns into pieces.
The burning torches were lit. Seeing that the enemy's assault guns were destroyed, the artillerymen were greatly encouraged and aimed at the remaining assault guns and opened fire.
As all the assault guns turned into piles of burning torches, Savage decisively ordered the artillerymen to use high-explosive bombs to bombard the infantry who were bent over and charging towards the Soviet positions.