The 48th Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 122nd Army, in the vast darkness of the night, along the road in extremely poor condition, advanced in the direction of Elbin. But when they were still thirty kilometers away from their destination, the commander of the advance guard battalion suddenly reported to the brigade commander, Colonel Domnin, through the walkie-talkie he carried: "Comrade brigade commander, on the road ahead, I have found a German tank unit, about fifty or so of them. What do we do, do we stop moving forward, or do we take a detour? ”

After listening to the battalion commander's report, Domnin couldn't help frowning, he thought that his troops did not carry many anti-tank weapons, and encountering such a large German tank unit would inevitably have a fierce battle, and he was not sure of victory. In order not to delay the mission to Erbin to rescue friendly troops, he said into the microphone: "Comrade Major, immediately send scouts to find out the distribution of enemy tanks. ”

The battalion commander knew that the purpose of the brigade commander to send scouts was to find out the distribution of the enemy's tanks before making a final choice. He hurriedly agreed: "Don't worry, Comrade Brigade Commander, one of my reconnaissance teams set off on a motorcycle two minutes ago, and presumably they will have a report back soon." ”

Domnin immediately ordered the three battalions following to stop their advance and take up defensive positions in place, ready to resist the assault of German tanks. Considering the limited number of anti-tank weapons in his brigade, he also specially asked the commander of the army group Gusev for reinforcements, hoping to send reinforcements.

After Gusev received the encounter between the 122nd Motorized Brigade and a large group of German tank troops, he was also very anxious, but he still pretended to be calm and said: "Colonel Domnin, it is already dark, I think the German tanks will not dare to attack easily, your brigade will immediately establish a defensive position in the existing area to meet the possible attack of the German tanks, I will immediately call the commander of the 29th Tank Army and ask him to send tank troops to support you." ”

Kirichenko received a call from Gusev, and learned that a large number of German tanks had appeared on the way of the advance of the tank army, and he couldn't help but be stunned, and then asked rhetorically: "Comrade commander, I don't know where the German tanks you are talking about?" As soon as Gusev said that he had discovered the location of the tank, he quickly checked the map spread out in front of him. After reading it, he immediately said anxiously, "Comrade commander, I made a mistake, I made a mistake, I made a mistake, it was not the enemy's tank, it was my 87th tank brigade." Please immediately inform the commander of the motorized brigade and tell them to stop the operation immediately, and do not fight with their own people. ”

"What, what did you say?" Gusev was taken aback by Kirichenko's words, "You said that the tank units encountered by the motorized brigade were not enemies, but your troops?" ”

"That's right, Comrade Commander." Kirichenko hurriedly emphasized: "We have a tank detachment that has already established a defense north of Erbin, and this tank brigade is rushing to reinforce them. Speaking of this, Kirichenko suddenly thought that if the tank units did not have the cooperation of the infantry, they would be easily eliminated by the German anti-tank men, so he added, "Comrade commander, I am worried, my tank brigade does not have the cooperation of the infantry, and it will be very difficult to capture Erbin." Now that a motorized brigade has caught up with them, it is better to let the two brigades join forces and attack Erbin together, I don't know what your opinion is? ”

"That's a good suggestion." Gusev immediately agreed with Kirichenko's proposal: "I will immediately send a telegram to Colonel Domnin asking them to contact the tank brigade and jointly launch an attack on Elbin. ”

Kirichenko thought that in the battle for urban fortifications, it was the infantry who played the leading role, and his own tank units could only play an auxiliary role, so he took the initiative to propose: "Comrade commander, when the two brigades are fighting together, I propose that the commander of the motorized brigade, Colonel Domnin, take unified command. If you do not object, I immediately contact the commander of the tank brigade so that he can get in touch with friendly forces and accept the command of Colonel Domnin. ”

After receiving Gusev's notice, Domnin was also taken aback, and hurriedly radioed to the commander of the vanguard battalion: "Comrade Major, according to the report from your superiors, the tank unit that appeared in front of you is the 87th Tank Brigade of the friendly army. The planned sneak attack was cancelled, and someone was immediately sent to establish contact with them. ”

The vanguard battalion had already sent a company to take advantage of the darkness of night to blow up the tanks of the "German army" with cluster grenades, but after hearing that the tanks found in front were his own tanks, the battalion commander couldn't help but gasp and hurriedly ordered the signal corps to notify the company commander on the mission, asking them to immediately cancel the operation to avoid misunderstanding.

The commander of the tank brigade was also frightened into a cold sweat when he learned that a motorized brigade had arrived near him after receiving a telegram from Kirichchenko. Since the troops advanced smoothly after entering the battlefield from Arunstein after almost no fighting, he let his guard down, and did not send enough alert troops when the troops stopped to recuperate. If the people who are preparing to sneak attack are not friendly forces, but German troops, the tank brigade will be wiped out. He hurriedly sent a staff officer and a communications officer to the headquarters in Domnin to be responsible for communication between the two brigades.

After negotiations between the two brigade commanders, the tank brigade sent a tank battalion to advance with the motorized brigade overnight, while the remaining tanks could not continue to advance until dawn after completing their daily maintenance.

Colonel Shepfe, commander of the city defense of Elbin. The remnants of the defeated army that had retreated to the city were organized, and together with some members of the People's Stormtroopers, an army of tens of thousands of men was barely cobbled together to defend in all directions of Erbin. Tens of thousands of troops sound like a lot, but when they are distributed in all directions, the forces become weak, especially since there are also a large number of people's stormtroopers with little combat effectiveness.

After a night's march, the 122nd Motorized Rifle Brigade came to a distance of 20 kilometers from Erbin, where they were stopped by the Germans. The task of blocking was a company of the German 1142nd Grenadier Regiment and about 400 members of the People's Stormtroopers.

The German captain in command saw the Soviet tanks approaching in the distance through the binoculars, and immediately ordered the soldiers of the grenadier regiment to hide and let the civilians of the People's Stormtroopers intercept them.

These civilians, who had not picked up their guns for a few days, were already frightened when they saw the tanks rumbling towards them, and if it were not for the soldiers of the grenadier regiment behind them, it is estimated that they would have thrown away their weapons and fled in all directions. Since they could not escape, they had no choice but to fight hard, so they hid in the trenches that had been dug long ago, and with Mauser rifles and a small number of submachine guns in their hands, they fired at the approaching tanks. Although many of the bullets fired hit the tank and splashed a series of sparks on the armor plate, it did not slow down the tank's advance in the slightest.

Seeing that the fire on the German position was not fierce, the tank battalion commander felt that this was just a small force of the German army, and without waiting for the infantry behind to follow, he ordered all the tanks to speed up and try to tear through the German defense line as quickly as possible.

As soon as the tanks passed through the trenches held by the People's Stormtroopers, the anti-tank men of the grenadier regiment emerged from the trenches and attacked the tanks from behind with their iron fists and Molotov cocktails. It didn't take much time for five or six destroyed tanks to stop in place and burst into flames, and the tankers had just crawled out of their tanks when they were knocked down by German soldiers hiding nearby.

Taking advantage of the fact that the anti-tank men were destroying the advancing Soviet tanks, the soldiers of the grenadier regiment who had just hid emerged from their hiding places one after another, using machine guns, submachine guns and infantry, aiming at the Soviet infantry who had just charged behind, and the dense bullets knocked down the unprepared soldiers in pieces.