At dawn, the commanders and fighters of the 109th Tank Brigade gathered at the edge of the forest, and several phalanxes composed of tank men and motorized infantry were silent, only the voice of the brigade commander, Colonel Babkovsky, echoed in the air: "Comrades and brothers, we are about to launch a counter-assault on the German army as the vanguard of the whole army. Yesterday they broke through the line of the 13th Army, and we, today, will fight them back. Do you have faith? ”

"Ulla! Ulla!! Ulla!!! The commanders and fighters of the 109th Brigade opened their throats and shouted loudly.

Babkovsky raised his hand and pressed down for a moment, and when the surroundings were calm again, he continued: "The 309th Tank Battalion, as the vanguard of the whole brigade, opened the way in front; I and the 310th Tank Battalion followed, followed by the motorized infantry machine gun battalion, anti-tank gun company, and anti-aircraft artillery company. Did you hear me clearly? ”

"Hear me clearly!" The commanders and fighters of the whole brigade shouted in unison.

Babkovsky shouted the order: "Now, everyone get into the tanks and go destroy the damned fascist invaders!" ”

Soon, one tank after another was launched, and forty tanks of two battalions galloped across the wide plain towards the breakthrough occupied by the Germans.

Due to the many craters on the plains, many tanks had to slow down to bypass these nasty craters, and the tanks with their barrels held high were constantly bumping and undulating on the rough roads. Babkovsky sat in a tank and constantly shouted by radio: "Keep in formation, tank companies on the march, pay attention to keep in formation!" ”

Soon two three-wheeled motorcycles quickly passed the moving tank unit and headed ahead. They were a reconnaissance team sent by Babkovsky to find out where the German tank units were, and the next battle was completed by two tank battalions under Babkovsky's command.

The German tank units, having broken through the defense line of the 13th Army yesterday, advanced five kilometers and stopped, not because they did not want to continue to rush, but because the road ahead had been flooded by the Soviet army. The German commander stood at the water's edge and watched for a while, then sent two tanks into the water, trying to pass through the flooded section.

But the two tanks traveled less than 300 meters in stagnant water before they fell into the mud, and no matter how much they increased their horsepower, the tanks could not get out. In desperation, the tankmen had no choice but to abandon the tanks, wade back to the starting point, and report the road situation to the commander.

The German commander organized the soldiers to cut down the wood overnight, intending to use the wood to lay a passable road in the water. In order to prevent a surprise attack by the Soviet troops during the paving of the road, the commander set up guard posts in several directions, and as soon as there was a trace of the Soviet army, he could report to him at the first time.

The scout of the 109th Tank Brigade was riding on a motorcycle, still far from the flooded area, when it was spotted by a German observation post, who immediately reported it to the commander.

The German command, believing that the two motorcycles must be Soviet scouts and must be followed by a large group of troops, ordered the infantry to stop paving the road in the water, and the tanks and artillery immediately set up defensive positions to meet the approaching Soviet troops.

The tank crews, who were originally standing at the water's edge to watch the excitement, immediately got into the tank, jumped to the muzzle and aimed at the direction in which the Soviet motorcycles appeared, and prepared for battle. And the German anti-tank artillery also seized the time to establish artillery positions in the open space.

It didn't take long for the German commander to hear the roar of tank engines in the distance, and he raised his binoculars to look in the direction from which the sound came, only to see a row of black dots appear on the horizon in the distance. Soon, the black dots went from one row to two, three, four...... As the sound grew louder and louder, the little black dots became the size of a small beetle. The German commander saw that this was a tank battalion of the Soviet army, and he immediately picked up the phone in front of him, dialed the artillery position, ordered them to open fire, and intercepted the moving Soviet tanks with artillery fire.

With the order, six PAK40-mm anti-tank guns of the 75-mm type on the German artillery positions began to fire. Although the Soviet tanks were still one or two kilometers away, the German commanders were not at all worried about whether the artillery fire would achieve results, because the armor penetration of this gun could penetrate 116mm armor at 1000 meters and 102mm armor at 1500 meters, and it was impossible for the Soviet T-34 tank to be equipped with such thick armor.

The first round of fire, although only one shell hit the target, succeeded in destroying the Soviet tank, causing it to stop in the distance and burn.

The commander of the 309th Tank Battalion of the Soviet Army, seeing that one of his tanks was hit by German anti-tank guns, hurriedly called Babkovsky by radio: "Report to Comrade Colonel, a German anti-tank gun position appeared in front of us, and a tank was destroyed by German artillery fire at a distance of 1,500 meters. ”

Babkovsky immediately replied: "Major, I order you, immediately pick up your speed, quickly move closer to the German anti-tank positions and destroy it with artillery fire." ”

"Understood, Comrade Colonel." The battalion commander replied, "I immediately ordered the troops to pick up speed and rush to the German anti-tank artillery positions." ”

Immediately after the end of the call, Babkovsky ordered the commander of the 310th battalion: "The 309th battalion has discovered the anti-tank positions of the German troops, and I have ordered him to accelerate towards the enemy's positions. You get the whole battalion to speed up the march and rush over to support the 309th Battalion. ”

Of the tanks of the 309th battalion, only 13 managed to rush to the water's edge, the rest were destroyed by German anti-tank guns or tank guns. Soviet tanks, blocked by stagnant water, lined up at the water's edge and fired at the German tanks on the opposite side from a distance of several hundred meters.

The German tanks on the opposite bank were almost all No. 4 tanks, except for seven or eight improved tanks, the rest were old tanks. So don't look at them fighting lively, but at a distance of 800 meters, they can rarely penetrate the armor of the T-34 on the opposite bank. The biggest threat to the Soviet army was the six APK40 anti-tank guns.

After Babkovsky arrived at the water's edge, he did not immediately order the tank to go into battle, but leaned out half of his body from the turret, raised his binoculars and carefully observed the situation on the battlefield, and found that due to the barrier of stagnant water, his tank could not rush to the enemy's front at all, and rashly threw all the tanks into battle, which was bound to cause great casualties.

Thinking of this, he retracted into the tank, picked up the wireless communicator, and shouted to the headquarters of the army group: "I am the commander of the 109th tank brigade Babkovsky, our army has been attacked by the German armored forces and anti-tank units, request air force support, request air force support!" ”

Babkovsky's request for air force support was due to the fact that after Rokossovsky became commander of the front, he had been teaching the commanders of various army groups every now and then on new concepts such as ground-air coordination and step-tank coordination. He thought very simply, since I am firing at you tanks, I may not be able to gain the upper hand, then I will ask the Air Force to help, I don't believe that when the bombs fall from the sky, you won't blow up your tanks and artillery? 10