As the Soviet tank brigade entered the city, the defenders' nightmare befell them. The German officers and soldiers hiding on both sides of the street still used the same way as the Polish army to deal with the Soviet tanks that were engaged in the attack, but as soon as their firing point was fired, before they could finish a chain of bullets, the Soviet tanks accurately hit the target, and the German soldiers hiding behind the window were lifted out of the room by the air wave and the guns after the loud explosion.

In real history, the city of Danzig was bombed into ruins by Soviet bombers, and today the city is still relatively intact due to Rokossovsky's intervention. The presence of numerous buildings allowed German officers and soldiers to rely on more buildings to resist.

Just as the troops of the 65th Army and the 2nd Shock Army were advancing step by step towards the city, Bogolyubov suddenly broke into Rokossovsky's office and said with a nervous expression: "Comrade Marshal, I have just received a call from General Vershinin that our air force has found a large number of German ships in the harbor of Danzig. ”

"German ships?" Rokossovsky was stunned for a moment, and then asked rhetorically: "Could it be a merchant ship?" The reason why he asked this question was because two days ago he had heard a report from the commander of the Baltic Fleet, Tributz, that the Germans had dispatched a large number of merchant ships to transport away the civilians and wounded who had been stranded in the city of Danzig.

The Baltic Fleet did not attack merchant ships carrying civilians and wounded on their way to Danzig Bay, but allowed them to go. Therefore, when Bogolyubov said that a large number of ships appeared in the port, Rokossovsky's first thought was merchant ships.

But Bogolyubov shook his head and said: "Comrade Marshal, according to the reconnaissance of the Air Force, in addition to numerous merchant ships, there are also German combat ships in the port. The pilots identified the heavy cruiser 'Prinz Eugen', the light cruiser 'Leipzig', and the battleship 'Silesia'......"

After Bogolyubov finished reporting a series of names of the ships, Rokossovsky couldn't help frowning, because these combat ships and merchant ships were crowded in the harbor, and if the Baltic Fleet was allowed to carry out artillery shelling, it would inevitably accidentally damage the merchant ships and cause huge casualties to civilians. However, if these warships are not dealt with, once they bombard the siege troops with naval artillery, they will inevitably inflict huge casualties on the troops of Batov and Fedyuninsky.

Rokossovsky sat in his place and thought for a long time, then raised his head and said to Bogolyubov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, do you see how about sending the Air Force to bomb the port? In order to make the other party understand his intentions, he also deliberately explained, "Those civilians gathered in the port, when they see our air force appearing, they will find a place to hide." In this way, our bombing will not cause too many civilian casualties. ”

"Comrade Marshal," Bogolyubov said with a wry smile after waiting for Rokossovsky to finish, "the Germans have established anti-aircraft positions on the high ground near the port, and if we were to bomb the port, the planes that might have participated in the bombing would suffer heavy losses." After a pause, he continued, "You ordered that the city should not be bombarded with heavy artillery, and the solid stone buildings in the city were used by the Germans to establish fire support points to resist our attacks, so our army's advance was slow." You see, is it possible to send the air force to bomb the city, and at the same time bombard it with heavy artillery, in order to destroy the German defenses as quickly as possible? ”

"Comrade Chief of Staff, maybe in a few days the city will fall into the hands of our troops. If you destroy it now, it will not be easy to rebuild it in the future. Rokossovsky said thoughtfully: "Danzig is an ancient city with a long history, and it would be impossible to restore some of the relics that were destroyed in the war." Again, I said that heavy artillery was not allowed in the city, and that the siege troops could only rely on tanks or small-caliber artillery to destroy the recalcitrant enemy. ”

"What about the warships in the harbor?" Bogolyubov reminded Rokossovsky: "If they carry out artillery shelling of our siege troops, they will inevitably inflict huge casualties on us. ”

"Get in touch with General Tributz at once, and tomorrow he will send ships to Danzig Bay to enforce the blockade." Rokossovsky thought for a moment and replied: "If necessary, all ships in the port can be shelled." ”

Bogolyubov was waiting for Rokossovsky's words, shelling all ships in the port meant that the Baltic Fleet did not have to worry about accidentally damaging merchant ships or cargo ships carrying civilians when firing guns. He hurriedly agreed, turned and walked out of the office, ready to relay Rokossovsky's order to Tributs.

When Tributz learned of the presence of a number of German warships in Danzig Bay, he immediately sent more than a dozen ships to blockade Danzig Bay. When the captains of the ships gave their orders, he specifically told them that as soon as they found German naval guns firing on the shore, the ships would immediately shell Danzig Bay, and they would not have to worry about civilian ships anchored in the harbor.

However, while the Baltic Fleet ships were advancing towards Danzig Bay, the German ships in the harbor shelled the attacking troops south of the city. Because the German army first blew up some water conservancy facilities in the south of the city, these sections became muddy, causing a lot of inconvenience to the attacking Soviet army.

The 37th Guards Division, which was responsible for the attack in this direction, fought continuously for two or three days, and after paying a great price, it only advanced five kilometers. Seeing that the troops' progress was slow, the division commander Raqimov was extremely anxious, so he took his political commissar to a place just 500 meters away from the front line and set up a temporary command post in order to better direct the troops to attack.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the forward headquarters was built, it was bombarded by German naval guns. The commander of the guard battalion, who was on guard duty, saw the shells fall near the headquarters and explode, the mud and water columns rose into the sky, and the trees and buildings were crumpled and torn by the explosion like papier-mâché toys, and were raised high into the air.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the commander of the guard battalion hurriedly rushed into the command headquarters and shouted at Raqimov: "Comrade division commander, it's too dangerous here, let's move quickly!" ”

Rajmov heard the shouts of the guard battalion commander, only glanced up at him, and then focused his attention on the map in front of him, as if he had not heard the warning of the guard battalion commander at all.

Seeing that Rachimov did not take the words of the battalion commander to heart at all, and listened to the shells exploding outside, the political commissar of the division reminded the other party: "Comrade division commander, it is indeed not safe here, I think we should move around." ”

"What's wrong with you, Comrade Commissar?" In response to the reminder of his political commissar, Rachimov said impatiently: "Are you frightened by the sound of enemy artillery and want to flee from the battle?" ”

Seeing that Raqimov was so stubborn, and the political commissar was not easy to persuade him again, he had already stood up, sighed softly, and sat down again. However, he still waved his hand at the guard battalion commander standing at the door, and said kindly: "Comrade battalion commander, there is nothing for you to do here, you can go back to the army first." ”

The guard battalion commander had no choice but to raise his hand and salute, and then turned to leave. He had only walked twenty or thirty meters, and suddenly heard an earth-shattering explosion behind him, and then he felt as if someone behind him had pushed him hard, and he didn't stand firm for a while, and he fell heavily to the ground.

By the time he got up from the ground, he turned his head to look at the forward headquarters, where the attack had been blown to pieces, and some broken wood was burning. He yelled that it was not good, pulled his legs and ran towards the destroyed headquarters, trying to rescue the division commander and political commissar who were staying inside.

However, when he rushed outside the command headquarters, he found that no matter what he did, it was in vain, the headquarters should have been directly hit by a cannonball, the house was blown to pieces, and only some scattered corpses could be seen inside, not even intact corpses, let alone survivors.

Seeing this, the commander of the guard battalion fell to the ground and muttered, "It's over, it's all over." The division commander and political commissar are gone, what should I do! ”

The soldiers who rushed to the scene after hearing the news tried to rush into the headquarters to save people. But when they rushed to the front of the headquarters, they were all stunned like the commander of the guard battalion, there was not even a complete corpse inside, even if they wanted to save people, there was no one to save them.

When an officer saw the guard battalion commander sitting on the ground in a daze, he hurriedly walked to his side, leaned close to his ear and shouted: "Comrade battalion commander, the division commander and political commissar may have died, you should immediately report this to your superiors." ”

"Yes, yes, yes," the words woke up the dreamer, and the officer's reminder sobered up the guard battalion commander who was extremely remorseful, and he stood up suddenly, looked around, and asked loudly: "Telephone, where is the telephone?" I will report the situation here to the commander of the army group! ”

The officer, apparently much more sober than the guard battalion commander, immediately took him by the hand and ran towards a nearby shelter with a telephone. After entering the shelter department, the officer pointed to a telephone hanging on the pillar and said to the guard battalion commander: "Comrade battalion commander, you can use this telephone to talk to the headquarters of the group army. ”