The offensive on Rostov was prepared in the early morning of January 5. After a short period of artillery preparation, 20 T-34 tanks parked at the starting position took the lead in the assault. Not long after the tanks departed, 50 NKL-26 heavy armored automatic sleds assigned to the 2nd Guards Army were also dispatched, and behind the sled troops were dense infantry.

Malinovsky, who was staying at the forward observation post, couldn't help frowning slightly when he saw the people hanging on both sides of the automatic sled that was advancing rapidly behind the tank, and he asked the chief of staff standing beside him; "Doesn't it affect the speed of the sled that so many people are standing on the pry board of the automatic sled?"

"No problem, Comrade Commander." The chief of staff next to him replied confidently: "This kind of heavy-armored automatic sled issued to us by our superiors can ensure a speed of more than 30 kilometers per hour on the snow, even if the load exceeds one ton. As soon as he had finished speaking, they saw the sleds like the wind pass over the charging tanks and rush towards the German positions.

Defending Rostov was the German 17th Panzer Division, whose commander, Major General Eitling, was in the city's church bell tower, using a telescope to observe the defensive positions outside the city. Seeing those automatic sleds coming out of behind the Soviet tanks, he couldn't help frowning, and hurriedly ordered the staff officer next to him: "Order the mortars in the forward positions to open fire and knock out all the armored vehicles of the Russians." "It was the first time he had seen such a heavily armored automatic sled, so he mistook it for an armored vehicle.

His order was immediately conveyed, and the mortars arranged on the German positions immediately opened fire on the oncoming automatic sleds. Due to his lack of knowledge about the performance of automatic sleds, Eitling made a military mistake by bombarding objects moving at high speed with mortars, which greatly reduced the effect. Even if you aim at the target and shoot again, by the time the shells fall, the automatic sled has already rushed out of the way.

What happened next proved that this was indeed the case. The mortars did not stop the onslaught of the Soviet automatic sleds, and the successive explosions only destroyed one automatic sled and knocked a few unlucky fighters out of the vehicle.

In a very short time, the automatic sled formation rushed to a place only fifty or sixty meters away from the German position. Since there was no snow ahead, the sleds could not continue and stopped. The 7.62 mm machine guns on the sled began to fire, and more than forty machine guns opened fire at the same time, effectively suppressing the German fire from those who were hiding in the trenches to shoot. The fighters standing on the pry board jumped down one after another, bending over with their weapons in their hands and rushing towards the enemy's position.

The automatic sleds, which were parked in front of the position to provide fire cover, did not stop machine gun fire until their own fighters rushed into the first line of German trenches, and turned around to pick up the infantry who were lagging behind.

Etrin felt dizzy in his mind, and his body shook a few times, and if it wasn't for the staff officer next to him to help him in time, he would have fallen to the ground. With his white-gloved hands, he grabbed the pillars of the bell tower, looked at the Soviet commanders and fighters who were fighting with his subordinates for the trenches, and shouted in an unbelievable voice: "What's going on, what's going on? How can the armored vehicles of the Russians run so fast on the snow? ”

Within a few minutes, the second group of Soviet troops, transported by automatic sleds, quickly came to the German position, and without stopping for the slightest, they quickly rushed into the trench. After joining up with the first group of troops in the trenches, they rushed along the criss-crossed communication trenches to the second line of German trenches.

By the time the automatic sled returned to the rear for the second time, the tank, accompanied by the infantry charge, had already rushed up. They stopped more than a hundred meters in front of the trench, and the coaxial machine guns on the turrets began to fire at the exposed fire points, and the barrels of the guns constantly adjusted their direction, and as soon as they finished aiming, a shell whistled out of the chamber, and the German fire points were blown away.

"Chief of Staff," Etlin saw that the position outside the city was being occupied by the Soviets little by little, and hurriedly called his chief of staff and ordered him: "Immediately let our tanks carry out a counterattack, and we must block the onslaught of the Russians." ”

"Your Excellency, Division Commander, we don't have the ability to fight back." The chief of staff said with a sad face: "The 40 tanks in our division have been completely lost under the continuous bombardment of the Russians. The only two remaining ones were also placed behind the fortifications in the city and used as fixed firing points. ”

And the Soviet troops, thanks to the fact that they were equipped with dozens of heavily armored automatic sleds, greatly increased the speed of maneuver of the troops. Originally, it took almost an hour for the infantry to charge to get close to the German defensive positions, but with the help of automatic sleds, after only half an hour, a regiment of troops, under the cover of tanks, broke through the two defensive positions of the German army outside Rostov and launched an attack on the weakly defended city.

Seeing this situation, the chief of staff of the German army hurriedly persuaded Ettling: "Your Excellency Division Commander, the current situation is very bad for us, let's retreat as soon as possible, otherwise when the Russians rush up, even if we want to withdraw, we will not be able to withdraw." ”

Eterling was unmoved, he felt that although the Soviet troops had broken through their positions outside Rostov, it would not be so easy to capture the entire city. As long as the troops in the city can block the surprise attack of the Soviet army, and the troops outside the city have another counter-encirclement, then it is possible to eat this aggressive Soviet army.

Malinovsky, who commanded the offensive operation, did not expect that after the troops were equipped with their own automatic sleds, their mobility would be so amazing. According to his original assumption, the troops would be able to break through the first line of defense of the German army in two hours, and the speed would be considered fast, after all, the preparation time for the enemy's artillery fire today was too short, and it was simply negligible compared with the previous artillery bombardment of one or two hours.

But he did not expect that the German defense would become vulnerable under the rapid offensive of his own side. Less than an hour before the battle began, the vanguard had broken through the German defenses and stormed into the city.

The battle report that the troops had stormed into the city was soon placed in front of Rokossovsky. Although Rokossovsky knew in his heart that the bombing of German defensive positions by the air force in the past two days had achieved great results. But after reading the battle report he had just received, he was still shocked in his heart, he really didn't expect that with the cooperation of automatic sleds, the assault troops of the 2nd Guards Army would be able to break through the outer defenses of the German army and rush into the city in such a short time.

After reading it, Rokossovsky circulated the report among several of the main chiefs of the Front. After reading it, Orel said to Rokossovsky with some concern: "Comrade commander, the streets of Rostov are narrow, and if we drive too many tanks into the city, as soon as the leading tank is destroyed, then the tanks behind will be blocked. In the narrow streets, our tanks could not turn around, and then they would become targets for the German anti-tank fighters. ”

After listening to Orel's words, Rokossovsky did not immediately express his opinion, but looked at everyone and asked: "Do you have any problems?" Seeing that everyone shook their heads and said that there was no problem, he instructed Malinin: "Chief of Staff, call General Malinovsky and say that the streets in Rostov are narrow, and do not let too many tanks enter the city, so as not to cause unnecessary losses due to congestion." ”

When Malinin went to call, Rokossovsky continued: "Comrade commanders, the 50 automatic sleds that the base camp has equipped us with have played a great role in today's battle. As everyone knows, there is about four kilometers of snow from our starting position to the enemy's position, and because the snow is so deep that our infantry cannot raise their speed at all, so it is easy for the enemy hiding in the trenches to be used as a target.

However, equipped with automatic sleds, relying on the strong mobility of the sleds, our infantry could be thrown in front of the German positions in the shortest possible time and attack. After the liberation of Rostov-on-Don, I think it is necessary to ask the 2nd Guards Army to sum up the experience of using automatic sleds, which will be very helpful for us to solve the besieged Paulus troops in the next stage. ”

And at this moment, the fighting in the Rostov region has shifted from outside the city to inside the city. Although the number of German troops in the city was limited, the advance of the Soviet troops did not go well. The soldiers were walking in the street when suddenly bullets were fired from the buildings on both sides of the street, knocking down the fighters who were walking in front. When the fighters rushed into the building where they had just shot, they found it empty.

At a crossroads leading to the city center, two German tanks were placed next to the barricade fortifications. As soon as a Soviet T-34 tank appeared, it was hit by a shell flying from the front, which directly blew off the track, and stopped after two turns in place. The Soviet tank crew aimed at the German tank that was firing in the distance and fired a fierce shot, but unfortunately the shell missed and did not hit the tank with sandbags piled up on the body, but only destroyed a nearby barricade fortification.

Without waiting for the Soviet tanks to fire the second shot, two German tanks opened fire at the same time, accurately hitting the frontal armor of the T-34. After an earth-shattering explosion, the tank stopped in place and burst into flames.

Although they lost the cover of the tanks, the infantry following behind them bravely launched a charge towards the German barricade fortifications at the crossroads. Seeing the Soviet commanders and fighters crowded together, they rushed towards themselves along the street. The German tank men replaced themselves with grenades and opened fire on the rushing troops.

After the two artillery shots, two craters appeared in the street, and around the craters lay the corpses of Soviet commanders and fighters, as well as the wounded who were still struggling in pain. Seeing that the tank guns killed and wounded a lot of Soviet infantry, the German machine guns hiding behind the barricades also opened heavy fire. The machine-gun fire cut off the Soviet formation, then extended the trajectory backwards to the end of the line, and then swept to the front, until there was no longer a single Soviet soldier left standing in the street, and the German machine gunners stopped firing.

The news of the setback of the offensive soon reached Malinovsky's ears. He immediately called the commander of the division and said in a stern tone: "Comrade Colonel, according to our reconnaissance, the Germans have less than a battalion of troops in the city, and you have a full division. I'll give you two hours, and if you can't take the whole city, go to the company and become a normal soldier. ”

Hearing Malinovsky's death order, his chief of staff hesitated for a moment, and then carefully reminded: "Comrade commander, should we let the troops stop, first summarize the reasons for the failure of the offensive, and then relaunch the offensive?" ”

Malinovsky, on the other hand, waved his hand and said stubbornly: "No, Chief of Staff, if we can't seize the city as soon as possible, and wait for the German troops outside the city to retreat into the city one after another, and then fight with the enemy in the streets, we will pay a greater price." ”

Seeing Malinovsky say this, the chief of staff could only obediently close his mouth, because he knew that the commander was telling the truth, and as the defensive positions outside the German army outside the city were broken through, more and more German officers and soldiers were retreating into the city one after another.

On another part of the city, two companies of Soviet troops attacked a German fortification at the end of the street. Seeing the rushing Soviet troops, the German machine gunners, hiding behind the sandbag fortifications, began to shoot. Under heavy machine-gun fire, the front row of infantry quickly fell into the street, but the remaining crowd in the back, acting by great inertia, continued to advance fearlessly across the corpses of their comrades and into the dense German fire network. The fire of the German machine guns caused more people to fall to the ground, and their bodies overlapped on the bodies of their comrades who died first. The commanders and fighters of the two companies, in accordance with the orders of their superiors, launched an attack on the enemy's firing points. But in just a few minutes, they were all destroyed.

The battalion commander, who was supervising the battle in the building behind, saw that his troops were gone, and struck the wall in front of him with his hands in pain. He took a deep breath, picked up the phone, dialed the regiment headquarters, and reported to the regiment commander: "Comrade regiment commander, my troops have almost all been wiped out in the offensive. This battle cannot be fought like this again, otherwise it will not be long before there will be a few people left in our regiment. ”

The regiment commander knew his subordinate, but for the division commander's strict order, he could only stubbornly order: "No, Comrade Major, it is an order from the higher authorities to destroy the German troops in the city as soon as possible, even if our regiment fights out all the people, the attack cannot be stopped." I now order you, immediately with your men, to continue the attack on the enemy. ”

After the battalion commander put down the phone, he turned his head to look at the dozen or so fighters standing beside him, among whom were several wounded who could not move. He took the submachine gun from the hands of one of the fighters and said to his fighters with a hard heart: "Comrades, the regiment orders us to take the German positions in front at any cost. Although there are only a few of us left, the orders of the superiors must be carried out unconditionally. The wounded stay, and the rest come with me! ”