On the third day after Rokossovsky's headquarters was stationed in Warsaw, units of the 47th Army, ready for the offensive, launched an offensive against the German skeleton divisions deployed on the southwestern outskirts of Warsaw.

The artillery of Gusev's 47th Army carried out a heavy shelling of the positions of the Skeleton Division for half an hour. As soon as the shelling ended, the 397th Infantry Division, with the cooperation of the 50th Brigade of the 3rd Tank Army, launched a charge towards the positions of the 5th Grenadier Regiment, which was still shrouded in gunsmoke.

The officers and men of the skeleton division never dreamed that the Soviets would launch a surprise attack on them and were taken by surprise. Due to the lack of a strong defensive position, two companies lost their combat effectiveness due to heavy casualties in the shelling. In the face of the tide of Soviet troops, except for a few officers and soldiers who were fighting on their own, the rest fell into chaos.

But the skeleton division was the elite unit of the German army after all, and after a short period of confusion, the officers at all levels, who were the first to come to their senses, brandished their pistols and drove the soldiers who were bumping into the open field, and they all entered their respective firing positions, ready to meet the Soviet attack.

Major General Helmut Becker, commander of the Skeleton Division, after learning that the defense area of the 5th Grenadier Regiment had been suddenly attacked by the Soviet army, he hurriedly called the commander of the regiment and asked bluntly: "Colonel, how is the situation there, and what kind of troops are the Russians using to attack you?" ”

"Your Excellency," said the German commander who was in the headquarters, looking at the Soviet tanks and infantry in the distance in the smoke of gunfire with his binoculars, and said to Becker: "The Russians have probably dispatched two infantry divisions and several tank brigades, and they are rushing towards us like a tide. Please send troops to support immediately, otherwise I am afraid that the Russians will break through our defense zone......" He was worried that his report would not attract Becker's attention, so he deliberately exaggerated the strength of the Soviet army.

Becker couldn't help but frown when he put down the phone. Although he knew through the scouts that the Soviet army had troops in the city, according to the past practice, the Soviet army first attacked the weak enemy and then the strong enemy, so that he deployed the armored regiment, the armored artillery regiment, the artillery battalion and the anti-tank battalion in the direction close to the 73rd Infantry Division, so that when they were attacked, he could provide them with timely assistance. Who knows that the Russians did not play their cards according to common sense this time, and actually played their stronger self first, what is going on?

In order to clarify this question, he called the chief of staff of the division and told him his doubts. The chief of staff pondered for a moment and said in an uncertain tone: "Your Excellency Division Commander, maybe the Russians do not know the distribution of our forces, so they will choose the direction of the first attack and choose the position of the 5th Grenadier Regiment. ”

"It can't be." As soon as the chief of staff's words fell, Becker said in a loud voice: "How can the Russians not know the number of our troops if they did not send a reconnaissance group to repeatedly reconnoiter our defensive sites before attacking?" ”

Hearing Becker say this, the division chief of staff could only shake his head and said with a wry smile: "Your Excellency the division commander, I really can't think of any other possibilities. After a slight pause, he asked Becker for instructions, "Judging from the current situation, the Russians are attacking fiercely, and I am afraid that the defense zone of the 5th Grenadier Regiment will be breached, do you think the troops placed in the direction of the 73rd Infantry Division will be transferred to support them?" ”

Becker stared at the map, shook his head slowly, and said: "According to the information we have, the Russians have more than 100,000 troops in Warsaw, and they don't fight the weak 73rd Infantry Division, but they attack us first, I think there is a conspiracy in it." As soon as we withdrew the troops in the direction of the infantry division, they launched a surprise attack, and we tried to support it, but it was a little too late. ”

"If the Russians break through the positions of the 5th Grenadier Regiment, the troops of our division in the direction of the infantry division will expose the flanks to the Russians." Seeing that Becker had rejected his proposal, the chief of staff said with some anxiety: "In this way, it is possible that the whole division will be divided into several parts by the Russian troops." ”

It was precisely because of Becker's preconceived judgment that the Soviet attack on the 5th Grenadier Regiment was just a smoke bomb, and the real goal was to defeat or even eliminate the 73rd Infantry Division. Therefore, not only did he not provide any assistance to the 5th Grenadier Regiment, but he even sent a tank destroyer battalion to the junction of the two divisions.

In the face of the onslaught of the Soviet army, although the 5th Grenadier Regiment put up stubborn resistance, the tank artillery on which they relied was basically lost in the Soviet artillery bombardment, and relying only on the remaining few anti-tank guns, it was tantamount to a fool's dream to block the attack of a Soviet tank brigade. After an hour of fierce fighting, the Soviets successfully broke through the two lines of German defense and approached the German headquarters in a large settlement.

Two German anti-tank artillerymen, hiding in a row of smoke-filled ruins, operated a surviving anti-tank gun aimed at the rushing Soviet tank. Seeing that the tank was getting closer and closer, the gunner was a little anxious, and whispered to the gun commander: "The Russian tank is coming, let's shoot!" ”

"No, wait." The senior gunner looked unusually calm: "Wait until it gets closer before fighting." He pointed his hand ahead, "You see, the road here is narrow, and if we destroy two tanks in a row, we can block the road." ”

When the tanks at the front were still thirty meters away from them, the gun commander waved his hand down and shouted, "Fire!" "The gunner, who had long been ready to shoot, pulled the gun rope sharply, and the shell whistled out of the chamber and flew directly towards the T-34 tank.

There was a loud "boom", and the moving tank was wrapped in fire and smoke. The tank, with its blazing fire, moved forward a few more meters before coming to a halt. After a while, two tankmen, covered in fire, came out from under the tank and ran behind them with their hands dancing.

"Well played!" Seeing that the anti-tank gun easily destroyed a Soviet tank, the gun commander slapped the gunner's shoulder hard and said proudly: "Again, we will use the wreckage of the Russian tank to block this road tightly, and we must not let the Russians rush to the regimental headquarters." ”

After the gunner withdrew the shell, he refilled it with an armor-piercing shell and aimed it at the second tank moving on the street. When it was about to get around the burning tank, the gunners, at the command of the gunner, pulled the gun rope again, and achieved their second victory.

The battalion commander of this tank battalion, Major Skvortsov, was on the third tank. When the first tank was destroyed, he was paying attention to his surroundings; When the second tank was hit by a shell flying from the side of the road, he had already locked on to the position of the German anti-tank gun, he immediately ordered the tank to make an emergency stop, turned the turret, aimed at the position of the anti-tank gun and fired a shot.