While the Chernesov division had finished up the besieged German corps headquarters, the Gryaznov division was not idle, and they were attacking an inadequately formed German battalion entrenched on the high ground at a distance of five or six kilometers. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Seeing that the large force of the Soviet army rushed up the hillside and started a white-knuckle battle with his own troops in the position, the German battalion commander hurriedly snatched the microphone in the hand of the telegraph operator and shouted at the division commander who was talking: "Your Excellency, General, the Russians have rushed up and are engaged in a white-knuckle battle with my soldiers in front of the position." We can't stand it anymore, I beg the artillery regiment to open fire, immediately open fire, fire at us! ”

If Rokossovsky had heard the shouting of the German battalion commander here, he would have smashed his jaw directly to the ground, which was a special line for a positive character, and it was actually stolen by the Germans.

After hearing his shout, the German division commander hesitated for a moment, and then ordered the staff officer next to him to call the artillery regiment and ask them to immediately fire on the high ground where his own troops were still stationed.

When the division chief of staff heard this order from him, he hurriedly stopped the staff officer who was about to make a phone call, and then persuaded his division commander: "Your Excellency, General, although the Russians rushed up the hillside, they also engaged in hand-to-hand combat with our soldiers. But it is still unknown whether they will be able to occupy the high ground, and if they order to fire now, they will injure our own people by mistake. ”

"Chief of Staff, I can't care so much now." The German division commander said with anger on his face: "The Russians actually separated our division from the main force during the day, and continued to fight at night, and they looked like they would not be willing to eat us." We have already been eliminated by them field hospital and a regimental headquarters, and if we do not take action, it will be difficult for this battalion and the regimental headquarters behind the high ground to escape the fate of annihilation. So we must now carry out indiscriminate shelling of the heights, at least whether or not our own soldiers will be accidentally wounded, it is no longer so much of a problem. ”

The chief of staff of the division thought for a moment, and then suggested: "Your Excellency, the area of that high ground is not large, and I think that as long as the artillery regiment conducts a round of shelling, it will be enough to blow the attacking Russians to pieces, so ......"

"Alright, Chief of Staff, needless to say, I see what you mean." After the German division commander finished speaking, he instructed his staff officer: "Call the artillery regiment and order them to immediately launch a round of artillery bombardment on the south side of the heights." ”

With an order, more than a dozen shells exploded in front of the trench at the same time, and the wall of fire and hundreds of shrapnel that collapsed swept around in an instant, enveloping a small number of German soldiers who were fighting in white-knuckle battles. The two sides had so many troops concentrated in this area that the shells blew up a large clearing, which was thwarted by the Soviet forward attack, and the newly arrived German reserves immediately filled the clearing.

The addition of the German reserves reversed the situation between the enemy and us, and under the strafing of thirty or forty submachine guns, hundreds of thousands of bullets that were splashed out in an instant were intertwined into an impermeable fire net, which immediately suppressed the Soviet troops charging head-on.

Colonel Gryaznov, who was staying at the observation post in the distance, saw that his troops had been driven down the hillside by the enemy, and his face immediately became serious. When the regimental commander walked into the observation center, he immediately asked in a stiff tone: "Comrade regiment commander, can you explain to me why our fighters were driven down the hillside by the enemy?" ”

"Comrade division commander, you must have seen the battle just now, as long as the enemy's shelling is a few minutes late, we will be able to ......," the regiment commander began to argue.

But Gryaznov interrupted him and asked unceremoniously: "Do you want to say that if the German shelling had been a few minutes late, your troops would have been able to occupy the German positions and drive out the enemy from the heights?" ”

"That's right, Comrade Division Commander." The head of the regiment nodded and replied, "That's how it is. ”

"Even if, according to what you say, you succeeded in seizing the enemy's positions before the enemy shelling arrived." Gryaznov's voice was full of anger and he said: "Then you can make sure that after the shelling, you will not let the Germans take the position from you again?" ”

The regimental commander did not answer anything, but took off the steel helmet on his head, raised his hand and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his coat.

After Gryaznov vented at his subordinates, his emotions gradually returned to normal, and he asked himself in his heart: "Am I being too him?" You must know that in the situation just now, even if I had personally commanded from above, I would have been driven down the hillside by the Germans. ”

He took a deep breath and then asked the regimental commander: "Comrade regimental commander, if I order you to make another charge, will you be able to take down the high ground?" ”

Hearing Gryaznov's question, the regiment commander remained silent. After thinking about it in his heart for a long time, he said: "Comrade division commander, this is hard to say, because I don't know if I will encounter such a sudden shelling again. You must know that some of my soldiers were only a few meters away from the trenches, but the indiscriminate shelling of the Germans made our efforts go to waste. ”

"Comrade regimental commander," said Gryaznov, looking at his men, "only after we have captured this high ground can we launch an attack on the German corps headquarters behind the high ground." Therefore, whether or not we can win the position will have a bearing on the success or failure of our battle tonight. ”

"I understand, Comrade Division Commander." The regimental commander put the steel helmet back on his head and asked expressionlessly: "Allow me to go back and organize the troops to launch a new attack on the enemy's heights?" ”

"Wait a minute, Comrade Regiment Commander." Gryaznov added to the regimental commander: "It's night, and the vision of the German troops will be somewhat affected. Before a new offensive battle begins, you can send a group of fighters to quietly approach the enemy's position, and then suddenly charge, and before they can come to their senses, our commanders and fighters have already rushed into the trenches. ”

Just when the regimental commander sent a company of commanders and fighters, under the cover of night, crawled towards the German positions on the hillside. The German battalion commander was in high spirits to report the results to the division commander because he had successfully repelled the Soviet attack with the support of artillery fire, "Your Excellency, as soon as the artillery shells of the artillery regiment fell on the hillside, they immediately blew up the Russian attacking team, and at this time, I also sent the only reserves in my hand. The soldiers fired their submachine guns at the panicked Russians and immediately knocked them down. ……”

When the German division commander heard the report of his subordinates, he also said proudly: "Well done, major, you have done a great job." As long as your battalion holds out until dawn, our planes will be ready to go. Then you can send them all to God with a single indiscriminate bombardment of those damned Russians. Although they were repelled by you, from what I know of them, they will definitely not be willing to accept such a defeat, and may launch a new attack on you, so you must be vigilant. ”

As soon as the division commander had finished the call with the battalion commander, the division chief of staff came over and reported to him: "Your Excellency, according to the report of the troops in the west, and the Russians who cut off our rear route, they have been standing still all night, and I don't know if they are waiting for the right time. ”

After hearing this, the division commander frowned and asked, "Have you figured out the numbers of these troops?" ”

"Nope." The chief of staff shook his head and said, "But I feel that this should be a unit belonging to two different legions. ”

"Why?" The division commander walked back to the table, picked up the wine bottle and poured himself a glass of whiskey, and asked curiously, "Chief of Staff, why do you feel this way?" ”

"Your Excellency, General." The chief of staff walked up to the division commander, bent slightly, and said respectfully: "According to my observations, the night battle has been taking place to the south of us, and the enemy in that direction, according to our reconnaissance and the documents on the corpses of the insistence, found out to be units belonging to the 16th Army Corps of the Russian Army. The enemies to the west and to the north have a very different style of fighting, and they have been holding their ground since they cut us off. ”

The division commander took a sip of wine, nodded and said, "That's right, Chief of Staff." You have a good analysis, at the moment only Rokossovsky's troops, constantly attacking us, so far actually put an end to our field hospital and a regimental headquarters. To the north and west, however, the troops, which were obviously much stronger, remained motionless after dark, and I guess they did not receive orders from their superiors, so they did not cooperate with Rokossovsky's troops in a night battle against us. Otherwise, our troops would have been beaten to pieces. ”

The chief of staff waited for him to finish speaking, and asked respectfully: "Then what should we do, Your Excellency General?" ”

"Leave a small number of troops to the west and north to monitor the Russians in those two directions, and then move the main forces to the areas where the battle is raging." The German division commander began to give orders to the chief of staff: "We must destroy Rokossovsky's troops as soon as possible, and then turn around against another Russian army." ”

"What should we do if the Russians launch a surprise attack on us while we are moving?" After listening to the division commander's order, the chief of staff did not immediately convey it, but kindly reminded the other party: "We have suffered such losses during the day, and as a result, many settlements and villages have been completely lost in just a few hours. ”

"Don't worry, my chief of staff." The German division commander confidently said: "The night battle was also going on for several hours, but except for Rokossovsky's troops, who were fighting with us, the other troops did not move at all." I don't think they were given the order to fight at night, so they had to stay put. ”

Just as the German division chief of staff was moving to the south by phone, the Soviet troops who were sneaking into the high ground had quietly approached the German trenches.

When the Soviet commanders and fighters were still about 20 meters away from the trench, a German soldier who was leaning on the edge of the trench and smoking suddenly noticed that there seemed to be some movement on the hillside. With the help of the fire on the hillside that had not been completely extinguished, he could vaguely see that something seemed to be moving among the corpses all over the hillside. His first reaction was that the Russians had come to attack. Thinking of this, he slammed his throat open and shouted, "The Russians have come up." With that, he took his rifle and fired a shot at a corpse that appeared to be moving.

As soon as the guns rang out, the Germans, who were resting in the trenches, immediately rushed to their respective firing positions and pulled the trigger in front of the position. For a while, all kinds of gunfire rang out on the position.

Seeing that his whereabouts were exposed, the company commander who led the team immediately and decisively decided to turn a sneak attack into a strong attack, and he shouted: "Rush! Then he jumped up from the ground, raised his pistol and rushed forward. Unfortunately, he didn't go far before he was knocked to the ground by a dense barrage of bullets.

Seeing that their company commander had died, the soldiers suddenly turned red-eyed, jumped up from the ground one after another, and rushed up with their weapons in hand. But under the enemy's intensive firepower, they did not rush far and fell on the hillside one after another.

The regiment commander, who was hidden at the foot of the mountain, saw that the sneak attack unit he sent was discovered by the enemy, so he quickly stood up and shouted loudly to the left and right: "Comrades, rush forward and avenge the dead comrades!" ”

The commanders and fighters, who had been waiting for a long time at the foot of the mountain, heard the shouts of the regiment commander, and immediately jumped up from their hiding places and rushed up the hillside with shouts.

Seeing that more Soviet troops were rushing up from the hillside, the enemy immediately divided part of his firepower to intercept it. As soon as the enemy's fire dispersed, several fighters who had already approached the trench found their chance, jumped into the trench, brandished their weapons, and engaged in melee combat with the enemy who was firing at the hillside.

The sudden appearance of Soviet troops in the trenches, although not numerous, disrupted the enemy's defensive deployment. As soon as the fire on the position weakened, more fighters rushed into the trenches, and they rushed to the Germans closest to them, opening up close combat with them.

As the number of Soviet soldiers rushing in gradually increased, the openings in the positions were getting bigger and bigger. It was seen that in a few minutes, the Soviets would be able to completely occupy the province. At this moment, the German battalion commander rushed over with reinforcements, and they were fighting indiscriminately at the two sides that were fighting with submachine guns. Swept by dozens of submachine guns and a few machine guns, the dense barrage of bullets smashed soldiers on both sides within range.

Under the continuous strafing fire of the German submachine guns and machine guns, more and more corpses were knocked over on the dirt slope, but it did not stop the stubborn attack of the Soviet commanders and fighters......

Seeing this, the regiment commander standing at the foot of the mountain hurriedly called a battalion commander beside him and instructed him: "Comrade Major, I order you to immediately throw all the remaining troops into battle, and you must take the high ground in the shortest possible time." (To be continued.) )