The 122nd Infantry Division, which launched a fierce attack from the south of the city, met with stubborn resistance from the Germans. The officers and men of the German 35th Division, who were holding their positions, had a wealth of combat experience. In order to separate the Soviet tanks from the infantry, instead of strafing with machine guns, they bombarded the infantry following the tanks with mortars, causing considerable casualties to the Soviet troops.

After successfully separating the Soviet tanks from the infantry, many brave Germans crawled out of the trenches, anti-tank grenades in their hands, and quickly approached the Soviet tanks in a crawling manner. When they were still more than thirty meters away, they stopped one after another, raised their hands and threw out the anti-tank grenades in their hands.

An anti-tank grenade with a tail fin, after drawing a graceful curve in the air, fell on the body of a Soviet tank and exploded. In the sound of the explosion, some tank tracks were blown off, and the huge inertia caused the body to spin in place; After the explosion, some tanks stopped in the distance and burned, and several tank crews who were covered in fire got out of the tanks and stumbled towards the rear. But only a few were hit by anti-tank grenades, and many more tanks, still maintaining their original speed, continued to rush towards the enemy's positions.

The soldiers who had thrown all the anti-tank grenades did not immediately return to the trenches, knowing very well in their hearts that if they stood up at this time, they would either be crushed to death by the tracks of the tank or killed by the indiscriminate shooting of the Soviet infantry behind, so they all lay motionless in the crater and pretended to be dead.

The Soviet tanks quickly crossed the German trenches and continued to rush forward. The German mortar group deployed in the trenches, seeing that the opposing tanks had rushed down, hurriedly stopped firing and ran along the communication trenches towards the rear.

The Soviet infantry, which had been suppressed by German artillery fire, saw that the enemy's artillery fire had become sparse, jumped up from the ground again, and continued to rush forward with their weapons in hand. Due to the smoke of the battlefield, they did not find the anti-tank men lying in the craters and pretending to be dead, but jumped over the craters and continued to rush towards the German positions.

The German battalion commander, who was holding on to this section, saw that the position had been broken through by the Soviet troops, and hurriedly called the regiment headquarters for help. The regimental commander, who had already been informed by Richert, did not hesitate to order after receiving the battalion commander's call for help: "Major, immediately withdraw your troops to the two flanks and give the Russians access to the city." ”

Hearing the order of the regiment commander, the German battalion commander was dumbfounded: "What, give the Russians access to the city." Just when he was secretly wondering if the regiment commander had defected, a crucial sentence came from the earpiece: "The division commander has prepared a trap for them in the city, and the more Russians enter the city, the greater their losses will be." ”

The commander of the German battalion, who understood this, immediately sent a signal corps and ordered his troops to find both sides of the defensive line and retreat. In fact, he didn't need to give an order, seeing that the Soviet troops had broken through the defensive line, the defenders had already begun to retreat in different directions. The Soviet infantry, which rushed up, occupied the position that had been held by the Germans not long ago, without a fierce battle.

After the Soviets occupied the German positions, they left part of their forces to defend them, and the rest of the infantry, under the cover of tanks, rushed along the road into the city of Tsopot.

After the Soviets entered the city, it was going well at first, and the tanks that were opening the way in front easily broke through the sandbag fortifications at the street entrance, opening up a way for the infantry behind. But the further they went, the more stubborn the resistance became, and from time to time a few submachine guns stretched out from the windows of the buildings on both sides of the street, firing at the infantry following the tanks; Anti-tank men hiding in the rubble, destroying Soviet tanks that were opening the way with iron fists at close range.

In response to this harassing tactics of the German army, the Soviet soldiers seemed a little helpless. When they spotted the Germans shooting at the street in the building on the right side of the street, and when they concentrated their fire on the window, a new gun came out of the window on the other side of the street and shot at their backs, knocking down the Soviet soldiers in pieces.

Most of the anti-tank fighters who hid in the rubble to attack Soviet tanks were civilian civilian stormtroopers, who had been sent by the Wehrmacht to carry out such fatalistic tasks after a short training and mastering the technique of firing an iron fist. However, they will not sit still, after firing the iron fist, throw the launcher in their hands, bend down and run back, go to the assembly area to get a new iron fist, and prepare to continue to block the Soviet tanks in other areas.

The Soviet troops who broke into the city were unusually slow to advance under the ambushes on both sides of the street. When Richet heard the news, he immediately asked his chief of staff: "Chief of staff, the Russians have rushed into the city from the south of the city, where there are only two of our battalions, and I am afraid that they can only slow them down, but cannot stop them from continuing to advance." Do you know where you can find troops that can be used? ”

The chief of staff of the division frowned and thought for a while, and then replied: "Your Excellency, division commander, there is a detention camp in the north of the city, in which about 400 deserters are held. ”

"Deserter?!" Richer's eyebrows rose and he asked rhetorically, "Is it a Russian deserter, or is it our deserter?" ”

"It's our deserter!"

"Arm them all." Hearing that the internment camp was full of deserters, Richet's face showed a look of disgust: "Transfer them to the south of the city, and let them atone for their sins by fighting the Russians." ”

In response to Richert's remarks, the chief of staff of the division was embarrassed and said: "I'm afraid this will not be easy, Your Excellency the division commander." These deserters have not yet been tried by the provisional military court, and no one can decide whether they will go or not. ”

"Chief of Staff, in the current situation, we can't take care of so much, we need more troops to hold this kind of city." When Richert said this, he called in the commander of his guard battalion and instructed him: "You immediately take a company to the detention camp in the north of the city, release the deserters who are being held there, and arm them to the south of the city to fight the Russians." If someone stops you in the middle of your mission, you can shoot them without hesitation. Do you understand? ”

After the battalion commander waited for Richette to finish speaking, he still stood still in a straight military posture and did not move: "Your Excellency Division Commander, if there are those deserters who are unwilling to join us, what should I do?" ”

"Major," said Richet, staring at his guard battalion commander in a categorical voice, "if anyone refuses to go to the front, then there is no need to be polite to them. Anyway, they are a group of deserters, and I authorize you to sentence them to death on behalf of the provisional military tribunal and carry them out immediately. If anyone blames it in the future, I will bear it alone. ”

After receiving Richert's promise, the guard battalion commander said loudly, turned around and strode out of the division headquarters.