The tank brigade rushed through the town, and had just come to the road north of the town, when suddenly Panfilov received an order: "The tank brigade stops advancing and stands by in place." The higher authorities have assigned us an infantry division, and I will send a regiment to each of you to fight together. ”

The two tank brigade commanders naturally couldn't ask for Panfilov's order, you know, tanks without infantry cover can easily become the target of German anti-tank fighters in an unfamiliar area. Therefore, huge clusters of tanks stopped in turn on the roads, which had not yet been subjected to German artillery fire, waiting for the incoming infantry.

Fortunately, the position of the infantry was not far from the two tank brigades, and after waiting for less than an hour, some tank crews saw a large number of infantry pouring out of the town. In the same way that a tank brigade is assigned to an infantry regiment, after the distribution of forces, the troops continue to advance. The two tank brigades parted at the fork in the road, with the 3rd Guards Tank Brigade advancing towards Geygrenfeld and the 18th Guards Tank Brigade assaulting towards Fairhead.

The tank, carrying the infantry, quickly advanced along the road, found the enemy's fortifications on the side of the road, directly bombarded them with several shells, and then sent the infantry to occupy it.

A tank company of the 3rd Guards Tank Brigade, led by the company commander, Lieutenant Makalenkov, stormed a small town called Berdenburg. As soon as the tank company stormed into town, it was spotted by a German tank parked in the street, although the old No. 2 tank was only equipped with a 20 mm machine gun and two 7.92 mm machine guns, and its firepower was not only against the new T-34 in front of it, even if it encountered the early T-34, it could only wait to be slaughtered. But the German tankmen did not hesitate to open fire, and the shells accurately hit the Soviet tanks, although they could not penetrate the frontal armor, but the shrapnel that crashed knocked down the two fighters sitting on the body.

Seeing that there were German tanks in the town, the soldiers who were originally sitting on the tanks jumped out of the cars and went to the sides of the streets to find shelter. The attacked tank slowly turned its muzzle and opened fire on the German tank that was aiming a few dozen meters away. The armor-piercing shell easily tore through the thin armor of the No. 2 tank, causing the ammunition inside the tank to detonate in an instant, blowing the turret away and blowing the crew inside to pieces.

After destroying the enemy's tank, the lead tank restarted, smashed the tank that blew up the turret, and continued to rumble forward. I didn't know how far I drove before I was destroyed with an iron fist by an anti-tank man hiding on the side of the street. The infantryman, who was following the tank, hurriedly fired at the anti-tank man's hiding position, and the random shot knocked the anti-tank man into a sieve before he had time to move his position.

The town had several hundred defenders, most of whom had retired from the front and had extensive combat experience. Although they saw more than a dozen Soviet tanks rushing into the town, they did not panic or surrender, but leaned on the buildings and fired at the tanks and infantry on the street with various weapons to prevent the Soviet troops from occupying the town.

The infantry regiment advancing with the 3rd Brigade, after leaving a lot of troops along the way, only one battalion remained. Seeing that the Germans were stubbornly resisting in the town, they jumped out of the tanks, formed a battle formation, and rushed into the town, where they engaged in fierce street battles with the enemies in the town, clearing out the exposed firepower one by one.

The 18th Guards Tank Brigade, which was assaulting in the direction of Fairhead, also left a lot of infantry along the way to occupy the towns that passed. By the time they approached the Schenau area, only two companies of infantry remained.

Three tanks, led by the commander of the reconnaissance company, Captain Nesen, were marching in front of the whole brigade, and when they were still five or six kilometers away from the Schönau area, they suddenly found a bridge over the river with German fortifications on the bridge.

Captain Nexian hurriedly ordered the tank to stop, he found a place with a good view, raised his binoculars to observe the movement on the bridge deck. There were about thirty defenders on the bridge, and there was a sandbag fortification at each end of the bridge, in which an MG42 general-purpose machine gun was erected, and the machine gunner leaned on the sandbag and smoked a cigarette.

Although it was not clear whether the Germans had anti-tank weapons, Captain Neshen intended to take the bridge as quickly as possible, so that the whole brigade could quickly reach the Schonau area. So he returned to where the tank was parked and said to his men: "Rush over with full speed and destroy all the enemies on the bridge." ”

The tankmen said yes and got into their tanks. With the roar of the engines, the three tanks restarted and rushed along the road towards the bridge.

The German soldiers on the bridge heard the roar of tank engines on the road, and hurriedly followed the prestige, and when they realized that it was a Soviet tank that appeared in their field of vision, they immediately shouted loudly, and they found a place to hide, and prepared for battle. When the Soviet tanks were still sixty or seventy meters away from the bridge, the machine-gun position at the bridgehead was the first to open, and the dense bullets hit the armor plate like hail, bursting out a series of sparks.

Captain Nethan's tank, who was sitting at the front, saw that the German machine guns were so rampant, he ordered the tank to stop, aimed at the machine gun position at the bridgehead, and with just one shot, blew up the machine guns and machine gunners in the sandbag fortifications into the sky. The rest of the German soldiers, seeing that the situation was not good, hurried out of their hiding places, pulled their legs and ran towards the other end of the bridge. Seeing that the enemy was about to flee, Nexian hurriedly continued to strafe their backs with a parallel machine gun, knocking down several German soldiers who were left behind one by one.

After eliminating the defenders on the bridge, three tanks crossed the bridge in turn and stopped at the side of the bridge. They did this to ensure that the Germans would not reoccupy and blow up the bridge until the main force of the brigade arrived.

…………

Rokossovsky was particularly pleased with the performance of the tank corps after entering the battle, and in just a few hours, it advanced twenty kilometers, more than the infantry who had attacked the enemy a day earlier.

However, with the advance of the 19th Army and the 3rd Guards Tank Army, another serious problem arose, as Zhukov's troops, located on the left flank, remained in place and did not take active action, which led to the exposure of the left flank of the troops to the Germans.

Faced with this question, Rokossovsky frowned and thought for a long time before he said to Bogolyubov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, transfer the 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps to cover the left flank of the 19th Army and prevent them from being cut off by the Germans. ”

After recording this order, Bogolyubov continued to ask: "Comrade Marshal, do you need to contact the 1st Belorussian Front?" Urge them to take aggressive action to contain the enemy's forces? ”

"The friendly forces on the left flank are not moving at the moment, maybe Marshal Zhukov has some other plans." Rokossovsky did not agree to Bogolyubov's proposal, he shook his head and said: "I think we have to wait a little longer, maybe they will launch an attack on the enemy tomorrow." ”

…………

On the second day after the tank army entered the battlefield, it was still advancing by leaps and bounds. Before dark, they succeeded in occupying the cities of Baldenberg and Schönau, and inflicted heavy losses on a German unit that had just completed its build-up there, capturing many prisoners and capturing a large amount of military supplies.

However, it was impossible to push any further, so the infantry, who fought with the two tank brigades, remained in the towns captured along the way. Panfilov knew very well in his heart that if he let his two elite tank brigades continue to attack without the cooperation of the infantry, then what awaited them would be the end of the entire army.

Therefore, after careful consideration, he reported to Rokossovsky: "Comrade Marshal, my troops have advanced forty kilometers, and now the infantry assigned to us is remaining in the occupied towns along the way, and if the troops of the 19th Army do not catch up, we will not be able to attack again." ”

"Understood," Rokossovsky said to Panfilov, after listening to his difficulties, "I will immediately contact General Kozlov and have his troops rush to join you as soon as possible." ”

Rokossovsky answered Kozlov's phone and ordered him to speed up the march of the infantry and rush to join the tank corps that occupied the cities of Baldenberg and Schönau. Also, according to the intelligence reported by the scouts, small German forces have been found on our left flank, and I fear that the enemy will attack us from the flank, so I also need to leave enough troops to deal with these enemies......"

On the first day of the battle, Kozlov ordered the troops to stop the offensive without authorization when the battle situation was very favorable to his side, resulting in the delay of the fighters, which had already made Rokossovsky dissatisfied with him. to take your place. After Rokossovsky finished speaking, he hung up the phone without waiting for the other party to have any chance to defend himself.

Seeing that Rokossovsky was angry, Bogolyubov cautiously asked: "Comrade Marshal, what happened?" ”

Rokossovsky looked at Bogolyubov and said: "Comrade Chief of Staff, judging by the situation of the fighting in the past few days, General Kozlov is not suitable for the post of commander of the 19th Army, and I propose to immediately report this matter to the Supreme High Command, remove him from the post of commander, and replace him with another commander." ”