The Soviet bombers who were bombing the river thought at first that it was civilians crossing the river, but when they were all German soldiers on the bridge, they were not polite, and dived down from a high place, dropping bombs and strafing them, and they were very happy. Of course, the officers and soldiers on the bridge suffered heavy casualties, and even the pontoon bridge was blown into several sections.

The pontoon bridge and the west bank were the focus of Soviet bomber attacks, but Simon, where a large number of refugees were present, did not drop a single aerial bomb. Roffle, who originally wanted to leave the town and go outside to avoid the air raid, said with emotion: "It seems that the Russians know that there are a lot of refugees in the town, so they deliberately avoided this place during the air raid." ”

Rolf was talking to his men when he saw Colonel Pantneus, who belonged to the 337th Grenadier Division, approaching him. He asked curiously, "Colonel, is there something wrong?" ”

"Mr. General," said Pantnius, after raising his hand to salute Rolf, "on the orders of His Excellency the Commander, our 690th Grenadier Regiment will take over your mission and go north to Kulm to explore the way. ”

Hearing Pantenius say this, Rolf couldn't help but be stunned: "But that task, Your Excellency the Commander has already handed over this task to my division?" ”

"Mr. General," Lorf replied politely, "that is what I have been ordered. As for why I took over your mission, Your Excellency the Commander did not say, and I did not ask. I have come here to inform you that your troops will not run the wrong way. With that, without waiting for Rolf to speak, he raised his hand again and saluted, turned and strode away.

"Hell, why did Your Excellency Commander change his mind and let the 690th Grenadier Regiment go on a pathfinding mission?" After Rolf finished muttering in his heart, he looked up at the Soviet bombers that were still judging over the Vistula River, and secretly calculated in his heart: As soon as the Russian plane flew away, he would immediately organize people to repair the pontoon bridge, and he must let the troops cross the Vistula River as soon as possible.

Finally, when the Soviet planes flew away, he was just about to order sappers to repair the bridge, but the roar of aircraft engines was heard in the air. This time, Rolf did not dare to take it lightly and hurriedly ordered the soldiers to disperse and hide in order to avoid the air raids of the Soviet army. Soon, what happened next proved that Rolf's judgment was completely correct, and the Soviet bombers bombed and strafed the pontoon bridge over the Vistula River, but fortunately no one crossed the bridge at the moment, otherwise it would have paid a huge price.

Probably in order to completely cut off the idea of the Germans crossing the river from here, one Soviet bomber after another not only bombed the pontoon bridge that had already been broken into several sections, but also shattered the ice on the river. In order to drive the Soviet planes away, the German commanders on the west bank concentrated the few machine guns they had and fired at them in the air.

Originally, the Soviet pilots felt that it was too wasteful to use aerial bombs and bullets to deal with the German troops on the west bank, and they were very well concealed and scattered, and a single aerial bomb could not necessarily kill a single person if it fell. At this moment, anti-aircraft fire actually appeared on the ground, and immediately two planes turned around and flew towards them, and did not drop bombs, but just dived down towards the machine gun fire point, and strafed with the on-board machine guns, beating those German machine gunners to the ground.

Rolf found that the Soviet bombers, as if there was no end to them, had just flown away, and the other had just flown away. The bombardment over the Vistula never stopped. Seeing this, Rolf hurriedly ordered someone to send a telegram to Lüdek, who had just left Simon Town, and gave him a detailed report on the situation here.

Lüdeck's reply was not long in coming, and he briefly ordered Rolf to leave some of his forces to hold on to Simon, while the rest of his forces quietly turned north to join up with the 690th Grenadier Regiment exploring the road.

After reading this telegram, Rolf really cried and laughed: Lydeke first quietly handed over the task of exploring the way north to the 690th Grenadier Regiment, and now ordered his own troops to rush to join the regiment, is this not an extra move.

Although there were a lot of complaints in his heart, Rolf was still unambiguous in carrying out the orders of his superiors. He immediately gave an order to the chief of staff: "Leave one battalion and continue to hold the town of Simon, and the rest of the troops will follow me north to reinforce the 690th Grenadier Regiment." ”

"What about refugees?" When the chief of staff heard Rolf's order, he looked at the refugees crowded inside and outside the town, and said in embarrassment: "Also, what about our wounded?" The Russians bombarded us, and we suffered at least seven or eight hundred casualties, half of whom were wounded. ”

"Bringing refugees and the wounded with you will slow us down on the march." Without hesitation, Rolf said, "Leave them all behind, and we'll be able to travel light." ”

"Your Excellency, Division Commander," said the Chief of Staff with some embarrassment when he heard Rolf's order, "Is it just to throw them to the Russians?" ”

"That's right, my chief of staff." Rolf said in an affirmative tone: "If we march with them, regardless of the speed of the march, we will be disengaged and will be more likely to be targeted by Russian aircraft." Leave them all here, and even if the Russians come, they won't be embarrassed. Do you understand? ”

"Understood." The chief of staff had long heard about the 73rd Infantry Division's heavy wounded being thrown to the Soviets when it broke through, so he was not too disgusted by the decision made by Rolf at this moment. He hurriedly informed the regiment deployed in the south of the town to leave a battalion through the telephone of the headquarters, and the rest of the troops immediately moved north.

Although the refugees in the town, frightened by the Soviet bombardment, did not dare to cross the river from the pontoon bridge again, as soon as they saw the troops driving away from the town, they guessed that they would definitely change the direction of the crossing, and they also helped the old and the young to follow the 31st Grenadier Division and advance in the direction of Kulm to the north.

The chief of staff, who was walking in front with Roffle, saw that thousands of refugees had also left the town one after another, and followed his troops to the north, so he said to Rolf: "Your Excellency, division commander, you see, the refugees have also come out. ”

When Rolf heard this, he immediately frowned, and he said to the chief of staff in a stern tone: "Order someone to stop them immediately." Stop, understand? If they follow us, they will not only slow down the march of the entire force, but also expose the target, which will attract bombing by Russian planes. ”

The chief of staff reluctantly agreed, ordered the driver to stop, got out of the car and called a passing officer, and ordered him to take people to stop the refugees who were following the troops, and absolutely not let them move with the troops, so as not to expose the target.