I stood up straight, half-turned, looked at the officers who were already gearing up at the bottom of the hill, slowly raised the assault rifle in my hand, and was about to shout according to the routine: "Brothers, for the Motherland, for Stalin!" Advance! Then he swung his gun forward, and rushed towards the enemy position with his troops. Unexpectedly, a sudden roar of the motor attracted my attention.

In the distance, a few black dots first appeared, and soon these dots became bigger and bigger, and it was clear to the naked eye that it was our T34 tank. The tanks were marching in columns, along the improvised road, towards where we were.

"Comrade Major, is it time for the troops to attack?" Perhaps it was because I didn't drop my gun after I raised it, and Lieutenant Akhromeyev, who was standing next to me, anxiously reminded me.

"Wait, Lieutenant Akhromeyev, wait a minute, don't rush to attack." I slowly lowered my hand with my gun, and I pointed to the tanks and said, "Maybe these tanks can help us." Wait here, I'll go meet their commander. With that, I ran down the slope.

I came to the middle of the road, waved my hands desperately at the tank, and motioned for the tank driver to stop.

The tank leading the team stopped about ten meters away from me, and then the tanks behind also stopped in turn.

The top hatch of the tank's turret clattered open, and the upper body of a tanker poked out of the hatch. He was wearing a tank soldier's helmet, a black jumpsuit and a tank suit, with two hands propped up on the hatch and two eyes looking at me who stopped the car.

The moment I saw this tankman, I felt as if he was someone I knew. I was remembering where I had seen him, when he had already climbed out of the tank and jumped out of it, walked up to me with his arms outstretched, and excitedly shouted: "Hello, Comrade Major! I didn't expect us to meet again so soon. It's amazing to see you alive in front of you. ”

"Captain Witolganov," I immediately remembered going to Leningrad to visit relatives, and when I returned, I returned with a tank detachment, and the captain was the commander of the detachment.

We didn't salute, we didn't shake hands, we just hugged us to celebrate our reunion.

After parting, I asked Captain Witolganov: "Comrade Captain, where are you going?" ”

"On the orders of the superiors, to assist the 52nd Regiment of the 65th Infantry Division of the 194th Army in the counterattack. Our task was to support the infantry attack with artillery fire. ”

"That's such a coincidence, we are also here to assist the 65th Division in the counterattack." I took his hand, pointed to the hillside and said, "See?" That hillside is where we started. ”

"Need my help?" The lieutenant asked politely.

I nodded busily and said, "Of course, we also need artillery or tank fire support." Otherwise, with our hundreds of infantry without heavy weapons, we should all die before we can rush to the enemy's position. ”

"Are those of your subordinates?" The captain looked at the neatly lined up team over there, and suddenly exclaimed: "Oh my God! Comrade Major, what kind of troops are you commanding? They are all officers, and the smallest rank is a second lieutenant. After a battle, won't all the grassroots commanders of the army be wiped out? ”

"Yes, that's why I sincerely ask for your help. I hope that we can get the maximum results at the lowest cost. ”

The lieutenant said very simply: "Comrade Major, this is easy to do. I have seven tanks, leaving two to cover your attack. For the rest, I'm going to take it to assist the 194th Regiment. ”

"No way!" I retorted to him: "Tanks cannot be dispersed, they must be used intensively, so that they can exert their maximum combat effectiveness." I now order, all the tanks under my command, to attack the enemy's positions from the hillside, and I will bring the officer commandos to follow you. ”

"But this will disobey the orders of the superiors!" The captain said with some embarrassment.

I knew what he was worried about, so I said in a big way: "Comrade Captain, you don't have to worry, anyway, you are cooperating with the 194th Regiment, and your attack from the location of the regiment headquarters is the same as attacking here. If there are any bad consequences, I will bear them. You must know that the reason why I was able to assume the post of supreme commander of this unit was personally appointed by the commander of the Volkhov Front, General Meretskov. ”

Perhaps it was I who brought out Meretskov and stopped the lieutenant, who hesitated for a moment, and finally gritted his teeth and stomped his foot, and said, "Okay, that's it." He turned around and got into the tank and quickly got into the turret.

"Comrade Captain," I reminded him again loudly as he closed the hatch, "your task is not to cover the attack with artillery fire, but to open the way in front. Taking advantage of the tank's mobility and firepower, it quickly tore a hole in the enemy's defense line and covered the infantry to regain the lost position. ”

The lieutenant saluted me and closed the hatch in a loud promise. Then the tank jumped forward and started moving.

I trotted all the way to the side of the moving tank, waving my hand holding my rifle and, to the loud roar of the motor, shouted: "Forward!" Tank crew. Advance! Go teach those damn Germans a good lesson. Advance! Go and build your immortal feats! ”

The captain's tank was the first to rush to the top of the hill, slowing down, and with a blow to the butt, a tank shell flew out. Then the front of the car lowered and rushed down the hill. The tanks that drove up one after another also followed suit, and when they reached the top of the slope, they fired a shot and then rushed down.

I almost rushed up the hill after the butt of the last tank, and I stood at the top of the slope, raised my rifle high, and shouted out the words that had just been in my mind: "All commanders and fighters, for our motherland!" For Stalin! Advance! ~~" After shouting, I swung the gun in my hand forward, and then took the lead and rushed down the slope.

Almost at the same time, two shouts rang out on the left and right: "Commanders and fighters of the second lieutenant training team, future generals, for our honor, forward!" Teach the damn Germans across the street a hard lesson! ”

"Brothers of the Teaching Company, go forward! Destroy the enemy and establish our immortal feats! ”

Akhromeyev's shouts were even more incendiary than mine, and hundreds of officers shouted in unison, "Ula! "Rushing uphill with his weapon in hand, he rushed over the top of the slope and down the hill.

Although I was the first to go downhill, I was quickly overtaken by those behind me. Our charge was soon discovered by the enemy, who immediately turned their guns around and fired at us. Bullets whizzed past my ears, and from time to time an officer was shot, rolling past me and rolling down the hill.

Due to the dense craters everywhere on the offensive route, our tanks had to go around one crater after another, which affected the speed of the attack, so that the German firepower points were so rampant.

As soon as I ran down the hill, I immediately plunged into one of the nearest craters. I was about to poke my head out to take a look, but the whistling of mortar shells made me shrink back. The shell exploded outside the crater, and the dirt that was kicked up fell on my head and face, along with a bloodied second lieutenant officer who fell into the crater. I went up to check and found that he had stopped breathing.

I poked my head out of the crater and saw a few more shells explode in the charging ranks, knocking over quite a few officers. The remaining officers jumped into the crater and opened fire on the Germans on the opposite side.

Looking at the casualties of the second lieutenant training team and the second and third companies of the teaching team, I couldn't help but be furious and shouted at the tanks: "Captain Witolganov, what are you doing, why don't you shoot artillery?!" "I was shouting, not thinking that in the sound of guns and the roar of motors, I could not hear my shouts except for the commanders and fighters who were near me, and the captains in the tank.

Perhaps it was Captain Witolganov, who noticed that something was wrong on the battlefield, and in time gave the order, and seven tanks lined up and fired at the enemy's positions at the same time. A few artillery rounds dumb the German firing points and mortar positions. The two remaining German artillery guns continued to fire, and the shells fell near our tanks and exploded, and the flying shrapnel made the tanks clange, but did not do any damage. A tank turned the turret around, and with a single shot, the two mortars were drowned in smoke.

Seeing that the enemy's heavy fire had been destroyed, the officers of the second lieutenant training team and the teaching company crawled out of the crater, shouting and rushing forward again. Led by them, the soldiers of the 194th Regiment, who were lying on the ground and indiscriminately placing guns, also stood up bravely and rushed forward behind them with their weapons.

Everyone was charging, and I wasn't idle, but I wasn't stupidly charging in a straight line like they did, and although it was much closer, it was dangerous. On the battlefield, the first thing I had to learn was how to save my life, so I crawled out of one crater, jumped into another, and fired a shot when I saw the opportunity.

The captain's tank unit pushed flat towards the enemy's position, and the fastest tank was only a few dozen meters away from the trench, and it seemed that it would be more than ten seconds to rush through the trench. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a shell flew and hit the tank impartially. When the smoke cleared, I found that the tracks of the tank had been broken, and the body was spinning at high speed in place, and then slid into a crater, and the rear half of the body was deeply sunk in, the front half was raised high, and the long barrel was pointed straight into the sky.

I hurriedly looked around, looking for the direction where the shells were flying. Soon I spotted that in the front right, there was an anti-tank gun mounted in the trench, and several men in steel helmets were busy. I set up my assault rifle and aimed it at the soldier who was bent over and running fast with a shell in his hand and pulled the trigger. After the gunshots rang out, the soldier's head in a steel helmet fell back, and he took two more steps forward, kneeling to the ground, holding the cannonball in his hand.

Another German soldier saw his comrade fall to the ground, quickly got up and ran over, grabbed the shell from the dead soldier, turned around and tried to run back to the gun position. As a result, he was knocked down by a bullet that flew from nowhere, and he fell to the ground.

The duel between anti-tank guns and tanks depends on who moves fast. The anti-tank guns did not fire, the captain's tank unit was not idle, and the remaining six tanks leveled this anti-tank gun emplacement with a single salvo.

Without the cover of heavy firepower, the enemy's will to resist was no longer stubborn, and people began to run out of the trenches and into the distance. At first, there were only a few people, then a dozen, dozens of people, and finally a big rout.

At the same time, the captain's tank detachment assaulted over the trenches and pursued the fleeing enemy in the distance. Lieutenant Akhromeyev rushed into the breach with a squad of ensigns and began to engage the enemy entrenched in the trenches. The captain and company commander of the teaching company also swarmed in with the officers. Behind them, the fighters of the 194th Regiment overflowed the enemy trenches like a flood of broken embankments, and launched a pursuit after the tanks.

After the battle, leaving the fighters of the 194th Regiment and the tank detachment of Captain Witolganov on guard, I returned to the initial assembly point with more than half of the officers who had been killed or wounded. And by this time, Meretskov had been waiting for us there for a long time.

When he saw us coming back, he came up and gave me a warm hug, then patted me on the shoulder and said loudly: "Well done, comrades commanders, you are all good!" ”

His hand was so strong that the slap down numbed half of my shoulder, and when he slapped it a second time, I deftly dodged it. I thought that your first slap almost turned me into a one-armed god, and if you slapped me again, wouldn't I become Venus?

"Comrade General, we're back!" At this time, the commander of the 52nd Army, General Yakovlev, and the commander of the 65th Division, Colonel Koshevoy, came together from a distance and invisibly relieved us of the siege.

The general walked up to Meretskov, first saluted me, who saluted him, and then said to Meretskov: "Comrade General, Major Oshanina is an excellent commander with a fighting spirit, and it is not right to leave such a commander in the headquarters. Let her stay in our 52nd Army, we need such commanders. ”

"Yes, Comrade Commander of the Front." Colonel Koshevoy chimed in: "I beg you to let her stay with me!" You also know that in the battle just now, the commander of the 195th Regiment died! I want her, Major Oshanina, to be the regimental commander. ”

"I am the commander of the front, and I have the final say in the major's affairs." Meretskov interrupted him and muttered: "The colonel actually wants to come and order the general to do something, it's just nonsense." He looked at me and asked, "Major Oshanina, what are your plans?" ”

"I am at the mercy of Comrade General's orders." I hoped in my heart that Meretskov would agree to keep me in the 52nd Army, so that I could avoid the fate of going to the 2nd Shock Army. I don't know how, just as soon as I think about Vlasov and the 2nd Shock Army these days, I panic for a while.

Meretskov held out his hand to me and said, "Show me your order." ”

When I heard that he was going to see the order, I felt a burst of ecstasy in my heart, and it seemed that I had the opportunity to stay in the 65th Division as a regiment commander. Hurriedly took out the folded order from his coat pocket, held it in both hands and handed it to Meretskov.

Meretskov took the order, opened it and only glanced at it, and his face suddenly changed. He refolded the order, gave it back to me, and said to Yakovlev and Koshevoy in a regretful tone: "The order for Major Oshanina to transfer to the 2nd Shock Army was issued by the Supreme High Command, and I have no right to change it. ”