The German offensive forces soon appeared in my binoculars, and the enemy infantry did not follow behind tanks and armored vehicles on foot, but in trucks. The truck did not stop until it was four or five hundred meters away from our position, and the German soldiers, shouted at the officer's shouting, quickly got out of the car and formed a formation, and then followed behind their tanks and rushed towards our position with great vigour.

Those firing points located under the tanks did not open fire easily, but put the enemy's tanks in. Watching the dozen or so German tanks get closer and closer to our positions, in a minute at most, they can cross the trenches and advance into the depth of our troops. I was just about to remind Rysdayev that it was time to order the troops to open fire, when a red flare flew into the trenches, and in an instant the sound of gunfire rang out like beans on the position.

As the gunshots rang out, the anti-tank fighters, who had been hiding under the abandoned tanks, came out one after another and smashed the Molotov cocktails in their hands into the enemy tanks. The Molotov cocktail arced in the air, falling unmistakably on the armor plate and shattering, the liquid in the bottle spreading rapidly, and the rapidly marching tank burst into flames, and after a few more steps forward, they stopped. The smoke-emitting turret roof opened one after another, and out of it came one tankman after another, covered in fire. Some jumped out of the tank, rolled on the spot to extinguish the fire on their bodies, turned around and ran backwards, and were killed by our soldiers near the tank. As soon as some of the tank crews emerged from the turret, they were killed by indiscriminate gunfire, and their bodies hung on the turret as soon as they leaned back.

And those enemy infantry who followed closely behind, as soon as they saw that their tanks were blown up, the soldiers who reacted quickly rushed to the front with submachine guns at the front and aimed at our anti-tank fighters were a burst of chaos. Several fighters who had just finished blowing up the tank and had not had time to hide fell under the enemy's guns. Our concealed fire opened fire, and the German soldiers who were close at hand were caught off guard and fell in front of the firing holes in rows.

The remaining German tanks that had not yet been blown up, some of which continued to rush forward, were blown up by Molotov cocktails thrown by anti-tank men hidden in the craters in front of the trenches. Some reversed on the spot and crashed into their own soldiers regardless of it, and the scene was chaotic for a while.

The German tanks were disorganized, but the infantry was well-trained, and they quickly recovered from the initial confusion, dodging their own rammed tanks, and chose to shoot at our troops on the spot. The firing points of our army, which were located under abandoned tanks, were also reimbursed by them with grenades one by one.

The battle lasted for nearly an hour, and the Germans could not support it at the end, and slowly retreated under the cover of the remaining two tanks. The forces in the trenches were effective and did not launch a counter-charge. Instead, when the enemy had retreated, Resdayev ordered his subordinates to go out to treat the wounded, clean up the battlefield, and restore the firing point under the abandoned tank.

Although the battle was won, there were still many things that left unsatisfactory. In conclusion, I pointed out to Rysdayev bluntly that the space under the tank was effective, there were too few people and ammunition to hold, and some of the destroyed firing points were due to the fact that the fighters ran out of bullets so quickly that they had to rush out and fight bayonets with the enemy, armed to the teeth. Although these firing points under abandoned tanks played a big role today, the enemy will definitely quickly think of ways to deal with them, such as suppressing fire with mortars and then using flamethrowers to clear our firing points at close range, so I remind him to stay awake and continue to improve the defense system here.

Before returning to the division headquarters, I repeatedly told him not to simply defend, but to send out small elite troops at night to harass the enemy's rear by means of night attacks, so that they would not have peace, so that the strength of the daytime attack would be greatly weakened.

From the history I know through the film "The Battle of Moscow", in the days from December 1 to 6, only the Seventh Army took action, and they began the offensive in the typical battle formation of the German mechanized corps, diamond or trapezoid, with heavy tanks as the avant-garde, placed at the front of the formation, and launched a fierce attack on the defensive positions of our army. But the end of the offensive was very tragic, and under the heavy artillery bombardment of the Soviet army, all these tanks were turned into burning scrap metal.

It is because of the existence of this memory that I did not pay attention to this attack of the German army, which was just their last breath, and the fate of doomed defeat awaited them. So after explaining everything to Shedurin and Rysdayev, I returned to the division headquarters in a jeep driven by Grissa with peace of mind, and prepared to study with the commissar Yegorov the counteroffensive in a few days.

When I returned to the headquarters, I saw Yegorov and the deputy division commander Chistyakov. Walking around the room with his hands behind his back, the chief of staff, Serebryakov, was hunched over in front of the walkie-talkie and asked the communications soldier vigorously: "How is it?" Haven't been connected yet? ”

Seeing this, I was shocked, could it be that which unit of the division was in trouble, was it broken up by the Germans or mutinied? stepped forward and grabbed Yegorov and anxiously asked: "My comrade commissar, what happened?" ”

When Egorov saw that it was me, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief, as if he had found the backbone, and hurriedly pulled me to the table and sat down, and said mysteriously: "I just received information that the commander and their city were suddenly attacked by the enemy, and after stubborn resistance, the troops were forced to retreat and are withdrawing in the direction of our Sun Hill City. ”

"Commander? Is it General Vlasov? I was surprised and asked, "The enemy has occupied the city, where is the 7th Guards Division, which is responsible for defending the city?" ”

When political commissar Yegorov heard me say this, he couldn't help but be stunned: "I didn't say that General Vlasov had an accident?" ”

"But you just said that something happened to the commander!" I'm getting more and more confused, political commissar, you're not that old, why did you forget what you said in a blink of an eye.

"Comrade division commander," Chistyakov came out to relieve the siege of the commissar, explaining to me: "The commissar is talking about General Rokossovsky, you know, although we are currently assigned to the 20th Army, we still habitually call Rokossovsky the commander. ”

"What the hell is going on? You're confusing me when you say that. ”

Chistyakov brought me a cup of hot tea and explained the situation to me in detail: "According to the scout's report, this morning the Germans assembled the 1st, 6th, and 7th tank divisions and the 23rd and 106th infantry divisions, and launched an attack on the Dmytrovo and Yakhroma areas, which were defended by the deputy commander of the 16th Army, General Zakharov, and the 17th, 126th, and 133rd infantry divisions and the 25th tank brigade. General Zakharov, after a fierce battle, had already led his troops to retreat in the direction of the city of Moscow, while Rokossovsky's command, having withdrawn from Lyalovo during the battle, had lost contact with us, and the scouts speculated that the command of the 16th Army was retreating in the direction of the city of Mount Sol. After he introduced the situation, he added a sentence after the most reluctance: "Comrade division commander, this is the situation, what do you think we should do?" ”

"Leda, we can't die without help, I think we should immediately send troops to rescue General Rokossovsky's headquarters from the encirclement that the enemy may form."

I stared at the map in front of me for a long time, and finally saw that the Germans were attacking the right flank of the 20th Army, trying to open a breakthrough from here in order to achieve the goal of occupying the city of Moscow. And this direction of the main attack is exactly where Rokossovsky's 16th Army is located.

I slapped lightly on the map, and then said decisively: "Since Commander Rokossovsky is in trouble, then we must go to the rescue." I looked at Chistyakov and asked: "Where are the units of the 389th Tank Division?" "You know, after yesterday I gave the order for the remaining tank and anti-tank gun battalions to retreat, I went to Army Group to receive orders, and was transferred from the 16th Army to the 20th Army. Since I returned from Vlasov's military conference, I still don't know the whereabouts of this unit.

Chistyakov pointed to the map and said without hesitation: "The remnants of the 389th Division are currently here in the east of the city. ”

I nodded, pointed my finger at the location of the tank division, and said to Chistyakov: "Now I order you, immediately go to the tank division, take command from Major Malafeev, and lead the troops east to find the whereabouts of the headquarters of General Rokossovsky. ”

After Chistyakov left, the commissar kindly reminded me: "Lida, do you think you need to report to General Vlasov about the transfer of tank divisions?" ”

"Okay," I agreed, picked up the phone on the table, began to shake the handle, and after answering the phone, I reported to Vlasov about the transfer of troops.

Vlasov pondered for a moment, and then said in a shrill voice: "I have also received reports here that fierce and uninterrupted battles of the enemy continue on the entire front of the 16th Army and friendly neighboring groups, as well as on the right of the 30th Army and on the left of the 5th Army. Everywhere there are serious difficulties. The right flank of the 30th Army was pushed back by the enemy to Moscow - the eastern bank of the Volga Canal, and a small number of enemy forces had even forced their way south of Dmitrov. The units of the right flank of the 5th Army were also repulsed by the enemy. ”

What he said scared me out of a cold sweat, I didn't expect the situation to be so bad, but in the film and television works I saw in later generations, why didn't I mention this matter?

However, Vlasov agreed to my suggestion of sending troops to the rescue, and offered to reinforce me if I felt that the defenses of Cumbre del Sol were insufficient.

Putting down the phone, I couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion, the same commander of the army group, General Vlasov's defensive position was impregnable, while Rokossovsky was defeated again and again, and was beaten by the Germans and fled in all directions like a lost dog. In this case, Vlasov's commanding skills should not be below Rokossovsky, and even compared with Zhukov, he is not much worse. What can I do in later generations I have only heard of Zhukov and Rokossovsky, but I have never heard of Vlasov's name?