"Tank No. 2?"

The commander of the 7th Tank Corps of the Soviet Red Army, Rotmistrov, held a telescope and carefully observed dozens of small objects suspected of light tanks scattered in the wheat field in front of him over and over again by bright moonlight. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

"Comrade Commander, those tanks don't look like No. 2, they look a bit like Swedish L-60 tanks." Colonel Katenin, the commander of the 8th Tank Brigade, who was the vanguard of the entire 3rd Army, fought in the Soviet-Finnish War and fought against the Swedish L-60 tanks equipped by the Finnish army.

"Swedes?" Rotmistrov frowned and asked, "Did they also go to war?" ”

He knew that Sweden was an industrial powerhouse, technologically advanced in metallurgy and machinery, capable of producing the best ball bearings and artillery, and that the aviation and shipbuilding industries also had a good base. If the country had abandoned its neutrality and turned to Germany completely, the Nazi reactionaries would have to grow much stronger.

"So what?" Military Political Commissar Okjabriski interjected, "The Swedish people always want to be liberated, and the elimination of the reactionary Swedish army in Poland now will also be conducive to the liberation of Sweden in the future!" ”

"That's right! Sweden is also to be liberated! Rotmistrov nodded, who, like Commissar Oktyabrysky, was also a man who believed that GCISM would soon be realized.

"Comrade Commander, let the 8th Tank Brigade go." The commander of the 8th Tank Brigade, Colonel Katenin, knew that the fight was about to start, so he took the initiative to ask for battle.

"No, the 8th Tank Brigade can't move now......" Rotmistrov thought for a moment and dismissed Katenin's proposal. He added: "These Swedish tanks were probably decoys laid by the Germans to lead us into their ambush circle." ”

"So what do we do?" Military Political Commissar Oktya Brisky asked.

"Let the T34 of the 11th Tank Brigade go up," said Rotmistrov, "and the T-34/57 of the 8th Tank Brigade and the anti-tank battalion directly under Army Group are ambushed." ”

The anti-tank battalion directly under the group army is equipped with 16 ZIS-2 57mm anti-tank guns, which were originally positioned as regimental artillery because they are too rare, and have become a baby bump directly under the group army. Rotmistrov handed over this battalion, which was assigned to the 3rd Army, to the 8th Tank Brigade, which, together with 55 (only 48 capable of activation) T-34/57 tanks, was enough to form a tank destroyer group.

According to his vision, the tactics of this tank destroyer group were not to attack, but to ambush. The T-34s, which were numerous and fast, lured the enemy, led the German tank cluster into the ambush circle, and then let the T-34/57 and ZIS-2 fire the "roll call".

This tactic of his thought was with Mandolfil on the other side. However, the two of them were not the first generals to practice this "tank decoy enemy annihilation tactic" in the Soviet-German war, and the first person to use the "tank decoy enemy annihilation tactic" was Major General Popov, commander of the Soviet 10th Army.

This major general of the Red Army is now standing at the fork in the road of fate, to the right he will become a traitor, a traitor, a thief, and a thief, and to the left he will become a revolutionary martyr admired by everyone!

Major General Popov was now leaning against a large tree, trying to breathe in the air that smelled of death and gunsmoke, and looked around. Surrounded by a forest of freshly bombed rockets and planes, the corpses of Red Army martyrs and broken weapons were scattered among the scorched remains of trees. The commander of the 22nd Tank Corps, Bakharov, was leaning on a damaged KV-1 tank, and he mounted a DP-27 light machine gun on the baffle of the tank wheels, like a soldier ready for a final engagement with the attacking SS grenadiers.

Bakharov was not demoted and dismissed, he was still the commander of the First Army, but his 22nd Army had been broken up by the German panzer clusters. Although the 22nd Army had fought a good ambush 10 hours earlier, destroying 6 Tiger tanks (not that they could not be repaired), their good fortune ended there. The German tanks quickly retreated, and at the same time fired 105mm grenades from an unsightly assault gun with very impressive firepower, followed by a charge by SS grenadiers. All 16 ZIS-2 57mm anti-tank guns were lost, and the 22nd Tank Army completely lost its killer weapon against German heavy tanks.

But the 22nd Tank Army could not walk away, because they needed to buy time for the 10th Infantry Army and the 99th Cavalry Army under the 8th Army. At the same time, it was necessary to buy enough time for the 11th Army (one of the three armies in the northern route cluster of the Battle of Warsaw) to deploy on the Marchi-Vovomin line, lest the Germans' armored clusters rush behind the central cluster at once.

At the cost of 10 hours of bloody fighting, more than 20,000 commanders and fighters of the 22nd Tank Army and the 330th Infantry Division were lost, and now only a few hundred troops could be controlled by Popov and Bakharov, huddled in a woods near Razimin, making a final resistance.

But there was no point in resisting now, for 30 minutes earlier the cheers in Polish had reached the Reds-fortified woods from Lazimin. After the capture of Razimin, the German road to Vovomin had already been opened.

That must be the Polish reactionary elements lurking! Popov thought angrily as he pressed the bullet into the magazine of Tokarev's pistol. Listening to the cheers coming from the direction of Razimin, it was obviously much louder than the cheers of the people in the aisle when his 10th Army was stationed.

This shows that there are more people in need of shooting and labor reform in Lazmin than in need of liberation! The "reactionary target" of 10% is too low, and it is appropriate to raise it to at least 60%!

Rumble! Rumble......

The sound of several shells exploding interrupted Popov's train of thought, and as soon as he wanted to get up and look for a crater to avoid the cannon, he heard someone shouting: "Don't pick it up, don't look at it." ”

It turns out that the Germans are playing propaganda bombs!

A white leaflet was blown in front of Popov, and he grabbed it and clutched it in his hand.

"Don't pick it up, don't look ......at it," I don't know which political cadre kept shouting, but Popov ignored it. At the moment when he was about to become a revolutionary martyr, he was eager to see what the fallacies of Nazi imperialism were.

……

"An armored division! Comrade Commander, our 11th Tank Brigade encountered a German Panzer Division near Zacrochim! Our troops have suffered heavy losses and are retreating! ”

The commander of the 7th Soviet Tank Army, Rotmistrov, and the commissar Oktyabrysky, who did not know at this time that part of their rear road had been cut off by the Germans (only partially, because almost all the east bank of the Renaf River was now a liberated area), and the two of them were gathered around an American-backed military radio station, listening to the hapless commander of the 11th Tank Brigade, Colonel Mikhalikhin, report his tragic fate.

One and a half hours ago, Colonel Halikhin was ordered to lead two T-34 tank battalions under the 11th Tank Brigade and a battalion of the 7th Motorized Infantry Brigade to pursue dozens of light tanks suspected of being "Swedish tanks".

The "Swedes" were very cunning, fighting and retreating all the way, always keeping a distance of 500-800 meters from the pursuing T-34 tanks, not to mention at night, even during the day it was already at a distance that the T-34's 76.2mm main gun could hardly hit.

The chase continued for about an hour, and at about 9:30 p.m., units of the 11th Tank Brigade approached the small town of Zacrochem on the banks of the Vistula. Then dozens of flares hit the heads of the Soviet tank group, illuminating the battlefield in a miserable white.

The No. 3 assault gun and the 75mm anti-tank gun, which were ambushed in the surrounding woods and wheat fields, opened fire at the same time, and more than forty T-34 tanks were fired at once!

"There is an armored division? Can you be sure? Rotmistrov took the communicator from the communicator and asked in detail.

"Definitely! At least 200 No. 4 tanks and No. 3 assault guns ......"

Rotmistrov and Commissar Oktyabrisky glanced at each other, 200 tanks No. 4 and assault guns No. 3! This is really an armored division!

"Are there any heavy tanks from the Germans?" Rotmistrov asked again.

"Didn't find it...... Like we fired 75mm guns...... Oh, and there are many No. 3 tanks, about 100 of them! ”

100 No. 3 tanks? Didn't it say that the Germans had already eliminated tank No. 3? Rotmistrov frowned, it seems that this is an armored division that was urgently formed after the Soviet-German war, and there are not enough Type 4H tanks, so he took the No. 3 tank to make up the number.

"Got it, Comrade Mikhalykhin, you must find a way to lure this armored division over!" Rotmistrov took a breath and gave the order, "This is a crucial battle related to the smooth liberation of Warsaw, and the working people of the whole world are watching the proletarian fighters of the 11th tank brigade!" ”

"Understood, Mikhalykhin understands that the 11th brigade will do whatever it takes to complete the task!"

Rotmistrov returned the intercom to the signal corpsman and then said to Oktyabrysky: "Comrade Mikhalykhin is an excellent commander of the tank unit and a loyal member of the Bolshevik Party, and the 11th Tank Brigade will successfully complete its mission under his leadership." But...... The German Panzer Division was so powerful that our 7th Tank Army might not be able to wipe them out. ”

Oktyabliski also nodded, his face extremely solemn, "The appearance of a German armored division is a very important situation, which shows that the enemy has increased its troops to Warsaw, and there may be more German armored divisions and infantry divisions in the front. We should immediately report this to the command of the army group. (To be continued.) )