Street fighting, also commonly referred to as "urban warfare", is because street fighting is a street-by-street, house-by-house battle between streets, usually in a city or a large village...... Its striking characteristics are that the enemy and the enemy are hand-to-hand combat, and the cruelty is great, and the two sides fiercely fight for the fortified buildings, the main streets, and the commanding heights. Second, the enemy and the enemy are mixed with each other, and the movements of the armies of the two sides are restricted, and many local independent battles often form.

Since the crossing, I have participated in almost all positional offensive and defensive battles, and I have not had much contact with this kind of urban street warfare that has gradually formed with the expansion of the scale of the war, and the commanders and fighters under my command know very little about this important combat style, so I specially gathered them today to listen to Second Lieutenant Grettka talk about the urban battles he participated in, so that the commanders can understand what the urban street battles are all about.

Seeing that the room was quiet and no one spoke again, Second Lieutenant Gretka continued: "I sent a squad of Sergeant Bossel to attack the other side of the block with tanks and pyroists, while I took three squads with an 81-mm mortar and attacked from the front.

My men and I gathered behind a row of bungalows, and our target was a three-story concrete building across the road, four of the same formation, the commanding heights of the entire block. As a result of the air raid by our planes just in the morning, almost all the buildings were roof off.

I hid behind the window of a room and watched the situation on the other side, the building looked empty, but I didn't dare to take it lightly. Who knows behind those windows that don't have glass. Will there be Russians who are hidden. We are closely monitoring us as we prepare to attack.

Just as I was hesitating, the second squad leader, Sergeant Zegor, entered the room through the big hole in the wall, and seeing that I had not given the order to attack for a long time, he was a little breathless, and shouted loudly: 'Mr. Ensign, what are you hesitating about, it looks like there is no one in the building opposite. Shall we attack? ’

I took one look at him and stopped him decisively: 'No. Although I didn't agree to his request to attack, I couldn't think of a good way to do it in a hurry. Just then, Sergeant Purlang, the third squad leader, and Sergeant Kranz, the fourth squad leader, also entered the room and happened to hear me talking to Sergeant Zegor. Sergeant Kranz thought for a moment and said to me, 'Mr. Ensign, I have a way!' Seeing that several of us were looking at him strangely, he continued, 'You first cover me with fire and rush into the building.' Then let the soldiers rush over one by one. ’

I was very curious about this mention of his. So he asked, 'Sergeant Clanz, why did the soldiers rush over one after another?' ’

'Mr. Ensign,' replied Kranz, 'I suspect that there must be quite a few Russian firing points in the building, and if we rush together, we will be frightened by them, and their machine guns and submachine guns will inflict heavy casualties on our attacking troops. But if they rushed over one by one, they saw that there were too few of us in range, and they would definitely not expose their firepower for one or two soldiers, and that's it, by the time they came to their senses, I think most of our platoon had already rushed into the opposite building, so that we would have enough strength to carry out a surprise attack and kill all the Russians in the building! ’

Hearing what he said, I nodded in agreement. Sergeant Kranz, who had my permission, opened the door and rushed out of the room with his submachine gun in his hand. When he rushed to the road, my heart was in my throat, and I was afraid that the Russians hiding in the building would shoot him. But Kranz's analysis proved to be correct, the Russians were unwilling to expose their firepower for the sake of one person, and before he rushed to the building, no one in the opposite building fired a shot. ”

As Second Lieutenant Gretka first said this, I heard a captain not far away muttering in a low voice: "Damn the Germans, you are cunning enough, if it were me, I would have seen only one man running over, and the soldier would never be allowed to shoot at will." ”

Gretka apparently heard the captain's grumblings as well, but he only glanced in the direction of the captain and did not stop his narration: "...... Sergeant Kranz rushed outside the building, and instead of immediately rushing in through the hallway door, he threw a grenade inside with his back against the wall. After the grenade exploded, several tongues of fire erupted from the corridor, and it seemed that some Russians could not hold back and shot outside despite the orders of their superiors.

Kranz threw two more grenades inside, and the shooting inside suddenly stopped. At about this time, the soldiers in the Kranz squad had rushed out of the building one after another, following the example of their squad leader, leaning their backs against the wall and throwing grenades into the windows. Before the smoke of the explosion cleared, some of them rushed into the building through the door, and some entered the building directly through the window.

Seeing that Kranz's fourth squad had all stormed the building opposite, I straightened up, straightened my hat, and said to Sergeant Zegor, the second squad leader, who was already eager to try: 'Sgt. Sgt., take your soldiers and occupy the other side's building. ’

Zegor excitedly agreed, got out of the big hole in the wall, beckoned the second squad hidden behind the bungalow, and charged towards the opposite building.

However, the second squad was obviously not as lucky as the fourth squad, and as soon as they rushed to the road, a machine gun fired heavily at them from behind a window on the second floor, and the two soldiers who rushed to the front were knocked down on the spot, and the rest had to lie on the ground and return fire.

Seeing that the attack had been thwarted, I hurriedly ordered the mortar group equipped with my platoon to shell that firing point. After two rounds of artillery fire, although the building was blown up by the air force, the mortar did not have a big effect, because there was a ceiling blocking it, and the shells could not fall at all, and the machine gun was still firing unscrupulously, suppressing the second squad so that it could not raise its head.

After I asked the mortars to stop firing, I was about to let the third squad also participate in the attack. The window where the shot was fired suddenly exploded, and the Russians in the room fell down at the window with machine guns. Before I could figure out what was going on, I suddenly saw someone in the window holding out his hand waving a German steel helmet. Then Kranz leaned out of the window. That's when I understood. It turned out that it was Kranz, who was fighting in the building, who blew up the enemy's machine gun.

Seeing that the second squad also stormed the building, I gave an order to the third squad leader who was still standing beside me: 'Sergeant Pulllang, you are ready, and immediately lead your third squad to attack the second building. ’

Purlang agreed, and got out of the hole in the wall to rally his troops.

And the warriors on the other side of the block went unusually well. The soldiers and tankers of the first squad worked very well together, because there were no concrete buildings there. There is only one ordinary warehouse. Seeing that the terrain was in our favor, a tankman poked out of the turret and looked around, only to be shot dead by a Russian hiding in a warehouse.

Our two tanks immediately turned their guns and fired two shots in the direction where the bullets were coming, crashing down the wall and burying the sniper in the rubble, and then our pyro stepped forward and burned him to the ground. Seeing that our tanks destroyed the warehouses and threatened buildings three and four, the Russians carried out a counterattack. They sent a squad of infantrymen, under the cover of an armored vehicle. Attacks have been made against us.

As soon as the armored vehicle appeared in the tanker's field of vision, it was destroyed by artillery fire, and the remaining infantry was also wiped out under the fire of tank guns and vehicle-mounted machine guns. Then the first group, under the cover of tanks, attacked Building 3. Unexpectedly, it was met with stubborn resistance from the Russians, and a wounded Russian second lieutenant jumped from the window on the second floor with a bundle of cluster grenades and died with a tank. The remaining tank, fearing the same fate, hurriedly retreated.

Seeing that the second and fourth squads seized Building No. 1 and cooperated with the third squad to seize Building No. 2, the first squad that was repulsed by the Russians resumed the attack on Building No. 3 under the cover of the remaining tank.

After fierce fighting, the four squads were unable to capture Buildings 3 and 4, despite heavy casualties. At this time, there were only a dozen people left in our platoon, and the first and second shifts were almost all gone. Seeing that our platoon suffered heavy casualties, the company commander reassigned a platoon to take over the battle of the building. ”

At this point, Second Lieutenant Grettka stopped, turned to me politely and said, "Your Excellency, I have finished talking about my street fighting experience. ”

I nodded at him, stood up and said, "Thank you, Mr. Ensign." There's nothing for you to do here for the time being, so you and your companions go and rest. After saying that, I instructed Mihayev next to me: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, you can take Captain Grams, Second Lieutenant Grettka, and this communications squad leader to rest." ”

After Mihayev and the three Germans left the room, I stood in front of the commanders and asked with a stern expression: "Comrade commanders, do you have any thoughts after listening to the story of the German second lieutenant Greitka?" ”

The commander of the third company looked left and right, stood up and said loudly: "Report to the division commander, I think our soldiers are very tenacious, even if they all die heroically, they will never take a step back. ”

After listening to his words, I snorted heavily, and said dissatisfiedly: "Fighting a war is about skill, and I do not deny that the commander of our army, who was just mentioned by Second Lieutenant Greitka, was indeed very brave, and when he was seriously wounded, he jumped from the tower and died with the German tanks, and his brave and tenacious fighting spirit is worth learning from. But then again, in the battle to defend the city, what we have to do is save ourselves to destroy the enemy. If you can't save yourself, it's useless to just have a high fighting spirit, and in the end you will die with honor like those commanders and fighters who held on to Building No. 1 and No. 2. ”

"Comrade division commander, I don't understand." Another captain stood up and asked puzzledly: "Haven't we been fighting positional warfare with the Germans all the time, why did we ask this German to tell us about street fighting in the city?" ”

After the captain finished speaking, I said coldly: "Comrade Captain, have you fought for so long, and you have not yet seen the current strength of our army, and can only delay, but not stop, the advance of the Germans towards Stalingrad?" From the current situation, the Germans will soon storm Stalingrad, and if we do not want to be thrown into the Volga by the Germans, we will have to fight brutal street battles with them in the city. ”

"But our division has been winning battles, can't this stop the Germans from advancing towards Stalingrad?" The captain retorted unconvinced.

"That's enough, Fifth Company Commander." Oleg got up from his seat. scolded the captain who was playing against the stage. "Aren't you now in addition to my division's defenses. The defenders of the rest of the sections, under the powerful offensive of the German army, retreated step by step to Stalingrad? If the independent division had not been commanded by Commander Oshanina, then our division would have been either crippled, wiped out or captured by the Germans. ”

The captain was reprimanded by Oleg for a few words, but did not dare to refute, so he had to sit down unwillingly.

I continued: "The reason why I asked Second Lieutenant Grettka today to tell you about the street battles in which he participated is to give you an idea of what the street battles are all about. I would like to ask you a question. If you were leading your troops in a building and you saw only one German soldier rushing towards you, would you give the order to shoot? ”

As soon as I asked this question, everyone immediately confused again, some said they wanted to shoot, and some said they wouldn't shoot. The public said that the public was reasonable, and the mother said that the mother was reasonable, and no one could convince anyone, and the house was chaotic.

When they were almost done arguing, I raised my hand and pressed down, and saw that everyone was silent. I then asked, "How's it going, comrades commanders?" Do you have the answers? ”

Velore stood up and asked his subordinates, "Comrades company commanders, do you know what to do?" To her question, everyone, including Oleg, shook their heads neatly.

Seeing that no one answered, Velore said unhurriedly: "I thought about it carefully, if it weren't for the German second lieutenant talking about this matter, we would suddenly encounter such a situation, and the tenth ** would still choose not to shoot, so as not to expose the target." I don't know if I say that, do you agree? Her last sentence was to ask the commanders present, and everyone nodded in unison.

She went on to say: "If you shoot, expose the target, and the attacking Germans will be alert; If we don't shoot, we won't expose the target, but if the Germans break into pieces and rush into the building to attack like they did just now, we will still suffer a big loss. So I thought about it, whether there could be two or three sharpshooters in each building, specifically to fight a single German who rushed to the building. Moreover, even if the Germans had a large force behind, they would not be too vigilant when they saw that only one or two people were shooting, and by the time they realized that something was wrong, it was estimated that there were already many corpses of German soldiers in front of our building. ”

To be honest, when I heard from Second Lieutenant Gretka just now, I also felt that it was quite difficult to shoot or not to shoot, but if it was carried out according to Vylorti's plan, it would be a feasible way. So I made a decisive decision and said loudly: "Yes, I think Commissar Velore is right, in the future, if the troops of our division hold on to the buildings they have established, they must be equipped with snipers to fight the individual German soldiers who rush to the buildings. Do you have any objections? ”

"Nope!" The people present replied loudly.

In order to strengthen everyone's impression, I struck while the iron was hot and said: "Also, the street fighting in the city is similar to the guerrilla tactics we usually use, that is, if we can win, we will fight, and if we can't win, we will leave, we must not fight hard with the Germans, find the right time, fight when there are fighters, fight with great attrition, do not care about the gains and losses of one street or one building, and focus on eliminating the living forces of the German army." We must know how to concentrate superior forces to fight a small or isolated enemy, and accumulate small victories into big victories. ”

"Comrade division commander, what is the right time to fight if there is a fighter?" A company commander sitting in the middle humbly asked me for advice.

"What is a favorable fighter? Even when the Germans had few troops, the terrain was not favorable, and they were not ready. We must do three things not to fight: first, the number of German troops is more than ours, and we will not fight; Second, the terrain occupied by the German army was good and did not fight; Third, the German army was prepared and did not fight; In short, we do not fight unprepared battles, we do not fight uncertain wars. ”

As soon as I finished speaking, the commander of the third company stood up again, scratched the back of his head and said, "Comrade division commander, listen to what you just said, you are giving us a lesson in war theory. But we're just ordinary company commanders, is it useful to learn these things? ”

As soon as he finished speaking, I immediately nodded and said in affirmation: "Yes, of course it works." Although you are only a company commander now, the next battle will be even more brutal, and many people, including me, may die. However, the surviving commanders, because they have been trained in the war and have rich combat experience, are likely to be promoted. Although what I said was not very useful when you were a company commander, when you become a battalion commander, regiment commander, or even a division commander, you will realize how important this knowledge is to you. Let me conclude by reminding you that if a commander makes a bad decision, it will cost many fighters their blood and lives. In my division, it is absolutely not allowed for such a commander who does not cherish the lives of his fighters to survive. ”

At this point, I waved at the commanders and said, "Okay, that's all for now." Tomorrow a German unit will come, everyone should go back to their respective companies, and do a good job of concealment and camouflage that should be done, and must not make the slightest mistake, otherwise our camouflaged unit will be exposed. Once exposed, what the consequences will be, I won't say, everyone knows it in their hearts. (To be continued......)

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