Two hours later, our troops were surrounded by the German-occupied village, and the Germans in the village apparently noticed our move, so they began a frantic counterattack, their mortar shells as if they didn't want money, and they smashed down on the area where our troops were assembled.

Akhromeyev and I stayed in a makeshift shed in the forest, with no walls on all sides. Akhromeyev crouched on the ground, pointed to the map spread out on a log lying horizontally, and explained the task to the several commanders gathered around: "...... The east and west sides of the village are forested and cannot be passed by vehicles; On the north and south sides are roads that connect with the outside world, and from the traces of tank tracks on the ground, we speculate that the enemy must have touched from the south. In the next battle, if the enemy is unable to resist and tries to escape, he will definitely choose the north and south roads, so it is necessary to strengthen the defense in these two directions. ”

"But, Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff." A commander with the rank of major asked: "Are we deploying too few troops in the forests on the east and west sides?" I fear that if the Germans abandon their vehicles and break through into the forest, our commanders and fighters will not be able to stop them. ”

Akhromeyev glanced up at the other party, and then said: "Major, the situation you said is completely possible. However, the Germans were not stupid, they should have known that the village was surrounded by a vast forest that would trap them without a guide. ”

I sat on the stump next to me and nodded silently at Akhromeyev's statement, and no one who had ever seen a Russian forest could not experience that kind of fear. Outside, the forest is quiet. When you walk in, you'll find it eerie. Back in the days of the defense of Moscow. There were many cases where German detachments were trapped in the forest and froze to death. There used to be a joke on the Internet. It is said that the German detachment saw a warning sign in the forest that it was not allowed to cut down trees, so they would rather freeze to death than cut down trees in the forest to keep warm, and they were frozen to death. In fact, this is all nonsense, the trunk of the birch tree is too hard, it takes an axe and a carpenter's saw to cut it down, and the German troops trapped in the forest probably have a few bayonets on their bodies. It's normal to not be able to cut down trees.

After Akhromeyev explained his mission, he asked the major just now: "Your battalion will attack the village under the cover of artillery fire, do you have anything else to say?" ”

The major hurriedly stood up, straightened his back and replied: "Report to Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff, there is no more." Our battalion guaranteed to take the front village within half an hour. ”

Seeing his blind confidence expression, I sneered, got up from the stump, and said to him across the crowd, "Major." Don't underestimate the enemy. Listen to how dense the mortar explosions are outside. If you don't suppress the enemy's artillery fire first. When you attack, you will suffer heavy casualties under enemy fire. ”

Hearing me say this, the major lowered his head and thought for a moment, then replied: "Comrade commander, before the attack, we will carry out ten minutes of artillery preparation, and when the enemy's fire has been suppressed, we will attack. ”

When I first arrived, I visited the battalion and saw that the battalion had a cannon battery equipped with six 76.2 mm cannons, and although it was not easy to deal with the enemy's tanks, it was not a big problem to suppress the enemy's artillery fire. After nodding my head, I said approvingly: "Okay, order the artillery to hit the point on time, try to destroy all the enemy's fire points, and reduce the casualties of the troops." After that, I turned to Akhromeyev and asked, "When will the tanks arrive?" ”

Akhromeyev stood up, looked at his watch, and replied: "It should be there before our artillery fire is ready." However, since the new tanks were left without shells, the tank brigade sent only a few T-34s. ”

"The T-34 will also work, the Germans do not have a couple of tanks anyway. With our numerical superiority, we can knock all their tanks to pieces even if we collide. I then said to the commanders who had just stood up: "Now that the mission is clear, everyone should go back to their respective units and make all preparations for battle as soon as possible." ”

The commanders answered neatly, raised their hands and saluted me, and then dispersed.

Watching the commanders leave, I shook my head at Akhromeyev and said, "Let's go, let's go to the observation post and see how our commanders and fighters have taken the village back from the enemy." ”

In this village, which was occupied by the Germans, the buildings inside were all wooden houses, and our artillery shells smashed into them, which not only made the German mortars dumb, but also caused the sparsely distributed houses to collapse one after another, and then burst into flames. Seeing such a scene, Akhromeyev turned his face to me and said: "Comrade commander, such an artillery bombardment should completely destroy the enemy's resistance, right?" ”

I held up my binoculars and said without looking back: "Comrade Major, don't be too blindly optimistic, we must not be careless until the enemy is completely destroyed." Before the battle is over, anything can happen. ”

The tank company sent by the tank brigade arrived just as the artillery fire stopped and the artillery was ready to charge, so they took the lead to open the way and cover the infantry to attack the smoke-shrouded village.

At the beginning, everything seemed to be going well, the tank drove to a place two or three hundred meters away from the village, and there was no movement in it, as if the enemy had been wiped out by the shelling just now. Seeing that there was no movement in the village, the infantry following the tank quickened their pace and prepared to enter the village to search for the remnants of the enemy.

At this moment, suddenly several mortar shells flew out of the village and landed in the slightly crowded infantry ranks, immediately bombing many commanders and fighters. Then the machine-gun fire, which was originally thought to be destroyed, also opened fire, knocking down a large number of commanders and fighters in the firing range.

Seeing that the enemy was firing, our tanks stopped, turned their muzzles and opened fire on the exposed machine-gun fire points. As soon as one of the tanks destroyed a German machine-gun fire point, a large cloud of fire rose from its body, and then it was enveloped in smoke. For a moment, I was stunned by this scene. I stared blankly at the tank crews covered in fire. Get out of the burning tank. Sometimes he fell, sometimes he got up, and he stumbled towards us.

The tanks of our army continued to fire at the villages, covering the infantry to occupy battle formations. Although two more points of fire were destroyed one after another, two more of our tanks were hit by armor-piercing shells fired by tanks hiding in the village and caught fire.

Seeing this, Akhromeyev couldn't help but grit his teeth and say: "This damn German tank has been using the smoke from the burning houses in the village as a cover. It keeps changing positions so that our tanks can't spot it. Before he could finish his words, another tank of our army was shot, which soon caused the ammunition in the car to detonate, and the flying shrapnel swept down a piece of our soldiers who were hiding nearby and shooting.

Seeing that our tanks were hit one after another and burst into flames, and that the fire points outside the village were revived one after another, our commanders and fighters seemed to be a little panicked. Soon everyone shouted, and they retreated in an uproar. The tank crew watched as the infantry around them retreated, and also retreated as they opened fire.

The retreat of our army greatly boosted the morale of the German army. Their artillery and machine-gun fire became fierce again, and many of our commanders and fighters were retreating. Either knocked down by sideways shrapnel, or hit by machine-gun bullets, and suddenly fell quite a lot.

When a retreating tank was only about 200 meters away from our observation post, it suddenly shook its body and stopped in place. After a few moments, I saw three tankmen coming out of the smoking tank. They had not gone far in our direction when two of them were hit by German machine-gun bullets and fell in pools of blood. The only survivor, who was no better, seemed to be wounded in the leg, but he still limped and tried to run towards us.

When several fighters rushed out at the risk of danger and carried him to the trench where the observation post was located, I heard a crying cry and couldn't help but put down my binoculars and walked out of the observation post. I saw that the tankman who had just escaped from danger was leaning against the wall of the trench with his face covered in blood, pointing to the tank that was still smoking not far away, and shouting: "Please, comrades! Please, comrades, help, my driver is still trapped in the tank, and if you don't save him, he will soon die. Please......"

Although the surrounding soldiers heard the heart-rending shouts of the tankmen, no one paid any attention to him, but dispersed, as if they had not heard his shouts at all. I raised my hand and grabbed one of the soldiers who passed by me and asked him in a loud voice, "Hey, why don't you want to help a wounded comrade?" ”

When the soldier saw my rank clearly, he was startled, and quickly straightened up and replied: "Comrade General, that tank is within the range of the Germans' shelling and machine-gun fire, and if we want to save people, we have to enter the tank, but if we want to brave the enemy's bullets and bullets, we have to sacrifice a few people." Maybe in the end, the tank driver didn't save him, but took more people's lives. ”

After listening to what the soldier said, I felt that he made a lot of sense, and sending people to rescue at this time was tantamount to letting the rescuers go to death. So I let go of my hand and let the warrior go.

I sighed, took one last look at the howling tankman, and walked back to the observation post. When Akhromeyev saw me enter the door, he asked curiously: "Comrade commander, what is that fighter outside crying about?" The gunfire was too loud to hear what he was shouting, but it sounded sad. ”

After briefly explaining the matter to Akhromeyev, I finally said with emotion: "Alas, if you don't save it, you can only watch the tankman die in the tank; But if you want to go to the rescue, the rescuers will suffer heavy casualties in the rain of bullets, which is really a dilemma. ”

After hearing this, Akhromeyev said nonchalantly: "If you want to save the wounded tankmen, you must drag the tank to a safe place." It's a pity that the tractor used in the maintenance station wants to return such a heavy T-34, and it will not be completed in a while, and maybe the driver of the tractor will also be sacrificed in the ......" He did not speak, suddenly sighed, and then raised the telescope to look outside.

"What's wrong?" I muttered and walked over to him, holding up my binoculars and looking out. I was stunned by what I saw, and I saw that the armored tractor I had simply taken a few hours ago was braving enemy fire and machine-gun fire and was speeding towards the smoking T-34.

The armored tractor drove into a dead end caused by the tank, and as soon as the car came to a stop, I saw Yurda jump out of the car and run towards the tank with a cable in tow. After hanging the rope, he tested the sturdiness before running back to the tractor. A puff of black smoke came out of the rear of the tractor, and then roared towards our position. As the cable between the two cars was straightened, the smoking tank slowly moved with it.

Seeing the tractor pulling the wounded tank back, the crying outside stopped abruptly, and only the sound of enemy gunfire could be heard. Looking at the body of the armored tractor bursting out from time to time with strings of sparks, I knew that it was hit by German machine gun bullets, but such damage was completely negligible to the base of the Tiger tank, so the tractor still dragged the tank unhurriedly towards our position.

When they saw the tank being dragged by the tractor into our position, the trench burst into earth-shattering cheers, and then several fighters left the trench, bravely climbed the tank, lifted the top of the turret, and got into the rescue of the tank driver who was stuck in the tank.

I stepped out of the trench again to see the rescue process up close. But I was surprised to see the major just now jump out of the trench, stand on a high mound of earth, raise his outstretched right hand high, and turn sideways and shout at the commanders and fighters in the trench: "Brothers, are you not as brave as a common man driving a tractor?" Come with me, go and kill the Germans, forward! After shouting the last word, he waved his hand forward, and then took the lead and rushed forward.

Seeing that his battalion commander took the lead in the charge, the commanders and fighters in the trench shouted "Ula" in unison and climbed out of the trench one after another. Although a few fighters were hit by bullets and fell as soon as they climbed out of the trenches, the men behind them still rushed forward without hesitation.

Youerda's brave performance just now deeply stimulated these commanders and fighters, and their bravery was beyond everyone's imagination. They played an extraordinary performance, even when they were running, they raised their guns and fired. Although the charging team was hit by the dense rain of bullets and continuous shells of the German army, they were immediately filled by the rear team, and the charging array formed by them fell countless figures in just a few hundred meters. In the sound of slogans, waves swept and pushed over, the front fell and the back was filled, endlessly, endlessly, everywhere there were shaking figures, which made the scalps of the German officers and soldiers hiding in the improvised fortifications and shooting tingle.

As our tanks entered the battle again, the scales of victory began to tilt in favor of our army. As more and more fighters poured into the village, the enemy's resistance became thin, and even the tanks that had just been hiding in the village and opened fire were silent, not knowing whether they were out of shells or destroyed by our anti-tank men at close range.

I breathed a sigh of relief and said to Akhromeyev: "All right, Comrade Major, the outcome has been decided!" I'm going back to the army headquarters, and I'll take care of the rest of the aftermath. ”

"What should be done with the German prisoners?" Since the way I dispose of German prisoners each time depends on my mood, this is why Akhromeyev asks this question.

Without hesitation, I said: "Major, the matter of dealing with the prisoners should be handed over to the commanders and fighters who have just participated in the battle, and I believe that they will handle it well." ”

I walked out of the observation post and strolled towards the still smoking tank. The tank driver, who was stuck in the tank, had been rescued and was lying on a stretcher, while his commander was crouching next to him, holding his hand and whispering something. Yurda and several warriors gathered around them, watching the touching scene.

I came to Yulda, stretched out my hand to hold his hand, and said with a smile: "Well done, Comrade Yurda, you have just behaved heroically, if it weren't for you, this tank driver would definitely be more than lucky." You should be rewarded for your bravery and contributions. I think when you get back to the pits, you'll get your honor and a new medal. (To be continued.) )