Colonel Raskin's words made me nervous, and I thought that the battle plan, which I had worked out for several days, had taken into account all that should be considered. I didn't expect that when it came to implementation, I found that there would still be accidents. It's like a fighter who has been building up for a long time, trying his best to throw a punch, only to find that his opponent is not in the position he wants to fight, and the punch misses.

After handing over the headset and microphone to the communications corps, I stared at the settlement, whose outline became clearer as the smoke cleared, and I couldn't help but ponder that the war had completely deviated from my original assumptions. Where did the enemy go? It is impossible to abandon the transfer of occupied areas in a situation in which the tide of the war is clearly in their favor. Could it be that they had already sensed our possible attack, deliberately evacuated the settlements, and took refuge somewhere nearby, so that when our troops had completely entered the settlements, they would encircle and annihilate our lone army under the cover of armored forces and air forces?

At the thought of the latter possibility, a cold sweat suddenly broke out in my head, and before I had time to think about it, I quickly ran to Gaidar's side and decisively gave him the order: "Order the reserves to stop advancing, dig trenches in the existing sections, and build fortifications to prevent a possible counterattack by the enemy." ”

Without saying a word, Gaidar ran briskly to the front of his ranks, raising his hand to stop the troops' further advance. When the infantry began to dig trenches in place, the company commander of the cannon company, who was also directing his subordinates, lined up several light cannons behind the trenches.

I turned my head and accidentally saw the No. 4 and No. 5 operators next to me, and I couldn't help but raise my hand and pat my forehead in annoyance. Secretly scolding myself for being confused, these two newspaper operators, can't they contact the newspaper operators who entered the settlement, I can completely use them to find out what is going on in the settlement.

Thinking of this, I hurriedly instructed the two operators: "I order, the No. 4 operator immediately contact the No. 1 operator, and the No. 5 and No. 2 operators, and ask them what is going on in the settlement, why can't they hear any movement?" The two operators agreed. Then he stepped aside. Begin to call out to colleagues in the settlement.

Captain Gaidar, who had finished the task, ran back to his side, followed by engineer Mihayev. He walked up to me and said with a melancholy expression: "Comrade division commander, the engineer has proposed to me. Troops were immediately sent to occupy these colourful wooden houses on the outskirts of the settlement. Trenches were dug in the small courtyards outside these wooden houses. Build a new defensive position. ”

I thought about it for a while, and I also thought that the excavation of the courtyards of these wooden houses was very necessary. Moreover, there were already German individual bunkers inside, as long as these individual bunkers were connected together, they were ready-made trenches. Thinking of this, I nodded approvingly.

The order was swiftly conveyed, and a company of soldiers marched in a skirmish formation toward the hut area. Looking at the almost identical rifles in the hands of these soldiers, I couldn't help but sigh secretly, the equipment of the independent division is really poor, except for a few submachine guns and machine guns, the rest are rifles. Even with such equipment, there is no guarantee that every fighter in the division will be armed, and at least half of the three regiments remaining in the garrison are unarmed and unarmed.

Gaidar, Mihayev, and the commander of the artillery company and I stared intently at the advancing soldiers, listening to their chaotic footsteps and watching their formations change from time to time. As we approached the wooden house, the unique gunfire of the German MP40 suddenly sounded in one of the courtyards, followed by gunfire in several adjacent courtyards, and the dense gunfire was particularly crisp in the silent early morning. Several tongues of fire spraying death licked towards the attacking queue of our army, and the advancing warriors fell down in response, and the remaining fighters hurriedly lay on the spot. The soldiers who were digging the trenches were also frightened by the sudden sound of gunfire.

"Hell! These damn Germans. "Gaidar saw that his warrior was falling, he drew his pistol, waved it and rushed forward, I reached out to pull, but did not pull. In this short minute, he had already bent over and ran to the middle of the attacking team. He shouted and cursed as the warriors lying on the ground got to their feet and moved on. Unexpectedly, as soon as the fighters got up from the ground, they were knocked down by a few more bullets from the Germans, and they had to lie down again.

Seeing this scene, I yelled at the cannon company commander: "Artillery company commander, give me immediate fire!" Knock out all the firepower points in the courtyard for me! ”

The commander of the artillery company said to me with a pale face: "Comrade division commander, you are too close to our soldiers, and if you open fire, you will accidentally injure your own people." ”

If these German firepower points were not eliminated, the morale of our division would have been lost by the Germans' submachine guns. I was unmoved, and gave the order with a stern expression: "Comrade Company Commander, I order you to immediately open fire and destroy the enemy's fire points. ”

The commander of the cannon company had no choice but to reluctantly agree, turned around and walked to the artillery position, raised his right hand high, and gave orders to his subordinates: "No. 2 and No. 3 gun positions, target colored wooden houses, load high-explosive shells." Ready, put! Almost at the same time as he shouted, he slammed his right hand downward.

Two cannons fired at the same time, and the shells whistled out of the chambers and flew towards the enemy's individual bunkers. The 76-millimeter shells landed in the courtyard with unmistakable accuracy, not only blowing a German soldier hiding in the bunker to pieces, but also knocking down a wooden fence and shattering a wall of a wooden house.

"Well played!" I clearly saw the effect of the shelling, shouted loudly, completely ignoring the buzzing of my ears, and urged the artillery company commander again and again, "Comrade company commander, don't stop, keep firing!" ”

While the artillerymen were loading, I felt someone gently tapped me on the shoulder next to me, and when I turned my head, it turned out to be the No. 4 operator, who leaned close to my ear and said loudly: "Report to the division commander, I have made contact with the No. 1 operator." Captain Oleg is on the line, he is waiting to talk to you. With that, he handed me the headset and microphone.

"Comrade division commander. I'm Captain Oleg. Oleg's voice came through the headphones.

"Comrade Captain, you speak louder, I can't hear clearly." The sound of the artillery just now shocked my hearing so much that when I heard Oleg's voice, it was like a ball of cotton stuffed in my ears, and the sound seemed far and soft, and I walked a few steps in the direction of the forest, and saw that it was far enough away from the artillery position, so I stopped and asked, "What is going on in the settlement?" Why can't I hear any movement? ”

"Comrade division commander. When I led my troops into the settlement, I found two German sentries at the corner of the street, who had apparently been hacked to death by our soldiers with shovels and axes before they could figure out what was going on. Then we rushed into Building 1, Building 2, and Building 3 respectively. Only five to ten German guards were found in each building. When we rushed in. They are still sleeping. Most of them were killed by us in their sleep, so there was no major movement in the early battle. ”

Hearing him say that there was an enemy in the settlement, my anxiety calmed down considerably. It turned out that I didn't hear any movement from the settlement, because our army used cold weapons when fighting, and it was normal not to hear the sound. As long as there are enemies in the settlement, then this will not be a trap set for us by the enemy. I asked in a calm tone, "What's next for you?" ”

"Report to Comrade Division Commander, we have now occupied buildings 1 to 8 one after another, and are preparing to launch a final attack on the remaining nine buildings." Before the attack, in order to get an accurate picture of the progress of the troops, we numbered each building, so as soon as he reported the number of the building, I knew where the troops were.

"How's the situation with Captain Sederikov?" As soon as I opened my mouth to ask about Sederikov, who was a support unit, I suddenly heard the roar of tanks in the distance, and it seemed that the tank detachment that reinforced us was coming, so I didn't care to say any further, but just said a cliché: "Then I wish you good luck and complete the task early, I am waiting for the news of your victory." Then he cut off the communication, left the headset and the intercom to the operator, and ran briskly in the direction from which the tank had come.

At this moment, the fire of the cannon company had destroyed all the enemy's fire points in the courtyard of the wooden house, and Gaidar had rushed into the wooden house area with his fighters, searching for the remnants of the enemy near the burning house.

Five T-34s stopped near the artillery position, and the commander of the tank corps, jumping down from the first tank, came to me, raised his hand and saluted, and asked: "Comrade Colonel in the report, the tank detachment is ordered to come and wait for your instructions!" ”

I looked at the young commander in the tank uniform in front of me, nodded with satisfaction, pointed to the residents, and said: "Comrade tank soldiers, you leave two tanks to guard the artillery position, and the other three drive to the residential areas to assist the infantry in seizing the buildings occupied by the enemy. ”

The tank man looked at the buildings in the settlement and said with some embarrassment: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the road in this settlement is too narrow, and the Germans occupying the buildings can easily kill us by throwing Molotov cocktails or anti-tank grenades at us from the buildings on both sides." ”

I was a little annoyed when I saw the tankmen pushing back, but because others were here to help our friendly troops, I couldn't get angry at him, so I had to squeeze out a smile and pretend to be an understatement and said to him: "Comrade tankmen, you don't have to worry, our infantry has occupied a lot of buildings in the settlements, and can help you eliminate the anti-tank fighters of the Germans, you can safely and boldly drive the tanks in." ”

When the tank soldier saw me say this, he could no longer shirk the blame, so he had to ask angrily: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what is our task?" ”

"There are several German armored vehicles in the settlements, and our infantry does not have the necessary anti-tank weapons, and if you don't help them, in the end we can only watch these armored vehicles protrude from our encirclement with great swagger."

"No problem, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." When the tankmen heard that they only needed to kill a few armored vehicles, they immediately said to me with a big grin: "We will definitely kill all these German rat cages." "When he said rat cages, I was stunned for a moment, and then I realized that when he said rat cages, he was referring to German armored vehicles.

While Shederikov and I were in contact, a dense burst of gunfire finally rang out in the settlement. As soon as I heard the gunshots, I immediately asked Sederikov in a loud voice: "Comrade Captain, what's the matter?" Why is there such a dense burst of gunfire? ”

"Report to Comrade Division Commander." "It was Oleg's commandos who were attacking Building 11 when the Germans who were holding on here opened fire on them," Shederikov reported loudly. ”

"How's it going? Did our troops rush in? I asked with concern.

After a moment of silence, Shederikov reported: "The enemy's fire was so fierce that the members of the first assault team died heroically under the enemy's crossfire before they even approached the building." ”

"Don't stop, keep attacking!" Hearing that the assault team's attack was thwarted, I couldn't help but become a little impatient.

"Captain Oleg is organizing a second assault team, preparing to attack again." Speaking of this, Shedelikov paused and continued: "Comrade division commander. I think we need heavy weapons. Otherwise, no amount of assault force, under the cover of any firepower, will launch an attack on the building where the enemy is entrenched, and it will be in vain. ”

"I've sent you tanks." I specifically told him, "Wait until the tankmen arrive." You go and sue them. Let them use tank guns to blow up all enemy fire points and cover our infantry to break through the buildings. ”

"Understood, Comrade Division Commander. I'm going to go to the commander of the tank detachment and ask them to come and assist us in the attack. If we run into enemy armored vehicles later, our tanks can easily wipe them all out. "Sederikov's reaction was quite fast, I just mentioned the tank detachment, and he has already thought about how to use this unit in the future.

Hearing the dense sound of gunfire coming from the settlement, I walked back to the commander of the cannon company and said to him: "Comrade company commander, take two cannons and follow me to the settlement." Let's show the enemy what a bayonet on a cannon is! ”

The company commander hurriedly called the nearby soldiers and assisted the soldiers of the two artillery positions to drag the artillery into the residential area. On the way, the commander of the artillery company asked me curiously: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what is a bayonet on a cannon? ”

I pointed to the light cannon in front and explained to the artillery company commander: "Comrade company commander, you see, we pushed these two guns under the enemy's nose and fired, that is, we put bayonets on the cannons. ”

After hearing this, the company commander looked suddenly enlightened, and hurriedly urged the soldiers in front: "Hey, I said comrades, soldiers, move quickly, the infantry in front is still waiting for our artillery support." ”

We walked along the dirt road into the settlement, and there were our soldiers standing guard next to the buildings on the side of the road, indicating that this place had been occupied by our troops, and we did not have to worry about enemy bullets suddenly flying from the buildings on both sides.

When I got to the first intersection, I saw that the three tanks I had just sent in were all parked in place. My nose was crooked, and I rushed over and struck the tank with the butt of my submachine gun. With my knock, the hatch of the tank turret opened, and out of it came the commander of the tank crew.

As soon as I saw him, I was furious and asked, "I said tank crew, why didn't you stop and not advance?" You know, our infantry is attacking the enemy's buildings with their flesh and blood in front, and there are huge casualties every minute, why don't you go to their aid? ”

The tank soldier pointed to the front and said helplessly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, look. ”

I went around to the front of the tank and looked around, and I felt that I was wrong with the tankmen, because there were enemy barricades and two destroyed armored vehicles on the road, which blocked the whole road so tightly that the tanks really couldn't move forward.

Since the tanks could not be counted on, we simply pinned our hopes for fire support on the artillery battery. Dozens of us worked together to lift two cannons through the obstacle zone and continue to push forward.

After walking more than 100 meters, I saw several windows of a building directly opposite, and German troops were shooting wildly below. As for the attacking fighters of our army, the large army was pressed to the ground by the dense fire, and some of the remaining people hid on the sides of the buildings, or behind the bunkers of the soldiers' bodies, to avoid the enemy's fire.

With such a close distance, and the German soldiers leaning out of the window with impunity, only a few sharpshooters with good marksmanship could take them out. But the attacking warriors have only touched the guns for a few days, and it is very good to be able to calmly shoot bullets on the battlefield, but only God knows where these bullets go.

I hurriedly instructed the artillery company commander: "Comrade company commander, just mount the guns here and fire at the enemy's firepower." ”

The commander of the artillery company readily agreed, and immediately ordered his men to set up the guns and personally measure the shooting of Zhu Yuan. After the two guns were in place, the artillery company commander shouted loudly: "Target, the window on the second floor of the building in front of you, load high-explosive shells." ”

When the artilleryman reported to him in a loud voice: "Report to the company commander, reloaded!" ”

Without hesitation, he slammed his raised right hand downwards and shouted, "Fire!" ”

With two loud bangs, the corpses of the Germans, which were blurred by the shells, fell from the upper floors along with the broken masonry and fell heavily to the ground. The fire in the enemy's buildings has weakened considerably. The commando, who was originally suppressed by the firepower and could not move, took the opportunity to get up from the ground and rushed to the building with a shout. (To be continued......)