Burning Moscow

52 Night Attack (Part 1)

The first German attack was repelled by us, but within an hour, they launched a new attack.

At that time, Kroshkov and I were talking about the battle just now in the shelter. He asked me very humbly: “Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I didn’t expect that the individual bunker you let the soldiers dig is a trap for capturing prisoners. But I have a question. How many can you catch with these dozens of traps? captive?”

“Actually, I asked the soldiers to dig such traps, not to catch prisoners, but to destroy the enemy more.”

“Huh?” My answer made him a little puzzled, “How can you be so sure in advance that the enemy will obediently jump into the bunker we dug?”

“When the enemy attacks, in order to avoid our intensive firepower, we must find a place to hide. Seeing so many unmanned bunkers, they will naturally jump in to hide the bullets. But what they didn’t expect was that this bunker would be dug. It’s so deep, it becomes a turtle in the urn as soon as it jumps in, and it can only be slaughtered by us.”

At this point, the phone on the table rang, and Kroshkov picked up the microphone. After hearing a few words, he said to the other party: “I see, let the soldiers prepare for battle.” Putting down the microphone, he told me. Said: “The German devils have attacked again.”

I hurried to the observation hole, raised the telescope, and observed the situation on the battlefield outside.

In this offensive, the Germans were more cautious than just now. Tanks rushed ahead and opened the way, while infantry fell far behind. It seems that they are still adopting the old tactics. First, they used tank assaults to tear open a gap in our army’s line of defense. The infantry then followed up and occupied the position to expand the breach. But it must not be admitted that this offensive method is very effective, because the Soviet defense positions are usually a line, lack or no depth configuration, so often the German forces break through one of them, and then the entire defense line collapses.

Facing the rumbling German tanks, Kroshkov was extremely calm. After all, after the 316 division was pulled out here, it has fought several battles. It already has a wealth of combat experience, and the treatment of German tanks is no longer like the early days of the war. So helpless. Ten anti-tank guns are issued to each company, which are specially designed to deal with tanks.

He said to me: “I went to the position and commanded the soldiers to fight the tanks.” Then he opened the curtain and ran out.

“Wait a minute.” I hurriedly stopped him and told him: “The German infantry is still far away. Let the soldiers fight tanks first. If the enemy’s tanks advance too fast, let them pass through our line of defense, and then Intercept the infantry behind with intense firepower. Do you understand?”

“What about the German tanks that rushed behind us?” Kroshkov asked puzzledly.

“For those tanks without infantry cover, you only need to send a few soldiers to throw a few Molotov cocktails from behind, and those big guys will become piles of burning scrap iron.”

“Understood, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel. I know what to do.” After speaking, he trot all the way out of the shelter.

I was in the binoculars, watching a tank moving in the forefront suddenly stopped, and then suddenly stopped, and then the entire body of the car emitted thick smoke. Seeing all this, I knew that the soldiers hit the target with anti-tank guns.

Seeing that one of the tanks was shot, the rest of the tanks slowed down one after another and fired on our positions as they marched. I counted the tanks outside. In addition to the ones that were destroyed, there were 13 more. It is estimated that the dozens of anti-tank guns could not stand it. So I picked up the phone on the table, shook the handle a few times, and said loudly to the operator: “Pick me the artillery company.” As soon as the phone was connected, I said loudly, “Is it Gonzazin? I am Ou. Lieutenant Colonel Xia Ningna, the artillery company was about to open fire and attack the German tanks with armor-piercing shells. The action must be fast.” After speaking, I hung up the phone and went to the observation hole to observe the fighting outside.

Within a short while, the artillery shells of the antiaircraft artillery company roared and fell into the attacking queue of the German tanks. Some directly hit the target, blasting the tank’s turret or breaking the track. But more shells fell on the open ground, and piles of mud rose into the sky.

There were too many German tanks. Although seven or eight were destroyed in succession, the remaining tanks passed our trenches and rushed to the rear. One of them actually rushed through the trench just a dozen meters away from my shelter. Seeing this, I quickly put down my binoculars and ran out with a submachine gun.

As soon as the tank rushed through the trench, a soldier jumped out of the trench, chased it, and threw two Molotov cocktails. The first one was thrown off the side and landed on the ground on the left side of the tank. The bottle was smashed and the liquid inside was scattered all over the floor. The second bottle was ready to hit the tank’s turret, and the body was immediately surrounded by a fire. The soldier froze for a moment, and saw that the enemy’s tank was already burning, before turning around and running back.

I watched with satisfaction as the young soldier who had killed a German tank rushed towards me, and planned to wait for him to enter the trench and praise him a few words. Seeing that he could jump into the trench in two steps, suddenly his body leaned back and then fell straight in front of me. I was taken aback at first, and when I looked up, I realized that it was shot by a tanker who crawled out of the tank that was destroyed just now. I hurriedly picked up the submachine gun in my hand and swept it at him. The tank soldier first dropped the submachine gun in his hand, then covered his chest and fell from the tank and fell heavily to the ground.

“German Devil’s infantry is coming up.” I suddenly heard someone shouting so loudly beside me. I turned my head to see that when we were doing our best to deal with the tank, the enemy’s infantry had already unknowingly approached our position.

I aimed at a few German soldiers who were charging up, slammed the trigger, and shot out a row of bullets. Seeing that I opened fire, the soldiers around also opened fire at the enemy.

We are shooting, and the attacking German soldiers are also fighting back. A bullet whizzed and wiped my scalp and flew over. Even though I felt cold on the top of my head, I reached out and touched it. It turned out that the bullet had knocked the cotton cap away, and immediately scared me out of cold sweat. It was so dangerous! If the bullet is lower, if I want to survive, I can only imagine.

I held the submachine gun and fired again, until all the bullets in the magazine were shot out. Then he squatted down and picked up the hat that had been punched a hole, bent over and trot all the way back to the shelter. As soon as I entered the room, I grabbed the phone on the table, called the antiaircraft artillery company, and ordered Gonzazin to immediately change the high-explosive bombs and bombard the German infantry.

With the support of the artillery, we repelled the German attack again. In addition to destroying 14 tanks, nearly two hundred infantrymen were killed and wounded. However, the casualties of our army were not small. The original battalion of five hundred men only left two hundred men.

If you want to defend such an important position, only two hundred people can’t hold it. So while reporting the battle to Division Commander Panfilov, I very directly asked him for reinforcements. He hesitated on the phone for a long time before reluctantly answering me, saying that if the group army or the front army sends him a reserve team, he will give priority to replenishing my battalion.

Although I didn’t get a satisfactory answer, I also knew that Panfilov was powerless. In order to regain this position, he used even the most elite guard battalion. Now beside him, it is estimated that there are only a few guards besides a group of staff officers and political workers.

Kroshkov stood by and watched me finish the call, and then asked with concern: “How about it, can the division send reinforcements to my battalion?”

I shook my head and said, “Without reinforcements, we can only rely on ourselves for everything.”

“Do you have any good plans?” He asked me again, unknowingly changing his name to “you”.

I walked to the observation hole, looked at the battlefield still filled with gunpowder smoke, and wondered how to use this effective force in my hand to defend this important position for as long as possible.

“Do you have a good idea?” Kroshkov asked me again.

When he asked, I suddenly remembered several real-time strategy games that later generations had played. When fighting a computer, if you just blindly defend it, then the computer’s troops will continue to attack, as if its strength is inexhaustible; and if you launch an attack on its rear, even if it’s just a small army sneak attack, it They would stop the offensive stupidly, and then transfer all the troops back to guard their base.

Thinking of this, my thinking suddenly became clear: Yes! We can’t always attack the Germans. We are defending, and it is time to try our offense. So I said to Kroshkov: “Comrade Level 1 Instructor I have figured out a way. If we want to defend our position, we can’t stay in the trenches and simply defend. We should take the initiative to attack the enemy. .”

When I said this, he was taken aback. He hurriedly retorted: “Comrade lieutenant colonel, your idea is inappropriate. How many troops does the German army have? We have only a few people? And the German army has aircraft and artillery, and we only have one company of anti-aircraft artillery. If you use this force to attack, it will be no different from sending you to death.”

I smiled slightly and said, “Have I ever mentioned a frontal attack on the German army? My plan is to use the night to launch a night attack on the German army.”

“Night attack?!” He asked uneasy: “How much force do you need to put in?”

“We are not going to attack fortresses, but to sneak attacks, so we don’t need too much force. Thirty people are enough.”

“Who do you think is appropriate to direct this operation?”

“I proposed this plan, so I will personally direct this night attack.”

“No, you are the highest commander of the battalion. You can’t take this risk. Let me lead the team.” Kroshkov was afraid that I would be in danger, so he wanted to direct this operation for me.

“I am the top commander of the battalion, here I have the final say, you don’t have to fight with me.” In order to prevent Kroshkov from blocking my actions, I used my identity to suppress him.

“Yes.” He reluctantly agreed.

So, the plan for the German night attack was confirmed in a few words.