Red Moscow

  Chapter 1491 The battle on the other side

   "Since Khokhlov has established a landing field on the opposite bank," Lunev interjected and asked, "Do you want to order them to attack the enemy?"

   "I think it's okay." Sokov agreed: "Let Khokhlov leave one of his troops to stand firm on the landing site, and the rest of the troops will go down the river to help the 84th Division cross the river."

"Comrade Commander, please see if you can send engineers to build a pontoon bridge for them, so that the weapons, ammunition and military supplies needed by the 182nd Division can be continuously transported to the other side of the river." Sameko suggested to Sokov : "If necessary, arrange for the tank brigade to cross the river from here."

  Sokov stared at the map for a while, then slowly shook his head and said, "I don't think it's necessary."

   "Why?" Sameko asked in amazement.

"Comrade Chief of Staff, look at the terrain here." Sokov tapped the area where the 182nd Division crossed the river with a red and blue pencil: "There are forests and swamps everywhere. In addition, the crossing point is too far away from us. After all, it is difficult. Instead of building a bridge there, we might as well wait for the 84th Division to cross the river and occupy the opposite bank, and build a bridge at their landing field, which will be more convenient for the main force to cross the river.”

After hearing Sokov's words, Sameko had given up on the idea of ​​erecting a pontoon bridge in the 182nd Division's defense area. He quickly asked Sokov for instructions: "Then should I order the engineering troops to prepare and wait for the 84th Division to establish a landing field on the opposite bank? Just build a pontoon immediately?"

   "Comrade Chief of Staff, it is absolutely necessary to erect a floating bridge." Sokov said to Sameko: "But we still have an important task that requires the cooperation of engineers."

   "What task?"

"The bank on the other side of the Muza River is too steep. Even if our tanks cross the river, they will not be able to pass." Sokov said: "The engineers must blow up a few gaps in the river bank so that our tanks can move forward. .”

"Okay, Comrade Commander." Sameko nodded and said, "I will immediately notify the Chief of Engineering Corps and ask him to prepare for the blasting and bridge construction. As soon as the 84th Division completes the crossing operation, the bridge construction will officially begin .”

When Sameko called the director of the engineering corps to assign tasks, Sokov picked up the high-frequency phone on the table, connected to the commander of the front army, and reported to the chief of staff Zakharov who answered the phone: "The chief of staff of the front army Comrade, I am Sokov. I am reporting to you that the vanguard of the 182nd Division has successfully landed on the opposite bank, found no trace of the enemy nearby, and established a landing field."

"Good job, Comrade Sokov." Zakharov was still very happy to learn that the 182nd Division had successfully smuggled, and he said to Sokov: "I will tell General Konev the good news. , If you need anything, please call me."

Sokov felt that with his current strength, he might not be able to take down the enemy's fortress, so he took the opportunity to say: "Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front Army, I hope to get the support of the air force when our army attacks the fortress. "

  "Air Force support?" Zakharov didn't expect Sokov to make such a request, and asked in surprise, "What do you want the Air Force to do?"

   "Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front Army, our artillery is limited. I am afraid that the power of the artillery fire is not enough to destroy the German fortifications. Therefore, I hope that the Air Force can help bomb the enemy's positions and destroy more of the enemy's effective forces."

   "Okay." After figuring out why Sokov needed the cooperation of the air force, Zakharov readily agreed: "I will report this to Comrade Commander and provide air support for your troops when they attack."

  ...

After Khokhlov crossed the Muza River with all his troops, he left a battalion to stand firm on the landing site, while the main force of the division went down the river to attack the German positions along the river, clearing the way for the 84th Division, which was responsible for the frontal attack. .

  The German army's defensive direction was on the river, and they never dreamed that a Soviet army would emerge from the flanks, and they were caught off guard. In addition, when the battle started, many German soldiers were still sleeping. After they were awakened by gunshots and explosions, it would take a while to figure out what happened.

   When they rushed out of the shelter with their weapons in hand, the Soviet army had already rushed in front of them. The German officers and soldiers who were not ready for battle and lost their organizational structure became lambs waiting to be slaughtered in the face of the flood of Soviet soldiers.

   But when the 182nd Division advanced to only five kilometers away from the main attack position of the 84th Division, they encountered unexpected troubles. The fortress commander of the fortress of Meriefa, having learned that the Soviet army rushed down from the upper reaches of the Muza River, fearing that his direction along the river would be completely destroyed, stopped an armored force and launched an attack from the flank of the 182nd Division .

  Although after a fierce battle, the anti-tank force of the 182nd Division destroyed most of the tanks, but also because of such a delay, the panicked German army got a chance to breathe.

   Khokhlov contacted and organized two attacks, but both were repulsed by German troops reinforced by armored forces.

When Khokhlov was about to organize the third attack, Colonel Shepilov, the political commissar, stopped him in time: "Comrade commander, the enemy's position is equipped with tanks, and we are only light infantry. If we rashly attack the enemy If not, I worry that unnecessary losses will be caused.”

   "So what should we do?"

Shepilov gave Khokhlov an idea and said: "Why don't you send a telegram to the Army Group Command and report the situation we are encountering to Comrade Commander. By the way, ask him if he can provide us with Artillery support."

"It makes sense, it makes sense. I will arrange for the radio operator to send a report to the commander and report the situation here to him in detail." Khokhlov felt that Shepilov's proposal was very reasonable, so he called the radio operator officer and dictated to him a telegram sent to Army Group Headquarters.

   After reading the telegram sent by Khokhlov, Sokov raised his head and said to Sameko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, immediately order the First Artillery Division to go out to the bank of the Muza River and find a suitable location to establish an artillery position."

  Hearing the order from Sokov, Sameko immediately guessed his intentions, but just to be on the safe side, he still asked: "Comrade Commander, are you planning to provide artillery support for the 182nd Division?"

"That's right." Sokov said in a positive tone: "Colonel Khokhlov and the others don't have any heavy weapons. If the enemy's defensive positions have tanks or armored vehicles, it will be difficult for them to attack successfully. The division was deployed on the banks of the Muza River, and in addition to supporting the 182nd Division with artillery fire, it also planned to provide artillery cover for the 84th Division when they crossed the river."

   "Comrade Commander, since the enemy has already perceived our intentions, I suggest that the 84th Division be put into battle in advance, so that the Germans can be caught off guard."

   "Yes." To Sameko's suggestion, Sokov readily agreed: "Let Major General Fomenko transfer his troops to the river and prepare to cross the river."

   "Is it illegal immigration, or forced immigration?"

"At this time, Comrade Chief of Staff, do you think the Germans are still deaf and blind?" Sokov scratched the back of his head and said, "Their defenders along the river must have entered the first level of alert. As long as General Fomenko As soon as our troops crossed the river, they would intercept them with artillery or machine gun fire."

  Sokov also told Sameko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, remember to tell the artillery to destroy as many German positions along the river as possible, and try to reduce the casualties of the troops crossing the river."

  As Sokov expected, as soon as the 84th Division crossed the river, the artillery from the Merefa Fortress began to shell the river. All of a sudden, water columns tens of meters high rose into the sky. Some unlucky ships were directly hit by the shells, and the people and the ship were blown to pieces; while some ships were overturned by the water waves caused by the explosion, and all the commanders and fighters on board fell into the water. For a while, the river was full of officers and fighters who fell into the water and bodies drifted with the current.

  The commanders and fighters who fell into the water naturally would not sit still. They paddled the water desperately, trying to swim to the opposite bank as soon as possible. But after all, only a small number of people swam to the shore. Most of the soldiers did not swim far, and because of the heavy equipment on their backs, they sank to the bottom of the cold river together with their equipment.

   This situation continued until Soviet bombers appeared above the battlefield, bombarding the German fortifications on the ground and the soldiers running around.

  When the German artillery was heavily bombed by Soviet bombers, they stopped shelling the water of the Muza River. Seeing that the most threatening shelling stopped, Fomenko quickly organized his troops to launch a new attack again.

  In this attack, although the machine guns on the other side were still firing continuously, for Fomenko, such firepower did not have much impact on his crossing troops at all. A 75mm cannon regiment under the First Artillery Division was firing non-stop towards the opposite bank, destroying those exposed German firepower points.

  When the vanguard troops crossing the river boarded the opposite bank, the engineering troops directly under the group army arrived. They loaded box after box of explosives onto the boat and prepared to blast the embankment on the opposite bank so that after the erection of the pontoon bridge was completed, the tanks passing through the Muza River could pass through the channel they blasted and continue to advance in depth to the German defenses. .

  After the engineers in charge of the blasting passage set off, the bridge-building engineers also arrived. They began to use the materials they had prepared to build a pontoon bridge on the Muza River for tanks to pass through.

  Because the Germans were being bombed and shelled, it was impossible to observe what was happening on the embankment. So that after the Soviet army built the pontoon bridge, it immediately transported a large number of troops and equipment over.

  The 84th Division went upstream and rushed to join the 182nd Division that was going downstream.

Originally, the German army that blocked the 182nd Division fought hard. Now that they saw a new force of the Soviet army coming behind them, how could they dare to fight? Throwing away the weapons in their hands, they ran towards the direction of the Meriefa fortress. go.

  After the 182nd Division joined forces with the 84th Division who came to meet them, they immediately turned around and headed south, heading directly towards the direction of the Meriefa Fortress, trying to follow the retreating enemy into their territory.

  But what they didn't expect was that the German army who had abandoned their position quickly hid in the fortifications outside the fortress, fought tenaciously, and even repelled the advancing Soviet vanguard. The 182nd Division lost two companies, and a battalion of the 84th Division suffered more than half of its casualties.

  The fortifications of the German army were all made of reinforced concrete, and the small-caliber artillery bombarded them, leaving only white marks. Although the commanders and fighters of the two divisions carried rockets, these weapons were intended to be used against German tanks. I always felt that it was a bit too wasteful to use them to attack the enemy's fortifications or firepower points.

After understanding the situation through the telegrams sent by the two division commanders, Sameko reported to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, in the telegrams, the two division commanders mentioned that the troops encountered the enemy's strong fortifications and therefore The speed of attack has slowed down."

   "Didn't they carry rocket launchers?" Sokov asked back: "That weapon is perfect for dealing with the enemy's fortifications. Why don't they use it?"

  When Sameko heard Sokov's question, he couldn't help showing an embarrassed expression on his face: "The two division commanders said that they don't have many rockets left, so they dare not use them casually."

"It's nonsense, it's nonsense." Hearing what Sameko relayed, Sokov suddenly became angry: "I have told them more than once that on the battlefield, the life of each of our soldiers is precious. As long as we can To reduce the casualties of the troops, no matter how much ammunition is consumed."

   "I understand, I will immediately tell the two teachers what you mean."

"No, Comrade Chief of Staff, you don't understand anything." Sokov said dumbfoundedly: "Since they said that there are not many rockets, then run a transport team and send them a batch as soon as possible. As long as they have Only after you have enough rockets can you dare to use the bazooka to destroy the enemy's fortifications."

   An hour later, Fomenko's 84th Division and Khokhlov's 182nd Division both received rockets sent by the transport team sent by Sokov. According to Sokov's order, they used rockets to destroy the solid German fortifications. In this way, the Germans will be in trouble. One after another, the firepower points that were originally a great threat to the Soviet army, under the care of the bazooka, are constantly being destroyed by people and weapons.

  The battle continued until the afternoon, and all the tanks of the tank brigade crossed the Muza River and assembled behind the two divisions. At this time, another new order was issued: all infantry give way to the tanks, and let the tanks destroy the enemy's fortifications.

  Receiving this order from Sokov, Fomenko became a little anxious. He said to Khokhlov: "This is really a hell, our division is fighting smoothly, why should we give way to the tank brigade?"

"That's right, Comrade General." Khokhlov agreed with Fomenko: "Since we have enough rockets, our soldiers have used rockets to destroy the enemy's fortifications. It took only two or three days before. In less than three hours, we cleared out the enemies in the fortifications."

   "Comrade Colonel," Fomenko just complained, but he still knew in his heart that there must be a reason why Sokov issued this order, and he must obey it unconditionally. He raised his hand and patted Khokhlov's shoulder twice, heaved a long sigh, and said, "According to the regulations, it's just an order from the superior. No matter whether it is correct or not, it must be carried out unconditionally."

  (end of this chapter)