Red Moscow

  Chapter 1513 Advance to the Dnieper River (7)

Klemenchug's defenses were not tight. For an army that suddenly appeared outside the city, the German officers and soldiers on duty did not even have any questions. According to their thinking, such an army of thousands of people can only The troops withdrawn from the front line may be full of anger from top to bottom. If they are interrogated at this time, a beating is considered light. If they encounter angry people, they may be shot directly.

  Because of the low vigilance of the defenders, the troops of the 98th Guards Division entered the city smoothly. As soon as he entered the city, Chuvashov summoned several regiment leaders under him, assigned them a combat area, and asked them to lead their respective troops to seize strategic points in the city and strive to occupy the entire city in the shortest possible time. city.

  Chuvashov called Shamrikh to him and said to him: "Comrade Major, your regiment performed very well in the battle to rescue the captured commanders."

   "Thank you, Commander, for your compliment." Hearing Chuvashov say this to himself, Shamrich immediately realized that the other party had an important task to entrust to him, and quickly said, "I don't know what combat mission you plan to assign to our regiment."

"Comrade Major," Chuvashov said to Shamrikh, "the combat mission given to our division by the superiors is not only to capture the city, but also to occupy the bridge over the Dnieper River and ensure that the main force can establish a strong landing field on the right bank. .Whether you can completely capture the bridge is related to the success or failure of our division's battle."

  Shamrich replied understandingly: "Comrade commander, I understand. We want to occupy the bridge first before the Germans see us through."

   "Although the city of Klemenchug is not big, there is at least five or six kilometers away from here to the Dnieper River Bridge." Chuvashov asked back, "Do you have any way to reach the bridge quickly?"

   "Mr. Comrade, I naturally have my own way, so don't worry."

  After returning to the army, Shamrikh called Shapovalenko and Yakuda to him, and conveyed the order given by Chuvashov to them.

After Shamrich finished speaking, Shapovalenko frowned and said: "Comrade commander, we are five or six kilometers away from the bridge. How can we quickly pass through the city and reach the bridge before the Germans notice?" What about above?"

   Not only Shapovalenko is worried, but Yakuta is also worried: "Yes, we have no means of transportation and can only rely on walking. Even without the Germans' obstruction, we will need at least an hour to reach the Dnieper River Bridge."

  Unexpectedly, Shamrih laughed: "Political commissar, first battalion commander, who said we don't have transportation." He pointed at the bus driving on the street with his hand, "Isn't that our transportation?"

  Shapovalenko asked inexplicably: "Comrade head, you mean, we will take a bus to the bridge?"

   "That's right, that's what I mean."

   "But, but..." Shapovalenko said with some concern: "We forcibly requisitioned these vehicles, isn't there a risk of exposure?"

   "How could it be?" Shamrich patted the German uniform on his body, and said confidently: "Did you forget that we are wearing German uniforms now?"

"Okay then," Shapovalenko felt a lot more at ease after hearing what Shamrich said, "Then let's use our identity as a German to drive the passengers out of the car, and then send at least one company of troops to , ride to the bridge, and occupy the bridge before the Germans react."

  With a plan, Shamrih handed over the next operation to the first battalion in Yakuda. As for Yakuta, it did its part to hand over this task to the second company. Who made the second company commander speak German so that the Germans couldn't tell the truth from the fake.

   After receiving the order, the commander of the second company immediately led a group of soldiers to stand in the middle of the road and directly intercept the passing bus.

  After the first bus was stopped, the second company commander and several soldiers got on the bus and yelled at the driver: "We have requisitioned this bus, let everyone get off immediately."

  Because the second company commander shouted in German, neither the driver nor the passengers could understand, so a soldier next to him repeated it in Russian. Seeing the passengers in the car lingering and refusing to get out of the car, the second company commander had no choice but to wink at the soldiers and tell them to drive all the passengers out of the car. The passengers who were driven out of the car were all daring to be angry and dare not speak out, they could only cast hatred eyes on the soldiers who drove them away.

  As soon as the carriage was vacated, the soldiers waiting under the carriage rushed into the carriage. Due to the limited number of seats, only one row of fighters came up, and the rest of the fighters could only stay under the car, preparing to walk to the Dnieper River Bridge.

Seeing that the carriage was full, the second company commander looked out of the carriage and saw that the passengers who had been driven out had all reached the side of the street, so he bent down and approached the driver, and said in a low voice: "Comrade, we are the Soviet Army, Please take us to the bridge over the Dnieper River."

  Hearing the German officer around him speak such fluent Russian, the driver was taken aback for a moment, and then he understood what was going on. However, he still asked cautiously: "Comrade commander, with only this few of you, can you do it?"

"We are only the vanguard, and the large forces have already entered the city." In order to let the driver drive with peace of mind, the second company commander gave him a reassurance first: "We were ordered to seize the bridge, so that the Germans would not jump over the wall in a hurry and take the Dnieper River to the city." bridges blown up."

When the driver nodded his car, he saw a bus approaching in the distance, and quickly turned his head to the second company commander: "Comrade commander, the car coming ahead is my friend driving, do you need to requisition his car? "

  The second company commander saw it, and someone gave him a pillow if he really wanted to doze off. If there is one more car, it means that more troops can be used to occupy the bridge at the same time. He nodded vigorously and replied: "That's really great."

   After getting the consent of the second company commander, the driver quickly flashed his headlights a few times and honked his horn twice. The oncoming bus, seeing the flashing lights and hearing the sudden sound of the horn, realized that something might have happened to the bus that was about to pass by him, so he quickly slowed down.

   When he saw that his friend's car was full of German soldiers, the driver couldn't help frowning. But in order to find out what was going on, he still parked the car next to the other party's car, worried that the German standing next to his friend could understand Russian, so he could only ask briefly: "Voronin, what happened?" something wrong?"

The driver named Voronin looked into the opposite bus and saw a lot of people inside, so he quickly said to him: "Gasang, quickly let the passengers in your bus get off the bus, the Germans want to requisition the bus." your vehicle."

Hearing what Voronin said, not only the faces of the passengers in the car changed drastically, but even the driver named Kasang showed a trace of anger on his face. He didn't expect his friend to kneel down and lick the Germans like this. a shame.

   Just when Kasang was about to attack, he saw Voronin winking at him, and realized that the other party might have some intentions in doing so. Then he turned to the passengers in the carriage and said, "Residents, since the Germans want to requisition this car, please get off."

  After Kasang finished speaking, the conductor pressed the button to open the door and opened the door.

  After the door was opened, only a few passengers who were worried about causing trouble got out of the car, but most of them still sat in their original positions and even cast contemptuous glances at Kasang.

  "Residents, the Germans want to requisition my car." Seeing that the passengers were unwilling to get off the car, Kasang raised his voice again and said, "Please get off the car quickly, and don't cause trouble for yourself."

  The second company commander standing next to Voronin saw this, and quickly leaned out half of his body from the window, waved at a platoon leader who was on the side of the road, and signaled him to take someone to another bus.

  After Kasang’s car was filled with soldiers, he realized that these officers and soldiers in German uniforms were actually Soviet commanders in disguise, and he immediately became excited. He turned the front of the car quickly, followed Voronin's car, and sped towards the Dnieper Bridge.

   Standing in the distance, Chuvashov couldn't help being stunned when he saw the soldiers of the 296th Regiment using their fake German identity to collect vehicles on the street swaggeringly. After a while, he turned to Uzakov and said, "Comrade Chief of Staff, I really didn't expect that the 296th regiment could use this method to quickly rush to the Dnieper River Bridge."

Uzakov smiled and replied: "Comrade commander, don't forget that many commanders of the 296th Regiment are old subordinates of the commander. They must have learned a lot from the commander for so long. No, they know how to use their fake identities to collect vehicles on the street unscrupulously in order to rush to the designated place as soon as possible."

"Comrade Commander," Uzakov was reminded by the behavior of the Shamrich Regiment, and he quickly suggested to Chuvashov: "Although Klemenchug is not big, even without the obstruction of the Germans, It will take at least an hour or two for us to occupy the entire city, and if there are a large number of transport vehicles, we can shorten the time to occupy the city."

   Chuvashov agreed with Uzakov's proposal: "I remember that there is a bus station about a kilometer to the west of us. I believe there will be enough transportation there."

   "Comrade Commander," Dobrushin, the deputy division commander, lost his composure. He took the initiative to say to Chuvashov, "Why don't I take a troop to occupy the bus station?"

   "Yes." Chuvashov felt that since the establishment of the Guards Division, Dobrushin seemed to have no chance to perform. If things go on like this, I'm afraid the other party can only stand still in the position of deputy division commander. Therefore, he agreed to his request very simply: "I will give you a company of troops to seize the bus station in the west."

The defenders did not pay enough attention to the large number of troops that suddenly appeared in the city. They knew that the battle is still going on in the Poltava area, which is almost hundreds of kilometers away from here. Unless the Russians Put on your wings, otherwise it is absolutely impossible to appear near Klemenchug.

   It was because of the paralysis of the German army that the 98th Guards Division entered the city without any danger. As long as the troops led by Dobrushin successfully captured the bus station, they would have enough means of transportation to deliver the troops to every corner of the city in a short time.

  But what happened next greatly exceeded everyone's expectations. Dobrushin led the troops to seize the bus station, which didn't look like a difficult task. After all, the German army hadn't noticed that the Soviet army had entered the city until now, and there was only one squad of German troops in the bus station. .

   But just as Dobrushin was leading people into the bus station, an accident happened. A German corporal standing guard at the door saw that a second lieutenant officer's pistol was actually hanging on the right side of his belt in the coming team, so he took advantage of the officer passing by and reminded him: "Mr. second lieutenant, Your pistol is misplaced."

  But the second lieutenant walked past him as if he didn't hear him. The corporal hurriedly followed him for two steps, and reminded the second lieutenant again: "Mr. second lieutenant, your pistol is hung in the wrong place." It stands to reason that after the other party listened to what he said, he would reply with a word or two, but the officer But he turned his head and smiled at the German corporal, and continued to walk forward.

  The German corporal immediately realized that something was wrong, took a step back quickly, pulled the bolt of the rifle, and shouted loudly at the same time: "Don't move, raise your hands!"

  If a German corporal is facing several or even a dozen people, maybe he can still deter the opponent. But now he is facing more than a hundred Soviet commanders and fighters, even if he has three heads and six arms, he is not an opponent. A soldier came up behind him, covered his mouth with his hand, cut his neck with a dagger, and then let go.

  The German corporal stared wide-eyed at the troops passing in front of him, covered the bleeding wound with his hands, and wanted to speak, but his trachea had been severed, so he could only make some inhuman voices. After a short dozen seconds, he fell limply on the ground, and the blood from the wound stained the ground red.

  But what happened at the door was discovered by a German soldier not far away. While blowing his throat, he pulled the bolt and shot at the Soviet soldiers entering the station. The bullet flew into the dense crowd, and immediately one unlucky soldier fell to the ground.

  Hearing the sudden sound of gunfire, Dobrushin was still at a loss: "What's going on, why did the Germans shoot?"

  The company commander leading the team hurriedly explained to him: "Comrade deputy division commander, we were discovered by the enemy."

   "We were discovered by the enemy, how is this possible?" Dobrushin hid behind a bus and asked the company commander, "How did the enemy discover us?"

The company commander shook his head towards a second lieutenant who was shooting at the German army and the position of the holster on his waist, and said to Dobrushin with a wry smile: "Comrade deputy division commander, this is a platoon officer under me. Long, the position of the pistol at the waist is wrong. The Germans' pistols are always on the left side of the waist, but he pinned it on the right side, so the enemy can see his flaws."

  (end of this chapter)