Red Moscow

"There is such a possibility." Ponejielin said to Kirillov: "Kirilov, you send two more reconnaissance teams to the location of the prisoner-of-war camp. It is best to get close to reconnaissance and find out what happened. Something happened."

"Well, no problem." Kirillov nodded and said, "In fact, there has always been a reconnaissance team, which is not far from the prisoner-of-war camp. Case."

"I'm afraid it's not easy to find out what's going on in the prisoner-of-war camp." Ponegerin had been in the prisoner-of-war camp before, so he naturally knew that it was heavily guarded and it was very difficult for scouts to get close, let alone sneak into the prisoner-of-war camp. Go find out what's going on inside. He specifically reminded Kirillov: "Let the scouts pay attention to safety, and don't take your own life for a small reconnaissance."

  Pornegelin's consideration is correct. The purpose of scouts going deep behind the enemy is to find out the deployment of the enemy's troops and provide effective information for the commander when formulating combat plans. But if something unexpected happened in order to figure out the situation in a prisoner of war camp, it would not be worth the loss.

   "Don't worry, Deputy Commander." Kirillov nodded, as if he had listened to Ponejielin's words, "I will let them pay attention to safety."

  The first thing Ponegerin did when he returned to the headquarters was to report to Sokov about launching a prisoner-of-war camp in the enemy-occupied area.

   After hearing this, Sokov couldn't help frowning. He walked to the wall and looked up at the map hanging on it in a daze, as if he was thinking about something.

  Ponejelin, who was standing beside him, keenly noticed that Sokov was staring at the location of the prisoner-of-war camp, and he must be thinking about something related to the prisoner-of-war camp.

   "Comrade Deputy Commander." When Sokov looked away from the map, he looked at Ponejielin and asked, "Tell me, how about we send someone to liberate the prisoner-of-war camp?"

   "What, send people behind the enemy lines to liberate the prisoner-of-war camp?" Pornejelin asked in surprise after hearing this: "Is this possible?"

"Yes, Comrade Commander." Sidolin, who had just walked over, happened to hear the conversation between Sokov and Ponejielin, and echoed: "Go deep into the enemy's rear and liberate a prisoner-of-war camp. Isn't it too risky?"

"I think we can try." Sokov pointed to the map and said to the two: "Look, the prisoner-of-war camp is located five kilometers away from the 3rd Infantry Division, and only eight kilometers away from the 211th Infantry Division. After our people have rescued the commanders and fighters in the prisoner-of-war camp, they can reach any division's defense zone in the shortest possible time."

   Regarding Sokov's statement, neither Pornejelin nor Sidolin immediately expressed their opinion, but stared at the location of the prisoner-of-war camp, imitating Sokov's way of thinking about it seriously.

  After an unknown period of time, Ponegerin said: "Comrade Commander, although your plan is risky, it has the possibility of success. I think you can give it a try."

Seeing that Ponegerin agreed to Sukov's plan, Sidolin, who wanted to raise objections, swallowed the words that came to his lips, but asked following the meaning of the two: "I don't know which branch you plan to send? Troops, to carry out this rescue mission?"

   "How about the 120th Guards Division?" Ponegerin looked at Sokov and asked, "They haven't participated in combat for a long time. I think the commanders and fighters may have lost their composure long ago."

   "Chief of Staff, call Major General Nikitin and ask him to come to my headquarters."

  Ten minutes later, Nikitin, commander of the 120th Guards Division, appeared in the headquarters. After raising his hand to salute Sokov and the others, he asked tentatively, "Comrade Commander, you asked me to come here. Is there any combat mission?"

Sokov turned his head and glanced at Ponejielin beside him, and said with a smile: "Comrade Deputy Commander, it seems that our General Nikitin's intuition is quite good. Before we even spoke, he knew that we had a combat mission." Assign it to him."

   "Comrade Commander, you don't know that friendly forces have been fighting the enemy non-stop recently, while our troops can only sit on the sidelines and watch the excitement. The soldiers are all emotional."

   "I think you are the one with emotions." Sokov joked, and then got down to business: "I called you here today, and I do have an important task that I will entrust to you to complete."

  Hearing that a mission was entrusted to his troops, Nikitin immediately straightened his back and said to Sokov, "Comrade Commander, please give the order. I will definitely complete the mission you have assigned."

Sokov picked up the explaining stick leaning against the wall, pointed to a point on the map, and said to Nikitin: "General Nikitin, there is a German prisoner-of-war camp at this location, in which more than two thousand people were detained. The prisoners of the army. Your task is to rescue them and bring them back to our army's defense area safely."

   After seeing the position on the map clearly, Nikitin said with some surprise: "Comrade Commander, we still have to pass through the enemy's defense line. It seems that this is a tough battle."

"I'm not asking you to attack, but to attack." Sokov tapped twice on the map with his explaining stick, "You didn't see a gap of two kilometers wide in the enemy's line of defense. , your troops can pass through here and go deep into the enemy's rear."

  Hearing Sokov say that there was a two-kilometer gap in the enemy's defense line, Nikitin hurriedly took a closer look and found that it was really the case. He suddenly had a bold idea in his mind: "Comrade Commander, why don't we infiltrate through that gap, and then launch an attack from the enemy's rear?"

"General Nikitin, we are not yet fully prepared to attack." Sokov also had similar considerations, but he thought that even if he temporarily seized individual defense areas of the German army, it would be very difficult to defend if the opponent launched a counterattack. of. Now that his own troops are short of soldiers, there is no need to fight this kind of war of attrition with the Germans, so he has to make it clear to Nikitin, lest the other party seize the German positions on a whim: "In addition, our troops passed by In the long-term battle, the lack of personnel is very serious, and it is an unwise choice to rashly attack the enemy with superior forces."

  Infiltrating through the gap in the enemy's direction was indeed a very tempting thing for Nikitin. He could even easily capture part of the German defense area and push the front line into the depth of the enemy's defense. But after hearing what Sokov said, he immediately realized that his thinking was too superficial. He only thought about how to capture the enemy's defense zone, but he didn't think about how to defend it.

   "I understand, Comrade Commander." Nikitin assured Sokov: "We will try not to disturb the enemy when we penetrate into the enemy's defensive zone."

"Yes." Sukov nodded in satisfaction at Nikitin's statement, and continued: "The mission of your division is to liberate this prisoner-of-war camp, rescue all the prisoners of war held in it, and bring them back to our army's camp safely. Defense area. There are two routes for you to retreat, one is to retreat to the defense area of ​​the 3rd Infantry Division, and the other is to retreat to the defense area of ​​the 211th Infantry Division."

"If there is no need to attack the enemy's defense zone, so many troops will not be needed." Nikitin waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and said thoughtfully: "I think it is enough to send a regiment to carry out the mission. "

"If you want to infiltrate through the gaps in the German army's defense joints without disturbing the enemy, then you can't send too many troops." Sokov said: "I think the strength of a regiment should be enough to liberate a prisoner-of-war camp." gone."

  After Nikitin returned to his headquarters, he immediately summoned several regiment leaders under him and conveyed to them the combat order issued by Sokov.

After Nikitin delivered the order, Colonel Dimitri, the head of the 334th regiment, spoke first: "Comrade commander, I don't understand, since we have all penetrated through the enemy's defense gap, why don't we take the enemy's position by the way?" Woolen cloth?"

"The reason is simple," Nikitin explained: "If we capture the enemy's position, it means that we have driven a wedge in the enemy's defense zone. In order to hold this salient, we must invest a large number of troops. But now our actual situation is that all the troops are short of soldiers. This means that even if we occupy the enemy's defensive positions, it may be difficult to hold them, and it will also consume precious reserves."

   Dimitri was a little disappointed when he learned that he could not capture the enemy's position. He then asked: "So which troops are you going to send to carry out this mission?"

   "Comrade Colonel," Nikitin said, looking at Dimitri, "I intend to send your regiment to carry out this task. I wonder if you would like to?"

"Yes, of course I am willing." After not participating in the battle for such a long time, Dimitri felt that he was getting rusty, and now it was finally his turn for a combat mission. If he didn't agree quickly, he would be killed by the other two. The regiment snatched them away, and when they returned to the regiment, the soldiers would definitely complain in private.

"Colonel Dimitri." Seeing that Dimitri was willing to carry out this task, Nikitin explained to him the next matter: "After you capture the prisoner-of-war camp and successfully rescue the prisoners of our army, immediately Take them to the defense area of ​​the 3rd or 211th Infantry Division, no matter which direction you go, there will be our people to meet you."

  Dimitri took his 334th regiment, took advantage of the night to enter the gap at the junction of the German defense line, and quickly penetrated to the vicinity of the prisoner-of-war camp. After arriving at the offensive position, he did not launch an offensive hastily, but sent scouts to reconnaissance to find out the configuration of the German troops in the prisoner-of-war camp.

  At one o'clock in the morning, the scouts sent returned and handed over the scouted information to Dimitri.

Dimitri said to several battalion commanders under his command: "comrades battalion commander, the deployment of the German troops in the prisoner-of-war camp has been clarified. The enemy has a sandbag fortification with a machine gun in the direction of the main entrance. The four camps At each corner, there is a watchtower with sentries and searchlights on duty. The camp is surrounded by double-layer barbed wire, and there are patrolling soldiers in the corridor in the middle.”

  A battalion commander first asked for instructions: "Comrade commander, what should we do?"

   "In order to quickly take down the prisoner-of-war camp and prevent the guards from escaping." Dimitri said: "I plan to attack the prisoner-of-war camp from all sides at the same time."

"What, attack from all sides?" Hearing Dimitri, the chief of staff of the regiment quickly reminded him: "Comrade commander, to capture the prisoner-of-war camp, we must choose a main attack direction, and then assist in several other directions." .”

Unexpectedly, Dimitri glared at him and said angrily: "The scouts said that there are only fifty or sixty German soldiers in the camp, but we have more than one thousand and two hundred people. Trample them all to death. You all immediately return to your respective units and quietly approach the prisoner-of-war camp. As soon as you see my signal, attack immediately."

   "What signal?" asked the regimental chief of staff.

   "A flare."

   "Ah, a flare?" The chief of staff of the regiment said in shock: "Shouldn't a flare be fired, why should a flare be fired?"

   "The reason is very simple," Dimitri said: "After the flare is lifted into the air, it can not only serve as our offensive target, but also illuminate the way for our commanders and fighters to attack."

   "Okay then." The chief of staff of the regiment said helplessly: "Comrade commander, just as you said, use flares as a signal to attack."

   There seems to be no problem with the plan, but when it is implemented, there are always various uncertain factors.

  When the commanders and fighters of the 334th regiment approached the prisoner-of-war camp quietly, the sentry in the southern watchtower seemed to hear something. He tried his best to open his eyes wide and looked in the direction of the sound, but it was so dark in the distance that he couldn't see anything clearly. He quickly turned the searchlight around again, and shined it outside the camp, trying to figure out what was making the noise.

  But the endless darkness swallowed more than half of the beam of the searchlight, and he still couldn't see clearly what was making the sound that worried him. In desperation, he could only raise the flare gun in his hand and fired a flare into the air, hoping to see clearly what was outside by the light of the flare.

  Dmitry never dreamed that he was going to use flares as a signal to attack, but before the troops approached the prisoner-of-war camp, the German sentry fired a flare first.

  Seeing the signal flare that was lifted into the air, the commanders and fighters who were approaching the prisoner-of-war camp thought that the attack had begun, and they didn't care whether they would expose their figures, so they straightened up and rushed towards the prisoner-of-war camp shouting. A good sneak attack turned into a tough battle because of a flare fired by a German sentinel.

  Machine guns were placed on the watchtowers. When the sentinels heard someone rushing towards the prisoner-of-war camp, they turned their guns and pulled the trigger in the direction of the sound.

  At this moment, the commanders and fighters closest to the prisoner-of-war camp were all seventy to eighty meters away. The sudden sound of machine gun fire caught them off guard. Some soldiers who unfortunately broke into the firepower net were shot and fell to the ground.

The chief of staff of the regiment saw that the machine guns on the enemy's watchtower were firing, and the firepower blocked the attacking road of the troops. He quickly asked Dimitri for instructions: "The enemy's machine guns are very powerful, and they have tightly blocked the way forward for our army. If you don't Get rid of it as soon as possible, I'm afraid we will pay a lot of casualties."

  If it was in another place, Dimitri would definitely order the mortar to fire without any explanation, and directly bombard these watchtowers of the German army. But now their mission is to liberate the prisoner-of-war camp. He wonders if the shelling at night will accidentally injure the comrades in the prisoner-of-war camp.

So after hesitating for a long time, Dimitri gritted his molars and said to the chief of staff: "After ordering the soldiers to approach, use grenades to blow up the enemy's watchtower. Unless it is absolutely necessary, you must not fire, so as not to accidentally injure your own people." .”