Red Moscow

Chapter 2496

 Next, Sokov continued to lower his head and record the story told by Gavrilov.

When Gavrilov mentioned that he had a dispute with Fomin, the regimental political commissar, the day before the war broke out, Sokov, who was recording, suddenly became interested because of similar content, he had appeared in the movie "The Defense of Moscow" I've heard it before, and now I just want to verify whether the movie can restore the real scene.

I only heard Gavrilov say: "That day I went to see Comrade Fomin, the regimental political commissar, and told me that the fortifications had not been completed on time, and that among the fortifications where artillery was deployed, not a single artillery was placed. The comrade said disapprovingly: "The reason why the fortifications could not be completed was entirely because the superiors did not pay attention to the matter at all. They had not thought about using these fortifications at all, so whether they could be completed on time did not mean anything to them at all." .'…”

As soon as Gavrilov said this, Asya suddenly interrupted and asked: "Comrade Major, I don't understand, since the defense fortifications were built according to the orders of superiors, why can't they be completed on time, but the superiors are indifferent to it? "

"The reason is very simple." Gavrilov looked at Asiya and said bitterly: "The superiors feel that these fortifications are of no use at all. Spending so much manpower and material resources to build fortifications is simply a waste. Because In their minds, defense is left to the enemy, and our troops just need to learn to attack."

“Oh my god, there are no fortifications. Once a fight breaks out, our troops will suffer heavy losses.”

"Asia, you are right. Without strong defenses, we will suffer huge losses when facing the enemy's attack." Gavrilov continued: "If those fortifications where artillery are placed can Put up a few cannons and we can hold on to the fortress longer."

"Go on, Comrade Major." Sokov said to Gavrilov: "It will be very helpful for me to write in the future if you describe your conversation with Political Commissar Fomin in detail."

Gavrilov nodded and continued: "After the two of us chatted for a while, Political Commissar Fomin suddenly criticized me severely, saying that I spread false information in the army that the Germans might launch an attack on us, and even prepared At the division commanders’ meeting a few days later, I was severely criticized and even punished accordingly.”

“Wait, Comrade Major,” Asiya interrupted Gavrilov again: “Commissar Fomin is your partner, right? Why do I feel that he is lecturing you in a superior tone?”

This time before Gavrilov could explain, Sokov took the initiative and said: "Asia, you are mistaken. Comrade Fomin is not a regiment political commissar, but a regiment-level political commissar."

 The regiment political commissar and the regiment-level political commissar look similar, but they are two completely different things. The political commissar of a regiment is the political commissar of a regiment. The regiment-level political commissar was the level of Soviet political workers at that time. They usually served as political commissars or military commissars at the division, army or even group army levels. Fumin, the regiment-level political commissar, was the 6th Infantry Division stationed in the fortress. The political commissar of the division, but due to some misleading information, many people thought that he was just the regimental political commissar of the 84th Regiment of the 6th Infantry Division.

As a soldier, Asya naturally understood the ranks and positions in the army. After hearing Sokov say that Fomin was the regimental political commissar, she closed her eyes and prepared to continue listening to Gavrilov's stories in the fortress. .

But Sokov was thinking that he had seen Fomin in different looks in the movies "The Battle of Moscow" and "The Battle of the Fortress". His favorite was the actor Pavel Derevyanko in "The Battle of the Fortress". The image of Fu Ming portrayed in "The Battle of the Fortress".

After Gavrilov was rescued from the prisoner of war camp and appointed as the head of the prisoner of war camp by Sokov, he collected a lot of information about the defense of the Brest Fortress, so in his next story In the film, something happened that Sokov didn’t know: “…at 3:15 in the morning on June 22, the fierce sound of artillery broke the tranquility of the night. Countless artillery shells suddenly flew from the west bank of the Bug River to the other bank, and the Germans fired at We went to war without declaring it, and the Soviet-German war broke out.

The Germans concentrated twelve artillery battalions on the opposite bank of the Brest Fortress and conducted a bombardment that lasted for an hour and a half. Luftwaffe dive bombers also bombed the Brest Fortress. All important facilities in the fortress were subjected to continuous shelling for 10 minutes every 4 minutes. When our commanders and soldiers woke up from the shock, many warehouses and important facilities had been destroyed by German artillery fire.

 After the artillery bombardment, it took the German 45th Infantry Division only 4 minutes to cross the Bug River; then, the engineer assault force also took only 4 minutes to reach the east bank of the Bug River. At this time, the commanders and fighters in the fortress had not yet reacted, let alone entered the combat position. In this way, the German commandos quickly passed through the Terespol Fortress and the Volyn Fortress and attacked the central fortress.

 Fortunately, the two-meter-thick city wall was not easy to collapse, and the German commandos were blocked from the central fortress. At this time, the commanders and fighters in the central fortress had recovered from the initial panic, quickly prepared for battle, and attacked decisively, driving out the leading German troops who tried to enter the central fortress. "

The picture of the Soviet counterattack immediately appeared in Sokov's mind. First, in "The Defense of Moscow", Gavrilov opened the door and rushed out of the building with many commanders and soldiers who had not even had time to put on military uniforms. , catching the enemy by surprise and driving them from the central fortress. Then, there was another scene of "The Decisive Battle of the Fortress". Under the leadership of the commander, countless soldiers counterattacked towards the rushing Germans. Many soldiers grabbed the benches around them because they had no weapons. , rushed towards the enemy without hesitation and started hand-to-hand combat with them.

Two scenes appeared alternately in Sokov's mind. While feeling his blood boiling, he couldn't help but secretly think, if he had been in the Brest Fortress at that time, could he have commanded the troops to defend the fortress? Soon, he came to the final answer. If he couldn't hold it, he definitely couldn't hold it. Not to mention that the defenders in the fortress were seriously short of ammunition. Even if the Germans didn't lay siege, they would be trapped without food and water. The defenders were trapped to death.

“Comrade General,” Gavrilov saw Sokov staring at the roof in a daze, so he asked tentatively: “Are you still listening to me?”

"Yes, Comrade Major, I am listening to you." Sokov hurriedly said in a covert manner: "But before you continue, I will briefly introduce to you what I know about the strength of the German army, so that you can You can understand what kind of enemy you were fighting at that time."

"Please tell me, Comrade General." Gavrilov said: "Although I collected a lot of information about the defense of the fortress in the past few months, I have never found any corresponding information about the strength of the German army at that time. "

"In order for the Germans to seize the Brest Fortress as quickly as possible, the German high command issued an attack order to the 45th Infantry Division." Sokov said: "They equipped the 45th Infantry with 12 artillery units; they also assigned 12 artillery units from the 4th Chemical Division The Special Regiment sent 9 six-bore rocket launcher units and equipped several giant mortars, which can fire shells weighing several tons and are specially used to destroy strong fortresses. At the same time, the German Air Force provided the 45th Infantry Division with Air fire support; the 34th Infantry Division and the 31st Infantry Division under the 12th Army carried out auxiliary attacks from the flanks of the fortress; the 2nd Armored Group commanded by Guderian provided all necessary support for the 45th Infantry Division.        received sufficient The 45th Infantry Division, equipped with troops and firepower, formulated a detailed and thorough attack plan:

  The 1st Battalion of the 135th Infantry Regiment stormed the Kobrin Fortress from the eastern wall;

The 3rd Battalion of the 135th Infantry Regiment attacked the Terespol Fortress and captured the bridge connecting the central fortress and the Terespol Gate;

 The 1st Battalion of the 130th Infantry Regiment attacked Warren Fortress and captured the bridge and Holm Gate connecting the central fortress;

The 3rd Battalion of the 130th Infantry Regiment detoured back to the east of the fortress to block any reinforcements that might come from the east. "

After listening to Sokov's introduction, Gavrilov nodded and continued to tell what he knew: "The German troops that were repulsed by our army quickly launched attacks on their respective targets, thus allowing the four The forts were isolated from each other. However, our commanders and fighters in each fort took advantage of the completion of the German encirclement to evacuate some of their family members and wounded soldiers from the fort.

 As far as I know, when the German army completed the siege of the fortress at noon on the 22nd, there were still more than 4,000 our commanders and fighters in the fortress who continued to fight.

On June 22, each fort withstood multiple fierce attacks by the German army. However, with the tenacious resistance of our commanders and fighters, the German attack was contained. Our commanders and fighters did not allow any fort to be completely occupied by the enemy.

With the support of tanks, the 1st Battalion of the German 135th Infantry Regiment once broke through the north gate of the central fortress, and two German tanks rushed into the center of the fortress. However, the defenders in the fortress used firepower to separate the German infantry and tanks, and then used anti-tank guns and cluster grenades to destroy the two tanks that broke into the central fortress.

Although the various fortresses had been cut off by the German army, the defenders in Terespol and Volyn Castle discovered that the Germans were attacking the central fortress, so they took the initiative to launch fortifications against the Germans to contain their forces and make them They were unable to concentrate all their efforts on the central fortress.

Seeing that their flanks were under attack, the Germans promptly changed their battle plan, temporarily gave up the attack on the central fortress, and turned around to attack Terespol and Volyn fortresses. Under the crazy attack of the German army, most of the two fortresses were occupied by the German army by nightfall. The 300 defenders of Terespol Fortress retreated to the defenses in the west of the fortress and continued to fight; In Fort Warren were students from the medical battalion of the 28th Infantry Military Hospital and the 84th Infantry Regiment Junior Commander Training School. When the Germans stormed the fort, most of the commanders and fighters were either killed or captured, but the remaining However, dozens of commanders and fighters took advantage of their familiarity with the terrain to continue fighting the enemy in the fortress. "

"Comrade Major, didn't you try to contact your superiors?" Asiya didn't know about the defense battle of Brest Fortress, so she asked in surprise: "If the superiors knew that the fortress was attacked by the Germans, they might send troops Come to reinforce you, thereby reducing the defensive pressure on the fortress.”

Hearing Asiya's question, Gavrilov couldn't help but smile bitterly: "Asiya, do you think we didn't try to get in touch with our superiors? To tell you the truth, shortly after the battle started, we used the radio to We kept calling, but unfortunately, our operator shouted from morning to night until his voice became hoarse, and we still didn’t get any response.”

"Yes, the major is right." Sokov said: "According to the information I have, from the beginning of the battle in the early morning, the defenders in the fortress tried every means to contact their superiors through the radio. There was no reply. They didn’t know that at that time, large-scale fighting broke out along our entire western border. The German armored group had advanced dozens of kilometers into our country. The entire Western Front was in chaos. Even the troops in Moscow The Soviet General Staff was unable to get in touch with the Western Front Command, and naturally no one paid attention to the Brest Fortress hanging alone by the Bug River."

"Yes, Comrade General, you are right." Gavrilov nodded and said: "According to what I learned later, this is indeed the case. Although the defenders in our four fortresses are not very close to each other. It was impossible to make contact and there was no unified command, but the commanders in each fort spontaneously led the soldiers to resist. Except for the medical battalion and students in the Warren fort, the other three forts all retained considerable combat effectiveness. "

Although Sokov clearly knew the deployment of troops in the fortresses at that time based on later information, he still pretended to be curious and asked: "Comrade Major, do you know the distribution of the garrison in the fortresses at that time?"

"I know." Gavrilov nodded and said, "I later learned about this information from people familiar with the matter."

 “Then tell me quickly and listen.”

“At that time, the central fort was the place with the most surviving defenders, but the defenders here were divided into three parts by the German army:

The first part gathered at the Terespol Gate, consisting of the 17th Red Banner Brest Border Guard Corps and the 333rd Regiment of the 6th Infantry Division, led by Lieutenant Kirzhevatov of the Border Guards and Potapó of the 333rd Regiment. Lieutenant Husband commanded;

 The second part gathered at the Holm Gate and was the 84th Infantry Regiment of the 6th Infantry Division, commanded by the regimental political commissar Fumin;

The third section, guarding the Brest Gate to the north of the central fortress, was a number of artillery and NKVD warriors, consisting of Lieutenants Nikolai Chetchabakov, Lieutenants Anatoly Vinogoradov and Bu Commander of the Political Department of the Leicester Fortress Feotier Kuchkarov.

That night, the commanders of the central fortress elected Captain Zubachev as the supreme commander of the fortress guarding force, and the regimental political commissar Fumin as his deputy, and issued the "Combat Order No. 1", requiring all personnel in the central fortress to The officers and soldiers resolutely defended the fortress. "

 While Gavrilov was telling the story, Asya was counting the numbers of the troops with her fingers. When Gavrilov's words came to an end, she said with emotion: "Comrade Major, there are really many troops in the fortress."

"Asia, don't just count the numbers of the troops." Sokov interrupted: "Even though there are so many numbers, there may be only a few people left in some troops, and they don't have the strength to stand alone."

 (End of this chapter)