Struggle in Soviet Russia

Rudki, an important town in the southwest of Lviv Oblast, the winding Transnistria flows from here to the southeast, dividing the Eastern Carpathians and Lviv into two.

On the first day of the war, at 5:40 in the morning, a German assault team attacked the checkpoint of the Shermanovo Bridge on the Transnistria near Rudki. The guards stationed at the checkpoint, A total of 47 soldiers of the Internal Guards were killed in battle after nearly two hours of resistance. However, the Soviet magnate who was in charge of commanding this checkpoint force detonated the explosives preset under the bridge before the outpost was captured, breaking the entire bridge from it.

Unfortunately, the explosives buried by the Soviet army were not powerful enough, and only a gap of no more than six meters wide was exploded on the bridge. Fortunately, the German army, which came round and round from Rudki, was built from the border area. They interspersed in the cracks of, their combat intention is to use rapid interspersing and detour to go to the rear of the Soviet border troops. Therefore, the troops that came with them lacked pontoon troops and were unable to repair them in a very short period of time. The gap in the bridge.

But the problem with the Soviet side is that no one knows the situation of the Shermanovo Bridge, the air force has not carried out any reconnaissance, and the reconnaissance from the ground only knows that a small group of German troops have appeared near Rudki, so it is done. The judgement is that the Shermanovo Bridge has been lost.

When Victor led the urgently assembled troops to Rudki, it was already half past one in the afternoon. At this time, there were already German troops cruising in the suburbs of Rudki, but the formed German troops had not yet appeared. , And most importantly, no trace of the German mechanized unit was found.

On the one hand, Victor asked Rudki’s police to evacuate the residents of the town, while setting up defenses in the city, at the same time, he arranged for investigators to conduct battlefield reconnaissance in the direction of the Transnistria. In the end, the investigators brought him a sigh of news. The Shermanovo Bridge was blown up, but the German army was about to repair it. On the opposite bank of the Transnistria, a well-established German army was waiting. Cross the river.

Of course, the sacrifice of the guards guarding the bridge cannot be said to be meaningless, at least they delayed the advancement of the German troops for several hours.

Rudki is a small city with a population of less than 40,000. It is located on a high ground on the north bank of the Transnistria, and behind it, as far as Lviv, there is a plain on the plain.

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A powerful explosion blew up the streets of the city, and a low-rise residential building was lifted off the entire roof. Amidst the dust, one could vaguely hear the heartbreaking cry of women and the depressed sobbing of men.

Although the General Police Department has issued an evacuation order and the city radio has continued to broadcast for more than an hour, there are still a large number of residents who are lucky. They are unwilling to leave their homes, let alone leaving the city that is about to be devoured by war.

Similar to the situation in Lviv, more than half of Rudki’s residents are Poles, and the proportion of Jews is also large. In their view, this is a German-Russian war and has nothing to do with them. . But cruel facts will soon tell them that in the minds of Germans, Poles, especially Jews, are not as high-ranked as Slavs. In Hitler’s Eastern Plan, Slavs were slaves, while Jews and Poles It needs to be slaughtered clean.

At Rudki Railway Station, Victor was standing under a birch tree, looking from a distance at the platform where a raging fire was tens of meters away. It was a truck that transported coal. The place of shipment was Stalino, and the destination was It is Warsaw. Yes, if the war does not break out today, this train has entered the German-controlled area, but now, it has been blown up by German planes.

In the sky overhead, it seems that the German fighter planes that are specifically responsible for attacking the railway station are still whizzing and circling. From time to time, one or two planes will dive down and shoot with machine guns in the direction of the station warehouse. The billowing smoke fills the air. The library was ignited.

In Rudki, Victor relied on the city, with the railway station in the south of the city and the cavalry heating plant in the southwest as tentacles, and set up two defensive lines to block the German advance in the direction of Yavorov. And his regiment headquarters is set up in the agricultural school in the urban area.

Throughout the afternoon, Rudki did not have a large-scale conflict. Only a few small groups of German troops tentatively advanced towards the city. After the exchange of fire with the Soviet army, they quickly retreated. There is no doubt that the German army should still be busy crossing the river, or waiting for the follow-up troops to arrive. Those small units are only here to investigate.

Now, it was getting late, and Victor's plan was to destroy the railway from Rudki to Lviv as much as possible before the German army launched a formal offensive.

When the last setting sun in the western horizon also sank to the horizon, the German fighter planes hovering in the sky finally retreated. The gray-headed Varenka drove the jeep out of the collapsed waiting room and parked beside Victor.

The roof of the Jeep was broken, a big hole was opened, and the cabin was covered with dust, which seemed very embarrassing. Varenka was also dusty, and there was still some blood on the sideburns.

Victor didn't care about the dust on the back seat. He got into the car directly, handed a handkerchief to Varenka, pointed to his sideburns, and reminded Varenka to wipe the blood on his forehead.

"Comrade Captain," Varenka asked hesitantly, wiping his forehead with a handkerchief, "will there be troops to support us?"

Victor glanced at him and said, "There will be."

This is a lie. He is very clear in his heart that no one will come to support him, at least until the battle in the direction of Yavorov is won, no one will support him, then, in the direction of Yavorov. Is it possible to win the battle? He did not hold any hope.

He had seen the map in front of Vlasov, and although he had not heard of the detailed combat plan, if nothing else, Vlasov’s purpose was to block the German army from the direction of Yavorov. Wolf's assault. As for the battle in Rudki's direction, as long as Victor's side is not defeated and collapsed, no one will come to support him.

Of course, Victor can also hope that the 159th Infantry Division is fighting on the border. Their combat position is on the west side of Rudki. The two sides are less than 40 kilometers apart. But the problem is that the 159th Infantry Division will also suffer heavy losses if they If you retreat backwards, it means that the defense in this direction has collapsed, and German troops will flood from the border fortification area.

Therefore, the current combat situation in the border area is similar to the shape of a "┌". The "丨" is the German infiltration attack in the direction of Rudki. Victor needs to block the German attack here and protect the small outburst of the Soviet army. The right wing of the Ministry.

After hearing Victor's answer, Varenka was obviously more energetic. He started the jeep and drove towards the city.

For Victor, he didn't intend to deceive his little follower. The reality is that even if he tells Varenka the truth, it has no practical meaning other than making him more uneasy.

The jeep did not turn on the headlights, and drove into Rudki without any lights under the cover of night. This small city is now like a dead place, without any anger, but in fact, in every building in the city, there are The guarded soldiers.

In order to avoid German shelling and air raids, the regiment headquarters was set up in an underground warehouse on the campus. This warehouse was originally used to store seeds and the like, but has now been completely emptied and set up as a command post.

When Victor walked into the command post, the buzzing sound of the generator when it was running suddenly filled his ear drums. He rubbed his ears and walked straight to the huge wooden table.

A map was placed on the wooden table, and some drawing utensils were thrown on it, looking a little messy.

Victor simply tidied up all the miscellaneous things, and was about to greet Varenka to get some food. A communicator had already brought a piece of paper and handed it over. The report said it was the latest battle situation conveyed by the 21st Tank Division.

Today, there are two radio stations in Victor’s regiment. One is used to communicate with the regiment’s subordinate units, and the other is used to communicate with Vlasov’s troops. The 21st Tank Division is a member of the 4th Mechanized Army. The army, the entire 4th Mechanized Army has three divisions, namely the 8th and 21st Tank Divisions, and the 81st Mechanized Cavalry Division.

According to Vlasov’s deployment, the 21st Tank Division is rushing towards Yavorov. It is known as the closest mechanized unit to Victor.

Victor took the paper and looked at it from beginning to end. According to the record, the vanguard of the 21st Tank Division has established contact with the 41st Infantry Division. However, the situation there is very bad. The German forces have broken through the outer defenses of the fortified area and formed an encirclement of the middle defense line.

In order to reverse the situation, they received an order to launch an offensive against the German forces that had achieved a breakthrough and expel them from the fortification area that the 41st Infantry Division was responsible for. Taking into account the actual situation, in order to ensure the safety of the right wing, the military requested Victor must hold on to Rudki and keep in touch with the military at all times.

After reading the content on the paper, Victor's lips twitched, and then he said to the correspondent: "Reply to them, saying that I was nailed to Rudd before the last person died in the battle..."

Before he finished speaking, he heard the noise of the rumbling sound penetrating the generator and reverberating throughout the basement.

Throwing the paper on the table casually, Victor turned and walked towards the basement entrance.

Outside the basement, under the cover of night, the night sky in the southwest has been reddened by fire, explosions and gunshots rang together. That was the direction where the "Cavalry Army Heating Plant" was located, and the Germans even launched an attack there overnight.