Bronnikov knew very well that his statement was pale and powerless, not to mention the commanders present, he could not even convince him. If the German Wehrmacht was besieging the factory, there might be some upright officers who would treat the captured wounded for humanitarian purposes. But now outside the factory is the SS, which is known for its brutality. If the wounded fall into their hands, they may not have any vitality.
Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, Captain Qiwen opposed: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, how can you leave our wounded to the enemy? Isn't this sending them to a dead end?"
"Captain Chiwen, these wounded men are our comrades. Do you think I am willing to let them fall into the hands of the Germans?" Bronnikov said with a serious expression: "Don't say that we have to carry out a breakthrough next time. Even if the enemy takes the initiative to give us a way out, it will take a long time for us to transfer them out without enough transportation."
Captain Qiwen also knew that Bronnikov's words made sense, but he still couldn't bear to leave hundreds of wounded men out. He asked with a lucky heart: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, can we have no other way?"
"No." Bronnikov shook his head and said, "If we want to successfully break out of the enemy's encirclement, we can only give up the wounded."
As soon as he finished speaking, the command post suddenly became extremely quiet. At this point, things were in a dilemma. Breaking through the wounded would definitely be a drag on the breaking force, and perhaps it would lead to the failure of the breaking operation; keeping them behind is equivalent to letting them die.
Just as everyone was in a dilemma, a wounded man lying on the stretcher spoke. He said with difficulty: "Dear commanders, if you want to break through, someone will definitely need to cut off the back cover. Why not hand over this task to our wounded man."
The wounded man who spoke was a lieutenant of the 25th Guards Division. His legs were broken by shells during the battle. Several soldiers under him lifted him off the battlefield with stretchers. Seeing that he was seriously injured, Bronnikov ignored him directly when he arranged the task. At this moment, he heard that he was willing to undertake this arduous task, and after pondering for a moment, he said, "Comrade Lieutenant, you are all seriously injured, how can you participate in the battle?"
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," the injured lieutenant looked at Bronnikov and smiled bitterly, saying, "We are all drags on the troops. If you bring us together, you may not be able to break through the German encirclement at all. But why not let us leave behind the back and block the enemy rushing up from behind, so that you can concentrate your efforts to break through from the front."
"But the seriously injured are all lying on the stretcher and unable to move," Captain Chiwen said with a frown: "How can they fight?"
"This is very simple," the lieutenant continued: "Put us in fortifications and give us a gun and a grenade. When the enemy rushed up, the gun was used to destroy the enemy; and the grenade was left to ourselves, and we would never let ourselves be captives of the Germans."
Bronnikov held the lieutenant's hand tightly, and after a long time he spoke, "Comrade Lieutenant, as long as we can successfully break through the siege, we will definitely avenge you."
Captain Chiwen waited for Bronnikov to finish speaking, and asked carefully: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, when will we break through?"
"We will carry out a breakout at four o'clock in the morning." Bronnikov looked at his watch and said to everyone indoors: "Although it was already dawn at that time, the Germans should still be sleeping, and we can catch them off guard. Also, when operating during the day, the troops will not be easily disbanded."
The breakout time will come soon.
In order not to be noticed too early by the enemy, after the breakout began, Bronnikov did not take the lead in using Captain Chiwen's tank company, but ordered the infantry to quietly approach the enemy's position, preparing to first kill the sentries on duty, and then quickly occupy the enemy's position.
However, when the infantry quietly approached the enemy's position, he was discovered by a sentry when he was more than 30 meters away. Seeing the sentry asking for warning, a Soviet soldier pulled the trigger without hesitation and knocked down the enemy's sentry with one shot. However, in the quiet early morning, the sudden gunfire sounded as shocking as a cannon.
Seeing that the target had been exposed, the commander of the team suddenly jumped up from the ground, raised his pistol just above his head, and shouted: "Brothers, follow me!"
Seeing the commander standing up first, the soldiers crawling forward also stood up from the ground, holding weapons, shouting "Ula" and rushing towards the enemy's position.
The Soviet army was moving quickly and the German army responded quickly. When the Soviet soldiers had just rushed to the edge of the trench and had not had time to jump down, the German army shouted and sporadic gunshots came from the position, and the officers and soldiers on both sides started a melee.
After a few minutes of melee, the Soviet army successfully occupied the first trench of the German army. When they were about to continue to expand their results, German tanks deployed not far away fired. The shells fell into the queue of Soviet commanders and soldiers and exploded. The soldiers near the explosion site were immediately blown away by air waves, but the remaining soldiers quickly approached the enemy tanks with the help of the cover of the craters and ruins.
Bronnikov, who was commanding the battle in the command post behind, saw that the enemy's tank had opened fire, quickly ordered Captain Qiwen: "Comrade Captain, it's your tank's turn to come on the field. You must destroy the enemy's tank as soon as possible and tear a gap in the enemy's defense line."
Four tanks of the Tank Company drove out from their hideout, stopped three or four hundred meters away from the German tank, adjusted the position of a muzzle, and opened fire at the other side. Because the fire was too hasty, only one of the four shells hit the target, blowing off the tracks on the side of the German tank.
Seeing that the four shells only broke the tracks of the German tanks, Captain Qiwen was so angry that he waved his fist and then ordered all the tanks: "Recharge again, you must destroy the enemy tanks this time."
Soon, the Soviet tanks that had been reloaded were aimed at the German tanks and fired. This time they had good luck, with four shots and three shots. The armor-piercing bombs caused the explosion of ammunition in the vehicle, and the turrets of the German tanks were blown up to the sky.
Shortly after the battle on the east side of the factory started, Tansen, who set up the command center in the west, received news. He quickly ordered the troops on the other three sides to attack the factory at the same time, trying to smash the Soviet army's breakthrough in this way.
However, the German army rushing into the factory was resisted by the seriously injured. However, the combat effectiveness of the seriously injured was not comparable to that of the healthy soldiers. The areas they defended were soon lost under the attack of the German army. However, at the last moment of their lives, the wounded still sounded the grenade without hesitation and died with the German army rushing up.
The seriously injured players' desperate fighting style frightened the German officers and soldiers who were trying to break through their positions. Every time the explosion sounded, the enemy would temporarily stop attacking, and wait until there was no movement in the front position, and then carefully launch a new attack.
Regarding the news that the German army rushed into the factory from three sides, some soldiers reported to Bronnikov in time: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the enemy attacked us from the north, west and south, and now they have rushed into the factory."
When Bronnikov heard the warrior's report, he nodded slightly and continued to observe the breakout battle on the east with his telescope. He said as usual: "I understand, report to me if there is a new situation."
The militia captain next to him saw Bronnikov's indifferent look and thought he had not heard the soldiers' reports clearly. He hurriedly approached him and said loudly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the enemy has rushed into the factory from north, west and south. Just by our hundreds of seriously injured people, they cannot be stopped."
"Comrade Captain," Bronnikov put down his telescope and turned his head to look at the militia captain, "What do you want me to do and send people to reinforce the wounded? If we do this, at best, it will only delay the loss of the position for a while, but the force we use to break through will be weakened, resulting in the failure of the breakthrough. We are now racing against time to see if we break through the enemy's defense first, or the enemy rushes to us first."
Hearing Bronnikov say this, the militia captain was silent. He thought for a moment and realized that Bronnikov was not exaggerating. At this moment, he sent troops to reinforce those places where they were attacked, and would definitely disperse their troops, resulting in insufficient assault power and unable to break through the enemy's defense line.
Seeing the enemy rushing into the factory step by step towards the temporary command post, Bronnikov was extremely anxious. But in order not to cause panic among the commanders and fighters, he still insisted on observing the breakthrough operation in the east. He thought to himself that fortunately, the factory was as big as a medium-sized city, and it would take some time for the enemy to rush to him. As long as the assault troops can break through the enemy's defense line before this, he still has a glimmer of hope.
The battle was at 6 o'clock in the morning, and a group of enemies rushed in from the south were less than two hundred meters away from Bronnikov's command post. Seeing this, the militia captain anxiously said to Bronnikov: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the enemy has rushed up. Let's leave here quickly, otherwise they will become prisoners of the enemy."
When Bronnikov saw the enemy appearing not far away, he felt panic, but he knew better that if he left with the command post, it would definitely affect the morale of the commanders and fighters. So he called a sergeant and told him, "Comrade Sergeant, have you seen the enemy rushing towards the south?"
"See it."
"I'll give you two classes of people, and you go and block them."
It would be impossible to block the German attack with two squads of troops on the open ground. However, because of shelling and bombing in the factory, there were bricks, stones and rubble everywhere, which was very beneficial to the defenders. The soldiers commanded by the sergeant rely on these terrain and fortifications to block the enemy who was twice as many as one.
The troops breaking through the front, under the cover of the Qiwen Tank Company, advanced forward bit by bit. Although soldiers were constantly shot and fell during the attack, the other commanders and soldiers turned a blind eye. They were determined to break through the enemy's defense line as soon as possible and jump out of the encirclement. As for the fallen comrades, they were handed over to the health officers behind for rescue.
When Qi Wen passed through the lookout hole in front of the tank and found that there was no enemy in front of him, he immediately realized that the breakthrough had been successful. He quickly opened the hatch of the turret and fired a white signal flare with a signal gun to inform Bronnikov that the enemy's defense line had been broken.
Seeing the white signal flare rising into the air, Bronnikov breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Thank God, we finally broke through the enemy's defense line." Then he ordered the remaining troops to move eastward immediately, jumping out of the enemy's encirclement from the gap torn by the assault forces.
Tansen was furious when he learned that the Soviet army had broken through his defense in the east. He called the regiment commander who was standing in the east and threatened the other party, saying, "I order you to stop the counterattack immediately, and must block the gap that the Russians torn open. If a Russian escapes, I will shoot you."
After receiving Tansen's order, the German regiment commander immediately mobilized two companies of troops to launch a counterattack, trying to block the breakthrough that was torn open by the Soviet army.
Seeing the German army flocking in, Captain Chiwen quickly ordered several other tanks: "Brothers, the Germans want to seal our breakthrough, don't be stingy with ammunition, and fight me hard, and make sure that our army breaks through smoothly."
The tank soldiers who received the order aimed at the German army with tank guns and coaxed them. The shells fell into the German army's ranks and exploded. From time to time, soldiers were blown into the air by the shells, or were knocked down by flying shrapnel. However, the remaining morale was still rushing forward fearlessly, trying to rush to the Soviet army as soon as possible and start a close battle with them.
Fortunately, Bronnikov rushed over at this moment with more than 300 soldiers. When he saw the enemy rushing towards the breakthrough, he quickly seized the advantageous terrain and used dense firepower to kill and injured the rushing enemies. The German army did not expect that so many Soviet troops would suddenly appear at the breakthrough, and a large area was knocked down by dense firepower, and the remaining soldiers immediately retreated like a tide.
Seeing the attacking enemy retreating, Bronnikov quickly stood up and shouted to the commanders and fighters lying on the left and right: "Brothers, the enemy has been defeated by us. Hurry up and rush out along the breakthrough and jump out of the enemy's encirclement as soon as possible."
Bronnikov ran with the soldiers for a while, and as he passed Captain Ziwen's tank, he stopped and slammed the tank's armor plate with the handle of the pistol, while shouting loudly: "Hey, Captain Ziwen!"
Captain Qiwen, who heard the sound of knocking outside, opened the hatch again and poked his head out: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what's the matter?"
"The troops that can be brought out from the factory have already rushed out, so you can keep up quickly."
Chapter completed!