"Oh, kill a German convoy carrying ammunition?" Sokov was not the first time he went to the battlefield. He naturally knew that the convoy carrying ammunition was destroyed. How big the movement would be at the scene. As long as a truck exploded, the surrounding vehicles would be affected. As for the soldiers escorting the car, they would probably be wiped out long ago. "Comrade Colonel, when this battle is over, you must remind me to award merits to Hollor and his team."
When Colonel Chuwashov learned that his subordinates could receive the medal, he naturally smiled: "Don't worry, Comrade Commander. Even if you don't let me remind you, I will apply for commendation for Sergeant Hollor and others when the battle is over."
Sokov's last call was to Lieutenant Colonel Goriachkin. Sokov felt that since the other party was his old subordinate, it was already common for him to carry out some sabotage operations behind the enemy. Putting him at the end might give him an unexpected surprise.
"Lt. Col. Goriakikin," Sokov asked straight to the point: "What kind of results did the team you sent have achieved?"
"Comrade Commander," Goriachkin said excitedly when he heard Sokov's voice: "I just received a telegram from the team and was about to report to you, but I didn't expect your call to come first."
After hearing what Lieutenant Colonel Goriachkin said, Sokov immediately realized that his guess was correct. The team sent by the other party had achieved considerable results, so he smiled and said, "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, don't keep it a secret, hurry up and talk about your situation."
"The person in charge of commanding the squad is Captain Grissa." Lieutenant Colonel Grissa knew that Grissa was a garrison platoon from Shimki and one of Sokov's earliest subordinates. The results he achieved must be satisfied with Sokov: "They were moving away from the 658th Regiment's defense line. Although their number was a little small, the results they achieved were quite good. They destroyed fifteen enemy tanks, armored vehicles and trucks of equal numbers, and killed more than 200 enemies?"
If another team reported such a battle report, Sokov would definitely think that the other party was lying about military information. But since the team was led by Grissa himself, it seems reasonable to achieve such a record. However, for the sake of safety, he still asked cautiously: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, are the situation you reported to be true?"
"It's true, it's totally true." According to convention, the troops must go through several ways to verify this battle. However, Lieutenant Colonel Goriachkin believed that he would not lie to him about military affairs, so he endorsed Grissa in front of Sokov: "Comrade Commander, I believe that the battle reports by Captain Grissa are all true. If you find something wrong afterwards, you can remove my post."
Sokov wrote down the statistics on paper and found that the best performer was Grissa's team; secondly, it was Sergeant Hollor's team. He stared at the content on the paper and thought silently in his mind: It seems that the longer his subordinates have been using, the tactics they used are gradually far from the previous dull tactics of the Soviet army, which caused the German commanders who thought they had mastered the Soviet army's tactics to suffer a great loss.
When he thought of the German commander, he couldn't help but think of the annihilated imperial division. Due to the appearance of his little butterfly, the 2nd SS Panzer Army, which participated in the attack on the city of Prokholovka, lacked an important imperial division, which reduced the pressure on the defenders who were defending the city a lot.
However, what made Sokov resentful was that because the German flag was not captured and the division commander Tansen was captured, even if the Imperial Division was basically wiped out, the unit would not be revoked by the German Command. On the contrary, they could re-organize the unit in the shortest time.
"Comrade Colonel," Sokov raised his head, and saw that Koida was staring at him intently, and he couldn't help asking him: "The Imperial Master was basically annihilated by us, but they did not catch their commander. Tell me, where would he run?"
"Comrade Commander, as far as I know, German commanders are very afraid of death." Koida said: "Taking the division-level command as an example, our division fingers are usually placed very close to the front, and the closest one is even only 300 meters. Not to mention the division fingers, even the regiment command post is usually more than ten or twenty kilometers away from the front. I think, Tansen, the commander of the imperial division, must have escaped early when he saw that the situation was not good."
"He saw the Imperial Master in danger, and it was entirely possible to escape early." Sokov frowned and said thoughtfully: "But where is he now?"
"I don't know." Although Koida is the division commander, his troops did not fight with the Imperial Division after all, and it is basically impossible to figure out Tansen's whereabouts. He replied carefully: "Maybe he was beaten to death in the battle."
"The Imperial Division is an elite German army. It was wiped out by us twice in a row. Even if the commanders of the division did not fall into our hands, it would probably be difficult." Sokov smiled faintly and said, "If I were Tansen, I might have committed suicide in shame, so as not to be embarrassed after returning to Berlin."
Sokov said this because he remembered that during the Battle of Kursk, General Sengel Ond Etlin, commander of the 17th Armored Division of the German Army, was ashamed of his shame because the tanks in his division were completely lost in the decisive battle of Prokorovka tanks. After returning to report the situation to Manstein, he shot himself outside the command cabin.
The Imperial Division is second among the SS divisions, second only to the Flag Guard Division, which can be said to be the face of the German army. But they were almost wiped out twice, which made the German senior executives feel sorry for it. In this way, even if Tansen escaped by chance, he would probably not have any good face to him.
Sokov guessed correctly. On the day the imperial army was destroyed, Tansen fled back to Manstein's headquarters. Unexpectedly, after Manstein heard the news that Tansen had arrived, he just said lightly to his adjutant: "Teacher Tansen must be tired. Find a place to arrange for him to rest. Remember, you must send more posts to ensure his safety."
The adjutant understood that Manstein did not see Tansen, just to leave face for the other party so as not to embarrass the two sides to meet. In addition, Manstein specifically mentioned that he should send more people to protect Tansen's safety, which was to suggest that he should put Tansen under house arrest and not allow him to leave until the Berlin command makes a punishment decision.
After Tansen found himself under house arrest, he made a big fuss, clamoring to see Manstein. But when he settled down, he said coldly: "Teacher Tansen, the marshal is deploying the attack on Prokhorovka City, and there is no time to see you. You can rest here. If you need anything, you can tell the guards who protect you, and they will provide you with the necessary help."
Tansen, who was under house arrest, could learn some of the situation outside the outside world from the soldiers who were taking care of him. He had already accepted his fate and was preparing to return to Berlin to be tried after the battle was over. Unexpectedly, during the day, he heard two guards chatting at the door: "Have you heard that? The troops of the Flag Guard Division had rushed into the city of Prokholovka. The Russians in the city suffered heavy losses and were retreating in a hurry."
"Is that true?" another guard exclaimed: "This means that the Flag Guard Division will be able to take Prokholovka City tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow?!" said the guard who was the first to speak disdain: "As the flag guard division rushed into the city, the Russians were already in chaos. Do you think they could still hold on until tomorrow in this situation? In my opinion, as soon as today's darkness, the Russians in Prokholovka will be completely wiped out."
As a commander who has participated in many battles, Tansen naturally understood that there were many exaggerated elements in what these guards said. Coupled with some rumors, the news that these people said was far from the actual situation. But when he thought that if his troops were not completely wiped out, then there would be his own imperial division in the troops attacking Prokholovka City at this moment.
Tansen thought that the head of state trusted himself, so he was appointed as the commander of the Imperial Division, and drew elite troops from all aspects to re-establish the Imperial Division. Who knew that he had not been a division commander for a long time, so he ruined the troops. Thinking of this, Tansen felt that he had no shame to return to Berlin, so he began to look for things in the house and was about to break up.
When the guards guarding Tansen came to deliver the meal when it was dark, they unexpectedly found Tansen hanging on the window frame. He hurriedly stepped forward and put the person down. He took a look at his breath and found that he had been dead for a long time.
The guard felt that this was a big deal and quickly notified Manstein's adjutant. After receiving the news, he hurried to the place where Tansen was placed under house arrest. Before entering the door, he asked the guard angrily: "What did he hang himself?"
"He tore the sheets to pieces and then rolled them into strips." The guard replied tremblingly, "He just hung his sheets on the window frames."
"Idiots, you are simply a bunch of idiots." The adjutant continued to curse: "If he wants to hang himself, he will definitely make a lot of noise. Why didn't you hear it?"
"Mr. Officer," the guard shook his head and replied, "we heard nothing outside the door."
The adjutant walked into the room and saw Tansen's body lying on the bed, with his hands folded in front of his chest. He suddenly looked like he was sleeping. The adjutant walked up and reached out to his nose first. He wished to think that Tansen would come back to life in the next moment. The guard quickly said, "Mr. Officer, we have checked, he is really dead."
After confirming Tansen's death, the adjutant returned to Manstein's command cabin and reported to him: "Mr. Marshal, I have something unfortunate that I need to report to you."
"What's the matter?" Manstein asked curiously.
After a moment of silence, the adjutant spoke, "Teacher Tansen hung his bed sheet in the room where he was detained."
"What, Tansen hanged?" The bad news surprised Manstein. He asked in surprise: "How could he hang himself suddenly? Did something happen?"
"Nothing happened," the adjutant replied in an uncertain tone: "I carefully asked the two guards who were watching over him. When Tansen committed suicide, there was no movement in the room..."
"I'm not asking you if he was making a big deal when he committed suicide," Manstein said impatiently: "I want to figure out what is going on, it's so serious that it's going to stimulate him to choose the path of suicide."
After some thought, the adjutant said thoughtfully: "Marson Marshal, I have talked with the two guards who were guarding me, and they didn't say anything, but occasionally mentioned that our army had advanced to the city of Prokhorovka."
"Oh, so that's how it is." When Manstein heard this, he seemed to guess the reason for Tansen's suicide. He lit a cigar, took a sip, and said to the adjutant: "I think the reason for his suicide must be related to the news that our army advanced to the city of Prokhorovka."
Manstein's words confused the adjutant, and he asked in confusion: "Marson Marshal, I don't understand what is the relationship between our army's advance to the city of Prokhorovka and the suicide of Commander Tansen?"
"Tamsen is a face-loving person," Manstein sighed and said, "If he had not known that other troops had advanced to the city of Prokhorovka, he would not have made any extreme reactions. But he heard the news that friendly troops were approaching the city, which had a great blow to him..."
"The blow is very big?" the adjutant asked curiously: "Marson Marshal, why is this?"
"If his imperial division was not annihilated, the troops that launched an attack from Prokholovkashi at this moment would not be two divisions but three divisions, so that the resistance of the Russians would collapse faster." Manstein shook his head and said, "He probably thought that because of his mistake, the troops were annihilated by the Russians, which led to the weakening of the power to attack Prokholovka from the west. He couldn't think of it for a moment and chose to commit suicide."
"Marson, it's already dark outside." After Manstein analyzed the cause of Tansen's death, he changed the topic in time: "Does our troops continue to attack or stay in the occupied area to rest?"
"I want the troops to rest, but the Russians will choose to fight back at night, so our attack cannot stop for a moment." Manstein said to his adjutant: "When they focus all their energy on how to block our army, they will not be able to withdraw their strength to fight back. In this way, our army can firmly grasp the initiative on the battlefield."
Chapter completed!