After receiving Sokov's attack order, Poluboyarov did not send out a built-in tank brigade. After all, after the battle a few days ago, the establishment of each brigade was incomplete. After discussion with the Chief of Staff, he decided to send a special tank battalion to implement Sokov's order.
When he learned that Poluboyarov was planning to send a special tank battalion, the chief of staff of the army asked with some concern: "Comrade Commander, although the Special Tank Battalion is the only battalion of our army equipped with T-34/85 tanks, they only have twelve tanks and are always in an under-company state. Can it be possible to ask them to deal with the German armored regiment?"
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Poluboyarov said disapprovingly about the Chief of Staff's concern: "Although the special battalion has always been under-company, since they are equipped with the most advanced tanks of our army, the combat effectiveness of the battalion is no less than that of an armored brigade of a friendly army."
The Chief of Staff did not refute Poluboyarov's statement. He knew very well that in other tank troops, not to mention equipped with T-34/85 tanks, even the number of T-34/76 tanks was seriously insufficient, and they could only be replaced by a large number of old and outdated T-70 tanks. These 12 advanced T-34 tanks are fully capable of beating a tank brigade of friendly forces.
Seeing that Poluboyarov had made up his mind, the Chief of Staff was not willing to persuade him anymore, but he tactfully proposed: "Comrade Commander, what infantry unit do you plan to send to cooperate with them in the battle? You must know that tanks without infantry cover are very easy to be killed by the enemy's anti-tank hands."
"This is easy to deal with." Poluboyarov had long considered these details. When he heard the Chief of Staff ask, he casually said: "Just draw a battalion from the Mechanized Brigade and assist the tanks in combat."
Considering that it was a joint operation of the two battalions, one of the battalions commanders must be appointed to take charge, so as not to fight each other during the war and fail to cooperate with each other, and they were defeated by the German army: "Comrade Commander, who do you think should be commanded by this combat force?"
"I think let Major Bonchi, the battalion commander of the tank battalion, be in charge of command." Poluboyarov told the chief of staff: "Major Bonchi has been serving as an officer since 1927 and has rich command experience. I think it is very appropriate for him to command this joint force."
The Chief of Staff remembered that the Mechanized Brigade was reorganized in January. The four battalion commanders promoted in the brigade were used to be company-level commanders. When it comes to commanding operations, they would definitely not be comparable to Major Bangqi, so they nodded and said, "I understand, Comrade Commander, I will immediately assign tasks to Major Bangqi."
Twenty minutes later, the twelve tanks of the Special Tank Battalion, more than 20 trucks of the Mechanized Battalion, and more than ten tricycles drove towards the west in a mighty manner.
While the tank was driving, the driver looked at Bonchi sitting beside him and asked curiously: "Comrade Major, the battle is going on outside Prokhorovka City. What are we going to the west to do? Isn't that farther and farther away from the battlefield?"
Bonchi, who was passing through the lookout hole and observing the situation outside, heard the driver say this, and quickly sat upright and said to him with his face sideways: "Comrade Sergeant, there are battlefields everywhere in the entire Kursk area. No matter which direction we drive, we may encounter an enemy at any time. Do you understand?"
However, after hearing this, the driver muttered, "If it is just a transport team without combat effectiveness, no matter how many it is eliminated, what's the use?"
The driver thought the sound of the tank engine was enough to cover his own words, but Bonchi still heard what he said clearly, "Sergeant, even if he could only destroy some of the enemy's transport convoys, the enemy who was fighting fiercely with our army outside Prokhorovka City would suffer the final failure due to lack of ammunition and fuel."
"So that's how it is." The driver suddenly looked stunned when he heard Bangqi say this, "Comrade Major, so even if we only deal with the enemy's transport convoy in the next battle, we will also contribute to victory after the end of this battle. Is my understanding correct?"
"It's totally correct, comrade Sergeant." Bunch smiled and said, "But don't worry, we will not only deal with the German transport convoys in the coming days, but also compete with the Germans with real swords and guns."
"Really?"
"Of course it's true." Bonqi nodded and said, "The order given to us by our superiors is to make us redirect to the German flanks and take advantage of their attack on the 188th Division's position to attack them from the side."
"Great, this is great." The driver was excited to learn that he was rushing to fight the German army now: "Comrade Major, when I attack the enemy later, I will definitely rush to the front."
The troops that fought detoured around the defense zone of the Marine Brigade and entered the ambush position. Bangqi found the battalion commander of the infantry battalion and said to him: "Comrade Captain, there is a low hill in the right wing of the friendly positions, with trees and bushes above it. If our troops are hidden here, there is no need to worry about being discovered by the enemy. When the enemy launches an attack on the friendly positions, we will rush out unexpectedly and cut their troops into two sections to crush their attack."
The infantry battalion commander was a young captain. He had been the battalion commander for more than half a year. He knew very well that his command ability and battlefield experience were not as good as Bangqi. Therefore, he did not object to the plan proposed by Bangqi, but nodded and said, "Yes, Comrade Major. I firmly obey your orders."
"After my tank attack, you have to send at least one company of infantry, take a motorcycle to follow up and cover, and eliminate those anti-tank players who pose great threat to us."
"No problem." The infantry battalion commander replied simply: "Although there are not many motorcycles in my hand, soldiers who cannot ride motorcycles can charge on tanks. We will definitely do our best to ensure that the tank is not destroyed by enemy anti-tank hands."
The Tank Battalion and the Infantry Battalion entered the ambush position one after another. After waiting for almost two hours, the German army finally launched a new attack again. This time they were determined to do so, not only did they dispatch a full-scale infantry battalion, but also more than 20 tanks to cooperate, including two of the T-34 nemesis-the Leopard tanks.
After seeing the enemy tanks passing by their ambush positions one after another, Major Bangqi issued an order to his subordinates and infantry battalion through the radio: "Strike!"
As the order was issued, the tanks were launched one after another. With a huge roar, they rushed out of the hiding woods and rushed towards the German tanks that were covering the attack of infantry.
The tank soldiers' field of view in the tank is very narrow, otherwise there would not be so many tank soldiers. When the tanks were sailing, they poked out half of their bodies from the turret to observe the surrounding environment. The tanks that are now advancing to the Soviet positions are closed, and no tank soldiers are outside observing the environment, so their field of view can only see the front, so they cannot detect the tanks rushing out of the flanks at the first time.
When the infantry following the tanks saw Soviet tanks rushing down from the flanking hills, they shouted loudly, while choosing the right position to hide and shooting at the Soviet tanks with their weapons.
The German infantry could not use effective communication methods to inform the tanks of Soviet tanks on the flank in the shortest time. Therefore, after entering the appropriate shooting position, the Soviet tanks rushed out of the flank stopped one after another and selected their shooting targets.
Although the German infantry fired desperately, the bullets fired by their weapons hit the tank's armor plate, and after they hit the tank's armor plate, they could only make the sound of hail hitting the armor plate, and splashing countless sparks, but they could not cause any damage to the tank.
The tank where Bangqi was located aimed at a Leopard tank four hundred meters away and decisively opened fire. The armor-piercing bomb only made a small hole in the armor plate, but after the armor-piercing bomb penetrated the armor, it had a splashing effect. It splashed everywhere in the tank body and killed the tank crew inside, and soon hit the ammunition in the car, causing a death-destruction.
The leopard tank that exploded from the inside kept gushing out the flames. A tank soldier covered in fire climbed out from the bottom of the burning steel coffin, stumbled forward for a few steps, and then fell to the ground, and then there was no movement, allowing the flames to burn on his body.
Seeing that the tank where the battalion commander was in the first record, the other tanks were not to be outdone and fired at the target they selected. The German tanks that were directly hit quickly stopped and burned in place. The tanks that were not hit also found that the Soviet tanks rushed out of the flanks stopped and slowly turned the guns to prepare for a counterattack.
However, the fact ruthlessly shattered the German tank soldiers' attempts. The T-34 tanks that looked a little different once again opened fire in front of them, directly destroying more tanks. However, some tanks that survived were blocked by the distance and the smoke generated by the burning tanks, and could not lock in the position of the Soviet tanks at all. The shells fired could not hit the target.
Seeing that the tanks on their own were destroyed by the Soviet army one after another, the German infantry panicked. They knew that if there were no anti-tank guns, they could not destroy Soviet tanks hundreds of meters away by relying solely on the weapons in their hands. So the German commander reported what happened here to his superiors through the radio station; while gathering anti-tank soldiers, preparing to blow up the Soviet tanks at close range when the Soviet tanks approached.
But Major Bangchi, who was commanding the tank battalion to advance forward, had already considered this possibility. As the tank battalion continued to advance forward, the soldiers sitting on the tank jumped down one after another and trotted behind the tank, ready to destroy the approaching anti-tank hands at any time.
When tanks and infantry rushed to the middle of the battlefield, except for the destroyed, burning tank wreckage, and the corpses of German troops, the remaining infantry were fleeing towards their starting positions.
When Bunch saw the enemy running away, he showed a smug smile on his face. He said to his subordinates through the radio: "Brothers, the Germans have been repelled by us. But we cannot let them leave easily. We can immediately replace them with high-explosive bombs, send them off well, and leave them with a memory that will last forever."
When the tank soldiers heard Bangqi say this, they immediately applauded, and then replaced the armor-piercing bombs with high-explosive bombs and bombarded the retreating German army.
When the German army began to retreat, the armored regiment commander came to the edge of the battlefield. He wanted to figure out what was going on. The attack covered by more than 20 tanks was actually repelled by the Russians in such a short time.
But he did not realize that he had made a mistake, a fatal mistake that could make him lose his life. Instead, he stood next to a bucket cart and raised his telescope to observe the situation on the battlefield. You should know that the bucket cart was a vehicle that German officers rode on. It was easy to become the main target of the enemy's attack when suddenly appearing on the battlefield.
So, without any warning, three or four tank shells suddenly roared, and they landed around the barrel truck and exploded. While blowing up the barrel truck, they also blew the German commander who was observing the battlefield situation to pieces.
However, Bunch and the others did not know how many shells they had, so they killed the German armored regiment commander, and then bombarded the fleeing Germans for a while, and then turned around and returned to the position held by the Marine Brigade.
Colonel Chuwashov clearly saw everything on the battlefield through a telescope in his command center. At this moment, he saw the tank battalion that had completed the mission and some infantry from the mechanized brigade coming towards his position and hurriedly brought the members of the command center to meet him.
Major Bangchi saw Chuwashov and a group of commanders greet him on the position, and quickly ordered the driver to stop. After leaving the tank, he took a motorcycle to the friendly positions.
When Chuwashov and others were still five or six meters away, Bonchi ordered the motorcycle driver to stop the car, then jumped out of the sidewalk, trotted to Chuwashov, straightened his body and reported: "Comrade Colonel, I am Major Bonchi, the commander of the special battalion of the Tank Army. Please forgive me for not being able to salute you."
"Hello, Major Bonchi." Chuwashov was not the first day to go to the battlefield, so he naturally knew that he could not salute casually on the battlefield, so as not to expose his target and become the shooting target of German snipers. He stepped forward and held Bonchi's hand and said enthusiastically: "You did a great job. I never dreamed that you had destroyed more than 20 enemy tanks in such a short time, and even killed or injured one or two hundred German soldiers."
"Comrade Colonel," Bunch grinned and said to Chuwashov: "Although we successfully launched a sneak attack on the enemy, the enemy is not a fool. The next time they attack, they will definitely reconnaissance on the flanks, so that something similar will happen again, so we can only withdraw first."
Chapter completed!