USSR 1941

  Chapter 690 Emptiness

  The recruits who were still in shock came out of their hiding place in disgrace, and carefully approached the building with their rifles. The German firepower seemed to be completely suppressed by the Soviet army, so the battle seemed to have been won by the Soviet army.

   But Shulka felt a little weird... no mines, not a single one.

   Shulka knew this because the recruit battalions were advancing in dense formation, and if there were any landmines, they would have stepped on them long ago.

  At the same time, with such a terrain, since the enemy has time to deploy firepower, there is of course no shortage of time to lay mines to intimidate the opponent... However, the enemy did not lay mines.

  After thinking for a while, Shulka ordered: "Call the second battalion up immediately and get ready for battle!"

   "Yes!" Andrianka responded and passed on the order.

  The second battalion was the original "punishment battalion".

   It is ironic to say that this battalion composed of deserters is now notoriously desperate on the battlefield.

To be precise, it is not "don't die"... As the saying goes, "what kind of generals will have what kind of soldiers", grassroots commanders actually act according to the command style of their superiors, so Shulka's subordinates are actually all There is a choice of "don't die", that is, "don't die" when it should be "killed", and you can fight very resolutely when you should "don't die".

The Second Battalion is such a force. At the same time, because of the horrible experience of the "Punishment Battalion" and the tradition of "lynching", its combat effectiveness even exceeds that of the 1st Infantry Battalion, a direct descendant of the 82nd Infantry Regiment... the first step The combat effectiveness of the barracks is not bad, but compared with the second infantry battalion, it is not as strong as the one that goes forward.

  So, the Second Infantry Battalion was used by Shulka as a reserve force, and it appeared wherever there was a situation.

Since the Second Infantry Battalion was stationed not far from here and was equipped with cars, after seven minutes, Battalion Commander Sokolov lay beside Shulka and waited for orders, while the new battalion was still occupying the abandoned carriages and vehicles one by one. architecture.

   "We are ready, Comrade Shulka!" Sokolov turned his eyes to the battlefield ahead with some doubts, as if their help was not needed here.

   "There is a new situation!" Shulka said: "The enemy may break out from here!"

   "What?" Sokolov couldn't help being taken aback when he heard the words, and turned to look at Shulka in surprise.

   Not far away, Andrianka was also anxious when he heard this: "The enemy is going to break out from here? I will immediately notify them to withdraw..."

   "No!" Shulka stopped Andrianka: "They can't retreat!"

  Andrianka thought for a while, then nodded in agreement.

If the enemy is premeditated, that is, concentrating their forces in this direction to break through, then ordering the new barracks to retreat almost means that tragedy cannot be avoided... Retreating is more difficult than attacking, especially when the enemy is still waiting for a chance in the buildings covered by rain and fog. Once the recruit battalion retreats, the enemy will definitely take advantage of the momentum to pursue and kill them, and then the recruit battalion will be a fish to be slaughtered.

   "Pass on the order!" Shulka said: "The recruit battalion is stationed in place. No matter what happens, you are not allowed to take a step back!"

"yes!"

   "The artillery is ready to fire at the front of the line of defense without moving!"

"yes!"

   "The Second Infantry Battalion has entered the position!"

"yes!"

   Soon, under the command of Grigovich, the new barracks switched from offense to defense.

  The entire battlefield suddenly became very strangely silent, only a few gunshots and explosions were heard from other directions from time to time.

  Shuerka guessed right, the enemy was indeed planning to break out from this direction.

   But at the same time, Shulka was a little surprised, because he originally guessed that the enemy would break out to the north or west, that is, in the direction of Stalingrad or behind.

  Because it is obvious that the Romanian army in the south is being fully attacked and surrounded by the Soviet army, and breaking through to the south will easily fall into another encirclement.

  However, now it seems that the enemy has chosen the south.

  This also seems to verify Shulka's previous thinking. The German reinforcements have arrived in Plodovitoye and are ready to fight. Otherwise, it would be meaningless for these besieged troops to break through to the south.

   These are exactly what the German commander, Lieutenant Friedrich, thought.

  Second Lieutenant Friedrich was just an anti-aircraft artillery company commander, and he didn't even have much knowledge of infantry combat.

But what is certain is that even if he has no infantry knowledge and experience, he will be much better than the battalion commander of Major Ambrose of the Romanian Army, because when they entered the 74-kilometer railway station, the battalion commander of Major Ambrose had already done Ready to retreat.

  Second Lieutenant Friedrich unceremoniously took over the command of the Romanian army. Although the two armies did not speak the same language, as long as they waved their pistols... those Romanians seemed to understand what to do.

  Major Ambrose wanted to break out from the west, but Lieutenant Friedrich thought it was an escape.

"Our troops have been reinforced to Plodovitoye!" Second Lieutenant Friedrich said to the major in unskilled English: "They intend to shed their last drop of blood there to help you hold the line of defense, but you want to leave Own position! This is a disgrace!"

   Lieutenant Friedrich's artillery company has been guarding near the train station, so he knows about the German reinforcements.

  As an imperial soldier, Second Lieutenant Friedrich believed that he could not flee the battlefield like this, even though they should have done so as artillerymen.

  Lieutenant Friedrich's decision took advantage of the loopholes, because Shulka miscalculated on this point. He placed the main force on the west and north to prevent them from breaking through, and sent a new barracks to the south to train.

Second Lieutenant Friedrich saw through the binoculars a group of Russians, who were immature in tactics and almost a group of children, could not help secretly delighting. This was the right place. Although there were a lot of opponents, it was not Luo. , the opponent of the German coalition.

   "Order!" Second Lieutenant Friedrich said to the adjutant: "Let them in, wait for them to enter the city and then suddenly launch a counterattack, follow them to break through, understand?"

   This plan should be said to be very reasonable. It can be said that if Shulka hadn't discovered something, they would have been very likely to succeed, and they would have caused heavy casualties to the Russian army.

  The battlefield is like that sometimes.

   It’s not that the commander is not good enough, nor is it that the soldiers are not brave or of poor quality, but that the battlefield is uncontrollable and there are too many emergencies.

   Even if Shulka is a qualified commander, the 82nd Infantry Regiment is an elite unit, and it is inevitable that the ship will not capsize in the gutter.

  If this is the case, then Shulka will be ashamed... An elite reinforced regiment plus a flying regiment, the skirmishers who surrounded the enemy's battalion not only failed to win, but also suffered heavy casualties, making them break out...

   Fortunately, none of this happened.

  (end of this chapter)