"Hurry up and take all the loot away before the sun rises!" Balzen stood high above the ruins, shouting at the top of his throat. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In front of him, more than a dozen horse-drawn sleds were being loaded nervously.

There are various types of trophies, and in the spirit of implementing the glorious tradition of the 284th Division, it is better to collect a little cloth than to collect it. The vast number of soldiers groped on the ground, as if this battlefield was full of "gold".

"Originally, I came to take the rebar, but now it's over. The steel bars and other scrap copper and rotten iron obtained by the militia stripping the concrete were all blown away! Balzen was very helpless, the steel bars were blown apart, and the debris was probably scattered all over the ground outside the city.

It is possible to collect these fragments again, it will take a lot of time, but the enemy will definitely not rest.

The division headquarters gave him an early warning, which was the early warning of the deputy division commander himself, and the enemy had a high probability of counterattacking at dawn. Balzen did not dare to take risks, since the enemy could launch an air strike, once he could do it a second or third time!

And the development of things is indeed as Yang Mingzhi and Yevlov expected.

After Holstauffen fell into the siege, after huge losses and psychological blows, even if the breakthrough was successful, what face did he have to meet his superiors. It is estimated that if he returns safely, he will also be arrested by the Gestapo in the field of war, and after that, he will not only lose his honor.

It is better to die in battle than that, and he keeps the last bullet for himself. Before committing suicide, he also reported his tragic end to the 722nd Division.

The message was sent in the early hours of the morning, and the German radio officer on duty was drowsy. It wasn't until Holstaufen's battalion made a report in plain language, and the noise of gunfire around them, that the radioman immediately realized that something was wrong.

The man barely managed to keep a calm account of the final lamentation of the attack on the infantry battalion in Homnich.

The intelligence was immediately reported to the staff officer on duty, the matter was important, and etiquette or anything was simply ignored, so Florid, the commander of the 722nd Division, got this bad information at two o'clock in the morning.

He sat on the bed and listened very calmly to the guards' report on the battalion's final report, and finally sighed coldly: "What should have happened has finally happened." Sure enough, Homnich was a dead knot, and the Soviets hiding in the forest would surely fight to the death for the city. ”

Holmnich is a gateway to the Pripet Marshes, a great landmark in the area. If the Germans wanted to encircle the bandits in the swamp (the Germans sometimes called the partisans partisans, sometimes they also called the bandits), this was an excellent point of rallying for troops. The same was true for the Soviets lurking in the swamps, and if they invaded the road again, the troops would likely use the city as a reference.

Let Holstaufen's battalion take down Homnage, first of all, to maintain the strategic initiative and deter the group of guys who are hiding. Secondly, there was a small change in strategy, and they became meat detectives. Therefore, the total annihilation of the meat detectives is reasonable and unexpected.

Now, Florid, I have to admit that this group of Soviets is very combative!

"Now, anxious about all the staff officers, no matter how sleepy they are, wake me up and order them to assemble at the division headquarters at once."

When it comes to big things, Florid's is not ambiguous at all. He immediately rushed to the division headquarters, and soon all the people who should have arrived arrived.

These staff officers also include the deputy division commander. Everyone was sleepy-eyed and yawning, and some were muttering some whispers.

Florid's slammed the table and shouted, "All! Stay awake! ”

This was a slap in the face, everyone's bodies vibrate, and every hair stood up!

"There's only one reason to wake you all up. The army we are attacking Homnich has been wiped out. The battalion commander Holstaufen fought until the last moment, and the entire battalion was killed! ”

The expressions of the people were predictable, and the shock was written on everyone's faces. Their eyes were wide open, their mouths wide open, and they couldn't believe it.

"How is that possible?! Could it be that in a few hours, all the more than 600 people were killed? Is there thousands of enemies? The deputy division commander asked.

Florid, shaking his head, corrected his words first. "In this operation, the first round of our army's offensive encountered tragic street fighting, and the whole battalion suffered 150 casualties. After the dispatch of our air force, the enemy should have been completely annihilated, and our army entered smoothly. However, in just over a day, the same tragedy happened to us! ”

The division commander's account is as if the Soviets also used some heavy weapons, which is even more unbelievable.

"Do they still have tanks? A surprise attack on the cities we occupied? Or do they own planes? A staff officer asked, the questions with a distinctly disdainful look.

The 722nd Division was not previously stationed on the road line in southern Belarus, and before they moved here, they were first stationed near Bialystok. There, the unit encountered a wide variety of guerrillas. For example, the Soviet army's scattered stragglers, Polish nationalist guerrillas and the partisan groups organized by the Polish Communist Party (CPB) fought each other. After all, it was a group of outlaws, and most of the attacks were petty fights. It's like a mosquito bite, it's not threatening.

Moving to the area of the Moziri-Gomel road, the 722nd Division had to carry out the order of John Kube and sweep the villages around the road in order to rid the partisan soil. This was a disgrace to the Wehrmacht, and John Kube did not want it. He ordered: "The necessary clean-up is essential for the restoration of order. The soil on which the guerrillas survived on both sides of the road must be eliminated, and the lines of communication must be secured. ”

As a result, the entire battalion of Holstauffen was annihilated, which was the biggest setback for this unit since its inception, and it was also the first time that a formed unit was annihilated. They simply fought to the death and did not take prisoners. Freud admired all the members of this force from the bottom of his heart, but what should he do after that?

The staff officers all sobered up one by one, and a heated discussion immediately began.

It is said that the enemy may not have fled yet, and this is a wonderful opportunity when sending a seriously ill encirclement.

Some people immediately took out the story of the 715th Division. "They sent two regiments and an artillery battalion into battle, as a result of which hundreds of people were frostbitten in the cold weather, and hundreds more were killed and wounded in the fierce battles. The enemy did not sit idly by, they even carried out night attacks, as happened to our people! ”

The words of this staff officer alerted Florid, and suddenly he had the feeling that he was being calculated by the enemy. "At first, I simply sent troops to attack tentatively, reflecting the tactical quality of my division and satisfying the soldiers' desire to fight. So after all, the enemy has carried out a large-scale counterattack, and I will take the opportunity to take advantage of the vast number of soldiers' eagerness to fight and send them to participate in the battle, is it also in the hands of the enemy? Now the climate is very cold, and large-scale military operations are a disaster for logistics! My task is first of all to encircle Lechtsa and ensure the safety of this section of the road to Gomel, and if the army attacks, will the tragedy of Lechitsa be repeated? "Florid, like no man's land, let the group of staff members discuss, and he first thought of his own job - guarding.

Holstauffen was a very Junker aristocratic person, and his death could not be so vain. But the army would not be able to send a large army to avenge him!

He slapped the table again, and the staff officers fell silent.

"Just now, you were all sleepy-eyed, and you complained very much that I asked you to come to the division headquarters on such a cold night, why are you starting to talk about it one by one now?"

Everyone, look at me, I look at you, it looks like the chief has a new order.

Florid paused, the so-called sending troops to counterattack Homnitch was pointless.

"Gentlemen, our task is, first and foremost, to defend the road. I thought about it for a moment, what happened to the 715th Division last year, don't you think it is very similar to our current situation? Are we going to be as stupid as those people? Last time, the party representative of Lechtsa was killed with precision, and the superiors would not allow us to send troops to attack south, for fear that the enemy would take advantage of the weakness. So I decided, make two decisions! ”

Flored was cautious, and he decided to immediately report the bad situation to his superiors, the army group to which he belonged. Especially in the case of last December, the result was naturally that the Germans strengthened the defenses of Lechtsa and Gomel, and even Slutsk, a little further north, might become nervous.

The second point is to send the air force to continue the war. As the staff officers said, the enemy is likely to hold on to Homnich and strengthen its defenses. And, according to the usual line of thought of the Soviets, this is very likely! Wherever the Soviets recaptured positions and cities, such as Velikiye Luki, they would defend to the death. Their fighting philosophy was to fight hard, relying on a steady stream of reserve forces in the rear to drag the German army into a war of attrition for national strength.

Moreover, after the Soviets counter-attacked Homnych last December, it was a textbook demonstration of the traditional Soviet tactic of transforming the place into a huge fortress. Based on this line of thinking, Flored was fully convinced that the dead Holstauffen had bravely sent his men to attack this "fortress", so the first battle suffered heavy losses.

No one is wise and infallible, and victory in a war sometimes depends on which side makes the fewest mistakes. Now, there is no doubt that the commander of the 722 Division, this decisive figure, made some misjudgments.

His decision stopped the quarrel among the staff officers and immediately reported the matter to the commander of the army group, and received permission to apply for the Air Force.

Flored reported the dire situation to the front-line airfield at four a.m. and asked for immediate support from the Air Force. But the second brigade of the "Zemilman Aviation Company", stationed at the airfield near the road, they simply could not have made a sortie at night.

Its captain, Hans Koch, was also woken up in his sleep, which made him very angry to "wake up". After learning that an infantry battalion had been annihilated by the guerrillas, Koch was not very angry, and he roared: "Just the day before yesterday, I dispatched ten planes, and that damn city should have been bombed to the surface of the moon, where there is only death, were your people killed by the devil?" ”

Florid, suppressing his temper, said calmly: "If you have an opinion, then please talk to the commander of the army." I think you'll get direct orders from there soon, too. ”

"That's it! I know. I will send the air force to assist you in the fight again, and at the earliest, I can only send the first wave of air strikes at dawn. ”

Flored hung up the phone and angrily kicked over a bench!

"What an arrogant man! Your fellow citizens are bleeding, and you call them stupid! Your Air Force did not blow up the enemy, and you deserve to bomb them again, and not give me a face now! After scolding for a long time, the anger in my heart was vented a lot.

The guards were all frightened by the division commander's actions, but Florid's expression was relieved. He continued to wait at the division headquarters, not daring to sleep at all, everything was waiting for the results of the Air Force. (To be continued.) )