The militia had all rushed into Khimki, and the sound of gunfire and smoke rising from time to time indicated that there was a fierce battle going on inside. In terms of time, by this time Major Malafeyev's troops should also have attacked the settlements from the flanks. Today's battle was quite smooth, originally the front was only intended to carry out a feint, but I did not expect that with the cooperation of the tank troops, it was attacked at once, and the feint attack became the main attack.

After a while, I heard the sound of gunfire from the settlements gradually thinning out, and I estimated that the battle was nearing its end, after all, there were only dozens of houses here, and they were evenly distributed on both sides of the road, and even if the warriors fought house by house, the enemy should have been almost wiped out.

I moved the camera back to the middle of the forest and the settlement, and found the wounded in the open ground struggling among the corpses. Immediately put down the binoculars and looked left and right. I saw Captain Bukov standing on the right observing the battle situation with a telescope, and Captain Yushchenko, the commander of the guard company in the rear left, standing upright and looking ahead. I hurriedly instructed him: "Comrade Captain, you immediately take people to the front and carry down all the wounded!" ”

"Yes!" He said yes very simply, turned around and shouted to the back, "Come with me." "The soldiers, who had been hidden in the improvised fortifications, stood up forty or fifty people in an uproar, followed Yushchenko and ran into the open field. Grissa and the other two fighters stayed by my side, serving as guards.

Seeing that Yushchenko was directing the soldiers to treat the wounded, Bukov put down his binoculars and cautiously asked for my opinion: "Comrade division commander, Khimki has almost been taken down by us. You see, let's go to the front and see if we can go to the front as well. ”

I turned my head to look at the place where Kashewsky was lying just now, and there was only a pool of frozen black blood on the ground, and I said to myself, I won't follow in his footsteps, right? I listened attentively to the sound of gunfire coming from the settlement, which seemed to be mainly the sound of our rifle fire, and the German submachine guns rang out twice occasionally, and were immediately suppressed by the sound of our guns. It seems that the Germans were almost wiped out by this time, and there should have been no danger in the past. So I nodded and said, "Okay! ”

When I first came out of the fortifications, I was a little hesitant in my steps, afraid that a bullet would fly from somewhere and knock me down. But after walking for a while, I was already close to the location where Yushchenko was treating the wounded, and I was still safe, and the stone in my heart fell to the ground, and I couldn't help but speed up my pace and walk quickly towards the residential area.

By the time we entered Khimki, the battle was over. Along the way, the soldiers were seen cleaning the battlefield, some moving the corpses strewn on the ground to the side of the road, and some escorting the Germans with their hands raised to the outside of the settlement.

Seeing that Khimki was recaptured, Captain Bukov breathed a sigh of relief and said with emotion: "Comrade division commander, we have finally recaptured the settlement!" ”

"Yes, it's back!" I said lightly: "If there is no support from the tank division today, it will not be easy to recapture this place." "At this point, I looked around, and I didn't see any of the other tanks except the two tanks that had remained outside the settlement, and I didn't know where the road had gone.

As I was looking around, I suddenly heard someone shouting at me, and I looked in the direction from which the voice came to see that it was Buniyachenko and two tank men walking towards me. The lieutenant colonel's arm was hung from his chest with a bandage, and it appeared that he was wounded again.

I went up to him, gently touched his hanging arm with my hand, and asked with concern: "Comrade Chief of Staff, are you wounded?" ”

Bunyachenko smiled bitterly and said: "The battle was about to end, but unexpectedly, an enemy anti-tank man suddenly rushed out of a house on the side of the road and blew up the tank tracks. One tank crew was killed on the spot, and my hand was slightly wounded. But it doesn't matter, when the tank is repaired, I can still go and fight the enemy. ”

While he was talking, suddenly a militiaman came rushing from the western junction and shouted: "Captain Bukov, Captain Bukov!" Something happened! ”

"What's the matter?" Bukov asked nervously. The militia fighters ran up to us, and without even paying respect, they panted and reported: "Tanks, enemy tanks, in the western forest there are enemy tanks!" ”

"What?" We were all taken aback by this news, Khimki was recaptured, and enemy reinforcements appeared, and we don't know if we can stop them with our current forces?

I immediately instructed Buniachenko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you quickly go and transfer the remaining tanks and find a way to keep them out of the settlements first." Then he said to Bukov: "Comrade Captain, organize all the militia, enter the residential buildings, and choose favorable terrain to block the enemy. We must now hold Khimki at all costs, and we must not allow the enemy to enter again. ”

Just as I was giving orders, another soldier came running, and from the military uniform he was wearing, it was clear that this time it was not the militia, but the fighters of the 389 Tank Division. He ran up to us, took a few sharp breaths, and excitedly reported: "Report Comrade Commander!" There's our troops over there in the forest! ”

This news has completely confused us, just now it was said that it was a tank of the German army, this time it was a unit of our army, who is right? I pondered for a moment, then waved my hand and said, "Let's go and see what's going on!" ”

We came to the northwest junction and saw an armored unit approaching in the distance, with six T34 tanks in front of us, followed by armored vehicles, and then trucks full of soldiers. Because the distance is only about 200 meters, even without a telescope, you can clearly see that it is our army.

Seeing that it was his own troops, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and Bonyachenko gave an order to the soldiers beside him: "Quickly bring the flag of our division and plant it at the intersection, so as not to have a misunderstanding with the troops on the opposite side." ”