How difficult is it to fight a blocking battle on the endless Polish plains? Just ask Mironov to find out that out of the city of Upper Maukinia is a fertile field, and there is no hill to be seen at a glance, and there are not even two small mounds.

For the blocking force, without the advantage of terrain, this is quite a loss. The Poles, who had the superiority in numbers, could have run over them, and according to Pilsudski's orders, the Poles were indeed intended.

It's not just that there is no location, even the independent Wonder Brigade does not have time to build strong fortifications. As I said before, they arrived in Obermauginia almost at the same time as the Poles, and then had to engage in wave after wave of harassment in order to hold back their opponents.

In this way, there was naturally no time to build fortifications, and now it was time when there was no way to retreat, and when it was time to only fight hard, for all the officers and men of the independent cavalry brigade, it meant that they could only use their flesh and blood to block the enemy's iron hooves.

On 14 June, the 1st Cavalry Brigade had no time to gather its troops and engaged in a bloody battle with the Poles. The first to suffer from the Poles was the 3rd Battalion. Previously, according to Mironov's tactical arrangement, this battalion was completely scattered and scattered on a five-kilometer radius, basically fighting separately in platoons or squads.

For example, the second company, which was built entirely with Ukrainian Jews as the main body, and most of the officers and soldiers were fellow villagers, classmates or even brothers. This also determines that this company is a special group, once there are casualties, it is really possible to take revenge even with his life. In the previous battles, this company was particularly capable of fighting and was also particularly fierce. Because of this. Mironov put a burden on their shoulders - good steel must be used on the blade!

At that time, Mironov gave orders directly to the second company. They were required to buy eight hours for the main forces to repair their positions anyway.

When he received this order, the company commander Makov had no complaints, and even seemed to be sharpening his knife, as if it was not a hot potato, but a beautiful difference.

After returning to the company, Makov gathered all his fellow villagers and began to do "mobilization": "The brigade commander personally gave Lao Tzu a death order, and we must drag the Polish miscellaneous of the dog day. Buy time for the main force to repair the fortifications! ”

When he said this, it sounded normal, and it seemed that Makov should say next how we should arrange our defenses, how to summon up the courage to repel the Polish attack. However, what is surprising is that what the company commander is going to talk about next is not how to defend, what he wants to talk about is attack.

"Lao Tzu thinks that even if we even have more than 100 brothers, even if we don't want to die, we won't be able to withstand several waves of attacks from Poland like locusts. Eight hours of hard work, not to say that it can't be done at all. But even if it is done, our second company will be scrapped and will be wiped out! ”

Saying that, Makov slapped his chest fiercely: "Although Lao Tzu is not afraid of death, he can't just let the Polish offal be eaten." So ......"

Speaking of this, he lengthened his tone, "So Lao Tzu has decided, if you don't defend, defense is equivalent to being beaten!" Lao Tzu and Lao Tzu have been beaten and bullied all their lives, and when they left their hometown, Lao Tzu vowed never to be beaten again. Lao Tzu is going to beat someone! Lao Tzu wants to beat the Polish offspring back! Let them know that we Jewish men are awesome! ”

Makov's words were loud and immediately unanimously approved by the second company, and while the other brother troops were thinking about how to delay time and how to defend, this company came out of the nest and slashed the Poles first.

At 7 p.m., when the Poles were preparing to attack overnight, the 2nd Company quietly sorted, led by Makov, and they unwittingly penetrated through the enemy's gaps, aiming at the 175.2 heights.

Why did the second company fight this high ground? It is important to start from the beginning, as I said before that the Polish plain is fertile and there are hardly any decent hills, and outside the city of Obermaukinia, in addition to the 175.2 highlands on the edge of the road, the highest hill will only be more than 200 meters.

However, the military significance of the 200-meter high ground is not as large as that of the 175.2 highland, which is right next to the highway line, so it can be said that the highway passes not far from the foot of the "mountain". If they could control the high ground, the Poles would not be able to advance with peace of mind.

It was Makov's second company that guarded this high ground less than 200 meters before, and the 175.2 heights were the supporting nodes, and Mironov naturally did not intend to give them to the Poles. In the whole afternoon, the second company resisted more than five rounds of Polish attacks on the position, and a reinforced company with nearly 200 men was knocked out by nearly half.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, as more and more Poles were gaining and friendly positions near the 175.2 heights were falling one by one, Mironov had no choice but to abandon this position.

And for this retreat order, neither Makov nor the 2nd Company were reconciled, in their words: "Half of our brothers have fallen on the 175.2 heights, how can they give up the positions they defended with their blood and lives to the enemy?" How could they leave them alone and escape? ”

If it weren't for Mironov's forcing Makov to retreat, this iron-blooded man would have been really ready to die on the 175.2 heights. And now, Mironov ordered them to buy time, and now Makov felt that it was time to retake his position. Although the 175.2 heights hung in the air, this heights were of considerable strategic importance, and if he could recapture and hold them, it would not be a problem to hold the Poles for a few hours!

Makov is a man who can do whatever he wants, and he has always been angry about voluntarily abandoning the 175.2 heights, and now that he has the opportunity to regain the "lost ground", how can he let it go?

Taking advantage of the darkness of the night, taking advantage of the confusion of the Poles busy attacking, the 2nd Company touched the foot of the 175.2 heights without danger. At this time, 175.2 was a little different from the situation in the afternoon when the second company retreated. The top of the hill is lined with tents, generators rumbling and lights flickering. It's a bustling scene.

To be prosperous on the battlefield is to be dangerous. After all, this is a war. Generally speaking, the lights must be controlled at night, otherwise the enemy will follow the lights and fire a row of shells, and then it will not be in vain?

And now, the reason why the 175.2 highland is prosperous and there is no light control is very simple: first, this highland is still relatively well guarded, and there is a whole reinforced company stationed there. The large number of people and the advantage of the terrain made the Poles feel at ease;

Second, the Poles were careless, starting from their recapture of 175.2, from the point they gradually compressed the defensive line of the separate cavalry brigade, they thought that they had completely grasped the initiative on the battlefield, and the Jews could only be beaten passively. In that case, what is there to be afraid of? They didn't believe that the Jews could fly!

It was precisely because of these two points that the Poles suffered a big loss, when Makov rushed to the top of the mountain with his brothers. The Poles guarding here did not react at all, and many went to hell stupidly. When you die, you can't figure out where the Jews came from!

From the beginning of the battle to the end of the battle, the second company took less than 15 minutes, and in this short fifteen minutes, they killed and captured nearly 300 prisoners, completely received the positions built by the Poles, and captured a large amount of supplies.

At that time, Makov was overjoyed, but he was happy not to kill many enemies, but to those precious supplies. As mentioned earlier, the independent cavalry brigade was lightly armed, and it did not bring much ammunition and food, and after two or three days of running and fighting, it was basically impossible to open the pot.

Before the battle began, Makov had ordered the chief of the department to have a meal, asking him to give all the brothers a full meal at any cost, in Makov's words: "If you don't eat now, you probably won't have a chance to eat again in the future!" ”

However, the poor secretary of the department scraped together, and even went out to grab a vote, and the food he could get was less than ten catties of flour, which was not enough for the more than 100 brothers in the second company who had been hungry all day, whether it was made into bread or noodles. Probably the only thing that can do is to seduce everyone's hunger.

People are like this, when they are hungry, they may be able to endure it with a single resistance, but once they see the food, all the feelings come up, such as sweating, swinging, and gold stars in their eyes. Going to war with a low blood sugar buff is simply death!

Therefore, at that time, Makov could only order the secretary to suspend the meal, and could only rush to the field with more than a hundred hungry men. And now, bags of American flour, French cheese, and British bacon are in front of them, and the service-minded Polish cooks have turned the flour into hot noodles and bread, buttered and sandwiched bacon, and even put them on the table.

Eat!

The officers and soldiers of the second company really threw off their arms and cracked their back tooth sockets, and the whole company was extremely supportive of the company commander Makov's decision-making, if he didn't fight this guy, could he have this meal? can mix your stomach, even if you die next, it will be a full ghost, and you will die without regrets!

Such a thought can't help but make people feel sad, and what is even more heart-wrenching is that the next battle will be extremely cruel, and for many officers and soldiers of the second company, this meal is a veritable last supper!

The Poles found that the 175.2 heights had fallen at ten o'clock in the evening, and when their new wave of attacking troops drove along the road to the 175.2 heights, they were warmly received by the second company. Heavy machine guns fired wildly at the cars on the road, mortar shells kept falling on their heads, and the convoy was reduced to ashes in the raging flames.

What's even funnier is that the Poles who were attacked thought it was a mistake, and tried to shout loudly to the mountain, telling the brothers who were "not good-looking" that they were their own. Such an action was naturally futile, and the result was that the poor worm who exposed the target was named by the machine gun one by one.

"175.2 Loss of the Heights? How is this possible? ”

The Poles could not figure out how 175.2 was lost, and after some investigation, they thought that the capture of the 175.2 heights was by the Jewish stragglers who had been scattered before, and it was a pure accident!

Of course, in order to correct this unexpected mistake, they immediately organized a battalion to retake this damned position. The operational deployment of the battalion commander of Bienyuk, who was in charge of the attack, was as follows: the first company attacked the front of the 175.2 heights, the second company protected the left flank of the attacking front, the third company was responsible for seizing the forward position between the 175.2 heights and the road down the mountain, the general attack on the main peak was carried out by the fourth company, and Bienyuk was to receive fire support from the divisional artillery regiment.

So what exactly is this offensive going to look like? The results of the battle. In the official record of the Polish military it is very simple: "In this operation. Lieutenant Colonel Bienyuk's infantry battalion was ordered to launch an assault on the 175.2 heights and adjacent roads. The attack was successful. But due to the rapid progress of the battalion, which was too prominent in the offensive and lacked flank cover, the battalion was forced to retreat. ”

Well, this report of results is a joke, if the attack was successful, then the 175.2 heights should have been recaptured, but the result was forced to retreat. This can't help but make people think of a word - turn in.

As a matter of fact. According to the recollections of the veterans of the battalion, the battle was not as decent as mentioned in the report. In the chapter "The Battle of Upper Maukinia" in the book "Our Courage", they describe the situation as follows: "On the morning of June 15, the battle began in heavy rain, and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd companies completed their tasks one after another, but the 4th company met stubborn resistance and suffered casualties under dense machine gun fire from the enemy......"

“…… As the battle continued into the afternoon, the Jews still held the hill and launched a counterattack. This ingenious counterattack targeted the first company. During the battle, they broke through and attacked behind the 1st Company. cut it off from the follow-up troops...... At this time, visibility is very low due to heavy rain, and it is difficult to distinguish the moving enemy. Therefore. The third company, which was responsible for covering the first company and placed between the road and the 175.2 heights, was completely ineffective......"

“…… Successive attacks failed, as the Jews had set up very effective machine-gun nests and cobweb-dense trenches on the positions (it was a joke that the 2nd Company was simply taking advantage of the Polish positions). At the same time, if we advance 'too fast', we will become too prominent on the enemy front. During the battle, the situation became more and more dangerous, and it was neither possible for us to continue our advance, nor to hold on to the positions we had already captured. So the battalion commander of Bienyuk ordered a retreat and demanded the creation of a new reliable line of defense in the rear. At this time, the Jews launched a counter-charge at the right time, and in one fell swoop, we had to fight our way out of the siege and retreat quickly......"

Finally, the author concludes the chapter with a regrettable tone: "The damned rain has done the Jews a great favor, and without this unfortunate rain, the outcome of the battle would have been different!" ”

So, was the rain that day really so unfortunate, and really had that much impact on the battle? Unfortunately, the truth is still quite different from what the Poles describe. It did rain that day, but it wasn't rainy, and in Makov's words: "This damn drizzle is so tiresome that it doesn't give people a good time, either you just get a heavy rain or you just come out with the sun, I hate rainy days!" ”

Obviously, the rain was not heavy, and, judging by Makov's description, it had been falling for a long time. That being the case, what could the Poles not fit into?

In fact, the reason for the defeat of the Poles was very simple, they underestimated the second company on the top of the hill, thinking that with a whole battalion with artillery support, it would not be a problem at all to take a "damned hillside" (in Bienuk's exact words).

So in the attack, the Poles did not throw an entire battalion into it at all, in fact only one company attacked alone throughout the morning, and only after a morning, when Bienyuk found that the situation was much more serious than expected, did they throw the rest of the troops into battle. By this time, it was already too late.

Why? For Bienyuk's battalion had already exhausted most of its strength this morning, the 2nd Company on the hill was the exact opposite, and had intended to hold their positions for only four or five hours before running away. But for a whole night, the Poles did not come to their trouble, and carried them with them for a morning, so it can be said that they had exceeded their task. For the officers and men of the whole company, this battle was fought comfortably, and the morale was really high, and they wished they could give the Poles two more blows, and even prepared to garrison the 175.2 heights for a long time.

"The third battalion and the second company fought well and fought very smart!"

When Mironov learned what the Second Company had done, he also had a rare smile, as a soldier who was very good at fighting, he admired those subordinates who were flexible and proactive and would find ways to complete the task. Undoubtedly, Makov's tactics were much smarter than those of the other two company commanders of the 3rd Battalion. And it was his bold actions that caused great trouble for the Poles, preventing them from throwing all their forces into the offensive and buying time for the main forces.

If possible, Mironov wanted all his men to be as smart as Makov, but unfortunately, military genius was always in the minority. Most of the officers of the separate cavalry brigade can only be said to follow the rules, they can only carry out the orders of their superiors at a glance, and lack the flash of genius.

So even though Makov's second company fought very intelligently and brilliantly, the casualties of the separate cavalry brigade were still very large. Most of the troops that hastily encountered the enemy before they could close in time suffered heavy losses. Although the Jews fought bravely and resolutely, and indeed carried out Mironov's order to resist the enemy with flesh and blood, the shape on the battlefield was extremely unfavorable to them, and on the afternoon of June 15, Mironov's remaining troops had been compressed on the banks of the river.

At this time, behind the separate cavalry brigade was the Bug River, they had no reinforcements, suffered heavy casualties, and were extremely tired. But they couldn't retreat, let alone surrender, they could only grit their teeth and struggle for support......

"I don't want to listen to what is going on slowly! Speed up! I ask you to be there tonight! This is a dead order, there are no conditions to talk about, if you can't complete the task, you will come to me! ”

Li Xiaofeng hung up the phone heavily, he rarely spoke to Ubolevich in such a strong tone, he also knew that the former enemy commander-in-chief had encountered a lot of difficulties, a lot of troubles, but there was only one chance, if he couldn't annihilate Pilsudski's main force, it would mean that Ukraine and Belarus would still be a mess, and even with the agreement between Germany and Austria and the Entente, the civil war in Russia would continue, which he could not accept, let alone bear! (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to the Big Bang Theory, Admiral Hood, Traveler with the Wind and Comrade Juventus!