red moscow

Chapter 2834

Rokossovsky did not expect that his headquarters would be attacked by the German army. Tank shells landed in the village where the headquarters was located and exploded. Several unfortunate wooden houses were hit by the artillery fire and were immediately blown apart.

"Comrade Commander," Malinin hastily suggested to Rokossovsky after confirming that the enemy was approaching the village where the headquarters was located: "The enemy is approaching the headquarters. We should move immediately."

But his proposal was quickly rejected by Rokossovsky: "No, Comrade Chief of Staff. The enemy is now attacking many parts of our defense zone. If the headquarters is transferred at this moment, the troops will lose unified command, and the defense line will be in danger of being breached."

"What should we do?" Malinin said anxiously, "Once the enemy rushes into the village, our headquarters will be in danger of being wiped out."

Rokossovsky knew that the situation was extremely dangerous, but he knew even more clearly that if the headquarters moved at this moment, it would be impossible to get in touch with the troops fighting at the front for at least one or two hours. Once the troops lost their unified command were defeated one by one by the German army, the defense line would be in danger of being breached. It was precisely because of this that Rokossovsky chose to stay despite the critical situation.

Seeing that Rokossovsky was unwilling to move, Malinin turned to Orel and said, "Comrade Chief of Armored Forces, I remember there are still two armored vehicles in the village. Do you think we should send them to provide the necessary fire support for the defenders holding on to the village?"

"It's not a big problem for armored vehicles to deal with ordinary infantry." Orel said with a serious expression, "But listen to the noise outside. The German army has sent out at least five or six tanks. Our armored vehicles will die if they face German tanks."

Perhaps seeing Rokossovsky's livid face, Orel hastily added, "Of course, although armored vehicles cannot defeat German tanks, they will not have much problem dealing with infantry. I will arrange for them to assist the infantry in holding their positions and absolutely prevent the Germans from entering the village."

When Orel went out to command the defense, Lobachev asked Malinin anxiously: "Chief of Staff, where is General Kazakov?"

Although Lobachev was a political worker, he knew that artillery was indispensable if the German tanks were to be destroyed. But if he wanted to command the artillery, he had to find Major General Kazakov, the chief of the army's artillery.

"He went to inspect the troops." Malinin asked helplessly, "As for when he will be back, no one can tell."

"The troops protecting the headquarters have less than 300 people and lack heavy weapons." Lobachev was worried when he learned that Kazakov didn't know when he would return. "If our headquarters is destroyed by the enemy, then the defense line may collapse."

"Comrade Military Commissar, don't worry." Rokossovsky comforted Lobachev and said, "Even if we can't find the artillery director for the time being, it's no big deal. We can ask for help from other troops. As long as we hold on for a while, we will be able to wait for reinforcements to arrive."

"Comrade Commander, we can ask for help from nearby troops," Malinin replied, "but the nearest troops are about seven or eight kilometers away. Even if they come to support us as soon as they get the news, it will probably take nearly an hour. I'm worried that our soldiers can't hold out that long."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, tell the soldiers to hold out until reinforcements arrive," Rokossovsky said, "otherwise, we will all be finished."

Malinin followed Rokossovsky's orders and, when contacting the 316th Infantry Division and the Cavalry Army, informed both units of the danger the headquarters was in, hoping that they could send reinforcements.

The first to receive the rescue order was the 316th Infantry Division. After receiving the telegram, the division chief of staff showed a shocked expression on his face, then quickly walked to Panfilov and handed him the telegram in his hand: "Comrade division commander, it's bad. The headquarters is under attack by the enemy and I'm afraid it won't hold out for long. The commander hopes we can send reinforcements."

After hearing what the divisional chief of staff said, Panfilov began to complain: "Damn it! Our division's defense area is under fierce attack by the enemy. How can we spare manpower to reinforce the headquarters?"

The divisional political commissar Yegorov said quickly: "Comrade division commander, you can't just watch our headquarters being destroyed by the enemy, can you?"

Although Panfilov was complaining, he knew better than anyone that if something went wrong with the headquarters, the various troops without unified command would fall into a chaotic situation of fighting each other, putting the 16th Army's defense line in danger of being breached.

"Comrade Political Commissar, I didn't say I wouldn't send reinforcements." Panfilov said, and then he ordered his chief of staff, "Go and call the guard battalion commander over."

But when the divisional chief of staff called, Yegorov whispered to Panfilov: "Comrade division commander, are you planning to send our guard battalion as reinforcement?"

"Of course." Panfilov nodded and said, "Now that the headquarters is in danger, we can't just sit there and watch, so I sent the guard battalion with stronger combat effectiveness to support the headquarters, hoping that they can rescue the headquarters from danger."

Yegorov knew very well that the guards were not only a powerful force, but also the security guarantee of the division headquarters. If they were sent to rescue the headquarters, it would mean that the division headquarters would lose its ability to protect itself, and once attacked by the enemy, it would be extremely dangerous. But Yegorov knew the priorities and knew that if something happened to the headquarters, it would bring serious consequences. Therefore, he could only temporarily ignore the safety of the division headquarters and go to rescue the headquarters first.

The guard battalion commander soon appeared at the command center.

After the other party raised his hand to salute, Panfilov said straight to the point: "Comrade Major, I called you here because I have a difficult task for you to complete."

The guard battalion commander naturally knew that Panfilov would not have urgently summoned him if it were not for an important mission, so he straightened his back and said, "Comrade division commander, please give the order."

"We just received a call from the headquarters, saying that they were attacked by the German army and the situation was extremely dangerous. They requested us to send someone to rescue them."

Hearing Panfilov's words, the guard battalion commander immediately understood the purpose of Panfilov's call and asked tentatively: "Comrade Division Commander, are you planning to let me lead some people to support the headquarters?"

"That's right." Panfilov nodded. "They may not be able to hold out for long, so you need to act quickly."

"Comrade Division Commander, the distance from here to the headquarters is about seven or eight kilometers." The guard battalion commander reminded Panfilov: "And we have no means of transportation. If we rush there on foot, it will take at least more than an hour. I don't know if they can hold out for that long." Panfilov's face changed immediately after hearing what the guard battalion commander said: "Comrade Major, I don't care what you think of, but you must get to the headquarters within an hour. Do you understand?"

Although it was a bit difficult to walk seven or eight kilometers in one hour, it should be possible as long as we grit our teeth. The guard battalion commander nodded vigorously and assured Panfilov: "Comrade commander, I will definitely reach the headquarters within an hour."

At this moment, the war at the headquarters has entered a white-hot stage.

The two armored vehicles sent by Orel were destroyed by shells flying from a distance as soon as they arrived behind the trenches set up by the guard troops. The soldiers in the vehicles did not even have a chance to escape and were burned to death in the vehicles.

Although they saw the armored vehicles that came to reinforce were destroyed by the enemy tanks, the soldiers in the trenches did not get scared and continued to fight tenaciously, trying to stop the enemies who were trying to rush into the village.

Malinin, who was busy in the headquarters, was stunned when he received the call from Orel. After a while, he came to Rokossovsky and reported: "Comrade Commander, Colonel Orel reported that our armored vehicles were destroyed by German tanks shortly after arriving at the position."

After listening to Malinin's report, Rokossovsky asked calmly, "What is the situation in Volokolamsk? Has the enemy broken through our defense line?"

"Not yet." Seeing that Sokov didn't seem to care about the battle outside, Malinin was briefly stunned and reported to him about the battles in various places: "Although the Volokolamsk area held by the 316th Infantry Division was attacked fiercely by the German army, the enemy's attack was crushed due to the tenacious resistance of the division's officers and soldiers. The situation in the Cavalry Army is slightly better. The attacking enemy did not receive support from tanks, so they could not break through the Cavalry Army's defense line. Part of the 126th Infantry Division in the far north is fighting tenaciously..."

Colonel Orel, who was in charge of commanding the troops outside the village, was standing next to a rotary machine gun with a pistol in his hand. The machine gunner aimed at the approaching German tank and pulled the trigger frantically. Unfortunately, the bullets hit the tank body, splashing countless sparks, but they were unable to penetrate the armor, and did not affect their speed of advancing at all.

After firing a magazine of bullets, the machine gunner quickly replaced the magazine and then looked at Orel beside him, as if asking, "Should we continue shooting?"

Orel understood the doubt in the machine gunner's eyes and nodded slowly, signaling him to continue shooting. Although everyone knew that the 7.62mm machine gun bullet could not penetrate the frontal armor of the tank, the reason for shooting was just to do the best one could.

Just as Orel saw the German tanks getting closer and closer and was in despair, a strange whistling sound suddenly came from the air, followed by a "boom boom boom" explosion. Several shells fell into the attacking German army, and the soldiers near the explosion point were instantly evaporated into air. The flying shrapnel cut down countless German soldiers who were just so aggressive.

After a brief silence, a soldier on the battlefield suddenly shouted: "It's our own artillery! It's our own artillery!"

After the surrounding soldiers heard his shout clearly, they also cheered.

As the soldiers cheered, a series of shells whistled through the air. Several more shells exploded on the ground, and the moving German tanks were enveloped in smoke and fire.

When the smoke cleared, Orel saw a German tank that had turned over beside a bomb crater. A tank soldier climbed out of the hole at the bottom of the tank, but he did not leave immediately. Instead, he turned around and dragged another companion out of the hole, and then they supported each other and ran away.

But they didn't run far before a shell landed not far from them and exploded, instantly blowing the two of them up into the air. When they fell back to the ground from the air, they had already become incomplete corpses.

"Great, this is really great." Orel judged from the scale of the shell explosion that several heavy artillery were bombarding. He thought excitedly: "It seems that Kazakov learned that the headquarters was in danger, so he ordered the artillery to fire here to rescue the guards."

A series of artillery bombardments blew the German army, which had just been so aggressive, into pieces.

Soon, the attack on the headquarters stopped. The two surviving tanks quickly turned around and retreated. The infantry, who had lost the tanks' cover, would not attack foolishly, but fired randomly while slowly retreating, trying to leave the battlefield as soon as possible.

Seeing the enemy retreat, Orel jumped out of the trench, raised his pistol high and shouted: "Comrades, follow me!"

The soldiers of the guard unit were excited to see the attacking German army being blown to pieces by the sudden artillery fire. When they saw Orel leading the charge, they jumped out of the trenches one after another and rushed towards the retreating enemy, shouting.

At the same time, the guard platoon leader hiding nearby saw the headquarters' guard troops attacking the enemy. He was worried that the artillery fire would accidentally hurt his own people, so he hurriedly shouted to the artillery observer: "Comrade artillery observer, quickly notify the artillery to stop firing, otherwise the shells will hit our own people."

When the artillery observer saw the enemy begin to flee, he also provided a set of firing parameters to the artillery in the distance. At this moment, seeing the guard troops of the headquarters launched a charge, he was worried that if he continued to bombard, he might accidentally hurt his own people. Hearing the shout of the guard platoon leader, he also notified the second artillery battalion to stop the bombardment to avoid accidentally hurting his own people.

The battle ended half an hour later, and Orel, his face covered in gunpowder, returned to the headquarters.

When he saw Kazakov talking to Rokossovsky, he stepped forward and shook his hand, saying gratefully: "Comrade Artillery Director, thank you so much. If you hadn't ordered the artillery to fire in time, I'm afraid our position would have been broken through by the Germans."

But after he finished speaking, Kazakov looked at him strangely and said, "Colonel Orel, you are wrong. I did not organize the bombardment. I am also discussing with the commander where the bombardment came from."

Orel was stunned after hearing this, and then he said in surprise: "What, you didn't organize the bombardment? How is this possible? You know, those heavy artillery units that caused huge casualties to the Germans. If it weren't the artillery units of the army group, which other unit could have such heavy artillery units?"

A word awakens a dreamer. Rokossovsky and Kazakov had just studied for a long time and still couldn't figure out what was going on with the bombardment. When they heard Orel mention the heavy artillery, they immediately thought of a person.

(End of this chapter)