Chapter 30 Thick Clouds
This was probably the first time Yuri actually participated in a battle, and even more so the first time he actually commanded a battle.
The development of the battle was just as he had guessed before. The second wave of attack launched by the rebels really focused on the left line. However, the defense organized by Lieutenant Antip was also very successful. Most importantly, the mortars in the hands of the rebels never fired again. It was estimated that they had a limited number of shells in their hands, and most of them had been used up in the previous battle.
After Lieutenant Antip's left-line battle started, the right-line battle commanded by Lieutenant Gleb Vitalievich also started, and the battle on this line went quite smoothly. The rebels were obviously caught off guard by the sudden counterattack launched by the 209th Battalion, so they were unable to organize an effective defense.
Although the battle went smoothly, due to the cover of night and the large number of rebels, the battle lasted for several hours. It was not until daylight that the gunfire in the jungle outside the town completely subsided.
Greeting the first rays of morning light, Yuri, who had not slept all night, once again left the temporary command post set up at the radar station and, accompanied by Lieutenant Antip, inspected several major battle sites of last night.
Lieutenant Antip was injured in last night's battle, but the injury was not serious. There was only a cut on his left arm by a stray bullet. After a simple bandage, he is no longer in danger.
On the defense line set up by the 209th Battalion to the west of the radar station, soldiers were cleaning up the battlefield. Corpses scattered everywhere were being loaded onto trucks and horse-drawn carriages, ready to be taken to the woods outside the town for burial. Scarlet bloodstains could be seen almost everywhere.
According to Lieutenant Antip's report, the 2nd Company was seriously damaged in the battle last night, with nearly 30 soldiers killed and more than 50 injured. However, the rebels' losses were obviously greater, with more than 80 bodies abandoned and more than 40 prisoners captured.
To be honest, this result may seem small, but it is actually very good. At least Yuri is very satisfied - he successfully defended the radar station and inflicted heavy damage on a group of invading Bandera armed rebels. If he reports this matter, it should be no problem to get a commendation or something.
Of course, for Yuri, this battle has a more important meaning, that is, it gave his soldiers the most effective training. A soldier who has been on the battlefield and a soldier who has not been on the battlefield will perform completely differently when facing the same battle. Now, after a baptism of blood and fire, Yuri believes that his troops are much more useful than before.
After inspecting the battlefield and obtaining detailed information on the casualties and gains of the troops, Yuri began to think about how to write his report. Of course, he also wanted to summarize some experiences and lessons that truly belonged to him from this battle.
Just as he had considered before, Yuri really planned to reflect the concept of "anti-retreat squad" in the report. The specific reason was that in this battle, there were indeed four deserters in his 209th Battalion.
"... the obedience of the soldiers must be guaranteed. In the face of complex battlefield situations, the commander's orders must be firmly implemented. Without the commander's approval, any form of retreat is escaping, betrayal, and a crime against the security of the Soviet state..." In the report, Yuri used a large section to discuss the seriousness of lax military discipline and soldiers' unauthorized escape. "... the phenomenon of cowardly escape by soldiers must be punished. From punishment in the disciplinary camp to execution, any form of punishment is not excessive. In special circumstances, similar punishments can even be carried out without the trial and approval of the military court..."
It is said that one's mind is determined by one's buttocks, and Yuri obviously cannot get rid of this rut. When he first came to this world, all he wanted to do was to be a deserter, but now that he has become a commander, he has begun to hate the role of a deserter, and in his combat report, he proposed that deserters could be shot directly without trial and approval by a military court. This view is cold and ruthless, but it must be implemented in high-intensity war confrontations, at least in this era.
A general's success is the result of the sacrifice of hundreds of soldiers. This is a true saying. Yuri's ruthless thinking about war only shows that he is transforming into a qualified commander.
With the outbreak and end of a battle, the rainy season that seemed very long gradually passed, and the weather in western Ukraine began to become clear, but the air was still very humid.
It was morning, close to eleven o'clock, and the sun, which brought a sense of heat, had just reached the zenith. In Vesorce, only six kilometers from Lutsk, on the wasteland that had just been leveled half a month ago, two crawler tractors covered in mud were running over deep trenches, spewing smoke.
The tractor was very old. The tracks made a squeaking noise while it was moving, which made people feel sick.
As the tractor rolled over the trench, four or five figures suddenly jumped out of the trench and threw the white cloth bags in their hands towards the rear of the tractor.
The rear of the tractor had been modified, with a large iron plate hanging on the rear end, and on the iron plate, there were circles drawn like target boards. The white cloth bag thrown by the figure was obviously lime, and it splashed layers of white mist on the iron plate.
"beep!"
A sharp whistle sounded outside the trench, and a sergeant waving a small flag jumped out from the front of the tractor. He rushed to the front of the trench quickly and roared at the soldiers hiding in the trench, as if he was very dissatisfied with the actions they had just taken.
About four or five hundred meters away from the tractor, Yuri pursed his lips and watched the training on the field with an expressionless face.
Yes, this is one of the important training programs of the 209th Battalion in recent times: facing the oncoming tracked vehicles, soldiers need to hide in the trenches, on the one hand to avoid bullets fired from the opposite side, on the other hand to attack the infantry moving along with the tracked vehicles, and finally, to attack the vulnerable parts behind the tracked vehicles.
Similar training has been going on for nearly a month. According to the training plan given by Yuri, this training includes a lot of content, but in fact, its main purpose is to train the soldiers' courage and train them to use trenches and Molotov cocktails to destroy enemy tanks when facing attacks from armored forces.
Being calm and composed is the most important psychological quality for a soldier to resist an armored raid in the absence of effective anti-tank weapons.
Such training may sound simple and require no skills, but in reality, the initial training of the 209th Battalion was not easy at all.
Fear is a psychological state, a human emotion, and it is very difficult to overcome it. Don't think that soldiers who have experienced hundreds of battles and have been through life and death are free from fear. That is simply impossible.
In the initial training, the soldiers who participated in this training were almost panicked when they saw the heavy tracks rolling over their heads. It was impossible for them to destroy the tracked vehicles while guarding against enemy infantry. Fortunately, as the training continued, the effect of the corresponding training has gradually emerged. At least when facing the tracks, the panic of the soldiers is no longer so obvious.
Frowning, Yuri watched the two tractors roll over the second trench, and then watched the soldiers hidden in the trenches divide the work and cooperate with each other. Some of them sniped the soldiers following behind the tractors, and some threw lime balls at the iron plates. The training was effective, but it was obviously not time to rejoice. Don't forget, this was just training, not a real battle.
Over the past month, the international situation has become increasingly tense. Soviet domestic news media, especially military reports, have shown that war is approaching step by step.
The defeat of the British and French coalition forces was beyond people's expectations, and what was even more unexpected was the speed of France's defeat. According to the Red Star, the defeat of France would inevitably stimulate the ambitions of the Germans, and Britain would become the main target of the Germans' attack in the next step. This statement was soon confirmed. The outbreak of the Battle of Britain indicated that after the Germans annexed France, they had already aimed their attack at the other side of the English Channel.
Perhaps because there is a Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact there, Moscow does not want to overly provoke Berlin, or perhaps it is a beautiful expectation. Now no one publicly mentions that Germany may invade the Soviet Union, but it is true that Moscow has secretly sounded the red alert.
When the French surrendered, the Kiev Special Military District issued a secret order to all subordinate units, canceling the summer leave for commanders of all units. At the same time, all soldiers' applications for family visits and vacations were not approved. In addition, the military district required the logistics department to prepare a base amount of ammunition for artillery units and to be on standby 24 hours a day.
At that stage, the entire Kiev Special Military District was almost in a state of combat readiness, and the Western Special Military District was also the same. However, this state of mobilization did not last long. In mid-August, with the outbreak of the Battle of Britain, especially with the large-scale bombing of Britain by the Germans, this tense state of combat readiness was lifted.
The prediction that the Germans would not go to war with the Soviet Union in the short term, at least until they had completely defeated the British, began to gain the upper hand in public opinion.
However, as a reborn person, Yuri was not so optimistic. He knew that with the outbreak of the Anglo-German War, the country he lived in took another big step towards war.
