Chapter 98: Siege
It was another cold morning. Snowflakes were falling from the pale blue sky. The whole snowfield seemed to be covered with a layer of fog. Everything seemed hazy, like flowers in the fog.
At the edge of the Merguyev Forest, less than 1 km away from Sheverdrov Hill, Yuri, who had not slept all night, was holding a cigarette and chatting with the Military Commissar of the 133rd Division, Chemirnov, and the Deputy Division Commander Pitakov, beside a coniferous pine tree.
Just a few hundred meters away from the three people, dozens of artillery vehicles were slowly driving out of the woods and deployed to the artillery positions that had been cleared before.
"Is that the 'good girl' Comrade Peredelsky mentioned?" Yuri asked curiously as he watched a dozen Katyusha rocket launchers appear at the edge of the woods.
"Yes, that's our 'good girl,'" said Pittakov, smiling.
In fact, the name Katyusha was not popular at the beginning. Most Soviet soldiers and command called her "good girl". However, this girl was not actually good. On the contrary, she was very cruel, and quite cruel.
These Katyusha rocket launchers were mounted on trucks. After driving out of the woods, the accompanying artillerymen began to busily lower the two jacks at the rear of the trucks after the trucks entered the gun positions. At the same time, they began to install rockets on the launching I-frame.
In just over ten minutes, all the guns were in position and had completed some of the preparations before the bombardment. Shortly afterwards, a captain on horseback galloped past the position, reporting various parameters as he ran, and the gunners at each position began to busy themselves with correcting the data.
At this time, Yuri discovered that some soldiers next to the dozen or so Katyusha rocket launchers were actually putting on raincoats. This made him very curious. He had never seen the scene of a rocket launcher being launched, so of course he didn't know why they were wearing raincoats.
However, as a division-level commander, he was too embarrassed to ask such an unprofessional question, so he could only suppress his curiosity in his heart.
"It seems that there are a lot of new recruits," Pitakov, who was standing next to him, looked at the soldiers beside the various artillery positions and suddenly said this with emotion.
"Yes," Chemirnov also nodded in agreement.
Yuri turned his head and looked at the two men in confusion. He lacked experience in commanding organized artillery operations, so he didn't know how the two men could tell that there were many new recruits among these artillerymen. Could there be some secret here?
Pitakov saw Yuri's look, smiled and said, "I've come across this kind of rocket launcher before. It's very powerful, but there's just one problem. When this thing is fired, if you're too close, you'll get really dirty."
After hearing what he said, Yuri understood. It turned out that those wearing raincoats must be experienced veterans, and those without raincoats must be new recruits, or at least new recruits who had just been transferred to the rocket artillery unit.
"In fact, being close to this thing will not only make you dirty, but also make your ears very uncomfortable," Chemirnov took over the topic and said, "When I first came into contact with this thing, my ears rang for a long time. I even had auditory hallucinations when I slept for the first few nights. Oh, that 'whooshing' sound is really unbearable."
Yuri smiled and expressed his understanding. In fact, he also didn't like being too close to the artillery positions, because the deafening sound could really cause people to suffer from auditory hallucinations if they were not used to it.
However, as the commander of the 133rd Division, he has to stay here today because this is his forward battalion command post. In a dozen minutes, the artillery unit in front of him will launch a 25-minute bombardment on the city of Sollechnogorsk. After that, the main force of the 133rd Division will launch a full-scale attack on the city in order to recapture the city.
Previously, Yuri had proposed to the army headquarters that he was going to order his troops to break through to the west of Sollechnogorsk and encircle the German troops trapped in the city. However, this plan was rejected because the front command's combat intention was to quickly achieve a breakthrough in this area. In order to prevent the German garrison in Sollechnogorsk from harassing the flank of the assault force, the 133rd Division had to attack the German troops in front to contain their strength and prevent them from taking care of other things.
Even though the plan was rejected, Yuri was not too dissatisfied. After all, there were less than two German regiments stationed in Sollechnogorsk. The 133rd Division had an absolute advantage in morale, manpower and equipment. There was no reason why they could not win the battle even if they had to fight hard.
"Comrade Yuri," Pitakov suddenly came up to Yuri after chatting for a while and whispered, "Do you think that after we recapture Sollechinovgorsk, will our troops receive an order to continue the attack to the west?"
Hearing this question, Chelminov turned his head. He was also very concerned about this issue.
"It's hard to say now. At least the order I received is to defend Sollechnogorsk to prevent the German troops from the northwest from attacking our flank." Yuri shook his head and said.
In fact, not only Pitakov and Cherminov, but also commanders at all levels of the 133rd Division were very concerned about this issue. At this critical moment, no one was willing to stay in a certain position to defend. Everyone wanted to attack and gain more merits.
Hearing Yuri's words, Pitakov and the others were somewhat disappointed. In their opinion, although the 133rd Division had suffered some losses during the previous counterattack, the losses were not great and they could be fully deployed in the subsequent battles. However, judging from the current situation, this hope did not seem very great.
More than ten minutes passed quickly. At 7:30, just when Yuri had just lit his second cigarette of the morning, a Soviet captain ran up a small hill outside the woods and began waving a small red flag at the artillery position. Then, a sharp whistle sounded throughout the position.
The roar of a landslide instantly drowned out the entire jungle. In addition to the "bang bang bang" roar of the howitzers, the unique "whoosh" sound of rockets taking off was even more sharp and piercing.
It was not until this time that Yuri finally understood why the veterans wore raincoats. The flames at the tail of the rockets blew the snow on the ground all around. The high temperature caused the snow to liquefy into water while splashing up. The new soldiers who were not far away and did not wear raincoats were directly splashed with muddy water. It was late winter, and it would definitely not be comfortable if the clothes were soaked.
In addition to the deafening sound of the artillery, the forest was enveloped by thick white smoke, which contained the smoke from the burning gunpowder and the evaporating water vapor. Although it was deep winter, many soldiers on the artillery positions took off their thick military jackets a few minutes after the bombardment began. The high temperature radiated around the artillery, coupled with the non-stop busyness, no one felt cold.
After the bombardment was officially launched, Yuri, Pitakov and Chemirnov left the artillery position and headed for the 133rd Division Infantry Front Position on Sheverdrov Hill. Just as they climbed to the top of the nearly 200-meter-high mountain, dozens of Soviet fighter planes roared through the air, passed over Sollechnogorsk and flew to the northwest - this was the air force preparing to support the Kalinin Front's offensive.
Less than 100 artillery pieces of various calibers and 18 Katyusha rocket launchers fired simultaneously, turning the entire Sollechnogorsk urban area into a hell. Standing on the top of the mountain and looking toward the urban area, one could see explosions and fires everywhere in the city. The Supreme Command was determined to destroy the fascist army even if it meant turning the city into ruins.
With the help of the telescope, Yuri saw a formation of more than 20 tanks slowly advancing towards the outskirts of the city along the road on the south side of Sheverdlov Hill. In front of the tank formation, more than 20 meters away, a group of infantry was advancing rapidly. They were the troops launching the first wave of offensive towards the city of Sollechnogorsk.
With Sheverdlov Hill as the watershed, the northwest of the hill is a city being destroyed and a battlefield, while the southeast of the hill is a snowfield and endless jungle. This scene reminds Yuri of Lutsk. That was half a year ago, when he was still a battalion commander, and now he is commanding a division. Half a year ago, he could only lead a few hundred people to stay in a narrow area, and all he thought about was how to escape and how to increase the chance of survival. Now, he is commanding thousands of soldiers to attack a city occupied by the German army.
Sometimes, the circumstances of life are so unimaginable. Yuri even wondered where he would stand and sigh like this in half a year? What would he be like in ten years? And what would the soldiers he commanded in Lutsk do now? What would they be doing ten years later?
"Comrade Yuri," Hearing the artillery fire from the rear gradually subside, Pitakov looked at his watch, took two steps closer to Yuri, and asked, "The time has come, can we order the troops to attack?"
Yuri withdrew his thoughts, looked at the city in the distance again, and nodded calmly.
This was not the best time to express his feelings. The troops responsible for the offensive were still waiting for his orders. The Germans were still scattered in the city ahead and resisted stubbornly. In another five minutes, a few kilometers away in the direction of Kakizovo, the friendly troops responsible for breaking into the depths of the German defense line would launch a full-scale offensive. The 133rd Division must gain a foothold in the city of Sollechnogorsk before the friendly troops break through the German canal defense line.
