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Although they negotiated with the German commanders, they said that the safe passage for civilians would only be open for two hours, but no one expected that there were actually 6000 to [-] people in these villages and settlements used by the Germans as firepower support points, of which the elderly and children accounted for the majority.The old ones, the young ones, were slow to move in the first place, and the muddy road made them move even slower.

Seeing that two hours would be here, Ismailov couldn't help muttering as he looked at the endless refugee line.A staff officer next to him asked in a low voice: "Comrade commander, it will be two hours soon, do you need to fire a yellow flare?"

According to the prior agreement, when the Soviet army fired a yellow signal flare, it meant that the passage would be closed. No matter how many civilians remained, the Soviet army would not hesitate to take military action against the fire support point.

After hearing this, Ismailov shook his head lightly and said, "Didn't you see that there are still so many old people and children who haven't left our encirclement? If the passage is closed at this moment, what should they do? Should we let them go back to die?"

"However, the time given by the superior is coming soon." The staff officer said: "If the attack time is delayed because of this, if the superior blames it, you may be punished."

"I'll call the commander first and ask him what he means." Ismailov felt that he should report the real situation here to Sokov to see if he could extend the time for opening the passage.

After the call was connected, Sokov figured out that Ismailov called to ask for instructions on whether to delay closing the passage, so he said directly: "Comrade Colonel, since the passage open to civilians is in your division's defense zone, you can decide whether to extend the opening time of the passage or close it early according to the actual situation. Do you understand?"

After receiving Sokov's authorization, Ismailov immediately gained confidence. After putting down the phone, he said to the staff next to him: "Comrade Commander said, we have full power to decide when to close the passage, and there is no need to ask the headquarters for instructions."

After hearing this, the staff officer was overjoyed: "Comrade Commander, so as long as there are still civilians who have not been evacuated, it doesn't matter if the passage is opened until tomorrow?"

"How is this possible." Ismailov immediately vetoed the other party's argument, and said with a straight face: "It can be extended for another hour at most. You immediately take a German translator and drive over to tell the civilians with a loudspeaker to speed up. We don't have much time left for them."

The staff officer agreed, called a German interpreter, took a jeep with a horn, and headed towards the refugee team walking in the distance, urging them to speed up, so that they would not have to stay in the village or settlement to die after the passage was closed.

Under the urging of the tweeters, the German civilians quickened their pace. They knew what would happen next. If they could not leave before the passage was closed, they might die in the ensuing artillery fire.

When the last civilian left the encirclement through the channel left by the Soviet army, Ismailov raised his hand to check the time. The opening time of the entire channel was three hours and twelve minutes.He ordered the staff around him: "Close the passage, and at the same time fire a yellow flare into the air."

Knowing that the passage for civilians to evacuate has been closed, Sokov nodded slowly, and then told Sidolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, call General Potapov and say that the civilians in the fire support points have been evacuated, and they can shoot without any scruples. It is best to use intensive artillery fire to level these fire support points to reduce the casualties of our attacking troops."

After Sidolin called, he cautiously reminded Sokov: "Comrade Commander, did you say that among the civilians evacuated from the passage, were there any German officers and soldiers who took off their uniforms?"

"There must be." Sokov nodded and said: "The new German army has recruited a large number of children, old people, and even women. If they don't want to work for the Germans, they can just throw away their weapons and escape in the crowd. After all, most people don't have regular military uniforms. As long as they don't have weapons, they look like civilians. But their escape is also a good thing for us. Not only will there be fewer enemies to fight with us, but it will also break the enemy's morale and lower their morale."

After chatting with Sokov for a few more words, Sidolin called Potapov: "General Potapov, the civilians in the fire support point have been evacuated, you can fire!"

"Okay, Comrade Chief of Staff." Knowing that all the civilians in the shelling area had been evacuated, Potapov felt relieved, and quickly replied, "I will immediately organize artillery to shell the German fire support points."

A few minutes later, hundreds of artillery pieces of various calibers deployed in West Oder River County opened fire at the fire support point occupied by the German army.In an instant, it was shrouded in fire and gunpowder smoke. Buildings of various shapes collapsed and burst into flames under the artillery fire. The German officers and soldiers hiding inside either hid in nearby air-raid shelters, or ran around like headless flies to avoid the intensive artillery fire.

The shelling finally stopped after an hour. The German officers and soldiers in the fire support point were thankful that they had survived. Unexpectedly, the next moment, the rocket with a long flame tail crossed the sky again, and plunged into the German position, making an earth-shattering explosion.In the raging flames, countless bricks and stones, rubble, human limbs, and weapon fragments were thrown into the air by the blast wave, and then fell down like heavenly maidens.

Several Guards Rocket Battalions fired only one round, but did not fire again, and the entire battlefield fell into silence.

At this moment, three red flares suddenly rose in the sky, which was the signal for the attack.

Then, the song "Sacred War" suddenly sounded on the radio that was urgently placed at the starting position.At first, the nearby commanders thought they heard it wrong, but when they heard the melody of this song coming from all around, they realized that it was the singing coming from the radio.

The commanders at all levels were the first to jump out of the trenches. Holding their pistols high, they turned half sideways and shouted at the commanders and fighters in the trenches: "Comrades, follow me!"

Soon, there was a tsunami-like "Ula" sound from all directions, and thousands of commanders and fighters jumped out of the trenches and rushed to the distant fire support point with their weapons.

The fire support points established by the German army used the houses in the villages and residential areas, and built some trenches around the buildings, using crossfire to block the road for the Soviet army to attack, which led to the failure of the Soviet army's first offensive.However, after the artillery preparation just now, all the buildings in the fire support point were destroyed, and the German army could only establish a defensive position in the broken trenches or masonry rubble to block the Soviet attack. '

But their resistance seemed so insignificant in front of the powerful Soviet army.Soon, the Soviet army rushed into the fire support point billowing with gunpowder, engaged in melee and hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, and took the initiative in a very short period of time.

Knowing that the troops on the west bank had successfully captured the German fire support point, Sokov smiled on his face. He said to Sidolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you are in charge here. I plan to go to the West Bank to have a look."

Hearing that Sokov said he was going to the West Bank, Sidolin showed a bitter expression on his face: "Comrade Commander, I think it's better for you to go to the front for inspection when we move the headquarters to the West Bank, okay?"

"No, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov shook his head and said, "We have been fighting on both sides of the Oder River for two days. I can only find out what is going on at the frontier through the phone or the results of the battle from the frontier troops. I still want to go there and see what the landing site on the west bank looks like."

"Misha." Lunev next to him interjected, "If you have no objection, I want to go and have a look with you."

Sokov felt that if the battle was going on to the present level, Lunev and himself would not encounter any danger along the way if they went to the West Bank, so he nodded and agreed: "Okay, Comrade Military Commissioner, then you will go to the West Bank with me, and the work here will be handed over to Chief of Staff Sidolin."

Ten minutes later, Sokov and Lunev headed towards the Oder River in a jeep under the protection of the guard company led by Koshkin.

Along the way, you can see convoys heading towards the river, as well as troops marching on foot. Occasionally, you can also see trucks coming from the direction of the river, with the wounded sent down from the front lying in the carriages.

"Misha, it seems that our troops suffered a lot of casualties." Lunev frowned as he looked at the cabins of more than a dozen trucks passing by, full of wounded people.

But Sokov didn't take it seriously. According to his observation, among the dozens of trucks that passed by just now, no more than [-] wounded were transported.In such a large-scale war, one or two hundred casualties are nothing, such casualties are simply negligible.

"Stop, stop!" Just as Sokov was contemplating, Koshkin, who was sitting in the co-pilot seat, suddenly heard shouting: "Put the car on the side of the road."

After the car came to a complete stop, seeing Koshkin about to open the door and get out of the car, Sokov quickly asked, "Koshkin, what happened?"

"Look, Comrade Commander!" Koshkin said, pointing to the side of the road, "there's a firing squad over there, ready to shoot people."

Hearing that there was a firing squad going to shoot people outside, Sokov couldn't help being startled, secretly wondering if there were deserters in his army?He hurriedly looked out the car window and saw a row of soldiers with rifles standing on the right side of the road. In front of them were five soldiers in officer uniforms, including a female officer.

"Damn, what's going on here?" Sukov felt strange. If the people who were going to be shot were deserters, then they should be mainly soldiers, but the people who were going to be shot at this moment were all officers.In order to find out what was going on, he also opened the car door and followed Koshkin towards the firing squad.

Watching the firing squad under the command of a lieutenant aiming at the five officers, Sokov quickly shouted: "Stop, put down the guns!"

The lieutenant in command of the execution heard someone stop him and was about to explode, but when he turned his head, he saw Sokov, accompanied by Koshkin, striding towards him, and hurriedly ordered his subordinates: "Put down the gun!" Then he trotted to Sokov and raised his hand to salute him.

"Comrade Lieutenant." Sokov glanced at the officer not far away, and asked with a straight face, "What's going on, why did you shoot them?"

"Report to Comrade Commander," the lieutenant replied hastily, "They are German spies who killed several of our soldiers. We captured them and are about to execute them."

Sokov looked at the officers and found that they didn't look like German spies, so he asked with a straight face: "Comrade Lieutenant, what evidence do you have that can prove that they are German spies? If you have evidence, show it to me."

The lieutenant quickly took out a military ID card from his pocket, handed it to Sokov, and said: "Comrade commander, one of our checkpoints was attacked an hour ago, and all three soldiers on duty were killed. When I arrived with my men, I picked up this military ID card on the ground. At this moment, these officers came over and said that they were on a special mission and asked me to allow them to pass. I asked them to show their ID cards, but they said that their ID cards were robbed on the road. I accidentally found one of them. , was exactly the same as the photo on the military ID card, and they were all arrested immediately. Although they all said they were Soviet officers, I can conclude that they are German spies."

"It's nonsense, it's nonsense." After hearing this, Sokov scolded the officer: "How can you use a military ID card that you picked up so hastily to determine that these officers are counterfeit by the Germans? If they are our own, you can shoot them without any explanation. Do you know what the consequences will be?"

Hearing what Sokov said, the lieutenant didn't dare to speak anymore, so he could only lower his head and say nothing.

Sokov turned his head and said to Koshkin behind him: "Captain Koshkin, go and bring those officers over. I want to ask them in person what's going on. How could all their documents be lost for no reason, and one of them will miraculously appear at the checkpoint."

Koshkin agreed, and ran towards the five officers with a few soldiers.

After untying the officers first, he brought them to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, I brought everyone here for you."

Sokov nodded at Koshkin, and then said to the officers with unfamiliar faces: "Let me introduce myself. I am Sokov, Commander of the 48th Army. Can you tell me your identities and why you are here?"

"General Sokov." As soon as Sokov finished speaking, an elderly major officer said: "This is purely a misunderstanding, and your subordinates didn't listen to our explanation at all, and insisted that we were impersonated by the Germans, and they would all be shot. If you were a little later, I'm afraid we would all be shot."

"Yes, Comrade General." The female officer also added: "We have already told the lieutenant that we were on a special mission. Because of a small accident, all the documents were lost, but he gave us the order to shoot us without giving us a chance to defend ourselves."