Sokov did not refuse the kindness of Kurishenko and Sidorin, and asked them to deploy a company of guards near the observation post to prevent German troops from jumping over the wall and rushing directly to the observation post.
The two came to the observation post and raised their binoculars to look into the distance. Unfortunately, the German positions in the distance could not be clearly seen except for the billowing black smoke and the dazzling firelight.
"Comrade Sokov," Shtemenko had participated in many battles, but at that time they were all defensive battles. This kind of offensive battle was the first time he had ever experienced such an offensive battle. He asked curiously.
Sokov: "Such intensive artillery fire should be able to destroy all the fortifications on the German position, right?"
"Comrade Deputy Chief of General Staff, despite the fierce artillery fire of our army, there are still large gaps between the falling shells." Sokov explained to Shtemenko: "If German soldiers are in the position of these bombs
In a short period of time, even if there is no residue left by the bombing, it will be blown to pieces. But if it encounters fortifications, it may not be possible to destroy them. Especially those two-meter-thick reinforced concrete fortifications with small-caliber artillery.
When I hit it, there was only a white mark.
After each bombardment, when the Germans return from the second line of defense, they can even directly use these fortifications to resist our attack."
After hearing this, Shtemenko sighed softly, "I always thought that as long as we carried out strong artillery preparations before the attack, we could destroy the enemy's defenses. Once the artillery bombardment was over, our commanders and soldiers would
By charging, you can successfully break through the enemy's defense line."
Having said this, he shook his head with a wry smile, and continued: "It seems that I thought of the problem too simply. Fighting on the map and fighting on the actual battlefield are two completely different concepts."
Although Sokov agreed with Shtemenko's statement in his heart, he did not dare to echo it casually, lest he accidentally offend a lot of people.
Shtemenko put down the telescope, but unexpectedly found Sokov holding the telescope in a daze. He couldn't help but curiously asked: "Comrade Sokov, what are you thinking about?"
Sokov was awakened by Shtemenko's voice. He looked up at the other party and said insincerely: "Comrade Deputy Chief of General Staff, I was thinking: Lunev said he would come to investigate my problem, but the result is over.
Why hasn’t it appeared after such a long time?”
"His schedule is undoubtedly delayed." Shtemenko shrugged and said, "You know, you are about to command the troops to attack the enemy, and your superiors will definitely not allow any time to interfere with your command. So there must be someone
I greeted him and asked him not to come to the front for the time being."
"Oh, that's it." Before Sokov came to the frontier, he had been worried about missing Lunev. Now when he heard Shtemenko say this, he felt much more at ease.
"Who is that? Stop!" The alert voice of a sentry suddenly came from outside the observation post.
Sokov came to the door in two steps, looked out, and saw Yakov being blocked by a sentry with a gun. He quickly said to the sentry: "Comrade Corporal, that is Colonel Yakov from Moscow.
, please invite him over."
When the sentry heard what Sokov said, he quickly lowered his gun and turned his body to one side to make way for Yakov.
"Yakov, where have you gone?" Sokov waited for Yakov to enter the observation post and asked in a reproachful tone: "I have been at the front for so long and I have never seen you."
"I was distributing weapons to the soldiers in the 122nd Regiment. When I heard that you were coming to the front line, I immediately came to see you. Unexpectedly, as soon as I got here, I was stopped by the sentry." At this point, he turned around and looked around, a little puzzled.
He said: "Where is Lieutenant Koshkin? If he were here, I would not be blocked by sentries."
"Lieutenant Koshkin took people to inspect the outpost." Sokov explained to Yakov: "Although the German position is being severely hit by our artillery fire, they will not fire at us, but if
There are German scouts lurking nearby. When they find out that our defense is weak, they might launch a sneak attack or something like that. Koshkin just goes to check if there are any Germans lurking nearby."
"So that's it." Yakov nodded and said, "No wonder I didn't see his figure. I thought he was left at the headquarters by you."
While the two were talking, the sound of artillery outside suddenly stopped. Yakov quickly walked to the lookout, looked at the smoke-filled German positions in the distance, and asked casually: "Misha, the bombardment has stopped.
Are our troops going to attack soon?"
"Not yet." Sokov shook his head and said, "This is just the first round of shelling. The real attack will not start until the second round of shelling is over before attacking the enemy's position."
"What's the first round and the second round?" Yakov asked confused: "When will the artillery preparations before the attack be divided into two rounds?"
"Yasha, this matter is a bit complicated. Let me explain it to you slowly." Sokov quickly told Konev that after learning that Zhukov's troops were shelling the German positions, he advanced the artillery preparation time of the Second Front Army by one hour.
When I was young, I later convinced Shtemenko and asked Shtemenko to persuade Konev, and then I made the strange decision to turn the artillery preparation into two rounds.
Yakov originally wanted to say something, but when he saw Shtemenko standing aside, he swallowed the words that came to his lips and shook his head in confusion.
"Alert, air raid siren!" Suddenly there was another shout outside the observation post, and then a soldier rushed in with a gun and reported loudly to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, air raid siren, there are two
The enemy plane is coming towards us."
"Enemy plane?" Shtemenko was shocked. "Where did the enemy plane come from?"
"It's from the enemy's defense line, Comrade General." The soldier who reported the news had a strange kind of excitement in his voice because he could give the general a definite answer.
Shtemenko remembered that the deputy commander of the Voronezh Front, General Apanashchenko, was unfortunately killed by a German plane bombing while inspecting the front. At this moment, when he heard an enemy plane flying over, he couldn't help but feel a little scared.
He asked Sokov with a side face: "Comrade Sokov, do we need to move?"
Sokov did not expect that two enemy planes would suddenly appear, and he began to think quickly in his mind whether he should transfer immediately or continue to stay.
Fortunately, he didn't think about it for long before he made a decision: "Comrade Deputy Chief of General Staff, I think we should continue to stay here. After all, this observation post is half buried underground, and it is difficult for enemy planes to detect it from the air.
We. If we move, on the open plains, we will become the target of enemy aircraft."
"Okay, Comrade Sokov." After listening to Sokov's analysis, Shtemenko felt that there was no need to take risks. If the enemy plane was really coming for him, he would even leave the observation post and hide in Kurishin.
The Division Headquarters of the Division may not be able to escape the bombing, so it is better to simply stay and wait and see what happens: "Then we will stay here."
"Don't worry, Comrade Deputy Chief of General Staff." Yakov said unexpectedly: "I can assure you that enemy planes pose no threat to you at all!"
Sokov's curiosity was aroused by Yakov's words: "Yasha, why do you say that?"
"Among the weapons I transported this time, there are a batch of anti-aircraft machine guns." Yakov explained to Sokov: "Originally, I wanted to give it to them for horizontal shooting. Who knew that Colonel Sidorin saw it and told me:
There used to be an anti-aircraft machine gun battalion in the division, but since all the anti-aircraft machine guns were lost in the battle, these anti-aircraft machine gunners could only be used as ordinary soldiers."
"Are the anti-aircraft gunners armed?"
"Needless to say, they must have been armed a long time ago." After Yakov said this, he lowered his voice and said to Sokov: "And they are deployed nearby. I think you must not have noticed it?"
"Yeah, I didn't find it." Sokov thought that when he came over, he also carefully observed the surrounding environment. He didn't see any anti-aircraft positions. Where would Yakov hide this anti-aircraft machine gun battalion? "Ya
Sha, where did you hide them?"
Just when Yakov was trying to show off and refused to say anything, Koshkin came in from the outside. When he saw Yakov here, a look of astonishment flashed across his face, and he nodded to him as if to say hello.
, and then reported to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, when I led people on inspection, I found that an anti-aircraft machine gun unit was hidden nearby."
"Anti-aircraft machine gun unit?" Sokov guessed that the anti-aircraft machine gun unit discovered by Koshkin was most likely the unit Yakov mentioned. He looked at him with a smile and asked Koshkin: "Where are they?"
Which part of the place is it?”
"The leader was a major." Koshkin replied: "He told me that he was from the anti-aircraft machine gun battalion of the 41st Guards Division. Since all the anti-aircraft machine guns in the previous battalion were lost in the battle, they have been
They were used as infantry. Fortunately, Colonel Yakov sent them 18 Deshka 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns, and then they resumed their formation. Now they are stationed more than 300 meters away from the observation post. Since they are in contact with us
There is a slope in the middle, so they cannot be seen from here."
"Yasha," Sokov felt a lot more at ease after knowing the location of the anti-aircraft machine gun battalion. It was three hundred meters away from the observation post and was fully capable of preventing enemy planes from bombing the observation post. However, Sokov was worried about the deployment of air defense positions.
It was not ideal, and it would be difficult to shoot down the German aircraft, so he asked Yakov: "How did you allocate these 18 Deshka 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns?"
"I arranged these 18 Deshka 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine guns in groups of six according to the hexagonal shape of the honeycomb, and then three groups of hexagons formed a triangle. In this way, no matter which direction the German aircraft came from, they would be
Can deal with them with the same firepower."
"I have seen the Deshka 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun, and its power is indeed very good." Shtemenko interjected: "It is said that Lyudnikov's troops used this kind of gun in the battle to defend the barricade factory.
The machine gun fire caused huge casualties to the Germans."
When Sokov heard this, he began to mutter in his heart: "The Sky Fortress currently uses twin 14.5mm anti-aircraft machine guns. Due to its heavy weight and large recoil, it is afraid to install too many, lest it shake the aircraft apart.
If you replace this kind of Deshka 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun, you can install one on each side of the aircraft, then you can cover a larger area when conducting ground attacks, and the weight of the machine gun is reduced, and you can carry more
ammunition."
"Misha, what are you thinking about?" Seeing Sokov suddenly falling into deep thought, Yakov asked curiously, "I'm so lost in thought."
"Yasha," Sokov felt that if he wanted to rebuild the transport aircraft, he must get Yakov's help and ask him to help him get more Deshka anti-aircraft machine guns. So he asked the Air Force to transform several transport aircraft.
Turn them into air fortresses for ground attack. He finally said: "I would like to ask your help to find another batch of Deshka anti-aircraft machine guns. I plan to rebuild the transport aircraft."
After listening to Sokov's story, Yakov couldn't help but be stunned. After a while, he said: "Misha, do you know how dangerous your modification is? The 14.5mm anti-aircraft gun commonly used by our army
Even if there are only two machine guns left, being installed on a transport aircraft for firing will seriously affect the life of the fuselage. It is a miracle that these aircraft on missions have not disintegrated in the air. I suggest you stop the modification work immediately.
And replace all existing 14.5mm anti-aircraft machine guns with Deshka 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns to ensure that the life of the aircraft will not be affected."
"Well, I will call the chief of staff immediately and ask him to convey my intention to the air force commander."
Sokov picked up the phone on the table and dialed the army headquarters: "I'm Sokov. Let Comrade Chief of Staff answer the phone."
Hearing that it was Sokov who was looking for him, Smirnov did not dare to neglect and quickly took the microphone from the staff officer's hand: "Comrade Commander, what are your instructions?"
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov said straightforwardly without beating around the bush: "Immediately inform General Ryazanov that the modification work on the transport aircraft will be temporarily stopped. For those that have been completed, all machine guns installed on the aircraft must be removed.
Take it down."
Sokov's instructions made Smirnov confused: "Comrade Commander, why is this? Don't we use air fortresses to attack enemies on the ground in the future?"
"Yakov just told me that if a 14.5mm anti-aircraft machine gun is installed on an aircraft, the powerful recoil will seriously affect the life of the aircraft. In other words, even though our flying fortress looks very majestic, it will not fight for many battles.
There will be transport aircraft that disintegrate in the air because they cannot withstand the huge recoil."
Sokov explained to Smirnov: "Yasha suggested to me that if it is necessary to continue to modify the transport aircraft, then it should be replaced with a machine gun of smaller caliber. At the same time, these professional tasks should be carried out by the technicians of the Armament and Equipment Department.
Completed with cooperation.”
"Then what caliber of machine gun do you think is more appropriate?" Smirnov said on the phone: "If it is 7.62 mm, there are ready-made weapons in the air."
"No, the 7.62mm caliber is too small and not powerful enough to attack the ground." Sokov said: "I plan to replace it with a Deshka 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun. Although the caliber is slightly smaller, the 14.5mm machine gun can penetrate
It can also penetrate the target, and the recoil is much smaller, so it will have little impact on the life of the aircraft."
"Okay, Comrade Commander," Smirnov said, "I will immediately contact General Ryazanov and ask him to temporarily stop the modification work on the transport aircraft."
Just when Smirnov was about to put down the phone, Yakov said next to him: "Among the people I brought this time, there are weapons technicians. I think they can be sent to assist the Air Force in transforming transport aircraft."
"You heard it, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov waited for Yakov to finish and said into the microphone: "Technicians who know the technology will arrive at the headquarters soon, and then you can arrange the manpower and send them there.
General Ryazanov directed the transformation work."
This chapter has been completed!