Due to being too tired, Sokov fell asleep unknowingly while thinking.
After an unknown amount of time, the car suddenly stopped. Just as Sokov was about to open his eyes and ask if he was there, he heard Koshkin's voice: "Comrades, which section are you from? Why are you blocking our way?"
?”
"I'm sorry, Comrade Lieutenant." A slightly hoarse voice said: "The Germans have laid mines on the road ahead, and we are clearing them. No one can pass until all the mines are cleared."
When Sokov heard this, he couldn't help but trembled, and he suddenly woke up. You must know that he was injured a few months ago. On the way to inspect the front line, he encountered a group of Germans pretending to be Soviet engineers and was deceived by them.
Entering the room where the bomb was installed, if I hadn't reacted quickly and jumped out of the window when the bomb exploded, the grass on the grave would have been ten feet high by now.
He opened his eyes, looked out the window, and put his hand on the holster on his waist, ready to shoot if he found something was wrong.
Unexpectedly, after seeing clearly the dozen or so people standing not far away, Sokov exclaimed: "Lieutenant Colonel Miresiev, is that you?"
Lieutenant Colonel Miresiev was Sokov's classmate at the Frunze Military Academy. He followed Sokov out of the academy and came to the 53rd Army, and was appointed deputy commander of the 124th Regiment of the 41st Guards Division.
Miresiev, who was arranging engineers to clear mines, heard someone calling him. He turned towards the direction of the sound and happened to see Sokov sitting in the car. He walked over quickly and asked in surprise
: "Comrade Commander, why are you here?"
"I heard that you have captured Helsin, and I came here specially to take a look." Sokov only knew that the 18th Guards Army had captured Helsin, but the specific division was not clear: "Capture Helsin."
The army is your division, right?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander, it is our division."
"Where is your division headquarters?" Sokov asked, "Can you be my guide?"
"Comrade Commander, I am more than happy." After saying this, Miresiev called a captain and told him: "Comrade Captain, we must hurry up on the demining work, otherwise we will wait until our transport convoy arrives.
You can’t get to the city through here.”
Before Miresiev got into the car, Sokov asked curiously: "Miresiev, didn't you clear the road mines in advance before seizing the city?"
"Comrade Commander, you don't know something. These mines were laid by German stragglers." Miresiev replied with a bitter look on his face: "Before we captured the city, there were no mines on this road at all. It can be said that
It was unobstructed. But unexpectedly, after we occupied the city, landmines suddenly appeared on the road for no apparent reason, injuring many of our soldiers."
"Is it an infantry mine or an anti-tank mine?"
"Infantry mine!"
"Since it's an infantry mine, it's easy to handle." Sokov pointed at a Sherman parked not far away and said, "Let that tank run over the road, and the infantry mine will bully and bully."
The infantry is okay, but the threat it poses to tanks is much smaller."
Miresyev naturally obeyed Sokov's orders unconditionally. He turned around and ran to the tank, gave a few instructions to the commander who was sitting on the vehicle and watching the excitement, and then ran back to report to Sokov: "
Comrade Commander, everything has been arranged."
Sokov pushed open the car door, moved inside, and said to Milesiev: "Get in the car, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel."
Under the guidance of Lieutenant Colonel Miresiev, the convoy left the road and drove along the uneven path towards the depths of the forest. "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," Sokov raised his hand and grabbed the handle of the roof of the car.
, asked somewhat unexpectedly: "Why hasn't your division headquarters moved into the city yet?"
"Originally we were planning to move into the city," Miresiev replied: "But comrade division commander was worried that our superiors would soon assign us new combat tasks. Maybe the division headquarters would have to be moved to another place just after it was built.
He was worried that Sokov didn't understand, so he explained specifically, "After our division arrived here, the division commander set up the headquarters in the forest. As a result, before it was put to use, the city was
It was occupied by the vanguard."
"So that's it." Sokov nodded and said: "General Kurishenko is very thoughtful. If he just occupied the city, he would move the division headquarters into the city. Maybe the headquarters has just been arranged, and the superiors will
New orders will be passed down, and the headquarters will have to be moved at that time, which will cause a lot of inconvenience to the communication personnel."
"Milesiev, how many people are left in your regiment?" Sokov knew that the 41st Guards Division had suffered many casualties. As one of the 124th Regiment, the number of casualties must not be small. There may only be a few hundred people left.
Maybe that’s why this question arises.
"When the whole division advanced towards Haixin, there were still 700 people in our regiment..."
Although Sokov had known for a long time that the 124th Regiment had suffered a heavy attrition, the number of seven hundred men still shocked him. He thought that the regiment had suffered attrition due to some special reasons during the march, so he sighed softly.
, asked: "Milesiev, how many people are there in your group now?"
Unexpectedly, Milesiev replied excitedly: "2,400 people, Comrade Commander."
"2,400 people?" Sokov's eyes widened in surprise: "Where did the extra 1,700 people come from?"
"Prisoner of war camp, Comrade Commander, we found a prisoner of war camp in the forest." Miresiev said proudly: "When we arrived, all the guards in the prisoner of war camp had escaped, and only a few thousand were left.
He is a prisoner of war of our army."
When he learned that the 41st Guards Division had discovered a prison camp holding thousands of prisoners of war in the forest, Sokov couldn't help but twitched the muscles on his face violently.
.I went through all kinds of troubles to find the open-pit mine where prisoners of war were held near Uman. But the 41st Guards Division found a prisoner of war camp with thousands of people so easily.
But then I thought about it, the 41st Guards Division can replenish several thousand soldiers at once, which is a great thing. At least for a long time in the future, Kurishenko will not complain to himself, saying that there are not enough soldiers.
.But the only thing that worries him is that the health of these newly rescued commanders and fighters may not be ideal. Even if they are incorporated into the army, they may not have any combat effectiveness.
Seeing Sokov's silence, Miresyev asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, what are you thinking about?"
"It would be a good thing to be able to recruit thousands of people at once." Sokov looked at Miresiev and said, "I just don't know what the physical condition of these prisoners of war is?"
"Pretty good." Miresyev said with some joy: "These captured commanders and fighters are basically from the First Ukrainian Front. They were captured in the battle to defend Zhitomir at the end of last year.
Since they were not captured for too long, apart from being slightly weak, their overall condition is pretty good. As long as they are well fed, they will be able to pick up weapons and go to the battlefield to fight the Germans tomorrow."
When Miresiev talked about Zhitomir, Sokov remembered that after the liberation of Kiev, the 1st Ukrainian Front sent troops to Zhitomir. As a result, they were counterattacked by the German army there.
The troops paid a heavy price. Those commanders and fighters captured by the Germans only stayed in prisoner-of-war camps for three or four months, so their health conditions should not be that bad.
Under the leadership of Miresiev, Sokov came to the headquarters of the 41st Guards Division - the ranger's hut located in the forest.
When Sokov walked in, he saw Kurishenko and Sidorin talking to a tall, middle-aged man with a beard and wearing casual clothes. He walked towards the three of them and said loudly:
"Hello, fellow commanders! What are you talking about? Can you tell me?"
The middle-aged man who was speaking was interrupted and naturally felt unhappy. When he turned around and was about to get angry, he saw Kurishenko and Sidorin both raising their hands to salute the person: "Hello, Commander.
Comrade!"
The middle-aged man was also startled when he heard the two people calling Sokov "commander". He looked at Sokov's clothes carefully and immediately realized that he was facing a senior general, and hurriedly stayed where he was.
He stood at attention, raised his hand and gave a less than standard military salute: "Hello, Comrade Commander. I am the guerrilla captain Izvikov. Nice to meet you."
"Guerilla captain?!" If it were on Russian territory, Sokov would be somewhat happy when he heard the word guerrillas, because these comrades fighting behind enemy lines can provide a lot of help to the troops. But now they are
On the land of Ukraine, the guerrillas active on this land include both pro-Soviet and pro-Germany, and some are even anti-Soviet and anti-German. Therefore, Sokov wants to find out who is in front of him named Yi.
Who does Zvikov's middle-aged man belong to?
When Kurishenko saw that Sokov was silent, he took the initiative to introduce Izvikov's situation to him: "Commander, Comrade Izvikov was a Soviet member of the collective farm before the war. After the fall of Ukraine, he
He organized a guerrilla team of more than 200 people to fight guerrillas in this area. If it hadn't been for his help today, we wouldn't have been able to discover the prisoner of war camp hidden deep in the forest."
Sokov came here just to ask about the prisoner of war camp. Since the other party took the initiative to talk about it, he said calmly: "I heard that there are thousands of people in the prisoner of war camp, and their health condition is not too bad.
,is that true?"
"Of course it's true." Kurishenko nodded and said: "Comrade Izvikov led us, and I personally led a regiment to rush there. It is true that thousands of our army's prisoners of war were detained, but they were guarded
Germans, but they escaped at some point."
"How many commanders and fighters were rescued?" Sokov asked briefly: "Have they been reviewed and screened?"
"A total of 2,391 commanders and fighters were rescued..."
"Wait a minute, General Kurishenko." Hearing this, Sokov interrupted Kurishenko's words and asked tentatively: "You said there were only 2,391 rescued commanders and combatants?"
"Yes, there are only 2,391 people!"
"Since there are only more than 2,000 people, why were 1,700 of them allocated to the 124th Regiment?" Sokov asked puzzledly: "The 122nd and 126th Regiments combined were only allocated 700 people?"
"It's like this, Comrade Commander." Sidorin explained to Sokov: "The rescued commanders and fighters are all personnel who have undergone military training and have combat experience. And the 124th Regiment is the regiment with the worst combat effectiveness in our division.
, the division commander added 1,700 men to the regiment in the hope of improving the unit's combat effectiveness in a short period of time.
As for the 122nd and 126th Regiment, firstly, their attrition during the battle was not as large as that of the 124th Regiment, and secondly, they have a lot of veterans, so there is no need to add more combat backbones to their troops."
Sokov did not express any opinion on Kurishenko's approach. After all, this was an internal matter within the 41st Guards Division, and he could not have any say in it.
Kurishenko pointed at Izvikov and introduced to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, after three years of struggle, Comrade Izvikov's guerrillas have grown from more than two hundred people at the beginning to one
There are more than 1,500 people. When you first came in, we were discussing some details of integrating guerrillas into our division."
"More than 1,500 people?" Sokov originally thought that Izvikov's troops would be at most two or three hundred people, but he didn't expect that there were more than 1,500 people. He asked in surprise: "Kulishin
General Coe, which regiment do you plan to organize them into?"
Unexpectedly, Kurishenko shook his head after hearing this and replied: "I plan to integrate them into the troops directly under the division. When the combat effectiveness is improved in the future, it will not be too late to disperse them into other regiments."
"General Kurishenko, you are very thoughtful." Sokov felt that Kurishenko's arrangement was quite suitable. After nodding, he asked Izvikov with a silly smile on his face: "
Comrade Izvikov, do you have any objections?"
Izvikov shook his head like a rattle: "No, no, Comrade Commander, I don't have any objections."
"Comrade Commander," Kurishenko said to Sokov with some embarrassment: "After integrating the guerrillas into the army, it involves granting them military ranks. I wonder if you think Izvikov should be awarded
What rank?"
Kurishenko's words made Sokov feel embarrassed. Logically speaking, 1,500 people could be organized into a regiment, with Izvikov as the regiment leader, and he could be legitimately awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel. But
Although the troops adapted from the guerrillas have 1,500 people, their combat effectiveness may not be as good as that of an ordinary company. If they are appointed as the regiment leader and given the rank of lieutenant colonel, there will be many people who will be unconvinced.
"Comrade Commander," Seeing Sokov's delay in speaking, Kurishenko became somewhat anxious and urged: "What position do you think should be assigned to Comrade Izvikov and what military rank should he be granted?"
Sokov stared at Izvikov for a while, then turned to Kurishenko and said: "I think the guerrillas will be reorganized into the second divisional guard battalion, with Izvikov as the battalion commander and awarded the rank of major."
He paused for a moment and then added, "As for the lesbians in the guerrillas, they can be arranged to go to the health team or the communications department."
After Sokov finished explaining his plan, he noticed that Izvikov was a little depressed, so he raised his voice and asked: "Major Izvikov, do you have any objections to my arrangements?"
Although the position of battalion commander and the rank of major made Izvikov feel a little disappointed, after hearing Sokov's question, he still answered resoundingly: "No, Comrade Commander, I resolutely obey your orders."
arrange."
Seeing that Izvikov accepted his arrangement, Sokov felt relieved, put his hand on the other person's shoulder, and said in an encouraging tone: "Major Izvikov, when you make meritorious deeds in the future,
I will definitely grant you a higher military rank and arrange for you to take on more important positions."
This chapter has been completed!