After Sokov dictated the contents of the telegram, he returned to his seat and sat down, thinking to himself: In real history, the German army dispatched more than 2,000 aircraft sorties on August 23 to carry out a violent attack on Stalingrad.
The bombing was indiscriminate, and the appearance of this butterfly delayed the bombing for half a month. During such a long period of time, at least more than 100,000 citizens were evacuated to the east coast. Perhaps the casualties caused by the bombing will be
Much smaller.
The call back from the front army headquarters arrived soon. The content was very simple, which was to order Sokov to quickly send someone to find out whether Chuikov's headquarters survived the bombing. No matter what the result was, it needed to be reported immediately.
In this way, the front army headquarters decides whether a new group army commander should be sent to take over the city's defense.
After reading the telegram, Sokov got up and walked quickly to the door, shouting outside: "Here comes someone!"
Following his shout, a soldier immediately ran over, straightened his body and waited for Sokov to give the order. Sokov pointed at the other party with his hand and ordered: "Find the third platoon leader, Second Lieutenant Samoilov, immediately."
Come, I have an important task for him to complete."
After receiving the notice, Samoilov quickly came to Sokov's headquarters. After raising his hand in salute, he said in accordance with the order: "Comrade Brigade Commander, Second Lieutenant Samoilov has been ordered to come, please give instructions!"
"Second Lieutenant," because time was tight, Han Zhan did not talk in circles with him. After briefly introducing the situation, he said straightforwardly: "Enemy planes outside are bombing the city crazily, and the group army headquarters has lost contact with the outside world. The superiors
Order us to quickly find out whether General Chuikov and others are still alive. I plan to order you to take a few soldiers to the Tsaritsyn Cave to get in touch with the headquarters. How about it, can you complete the task?"
Seeing Sokov looking at him expectantly, Samoilov immediately replied loudly: "Report to comrade brigade commander, I promise to complete the mission."
After accepting the mission assigned by Sokov, Samoylov took two soldiers in a jeep and rushed towards the city despite the enemy's bombing. But as soon as he entered the city, he found that the car was gone.
Fa Chao walked forward. The road ahead was full of bricks and rubble piled up by collapsed houses. In addition, with countless fleeing citizens, it was faster to ride in a car than to walk. Seeing this situation, he decisively ordered: "Get out of the car, we
Let’s go to Tsaritsyn Caves on foot.” The three of them left the jeep and headed towards Pushkin Street against the fleeing crowd.
What he saw and heard along the way shocked Samoylov. Almost all the buildings were burning, and some blocks had become difficult to identify. There were bricks, rubble, and ruins everywhere. Various types of buildings could be seen everywhere on the streets.
A soldier may have seen such a tragic situation for the first time. He said to Samoylov in a panic: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, it's too dangerous here. Let's go back."
"No, the order I received is to go to Pushkin Street to find the Army Group Headquarters." Hearing what the soldier said, Samoilov immediately said with a straight face: "If we cannot complete the mission, even if we die in the city, we will die."
You cannot return to Mamayev Kurgan. Do you understand?"
The soldier who persuaded Samoilov to go back quickly shut his mouth after hearing these words. Another soldier said to Samoilov: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, look at this street.
It was blown up beyond recognition, and we are not familiar with the city, so we might get lost, so we might as well find another way."
"Choose another way?!" Samoilov and others have been wandering around this area for a long time, but because the streets have changed drastically, they can't find where to go directly to Pushkin Street. They stopped several fleeing people in succession.
Citizens, but everyone was confused and thinking about escaping. Who still had the mind to show them the way, so they never asked clearly how to go. At this moment, when they heard the soldier's suggestion to change the way, they asked curiously: "
Where do you think we should go?"
"On our way here, I noticed that the Tsaritsa River is nearby." The soldier quickly replied: "It is said that an entrance to the army headquarters is on the bank of the river. As long as we walk along the river bed, we should be able to find the headquarters.
."
"This is a good idea." Samoilov agreed with the soldier's suggestion: "We will pass through the river bed of Tsarica River. No matter how bombed by the Germans, the terrain structure will not change.
Variety."
The three of them left the street, went down to the bed of the Tsaritsa River, and walked upstream based on their feelings. Not long after walking, they were spotted by an enemy plane in the air. They saw the enemy plane diving towards them.
After getting down, Samoylov quickly shouted: "Lie down!" Then he faced the direction of the enemy plane and lay on the ground with his head in his hands.
The enemy plane swooped down from the sky and fired at them with its onboard machine gun. The bullets hit the river bed, causing the soil to fly. The two soldiers who had not yet recovered were beaten to pieces. The German pilot pulled the plane away.
After ascending, he deliberately made a circle in the sky. When he saw that there was no movement on the ground, he flew to other places.
Seeing that the enemy plane was moving away, Samoilov hurriedly crawled from the ground, leaned over to check on his two men, and found that they had already been shot and died. Samoilov sighed helplessly, holding up his gun.
Continue up the river to find the army headquarters.
After walking about five hundred meters, a voice suddenly came from not far away: "Stop, if you go any further, I will shoot!"
Samoilov quickly stopped and looked in the direction of the sound. He saw a soldier holding a rifle standing in a crater not far away. He pointed the muzzle at Samoilov.
Husband, asked sharply: "Password!"
"I'm talking about Comrade Soldier," Samoilov saw the other party asking for the password. He replied with a bit of laughter and tears: "I come from Mamayev Hill, how do I know what the password here is?"
"Coming from Mamayev Heights?!" The soldier who was obviously a sentry heard what Samoylov said and moved the muzzle of his gun away, but still asked warily: "Then what are you doing here?"
"I was ordered to get in touch with the Army Group Headquarters." If someone asked him where he was going somewhere else, Samoilov would definitely not tell him. But the place where this soldier appeared was very strange, maybe
The army headquarters was nearby, so Samoylov told him honestly: "Do you know where the headquarters is?"
When the sentry heard that he was looking for the headquarters, he couldn't help but raise his vigilance and pointed his gun at Samoilov again: "What are you looking for for the headquarters?"
"Although we have lost contact with the Army Group Headquarters, the contact with our superiors has not been interrupted." Samoilov explained to the soldiers: "I came here to look for the Army Group Headquarters on orders from my superiors."
After the sentry waited for Samoilov to finish speaking, he shouted not far behind him: "Comrade Adjutant, there is a commander here, he said he came from Mamayev Hill."
"Come from Mamayev Hill?" As soon as the sentry's voice fell, an officer walked out from the corner of the river bank. He strode towards this side and asked: "What is he doing here?
"
"Is it yours, Comrade Klimov?" Samoilov had sharp eyes and recognized the person walking towards him at a glance. It was Chuikov's adjutant Klimov, and he quickly greeted him: "I am
Samoilov, do you remember me?"
After Klimov came closer, he looked Samoilov up and down, and then showed a surprised expression on his face: "It turns out to be you, Comrade Sergeant, no, you are now a Second Lieutenant. You are here
What are you here for?"
"That's it, Comrade Klimov." Samoilov knew that if he didn't explain his purpose, he probably wouldn't have much hope of meeting Chuikov, so he said to Klimov: "Because of our connection with the army headquarters
There was an interruption, so the brigade commander sent me here to restore contact with the army headquarters."
"Let's go to the tunnel to talk." Klimov put a hand on Samoilov's shoulder, took him towards the cave entrance not far away, and said: "Let's
Not only have we lost contact with you, but we have also lost contact with our superiors and all the troops. Comrade Commander has sent a large number of manpower to restore contact with the troops."
When he reached the corner of the river embankment, Samoilov saw a cave entrance. There were many bomb craters next to the cave entrance. It seemed that the place had also been bombed by enemy planes. Several soldiers were squatting in the bomb craters, using vigilance.
He looked around with his eyes. As soon as he approached the tunnel, Samoilov felt particularly stuffy and out of breath. It was like the last time he was at Mamayev Hill and all the entrances and exits were deliberately closed in order to lure the German troops into a trap.
Same as in the tunnel.
Samoilov asked Klimov: "Comrade Adjutant, why is it so stuffy in your tunnel?"
"There is no way." Klimov shrugged his shoulders, spread his hands, and said helplessly: "The German bombing caused the exit to Pushkin Street to collapse. And in order to avoid the air raids, people poured into the tunnel.
Two to three hundred people came, so the air in the tunnel was inevitably a little turbid."
Klimov took Samoilov to the room where Chuikov was sitting, and introduced to Chuikov: "Comrade Commander, this second lieutenant is from Mamayev Hill."
"Hello, Comrade Commander." Samoilov felt much more at ease when he saw Chuikov standing in front of him alive. He quickly stepped forward to salute and at the same time reported: "Platoon Commander of the Guard Company of the 73rd Infantry Brigade.
Second Lieutenant Samoilov reports to you that I am here to restore contact with you on the order of the brigade commander, Lieutenant Colonel Sokov."
"Due to the fierce bombing by the German army, all our communications with the outside world have been cut off." Chuikov said with a sad face: "I have sent a lot of people to try to restore contact with the outside world, but so far there is no news. You come
Did you encounter any danger on the way?"
Upon hearing Chuikov's question, Samoilov's mouth twitched violently a few times, and then replied: "Comrade Commander, we were strafed by enemy planes on the bed of the Tsaritsa River. Follow me."
The two soldiers who got up to perform the mission were unfortunately shot and died."
"The enemy's bombing has caused us a lot of casualties." After Chuikov said this, he asked: "Why did Lieutenant Colonel Sokov think of restoring contact with us?"
"Comrade Commander, the situation is like this." Samoilov replied: "We received a call from the Front Army Headquarters, saying that they have been unable to get in touch with you. They also saw that the enemy planes were bombing so fiercely and were worried about the city.
Already fallen..."
"As long as one of us is here," Chuikov suddenly became excited when he heard the words "city fell": "We will never let the city fall into the hands of the Germans. By the way, how did Sokov reply?
From a superior?"
"Comrade Brigade Commander said: Stalingrad has not fallen, we are still fighting, and we will never easily hand the city into the hands of the enemy."
"Okay! Okay! Okay!" Chuikov couldn't help but cheered after hearing what Samoylov said: "What Lieutenant Colonel Sokov said is really good. We will never hand over the city to the enemy easily. We
We have to fight to the last person."
"Comrade Commander," Samoylov continued, "the brigade commander ordered me to come here to check whether the group army headquarters still exists. If it still exists, let you assign us the next combat mission." The last sentence
The words were added on the spur of the moment by Samoylov.
Chuikov turned around and asked Krylov on the side: "Chief of Staff, what tasks are you going to assign to Lieutenant Colonel Sokov's troops?"
When Krylov heard Chuikov's question, he immediately walked over quickly and replied: "Comrade Commander, in my estimation, after the German army carried out saturation bombing of the city, their next move is to launch an attack on the city.
Mamayev Hill is the commanding heights of the city and must be the focus of the German attack. As long as the infantry brigade can hold it, it will be better than anything else."
"Chief of Staff, your thoughts are the same as mine." Chuikov nodded and said to Samoylov: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, please go back and tell Lieutenant Colonel Sokov that his mission is to hold on to Mamayev Heights.
The enemy must not be allowed to occupy that place at any time. Do you understand?"
"Understood, Comrade Commander." Samoilov nodded vigorously and replied: "I will definitely bring your words to him."
"Comrade Second Lieutenant, your mission has been completed. You can return to Mamayev Heights." Chuikov waved to Samoylov and said: "Enemy planes are still bombing the city. You should be more careful on the way.
ah."
Samoilov raised his hand and gave a ring salute to Chuikov and Krylov, and then promised: "Comrade Commander, Comrade Chief of Staff, please rest assured that I will return to Mamayev Hill safely and bring you
I brought these words to Comrade Brigade Commander."
This chapter has been completed!