Hearing Sokov's question, Ataman hesitated for a moment, and then replied: "Comrade Colonel, our troops will not be able to arrive here until after dark at the earliest to take over the defense."
After Ataman said these words, he saw Sokov's face full of doubts and quickly added: "Don't get me wrong, it's not that we deliberately delay the time, but because we have to take over the defense of these troops.
We are still fighting the Germans, and we will not be able to withdraw from the battle for a while."
Although Sokov stayed in Stalingrad for a long time, except for fighting for a period of time at the Red October Factory, he spent the rest of his time either leading his troops to fight fires or staying at Mamayev Heights. So far,
He couldn't even figure out the exact locations of the Barricade Factory and the Dzerzhinsky Tractor Factory.
He held a pen and paper, pushed it in front of Ataman, and said with a smile: "Comrade Captain, can you draw for me the locations of the barricade factory and Dzerzhinsky factory, as well as the defense area of your division?"
Ataman was very cooperative with Sokov's request. He took the pen and paper and quickly drew a sketch. While drawing, he introduced to Sokov: "The barricade factory is on the west side of Liumian Street.
And the Dzerzhinsky factory is directly north..."
After Ataman's explanation and Sokov's comparison of the sketch and the map, he finally roughly ordered the locations of the three positions, as well as the respective defense areas of the 95th Infantry Division and the 138th Infantry Division. His own location
, it is quite close to the Dzerzhinsky Factory. Unfortunately, the 37th Guards Division was caught in a bitter battle and could not mobilize its strength at all to take over the defense here. Therefore, Chuikov had to retreat and do the next best thing and send Lyudny
Cove's troops are sent.
After figuring out the general situation, Sokov said reasonably: "Understood, Comrade Captain, before your troops arrive here, we will definitely hold on to Six Sides Street and never let it fall into the hands of the Germans."
inside."
"Do you allow me to leave?" Seeing that his mission had been completed, Ataman said goodbye to Sokov: "I want to go back and report to my superiors that I have established contact with you and will bring the troops to the airport after dark.
Come here to take over the defense."
"Allow it, Comrade Captain." Sokov nodded and asked with concern: "I guess it won't be too safe on your way back. Do you need me to send a few soldiers to escort you back?"
"Thank you for your kindness." Ataman waved his hand and said, "I brought two soldiers with me. Even if we encounter sporadic enemies on the road, we are fully capable of dealing with them."
After Ataman left, Sokov immediately picked up the phone and told Aglanov: "Comrade Captain, the friendly forces coming to take over our defense will arrive after dark. Before that, you must do whatever it takes to
Guard Liumian Street, do you understand?"
"Don't worry, comrade division commander." Aglanov looked out the window at the German soldiers who were beaten by artillery and fled, and said confidently: "Judging from the current situation, let alone persisting until dark, even if we persist until dark,
Tomorrow dawn will be fine for us."
"Comrade Captain," even though Sokov has been staying in his headquarters, he can judge from the sound of gunfire outside that these two repelling German attacks were the work of the artillery company and the work of the infantry.
The effect was limited, so he reminded Aglanov: "Although we have repelled the enemy's two attacks, they are absolutely unwilling to fail. It won't be long before they launch a third or fourth attack. Can you
Don’t take it lightly.”
Sokov not only reminded Aglanov in this way, but also reminded Seryosha. After doing all this, he was about to ask the telegraph operator to call Sidorin and ask if the person sent by Orel was there.
There was no such thing at Mamayev Heights. The operator handed him a telegram first: "Comrade division commander, this is the telegram just sent by the chief of staff."
Sokov thought to himself, what would happen if Sidorin called me at this time? Full of questions, he took the telegram from the operator's hand, only glanced at it a few times, and then frowned tightly.
Get up. It turned out that Sidorin informed him that the German army was shelling the tank whose crew had been killed, and seemed to want to destroy it to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Soviet army.
After seeing the telegram, Sokov's heart immediately became heavy. He held the telegram tightly in his hand and walked back and forth in the room, thinking quickly in his mind what measures should be taken to prevent the Germans from destroying the vehicle.
tank.
However, he racked his brains and thought for a long time, but there was no proper solution. He shook his head, stopped, and said helplessly to the operator: "Operator, call back to the chief of staff and ask him to closely monitor the enemy's movements. If anything happens,
If there are any new changes, report them to me immediately."
Watching the operator ticking the newspaper, Sokov secretly regretted it. He felt that when he came out, he should have brought a few more communication soldiers to lay a telephone line from Liumian Street to Mamayev Heights.
As soon as he comes, he can remotely control the battle in the direction of Mamayev Heights from Liumian Street.
While he was anxious, Sokov suddenly thought of the phone in the room, which allowed him to contact Chuikov. He was unable to suppress the enemy's long-range artillery fire, but Chuikov could. Thinking of this, he quickly picked up the phone and called the group army headquarters.
, as soon as there was a voice from the microphone, he immediately said: "I am Colonel Sokov, please help me find Commander Chuikov. I have important things to report to him."
The staff officer who answered the phone heard that it was Sokov, commander of the 41st Guards Division, who wanted to find the commander. He did not dare to neglect and quickly informed Chuikov. Chuikov picked up the phone and asked: "Colonel Sokov, what do you want from me?"
matter?"
"Comrade Commander, the situation is like this." Sokov was worried that Chuikov would be disapproving of the Tiger tank like Krylov, so he said bluntly: "Our troops at the Mamayev Ridge captured
A new German Tiger tank had no one who knew how to drive a tank, so it could only be parked at the foot of the mountain in Beigang..."
Before Sokov could finish speaking, Chuikov interrupted: "General Orel has already reported this to me, and he has also sent people to receive this tank. What, is there any problem?"
"Lieutenant Colonel Sidorin just reported to me that the enemy is shelling this tank and seems to want to destroy it to prevent it from being captured by our army." Sokov asked Chuikov: "Comrade Commander, this is a new type of tank.
Tank, if our military personnel get it, it will be very helpful to improve our army's weapons and equipment. I hope you can find a way to stop the German artillery fire."
"Stop, how can I stop the enemy's shelling?" Chuikov said dissatisfied: "The enemy's artillery does not obey my command. If I don't let them continue the shelling, can they stop?"
"The artillery on the east coast can be used to suppress the enemy so that they cannot continue to bombard the Tiger tanks. This will give the people sent by General Orel the opportunity to drive the tanks to a safe place and hide them."
"But the artillery on the east coast doesn't know where the enemy's artillery is." Chuikov said hesitantly: "How do they suppress the enemy's artillery fire?"
"There are several artillery observers at Mamayev Heights. I think they can provide firing parameters to the artillery on the east coast and guide the artillery fire to suppress the enemy's artillery positions."
If Sokov hadn't reminded him, Chuikov would have forgotten that there were special artillery observers on Mamayev Hill to indicate the firing direction for the artillery on the east coast. Chuikov nodded and said, "Okay.
I immediately contacted the artillery commander of the group army and asked him to handle the matter."
They had just finished discussing with Chuikov how to deal with the German artillery, and the telegraph operator handed Sokov another telegram: "This is the telegram just sent by the chief of staff."
In the new telegram, Sidorin reported to Sokov that the personnel sent by General Orel to receive the tank had arrived. Because the enemy's artillery fire was too fierce, two tank soldiers tried to rush into the Tiger tank, but they failed.
He fell under gunfire.
Seeing this content, Sokov was startled. He didn't know how many tank soldiers Orel sent over, but if he forced the tank soldiers to brave the enemy's fierce artillery fire and rush towards the Tiger tank, it would be close to death.
What's the difference? Moreover, the enemy's artillery fire is so fierce. Even if one or two tank soldiers are lucky enough to get into the tank, it is still unknown how far they can drive the Tiger tank.
In order to avoid unnecessary sacrifices, he once again asked the radio operator to send a message to Sidorin: before the enemy's artillery positions were suppressed by our artillery fire, it was strictly forbidden to send tank troops to rush towards the tanks despite the enemy's artillery fire.
Sidorin may have been guarding next to the telegraph machine. Less than two minutes after the telegram was sent, his reply arrived: "The order has been received. The tank crew has stopped taking risky actions and is waiting for our artillery to suppress the enemy's attack."
Artillery emplacement.”
After another five or six minutes, rumbles of artillery were heard on the east coast. This was the artillery of the group army suppressing the enemy's artillery position based on the data provided by the observers on Mamayev Hill. The German troops were shelling the Tiger tanks.
The artillery fire suddenly stopped. Seeing that the time was right, the tank soldiers hiding on the hill quickly rushed towards the foot of the mountain in pairs without waiting for the alarm to be lifted.
Since there was no enemy fire to intercept them, they successfully entered the interior of the Tiger tank. After a simple exploration, they mastered the driving of the Tiger tank. However, not long after they drove out, they were blocked by a crater in front of them. They had no choice but to
Next, one of the tank soldiers got out of the tank and ran to the hill to ask for help from the infantry.
The 125th Guards Regiment of Yershakov was guarding the northern post. He learned that the tank was blocked by a bomb crater. Without saying a word, he sent a company and asked the commanders and soldiers to carry tools, but he adjusted the bomb crater so that the tank could escape.
He was able to pass smoothly. When the troops set off, he also called and reported the matter to Sidorin.
After hearing this, Sidorin asked: "Lieutenant Colonel Yershakov, how long will it take to fill those craters?"
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Yershakov said with some embarrassment as he had seen the craters at the foot of the mountain with his own eyes: "There are about twenty craters from where the Tiger tank is parked to the passable road.
.It will take at least five or six hours to fill in all these craters."
"What, it takes five or six hours?" Sidorin was unhappy when he heard that it would take such a long time. He said to Yershakov in a stern tone: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, in one hour, the most I can do is
I can only give you one hour, and you must fill up all the craters. Do you understand?"
Knowing that this was an impossible task, Yershakov had no choice. He could only bite the bullet and replied: "Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff, fill in all the craters within an hour.
To facilitate the passage of tanks."
However, the Germans were not willing to let their Tiger tank fall into the hands of the Soviet army. Since the artillery bombardment had no effect, they dispatched bombers to try to blow up the Tiger tank that was about to be transferred.
Seeing the four bombers appearing in the sky, Yershakov guessed the enemy's purpose and quickly ordered the soldiers to light fires around the tank, trying to make the enemy planes think that the Tiger tank had been hit by bombs and caught fire during the bombardment.
At the beginning, due to the heavy smoke on the ground, the enemy planes could not see the target clearly. They really thought that the Tiger tank they were ordered to attack had already been hit by bullets and burst into flames. However, the German observation post on the ground discovered that the tank was still intact.
, and then reported this information layer by layer.
The enemy plane received a notice from the headquarters and learned that the target it was going to attack was still intact. The fire and smoke it saw were just tricks by the Russians. So the four enemy planes started to attack one after another.
Lower the high ground and dive down towards the location of the Tiger tank.
Although it was difficult for the German pilots to hit the target accurately due to the obstruction of the smoke, the bombs they dropped still caused great casualties to the commanders and fighters who were filling the bomb craters. Seeing this, Yershakov quickly ordered a few people on the top of the mountain to
He fired a machine gun into the air. He did not expect to shoot down the enemy plane. He only hoped to drive the enemy plane away to prevent the commanders and soldiers from suffering greater losses.
The enemy plane that was diving to drop bombs suddenly saw several machine guns shooting at it on the hillside. Although the chance of its own plane being hit by the machine gun was low, the four planes still raised their altitude in sequence, hovering in the air, preparing to attack.
Find the right moment to swoop down again and destroy the new Tiger tank before it falls into the hands of the Russians.
Xidorin learned that the enemy plane was circling over Beigang, and quickly ordered his people to move the two 12.7mm twin anti-aircraft machine guns hidden in the tunnel to the top of the hillside, and shoot at the enemy plane from the side. The enemy plane was circling at high altitude.
, had been carefully avoiding the machine gun fire on the top of Beigang. Unexpectedly, anti-aircraft fire would suddenly appear on Nangang. One of the planes was hit by a bullet, and a plume of black smoke came out from under the wing. The pilot was too scared to fly again.
He circled over Mamayev Heights, hurriedly threw away the bombs he carried on the plane, turned half a circle, and then flew away to the west.
