In less than five minutes, Vasya appeared at the entrance of the command post. After raising his hand to salute Sokov, he said breathlessly: "Comrade division commander, Lieutenant Vasya, commander of the engineer company, has arrived on your order. Please give instructions!"
"Comrade Lieutenant," Sokov walked up to Vasya and said to him: "How are you preparing for the things I asked you a few days ago?"
After hearing what Sokov said, Vasya immediately understood that the other party was talking about the relocation of land mines. He quickly straightened up and replied: "Comrade division commander, I sent people to conduct reconnaissance last night and roughly understood the German mines."
Their distribution locations, as well as the roads they use daily. I can send people to carry out the task at the latest the night after tomorrow..."
Before Vasya could finish speaking, Sokov interrupted him with a straight face: "Comrade Lieutenant, why should such a simple matter be postponed until the night after tomorrow?"
"Comrade Division Commander," Vasya explained with a blush after hearing Sokov's criticism of him: "Our engineer company has suffered a very serious attrition during this period of fighting. Although some new soldiers have been added, they have no idea how to do it.
Demining is for laymen, so I need time to train them."
"Comrade Lieutenant, we don't have that much time." Sokov sighed and said, "You must have seen how our soldiers competed with the enemy for airdrop supplies today. If you had completed the work of moving the mines last night,
Then the enemy will definitely be trapped in their position by mines, instead of brazenly competing for supplies with us like now. Also, I will return to Mamayev Heights tonight. Before leaving, I hope you can give me
A sure word."
Knowing that Sokov was going to return to Mamayev Heights, Vasya had a look of astonishment on his face: "Comrade Commander, you are in such a hurry to go back. Did something happen at Mamayev Heights?"
"Nothing happened." Naturally, Sokov would not tell a subordinate about his training. He pretended to be nonchalant and said, "My superiors think I should stay at my post, so I
We must return to Mamayev Kurgan."
Seeing that Sokov would soon return to Mamayev Heights, Vasya was silent for a long time, and finally said through gritted teeth: "Comrade division commander, when I go back, I will speed up the training of those new recruits and try to go there tomorrow night.
Carry out this mission."
"No!" Sokov shook his head and said resolutely: "Tonight, you must carry out this task tonight."
"But most of my soldiers don't know how to clear mines." Vasya heard Sokov's order and said anxiously: "If they are sent out rashly to perform the task, and it is at night with extremely poor visibility, it will be very difficult.
It is easy to cause unnecessary casualties."
"The new engineers can't clear mines, will they always lay mines?" Seeing that Vasya had been struggling with the new engineers not being able to clear mines, Sokov said with some displeasure: "You let those skilled engineers dig out the mines?
Wouldn't it be enough if we just let the new engineers be buried elsewhere?"
"Yes, this is a good idea." What Sokov said made Vasya's eyes light up. He made a fist with his right hand and smashed it on the palm of his left hand, and said excitedly: "This way, I don't have to worry about the new recruits.
Because of my lack of technical proficiency, a mine exploded while clearing mines. Comrade Division Commander, I don’t think there will be any problems in performing the mission tonight."
…………
Before Sokov could return to the division headquarters, Ivanov and Sidorin learned of his return to Mamayev Heights. Ivanov also asked strangely: "Comrade Chief of Staff,
Why did the division commander suddenly come back? Is there any big operation in our army that requires him to come back here to take command?"
When notifying personnel to attend the military meeting, Chuikov considered that Sokov was at the barricade factory, so he did not call Mamayev Heights. Instead, when notifying Lyudnikov, he called Sokov by the way. Therefore, he arrived
So far, the two division leaders, Ivanov and Sidorin, do not know the news that the Soviet army will launch a major counterattack in a few days.
When Sidorin heard Ivanov's question, he shook his head in confusion and said: "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, you have been staying with me at the headquarters. Don't you still know whether we have received orders from our superiors?
What?"
"That's strange." Ivanov frowned and repeated what he just said: "If there is nothing important, why would the division commander suddenly come back?"
"Hello, comrades, commanders!" Just as the two of them were frowning, Sokov's familiar voice came from the door. The two raised their heads and looked towards the door, only to see Sokov striding toward the door.
They walk.
After Sokov shook hands with Ivanov and Sidorin who came up to them, he looked at the two of them and asked curiously: "What's wrong with you? You look very worried."
"Comrade Commander," Sidorin asked with a smile: "May I ask why you came back suddenly?"
"The reason is very simple." Sokov shrugged his shoulders and said helplessly: "During the day, the enemy broke through the 138th Division's defense line. Seeing that the situation was critical, I led the guard platoon and rushed to block the gap.
Comrade Commander just knew that I was participating in the battle without permission, so he drove me back to Mamayev Heights."
After Sokov picked up the teapot on the table and took a sip, he looked at Sidorin and asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, how are our troops prepared? Can they launch a counterattack against the enemy?"
"What are you preparing for? At what location will you launch a counterattack?" Unexpectedly, Sidorin's face was full of doubts after listening to Sokov's question. He looked at Sokov and asked in confusion: "Comrade division commander, you don't seem to have any
What tasks have you assigned to me?"
Sokov didn't expect Sidorin to answer him like this, and he was still a little unhappy. He secretly said that you still have the time to joke with me about such a big matter. It's simply outrageous.
Just when Sokov was about to get angry, Ivanov on the side interjected: "Yes, Comrade Division Commander, you have never assigned us any tasks. How do we know how many troops to assemble and where to attack the enemy?"
What about counterattack?”
Both of them made the same remarks, which made Sokov realize that he had overlooked an important thing. During the meeting two days ago, he was in Chuikov's headquarters and did not seem to see Ivanov or Sidorin.
Didn't they get the notice of the meeting? No, for such a big matter, how could the people from the headquarters notifying the meeting be negligent?
"I want to ask you something." Sokov hesitated for a moment, then asked the question in his heart: "The headquarters held a military meeting two days ago, why didn't you go?"
"Military meeting, what military meeting?" Both of them asked in confusion: "Why didn't anyone notify us?"
"It seems that the headquarters did not do its job well and actually forgot about Ivanov and Sidorin." After muttering to himself, Sokov said to the two of them: "Two days ago, the commander
The commander convened a meeting with the commanders of each division and announced the news that our army is about to counterattack." In order to prevent irritating the two of them, he did not mention that all officers above the corps level should attend the meeting, but only vaguely mentioned that division-level commanders
member.
"The big counteroffensive is about to begin?!" As soon as the two men heard that the big counteroffensive was about to begin, they immediately forgot to ask why they had not been notified. Instead, they asked anxiously: "Comrade division commander, please tell us quickly when our army will launch the counterattack."
Counterattack."
"Come here to the map," Sokov walked to the wall, pointed at the map and said to the two of them: "According to the arrangements of the base camp, General Vatutin's Southwest Front and Rokossovsky's Don River Army,
A counterattack will be carried out against the enemy in the Don River Basin on November 19th..."
Ivanov waited for Sokov to finish introducing the offensive routes of the two fronts, and he couldn't wait to ask: "What about our Stalingrad front, when will we counterattack?"
"The Stalingrad Front's counterattack will be one day later than the two fronts." Sokov said to the two men: "The counterattack direction will be to the south of the city. Our 62nd Army will not participate in this counterattack."
When the two people who were gearing up heard Sokov's last words, they felt as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water on their head. After a while, Ivanov said unconvincedly.
: "Why are we not allowed to participate in the counterattack? You know, in the past few months, our 62nd Army troops have been fighting face to face with the Germans. Now we finally hope for a counterattack, but we are not allowed to
Participate, what’s going on?”
"Yes, comrade division commander, what is going on?" Sidorin also asked anxiously: "We finally expected a major counterattack, but we were not allowed to participate. I'm worried that the commanders and soldiers will be dissatisfied when they find out.
."
"At the meeting, many commanders raised the same question." Sokov said slowly: "Comrade Commander explained to us that due to the serious attrition of the troops of the 62nd Group Army after a long battle,
, many of the division and brigade-level units still in the city only have empty numbers left. Let alone counterattack, whether they can hold their positions is a question."
As the chief of staff, Sidorin still had a certain understanding of the situation in the city. Hearing what Sokov said, he seemed to understand something, and asked tentatively: "Comrade division commander, if I understand it correctly,
Does the superior want us to continue to block and contain the enemy, so that the troops carrying out counterattacks in other directions can encircle the enemy attacking the city?"
Seeing that Sidorin had guessed his superior's intention, Sokov nodded and gave him an affirmative answer: "Chief of Staff, you are right. The current task of our 62nd Army is to hold on to the current position.
Block and contain the enemy so that our friendly forces can complete the encirclement of the enemy during the counterattack."
"The enemy has a lot of troops, hundreds of thousands of them." Ivanov said worriedly: "Even if we surround them, can we eat them?"
The Soviet high command never had an accurate number of how many German troops there were in the Stalingrad area. So after Paulus's 300,000 troops were encircled, they thought there were only a few hundred thousand enemies in the encirclement. The Supreme High Command
They couldn't figure out the specific number of enemies, let alone the commanders below. Sokov did not bother with the German numbers, but smiled and said to Ivanov: "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, don't worry. Even if the Germans have
So what if there are hundreds of thousands of people? You know, we are besieging them from three sides, with at least millions of people. If ten of them attack one of them, can't we still win?"
"It's barely reasonable to hold on to the position in other areas." Sidorin said thoughtfully: "After all, those troops suffered heavy losses in the battle and have seriously lost their combat effectiveness. But our division is different. Not only are there thousands of
The Romanian army is facing a weak fighting force, and if it counterattacks, it will definitely achieve good results."
"Chief of Staff, your idea coincides with the commander." Sokov said: "The commander told me that he will arrange troops in the near future to take over the defense of our division at the Barricade Factory and the Workers' New Village of the Red October Factory.
, so that we can concentrate part of our forces to carry out counterattacks against the enemy in front, in order to cooperate with the main force's major counterattack."
"What, the superiors are going to let us gather our troops to participate in the counterattack?" Knowing that the troops sent to various places can be reorganized, Sidorin couldn't help but be overjoyed: "As long as we gather our troops, with our current strength, we can fight back from the Romanian army."
If we seize all the positions here, there shouldn’t be much of a problem.”
Ivanov, who was once the commander of the Guards Division, considered the problem more comprehensively than Sidorin. He asked expressionlessly: "Comrade Commander, I would like to ask, with our existing ammunition and material reserves, can we
Support a counterattack?"
"Yes, Comrade Division Commander, we have consumed a lot of ammunition and supplies recently." Sidorin waited for Ivanov to finish and immediately added: "I wonder when the superiors can replenish it for us?"
"I'm disgusted." Before Sokov could speak, Ivanov said first: "Now the river is frozen, and ships can't come over; the ice on the river is too thin to support transport vehicles, I'm afraid
For a long time, no new ammunition and supplies could be brought into the city."
"The information is not what you think." Sokov guessed that the two of them might not be aware of the fact that the sailors of the district fleet used gunboats instead of icebreakers to break the ice, so he took the initiative and said: "In order to restore the supply of materials to the city, we
Regardless of sacrifice, the sailors used gunboats to replace icebreakers and opened a channel on the river, so that some ships could transport the urgently needed supplies into the city. Also, during the day, the front army headquarters wanted to increase the number of troops attacking the city.
We even ordered Air Force transport planes to take off despite heavy snowfall and fly over the factory area to airdrop supplies to the defenders.”
"Using gunboats to break the ice and airdrops in this weather, I don't think anything can solve the problem." Sidorin shook his head and said: "In such cold weather, even if the gunboats can barely open a route, the river will soon freeze again.
, then the efforts of the sailors will be in vain. As for airdrops, it will be even more costly. The visibility in heavy snowy days is low, and the pilots cannot see clearly the situation on the ground. Most of the materials dropped may fall into the hands of the Germans.
"I think we should use other methods to restore the transportation line on the river."
"Do you have any idea, Comrade Chief of Staff?" Sokov asked curiously.
"Yes," Sidorin nodded vigorously and said in a positive tone: "I have a way to restore the transportation line on the river."
This chapter has been completed!