After the troops shifted to defense, the commanders of each regiment returned to the division headquarters one after another for meetings.
"Comrade leaders," Sokov saw that all the group leaders attending the meeting had arrived, he stood up and said, "Why do you all look so sad?"
"Does this need to be said, comrade division commander?" The first person to speak was Lieutenant Colonel Papuchenko, commander of the 122nd Regiment. He said angrily: "Our regiment has easily occupied the two lines of defense of the German army and is preparing to attack
When the third line of defense launched an attack, it suddenly received an order to switch to defense on the spot. Not only the commanders and soldiers of the whole regiment couldn't figure it out, but I couldn't figure it out either."
Papuchenko's words were like a handful of salt thrown into a red-hot iron pot, which exploded immediately. The other regiment leaders also echoed: "Lieutenant Colonel Papuchenko is right, we are fully capable."
To break through the German third line of defense, why should we be given the task of switching to defense on the spot at this time?"
Faced with the doubts of the group leaders, Sokov roared in his heart: "The orders from superiors are orders. If you understand it, you must execute it, and if you don't understand it, you must execute it." But on the surface, he still said pleasantly, "Comrade leaders,
I want to ask you, if you are allowed to continue the attack, where do you plan to advance the front?"
"Needless to say, of course we have to rush to the Don River to join forces with the friendly forces heading south and north." Lieutenant Colonel Yershakov, commander of the 125th Regiment, said unconvinced.
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," Sokov turned his attention to Yershakov and asked unhurriedly: "Do you think that with our existing troops and technical equipment, we can break through the layers of German defense lines and advance to Dayton?"
By the river bank?”
"Even if our military strength and technical equipment are not as good as those of the enemy, our soldiers are much braver than the enemy." Yershakov said unconvinced: "Even if we cannot go forward to the Don River, every one of our soldiers
, will fight until the last moment of their lives.”
"If all our commanders and fighters are sacrificed in the attack, then who will defend the two lines of defense you occupied today and the Mamayev Heights?" Sokov suppressed the smile on his face and said sternly.
Face said: "Are you planning to give up all these areas to the Germans?"
Hearing Sokov's question, Yershakov was speechless. Seeing that the other party stopped talking, Sokov slowed down and said: "Yes, the German soldiers are not as brave as our soldiers, but I have to admit,
Their technical and tactical level is very high, especially those veterans who have fought in many European countries. Even though our friendly forces launched an attack on the enemy's flank and rear, causing them to fall into chaos in a short period of time, once the enemy realizes
When he is in danger, he will use all his abilities to fight us to the death.
The reason why I gave you the order to switch to defense on the spot is because I found that the enemy may have laid a trap for us in the front. If we do not take precautionary measures in advance, once they launch a counterattack, not only will we not be able to destroy the enemy
, but there is a possibility of being destroyed by the enemy."
Although no one refuted Sokov's remarks, several regiment leaders were still very unconvinced. Why? Just because you judge that the enemy may have set a trap for us, you must order the troops to stop attacking.
, this reason is too far-fetched, right?
"Comrades, regiment leaders, let me say a few words." After Sidorin saw Sokov finished speaking, the regiment leaders participating in the meeting remained silent and quickly stood up to smooth things over: "You should know that due to the left bank artillery unit's
The ammunition reserves and the range of the artillery were such that it could only provide us with artillery support for forty minutes, and that was limited to the first and second lines of defense.
In other words, after we occupy the second line of defense, if we want to continue to attack forward, we will no longer be covered by the artillery on the left bank." Sidorin said with a serious expression: "On the contrary, when we launch an attack,
The enemy can use their artillery deployed behind the third line of defense to intercept and fire at us, using artillery fire to kill and injure our attacking troops in large numbers."
Having said this, Sidorin paused intentionally for a moment to observe the expressions on the faces of the regiment leaders. Seeing the look of surprise on everyone's faces, he continued: "According to our analysis, between the 124th and 125th regiments,
Therefore, during the second attack, the German defense line was easily broken because the enemy transferred its main force to the third line of defense.
Comrade commanders, have you ever thought about it, if your troops are attacking the third line of defense and the attack is thwarted due to heavy casualties, and the German army suddenly launches a counterattack, what kind of force will you use to stop them?"
"I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I was wrong." After listening to Sidorin's explanation, Lieutenant Colonel Papuchenko immediately realized that he had wrongly blamed Sokov. Without being pretentious, he stood up and apologized to Sokov: "Yes.
I didn't think carefully, I just thought about finally getting a good opportunity to counterattack, and I just thought that I should drive the enemy into the Don River in one go, but I forgot that our strength is much weaker than the enemy."
"Okay, let's not talk about this anymore." Sokov gestured to Papuchenko, motioning him to sit down, and said: "Comrades, regiment leaders, since the troops have shifted to defense, we must supervise the soldiers.
They rushed to repair the fortifications and strengthen the defense lines to resist possible counterattacks launched by the German army."
"Comrade Commander, I would like to ask." Starcia, who had not spoken until now, asked: "How long do we have to hold on?"
"Don't worry, we won't be able to hold on for a few days." Sokov said lightly: "Since we successfully captured the German defensive position in front of Mamayev Hill, our division's defense depth has been expanded. In this way, the superiors can
Assemble more troops and technical equipment in this area. Once the assembly is completed, we will launch another attack on the enemy."
"Comrade commanders," Golikov saw that Sokov and Sidorin had said everything they needed to say. Knowing that he should appear on the stage, Golikov stood up and said: "I am here to reveal an inside story to you. In fact, in
Before the start of this major counterattack, superiors also planned to send reinforcements to the city. However, they later considered that the depth of the 62nd Group Army's defense zone was too shallow, only a few hundred to one thousand meters. In such a narrow area, large troops
and technical equipment cannot be deployed at all.
In today's battle, your division successfully expanded the depth of defense in the Mamayev Kurgan area, making it possible for superiors to dispatch troops and technical equipment to the city. I believe that once the assembly of large troops is completed, a new round of
The counterattack will be carried out in the area under your control."
If Sokov's words made everyone a little doubtful, then everything Golikov said was a reassurance for everyone and made the group leaders full of confidence in the future.
Since the heads of each regiment had to go back to deploy things to strengthen defense, the meeting ended after only ten minutes. Sokov left Belkin behind and asked him: "Comrade political commissar, how is the situation at the barricade factory?"
, how much area do you estimate your group can control?"
"The situation is not optimistic." Belkin shook his head and said with some embarrassment: "Although we captured some positions occupied by the Germans during the early morning counterattack, due to insufficient troops, we were unable to effectively expand the occupied area.
According to my estimation, before new reinforcements arrive, it may be difficult to expand the results."
"Isn't there Colonel Lyudnikov's 138th Division in the barricade factory?" Golikov, who was sitting next to him, heard this and couldn't help but interjected and asked: "Didn't they cooperate when you counterattacked?
?"
"After our counterattack began, the artillery regiment of the 138th Division bombarded the retreating enemies with artillery fire, causing the enemies to fall into chaos. This allowed us to quickly occupy many enemy positions in the early stages of the counterattack." At this point,
Belkin sighed and said in a regretful tone: "It's a pity that they have run out of artillery shells and can no longer provide us with artillery support, otherwise the results we have achieved will be even greater."
"I will tell Chuikov about this and ask him to find a way to replenish enough shells for the artillery in the barricade factory." Golikov said: "Commander Belkin, I want to ask you, if you want to get enough shells from the enemy's
Is there any difficulty in recapturing the barricade factory?"
When Belkin heard Golikov's question, he did not answer immediately. Instead, he cast a look at Sokov for help, hoping to get a hint from him. Golikov noticed that Belkin's eyes were looking at Sokov.
Sokov waved his hand and said: "Commander Belkin, if you have anything to say, just say it without looking at Colonel Sokov."
"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front," Belkin replied respectfully: "The barricade factory, like the Dzerzhinsky factory, is equivalent to the size of a city, and our regiment and Lyudnikov's division combined
, there are only more than 3,000 people. It is obviously impossible to occupy the entire factory with this small force. Therefore, we hope that our superiors can send us additional reinforcements and sufficient technical equipment to ensure that we can achieve the goal in terms of military strength and equipment.
Outpace the enemy."
While Golikov and Belkin were discussing the amount of additional troops and technical equipment, Asiya barged in from the outside. Although there was a deputy commander of the front army in the division headquarters, in order to ensure his safety, he was not allowed to be released casually.
People entered, but Asiya was the teacher's wife, so the soldiers standing guard at the door dared to stop her.
"Asiya!" Seeing Asiya barging in from the door, Sokov hurriedly greeted her and asked in a low voice: "Why are you here?"
"Colonel Sokov," Golikov couldn't help but his eyes lit up when he saw Asiya breaking in from the door. He stopped talking to Belkin, walked over and asked, "Who is she?"
"Report to Comrade General!" Even though Golikov had been here for a long time, Asya, who was staying in the health team at the bottom, really didn't know his identity. When the other party asked about it, she quickly raised her hand and saluted respectfully.
He replied: "I am Asiya, the assistant military doctor of the division health team!"
"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army," Sokov introduced to Golikov with some embarrassment: "She is my wife Asya. Please forgive her for being presumptuous."
"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter." Golikov said magnanimously: "I think she rushed in because there must be something important. Am I right, Comrade Asiya?" His last words were,
He asked directly looking at Asiya.
"Yes, Comrade General." Asiya glanced at Sokov quickly, then faced Golikov and replied: "I have important things to report to the division commander."
"Then you report to the division commander!" Golikov said with a smile.
Seeing that Golikov had given the initiative to him, Sokov quickly asked Asiya: "Asiya, what's the matter?"
"It's like this. Thousands of wounded were sent from the battlefield today, so we are almost running out of medicines and bandages." Asiya looked at Sokov and said: "If we don't replenish the medicines as soon as possible, the medicines will be exhausted."
I'm afraid it won't last until tomorrow morning."
Sokov did not expect that he would run out of medicines and bandages. After hesitating for a moment, he asked: "Asia, have you seen it in the warehouse? If I remember correctly, a batch was replenished some time ago.
drug."
Asiya rolled her eyes at Sokov and said angrily: "Don't we usually consume medicines and bandages? If you hadn't replenished a batch some time ago, I'm afraid the medicines would have been used up long ago."
"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army," Sidorin interjected from the side: "I wonder if you can ask the logistics department of the Front Army to make an exception and replenish a batch of medicines for us. You know, we have too many wounded in today's battle.
, so that all the medicines in stock have been used up.”
"Okay, I will personally call Commander Yeremenko and ask him to arrange for you to replenish medicines." At this point, Golikov turned to look at Asiya and asked: "Ah
Comrade Thea, what medicines do you need, please give me a list."
"A lot of drugs are needed," Asia frowned and said: "anesthetics, sulfonamides, glucose, distilled water..."
"Wait a minute, Comrade Asiya." When Golikov heard this, he quickly raised his hand to interrupt Asiya, and asked curiously: "Are you running out of anesthetics?"
"It's not that it's almost used up, but it should be used up." Asiya said anxiously: "Because there is no anesthetic, many wounded people can only operate on towels while they are completely awake. There are many wounded people in
During the operation, I passed out due to unbearable pain."
"If there is no anesthetic, it can be replaced by something else." Golikov said thoughtfully: "I remember that during the First World War, because the German army lacked enough anesthetics, military doctors used coffee to fill the intestines.
This method is used to relieve the pain of the wounded undergoing surgery. I think you can also try to use this method to relieve the pain of the wounded undergoing surgery before obtaining new anesthetic supplements."
"Coffee irrigation, can the intestines replace anesthetics?" Hearing what Golikov said, Sokov couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise, and asked in surprise: "Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army, what is the principle of this?"
"It is said that irrigating the intestines with coffee can relieve pain." Golikov said with certainty: "Anyway, during World War I, German military doctors did this."
This chapter has been completed!