The German army, who failed to attack the nameless highlands, was unwilling to accept their failure. The next morning, they launched a new attack. In addition to bombarding the highlands with artillery fire, they also dispatched more than a dozen aircraft and bombed the highlands and air defense positions.
Liuba and Sweta stood in the command position. One of them looked at the enemy planes in the air with a telescope, shouting various shooting parameters at the top of their lungs; while the other one issued various commands to each machine gun through the red and green signal flags in his hand.
The dense firepower on the air defense positions prevented the German bombers from diving and could only drop bombs from high places. The bombs falling from the sky fell into the snow and exploded, and streams of mud columns mixed with black soil and white snow soared into the sky.
Two bombs fell next to Sokov's battalion command post and exploded, causing snow to fall from the cracks on the roof, making Sokov and Belkin turn into snowmen. Belkin patted the snow powder on his shoulder with his hand and said worriedly: "Comrade Battalion Commander, there are a lot of enemy planes that bomb the air defense position today. I am worried that the female soldiers will suffer little casualties after this battle. If our male soldiers died, there is nothing left; the female soldiers are all girls, women, they are future mothers, and we have no right to make them accidents."
Although Sokov agreed with Belkin's statement in his heart, the only troops with air defense capabilities are Liuba's female anti-aircraft machine gun company. If they are temporarily soft-hearted and withdrawn to a safe place, the troops that have lost the cover of air defense fire will suffer greater losses in the enemy's bombing. Therefore, he could only bite the bullet and say to Belkin, "Comrade Deputy Battalion Commander, in order to defend our great motherland, I think it is worth it no matter how great the sacrifice is."
When Belkin heard the rumbling of the bombing outside, he said with a heart-wrenching heart: "Faced with the insane bombing of German planes, how courage and superhuman strength do they need to fulfill their duties well."
Sokov placed his hand on Belkin's shoulder and comforted him, "Who said women are inferior to men? I firmly believe that all the soldiers of the female anti-aircraft machine gun company will be able to withstand the test of blood and fire in today's battle."
After the German plane ended the bombing and turned around and flew southward, Sokov immediately came out of his command and walked quickly towards the air defense position along the traffic trench. Some of the traffic trenches had been blown down during the enemy's air strike. Some soldiers were cleaning up the soil inside with shovels. Seeing Sokov coming, he quickly stood up and leaned against the wall of the trench and saluted him.
When he arrived at the air defense position, Sokov saw that there were craters everywhere here, and three anti-aircraft machine guns had been blown up. There were many parts of the machine guns scattered near the crater. Sokov looked around and saw Liu Ba sitting in an ammunition box with his head in his arms, so he quickly walked up to her and bent down and asked, "Comrade Lieutenant, how is your company's situation? Are there any serious casualties?"
However, Liuba did not react at all to his words and sat there motionless. Sokov was a little anxious. Just as he was about to reach out to push the other party, Lida, with a smoke on his face, came over and said to Sokov: "Comrade Battalion Commander, a bomb exploded near the lieutenant. Her ears were deaf and she couldn't hear you."
Sokov thought of the instructor Sweta who stood with Liuba during the air defense operation, and asked: "Where is the instructor?"
"She was sent to the health team." In order to prevent Sokov from misunderstanding, Lida also emphasized: "She is still alive, but she was shocked and will soon wake up."
"How is the casualties in the company?" Sokov repeated the question he had just asked Liuba to Lida.
"Twelve were sacrificed and fifteen were injured." Hearing Sokov's question, Lida's eyes turned red and she lowered her head and said, "Natya, the girl who accompanied me with the accordion last night, also sacrificed her machine gun. The machine gun she controlled was directly hit by the German bomb, and she could not find a complete corpse..."
Knowing that the female soldier company suffered so much casualties, Sokov took off his helmet on his head and bowed deeply to the position full of bullet craters. After putting on the helmet again, he looked down at Liuba who was sitting on the ammunition box and asked Lida: "Can Lieutenant Liuba still command the battle?"
Lida glanced at her company commander, then shook her head and said, "I don't think she can command the battle anymore."
"Sergeant Lida." After confirming that Liuba was unable to command the battle for the time being, Sokov looked at Lida and said to her with a serious expression: "From now on, you are the acting company commander of the female anti-aircraft machine gun company. Your mission is to eliminate all enemies that appear in your vision, do you understand?"
"I understand!" Lida replied with a solemn expression: "I promise to complete the task."
"Comrade Battalion Commander," a correspondent came over and said to Sokov panting: "Lieutenant Saviev called from the high ground, and the deputy battalion commander asked me to ask you to go back and answer the phone."
When Sokov heard the communications soldier say that Belkin asked him to go back to answer the phone, he guessed that something must have happened on the high ground. He said to Lida and followed the communications soldier back to the battalion command post.
He walked into the command post, picked up the microphone on the table, and put it in his ear and said loudly, "Is it Saviev? I am Sokov, what's going on there?"
"Comrade Battalion Commander," he said at the top of his voice on the phone, whether Saviev's ear was deafened by the shelling or the bad telephone line. "The enemy's infantry, under the cover of three tanks, attacked our positions."
Saviev's report made Sokov frown, and he said to himself: You are not even on the first day to go to the position, don't you even know how to deal with the German attack? So he said unhappily: "Comrade Lieutenant, the German tanks cannot climb up on the hillsides on your side. You just need to concentrate on dealing with their infantry."
"No, battalion commander, you misunderstood what I mean." Saveyev said anxiously: "Our soldiers have long been accustomed to the shelling of German tanks at the foot of the mountain. But this time it is different. These three tanks and two armored vehicles, with nearly one hundred German soldiers, attempted to bypass our highlands along the simple road and rush towards you..."
"Stop, comrade Lieutenant, you must find a way to block the German tanks." Sokov also said anxiously: "You must never let the enemy rush to the north slope of the high ground and separate you from the main force of the battalion."
"But, but!" Saveyev said two "But" in a row, and finally said the embarrassed words: "We have no anti-tank weapons on our positions and we cannot deal with the enemy's tanks at all."
"Use cluster grenades." Without anti-tank guns and anti-tank grenades, all Sokov could think of was cluster grenades. Therefore, he ordered with a tough attitude: "Immediately organize soldiers to the foot of the mountain and use cluster grenades to blow up the enemy's tanks. You must not let them rush over. Do you understand?"
Chapter completed!