"I am Lieutenant Sergeyev, the commander of the cannon company!" The tall and thin man on the left saluted Sokov first.
As soon as he finished speaking, the shorter lieutenant beside him saluted Sokov and said clearly: "I am Lieutenant Ajik, the commander of the anti-tank gun company."
Sokov's eyes swept across the faces again and asked, "Are you all ready?"
"Yes, Major, we are ready for all battles." Sergeyev immediately replied loudly, "You can go into battle at any time."
But Ajik said nothing, just nodded vigorously, indicating that he was ready.
"We are not able to enter the battle yet, because the commanders and fighters in the battalion are on their way to Sushinic." Sokov smiled at the two of them and asked, "Who do you have a map? We can take this opportunity to study the terrain of the combat area."
"I have a map." Ajik quickly agreed, untied the picture bag, pulled out a map from it, and spread it on the table next to it.
Sokov took out a pencil from his bag, marked the four villages to be captured on the map, and said to the two: "Comrades, the four villages we seized were distributed in diamond shapes on the map. Because the names of the villages are long and difficult to write, I used numbers to distinguish them for the sake of memory and used them as the order of our offensive."
Ajik stared at the map for a while, looked up at Sokov, and asked tentatively: "Comrade Major, I want to ask, how many troops the enemy has in these villages?"
When accepting the mission, although the Chief of Staff did not specify how many enemies there were in these villages, Sokov's estimate would not be too many. "According to the Chief of Staff of the Division, the German army occupied more than a dozen such villages. According to my estimate, each village has a platoon of troops."
After listening to Sokov's answer, Ajik thought to himself: After such a long battle, the major's battalion should be very few troops left. Do they have the ability to seize these four villages? Thinking of this, he asked tentatively: "Comrade Major, can I ask how many people are in your battalion?"
"More than 900 people." After Sokov answered this question, he took the initiative to say without waiting for Ajik to ask again: "The entire battalion is full of German equipment, machine guns and submachine guns. But unfortunately, there is not a single artillery in the battalion. Fortunately, with your joining, I should have no problem in seizing the village occupied by the enemy."
"A battalion has more than 900 people?!" Hearing this number, Ajik and Sergeyev looked at each other and were surprised by the other's eyes: "Now many infantry regiments only have five or six hundred people, but there are more than 900 people in your battalion. It's incredible."
"Nothing strange." Sokov folded the map on the table and returned it to Ajik, saying lightly: "Our battalion has added many commanders and fighters rescued from prisoners of war camps, so that it can reach so many people."
After Sokov waited for Ajik to put the map, he asked with a smile: "How many artillery cannons do you two have each? How many shells do each have?"
The first answer to the question is Sergeyev: "We have six guns in our company, each with thirty shells."
Ajik continued: "I have four anti-tank guns in my company, not many shells, and each cannon only has eighteen shells."
Sokov's smile froze on his face. According to his initial idea, he attacked each village. He first asked the artillery company to cover the German army in the village, and then launched an attack when the enemy was stunned. But now each cannon only has thirty shells, let alone firepower coverage. If he was not careful when attacking the first village, when attacking the three villages behind, the soldiers would only be allowed to charge one after another with the enemy's artillery fire.
Thinking of this, Sokov said to the two company commanders: "Let's go and go with me to see the terrain."
When leaving the division command, Sokov left a soldier from the guard squad and asked him to stay here and wait for Belkin. He and the two company commanders took the remaining soldiers and followed the guides sent by the division to rush to the area where the troops were about to attack.
Under the guidance of the guide, they walked through the forest under the knee-deep snow and came to the vicinity of village No. 1. While on the way, Sokov felt quite strange. The 16th Army had occupied Suxinic for a long time, so why didn't they take down this village so close to the city?
After they stopped at the edge of the forest, Sokov found an ideal observation position and raised his telescope to look at the village. He saw that the houses in the village were from the east and the west, which seemed very scattered. Sokov was very satisfied with this distribution. If the houses in the village were too concentrated, the troops would rush into the village and become targets for the enemy.
Although from a distance, the entire village was covered with snow. Sokov, based on his own experience, soon discovered that there were trenches built by the German army and some civil and industrial fire points in the south of the village. A fire was formed at the entrance of the village, and two German soldiers wearing military coats were surrounding the fire to keep warm. Not far behind them, a tank covered with snow was parked.
Sokov put down his telescope and said to Ajik, "Lt. Ajik, have you seen the tank at the entrance of the village?" Before the other party could speak, he continued, "When the battle starts, you will concentrate artillery fire to destroy it, otherwise it will cause huge casualties to our offensive troops. And you, Lieutenant Sergeyev, your company's mission is to directly destroy the enemy's civil and industrial fire points at the entrance of the village."
Sergeyev observed the distance and said with some embarrassment: "Comrade Major, the distance from where we are to the entrance of the village is more than a thousand meters. My company is full of recruits and lacks combat experience. It is a bit difficult to get them to hit such a far target."
Just when he was looking at the terrain, Sokov was thinking in his mind that if his artillery platoon could equip them with a few artillery pieces, let alone the firepower points outside the village, even the tanks parked at the entrance of the village could be cleaned up together. He heard Sergeyev's concern at this moment, and he said carelessly: "Comrade Lieutenant, I have a group of experienced artillery soldiers under my command, and I can lend them to you temporarily."
"Aren't you commanding the infantry battalion?" Sergeyev asked in surprise: "Why are there artillery soldiers in the battalion?"
"I command a mixed battalion of various troops," Sokov said with some smugness: "In addition to artillery, there are also tank soldiers, engineers and communication soldiers. If conditions permit, I want to form another flight squadron..."
Chapter completed!