But when there was only one platoon on the position, Sokov received a call from Potugin, and the other party asked anxiously: "Comrade Commander, I see that there are no troops around you. Do I need me to send Istria Battalion to you?"
"No need, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov considered that if the troops could not stop the German counterattack and would withdraw back to the left bank, he rejected Potukin's proposal: "The battle has just begun, and there are still many places to use them in the future. Let them continue to stay in their original position first."
Sokov had just put down the phone when he suddenly heard someone outside shouting loudly: "Air raid, air raid sir, hide, hurry up and find a place to hide." He listened for a moment and heard that the person calling was the guard platoon leader, so he walked out of the simple command center with an assault rifle, trying to figure out what was going on.
Four enemy planes flew from the south, lowered their altitude and began to drop bombs. Black smoke from the explosion of aviation bombs rose everywhere on the position. Two soldiers who were cleaning up the floating soil in the trenches, saw the enemy planes start to drop bombs, and quickly carried the engineer shovel in their hands and bent down to run towards a nearby air raid shelter.
Unexpectedly, halfway through the run, a bomb landed and exploded not far from them. When the smoke of gunpowder dissipated, Sokov saw two soldiers slumped to the ground and rolling in pain. He quickly turned his head and shouted at the command center: "Sanitation officer, health officer!"
As he shouted, a male health worker carrying a medical box ran out of the command center, looked at his waist and came to Sokovl and others, and asked at him: "Comrade Commander, what instructions do you have?"
Sokov pointed to the wounded soldiers in the distance and said, "There are two soldiers there, so hurry up and treat them."
Although the position was filled with smoke from explosions and shrapnel flying everywhere, after receiving Sokov's order, the sanitary officer still ran towards the injured without hesitation.
"Comrade Commander," the guard platoon leader who was originally hiding in a nearby air-raid shelter saw Sokov squatting in a crater outside the command center. He was worried that he would be in danger, so he hurriedly left the hiding place and ran to Sokov, and said anxiously: "It's too dangerous outside, you'd better go to the air-raid shelter."
"Comrade lieutenant, there are two wounded people over there. Let's help the health officer to carry them to the air raid shelter first." Sokov finished speaking, and before the guard platoon leader could make a statement, he bent over and ran towards the injured.
"Teacher, dangerous, lie down quickly." Seeing Sokov finished speaking, he ran to the wounded soldiers exposed to the open ground, frightening the guard platoon leader to death. He shouted at Sokov's back a few times. Seeing that there was no effect, he cursed in his heart and rushed over with a gun.
Sokov ran to the injured and squatted down and asked the health officer who was bandaging the injured: "How is their injuries? Is it serious?"
"It was very serious." The health officer shook his head and said, "It was all injured in the legs and back. The surgery must be performed as soon as possible to remove all the shrapnel from their bodies."
"Comrade Commander," the guard platoon leader appeared in front of the two of them. He said to Sokov with a hint of blame: "You are the commander of the first division, how can you take such a risk? You should go back to the command center first, and leave the matter here to me."
Sokov glanced at the air-raid shelter more than 20 meters away and said to the guard platoon leader: "The wounded are not seriously injured. You can't let them stay in this dangerous place. Let's send them to the air-raid shelter there first."
After hearing Sokov finished speaking, he grabbed one of the wounded men's collar without saying a word and dragged him towards the air raid shelter. Seeing that the guard platoon leader had dragged one of the wounded men away, Sokov, together with the sanitation officer, dragged another wounded men toward the air raid shelter as fast as possible.
There were seven or eight soldiers in the air-raid shelter. When they saw the division commander and the platoon leader dragging a wounded person over, half of them immediately came out to help and helped drag the wounded into the air-raid shelter.
The platoon leader of the guard took advantage of the time when the sanitation officer bandaged the wound and said to Sokov tactfully: "Comrade Commander, do you know? Your actions just now were so risky. You are the commander of the first division. If something unexpected happens, the troops may be in panic because they lose unified command..."
"Sorry, Comrade Lieutenant." Sokov also realized that he was a little too reckless when he was a hero. If he really had any problems, the three regiments that were fighting fiercely with the German army would fall into chaos because they lost their unified command. He quickly apologized to the other party and said, "You are right. I am a little too reckless today. I will definitely pay attention to correcting it in the future..."
Before he could finish his words, he heard a famous soldier at the entrance of the cave shouting: "Comrade Commander, someone is calling you in the direction of the command center."
Sokov quickly came to the entrance of the cave and looked at the command center dozens of meters away. Sure enough, he saw a famous communications soldier squatting at the door, waving his hands to the side, and shouting loudly. However, due to the bombing and strafing of enemy planes, Sokov could not hear clearly what the other party was saying. Seeing that Sokov was so unresponsive, the communications soldier quickly raised his thumbs and little fingers and made an action to answer the phone.
Seeing the communications soldier's action, Sokov knew that someone must have called the command center to find him, so he was ready to leave with a gun. Unexpectedly, as soon as his body was leaning forward, he was pulled by the guard platoon leader, who spoke, "Terminal Commander, it's too dangerous. You might as well wait for the enemy plane to leave before going over."
Sokov guessed that there must be something important about the phone call at this time. The enemy plane didn't know how long it would take to bomb over the position, so he waved his hand to the guard platoon leader and rushed out of the air raid shelter with his gun. Unexpectedly, when there were still twenty or thirty steps away from the command center, a bomb falling from the sky fell nearby and exploded. The huge shock wave pushed Sokov into the crater at the command department's entrance.
A German pilot who carried out the air strike felt that the information he received was not accurate when bombing this position that once belonged to his own side. From the bombing to now, he seemed to have not seen a few running figures on the ground. As soon as Sokov rushed out of the air raid shelter, he was immediately discovered by the German pilots hovering in the air, and immediately a dive bomb was dropped. However, the bomb was dropped a little earlier, and the running Russian soldiers were just overturned by air waves in the nearby crater, as if they had not lost their ability to move. Therefore, the German pilot pulled the plane high and prepared to dive down again, and used an on-board machine gun to destroy the Russian.
Sokov lay on his back in the crater, feeling a burst of heart-wrenching pain in his back. Seeing an enemy plane lifted up, he dived towards him, which made him sweat in a cold sweat. He quickly raised the assault rifle in his hand, pressed the butt on his shoulder, aiming at the diving enemy plane.
Seeing that the enemy plane was getting closer and closer to him, Sokov immediately pulled the trigger. Due to the tight time, he had no time to consider how ridiculous it was to shoot the plane with an assault rifle. Amid the huge explosion, he did not hear the gunshots at all. He could only mechanically pull the trigger and fire all the bullets in the magazine.
Because he was too nervous, he did not notice that a bullet penetrated the glass in the cockpit and hit the pilot's face. The red liquid that exploded sprayed the glass into blood-red. The plane that lost the pilot passed by forty or fifty meters above his head, and then fell head-on into the open space a hundred meters away, and an earth-shaking explosion occurred.
Whether it was the air raid shelter or the command department, when they saw the division commander being overturned by the bomb, they were sweating in their hands and worried about his safety. Unexpectedly, the division commander who fell in the crater actually shot down an enemy plane with the new automatic gun in his hand. After a moment of silence, the soldiers cheered. Two soldiers rushed out of the command center, jumped into the crater, and carried Sokov back to the command center.
Sokov was carried to his seat by two soldiers and asked the correspondent who called him, "Who called me?"
"It's Colonel Bindasov." The correspondent handed the microphone to Sokov, and said, "He has important circumstances and needs to report it to you immediately."
Sokov grabbed the microphone and put it in his ear and said loudly: "Col. Bindasov, I am the acting commander. Do you have any information to report to me?"
"Comrade Commander," the sound from the receiver was mixed with guns and cannons, proving that fierce battle was taking place in Bindasov. Bindasov said loudly: "The enemy dispatched seven or eight tanks and more than three hundred infantry to counterattack the positions occupied by our regiment. Captain Jetrov's battalion was fighting tenaciously with the enemy, and the soldiers were very brave..."
Before Bindasov finished speaking, Sokov interrupted the clichés behind him and continued to ask: "I have sent you the third battalion left with me. Have they arrived?"
"What, you have sent the Third Battalion?" Bindasov, who was about to ask for reinforcements, was stunned when he heard Sokov say this, and then he thought that although the acting division commander was young, he had a better grasp of the situation than anyone else. It would be natural to be able to return the Third Battalion in advance. He quickly said: "I haven't seen the Third Battalion yet, and I guess they are on the way."
"Comrade Colonel," Sokov asked Bindasov with a serious expression: "Please tell me truthfully, can you block the enemy's attack?"
"It's hard to say, comrade of the division commander." Bindasov said hesitantly: "You must know that our regiment does not have any heavy weapons. If we want to destroy the enemy's tanks, we must let the soldiers tie cluster grenades on their bodies, and wait for the enemy tanks to rush up and die with them."
"I understand, comrade Colonel." According to Bindasov's description, Sokov realized that the regiment's current strength was too weak. If troops were not sent to reinforce, they would be defeated by the German army. Thinking of this, he quickly added: "Stand with it, I will send you reinforcements as soon as possible."
Then, Sokov contacted Pavel again and asked straight to the point: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, how is the situation in your direction? Is the enemy still harassing you?"
"Yes, comrade of the division commander." Pavel replied in a positive tone: "At the end of Moquan, they were just constantly bombarding our positions and dispatching small groups of troops to carry out feint attacks, and did not launch any decent attacks at all. Therefore, I can say with certainty that they took such actions to achieve the goal of restraining us."
"Ltd Colonel, listen to me." After confirming that the enemy was just a feint on the right wing, Sokov immediately decisively ordered Pavel: "Immediately draw the 1139th Regiment to the left wing to support Colonel Bindasov. He was the focus of the German offensive. If he did not support as soon as possible, I was worried that he would not be able to withstand it."
"Don't worry, comrade of the division commander." Hearing Sokov's orders, Pavel quickly assured him: "I will draw the 1139th Regiment to reinforce Colonel Bindasov as soon as possible."
Although a regiment was transferred from the right wing, Sokov still felt uneasy, so he called Potugin, who was left across the river, and asked directly: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the situation of the 1135th Regiment is very critical at present. Do you have any way to transfer the tank battalion and artillery battalion to the right bank area as soon as possible?"
Sokov's words stumped Potukin. Although the river channel about fifty meters wide was nothing, it was a bit difficult to let the tanks and cannons cross the river. Sokov heard nothing in the earpiece, and couldn't help frowning, then raised his voice and asked, "What's wrong, Comrade Chief of Staff, why don't you speak?"
"It's not easy to deal with, comrade Commander." Portukin said embarrassedly: "I can order the artillery battalion to build a position by the river to provide artillery fire support for the 1135th Regiment of Bindasov. But I can't do anything about the tank. There is no bridge on the river, and our tanks will not swim."
When Potukin heard that tanks could not swim, Sokov suddenly thought of the 1137th and 1138th Regiments intersected, so he said to Potukin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you can let the tank battalion go north along the river and reach the siege where infantry intersected. I believe that infantry can cross the river and our tanks can also pass."
"Yes, why did I forget this?" Potukin responded immediately after reminding Sokov: "I will call the tank battalion commander and order him to lead the tank battalion north to cross the Juzdra River from the upper reaches."
After the phone call, the bombing outside was over. Seeing that one of his companions was shot down by ground fire, the remaining enemy planes were panicked and quickly pulled the plane up, cast all the bombs they carried, and turned around and flew to the south.
Chapter completed!