Before the reinforcements from the base camp arrived, Sokov felt that there was something more important to do, so he ordered the staff to call the four battalion commanders and inform them to come to the brigade headquarters immediately for a meeting. As soon as he returned to the battalion headquarters, the four battalion commanders who had no time to drink a sip of water, after receiving the notice, he thought that Sokov was going to comment on today's military competition, so he rushed over without hesitation.
Seeing that the four battalion commanders were all here, Sokov said, "Comrade Battalion Commander, I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to listen to first?"
The battalion commanders may have never heard anyone speak to them in this tone, so after Sokov asked the question, they hesitated for a while, and the first battalion commander Wanya said carefully: "Comrade Brigade Commander, let's talk about the good news first."
"The reinforcements sent by the base camp will arrive tomorrow at the latest." Sokov saw that Wanya chose to listen to the good news first, and said with a smile: "As soon as they arrive, we can shrink our defense and concentrate our efforts to defend in one direction."
"That's great, this is really great." Although the four battalion commanders had known the news that reinforcements were coming, they were still very happy when they heard Sokov mention it. What made them happiest the most was undoubtedly the shrinking of the defense line. After all, five or six thousand people guarding a city and simply defending the same direction are two completely different concepts.
After the house calmed down, Andre asked tentatively: "Comrade Brigade Commander, then tell me, what is the other bad news?"
Seeing that everyone's eyes were focused on him, Sokov sighed softly and said, "When the large army enters Kursk, the warehouse area we currently control must be handed over to friendly forces immediately."
After hearing Sokov's words, the battalion commanders couldn't help but feel a little slap in their hearts and said that this was really bad news. If the warehouse area was really handed over to friendly forces, they would never be able to receive supplies as they want as they do now. Without food, people could still hold on; but if the guns had no ammunition, they would be even better than a fire stick.
Vasily, who was in charge of the warehouse, waited for Sokov to finish his speech and immediately stood up and asked, "Comrade Brigade Commander, should I do something?" Vasily still had a glimmer of luck in his heart when he asked, thinking that Sokov would leave one or two warehouse supplies for his own sake.
"All warehouses, not all left, are handed over to friendly forces." Sokov said this, seeing the embarrassing expression on the faces of the battalion commanders, and added: "However, before the handover work, each battalion should send people to the warehouse to collect the materials they need."
"Captain Vasily," Sokov ordered Vasily: "All officers and soldiers of my brigade, regardless of what supplies, ammunition, oil, supplies and combat equipment they want to receive, will be distributed in full as long as they have them in the warehouse."
After the joyful Vasily answered loudly, Sokov said to several other battalion commanders: "In the warehouse we occupied, the weapons and equipment stored are both German and our army captured by the enemy. Now some troops are all German equipment, while others are standard equipment of our army. In the following days, we can seize the weapons and ammunition required for German equipment in battle; and the supplies of the troops equipped with standard weapons of our army may be much more difficult. Therefore, you should use the only precious time left to replenish sufficient ammunition and materials for the troops."
"Comrade Brigade Commander," Brisky and Sokov finished speaking, and stood up and asked, despite the fact that the other party had not announced the reconciliation, "Are you allowed me to return to the army now? I need to immediately arrange the work of collecting ammunition and supplies to the commanders and soldiers."
"Allow to leave." Sokov nodded at Brisky, and then said to everyone: "Time is tight, you all return to their respective troops immediately and hurry up and collect supplies. Let's have a break!"
Looking at the battalion commanders' departure, Belkin asked with some concern: "Comrade Brigade Commander, if a friendly army takes over the warehouse area and finds that all the warehouses inside are empty, will we have any trouble?"
"What trouble will be, my political commissar?" Sokov looked at Belkin and asked in surprise: "Our troops did not leave any documents when collecting supplies. Even if the superiors traced it, we can say that when we occupied the German warehouse area, it was almost empty."
Regarding Sokov's statement that he was completely shirking the blame, the muscles on Belkin's face twitched violently a few times, and then asked again: "But what should we do if our superiors want to thoroughly investigate this matter?"
Sokov found Berkin's concerns ridiculous. He said to the other party: "Comrade Political Commissar, don't forget that after we seized Kursk, we have added thousands of new recruits. If we do not use the weapons and equipment in the German warehouse, where should we find weapons to arm them?"
Sokov raised his hand and patted Belkin's shoulder twice, then said, "Don't worry, comrade political commissar, as long as we can hold on to Kursk, our superiors will understand our difficulties and will never pursue this matter."
Each battalion sent personnel to the warehouse area to collect the supplies they needed. Several battalion commanders had similar ideas. Anyway, they were all things that were not expensive, and they could move as much as they could. Otherwise, once a friendly army took over the warehouse area, it would not be so easy to collect supplies in the future.
In order to bring the supplies back to their respective battalions as soon as possible, the battalion commanders also showed their magical powers across the sea. Except for an infantry company that was standing in the west of the city, the rest of the first battalion were sent to the warehouse to transport supplies by Captain Vanya; Captain Vasily, the commander of the second battalion, used his position to use military trucks in the warehouse to transport weapons, ammunition and various materials to the new base of the second battalion; and Andre, the commander of the third battalion, saw that the military trucks in the warehouse were all requisitioned by Vasily, so he used civilian vehicles, including buses, to help the third battalion pull ammunition and supplies; even Captain Brisky, who had just taken office, summoned five or six hundred strong workers at the cost of 300 grams of bread crumbs a day to help him carry supplies...
Sokov and Berkin went to the warehouse area. Seeing the busy scene of the military-civilian general mobilization to transport supplies together, they couldn't help but smile and said, "It seems that these battalion commanders are not simple. They all know how to use their own methods to move as much ammunition and various materials back to their own stations. In the next battle, as long as there is no more battle, it will consume nearly 50,000 bullets, and our existing ammunition will be able to support it for a long time."
As the two were talking, suddenly there was a rumbling sound of cannons coming from the south of the city. Sokov was shocked when he heard the sudden sound of cannons. He rushed into the office of the warehouse area and asked loudly at Vasily, who was sitting at the table and calling Vasily, "Captain Vasily, what happened? Why did there be a sound of cannons appear in the south of the city?"
Vasily nodded, looked up at Sokov, and said with a serious expression: "Comrade Brigade Commander, the Second Company Commander Geria reported that the enemy is launching shelling on the Second Company's defensive positions, and it seems that he is preparing to cross the Tenebra River again."
"Captain Vasily, tell Geria to let the soldiers pay attention to concealment and do a good job of anti-aircraft artillery work. Try to minimize the losses of the troops in the shelling." After instructing Vasily, Sokov turned his head and said to Berkin, "Comrade Political Commissar, let's go back to the brigade department now."
As soon as Sokov returned to his command, he immediately called Rotmistrov. He said in the microphone: "Comrade General, the Germans are shelling our south position. It seems that they are preparing to cross the Tenebra River again and launch an attack on our defensive positions."
"Don't worry, comrade Lieutenant Colonel." After Rotmistrov finished speaking to Sokov, he immediately comforted him and said, "When the Germans began to cross the river, my artillery will teach them a severe lesson and completely crush their attempt to seize the position in the south of the city."
The Tenebra River is actually not wide and the water flows are not fast. But after crossing the river, there is still a vast plain soaked in water. When the German infantry passes through this area, they will slow down and become the target of Soviet shooting. This time, the German army, who took advantage of the shelling to cross the river in large numbers, came prepared. They also specially brought four water and land tanks to cover the infantry's attack.
The water and land tanks were originally planned to be used by the German army to attack the English Channel, but later they found that they had fatal flaws and were left behind. It was not until after the outbreak of the Soviet-German War that the German army was attacking the Brest Fortress, when these water and land tanks were forced to cross the Bug River, they participated in the first actual combat. In order to effectively break through the Soviet defense south of Kursk, the German commander specially borrowed these four tanks from friendly forces to strengthen the offensive firepower of the offensive forces.
Although these tanks were modified from No. 3 light tanks, these tanks still gave them headaches for the Soviet army that lacked anti-tank weapons. Geria looked at the tanks marching in the water and the infantry hiding behind the tanks, and quickly picked up the microphone and reported to Vasily: "Comrade Battalion Commander, the situation is a bit bad. The enemy dispatched tanks during this attack. Our company lacked anti-tank weapons and might not be able to block them."
"Hey, where did the German tanks emerge?" After hearing Geria's report, Vasia shouted in anger: "Did they come from the river?"
"Yes, comrade Battalion Commander, you are right." Geria nodded vigorously when she heard Vasily say this, and said in a positive tone: "The enemy's tanks swam from the water."
Vasily had never heard of any tank that could swim. When he heard Geria say this, he thought the other party was stunned by the enemy's artillery fire, so he said unhappily: "Lieutenant Geria, no matter what method you use, I will block the enemy. If they are allowed to rush through your position, what consequences will be, even if I don't say it, you should be able to guess."
"I understand, comrade battalion commander." Geria heard from Vasily's tone that the other party did not believe what he had reported, but just ordered himself to stick to it. He replied with a firm heart and said, "Don't worry, as long as there is one person here, we will never let the German tanks go there."
After Vasily put down the phone, he remembered the swimming tank mentioned by Geria, and felt that he should report this to Sokov, so he picked up the phone.
"What, Captain Vasily, what did you say? Repeat again." Sokov heard Vasily mention the tank that could swim, and thought he had heard it wrong, so he quickly said to the microphone: "The tank that could swim is rushing towards the position of the Second Company? I understand, let Geria hold on, and we will provide them with artillery support as soon as possible."
As soon as Sokov put down the phone, Belkin asked curiously: "Comrade Brigade Commander, I just heard you say something about swimming tanks. What's going on?"
"In order to attack Britain a few years, the Germans modified some of the No. 3 light tanks to turn them into water and land tanks that can be scuba or slumped on the water. But later they found that this tank was of no use, so they were temporarily put on hold." Sokov explained to Belkin: "It was not until the German army attacked the Brest Fortress that they used this tank to force the Bug River. After this battle, I never heard of this tank again. I thought they had been completely lost in the war, and I didn't expect it to appear here."
"Most of the soldiers of the Second Company who are on the position are recruits. When they see the enemy's tanks galloping towards them, someone will definitely be scared to death." Belkin reminded Sokov carefully: "If we do not find a way to destroy the enemy's tanks as soon as possible, then some soldiers will become deserters because of fear."
"Don't worry, comrade political commissar, I won't let the second company deserter appear." Sokov finished speaking, picked up the phone on the table, called the artillery company, and said to the company commander Porochenko: "Company Commander Porochenko, your company's mission is here."
Porochenko: "Comrade Brigade Commander, I obey your orders, please give instructions!"
"There are four German light tanks rushing towards the defensive position of the Second Company in the south of the city." Sokov said to the microphone: "The mission of your company is to destroy these enemy tanks with artillery fire." Considering that the artillery company may not understand the specific location of the German water and land tanks, Sokov also deliberately added, "You immediately send artillery observers to the front line, and they provide the shooting parameters to guide your cannons to bombard them."
"Comrade Brigade Commander, don't worry, we have observers left in the second company's position." As soon as Porochenko and Sokov finished speaking, they immediately stated: "I will contact them immediately and ask the artillery soldiers to destroy the enemy's tanks based on the data provided by the observers."
Chapter completed!