The German sneak attack caused huge losses to the 35th Division of the Guards. After the hand-to-hand combat just now, only eleven people were alive in the division headquarters, including Grazkov, and half of them were wounded.

When the regiments learned that the division headquarters was attacked, they sent people to rescue them. The first person to come back was Major Ibaru, the instructor battalion commander. He brought fifty soldiers. Seeing that the corpses were everywhere outside the division headquarters, he couldn't help but worry about Grazkov's safety. When he saw that everything was normal in Grazkov, his heart was hanging back to his stomach.

Seeing that Grazkov's situation was a little bad, he took the initiative to ask him: "Comrade Commander, I will leave all these soldiers to protect you."

"No, no, no," Glazkov waved his hand after hearing this and said, "Comrade Major, the frontline needs manpower, you should take all these soldiers back. As long as you can block the enemy's attack, I will be safe here."

Now that the war is in critical condition, Ibaru did not pretend to be polite to Grazkov. Since it was the division commander who personally ordered him to take the troops back to the front line, he as his subordinate could only obey. So he agreed and prepared to go back. Who knew that after walking a few steps, Grazkov called out: "Comrade Major, please wait a moment."

Ibaru stopped, looked at Grazkov and asked, "Comrade Commander, do you have any instructions?"

"I'll introduce it to you." Grazkov called Zalitzman over and introduced it to Ibaru, "This is Comrade Zalitzman, the deputy director of the Derrensky factory. If he hadn't led the militia in time just now, I think we have been destroyed under the siege of the Germans."

"Hello, Comrade Zalitzman." Ibaru heard that the middle-aged man in casual clothes had saved his commander's life not long ago. Ibaru hurriedly reached out to the other party, and said enthusiastically: "Thank you for saving our commander."

"We are all defenders of Stalingrad," Zalitzman said, holding Ibaru's hand, "This is all we should do, but unfortunately, only a dozen Germans were killed, and the rest were allowed to escape."

After a few greetings from the two, Grazkov and others said to Zalitzman: "Comrade Deputy Director, Major and others need manpower. Can you send two companies there?"

"No problem," Zalitzman said without hesitation about Grazkov's request: "The fighter battalion of our factory came here to help you. I will order the troops to follow the major to go to the frontier."

Just after Ibaru left with two militia companies, the Chief of Staff of the Division also came over with a group of soldiers panting. Seeing that Grazkov was safe and sound, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Comrade Commander, I heard that the Germans rushed to the vicinity of the division headquarters. I was worried that you were in danger, so I came to reinforce. How about it, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Grazkov pointed his hand at the body of the commander and fighter neatly placed beside him, and said, "But almost all the staff, communications soldiers and logistics personnel of the division headquarters were sacrificed."

"Comrade Commander." The Chief of Staff turned his head and looked at the soldiers he brought, and asked tentatively: "I will leave all these soldiers to you."

"The frontier needs warriors, you'd better take them all back." Grazkov repeated what he said to Ibaru: "The better you fight at the frontier, the safer I will be here."

When he saw the Chief of Staff of the Division was about to lead his troops away, Zalitzmann asked first without waiting for Grazkov to speak: "Comrade General, do you need me to send someone to the frontline with this colonel?"

Seeing that Zalitzman offered to go to the frontier, Grazkov nodded quickly and said, "Comrade Deputy Director, this is really great. Then please send two more companies and follow my Chief of Staff to the frontier."

Zalitzman brought five companies from the Derzhinsky factory. After two companies sent by the 100th and 102nd Regiments, only one company was left. He was afraid that Grazkov would send the remaining troops to the forefront, so he quickly suggested to the other party: "Comrade General, I think the remaining more than 100 militias are left here, responsible for the protection of the division headquarters and constraining the bodies of those who died."

According to Grazkov's idea, he did want to send the remaining company in Zalitzman to support the 101st Regiment, but when he heard the other party say that he wanted these militiamen to stay and restrain the bodies of his subordinates, he changed his mind temporarily. He nodded at Zalitzman and said, "Okay, Deputy Director, you and your subordinates should stay here."

…………

Just as the 35th Guard Division and Derzhinsky's militia stubbornly blocked the German army, the armored trains of the 30th Independent Armored Train Battalion were dispatched. The armored train numbered 74 helped the defenders of Mamayevgang to annihilate a fast column of the German army during the battle in August. Today, they received a telegram from the 35th Guard Division that was critical, and then dispatched urgently.

The armored train followed the railway line to the rear of the defensive position of the 101st Regiment. The artillery on the top of the car began to shell out the German tanks rushing towards the position. The muzzles of the four Maxim heavy machine guns extended from the shooting hole. With the commander in the car, they roared at the same time. The long flame mouth, like four dark red whips, sucked hard at the dense German infantry and knocked them down in pieces.

When the German infantry attacking him was knocked down by machine gun fire from the armored train in the rear; the tank that gave him a headache was also destroyed by artillery above the armored train, the officers and soldiers of the 101st Regiment could not help but feel proud. They turned around and shouted "Ula" in the direction of the armored train, regardless of the battle was not over yet!

The attack on the 101st Regiment was an infantry battalion of the German army and a tank company with six tanks. However, under the powerful firepower of the armored train, the enemy's offensive was quickly disintegrated, and all six tanks were destroyed by artillery fire. The infantry responsible for the attack also threw down hundreds of corpses and fled in a panic.

Seeing that the enemy attacking the 100th Regiment's position retreated, the armored train continued to move forward and came to the defense zone of the 100th Regiment, and used artillery shells and machine gun bullets to smash the German attack in this area. However, when the battalion commander of the Armored Train Battalion ordered his troops to continue to advance towards the defense zone of the 102nd Regiment, a captain reported to him: "Comrade Battalion Commander, our ammunition is almost exhausted, and we need to return to the base immediately to replenish supplies."

"What, ammunition is almost consumed?" The battalion commander frowned when he heard his subordinates say this, "According to regulations, aren't each artillery equipped with 200 rounds of ammunition and 30,000 rounds of ammunition installed with heavy machine guns? Why, it was exhausted so quickly?"

"Comrade Battalion Commander," the captain said with some amusement when he heard the battalion commander say this: "When we patrol along the ring railway yesterday, we had already used half of the ammunition to the south of the city. We originally said that we would replenish our ammunition today, and even before the ammunition was added, we received the order to attack. We had just repelled the attacks of two enemies in a row, and the ammunition was almost exhausted. If we did not go back to replenish, we would have to stare at them when the Germans attacked again."

Grazkov and Zalitzman both saw the performance of the armored train on the battlefield. When they saw the enemy attacking the positions of the 101st and 100th Regiments with the appearance of the armored train, they were both excited.

Grazkov said to Zalitzman: "Comrade Deputy Director, have you seen it? As soon as our armored train came out, the Germans were beaten to pieces. When they arrived at the defense zone of the 102nd Regiment and repelled the enemies attacking there, I think today's battle should come to an end."

Although Zalitzman had seen this armored train many times, it was the first time he saw it fire. He did not expect that the power would be so huge that it would easily crush the German attack. As soon as Grazkov finished speaking, he nodded and said, "That's right, Comrade General, if we could have more armored trains like this, the Germans would have no chance to get close to the city."

As the two were talking, they suddenly saw the armored train that they had been looking for, rumbled by themselves from south to north. Seeing this situation, Zalitzman couldn't help but ask unexpectedly: "Comrade General, logically speaking, shouldn't the armored train reach your left wing and support the 102nd Regiment fighting there? Why did they turn around and drive to the north?"

Not to mention that Zalitzman didn't know what was going on, Grazkov was still confused. He quickly picked up the phone, answered the command post of the 102nd Regiment, found the deputy division commander who was commanding the operation there, and asked straight to the point: "Col. Dubiyansky, what's going on? Aren't the armored train going to support you? Why did he return directly without a shot?"

"I don't know, comrade Commander." Because the 102nd Regiment was still in fierce firefighting, Dubiyansky and Grazkov had to shout at the top of their voices when talking to each other: "The battle here is fierce, and I still want to wait for the armored train to come to help us relieve the situation. Unexpectedly, after they stayed on the way for a while, they turned around and left."

Seeing that Dubiyansky had some idea, Grazkov was interested in calling the commander of the armored train battalion and asked him what was going on. He was about to arrive at the defense zone of the 102nd Regiment, but he turned around and came back.
Chapter completed!