Before dawn, a phone in the building rang. The soldiers who answered the phone listened for a moment and hurriedly covered the microphone and reported to Sokov: "Comrade Brigade Commander, your phone number was called from the Brigade Command."
Hearing the soldiers say this, Sokov guessed that the phone must have been called by Sidolin. He quickly took the microphone from the soldiers and asked directly: "Is it the Chief of Staff? I am Sokov. Has something happened?"
"No, Comrade Brigade Commander, everything is normal in the command center, nothing is happening." Cidolin asked tentatively: "I want to ask, when will you return to the command center?"
Sokov raised his hand and looked at his watch and replied, "I think I will have to wait for noon to go back as soon as possible. I want to see how powerful those new rockets are in the building that Vasily and the others are in."
"Ah, you won't be back until noon." Ciedorin said with some concern: "There won't be any danger if you stay in that building, right?"
Sokov knew that Sidolin was concerned about his own safety, so he said in a grateful tone: "Comrade Chief of Staff, thank you for your concern. I will pay attention to protecting myself, you don't have to worry about me."
Just before he was about to put down the phone, Sokov suddenly thought of an important question and quickly said to the microphone: "Comrade Chief of Staff, don't hang up the phone first, I have something to ask you."
"Comrade Brigade Commander, what's the matter?"
"I want to ask, how can I contact the rocket artillery battalion that stays by the river?"
Hearing Sokov's question, Sidorin asked puzzledly: "Comrade Brigade Commander, what do you ask the rocket launcher battalion do? You must know that they are directly commanded by the Group Army Command, and we have no right to mobilize them."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, of course I know that they are under direct command of the Army Command." Seeing that Sidolin did not understand his intention, Sokov explained to him: "The building that Vasily and others adhere to is very important in geographical location, but their firepower configuration is a little worse. I think that if they want to defend here, they must get the support of artillery, and the rocket artillery battalion hidden in the caves of the river embankment is the best choice. Chief of Staff, do you understand what I mean?"
After Sokov's explanation, Sidolin also felt that he could indeed use the rocket launcher camp hidden on the river bank to provide firepower support to Vasily, who was staying in the dormitory of the state Consumer Cooperatives Cooperatives. After understanding this truth, before Sokov could speak again, he took the initiative to say: "Comrade Brigade Commander, give me half an hour, and I will communicate with the commander."
Sokov knew that Sidolin and Trekov had a good personal relationship, so he readily agreed: "Okay, Comrade Chief of Staff, I'll wait for your good news here."
When Sokov put down the phone, Yakov couldn't help but ask curiously: "Misha, since we already have this new rocket launcher, why should we still allow the old rocket launcher to provide artillery fire support here?"
"Yakov, don't you remember how many rockets you brought?" Sokov looked at Yakov and said, "I'm afraid that all of them will be used up in one or two days. If all the rockets are fired, what will you do if our soldiers are left for the rest of the day?"
"That's true, I brought a little less rockets." When Yakov said this, he looked at the launcher and rockets piled in the corner of the wall with guilt, feeling that it was barely enough to repel the enemy's charge. He murmured to Sokov: "Has I explained the reason for this situation to you? It's mainly because of insufficient production capacity..."
"Yakov, I know a little bit about the current factory production situation, so you don't need to explain." Sokov stopped Yakov from continuing to speak, turned his head to Vasily and said, "Are there any artillery observers in the building?"
Sokov originally asked this question with a try-and-see attitude. Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, Vasily nodded vigorously and said with certainty: "Yes, there are several artillery soldiers in the building. I think there should be artillery observers among them."
"Where are they?" Sokov learned that there were artillery soldiers in the building, and hurriedly urged: "Call them quickly." Vasily did not dare to be negligent, so he quickly called a soldier and asked him to call the commander of the mortar team over.
Not long after, a second lieutenant wearing a big brimmed hat ran over with the soldier. When he saw Sokov standing beside Vasily, he quickly stood up and said respectfully: "Hello, comrade brigade commander, second lieutenant of artillery Chernushenko reported to you, I am waiting for your order, please instruct!"
"Hello, Second Lieutenant Chernushenko." Sokov nodded at the other party and asked directly: "I want to ask, do you have artillery observers in your subordinates?"
Hearing Sokov's question, Second Lieutenant Chernushenko showed a surprised expression on his face. He then asked: "Comrade Brigade Commander, what do you ask the artillery observers for? You must know that we currently only have two 50mm mortars. Even if there are no artillery observers, our gunners can accurately hit the target."
"Comrade Lieutenant, you're wrong." Sokov waved his hand at Chernushenko and said, "I asked you if there are any artillery observers because I plan to ask the rocket artillery battalion deployed in Hexi to cooperate with you in the battle. If there is no special person to guide me, I am worried that the rocket will fall on my own people."
After listening to Sokov's explanation, Chernushenko quickly replied: "Comrade Brigade Commander, I used to be an artillery observer. If I were just indicating the target for the rocket artillery battalion, I think I should be competent."
"Great, this is great." Sokov was overjoyed to learn that Lieutenant Chernushenko in front of him was an artillery observer. But he was happy for a while and then silent again. After a brief thought, he asked Vasily again: "How is your communication here?"
"Comrade Brigade Commander," Vasily quickly replied, "How can we not only contact the brigade department directly through the telephone line. At the same time, there is also a telephone call that can continue to maintain contact with the superiors when the telephone line is blown off."
"That's great." Sokov's heart became much more at ease when he learned that Vasily had enough communication equipment. He continued: "The Chief of Staff is now negotiating with the Army Command to see if the rocket launcher battalion hidden on the river bank can cooperate with us in combat. If the commander agrees, Chernushenko can guide the rocket launcher battalion on the river bank bank in this building and bombard the German offensive queue."
Sidolin asked Sokov to wait for half an hour, but after only ten minutes, he called Sokov. He said excitedly in the microphone: "Comrade Brigade Commander, Comrade Commander, have agreed to let us call the rocket artillery fire when necessary, and bombard the enemy's assembly location and attacking queues."
"Great, this is great." Sokov, as soon as Cidolin finished speaking, immediately asked impatiently: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I want to ask, how can the commanders and fighters who are standing in the building contact the rocket launcher battalion?"
"Comrade Commander gave me a call code, please remember..." After Sokov recorded the contact code with the Rocket Artillery Battalion, Cidolin continued: "Comrade Brigade Commander, I want to ask, are there artillery observers in the building? If not, I will send two from Mamayevgang immediately."
"No need, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov said to the microphone: "The second artillery lieutenant Chernushenko in the building was once an artillery observer. I think it is perfect for him to complete the artillery work."
When he learned that there was an artillery observer in the Vasily building, Sidolin did not cause any more trouble. Instead, he said to Sokov again: "Comrade Brigade Commander, the city is too dangerous, you should go to the command center as soon as possible."
"Don't worry, Comrade Chief of Staff." He was really unwilling to let Sokov go back at this moment. He risked his life and came here overnight. He didn't see anything and went home in shame. It was precisely because of this consideration, because he said firmly: "Let's talk about it until Vasily and the others defeated the attacking enemy."
After Sokov handed over the contact code to Vasily, he told him: "Sergeant Vasily, this is the contact information of the rocket artillery battalion on the river bank. You first let Chernushenko contact them and get familiar with each other, so that in this way, you can achieve excellent cooperation in the battle."
Vasily nodded and handed the paper in her hand to the radio operator sitting on the ground: "In this way, contact the rocket launcher battalion immediately."
The radio operator turned on the phone and shouted at the phone: "Volga River! Volga River! I am Stalingrad, I am Stalingrad, please answer if you hear it..."
After calling several times, a reply came from his headphones: "I am the Volga River, I am the Volga River. Please talk if you have something to do, and if you have something to do!"
The radio operator quickly handed the headphones and the microphone to Sokov, but Sokov waved his hand, pointed his hand at Chernushenko, and said, "Leave the headphones and the microphone to the second lieutenant."
Chernushenko took the sender and headphones from the radio operator and began to reply to the other party: "Volga, I am Stalingrad. Now it is a communication test, repeat it, now it is a communication test."
While Chernushenko and the Rocket Battalion were calling each other, Yakov pulled Sokov aside and said to him: "Misha, since the troops here can get the support of the Rocket Battalion in battle, we will not stay here anymore. I think we should return to the command center as soon as possible."
"Yakov," although Sokov wanted to put on his wings and fly back to Mamayev's hill, he tried hard to keep calm in front of so many subordinates, and avoid his emotions from causing bad negative effects on the troops: "Even if this building can be supported by rocket launchers, I still want to see with my own eyes how the rockets designed by myself eliminated the enemy."
"Okay, since you want to see the effect of the rockets on the battlefield, I will stay here for you." After Yakov finished speaking, he stretched out his hand to Sokov and said bluntly: "Is there any cigarette? Come on one!"
Sokov pulled Yakov to another room, found a place to sit down, then took out a cigarette that he had never smoked before, and handed it to Yakov. After Yakov tore open the packaging, he pulled out a cigarette from it, held it in his mouth, and threw the cigarette box back to Sokov. When he saw Sokov draw a cigarette, he quickly lit a match and lit it for the other party.
After Sokov took two sips, he suddenly remembered what he knew about Stalin. He never left his cigarettes. He asked Yakov curiously: "Yakov, how much cigarettes does your father smoke every day?"
Yakov thought about Sokov for a while before he said in an uncertain tone: "I guess at least two packs of cigarettes a day. He always puts the tobacco in his cigarette pipe to smoke..."
Before Yakov could finish his words, a burst of machine gun fire suddenly came outside the building, which scared him to death. He stood up suddenly and looked around: "Is the enemy coming?"
"Vasily," Sokov threw the cigarette butts that had not been finished in his hand on the ground, stood up and shouted outside, "What's going on outside? Where are you shooting?"
"Please wait a moment, comrade brigade commander." Vasily, who was calling, heard Sokov ask himself and quickly covered the microphone with his hand and replied: "I am calling the observation post on the fourth floor to ask what happened!"
The situation quickly became clear. There was a machine gun on the fourth floor. The machine gunner just saw several German soldiers running over in the square and couldn't help but open fire. As a result, one person was killed and one person was injured, and the remaining enemies ran away.
Sokov originally thought that the soldiers were too nervous to fire when they saw the enemy appearing. But when he heard that the shooting just now, he actually killed one German soldier, he was not going to hold the machine gunner responsible for the unauthorized fire.
"Fighting alarm, issue a battle alarm immediately!" After Vasily reported to Sokov, he immediately ordered a soldier standing beside him: "Let everyone enter their respective combat posts immediately, and the enemy will attack soon."
The soldier agreed, walked quickly to the stairs, and blew the whistle hard at the bottom. After a while, heavy footsteps sounded everywhere in the building. According to Sokov's judgment, the soldiers who were resting everywhere were running towards their respective combat posts after hearing the gathering whistle.
"Sergeant Vasily," Sokov asked curiously while the soldiers were assembling, "How do you know that the enemy is going to attack the building?"
"Comrade Brigade Commander, you don't know that the Germans would send a few people to infiltrate us every morning, trying to rush downstairs quietly when we were not paying attention." Vasily explained: "The machine gunners on duty killed off the infiltrating enemy, but their large troops attacked soon."
Chapter completed!