"Okay, Yakov." Seeing that Yakov's attitude was so firm, Sokov understood in his heart that it would definitely not work if he didn't let him follow him. The only way was to find a way to ensure his safety, so he said, "But you need to follow me all the time, can you do it?"
"No problem." Seeing that Sokov agreed to his request to join the war, Yakov readily agreed: "Misha, I will fight side by side with you."
Since Bere's tank driver was awake and no longer needed Sokov to play the driver, Sokov took advantage of the time when the 117th Guards Regiment had not yet returned to contact Vitkov of Mamayev hill and ordered him to send someone to send an armored vehicle hidden in the underground garage.
Fortunately, Mamayevgang is not far from the Red October Factory, and the armored vehicle Sokov wants is coming soon. Because the German cross paint is still preserved on it, in order to prevent misunderstandings, the soldiers also tied a red flag on the car to use it as identification.
Fortunately, there was a red flag tied to the car. The Guards soldiers who were standing in this area did not regard the car as an enemy armored vehicle. They also enthusiastically pointed out the road for the driver.
Seeing the armored vehicle coming, Yakov asked Sokov impatiently: "Misha, when will we set off?"
"Wait until the main force of the 117th Guards Regiment returns." Sokov raised his hand and looked at his watch. More than an hour has passed since Cuikov issued an order to himself. No matter how slow the movement of the 117th Guards Regiment is, it should be almost time to come. "I want to learn about the enemy's defense situation from the regiment commander."
After a while, an army appeared in the distance. Sokov guessed that the 117th Guards Regiment might have been back, so he took Yakov to meet him. Who knew that after seeing the opposite side, he was shocked. Is this the 117th Guards Regiment that wanted to take over his defense? Why did it look like a defeated soldier?
A colonel with a dark face with gun smoke came to Sokov, nodded at him, and asked politely: "Is it Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, the commander of the 73rd Infantry Brigade?"
"Yes, comrade Colonel. It's me!"
"I am the leader of the 117th Guards Regiment," the colonel said with a expressionless face: "We are ordered to take over your defense."
"Comrade Colonel, I want to ask." Seeing that there were seventy or eighty stretchers in the returned troops, and most of the walking soldiers were carrying some injuries to the point of being more or less. He asked curiously: "Are your casualties a little too big?"
The colonel glanced at Yakov, nodded, and said listlessly: "After the fierce battle, our regiment, except for the first battalion that stayed here, the other two battalions and the regiment's direct troops suffered more than two-thirds of the casualties. Now there are only five or six hundred soldiers left in the regiment to fight."
Sokov did not expect that the casualties of the Guards Division would be so heavy, so he asked with concern: "Comrade Colonel, I want to ask, what combat mission are you carrying out and why do you pay such a heavy price?"
"What other tasks can be done?" the colonel replied with a wry smile: "I'll be ordered to launch an attack on the enemy's defensive positions."
"Can the enemy cause such great casualties to your regiment? Is it because the enemy has strong fortifications?" Sokov asked in detail, considering that his troops would soon deal with the same German army, and he asked in detail: "How many troops do they have to defend?"
"The Germans are the attacking side. How strong can they have fortifications?" the colonel said angrily: "They can't just pull a few wire mesh and lay a few minefields in front of the position."
Sokov was even more surprised when he heard this. It was normal for the barbed wire and minefields to be in front of the position. Why did the 117th Guards Regiment suffer such a heavy price? He asked curiously: "Comrade Colonel, did your regiment suffer huge casualties in front of the enemy's minefield and barbed wirefields?"
"We did pay some price in front of minefields and barbed wire." The colonel replied: "In fact, our biggest casualties were at the distance that hit the German positions. Without the cover of artillery fire, our soldiers could only rush forward in the enemy's rain of bullets until they sacrificed their lives. During the charge, we were not only intercepted by German artillery fire, but also enemy planes appeared in the sky. They dived from high altitude and dropped bombs at our soldiers, causing great casualties to our army."
When Sokov learned that the German army had air force assisted in the war, he realized that the battle was not easy to fight. After asking the colonel for some details, he arranged for Vanya to hand over defense with the other party. After he got into the armored vehicle compartment, he said to the radio operator sitting inside: "Send a report to the air force and order them to rush to the northwest of the Red October Factory immediately to provide us with air cover."
Sokov issued this order to the Air Force a little late. Colonel Kkhostnikov thought there was no combat mission today, so all the planes were hidden. After receiving Sokov's notice, he quickly ordered the plane to be pushed out from the hidden place, refueled urgently, slapped bullets, and prepared for attack.
Because it takes time to refuel and mount the bullets, Sokov's troops had already arrived at the combat area of ​​the 39th Guards Division and were bombed by German aircraft groups.
The three tanks that opened the road in front and more than 20 soldiers sitting on the tank were discovered by enemy planes hovering in the air. The enemy planes dived from a high altitude and dropped bombs and strafing at the galloping tanks. Although the tank soldiers used their maneuvers to avoid bombs dropped by enemy planes, the flying shrapnel drove the soldiers sitting on the tank off the body of the car.
After the open-circuit tanks escaped the pursuit of enemy planes, the three tanks were already scarred, while almost all the infantry sitting in the car died.
After Sokov came to the battlefield, he saw a group of wounded men moving backwards, and asked loudly at them: "Comrades, which part of you are?"
When most of the soldiers looked up at him expressionlessly, and then moved silently along the road to the back. Fortunately, a sanitary officer couldn't stand it anymore, so he replied loudly: "Comrade Commander, we are from the 39th Guard Division."
"Where is your division commander?" Sokov confirmed that the wounded were from the 39th Guard Division and asked quickly: "Where is your division command?"
The sanitation officer pointed to the back sideways and continued to say loudly: "Walk along this road, walk about a few hundred meters, and you can find our division command in the woods on the side of the road."
After thanking the health officer, Sokov ordered the driver: "Keep going!"
The Soviet soldiers guarding outside the woods heard the sound of armored vehicles driving on the road, and instinctively looked in the direction of the sound. When they saw that it was a German armored vehicle, they were all ready for battle. At the critical moment, some soldiers saw the red flag tied to the body of the vehicle and shouted loudly: "Don't shoot, don't shoot, it's your own people, your own people."
The armored vehicle was parked by the woods, and Sokov asked at the soldiers: "Comrades, is your division command here?"
A sergeant asked vigilantly: "Comrade Commander, who are you? What's the matter with us? "
"I am Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, the commander of the 73rd Infantry Brigade." After proclaiming his identity, Sokov said bluntly: "I have something important to meet your division commander immediately."
When the sergeant learned that the commander in front of him was the friendly army who came to assist him in the attack, his attitude immediately became enthusiastic. He quickly said to Sokov: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, if you don't object, I am willing to act as a guide for you."
"Please, comrade Sergeant." Sokov smiled slightly when he heard the sergeant say this, and then said, "Please take us to your division headquarters."
Guriyev's division headquarters was located in a simple tent in the woods. Seeing Sokov's arrival, Guriyev's frown stretched out. He stepped forward and took the initiative to hold Sokov's hand and asked impatiently: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you have finally arrived. I wonder how many troops have you brought?"
"A tank battalion and an infantry battalion." Sokov replied dryly: "We were ordered to advance towards Orlovka and establish a fire support point there to wait for friendly forces to come."
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the situation is very serious." Guriev pointed to the map in front of him and said to Sokov: "Our division fought for several hours, but it only advanced two kilometers forward. At this speed, it will take at least ten days before we can reach Orlovka."
"Comrade General, I want to ask," Sokov felt that the terrain here should be very conducive to the development of the tank troops, so he asked tentatively: "Does the enemy have many anti-tank weapons?"
"Anti-tank weapons?" When he heard this question, Guriev was stunned at first, and then he remembered that Sokov said that the troops he led were an infantry battalion and a tank battalion. He thought to himself that it might be that Sokov had limited tanks in his hands and was worried that he would not be able to complete the next task after being destroyed by the enemy. Therefore, he answered solemnly: "According to my observation, the Germans did not seem to have any anti-tank weapons."
When Sokov learned that the enemy had no anti-tank weapons, he felt much more at ease. He felt that using tank assault and infantry follow-up tactics would be able to successfully break through the German defense. In order to ensure the smooth progress of the battle, he asked Guriev again: "Comrade General, can you introduce me to the situation on the battlefield?"
Guriev nodded and said, "According to the information we have, there are probably only two companies on the front position, and there are no heavy weapons. However, due to their favorable terrain, coupled with the minefields and barbed wire in front of the position, the several consecutive attacks we launched ended in failure."
In order to allow Sokov to understand the enemy and us situation on the battlefield more vividly, Guriyev even personally took a few people to the front line. He came to an observation center. Guriyev pointed to the German position opposite, which was still smoked, and said with a bitter face: "Although we had prepared artillery fire before the attack. During the artillery attack, the Germans on the position did not move at all, once we launched an attack, they seemed to emerge from the ground, using various weapons to block our attacking troops."
Sokov thought silently in his heart: The attacks commanded by Guriyev were all for infantry to attack the German positions without artillery fire. You must know that no matter how brave the soldiers were on the battlefield, how could their flesh and blood block the enemy's shells and bullets?
"Lieutenant Colonel Sokov," Guriev asked a little uneasy when he saw Sokov remained silent, "I want to ask, how do you plan to attack?"
"Comrade General," Sokov pointed his hand at the German position opposite and said to Guriev: "Since there are no anti-tank weapons on the German position and no anti-tank trenches, I plan to order the tanks to rush forward first, then stop in front of the German trenches, suppress the enemy with firepower, and cover our infantry to rush forward."
"Lieutenant Colonel Sokov," learned that Sokov was planning to take the lead with the tank troops, Guriev quickly reminded him: "Although I did not find any anti-tank weapons in the enemy, if they found that you had so many tanks, they might call for artillery fire to intercept, or even send air force bombing."
Hearing Guriyev say this, Sokov really wanted to answer the other party: Labor and capital also has planes that can beat the enemy's bombers down. But he just thought about it silently in his heart, but did not say it. He knew that Guriyev's reminder made sense. The tank soldiers stayed in the tank, and their vision was too narrow, and many places were blind spots for observation. If the enemy really wanted to blow up the tank, it only needed one or two cluster grenades to do this.
He turned to Guriev and said, "Comrade General, please rest assured. I have the confidence to take down the German positions ahead in the shortest time."
"In the shortest time, take the opposite position?" When Guriev heard Sokov say this, he almost cursed. He suffered more than 2,000 casualties and could not break through the position. He could do it with one infantry battalion and a tank battalion? However, in order not to attack Sokov's enthusiasm, he sighed softly and said insincerely: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, since you are so confident, I wish you good luck!" After saying that, he still reached out to shake Sokov and shook him.
Sokov walked out of the observation center, and immediately a soldier ran over and reported to him: "Comrade Brigade Commander, Colonel Bere and Captain Vanya have arrived, and they are waiting for you in the woods."
Sokov thought of the next battle, and the tank battalion was about to play the lead role, and was about to discuss the matter with Bere, when he heard the soldiers say this, he quickly ordered the other party: "Take me to see them quickly."
Chapter completed!