The captain's words aroused Samoilov's great curiosity, "Captain, can you tell me what's going on?"
Perhaps it was because he learned that the second lieutenant from the Ministry of Internal Affairs in front of him could easily defend the enemy's tight positions, and the captain's attitude towards him had greatly improved. He was just polite to him, but he was afraid of his identity; but he was respectful to him at this moment out of admiration for him.
"That's right, Comrade Lieutenant." The captain told Samoilov: "The superiors found that they were going to join the defenders of Orlovka and launched an assault from the river defended by the German army. It was the shortest road, so they mobilized their troops to attack there. Unexpectedly, when they advanced to the river, they were bombed by enemy planes, causing a large number of tanks, armored vehicles and personnel carriers to be blown up, and our infantry also suffered heavy casualties.
However, in order to fulfill the orders of superiors, the commanders and soldiers bravely rushed to the riverside, put the wooden boats they carried into the river, and prepared to cross the river to seize the position on the other side. However, the German machine guns on the hillside on the other side began to shoot, knocking the commanders and soldiers who were preparing to board the ship in groups like shooting a target.
Without any cover of artillery fire, the soldiers boarded the wooden boat began to cross the force. They pressed their bodies against the wooden boat and paddled sideways, not only to avoid bullets fired from the high ground on the other side, but also to avoid enemy mortar shells. During the crossing of the river, wooden boats loaded with soldiers were hit by shells from time to time, and the human body and the debris of the wooden boat were mixed together and bombed into the sky. As soon as the fleet landed at the center of the river, more than half of the wooden boats were lost. The river surface was covered with floating corpses, but our soldiers still climbed the river bank tenaciously..."
If Samoilov had left for a few minutes late, he could hear what Sokov said to others with his own ears, and he would be surprised to find that the situation Sokov analyzed was almost the same as what the captain said.
After the captain introduced the situation, the truck also arrived at a small village. The car stopped at the entrance of the village. The captain hurriedly greeted Samoilov: "Comrade Lieutenant, we will get off here. Someone will take you to see the division commander later."
As soon as Samoilov and his friends got out of the car, they saw a major and two soldiers walking along the village path. The captain hurriedly stepped forward and reported to the other party. After hearing this, the major nodded, turned his eyes to Samoilov and his subordinates standing beside him, and said, "Comrade Lieutenant, take your people with me."
Samoilov reached out to the captain and said kindly: "Comrade Captain, thank you for bringing us here, we will have a date later."
"There will be a period of time later." The captain shook hands with Samoilov, turned around and got on the truck parked aside.
The Major took them to a wooden house with sentries standing guard, and then stopped and said to Samoilov: "Comrade Lieutenant, let your people stay outside, I will take you alone to meet the division commander."
As soon as the major finished speaking, Samoilov turned around and ordered his subordinates: "You stay here and wait for me to come out." After that, he raised his legs and prepared to walk into the wooden house, but was stopped by the major.
"Major," Samoilov asked curiously, for some reason why the major stopped him, "Why did you stop me?"
"Sorry, Comrade Lieutenant." The major said dryly: "Please hand over your weapons."
After the major reminded him, Samoilov realized that he was carrying a submachine gun. If he really went in like this, the major and the others would not be relieved. He handed the submachine gun to a soldier next to him, then unplugged the gun and stuffed it into the soldier's hand. Then he asked the major: "Comrade Major, can we go in?"
Samoilov followed the major into the division commander's room and saw a colonel and a lieutenant corrector standing by a wooden table. He leaned over and looked at the map above. He quickly took two steps forward, raised his hand to his forehead, and reported loudly: "Comrade Colonel, Lieutenant Samoilov, the guard platoon leader of the 73rd Infantry Brigade, report to you!"
The colonel stood up straight, looked Samoilov from head to toe, and asked coldly: "Comrade Lieutenant, which army does the 73rd Infantry Brigade belong to? Why have I never heard of it?"
"Report to the Colonel," Samoilov stood up and replied respectfully: "Our brigade belongs to General Trekov's 62nd Army, and the brigade commander is Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, who is mainly responsible for the defense of Mamayev."
After hearing Samoilov's words, the colonel's face showed a surprised expression: "Since you are responsible for the defense of Mamayev's gang, why did it appear here?"
"That's right, comrade Colonel." Samoilov explained to the other party: "Our brigade commander received an order from his superior a few days ago, asking him to lead his troops north and go out to the Orlovka area. When friendly forces outside the encirclement rushed in and met with us. But after we arrived in Orlovka, we found that friendly forces could not break through the enemy's defense and rushed over to meet with us. At the same time, our retreat was cut off by the German army. In desperation, the brigade commander led us to carry out a breakthrough operation."
The person who spoke this time was the lieutenant colonel next to him. He asked kindly: "Comrade Lieutenant, you said that your brigade commander led you to break through. Can you tell me where did you stand out?"
Samoilov glanced at the map on the table quickly and asked tentatively: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, can I point me to the breakout position for you on the map?" After getting permission, he came to the table, lowered his head and looked carefully for a moment, pointed at the breakout position with his fingers, and said, "Two commanders, we are protruding from this position."
"What, protruding from this position?" When the two commanders saw clearly the position Samoilov pointed to, they both exclaimed in unison: "This is impossible?"
The attitude of the two confused Samoilov, but he soon remembered the situation that the captain introduced to him on the road, and asked tentatively: "Two commanders, do you think it is impossible for us to break out from there because a unit was destroyed two days ago?"
"That's right, Comrade Lieutenant, you're right, I just thought that." The colonel did not hide his thoughts and said to Samoilov truthfully: "You know, in order to seize the high ground two days ago, we filled in a division, but we couldn't even rush up the top of the hillside. Therefore, I think it's incredible to say that you broke through from there."
"The division commander is right." As soon as the colonel finished speaking, the lieutenant colonel added: "The enemy is built on a high fire point, and our artillery fire cannot be destroyed at all. When it is close, the shells all fall on the hillside and explode; when it is far, the shells all fly over the enemy's fortifications. As a result..."
"Chief of Staff, stop talking." Before the lieutenant colonel finished speaking, the colonel interrupted him, but looked at Samoilov and continued to ask: "Comrade Lieutenant, tell me how much you paid when you broke through the German defense line?"
From the conversation between the two, Samoilov knew that the colonel was the division commander and the lieutenant colonel was his chief of staff. Seeing that the division commander was eager to know the situation of the battle, he replied truthfully: "Since we adopted the sneak attack tactic and we also received the cooperation of tanks during the attack, the casualties of the troops were not large, as if only more than thirty people were killed or killed!"
"What, only thirty casualties were killed or more?" Samoilov's words completely speechless. A position that could not be seized by thousands of casualties was taken down by only more than thirty casualties, which made them feel ashamed, "Is this true?"
"Of course it's true." Samoilov nodded and replied in a affirmative tone: "This kind of situation of achieving great results with small casualties is not uncommon in the battle examples of our 73rd Infantry Brigade."
The colonel felt that the other party was not lying in the tone of Samoilov's speech, so he put away his contempt for him and said politely: "Comrade Lieutenant, I am Colonel Korogotsky, the commander of the 292nd Infantry Division, this is my chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Starcha. My division belongs to the 24th Army of the Don Front Army. Is there anything I can serve you?"
At this moment, Samoilov found out the number of the troops. When he heard the other party ask about anything to serve, he quickly said: "Comrade Colonel, the brigade commander ordered me to come and find friendly troops so that we can meet with friendly troops as soon as possible..."
Before he finished speaking, a telephone on the table rang out. The Chief of Staff quickly picked up the microphone and said, "This is the headquarters of the 292nd Infantry Division. Where are you?... Hello, Comrade Commander, do you have any instructions?" When he was speaking, his eyebrows suddenly raised, and then he looked at Samoilov with some surprise, and then said, "That's right, the liaison officer sent by the 73rd Infantry Brigade is in our command center at this moment. Do you want to talk to him?...Okay, I'll hand him the microphone to him right away."
As he said that, the Chief of Staff handed the microphone in his hand to Samoilov, and said politely: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, our new commander of the army, General Kazenin, will talk to you!"
When Samoilov learned that the commander of the army was about to speak to him, he couldn't help but feel nervous. He took the microphone from the chief of staff and said in a panic: "Hello, Comrade General, I am Lieutenant Samoilov, the platoon leader of the 73rd Infantry Brigade, I have any instructions?"
Chapter completed!