Vasilyev hesitated for a moment when he stared at Spasov and asked, "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, how many such ships are there in your hands?"
"There are about fifty." Spasov replied very simply: "Half of them were fished out of the river by our soldiers, and they were blown up in a disastrous manner. If they were not repaired, they would sink as soon as they were put into the water."
"You have heard it all, Colonel Sokov." After hearing Spasov's report, Vasiliev asked Sokov with some embarrassment: "There are many wooden boats, but not many of them available. Are you sure you want them?"
"Yes, Comrade of the brigade-level political commissar." Sokov nodded vigorously and replied decisively: "We will send someone to repair this batch of ships, and use as much as we can."
Seeing that Sokov had made up his mind, Vasilyev simply said, "Well, since you are going to repair the ship yourself, I will let Lieutenant Colonel Spasov take you to collect the ship."
During the war, many things were very efficient. Within ten minutes of coming out of the shelter, hundreds of sailors began to use the tools and materials provided by Lieutenant Colonel Spasov to repair ships that were damaged by bombs or artillery shells.
Seeing the soldiers working very hard and standing aside to watch the fun, Spasov said to Sokov: "Comrade Colonel, after the ship is repaired, tell your soldiers that as long as they put the ship in the water, they must row to the other side as quickly as possible, so as to reduce the chance of being bombarded by the enemy."
Sokov pointed at the chimneys on the river and said strangely: "Lieutenant Colonel Spasov, if the Germans used artillery fire to block the river at night, why did they turn a blind eye to these small steamers? This is so strange."
"Nothing is surprising." Spasov pointed to the direction of Mamayev's hill opposite and said to Sokov: "Due to the blockage of Mamayev's hill and some buildings, it was difficult for German artillery to hit the moving ships in the river accurately. Therefore, they never waste shells on the route of the steamer situation, but bombed them with planes during the day."
After introducing the situation, Spasov pointed in the upstream direction again: "Col. Sokov, where you cross the river, two kilometers upstream, you can avoid wooden boats from blocking the route."
Sokov knew very well that because the river water kept flowing, wooden boats would definitely not be able to cross the river in a straight line. If they had to cross such a wide river, all ships would deviate from the target on the other side. It was not uncommon for some ships to deviate from the target a few kilometers when they were docked. Sokov had no objection to Spasov's arrangement. He just asked curiously: "I heard what you just said. From where to cross the river, you might be bombarded by the enemy?"
"Yes." Spasov said in a affirmative tone: "There are German spies hidden on the other side. Whenever they find us crossing the river in that direction, they will shoot signal flares into the sky and indicate the direction for their artillery."
"Does the superior know this?" When Bi Lei heard this, he couldn't help but interrupt and asked, "Why didn't they send people to patrol the shore so that they can find the spies lurking in the city in time."
"It's not easy to deal with, comrade Colonel." Spasov sighed when he heard Bereth say this, "In the cliffs on the other side of the river, there are thousands of residents waiting to cross the river. Our staff is limited and we cannot detect the German spies hidden in the crowd."
"Col. Bere, the troops in the city are in short supply." Sokov saw that Berere wanted to question Spasov, so he quickly stopped him and explained: "Maybe in a few days, the superiors will transfer these patrols to the front line to participate in the battle."
Bi Lei thought that Sokov's statement was very reasonable. After staying in the city for a while, he naturally knew how scarcity was. Not to mention that in a few days, maybe the troops patrolling the shore might be transferred to the city to participate in the cruel battle.
He turned his head and looked at Sokov and said helplessly: "Comrade Brigade Commander, after the ship is launched later, the soldiers must use their strength to row to the other side as quickly as possible to reduce our losses in the shelling."
"Guchakov!" Although the sailors and soldiers were working very hard not far away, Sokov didn't know when they could repair the ship, so he was ready to ask Guchakov to find Shamrich and ask how the work progressed: "Go and invite Captain Shamrich, I have something to ask him."
Shamrich repaired the wooden boat not far away. When he heard Guchakov say that the brigade commander wanted to see him, he didn't even have time to put down the axe in his hand, so he followed Guchakov to Sokov.
"Comrade Captain," Sokov did not go around in circles when he saw Shamrikh coming to him, but asked straight to the point: "When can the ship be repaired?"
"Comrade Brigade Commander, these wooden boats are very damaged." Shamrich replied truthfully: "It may be possible that all the ships will be repaired until dawn as soon as possible."
"What, it will take until dawn to repair it." Shamrich's answer scared Sokov. He knew very well that he would be bombarded by the German army when crossing the river while night was in the morning. But if he crossed the river again until dawn, he would not only be bombarded, but also bombarded by enemy planes. Under the double blow of enemy shelling and bombing, it is unknown how many people could reach the other side of the army with wooden boats to cross the river alive.
Thinking of this, he frowned and said to Shamrich, "No, Comrade Captain, we can't wait that long. Once we cross the river again at dawn, the enemy's air force and artillery will jointly strangle us. In order to allow more soldiers to reach the other side alive, we must cross the river overnight."
After Shamrich waited for Sokov to finish his speech, he was silent for a moment and replied: "Comrade Brigade Commander, it is not impossible to cross the river before dawn. However, in this way, the number of ships we can use will be greatly reduced."
"Comrade Captain, how many ships do you think are there to use only?"
"No more than thirty." Shamrichrih was very afraid that Sokov was dissatisfied with the number he said, and he emphasized: "This is the limit we can reach with the best efforts. Since the soldiers have to carry weapons and supplies with them, each boat can only sit at most fifteen people."
After listening to the numbers reported by Shamrich, Sokov began to calculate silently in his heart: "A ship is full of fifteen people, and thirty boats are four hundred and fifty people. As long as you travel back and forth three times, you can almost transport all the soldiers and supplies to the other side." He nodded in the store and said to Shamrich, "Comrade Captain, in order to speed up the repair of ships, those seriously damaged ships will be ignored for the time being. You will concentrate on repairing those relatively complete ships."
After Shamrich left, Spasov reminded Sokov: "Comrade Colonel, even if you have thirty ships, you have to travel back and forth at least three times before you can transport all the soldiers and supplies to the other side. I think you might as well wait for another day and cross the river again tomorrow night, so that you can avoid losses from the troops."
Spasov's words made Bi Lei feel excited. He knew very well that if the German army really wanted to block this section of the river with artillery fire, no matter how fast the soldiers rowed the boat, there would definitely be sacrifices. If they really waited until tomorrow night to cross the river, these casualties would be avoided. After all, the enemy's artillery fire on the route of the small steamer was helpless to it.
"Misha," Beret pulled Sokov aside, called his nickname and whispered: "I think you can consider Lieutenant Colonel Spasov's opinion and wait until tomorrow night to cross the river again, so that the casualties of the troops can be greatly reduced. After all, we have limited troops and can lose one less when crossing the river, and in the next battle, we will have more strength."
Sokov admitted in his heart that Bere made sense, but he understood more clearly that Mamayevgang is weak at the moment and the counterattack carried out by the Soviet army has failed again. The Germans are likely to concentrate superior forces to launch a new attack on Mamayevgang. With the existing defensive forces on the hill, whether the position can be defended is a big question.
It was precisely for this reason that he shook his head and rejected Bere's proposal: "Col. Bere, although we may reach the other side without any damage until tomorrow night. But have you ever considered that once dawn, the Germans launched an attack on Mamayevgang, and Cidolin and others might lose their positions due to insufficient troops."
Sokov was worried that Bere would not realize the seriousness of the problem, and he added: "The terrain of Mamayev hill is flat to the west and steep to the east, which is similar to the terrain of the nameless highland we seized a few days ago. If the enemy sticks to the hill, even if our soldiers are brave, they will definitely make great sacrifices to retake Mamayev hill."
Bere personally led the tank battalion and participated in the battle to seize the nameless highland. He knew very well that if the Germans occupied the Mamayev hill and then seized the dangerous throne, it would be a fantasy to take back the Mamayev hill with more than a thousand troops. After understanding the causes and consequences, he finally made up his mind and said to Sokov: "Okay, Misha, I agree with your opinion. We cross the river overnight. Even if we suffer some sacrifices, we will still arrive at Mamayev hill before dawn."
With the efforts of the sailors and soldiers, at 1:00 a.m., more than 30 wooden boats were repaired and put into the river. When the soldiers boarded the ship, Sokov said to Bere: "Col. Bere, I will cross the river with the troops first. After the ship returns, you will follow the river."
According to convention, when a unit crosses the river, the highest-level commanders will not board the ship together, so as not to be taken away by the enemy's artillery fire. Therefore, when hearing Sokov's arrangements, Bere did not raise any objections. He nodded and then said to Sokov with concern: "Misha, you are the commander of a brigade. You must pay attention to your safety when crossing the river."
"Don't worry, don't thunder Colonel." Sokov replied with a smile: "Don't look at the river surface so fast, as long as our soldiers paddle faster, maybe the enemy's spies had already arrived on the other side before they could launch the signal flare."
While speaking, Sokov saw that the soldiers had already boarded the ship, so he greeted Bere and took Samoilov and Guchakov to a wooden boat not far away. After Sokov stepped into the wooden boat, he whispered to the soldiers sitting on the ship: "Comrades, are you all ready?"
"It's ready!" The dozen or so soldiers sitting on the boat replied in unison.
"Set out!" As the order was issued, hundreds of oars reached into the river and began to row hard, splashing countless water splashes on the edge of the wooden boat.
Sokov stood at the bow of the boat and looked at the other side, silently calculating the distance in his heart. The distance from the east bank to the west bank was about one kilometer away. At the speed of the soldiers paddling, it took at most half an hour to reach the other side. With the time to board and disembark, it took about an hour and a half to travel back and forth, and it took all the troops to cross the river in three times, which took at most five hours. In this way, there was hope to arrive at Mamayev hill before dawn.
Sokov looked at the other side and looked up at the sky. But until the fleet reached the center of the river, it was quiet all around, and only the sound of the river flowing and the soldiers paddling. He thought to himself complacently: "Maybe it was our good time to cross the river, and the Germans lurking among the residents did not find that we were crossing the river, so he could not send a signal to their artillery."
However, he was thinking this way, and suddenly a dazzling flare rose in the air, illuminating the moving fleet in the river. "Damn it, I was discovered!" The moment he saw the flare appear, Sokov's heart sank suddenly. He understood that his fleet was discovered by German spies, and they were guiding the attack direction for the artillery in the distance through signal flares. Sokov shouted at the top of his throat: "Comrades, speed up, and rowing to the other shore is victory!" Amid Sokov's shout, the soldiers accelerated the paddle speed, and the entire fleet speeded up.
Just as Sokov saw the shore getting closer and closer to him and felt relieved, a strange sound suddenly came from the air, and then a shell landed more than 20 meters in front of the fleet and exploded, raising a high black water column.
Seeing that the shells did not hit any ships, Sokov felt relieved, and then he shouted at the top of his throat: "Comrades, speed up, speed up, when we arrive on the shore, the enemy's shells will not hit us."
However, Sokov and his friends seemed to have ended here. Several more shells roared and fell into the river and exploded, making the water boil like a pot. A wooden boat was unfortunately hit by the shell and was immediately blown to pieces. The broken legs of the man were mixed with fragments such as the wooden boat, and they were blown into the sky.
As soon as the water column soared into the sky fell, more shells flew over. One of them landed not far from Sokov and exploded. The splashed water waves poured the people on the boat into a drop of soup. The huge shock wave made the wooden boat swing violently left and right. Sokov grabbed the side of the boat with both hands, so he was not pushed into the river.
Chapter completed!