Early the next morning, Sokov began to readjust the defense of Mamayev.
Sokov first gathered the sailors assigned to each battalion and returned them to the Marine Battalion of Shamrich to defend the Beigang position; the merged New Battalion and the New Second Battalion were responsible for the defense of the Nangang position. As for Andre's third battalion, they still stayed in the city and engaged in street fighting with the enemy, making it impossible for the enemy to attack Mamayev's from the flank.
Regarding Sokov's arrangements, Belkin asked curiously: "Comrade Commander, are you planning to concentrate on defending Mamayev's post?"
"Yes," Sokov naturally would not hide his true thoughts from him: "Since we no longer have to be responsible for the defense of the Red October factory, we should focus all our energy on Mamayev. As long as we defend here, the enemy will not be able to separate our defense line and cut off our connection with the East Coast. As long as soldiers and weapons and ammunition are constantly transported in, the enemy's attempt to seize the city will not succeed."
"Will the deputy division commander have any objections if our regiment does not participate in this counterattack?" Belkin asked tentatively: "After all, the troops that are put into combat will be his subordinates."
"Captain Belkin, you don't have to worry about this." Sokov comforted the other party and said, "I will explain it to him when Colonel Ivanov."
As the two were talking, the phone ringing on the table rang. Cidolin stood up and picked up the phone and said, "I am Chief of Staff Cidolin. Where are you?... I am the commander, hello!... Do you have any instructions?... Artillery observers?... Some, some, artillery observers sent from the east coast, and there are two people left. I wonder what tasks you have to hand over to them to complete?... I understand, I will convey your meaning to the division commander."
Seeing Sidolin put down the phone, Sokov immediately asked, "Comrade Chief of Staff, what did the commander say on the phone? I seemed to hear him mention the artillery observer."
"The commander said on the phone," Cidolin replied, "The counterattack will officially begin at 9:00 tomorrow morning!"
"What, nine o'clock tomorrow morning?" Sokov was shocked when he heard Sidolin's time: "Hey, my superiors said that there were three divisions of the counterattack this time, but now there are only Gurdiev's 308th Division, my 41st Guard Division and another infantry division. I haven't even seen the shadow yet. I will launch a counterattack tomorrow. What should I use to counterattack?"
"Comrade Commander, don't worry!" Sidolin naturally understood why Sokov was anxious and quickly explained: "I haven't finished my words yet. The commander said that in order to speed up the troops entering the city, he planned to let the troops of the 41st Guards board the barge in Red October Town, and then go downstream and land from Beigang."
"Downstream?" Sokov thought of the last time he returned to the city, he had planned to go down the river by boat. As a result, his superiors reminded himself that there was a section of the river that was slow to flow, and it was a German artillery blockade area. If he wanted to pass through that area, the entire army might be destroyed under the enemy's artillery fire. Sokov was so scared that he had to give up this plan. He heard that Ivanov planned to lead his troops on this road, and he was anxious. He didn't want to become a barren division commander, so he said loudly: "Don't the commander know that the section of the river that came from Red October Town is in the German artillery blockade area? The slow-moving barge passes there and is easily sunk by the enemy's artillery fire."
After Sokov finished speaking, Sidolin spoke: "Comrade Commander, the commander has considered the issues you are worried about. Due to some situations, the original plan must be adjusted, so he can only take the risk of letting the troops pass through that dangerous section of the river by boat. He just called us to send artillery observers to monitor the movements of the enemy artillery. Once the exact location is found, we will immediately summon our army's artillery fire to suppress it."
Sokov knew in his heart that even if the artillery observers discovered the location of the German artillery in the shortest time, and measured the location in time and reported the artillery to the east coast, it would take at least five or six minutes to summon artillery fire to eliminate the enemy artillery. Five or six minutes did not seem to be too long, but the German artillery could fire at least hundreds of shells. Even if they could not sink even a barge, it could cause huge casualties to the soldiers on the barge.
In order to avoid unnecessary casualties, he was about to call Choikov and ask if he could fight back according to the original time. However, when his hand touched the microphone, he suddenly remembered that Cidolin had mentioned that the reason for attacking in advance was because the situation had changed, so he asked curiously: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you just mentioned that something had happened. Can you tell me what was going on?"
"In order to prevent us and friendly forces from meeting in the north of Orlovka, the enemy concentrated a large number of infantry and launched attacks on the nameless highlands again and again under the cover of aircraft, tanks and cannons. The troops that were on the positions lost a division almost every day." Cidolin replied with a serious expression: "And the troops that were approaching Orlovka were again stubbornly blocked by the enemy and could not advance forward at all. The commander was worried that once the nameless highlands were lost, the enemy heading north would turn around and go south, and our counterattack would become more difficult at that time."
Sokov did not expect that the situation in the north of Orlovka would become so severe. If the German army really regained the nameless highland, it would be like the attempt to join forces inside and outside the city to vain. At that time, the Germans would only need to leave a small number of troops to block Rokosovsky's troops with the dangerous terrain, and then mobilize troops with confidence and boldness to deal with the defenders in the city to the south.
Seeing that he could not change this, Sokov sighed in his heart and then asked, "When will Colonel Ivanov's troops set off?"
"Start when it's dark." Sidolin explained to Sokov: "After it's dark, the enemy's air force will be unable to dispatch, and the chances of their artillery hitting the target will be greatly reduced. At the same time, artillery observers deployed on the hills can also prepare to judge the position of the enemy's artillery position based on the gunfire of the German artillery when firing, summon our artillery for precise strikes, and strive to destroy the enemy's artillery position in the shortest time."
"A unit landed in an unfamiliar area. It was better during the day, at least it could see the surrounding environment clearly; but it was not possible at night, as it was dark and bright could easily cause chaos." Sokov told Cydolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you must send a special person to pick him up."
"Don't worry, comrade of the division commander." Sidolin assured Sokov: "I will definitely let the comrades of the 41st Division of the Guards successfully board the Beigang position." After saying this, he paused for a moment and then asked, "Comrade of the Division, I want to ask, where will the soldiers of the Guards Division be placed after they land?"
Sokov had calculated before that the fortifications of the two hills in the north and south, the capacity of 6,000 people was already the limit. This time, eight thousand people came at once. If they were stuffed into the tunnel, it might cause a suffocation incident. Therefore, after thinking for a while, he replied: "The space in the tunnel is limited, and I am afraid that it will not be able to accommodate so many troops at once. According to our combat deployment yesterday, the 122nd and 124th Guards Regiments, as the first echelon, launched an attack on the enemy first, and the second echelon consisted of the 125th Guards Regiment. I think, let the 125th Regiment move into the tunnel, and the two regiments serving as the attack were deployed on the open ground east of Nangang."
When the infantry brigade was stationed everywhere in Mamayevgang, it had been stationed in the east of Nangang for a long time. Therefore, Sidolin did not object to Sokov's statement, but nodded and said, "Okay, Comrade Commander. After the soldiers of the Guard Division landed, I will send the guard battalion to settle them."
When Belkin heard this, he couldn't help asking: "Comrade Commander, if it's cold today, especially the temperature at night, will the soldiers stay in the open ground? If there is a large area of ​​frostbite, the combat effectiveness of the troops will be greatly reduced in tomorrow's offensive battle."
Belkin's words reminded Sokov of his previous life when he was doing business in Moscow, and the market where he was located had implemented the 007 policy, requiring merchants to open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 4 weeks a month. It was October at that time, and because there was no heating, it didn't matter during the day. At night, the merchants who set up stalls on the roadside had suffered a lot of frostbite, so that the next week, the hospital ambulance came to treat those frostbite merchants.
To avoid a recurrence of similar events, Sokov thought for a long time and then asked Cidolin: "Chief of Staff, do we have tents in our warehouse?"
"Yes," Cidolin nodded and said, "There are tents that can accommodate five or six thousand people, but I am worried that after dawn, the place where the tents will be placed will be discovered by enemy reconnaissance planes, and it will be troublesome to attract bombing at that time."
"The tents are arranged on the east side of Nangang just to prevent the soldiers of the Guard Division from being frostbite at night." Sokov said to Cydolin: "As for tomorrow during the day, the enemy's attention will be attracted by our counterattacks, and we do not care about the tents we set up."
"Then I will arrange the manpower immediately and bring out all the tents." Sidolin was also a smart man. Although Sokov did not say it clearly, he also knew what to do: "When it dark, let the soldiers of the guards set up tents on the open space so that the soldiers of the Guard Division could find a suitable place to spend the cold night."
After dark, Sokov took Belkin to the observation room on the top of the hill, raised his telescope and looked up the upper reaches of the Volga River, trying to see if Ivanov's fleet had set out. Then because the sky was too dark and the visibility was limited, he could not see anything clearly.
After a while, a red light suddenly appeared from the direction of the German defense zone. Belkin, who was standing beside him, exclaimed: "Comrade Commander, the enemy has started shelling!" After saying these words, he shouted at the artillery observer, "Comrade Observer, quickly measure the position of the enemy artillery, and then call on the artillery fire on the east coast to suppress it."
When Belkin was busy, Sokov did not look in the direction of the enemy's artillery position. He held up his telescope and looked at the upper reaches of the Volga River, hoping to discover the fleet that was descending the river, but unfortunately he still couldn't see anything.
After a while, Sokov saw a ball of fire. He quickly saw clearly that a barge was hit by enemy artillery fire, and the materials piled up on the bow were burning. Although there were no figures around, Sokov's heart still seemed to be pulled by something. He was worried that a shell would penetrate the deck and cause casualties to the soldiers who were staying in the cabin.
With the help of the flames, Sokov saw that there were water columns rising from time to time around the barge, but because the sky was too dark, the German artillery's shooting accuracy was greatly reduced. Except for the unlucky barge, they did not hit any targets.
The sound of cannons on the east coast sounded, and in addition to cannons, howitzers, and artillery commanders even used rocket artillery. Sokov saw rockets dragging their long flame tails, flying over his head, drawing beautiful arcs in the air, and plunged into the German artillery position that was being bombarded, turning it into a sea of ​​fire. A few minutes later, the German artillery position that was attacked by Soviet artillery fire was completely mute.
Seeing the enemy's shelling stopped, Sokov exhaled a breath of turbid air and said with relief: "Thank God, the enemy's artillery fire was suppressed by our army. It seems that Colonel Ivanov can successfully land with his troops."
Belkin also saw the burning barge and said worriedly: "Comrade Commander, look at the barge, the fire has not diminished. Could it be that all the soldiers on the ship have died?"
"Hey, the enemy's shelling has stopped. Why haven't you seen anyone come out to put out the fire yet?" Sokov felt the same as Belkin's statement. Logically speaking, the enemy's shelling has stopped. The soldiers hiding in the cabin should come out to put out the fire, but there was not even a single figure on the deck illuminated by the fire. Could it be that all the soldiers on the ship have died?
As soon as this idea came out, Sokov rejected it. A barge could hold thousands of people. Judging from the damage to the ship, at best, it was only two or three shells. How could it be that everyone on the ship was killed? The exit must have been blocked by fire, which made the soldiers in the cabin unable to come out to put out the fire.
Chapter completed!