After the soldiers in the cabin escaped, they were quickly transferred to the other two barges by the soldiers of the guard battalion using armored boats. As the load on the ship decreased, the barges that were originally sinking stopped the trend of sinking. After a inspection, a sailor who escaped from the cabin believed that the barge would not sink for the time being and could continue to drive, so he sent a signal to the tugboat in front to keep moving forward without stopping and reorganizing.
An hour later, the fleet was docked near the north side of Mamayev's hill, and the sailors on the barge lowered the springboard and prepared to let the soldiers land. At this moment, Sokov received a call from the headquarters, and Krelov said briefly on the phone: "Col. Sokov, come to the headquarters immediately, and the commander is going to hold an emergency military meeting."
"Comrade Commander, I guess it's related to tomorrow's counterattack." Belkin learned that Krelov informed Sokov to attend the meeting, and hurriedly urged him: "Go quickly, the soldiers of the Guard Division have settled their work, and I will ask about it myself."
Sokov hurried to the Army Command with several soldiers. As soon as he entered the door, he saw that there were already many people sitting at the table in the room. Trekov, who was talking, saw Sokov entering the door, waved to him and said, "Col. Sokov, come and sit down quickly. We are all here, and we are waiting for you alone."
After Sokov sat down on Krelov's left hand, Trekov pointed to the colonel sitting on Sokov's left and introduced him to him: "Col. Sokov, let me introduce you to you. This is your deputy division commander Colonel Ivanov."
When he learned that the serious and dark-skinned colonel sitting beside him was the original commander of the 41st Division of the Guards, Sokov quickly stood up, stretched out his hand to him, and said politely: "Hello, Colonel Ivanov, I am very happy to see you!"
"Hello, Comrade Commander." Ivanov also stood up, grabbed Sokov's hand and said in a polite and estranged tone: "I'm glad to fight alongside you."
"You know Colonel Gurdiev, the commander of the 308th Infantry Division, so I won't introduce it to you alone." After Sokov and Ivanov were overshaking hands, he pointed to a colonel sitting opposite him and said, "This is Colonel Gorishne, the commander of the 95th Infantry Division."
After Sokov, Gurdiev and Gorishne shook hands separately, Trekov continued: "The counterattack launched tomorrow morning will be participated by your three divisions. Now I will let the Chief of Staff General Krelov assign tasks to you."
After Krelov finished speaking, he stood up and walked to the wall, pointed to the map on the wall with an explanation stick, and said to Sokov: "Col. Sokov, I will first introduce you to the combat mission of your division: After you attack from Mayevgang, you must quickly break through the two enemy lines of defense, and find a way to occupy Razgulyayevka in the shortest time, and occupy a section of railway that extends southwest from the station to the turn of Gonrak. In this way, you can straighten the central front line and rely on the railway subgrade as a tank barrier to capture Gorogis and Alessandrovka for our army to further capture Gorogis and Alessandrovka, creating favorable conditions......... "
After introducing the mission to Sokov, Krelov assigned combat missions to Gurdiev and Gorishne. Ivanov tilted his head, leaned close to Sokov's ear, and asked in a low voice: "Comrade Commander, the task given to us by our superiors is too simple. We only need two or three hours at most to complete the task. Do you see if you ask the superiors to add some more tasks to us?"
"Col. Ivanov." Sokov did not want to waste too much troops in this meaningless counterattack, so he replied lightly to Ivanov's question: "What tasks have the superior assigned to us? We will just carry out the tasks. Don't make any more troubles."
After assigning the combat missions of each division, Krelov returned to the table and sat down. He nodded at Cui Koff, signaling himself to give him the next say. Cui Koff, who understood it, stood up, swept through the men sitting around the table one by one with his eyes, and asked, "Comrades Commander, the mission has been clear. Do you have any other problems?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Goreshne stood up and asked, "Comrade Commander, I want to ask, will our superiors provide us with artillery fire preparations before the attack? Also, can our troops get the cooperation of the air force and tanks when they attack?"
Hearing Gorishne's series of questions, Cuikov and Krelov looked at each other and saw helplessness in the eyes of each other. Cuikov coughed softly and said, "Before your attack begins, our artillery deployed on the left bank will provide you with half an hour of artillery preparation. After the attack begins, the troops attacking from the Red October factory can get the support of Colonel Bere's tank battalion. As for air support, I'm sorry, for various reasons, our air force is not able to regain air supremacy from the enemy's air force for the time being."
"Comrade Commander," Ivanov couldn't help but be anxious after hearing Trekov's answer to Gorishne. He leaned closer to Sokov's ear again and whispered: "We have no air cover, and the infantry cannot get the support of tanks when attacking. How can we fight this battle? How can we fight?"
Maybe because Ivanov was too excited, the voices behind him became more and more, so that even Cuikov heard them. Cuikov glanced at Ivanov, then turned his eyes to Sokov, and asked, "Col. Sokov, have you considered how to attack?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander." Hearing Cuikov asked himself the question, Sokov quickly stood up and replied: "I plan to divide the troops into two echelons, the 122nd and 124th Guards as the first echelons to attack the enemy's positions; and the 125th Guards as the second echelon. When the first echelon's troops break through the enemy's defense line, the second echelon will take over the defense..."
In front of everyone, Sokov only talked about the cooperation between the first and second echelons in the battle, and did not mention the need to transfer one of them back to assist in the defense. Trikov heard halfway through the hearing, and couldn't help but interrupt Sokov: "Col. Sokov, I've heard you talk for a long time. You have been talking about how to use the three regiments of the 41st Division of the Guards. But the shrinking regiment that was originally guarding Mamayev's gang did not intend to let them participate in the battle. What's going on?"
"That's right, Comrade Commander." Seeing that Cuikov's eyes were full of doubts, Ivanov's face became even more blue. Sokov felt that it was necessary to explain it in public, so that Ivanov would not feel bad if he thought he was intentionally consuming his troops: "We all know that no matter who occupied Mamafu's hill, he could control the entire city, factory area and the Volga River. In order to achieve this goal, the enemy did not hesitate to the lives of soldiers and weapons and ammunition, and launched attacks on our defensive positions again and again.
The commanders and fighters of the shrinking regiment fought the enemy on this high ground for three months. They had rich defense experience and knew how to do so to block the enemy's attack. Therefore, I do not intend to throw them into this counterattack with little chance of winning."
"Col. Sokov!" As soon as Sokov said, Goreshne retorted loudly: "How did you speak? What does it mean to have a counterattack without a chance of winning? Are you not optimistic about the counterattack plan formulated by your superiors at all?"
"Yes, Colonel Gorishne." Sokov looked at the other party and said in a humble manner: "I am indeed not optimistic about this counterattack, but since the superiors issued a counterattack order, I will still execute it unconditionally and find ways to achieve greater results."
Hearing Sokov's answer, Goreshne was a little anxious: "You are a defeatist argument..."
"Col. Sokov, your idea is completely wrong." A familiar voice came from the door. Everyone turned their heads and looked at it. After seeing clearly that the person who spoke was Khrushchev, they stood up from their seats. Khrushchev continued: "Without the support of the air force and artillery, the chance of victory is not high. But why do we constantly counterattack the enemy? It is to disrupt their offensive deployment and prevent them from launching uninterrupted attacks on us as planned, thereby consolidating our defense and gathering our troops to gain valuable time."
After hearing Khrushchev's words, Sokov quickly admitted his mistake: "I'm sorry, comrade of the military committee, I was wrong. I will definitely review it deeply..."
"Okay, don't say these unnutritional words." Khrushchev guessed that Sokov didn't admit his mistake sincerely and did not want to listen to his nonsense, so he interrupted his words and asked, "Are you all ready for attack?"
"Before I came to the headquarters, the fleet carrying commanders and fighters of the 41st Guard Division had just arrived at Beigang in Mamayev's Gate and had not had time to land." Sokov said this, and couldn't help but look at Ivanov next to him and said cautiously: "If I seize the time and want to launch an attack on time, there should be no problem."
Khrushchev walked to Ivanov, stopped, looked him up and down, and asked with concern: "Comrade Colonel, the fleet you are riding in was bombarded by the enemy on the road. I heard that a barge was hit by artillery fire. How about it, are the officers and soldiers on the ship seriously injured?"
"Report to the military committee member," Ivanov responded straight towards Khrushchev, "The barge was hit with four shells, one of which penetrated the deck and fell into the cabin and exploded, causing 13 deaths and 29 injuries. In addition, the only hatch was destroyed by the shells, causing all officers and fighters to be trapped in the cabin. If the commander had not sent people to rescue in time, it would have been estimated that hundreds of officers and fighters on the ship would have sank to the bottom of the Volga River with the barge."
"Comrade Colonel," Khrushchev patted Ivanov's shoulder twice and continued: "Remember the blood debt the Germans have owed to you, and in the battle tomorrow, we must get the blood debt back from them."
Chapter completed!