As soon as the sky was dawn, the sound of cannons sounded from the left bank of the Volga River broke the silence of Mamayevgang in the early morning. More than 300 artillery pieces of various caliber deployed on the east bank began to shell out enemy positions on the front of the Mamayevgang and the Red October factory.
As soon as the shelling began, Sokov and Ivanov came to the observation room at the top of Nangang. Sokov raised his telescope and looked at the enemy's position in the distance. Seeing that the entire position was covered by gunpowder, he put down the telescope and turned to Ivanov and said, "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, order the troops to attack!"
Hearing Sokov's order, Ivanov hesitated for a moment, and then asked: "Comrade Commander, do you need to carry a military flag when the troops attack?"
"No." Sokov replied without hesitation about Ivanov's question: "Just let the soldiers use ordinary red flags, and never use the military flag of the Guard Division."
Sokov's words aroused Ivanov's dissatisfaction. He frowned and asked unhappily: "Comrade Commander, why can't we use the military flag of our division?"
The reason why Sokov did not intend to let the troops use military flags when attacking was entirely because there were lessons from the past. In order to avoid Ivanov's bad association, he explained specifically: "In the early days of the war, the 24th Infantry Division was abolished because of the loss of the military flag, and all the surviving commanders and fighters were punished. Comrade Belkin, the leader of the reduction regiment, was once a political commissar of the division. Because his superiors protected him, he was not punished and was placed in my army and served as a deputy."
Although Sokov's explanation was very simple, Ivanov still heard his implicit meaning. He immediately understood that if the flag of the 41st Division of the Guards was lost in this counterattack, the officers of the division would be sent to the military court at that time. In order to avoid this possibility, he no longer insisted on using the military flag when the troops attacked, but instead made a gesture to the adjutant standing aside, indicating that he would signal the troops at the foot of the mountain.
When the adjutant saw Ivanov's gesture, he nodded quickly, then ran to the east of the hill, waved the red and blue signal flags in his hand, and sent a signal to the troops staying at the foot of the mountain.
Lieutenant Colonel Papchinko, who was staying at the foot of the mountain, saw the signal from the top of the mountain, immediately pulled out his pistol, turned around and shouted at the soldiers in a neat row behind him, "Comrades, move forward!"
After shouting, Papuqinko held up his pistol and walked forward with big stances. The flag bearer standing beside him quickly raised a bright red flag high and rushed up quickly. The commanders and fighters behind saw the red flag moving forward and moved one after another. The commanders and fighters were constantly adjusting their formation as they marched. After walking out more than fifty steps, the original dozen square formations turned into dense scattered lines.
When the straggling formation of the 122nd Regiment passed the top of the mountain, Ivanov was shocked when he saw Lieutenant Colonel Papuchinko walking in the first row and hurriedly ordered the adjutant: "Go and call Lieutenant Colonel Papuchinko here quickly."
The adjutant agreed and ran to Papuchinko quickly and said loudly to him: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, Deputy Division Commander, let you go there."
Papchinko stopped, glanced at the troops moving forward, turned around and ran towards Ivanov's position with the adjutant. Still far away, he asked Ivanov: "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, our regiment is advancing towards the enemy's position. Do you have any instructions?"
"Nothing is nothing, nothing." Ivanov shouted at Papchinko: "You are the regiment commander or not the company commander. Who needs you to take your troops to charge? Return me to your command post immediately and continue to command the troops there."
"Comrade Deputy Division Commander," Papuqinko still stood there after hearing Ivanov's words. He said in a humble manner: "I have no command post, and there is no place to build a command post, so please approve me and my soldiers to charge."
Not to mention that Ivanov was reluctant to let his regiment commander die, Sokov was also reluctant to let him die. You should know that it is not easy to train an excellent regiment-level commander. It is not like promoting a company commander, and finding a veteran with rich combat experience from the army is competent. Therefore, when Ivanov failed to convince the other party, Sokov stood up and said, "Lieutenant Colonel Papuqinko, come here!"
Sokov took Papchinko to the west side of the hillside, pointed to the foot of the mountain and said to him: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, have you seen the broken fortifications a few hundred meters away from the hill?"
Papchinko looked in the direction of his finger and saw several hundred meters away from Nangang, where there were several trenches that were experiencing great damage by artillery fire. There were some destroyed fire points and covers in the trenches. He nodded and replied, "See."
"It used to be the defensive position of the first battalion, but later it could not withstand the enemy's heavy artillery bombardment, so I ordered them to retreat." Sokov said to Papchinko: "You will deploy your regiment command post there later. It will not be too late to push the regiment command post forward after your troops have seized the enemy's first line of defense."
Sokov was afraid that Papchinko would give some reason, so he said in an orderly tone: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, this is my order, do you understand?"
Papchinko originally wanted to say a few more words to charge with his soldiers to achieve the goal of boosting morale. But when he heard Sokov commanding himself in such a stern tone, he could only agree and greet a few of the regiment commanders and correspondents from the regiment headquarters to go to the defensive zone under the hillside and establish a regiment command post.
Seeing Papchinko and several subordinates establishing a regiment command post at the foot of the mountain, Ivanov couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He said to Sokov with gratitude: "Comrade Commander, thank you!"
"Thank me, what's there to thank?" Sokov replied with a smile: "I am now a member of the 41st Guard Division. Lieutenant Colonel Papuchinko is not only your subordinate, but also my subordinate. Isn't it my responsibility to be a division commander to protect my subordinates?"
After saying this, Sokov shouted at the adjutant: "Comrade Adjutant, please come here!"
When the adjutant heard Sokov's shouting, he quickly trotted over and asked carefully: "Comrade Commander, do you have any instructions?"
"You go and tell Lieutenant Colonel Starcha, the commander of the 124th Regiment, and let him establish a regiment command post at the foot of the mountain," Sokov ordered the adjutant, "The regiment command post cannot move forward until his troops seize the enemy's position."
…………
When the 122nd Regiment reached more than 800 meters away from the enemy's position, the artillery on the left bank of the Volga River stopped shooting, and the enemy's position, shrouded in smoke, became silent again.
The commander who led the charge knew in his heart that the shelling had just stopped and the enemy on the position had not yet come back to his senses. Once they entered the shooting position, they would cause huge casualties to their troops. So the commander sent a signal to help the soldiers speed up their advance.
Seeing the signal sent in front, the soldiers all accelerated their pace. From the original strode to the speed, and soon another strode turned into a trot. One or two minutes later, the commanders and soldiers of the 122nd Regiment accelerated their speed and rushed to the enemy's position with their weapons.
When they were more than 100 meters away from their positions, the enemies on the positions began to shoot. The bullets fired from sporadic fire points made one gap after another on the Soviet scattered line. But the soldiers in front fell down, and the soldiers behind immediately filled up again. They walked past the injured or sacrificed comrades on the ground and rushed forward without hesitation.
No one stopped to check on the soldiers who were shot and fell, whether they were sacrificed or injured. Everyone was thinking about rushing into the enemy's position as soon as possible and fighting hand-to-hand combat with them. As for the injured comrades, naturally, there were sanitation officers who followed behind to take care of them.
Sokov saw many soldiers falling down during the attack, and quickly put down his telescope and asked Ivanov beside him: "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, many of our soldiers are injured. Let your health officer come on."
Although there are many health workers in Mamayev's gang, Sokov has not been transferred in today's battle, but all of them are the original health workers of the 41st Guard Division to take on the battlefield rescue mission.
"I understand." Ivanov nodded, picked up the phone beside him, and called the captain of the health team who was hiding in the tunnel: "Comrade Captain, take your health officer to attack!"
Seeing Ivanov preparing to put down the microphone, Sokov quickly called him and emphasized specifically: "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, tell the health team leader to let the health workers rescue the lightly injured on the battlefield first."
"What, first rescue the minor wounded?" Ivanov obviously heard this for the first time and asked in confusion: "Comrade Commander, why is this?"
"After a simple bandage, the minor wounded can be re-entered to the battle." Seeing that Ivanov was not clear about the rescue rules on the battlefield, Sokov explained to him: "The medicines and bandages carried by the health workers are limited. If they are used too much for the treatment of seriously injured people, it will affect the treatment of those minor wounded people who can continue to fight. Do you understand?"
"But," Ivanov asked in a dilemma when he heard this: "Are we just throwing the seriously injured on the battlefield and turning a blind eye?"
"How is this possible?" Seeing that Ivanov didn't understand what he meant, Sokov could only continue to explain to him: "After the health officer treated the injuries of the minor injured, he could find a way to carry the seriously injured back and send it to the health team in the tunnel for treatment. This not only saves medicines, but also greatly increases the chance of the seriously injured survival."
After hearing this, Ivanov fully understood what Sokov meant. He quickly turned to the microphone and repeated what Sokov had just said to the health captain who was about to attack with the health workers. Finally, he emphasized: "Comrade Captain, for those seriously injured wounded people, you must find a way to get them back as soon as possible for treatment. Do you understand?"
When Ivanov put down the phone, the commanders and soldiers of the 122nd Regiment had already rushed to a place only thirty or forty meters away from the position. The soldiers threw the stringed grenades at the enemy's position one after another, and took advantage of the explosion of smoke and continued to rush forward. Before the smoke was dissipated, many soldiers had already jumped into the trenches and started close combat with the enemies inside.
Seeing that the battle had moved to the trenches, Sokov thought to himself: "The enemies in this area are all Romanians. I don't know if the soldiers of the 122nd Guards' Warriors can win if they fight hand-to-hand combat with them."
Since the battle had already been unfolded in the trenches, there was almost no fire point shooting out. The officers and soldiers of the 124th Regiment, who followed, also accelerated their speed. They changed from trotting to sprinting speed. Li Qiu rushed into the trenches in the shortest time and cooperated with his comrades to eliminate the enemies in the fortifications.
"Comrade Commander." The phone ringing on the wall rang. Sokov grabbed the microphone and stuck it in his ear. He heard the voice of Lieutenant Colonel Papchinko from inside: "My troops have rushed into the enemy's position. Can my regiment command post move forward?"
"No, Lieutenant Colonel Papuchinko." Sokov refused Ppuchinko's request without hesitation: "The battle is still in the trenches, and it is still unknown whether our troops can seize this position smoothly. I cannot let a regiment-level commander take risks easily."
After hearing Sokov said this, Papuqinko said dissatisfiedly: "Comrade Commander, it is precisely because my troops have not taken the enemy's position that I feel that I should go to the forefront. I believe that the soldiers will be very motivated when they see me appearing, and there will be no problem in defeating the enemy at that time."
Sokov sneered at Lieutenant Colonel Papchinko's statement, and then said disdainfully: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, have you ever thought that if you go to the battle site at this time, if you are discovered by the enemy's sniper, you will become their target. Once your soldiers see you being killed by the enemy's sniper, what will they think? At that time, not only will they not be able to boost morale, but on the contrary, they will even have the effect of disintegrating morale."
Sokov's words made Papchinko speechless. Seeing that the other party was reluctant to speak, Sokov emphasized to him again: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, remember, as long as the battle on that position continues, you can stay honestly in the current command post and you are not allowed to go anywhere. Do you understand?"
"I understand, comrade of the division commander." Papchinko was in the high ground like this, and when he saw Ivanov give Sokov a thumbs up, he might vomit blood. But at this moment, he could only say to the microphone honestly: "I obey your orders and will never move the command post forward without authorization before my troops occupy the enemy's position."
Chapter completed!