After a fierce battle, the first echelon troops finally occupied the first line of defense of the enemy. A battalion commander who was commanding the battle drew out the signal gun inserted at his waist, fired a shot into the air, and fired a green signal flare, telling Sokov and Ivanov who were on the Mamayev hill that the position had been occupied.
Seeing the signal flares rising from the sky, Sokov said to Ivanov, who was standing beside him: "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, I think it is enough to have a regiment-level commander in the first line of defense that has been occupied. If there are two regiment commanders, it is easy for the soldiers to not know whose orders should be listened to, resulting in the situation of fighting each other."
Ivanov heard Sokov's implicit voice and nodded, "You are right, comrade of the division command. Then let Lieutenant Colonel Papuqinko lead the command post of the 122nd Regiment and go forward to the enemy's position that he had just occupied. Lieutenant Colonel Stalkia's command post of the 124th Regiment continue to stay where he is."
Seeing that Ivanov agreed to his opinion, Sokov quickly grabbed the phone and gave a decisive order to Papuqinko: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, our army has occupied the first position of the enemy. You can immediately transfer the command center there. In addition to commanding the troops to continue to advance, you must also count the results."
Then he called Starcha, who could not hold back, and said bluntly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I have ordered Lieutenant Colonel Papuqinko to take his regiment command post to command the troops. Just stay in my current position honestly. Without my orders, you will not be allowed to move forward. Do you understand?"
The obedience habit developed in the army for a long time made Starcha feel dissatisfied with Sokov's arrangement, but he did not dare to disobey. He could only reply with a grudge, "I understand, comrade in the division commander, I will continue to stay in the existing position and wait for your further instructions."
Besides, after Lieutenant Colonel Papuchinko put down the phone, he immediately shouted at the people in the command post: "Check it up, pack up, we must hurry up to the front position as soon as possible. Hurry up, we must not let the people of the 124th Regiment be ahead of us."
The Chief of Staff of the regiment waited for Papuqinko to finish his speech, immediately called the staff to pack up the maps, documents, and the communications soldiers to pack up the communication equipment. After the packing was almost done, he walked to the door of the command post and looked at the command post of the 124th regiment, more than two hundred meters away. He saw that although someone was constantly in and out there, there seemed to be no sign of transfer. He quickly retracted his body and said to Papuqinko who was about to go out: "Comrade Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Starcha and others showed no sign of transfer. Could it be that the division headquarters would let our command post go to the front alone?"
"Hey, is Starcha?" Papchinko looked at the table in front of him, and there was a telephone set that had not been able to withdraw. He quickly connected the command post of the 124th Regiment and asked loudly: "We are all going to set out to the front, why are you still not moving at all?"
It is already a grievance that Starcha is not able to go to the front to command the troops to fight. At this moment, he felt even more uncomfortable when he heard Pupichenko's sarcastic words. He raised his voice and said to the microphone: "Lieutenant Colonel Pupichenko, don't say sarcastic here. The division commander asked you to go to the front to command the troops, which is trust in you. If you perform poorly and cannot take down the second line of defense for a long time, I see how you explain to the division commander."
"You don't have to worry about this." Learning that only his regiment headquarters can move forward means that all the troops occupying the enemy's positions will be under his command, Papchinko couldn't help but feel proud: "I will never let the division commander and the others down."
Papuqinko brought the regiment command post to the position where there were still smoke. He found a complete shelter and set up his regiment command post here. Then he ordered the regiment chief of staff: "Chief of Staff, summon all battalions and battalion commanders, and I will assign them the next task."
After he finished speaking, the chief of staff of the regiment asked tentatively: "Are the three battalion commanders of our regiment?"
"Call the three battalion commanders of the 124th Regiment together." Papuchicko said proudly: "You know, they are now under my command."
...
Just as Papchinko convened several battalion commanders for a meeting, Sokov, who was in the observation center, was saying to Ivanov: "Comrade Deputy Commander, I still didn't think about this attack carefully."
Ivanov was stunned when he heard Sokov say this, and then asked back: "Where is not careful enough?"
"The first echelon of the battle has two regiments of troops," Sokov explained: "However, I did not designate a commander to command two regiments. In this way, our commanders and fighters are likely to fight independently due to lack of unified command, and then there is a possibility that they will be defeated by the enemy."
"You are right, Comrade Commander. The first echelon does need a commander to conduct unified command." Regarding Sokov's mistake, Ivanov said tactfully: "But this is your first time as a division commander, and you have no experience. It is inevitable that such a situation will happen."
Seeing that Ivanov had no mistakes in his command, he sneered at himself. Sokov said modestly: "Col. Ivanov, you have been a commander for many years and have rich command experience. In the future, you will see if I do something wrong, so be sure to point it out to me."
"It must be." Ivanov agreed to Sokov's request very readily. But he quickly changed the subject: "By the way, comrade of the division commander, since we have taken the first line of defense of the enemy, when will we attack in the second direction of the enemy?"
"Wait a little longer." Sokov thought in his heart that Papchinko's command had not yet been in place. If the attack was launched in a hurry, the troops might become a mess of loose sand. He said cautiously: "When Lieutenant Colonel Papchinko calls us, we will attack the enemy's second line of defense whenever we call us."
…………
When Sokov's troops competed for positions with the enemy, the two infantry divisions in the direction of the Red October factory had just launched an attack on the enemy's positions under the cover of the tank troops. Since they only launched an attack on the enemy's positions after the artillery fire was ready, the enemy was given enough time to recover from the artillery attack.
The two tanks rushing in the front were destroyed by the Romanian anti-tank artillery. The infantry following behind were also killed by machine gun fire and mortars. A large number of them fell down. Seeing that the infantry were suppressed by the enemy's fire, Colonel Bere did not dare to let the tanks attack the enemy's positions without the cover of the infantry, and could only order all tanks to withdraw back to the starting position.
When Cui Kefu learned that the attack launched from the Red October factory ended in failure, he was furious: "Two infantry divisions and a tank unit cannot break through the enemy positions without any solid fortifications. Are these commanders useless?"
Seeing Cui Kov getting angry, Khrushchev, who was sitting beside him, quickly persuaded: "Comrade Cui Kov, don't worry, the enemy's strength is far stronger than we imagined. Since the first attack has failed, let us rest the troops and launch another attack, and maybe we will succeed."
After saying this, Khrushchev was silent for a moment and said to himself: "I don't know what the attack launched by the Mamayevgang direction has been, why is there no movement yet?"
Khrushchev's words reminded Trikov. He realized that it was a bit strange that he had not received a call from Mamayevgang since the beginning of the attack. He quickly ordered Krelov: "Chief of Staff, please call Mamayevgang and ask them how the attack in that direction is going?"
Krelov agreed, immediately picked up the phone on the table and answered the division command of Mamayevgang. After hearing the voice of Cidolin from the receiver, he asked straight to the point: "Lieutenant Colonel Cidolin, how is your attack there? Have you broken through the enemy's defense?"
"Report to Comrade Chief of Staff." Hearing that it was Krelov asking about the situation of the battle, Cidolin quickly replied: "Our first echelon has successfully broken through the enemy's defense and occupied the enemy's first line of defense."
"What, you have occupied the enemy's first line of defense?!" Cydolin's report surprised Krelov. He turned his head to look at Khrushchev and Cuikov, who were also surprised, and said angrily: "Since you have occupied the enemy's position, why not report to the Army Command?"
"Comrade Chief of Staff, what did you say? You didn't get any reports?" Krelov's words also surprised Cidolin. He asked in confusion: "Didn't the Commander report to you?"
From Sidolin's words, Krelov guessed that Sokov was definitely not in the command center, so he asked in a muffled voice: "Where has Sokov been to?"
"He and his deputy division commander Colonel Ivanov went to the observation center at the top of the hill." Sidolin only realized at this moment that Sokov had not reported the troops to occupy the enemy's position at all. He quickly explained: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I thought the division commander had reported the situation of the war to you, so he did not call the headquarters."
After Sidolin's explanation, Krelov realized what the problem was. It must be that after the troops seized the enemy's position, Sokov, who was staying at the observation center on the top of the mountain, thought that Sidolin would report the battle to the headquarters, so he no longer needed to report it. As for Sidolin, he thought that Sokov must have reported the battle to the first time, and he did not report it to his superiors. This led to the troops occupying the enemy's position for a long time, but the headquarters still knew nothing about this.
Krelov was curious about the fact that the 41st Guards Division could seize the enemy's position so quickly: "Lieutenant Colonel Cidolin, I want to ask, how can your troops occupy the enemy's position so quickly?"
"That's right, Comrade Chief of Staff." Seeing that Krelov was eager to know the secret of the troops' victory, Sidorin introduced to him: "Comrade Commander is worried that after the artillery preparation is over, we will give the enemy sufficient preparation time and cause huge losses to the attacking troops. Therefore, at the beginning of the artillery bombardment, he ordered the troops to advance towards the enemy's position."
"My God," Krelov couldn't help but exclaim when he heard this: "When our army's artillery was about to begin, Sokov ordered the troops to attack. Wouldn't he be worried that the artillery fire would accidentally hurt his own people?"
"No," Cidolin replied confidently: "After careful calculations, the division commander took about forty minutes to walk from Mamayevgang to the enemy's position. After the artillery fire was ready, our troops stayed at a position no more than ten minutes away from the enemy's position. This would not only not be accidentally injured by our artillery fire, but also rush into the enemy's position in the shortest time."
After hearing how the troops of the 41st Division of the Guards attacked, Krelov said with praise: "Lieutenant Colonel Sidorin, please convey my words to Colonel Sokov: You have done a good job! I hope you can take down the enemy's second line of defense as soon as possible, and create favorable conditions for the occupation of Razgulyayevka."
After Krelov put down the phone, he told Khrushchev and Cuikov and said with emotion: "I thought that the attack we launched from the direction of the Red October Factory would be easier to achieve our goal. After all, in this direction, we have invested two-thirds of our troops, plus dozens of T-34 tanks, and there should be no problem in breaking through the enemy's defense line. On the contrary, in the direction of Mamayevgang..."
"The troops attacking in the direction of Mamayev's hill will be very difficult to break through the enemy's positions without the cover of tanks." Khrushchev interjected: "Am I right, General Krelov?"
"I think," after Khrushchev finished speaking, Cuikov said cautiously: "If the troops attacking from the Red October Factory were commanded by Sokov, they might have occupied the enemy's position at this moment. Although he had the least qualifications among the three division commanders, he had the shortest time to serve as a commander. But when it comes to fighting, let alone our army, even if he took out all the commanders at the division and brigade level of the entire front army, no command level could surpass him."
"I have to admit that Sokov is indeed very good at fighting." Krelov said with a wry smile: "There are huge gaps in front of him, such old guys. If he had been trained in the position of division commander for two years, his position would have surpassed us and become our superiors."
Chapter completed!