Looking at the Stuka bomber that was sweeping down from a high altitude and listening to the harsh whistle, Sokov suddenly remembered a key thing, there was a position of the 124th Regiment hundreds of meters away. Since the enemy planes bombed here, would they let go of the position of the 124th Regiment? Thinking of this, Sokov rushed to the telephone and ordered the communications soldiers to connect to the regiment command post of the 124th Regiment.
The phone was connected, and someone was talking came from inside. The sound from the microphone was distorted. Sokov could not tell whether the person answering the phone was Starcha, and he asked quickly: "Is it Lieutenant Colonel Starcha?"
"Yes, I am Starcha." Sokov did not hear Starcha's voice, and the other party did not hear his voice, and asked impatiently: "Where are you?"
"I am Sokov." The bombing outside continued, and the continuous explosions made Sokov have to cover his ears with one hand and shout at the microphone at the top of his lungs: "The German planes are bombing the positions of the 122nd Regiment, and I guess they will bomb you soon. You immediately order the soldiers to prepare for air defense..."
Because the explosion sounded too loud in the earpiece, Starcha couldn't hear clearly what Sokov was saying at all, so he could only keep asking: "I can't hear clearly what you are saying, so I can't hear clearly..."
Although Sokov was so anxious that he stomped his feet, he had no way to let the Germans stop the bombing, and let the damn explosion disappear. He could only repeat his orders to the microphone over and over again. Fortunately, Starcha was not a stupid person. From the fragmentary words he could barely hear, he judged Sokov's intentions and quickly replied: "I understand, I will immediately prepare the soldiers for air defense."
The enemy planes bombed the positions of the 122nd Regiment for nearly a quarter of an hour. They probably threw away all the bombs and fired the bullets before turning back. Seeing the enemy planes leaving, Sokov immediately ordered Papchinko: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, immediately order the soldiers to repair fortifications, and the enemy may soon launch a ground attack."
Papchinko agreed and picked up the phone to notify the battalion commanders, but found that the telephone line had been blown up at some point. He quickly called the communications soldiers, "Communication soldiers, immediately inform the battalion commanders of the battalion, and let the soldiers hurry up and repair the fortifications. The enemy may soon counterattack."
The correspondent agreed and turned around and prepared to walk outside. Sokov quickly shouted at his back: "Remember, let the battalion commanders count the casualties."
After Sokov's reminder, Papchinko immediately realized that he had neglected this most critical issue, and quickly repeated Sokov's words to the stopping communications soldier: "Let the battalion commanders report the casualties."
After the correspondents left, Papchinko looked at Sokov and Ivanov and said sincerely: "Two division commanders, this place is too dangerous. I think you should go back to Mamayev's hill."
"No, as commanders, how can we retreat at this time?" Ivanov obviously disagreed with Papchinko's proposal. He said firmly: "We must stay here and fight the enemy with the soldiers."
"Comrade Deputy Division Commander, I think Lieutenant Colonel Papuchinko is right. As division commanders, we should command troops to fight on Mamayev's post, rather than take risks here." Sokov knew that if he and Ivanov did not leave, he would probably not have the heart to command the battle, so he put one hand on Ivanov's shoulder and said to him: "If we don't leave here, Lieutenant Colonel Papuchinko would be uneasy, and he would not know how to command the troops at that time."
"Comrade Commander is right." Seeing that Sokov actually agreed to his proposal, Papuchinko hurriedly said to Ivanov: "If both commanders stay here, it will put a lot of mental pressure on me. Faced with the sudden appearance of the enemy, I don't know how to command the troops to fight."
As soon as Sokov and Ivanov walked out of the command post, they saw the dusty Guchakov coming towards him. He came to Sokov, stopped and said, "Comrade Commander, the armored vehicle has been blown up, so we can only walk back to Mamayev hill."
When Sokov learned that the armored vehicle was blown up during the bombing, he instinctively looked at the location where the armored vehicle was parked. Sure enough, there was a pile of burning scrap iron there, which should be the bombed armored vehicle. He asked tentatively: "Is the driver still alive?"
"Although alive, comrade of the division commander." Guchakov nodded vigorously and replied: "At the beginning of the bombing, he and I hid in the nearby trenches, watching a bomb hit the armored vehicle..."
"It's enough for people to be fine." Although he could only walk back to Mamayev's hill, Sokov didn't care at all. As long as people were still alive, it would not be difficult to get one from the enemy. He said to Guchakov: "Call the driver and we will go back to Mamayev's hill."
After arriving at the 124th Regiment position, Sokov carefully checked the surrounding environment and found that it seemed that there was no enemy bombing. He found Stalkza and asked, "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, has Colonel Bere's tank troops come?"
"Not yet, comrade commander." Starcha shook his head and replied, "The 122nd Regiment's position was bombed by enemy planes. It is estimated that the right wing troops have also seen it. They may be worried that the tanks will be blown into scrap iron by the enemy bombers, so they continue to stay in place."
"Ltd Colonel, I want to tell you a bad news." Given that the Germans' reaction speed was far beyond their imagination, Sokov knew in his heart that it was an unfinished task to seize the station as planned. In order to make the commanders and fighters in the division mentally prepare, he told Starcha: "We may not be able to attack and stand up for the moment. What we have to do now is to be able to hold the position when facing the enemy's crazy counterattack, so that they cannot rush to Mamayev."
Sokov's words made Starcha realize the seriousness of the problem, but when he thought of his front and the 122nd Regiment's troops staring at him, he became relaxed again. He asked Sokov carefully: "Comrade Commander, do you think the enemy can break through the defense line of the Papchinko regiment?"
"It will definitely be a breakthrough," Sokov said bluntly: "And they will not take too long, because the trenches and fortifications on the 122nd Regiment's position are very unfavorable to defend westwards. Therefore, I can only place the important task of defending Mamayev's hill on you."
…………
Sokov and his team spent more than half an hour returning to Mamayev hill from the Stalkia regiment. This time, the two of them did not go to the observation center on the top of the mountain, but returned directly to the command center.
Seeing Sokov and Ivanov coming in from outside, Cidolin asked in surprise: "Two division commanders, have you been to the position of the 122nd Regiment? Why are you back so soon?"
"The enemy planes bombed the 122nd Regiment's position, causing considerable casualties to the defenders on the position." Sokov guessed from the tone of Sidolin's speech that he must have not known about the bombing of the 122nd Regiment, so he ordered him: "Call Lieutenant Colonel Papchinko and ask if the casualties of the troops were counted?"
Sidolin agreed, picked up the phone on the table, and asked Papchinko about the statistics of casualties in the army. He listened for about two minutes, then put down the phone, walked to Sokov and Ivanov, and said with a serious expression: "The casualties data have been counted. The regiment suffered a total of 611 casualties, 396 sacrificed, and 82 seriously injured..."
After listening to the series of casualties reported by Cydolin, Sokov's muscles twitched violently a few times, and then said: "Chief of Staff, tell Lieutenant Colonel Papchinko that if the enemy had not yet launched an attack on their positions, they would immediately send all the seriously injured to the rear."
While Sidolin called the 122nd Regiment, Sokov walked to the telephone and said to Maxim, who was sitting there supervising the radio operator and the communications officer, "Comrade Lie, contact Colonel Bere immediately. I have something to ask him."
When Maxim heard Sokov's words, he immediately understood that Colonel Bere must have stayed in his tank again, so he started calling Berere on the phone. Fortunately, the communication was relatively smooth, so he contacted him soon. Sokov put on his headphones and said to the sender: "Col. Birere, I am Sokov, how is your situation there?"
"Not very good, Misha." Bellei said unexpectedly: "It was not the observation post in the north, but found a large amount of dust rising in the distance. It was probably the enemy's main force headed south."
"What, the enemy's main force went south?" Sokov was startled by Bere's words. Although he did not have the right to mobilize the right wing troops now, he still asked with concern: "I don't know what measures have been taken by Gurdiev and Gorishne?"
"Col. Gurdiev deployed a regiment in the north and was building fortifications. Even if the Germans went south to attack from his direction, the troops could withstand for a while." Bere introduced the situation of the right-wing troops to Sokov: "And Colonel Gorishne refused to obey Gurdiev's persuasion, and only placed an infantry battalion with severe reductions in personnel in the north, and there were no decent defensive fortifications. If the enemy regarded his position as a breakthrough, our retreat would be likely to be cut off."
After hearing Colonel Bere’s concerns, Sokov smiled bitterly and said, “Col. Berere, I think you should still remember why we were trapped in Orlovka by the enemy. It was because Colonel Gurdiev underestimated the enemy and actually handed over an important position to an infantry battalion with only a few dozen people left to defend. As a result, the enemy easily occupied the position and cut off our contact with our friendly forces. Unexpectedly, Colonel Gorishne is making similar mistakes now.”
"Yes, Misha." Bere nodded and said, "In order to prevent the enemy from breaking through the territory of the Gorishne Division, I specially sent Lieutenant Alitai's tank company to assist the infantry in defense."
"Col. Bere," Sokov couldn't help but ask curiously: "I want to ask, how many tanks are left in the third company?"
"There are seven more." Although the number of tanks in the third company was not large, Bere said confidently: "Misha, although the number of tanks is a little smaller, they are all T-34 tanks. Even if the enemy No. 3 and No. 4 tanks are two or three times more, they are not their opponents at all."
Sokov expressed no doubt about Bere's statement. The German short-barrel tanks, with the No. 3 and No. 4 short-barrel tanks, had to be abused against the Soviet T-34. He even thought wishfully: Maybe Alitai and his team could kill dozens of German tanks in one company.
However, not long after, Sokov's beautiful wish was smashed by the ruthless reality. Bere soon contacted Sokov again through the radio. He told Sokov with a panic look: "Misha, something happened. Lieutenant Alitai's third tank company was destroyed."
"What, the three tank companies were destroyed?" Bereth's words almost hit Sokov's chin directly on the ground. He asked in surprise: "How did they destroy their entire army? Was they bombarded by heavy artillery or enemy planes?" In addition to the two possibilities mentioned, Sokov really couldn't think of any other way for the Germans to kill all the seven T-34 tanks of the three tanks in such a short time.
Who knew that Be Lei's answer was beyond his expectations: "The seven tanks in the third company were all destroyed by a tank from the German army."
When Sokov learned that the tank had not even hit a single tank of the enemy, he felt it was incredible. He shouted at the sender: "Colonel Blue, this is impossible, you must have made a mistake. The German tanks No. 3 and No. 4 are not opponents of our T-34 at all. Not to mention seven-on-one, even if the number of enemies is twice as many as ours, our tanks will be the ones who won in the end."
"This is the fact, Misha." Bere replied helplessly: "This information was reported to me by Alitai, who escaped from danger. He said that the German tank that had wiped out their company was thicker and longer than the tank No. 3 and 4. It stopped 800 meters away and fired at our army. The shells of our tank hit it and almost bounced open and could not penetrate its front armor at all. As long as our tank was hit by the shells it fired, it would either be blown away or explode directly. According to my estimate, this might be a new type of German tank."
Sokov had a trace of fantasy in his heart, thinking that it might be Alitai who deliberately exaggerated the combat effectiveness of the enemy tank in order to shirk responsibility. But Bere casually said that it might be a new type of German tank, but woke up the dreamer with one sentence. A terrible name immediately appeared in Sokov's mind: Tiger style!
Hell, the German tanks that completely wiped out the third company of tanks were actually Tiger tanks that the German army had just entered the battlefield. Its front armor was 102 mm thick, and the armor on the back was 82 mm. The 76 mm gun of the Soviet T-34 tank could not penetrate the opponent's armor at a distance of 800 meters. At the same distance, the 88 mm caliber tank equipped by the Tiger tank can easily tear open the front armor that is not considered to be behind.
Thinking of this, Sokov quickly shouted at the sending machine: "Col. Bilei, as far as I know, it is a Tiger tank that the German army has just served for a short time. None of our existing T-34 tanks are its opponents. Don't make unnecessary sacrifices."
Chapter completed!