The German army's first attack was repelled. The commander realized that their opponent might no longer be the remnants who had fought against him yesterday, so he adjusted his tactics in time and concentrated artillery fire to bombard the Archives Building and the Peripheral Position.
Seeing that the enemy had indeed started shelling, Belkin admired Sokov's rainy days and was so proud that he could withstand the bombardment of the German 105mm artillery, for the sake of safety, when the German shelling began, Belkin issued an order to the commanders and fighters who were standing in the building by phone: "Except for leaving two observation posts on each floor to monitor the enemy, the rest of the people retreated to the basement first and waited for the enemy's shelling to be over."
Sokov still had some disagreement with Belkin's order. He frowned slightly and said, "Comrade Political Commissar, is it wrong to withdraw everyone to the basement? If the enemy's shelling, the collapsed building materials blocked the door of the basement, how can we get out then?"
"Misha, I have carefully investigated the terrain here. There is a passage in the basement leading to the back of the building." Belkin explained to Sokov: "In the enemy's shelling, the only thing that was damaged is the enemy's face. No matter how much collapsed, it will not block the exit behind the building."
Seeing that Belkin had already considered the retreat of the troops, Sokov was not good at saying anything, so he nodded and said, "Okay, comrade of the political commissar, just do what you said and withdraw the troops into the basement first to reduce unnecessary casualties."
The shelling of the Archives Building lasted for half an hour. As soon as the shelling stopped, the German army launched an attack again without waiting for the smoke to dissipate. This time they learned to be smart and stopped at a place more than 300 meters away from the frontier positions. Smoke bombs were generated with mortars. Not much effort, the Soviet army's peripheral positions and the open space in front of the positions were shrouded in white smoke.
As soon as Sokov and Belkin arrived at the fourth floor observation position, they saw the outer position covered in white smoke. When they saw this situation for the first time, Belkin seemed a little panicked: "Misha, the enemy released the smoke, which made our soldiers unable to see the target clearly, but how can they shoot!"
"We can't see the enemy clearly, and the enemy can't see us clearly," Sokov said disapprovingly: "Give Paulkosky the order to use a machine gun to strafuse the smoke, and we must not let the enemy approach our position."
"But we can't see clearly where the enemy is." Berkin hesitated for a moment about Sokov's order, and then asked carefully: "Isn't it a waste of ammunition when shooting blindly with a machine gun?"
"Comrade Political Commissar, there is no way to do this." Sokov said helplessly: "If we shoot with a rifle, our soldiers will not be able to see where the enemy is, and it is unlikely to hit the target; as for submachine guns, after exceeding a certain range, there is no accurate head to block the open space, which is also a waste of bullets. However, machine guns have the advantages of strong firepower and wide fan. If several machine guns are fired at the same time, the dense firepower net formed can block the enemy's way forward."
As soon as Sokov finished speaking, he immediately picked up the phone and spoke to Paulkosky, who had just returned to his position: "Captain, use a machine gun to strafuse the smoke, and be sure to stop the enemy from approaching your position."
Not long after the phone was put down, the familiar MG34 machine gun shooting sound came from the smoke outside. Sokov knew that it was Paulkosky's order to order the machine gun fire point to block the smoke. First, it was just gunfire, and then the explosion of grenades came. It was probably because the soldiers found that an enemy approached the trench and greeted them with the grenades.
The attacking German officers and soldiers thought that as long as smoke was released, the Soviet army on the position could not find the target and could quietly approach the position. Unexpectedly, they were first fired by machine guns, and then many grenades were received. The German commander ordered the machine gunners to establish a machine gun position and implement firepower suppression on the Soviet position. But he soon found that this had no effect at all. His machine gunners could not find the exact position of the opponent's firepower point, so naturally they could not form suppression.
Seeing that the attack could not work and continued to advance forward, he could only pay a greater price, the German commander made a decision to stop the attack in time. With a whistle, the soldiers in chaos in the smoke were as if they were amnesty, and hurriedly turned around and groped in the direction they came.
The enemy did not release the smoke again. After a few minutes, the smoke that filled the battlefield gradually dissipated under the blowing of the river wind. Sokov vaguely saw a lot of German corpses in front of the outer positions. After seeing the battlefield clearly, Belkin said excitedly: "Misha, your method is really good. The enemy's attack was repelled by us again."
Before Sokov could speak, the warriors suddenly shouted in the building: "Air raid, air raid sir!"
Sokov quickly looked up into the air and saw two enemy planes flying towards the location of the building. Without waiting for him to react, Samoilov had already been sent up behind him and pulled downstairs with several guards, holding Sokov and Berkin.
Sokov had just argued for a while, and Samoilov said anxiously: "Comrade Commander, this place is too dangerous. You and the political commissar should go back to the basement."
"Don't let it go!" Sokov saw two enemy planes flying in, so he naturally would not stay in the building to show off his heroes. However, he didn't want to be dragged by Samoilov and others, so he struggled and said, "Let's go by ourselves."
After Sokov and his friends hid in the basement, two enemy planes flew over the archives building, lowered the height, and unscrupulously dropped bombs and strafing at the building, causing considerable casualties to the officers and fighters in the building.
Seeing his comrades around him fall down, Grissa was a little anxious. He stood up from his hiding place and shouted at the soldiers beside him: "Put the machine gun to the window, you must find a way to kill these two enemy planes." Then he pointed at several machine gunners and said, "You guys come with me to bring the machine gun to the roof."
The soldiers who had been holding their anger for a long time agreed. In addition to the several machine gunners on the roof of Grissa, the remaining machine gunners rebuilt the machine guns at the window, preparing to use dense firepower to knock down the damn enemy planes. The rising black smoke blocked the German pilot's view, preventing them from finding anyone setting up machine guns on the roof.
After setting up the machine gun, Grissa did not immediately order the fire, but instead decisively issued an order to open fire while the enemy plane was diving. As soon as the gunshots on the roof sounded, the machine gunners who were staying on the fifth floor also shot at the diving enemy planes.
The first enemy plane was diving, and never dreamed that countless tongues of flames appeared in the building with thick smoke. As soon as he discovered the air defense firepower in the building, he felt the fuselage bump suddenly, and the fuselage and wings made a strange sound. He pulled the joystick hard, pushed the black smoke plane over the roof of the building and flew towards the direction of the Volga River.
The wingman pilot had become much slower to react. The plane he was flying broke into the fire net and was accurately hit by several machine guns. With a loud bang, the plane disintegrated and burning debris fell on the rooftops and the surrounding open space like rain.
"Great, brothers, you are so awesome!" Seeing the two enemy planes that bombed the building, one was injured and the other was destroyed, Grissa shouted happily: "It was so easy to kill the enemy plane."
After Grissa finished calling, he picked up the phone placed at the foot of the wall and excitedly announced to Belkin who was staying in the basement: "Comrade Commander, tell you a good news, we have shot down the enemy plane."
"What, the enemy plane was shot down?" Belkin was surprised when he heard the news and asked quickly: "Did the enemy planes be shot down by friendly air defense artillery fire?" According to his idea, his troops were all light weapons, and it was impossible to shoot down the enemy planes. The only explanation was that there were friendly air defense firepower nearby.
"No, Comrade Commander." Grissa quickly explained to him: "There is no friendly anti-aircraft artillery near us, we shot down with machine guns." Then he briefly introduced the battle situation just now to Belkin.
"Lt. Grissa, you are so amazing." Belkin learned that it was the enemy plane that Grissa led his men to shoot down with a machine gun, and a surprise expression appeared on his face: "I congratulate you!"
After Berkin put down the phone, he said happily to Sokov: "Misha, have you heard the call from Grissa? They used machine guns to deal with the enemy's plane, shot down one, and injured one..."
"Don't be excited, Comrade Political Commissar." Seeing that Belkin was a little overwhelmed, Sokov quickly reminded him, "It's not the first time we have shot down the enemy's plane with machine guns. In the past, when we were in Mamayev Hill, we shot down the enemy's planes many times. Have you forgotten it?"
After Sokov reminded him, Belkin immediately remembered that it seemed like this. When Sokov was the brigade commander and he was his brigade political commissar, the troops who were standing on Mamayev's post had beaten down the enemy's planes several times with MG34 machine guns.
Sokov rubbed his temples and said with some headache: "Comrade Political Commissar, although we shot down the enemy's plane with machine guns today, the enemy will learn lessons when they bomb again next time and will not give us a chance to shoot them down. Therefore, what you have to face next is not only the enemy's ground attack, but also the problem of how to defend air. So many commanders and fighters squeezed into this building. If the enemy's fierce bombing caused the building to collapse, you will suffer heavy casualties."
"Then what should we do?"
"I think we can consider using the sewer and transforming it into an air raid shelter." Sokov replied: "When the enemy's plane appears, let the soldiers stay inside to avoid air strikes."
After hearing Sokov's words, Belkin punched his fist in the palm of his hand and said excitedly: "That's right, right, how can I forget the policy of using sewer defense? I will send someone to survey the sewer under the building and try to get the soldiers inside to avoid air strikes and artillery as soon as possible."
"Samoilov!" Sokov turned around and shouted at the platoon leader of the guard standing at the door: "Come here for me."
After Samoilov came to him, Sokov said to Belkin: "Comrade Political Commissar, when the sewer tactics began to be implemented, your regiment was almost idle in the tunnel, and you may not be familiar with how to use this tactic. Lieutenant Samoilov once commanded his troops to continue fighting with the enemy in the sewer. Let them introduce you to your experience."
"Great, this is great." Belkin was worried that his subordinates were not familiar with how to use sewers to fight. Seeing Sokov asked Samoilov to give guidance to everyone, he was overjoyed. He quickly called a staff officer and ordered the other party: "Immediately notify the two battalion commanders and the company commanders who have no combat missions to come to me to gather and let them learn how to use sewers to fight with the enemy."
Almost all the commanders Bielkin wanted to convene were in the basement, and in just a few minutes, they all came to the command center. Seeing that the people were almost here, Bielkin walked up to them and said to them: "Comrades Commanders, I have found you here in order to let you learn a new tactic so that you can persist in this position for a longer time."
"New tactics?!" Hearing Belkin say this, several battalion commanders showed surprise expressions on their faces. Captain Vasily and Captain Brisky looked at each other, looked at Belkin, and asked on behalf of everyone: "Comrade Commander, I don't know what new tactics you plan to let us learn."
Belkin stomped his feet on the ground and said, "We have crisscrossing sewers under our feet. If we want to persist in a long battle here, we must learn how to use it."
After hearing Belkin's words, Vasily showed an embarrassing expression on his face. He said a little embarrassedly: "Comrade Commander, we have been in the tunnel for so long, and finally came out of the tunnel and could return to the ground to fight. The soldiers were so happy. But unexpectedly, now we are going to let us get into the sewer again, and I am worried that the soldiers will be emotional."
As soon as Vasily finished speaking, the remaining battalion commanders also agreed, trying to persuade Belkin to change his mind and let them continue to fight on the ground.
"Enough!" Sokov, who saw everyone making noises, never speaking, roared suddenly, shocking everyone: "Do you still have a little organizational discipline? It's not too late to hear the political commissar say what you think after you finish your words." Seeing that the division commander got angry, everyone did not dare to say anything, so they could only turn their eyes to Belkin and wait quietly for him to explain the next task.
Chapter completed!