With Yegor, the guide, Sokov and his team accelerated their progress. In less than five minutes, they arrived in front of a half-declined building. Sokov looked around and asked Yegor who was standing in front: "Lieutenant, is your battalion command post here?"
"Yes." Yegor nodded and pointed his hand at the ground: "The battalion commander's command post is in the basement at our feet."
Sokov looked down and saw that the building was close to the street, with a row of transom windows slightly higher than the ground, which should be the basement where the battalion was located. He raised his head and asked Egor: "Lieutenant, are there any exits in the basement?"
"Two!" Yegor raised two fingers and explained to Sokov: "There are two units in this building. In order to facilitate hiding the troops, the battalion commander has ordered people to open the basement of the two units..."
"It is far from enough to open the basement of the two units," Sokov shook his head after Yegor finished speaking, "The exits of the basement are all inside the building. Once the enemy's artillery fire blows the building up, you will be trapped in the basement."
After settling the accompanying soldiers, Sokov and Selyosha followed Yegor into the building. There were many soldiers sitting in the corridor. They were leaning against the wall and closing their eyes to rest. When they heard footsteps coming from outside, they found that Yegor had come in with an officer, and they stood up and saluted the people.
"Hello comrades!" Seeing his arrival, Sokov had already alarmed the soldiers in the corridor. He quickly stopped and raised his hand to greet them: "Thank you for your hard work!"
The soldiers only knew that a commander had come. The person who had never dreamed of coming was the division commander. After a brief silence, everyone shouted in unison: "Hello, commander!"
Sokov shook hands with the soldiers present one by one, chatted with them briefly, and finally said, "Comrades, after dawn, you still have to continue fighting with the enemy, so let's take a break early." After the soldiers sat down and rested again, Sokov followed Yegor into the basement.
When Andrey, who was busy, saw Sokov coming in, he quickly took two steps forward, raised his hand to salute, and then reported respectfully: "Comrade Commander, Captain Andrey, the commander of the New Third Battalion, reported to you, welcome to me to inspect the work."
"Comrade Captain, how are you doing here?" Sokov went straight to the table, pulled a wooden bench and sat down, looked up at Andre and asked, "Have the enemy launched a large-scale attack on you?"
"No, comrade of the division commander." Andrei shook his head and replied: "After the enemy launched continuous attacks on us and suffered a great loss, he adjusted his deployment and no longer used large troops to attack, but used in squads and platoons as units to compete with us for positions."
"The enemy is not a fool. When they see that a tactic cannot work, they will definitely use a new tactic to deal with you." Sokov asked as usual: "Comrade Captain, what tactics do you use to deal with?"
"Comrade Commander," Andre replied: "We are using the tactics you proposed before to deal with this infiltration tactic of the Germans!"
Andrei's words confused Sokov, and he asked in confusion: "The tactics I proposed? Comrade Captain, have you made a mistake? When did I propose a new tactic for you?"
"Comrade Commander, have you forgotten?" Andrei saw Sokov's confused look and quickly explained to him: "You have told us before how to fight street battles. On the streets that the enemy must pass, arrange snipers, machine gunners and anti-tank soldiers, use snipers to kill important targets, use machine guns to shoot groups of enemies, and use anti-tank hands to blow off enemy tanks... The enemy is helpless in the face of our defense, and they have to stop attacking and take gestures to us..."
When Sokov heard this, he couldn't help but interrupt and asked: "It is because the enemy has taken gestures that you asked Vasily and the others to form a sniper team to destroy the lonely enemies."
"Actually, the sniper team was not what I wanted to form, but what Vasily suggested." Andre was not a person who liked to take credit for his subordinates. He reported to Sokov truthfully: "He came to the battalion headquarters and studied with me for an hour. He decided to form a sniper team, mainly soldiers who were standing in the Vasily building, and then draw sharpshooters from various squads and platoons to form a sniper team, hide in every corner of the defense zone, and snipe the Germans who appeared in their sight."
"Your results are very good," Sokov couldn't help asking when he thought of the amazing record of killing more than 400 German soldiers in three days: "Are there anyone who performed particularly well in so many sniper teams?"
"Yes, comrade instructor."
"Who is it?"
"Jina and Susanna from the Guard Company." After saying that, Andrei asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, do you need me to call them over?"
When Sokov heard the names of two women, he was curious about who the other party was, so he nodded in agreement with Andrei's proposal. While Andrei sent someone to call Jina and Susanna, Sokov turned his head and asked Selyosha standing beside him: "Shelyosha, what's going on with these two female soldiers?"
"Misha, why have you forgotten that these two female soldiers joined in Kursk." Seriosha leaned into Sokov's ear and whispered: "The two have good shooting skills, and they also beat each other when they were shooting with friendly comrades."
After Xieliangsha reminded him, Sokov really remembered the two female soldiers, and said "Oh" and said, "It turns out they were the two of them. I really didn't expect that they would come to the New Third Battalion."
"At that time, you were recuperating in the health team, and all the affairs in the brigade were taken care of by Colonel Vitkov, who was sent by his superiors." Selyosha explained: "So the matter between them and the third battalion was authorized by Colonel Vitkov."
Not long after, two heroic female soldiers walked in from outside. When they saw Sokov sitting at the table, they couldn't help but show a surprised expression on their faces. Ji Na quickly stepped forward, raised her hand to salute Sokov, and asked excitedly: "Comrade Commander, why are you here?"
"I came to inspect the Third Battalion. I happened to hear that you two are here, so I asked Captain Andre to call you to meet you." Sokov raised his hand and looked at the two female soldiers and asked with interest: "Are you used to life here?"
"I just don't have a place to take a shower, and I feel a little uncomfortable." Sokov just finished asking the question, and Ji Na blurted out, "It would be great if there was a place to take a shower."
When Sokov heard Jina mention taking a bath, he remembered a movie about defending Stalingrad that he watched later. In order to let the heroine take a bath, he also went outside to find a bathtub and added a full tank of water. This kind of thing that was easy to do in peacetime was done by the soldiers.
However, before Sokov could speak, Susanna pulled Radina's sleeve with her hand and said to Sokov with a smile: "Comrade instructor, Ji Na is just talking nonsense, where are there any conditions for taking a bath in front of her."
Andrei next to him was afraid that Sokov would blame the female soldiers, so he hurried out to smooth things over: "Since the enemy blows up the water tower on Mamayev's hill, the water supply in the city has been completely interrupted."
"Water supply is interrupted?" If Andrei did not mention this, Sokov had never considered how the water used by the residents in the city was solved, and he asked quickly: "How did the residents who stayed in the city solve the problem of water cuts?"
"The tap water supply is cut off, and residents can only go to nearby rivers or wells to fetch water. Fortunately, there are several small streams leading to the Volga River in the city, otherwise the residents will not even drink water." Andre finally added, "Comrade, look at the weather, it may snow tonight. Snow can also alleviate the difficulties of residents in water use to a certain extent."
After chatting with Andre for a few words, Sokov saw that the two female soldiers were still standing attentive, he waved his hand to the other party and said, "Jina, Susanna, since they are all acquaintances, there is no need to be so restrained, just sit down. I also want to hear the results you have achieved."
"Comrade Commander, you may not have imagined it." As soon as Sokov asked about the results of the two female snipers, Andrei said excitedly: "In the daytime battle yesterday, they killed almost twenty enemies."
"What, you two have killed almost twenty enemies?" Sokov's face showed a surprised expression: "This is simply incredible."
"Susanna," Andre turned his head and looked at Suanna, and said to her with a smile: "Report to the division commander how you eliminated the enemy yesterday."
Susanna agreed and began to report to Sokov: "Year yesterday morning, after Ji Na and I accepted the mission, they hid in the ruins of a street to the north... At noon, a tricycle drove along the street, with three German soldiers on the car, one of the officers sitting in a standby. Seeing the enemy who had entered the range little by little, Ji Na asked me for instructions, who should I shoot first?
I looked at the surrounding terrain, and there were bricks and rubble everywhere. Once we fired, the enemy who had not been hit would jump out of the car and hide in the nearby ruins, making it difficult for us to destroy him. So after a brief thought, I told Ji Na to shoot at the German soldiers sitting behind the motorcycle, who were already sitting in the sideboard."
"Susanna, why did you choose this way?" Sheryosha couldn't help but interrupt and asked, "Can you tell me your reasons?"
Susanna nodded and continued, "If we shoot at the driver who is driving the motorcycle first, the motorcycle will lose control, causing the bullets shot by another shooter to deviate from the target. When we shoot directly behind the driver and the officer sitting in the standby, it will not cause the car to change. In this way, we have enough time to calmly kill the driver who is driving after completing the first shot."
"Well, it makes sense." After hearing Susanna's explanation, Selyosha felt it made sense. After nodding a few times, he urged the other party: "Sanna, please continue talking."
"I chose the officer sitting in the sidewall, and Ji Na chose the soldier sitting in the back seat." Susanna continued to say, "But when we pulled the trigger, a small accident happened. When the bullet was out of the bore, the motorcycle was bumped by a brick and stone, which caused the bullet I shot to hit the officer's chest, but hit his shoulder. The officer held the shoulder and flipped out of the sidewall. Since the car had not stopped yet, he rolled on the ground for a few laps before stopping.
Ji Na's movements were very quick. After killing the German soldiers sitting in the back seat, she shot down the car with another shot. Seeing me holding up the gun and aiming at the officer who was crawling on the ground, she was ready to shoot, but I stopped it."
"I was puzzled at the time when Susanna didn't let me shoot." Ji Na added without a chance: "That injured officer is simply a living target. At such a close distance, let alone us snipers, even a warrior with better shooting skills, can easily hit the target."
"I didn't let Ji Na shoot because I thought the officer was useful." Susanna said: "I planned to use this officer as bait to attract more German soldiers, so I asked Ji Na to shoot at his legs, making him lying on the ground and unable to move...
There were many German soldiers nearby. When they heard the screams of the officers, they rushed over and tried to get him away. But how could Ji Na and I miss such a good opportunity? So we knocked down the enemies that appeared within our range like shooting a target.
In this way, we killed more than a dozen enemies in one breath. Just as I was considering whether I should continue to retain the bait of the German officer, he decisively pulled out his gun and shot himself in the head in order not to let more soldiers die..."
"Oh, what a pity." Ji Na sighed, "If I had shot and interrupted his hands earlier, so that he would not have shot himself, and we could have eliminated more enemies."
The tactics used by Susanna and Jina are a tactic commonly used by special forces in later generations. After shooting an enemy, they did not kill him, but used it as bait to attract more opponents to rescue them, thereby achieving the goal of eliminating more enemies. The only way to crack is to commit suicide by the wounded man who was treated as bait by the sniper, so as to save the lives of more comrades.
"Susanna, Jina, you have performed well." Sokov nodded to the two of them and said with a smile: "When I return to the division headquarters, I will tell the political commissar about you and ask him to apply for a commendation order for you."
Sokov's words made the two young girls smile. Ji Na touched Susanna with her arms and said excitedly: "Susanna, did you hear it? The commander said that when he returned to Mamayevgang, he would apply for a commendation order for us."
Susanna was overjoyed when she heard the news that she was about to receive the commendation, but she did not forget the regulations. She quickly took a step forward, straightened her body, raised her head high and said, "Serve the Soviet motherland!"
Chapter completed!