After receiving the telegram, the radio operator translated it as quickly as possible. Guchakov took the telegram from the telegram operator and saw the content clearly, he was stunned at first, and then fell into ecstasy.
"What's wrong with you, Comrade Lieutenant?" Samoilov, who was standing beside him, was a little disobedient after reading the telegram. He asked quickly: "What is the telegram in the division headquarters?"
"I congratulate you, Lieutenant Samoilov." Guchakov suppressed the ecstasy in his heart and extended his hand to Samoilov. "The content of the telegram from the division headquarters is the reward for our operation by his superiors. You not only received a Red Flag Medal like everyone else, but also promoted to the military rank."
Samoilov was happy to learn that he had received the medal and promoted to the military rank, but he still took the telegram from Guchakov and carefully browsed the contents. After reading it, he looked at Guchakov and said, "Comrade Captain, please allow me to congratulate you on your higher level of military rank."
The dialogue between Guchakov and Samoilov confused the guerrillas standing not far away. Pradonov looked at the two and asked in confusion: "Two commanders, what are you talking about? Why don't I understand at all?"
"Comrade Captain, let me explain to you." Samoilov was in a particularly good mood when he learned that he had been awarded the medal and promoted to the military rank. He heard Pratonov's question and took the initiative to say: "In order to commend us for the achievements of destroying the enemy's airport, in addition to awarding the Red Flag Medal to every member of the squad, Lieutenant Guchakov and I were also promoted to the first level of military rank."
"This is amazing." Pratonov's words stunned. After a while, he came to his senses and reached out to Samoilov and said enthusiastically: "Lieutenant Samoilov, please accept my congratulations to you!"
After shaking hands with Samoilov, Pratonov went to shake hands with Guchakov and expressed his congratulations to him. Luzsky also quickly reached out to Samoilov and said with a smile: "And I, Comrade Lieutenant, please accept my sincere congratulations to you."
When the soldiers in the barn heard that they would also receive the Red Flag Medal from their superiors for attacking the airport, they also cheered.
"Quiet, comrades, please be quiet!" Guchakov was startled when he heard the soldiers cheering. He quickly stopped everyone and said, "Don't forget, there are enemies stationed not far away."
After the barn was quiet again, Guchakov said to everyone with a serious expression: "Comrades, you all heard that the division commander has been paying attention to our actions. Today, he just destroyed a field airport of the enemy and gave us such great honor. We must not let down the division commander's trust in us. We must continue to work hard and achieve greater results in the next battle."
"Captain Guchakov," Samoilov called Guchakov with his new rank, and asked, "Where should we be in the next direction?"
Guchakov was not familiar with the terrain of this area, so he could only ask Pradonov for help: "Comrade Captain, you are very familiar with the terrain of this area. Tell me, where else can be our target of attack."
…………
Just as Guchakov and Pratonov were studying what area to attack the next German-controlled attack, Paulus was in his headquarters, furious at his intelligence chief: "What, one of our field airports was destroyed by the Russians, but you didn't even see the Russians attacking the airport. What did your intelligence troops do for food?"
The silent intelligence director, after Paulus got angry, said carefully: "Sir, based on the results of our dispatch of people to survey nearby, we found track marks of armored vehicles and traces of setting up rocket launchers about two kilometers away from the airport..."
"His Excellency Commander," said Chief of Staff Schmid and other intelligence directors, and leaned into Paulus's ear and whispered: "From the information obtained by the intelligence department, the attack at the airport should be related to Sokov who was standing in Mamayev's hill."
Paulus is not unfamiliar with Sokov. After all, this name can be seen in many reports that have caused huge losses to his troops in the past few months. After a sneer, he asked back: "Chief of Staff, since you already know that the attack at the airport is related to Sokov, the Russian, what measures have you taken?"
"I'm sorry, Commander." Hearing Paulus' question, Schmid replied in shame: "We have taken more than two months to launch attacks on the Mamayev hills that Sokov's troops have held again and again, but we have never been able to seize the commanding heights of Stalingrad."
"Chief of Staff, this damn Russian has caused us such a great loss, we must not let him get away with it." Paulus said to Schmid with firm determination: "Immediately order the Fourth Air Force to dispatch planes to intensively bomb Mamayev's hills to eliminate all the Russians entrenched on it."
After Paulus's order was conveyed by Schmid, the commander of the Fourth Air Force, who was full of anger, immediately sent a brigade of bombers to bomb Mamayev Hill. For a moment, the entire Mamayev Hill seemed to have turned into an erupting volcano, with flames everywhere, gunpowder everywhere, and huge explosions followed one after another without a stop.
Cuikov, a few kilometers away, learned that Mamayev's hill was bombed by enemy planes, and walked out of his command center, found a relatively high position on the shore, raised his telescope and looked towards the hill. However, the entire hill was shrouded in thick smoke, and he could not see clearly what was happening on the hill.
He returned to the command center disappointedly and said to Krelov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the Germans dispatched a large number of planes to bomb Mamayev's hills, which must be in retaliation for the attack on their airport."
Krelov asked in surprise: "Comrade Commander, how did the Germans know that Sokov's troops attacked the airport?"
"Isn't it easy to know that this was done by Sokov's troops?" Cui Kov smiled bitterly and said, "Since the enemy approached the city, they have never asked for good things in front of Sokov. Sokov had many ideas in war and often made the enemy miserable. Paulus is not a fool. He just needs to think carefully and he can guess who killed his field airport. You can call Mamayevgang immediately and ask them how it is going there?"
Sokov never dreamed that the enemy would bomb Mamayev's hill without warning. At the beginning of the bombing, he immediately ordered all troops to retreat into the tunnel, leaving no observation post. He stood by the wooden table in the command center, and dust continued to fall above his head, and the ground under his feet was trembling. He was even worried that even if the tunnel was more than ten meters away from the ground, there would be a possibility of being knocked down by enemy bombs.
When Krelov's phone call came, Sokov stood not far away. He grabbed the microphone and said, "I am Sokov, where are you?"
"I'm Krelov." When he heard that the person who answered the phone was Sokov, Krelov breathed a sigh of relief. He asked loudly at the microphone: "Comrade Colonel, according to our analysis, the enemy may have guessed that your troops attacked the field airport behind them, so they dispatched so many planes to bomb. Can your fortifications withstand such violent bombings by enemy planes?"
"Don't worry, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov replied loudly: "Our fortifications are more than ten meters deep underground, and the enemy's bombs cannot hurt us..."
Before Sokov finished speaking, he suddenly heard a loud noise nearby, and then a steam lamp hanging at the door was shaken down and fell to pieces. The mass of dust pouring in from outside the door made Sokov cough violently. He quickly moved the microphone away from his ear, raised his hand and covered his mouth and nose with his left sleeve, and asked in a vague way: "What happened outside?"
No matter Sokov was coughing, everyone in the room was choked and coughed. But when he heard Sokov's words, there was also a staff officer who bravely rushed into the smoke and dust to see what was going on.
Less than a minute later, the staff officer stumbled out of the smoke and dust. He came to Sokov and said in panic: "Comrade Commander, it's not good, it's a bomb falling into the corridor."
"What, a bomb fell into the corridor?" Sokov shouted to the panicked staff and correspondents in order to find out what was going on, "Don't panic, stay in place and don't move." After shouting this, he put the microphone in his hand on the table and ordered the staff, "Take me to see."
Sokov followed the staff into the rising dust. While walking forward, he waved his arms desperately to try to disperse the annoying dust. After he walked out of the door and tried to see clearly what was in front of him, he was stunned. A huge bomb was hanging in the corridor, as if it would fall down at any time.
Seeing this bomb, Sokov's heartbeat suddenly doubled. He stared at the bomb for a long time before walking over tremblingly. He looked up and saw that the bomb smashed through the cement roof of the corridor and penetrated directly, but the tail was still stuck in the cement crack. The head of the bomb was about one meter away from the ground, and there was a possibility of falling off at any time.
Sokov knew very well that the power of the bomb exploded in a confined space would increase or decrease by more than double. In other words, as long as the bomb exploded, not to mention that all the people in the division command would be reimbursed, people in some nearby rooms would also be affected.
"Comrade Commander, what happened?" Just as Sokov stared at the bomb in a daze, Sidorin and Ivanov walked out of the room. After seeing the bomb hanging in front of him clearly, they were also stunned.
"Chief of Staff, call the engineers immediately and ask them to remove the bomb fuse." Sokov didn't know when the bomb in front of him would fall and explode, but he didn't want to sit and wait for death, so he began to issue orders to Sidolin and Ivanov: "As for you, comrade of the deputy division commander, immediately transfer everyone in the command center. Tell everyone not to panic, leave one by one, and never panic."
"Comrade Commander, this place is too dangerous." Before leaving, Sidolin and Ivanov were both worried about Sokov's safety and tried their best to persuade him: "You should move to a safe place first."
"No, I can't leave." Although Sokov's legs were scared to the point of being scared, in the current situation, if he took the lead in leaving, it would definitely cause panic among everyone, so he could only say with a tough bullet, "I have to wait until everyone in the command center has moved, and I will leave. Chief of Staff, Deputy Commander, don't be too late, go ahead and carry out the mission quickly."
The staff and correspondents in the command were frightened when they learned that there was a bomb that could explode at any time hanging in the corridor. But they knew that the division commander was standing next to the bomb at the door and had to wait for everyone to evacuate before leaving. They immediately felt full of courage. They walked out of the command center one by one in an orderly manner and walked carefully along the corridor. However, when they passed by Sokov, they all looked at them with admiration.
It took less than two minutes for all the personnel in the command center to evacuate safely. Sidolin came to Sokov and said in a low voice, "Comrade Commander, everyone in the command center has been evacuated, so you can retreat quickly."
"Chief of Staff, you retreat first." Sokov originally planned to retreat after the people in the command center had withdrawn. But when the people had withdrawn, his legs still had no strength and could not move at all. Naturally, he would not tell Sidolin and Ivanov about such a shameful thing, and could only pretend to be calm and say: "I want to stay here and watch the engineers take down the bomb with my own eyes."
Seeing that Sokov was unwilling to leave, Cidolin knew that it would be useless to persuade him, so he could only say to him, "Okay, comrade Commander, since you don't want to leave, I will stay with you." After saying this, he turned his head and saw that Ivanov was still standing next to him, and urged the other party, "Comrade Commander, please move first. If this bomb explodes, the division commander of the 41st Division of the Guards will be reimbursed."
"Yes, Deputy Commander, please transfer quickly." Sokov turned his head and looked at Ivanov, tried to squeeze out a smile on his face, and said calmly: "We will have nothing to do, you can move to a safe place first."
Seeing that Sokov and Cydolin both allowed themselves to move, Ivanov was not pretentious, he nodded and said to the two of them: "Teacher Commander, Chief of Staff, be careful with both of you, I'll leave first."
Chapter completed!