Trekov followed Sokov's advice and as soon as he put down the phone, he directly ordered Krelov: "Chief of Staff, call Major General Jorugev, Colonel Sokolov, who was standing in the Derrensky factory, and ordered them to send troops as soon as possible to blow up the road bridges around the factory, so that the enemy's mechanized troops could no longer enter the factory."
Krelov was stunned when he heard Cuikov's order, then his eyes shone and said repeatedly: "Comrade Commander, this suggestion is great. As long as the bridge is blown up, the enemy's tanks and assault guns will not be able to enter the factory area. Once the tanks and assault guns entering the factory area are used up, they will not have any threat to our army. They only need an anti-tank grenade to reimburse them all." At this point, he paused for a moment, raised his hand and slapped his forehead, and blamed himself in annoyance: "Oh, why can't I think of such a simple and good way?"
"Chief of Staff, you are too busy to answer the phone every day. How can you have time to sit there and think about it like Sokov." Seeing Krelov blame himself so much, Cuikov quickly comforted him and said, "Okay, call the two division commanders quickly and let them prepare to bomb the bridge."
The 37th Guard Division, which was originally responsible for sticking to the factory, after a long battle, suffered serious reductions in troops. The entire division, including the wounded, had only more than 1,000 people left. Their defense zone was compressed by the Germans to the south of the factory.
During the transfer of the division headquarters to the new command, the German tanks rushed into the factory were discovered. The tank immediately jumped into the gun port and fired two guns at the commanders and fighters running in the ruins. The flying shrapnel cut down five or six staff members and communication personnel. Even the head of the division commander, Jolugeff, was injured by the gravel caused by the air waves. Seeing the division commander injured, several guards around immediately rushed over, carrying Jolugeff with all his hands and feet, and quickly left the area where the German tanks were shelling.
As soon as he entered the command center, a soldier shouted loudly: "Sanitation officer, where are the health officers?"
Hearing the shouts of the soldiers, a female health worker with a smoke on her face hurriedly running in with a medical box on her back and asked anxiously: "Where are the wounded?"
The soldier pointed at Jolujeff, who was sitting at the foot of the wall, and said, "The division commander is injured, hurry up and bandage him the wound."
The health officer quickly walked to Jolujeff and said politely: "Comrade Commander, your forehead is injured, please take off your hat."
Iflujeff took off the otter fur hat on his head, endured the pain on his forehead, tried hard to squeeze out a smile on his face, and said to the female health worker: "Please trouble you, comrade health worker."
The sanitary staff wanted to use alcohol to clean the wound for Jolujeff, and then put on a bandage after applying iodine. After doing all this, the female sanitary staff took a step back and said to Jolujeff: "Okay, comrade in the division commander, just a skin trauma, and a piece of skin was wiped off by gravel on his forehead, and it will be healed in a few days."
When he learned that his injury was not serious and he would heal in a few days, if Lujeff felt a little more at ease, he nodded to the female health worker and said, "Thank you, Comrade Health Worker."
"Comrade Commander," as soon as the health officer left, Chief of Staff Brushko hurried over and reported to Jolujeff with a serious expression: "I just received a call from the Chief of Staff of the Army, who ordered us to organize our forces immediately and blow up the highway bridge across the river outside the factory."
"What, blow up the highway bridge on the river?" After hearing the Chief of Staff, Rujeff was stunned. He was stunned for a while before asking tentatively: "Chief of Staff, are you sure you have heard the wrong order?"
"Yes, comrade of the division command." In order to let Jolujeff understand that the order he conveyed was correct, Brushko also emphasized: "I thought I had heard it wrong at the time, and repeatedly verified it twice, and it was indeed an order for us to blow up the bridges on the river and to complete this task as soon as possible."
Although the superiors did not explain the reason for the blowup of the bridge, since the order had been issued, it could only be implemented unconditionally. If Lujeff pointed at Brushko with his hand and asked, "Chief of Staff, which of our troops is closest to the bridge to the south?"
"It is the 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 114th Guards Regiment," Brushko quickly replied: "The company now has more than 40 commanders and fighters, and they are fully capable of completing this task."
"Okay," Jolujeff nodded: "Let them complete this glorious mission."
After Brushko waited for Jolugeff to issue the order, he did not leave immediately, but asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, there is a highway bridge to the west of the factory, but unfortunately it has fallen into the hands of the Germans. If we want to bomb the bridge, there will be little casualties."
If Lujeff was not slow either. After a while of thinking, he suddenly understood the true purpose of the blow-off of Choikov's order, and quickly said to Brushko: "Chief of Staff, come with me!"
After the two arrived at the table, Jolugef pointed to the map spread on the table and said to Brushko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I think I understand the reason why the commander gave this order."
"What's the reason?" Brushko asked curiously.
"Look, in addition to three highway bridges, there are more than a dozen pontoon bridges built by workers with empty oil barrels." If Lugeff slapped the map with his palm: "Whether our tanks or German tanks enter and exit the factory through these three bridges. The pontoon bridges built by empty oil barrels can only pass through people and cannot pass through any heavy equipment. Once we blow up the highway bridge, it means that before the bridge is repaired, the German tanks can no longer enter the factory."
After Brushko waited for Jolugeff to finish speaking, he smiled bitterly and reminded the other party: "But if the enemy's tanks are not in, our tanks cannot get out either."
"How many tanks do we have?" Jolugef looked at the other party and asked, "As far as I know, Colonel Bere's tank brigade now has only five or six tanks left, and they are half buried underground as fixed fire points. We have no tanks except them, so blowing up the road bridge outside the factory has no effect on us at all."
After hearing Jolugeff's explanation, Brushko did not say anything else, but immediately called the leader of the 114th Regiment and assigned him the task of bombing the bridge.
Since the south of the city was still within the control of the 37th Guard Division, the order to bomb the bridge was implemented very simply. In less than half an hour, Rugeff heard the explosion sound from outside. Soon, the commander of the 114th Regiment called Brushko to report that the road bridge south of the factory had been successfully blown up.
"Comrade Commander," Brushko held the microphone and asked Jolujeff for instructions: "The 114th Guards Regiment has successfully blown up the road bridge on the other side of the factory. The regiment commander asks for your next order!"
"Tell him," said Jolugef, staring at the map in front of him, without raising his head: "Immediately lead the whole regiment to approach the highway bridge to the west, and find a way to blow it up."
According to Jorjeff's idea, since the road bridge south of the factory can be blown up so easily, then blowing up the road bridge west is probably not a big problem. Even if the officers and soldiers who exploded the bridge were injured or killed, they could bear it.
However, the plan could not keep up with the changes. After only a quarter of an hour, Brushko received another call from the commander of the 114th Regiment. However, instead of reporting that the bridge had been blown up, the other party reported with a sad face: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the enemy may have noticed our actions. They arranged several machine gun fire points near the highway bridge to the west. Our soldiers rushed forward several times but could not rush up."
"Continue to rush!" Brushko said without saying a word: "Even if you fill it in, you have to blow up the highway bridge as soon as possible!"
"Comrade Chief of Staff," said the other party in embarrassment about Brushko's order: "Our regiment was originally only more than 400 people left, but in the offensive that ended not long ago, our regiment suffered nearly 100 casualties. If we continue to fight like this, it may take less than an hour before our regiment can abolish the establishment."
"Comrade Commander!" Although Brushko wanted to blow up the highway bridge as soon as possible, he still felt a little worthless if he lost a regiment. He could only turn his attention to Jolugeff, hoping that the other party could make an idea. "You see, what should we do?"
If Lugef also knew in his heart that as a commander, if he did not know how to adjust the tactics according to changes in the battlefield, he might ruin a unit. It was precisely for this reason that he did not sloppyly order the commanders and fighters of the 114th Regiment to launch a blind charge without any effort, but said to Brushko: "Chief of Staff, let them stop first, and I think about how to blow up the pontoon bridge."
"You wait first, and I will notify you after the division commander makes a decision." Brushko put down the microphone, walked to Jolugeff's side, and asked him for instructions, "Comrade Commander, what are you doing to blow up the highway bridge and minimize the casualties of the troops?"
"No," said Jolujeff, unexpectedly, and shook his head, "I can't think of such a solution."
When he learned that if Lugeff could not think of a solution, Brushko showed a disappointed expression on his face. But to his surprise, Rugeff continued: "If I can't think of a solution, it doesn't mean that others can't think of it."
When Brushko heard this, his eyes lit up and he asked quickly: "Comrade Commander, don't know who you are talking about?"
"Col. Sokov, commander of the 41st Division of the Guards." Ruolujeff said helplessly: "Based on the observations during this period, I found that this man had a good fight. Maybe he could come up with a best of both worlds to resolve the crisis in front of us. The Chief of Staff immediately asked the communications soldiers to connect to Mamayev. I want to talk to Colonel Sokov."
Rulejeff was lucky. Sokov did not run around today, but stayed honestly in his division command. Sokov was surprised when he received a call from Rulejeff. After all, the two of them had a little far apart, and the other party was a little unreasonable to him. However, out of politeness, he still asked politely: "Hello, General Rulejeff, is there anything you have to do?"
"That's right, Colonel Sokov." Iflujeff felt so awkward when he thought of asking for help from a young commander with a lower rank than himself. However, in order to save the lives of more soldiers, he still said with a tough bullet: "I call you, because there is something to ask for help from you."
"If you have something to ask me for help?" Sokov was stunned and then asked back: "Comrade General, can you tell me what's going on?"
"The Army Command issued a strange order to us to blow up the highway bridge outside the factory area..." If Lujeff thought that he had something to ask for Sokov, he would naturally not hide the facts from him, so he forwarded the order issued by the command to Sokov and told the current dilemma of his troops. He finally said: "Comrade Colonel, I really have no choice but to call you. I wonder what you can do to resolve our current dilemma?"
Sokov learned that Rulejeff called him and it turned out that it was related to the blow-up of the highway bridge. Rulejeff encountered trouble during the mission, so he, the initiator, was naturally obliged to help. Thinking of this, he said to the microphone: "Comrade General, don't worry, I have a way to blow up the highway bridge."
When he heard that Sokov had a way to blow up the highway bridge, Ruolujeff suddenly became energetic: "Comrade Colonel, please tell me your good idea quickly."
"Since the enemy has set up fire points near the bridge and let the soldiers rush onto the bridge directly, it is obviously unrealistic. Even if they can barely rush up, the casualties will be very heavy." Sokov said thoughtfully: "Since we can't get through the ground, why don't we go over the water?"
"From the water?" When Lugeff heard this, he was stunned and asked, "Comrade Colonel, do you mean to let the soldiers swim over?" Without waiting for Sokov to answer, he shook his head and said, "No, this is absolutely not possible. The soldiers will not be able to be in the water too fast. The enemies on the shore can even use them as targets and knock them out one by one."
"You misunderstood what I mean, Comrade General." Sokov had long guessed that if Lujev would understand his proposal so much. Seeing that he had indeed made such a mistake, he patiently explained to him: "You can put the explosive bag into an empty oil barrel and float down the river. But you must set the length of the fuse in advance to ensure that the gasoline barrel can explode as soon as it floats to the highway bridge, so that it can blow up the highway bridge controlled by the enemy."
Chapter completed!