In less than five minutes, Vasia appeared at the command office. After raising his hand to salute Sokov, he said breathlessly: "Comrade Commander, Lieutenant Vasia, the commander of the Engineer Company, is here by your order, please instruct!"
"Comrade Lieutenant," Sokov walked to Vasia and said to him: "How are you prepared for what I told you a few days ago?"
When Vasia heard Sokov say this, she immediately understood that the other party was talking about mine moving. She quickly straightened her body and replied: "Comrade Commander, I have sent someone to conduct reconnaissance last night, and roughly figured out the location of the German mines and the roads they used on a daily basis. At the latest the night after tomorrow, I can send someone to perform the mission..."
Before Vasia could finish speaking, Sokov interrupted him with a stern face: "Comrade Lieutenant, why should such a simple thing be delayed until the night after tomorrow?"
"Comrade Commander," Vasia blushed when she heard Sokov's criticism of himself, "We have suffered serious loss of personnel during this period of battle. Although some new soldiers have been added, they are laymen in how to clear mines. I need time to train them."
"Comrade Lieutenant, we don't have that much time." Sokov sighed, "You must have seen how our soldiers compete with the enemy for airdrop supplies today. If you completed the mine move last night, the enemy would definitely be trapped in their positions by mines, rather than fighting for supplies with us as unscrupulously as they are now. Also, I will return to Mamayev's hill tonight, and before leaving, I hope you can give me a letter of confidence."
When Vasia's face showed a shocked expression when he learned that Sokov was going back to Mamayevgang: "Comrade Commander, you are so anxious to go back, is there something wrong with Mamayevgang?"
"Nothing happened." Sokov naturally would not tell a subordinate that he was scolded. He pretended to be nothing and said: "The superiors think I should stay in my position, so I have to return to Mamayev."
Seeing that Sokov was about to return to Mamayev's hill soon, Vasia was silent for a long time, and finally gritted her back teeth and said, "Comrade Commander, after I go back, I will speed up the training of those recruits and strive to carry out this task tomorrow night."
"No!" Sokov shook his head and said firmly: "Tonight, you must perform this task tonight."
"But most of my soldiers will not clear mines." Vasiah heard Sokov's order and said anxiously: "If they are sent to perform missions rashly, and it is a night with extremely poor visibility, it is easy to cause unnecessary casualties."
"The new engineers can't clear mines, will they always lay mines?" Seeing that Vasia had been struggling with the new additions, Sokov said with some displeasure: "Isn't it enough to let those skilled engineers dig out the mines and then bury the new engineers in other places?"
"Yes, this is a good idea." The method Sokov said made Vasia's eyes lit up. He clenched his right fist and smashed it on the palm of his left hand, and said excitedly: "In this way, I don't have to worry about the mine explosion caused by the new recruits to clear the mine because of their unskilled skills. Comrade Commander, I don't think there is any problem in carrying out the mission tonight."
…………
Before Sokov could return to the division command, Ivanov and Sidolin learned about his return to Mamayev. Ivanov asked strangely: "Comrade Chief of Staff, why did the division commander come back suddenly? Does our army have any major actions and need him to come back here to command?"
When notifying the personnel to attend the military meeting, Cuikov did not call Mamayevgang when he was notified of the military meeting, considering that Sokov was in the barricade factory, he did not call Mamayevgang. Instead, when notifying Lyudnikov, he called Sokov. Therefore, so far, Ivanov and Sidolin, the two division leaders, did not know that the Soviet army would launch a large counterattack in a few days.
When Sidolin heard Ivanov's question, he shook his head blankly and said, "Comrade Deputy Commander, you have been staying in the command center with me. Have we received orders from our superiors? Do you still not know?"
"That's strange." Ivanov frowned and repeated the words just now: "If there was no important thing, how could the commander come back suddenly?"
"Comrades Commander, Hello!" Just as the two were frowning, Sokov's familiar voice came from the door. They looked up at the door and saw Sokov walking towards them with big strides.
After shaking hands with Ivanov and Cidolin who were coming, Sokov looked at the two of them and asked curiously: "What's wrong with you? You look like you are worried."
"Comrade Commander," Cidolin asked with a smile, "Can I ask, why did you come back suddenly?"
"The reason is very simple." Sokov shrugged his shoulders and said helplessly: "During the daytime, the enemy broke through the defense line of the 138th Division. Seeing that the situation was critical, I took the guard platoon to block the gap. The commander knew that I was participating in the battle without authorization, so he drove me back to Mamayev's hill."
Sokov picked up the teapot on the table and took a sip, looked at Cidolin and asked, "Comrade Chief of Staff, how are our troops ready? Can we launch a counterattack against the enemy?"
"What are you preparing for? Where to launch a counterattack?" Who knew that after hearing Sokov's question, Sidolin's face was full of confusion. He looked at Sokov and asked puzzledly: "Comrade Commander, you seem to have not assigned me any tasks?"
Sokov didn't expect Cidolin to answer this, and he was still a little unhappy. He said something so big that you still have the leisure to joke with me. It's simply inappropriate.
Just as Sokov was about to get angry, Ivanov, who was standing beside him, interjected: "Yes, comrade Commander, you have never assigned us any tasks. How do we know how many troops we should gather and where to launch a counterattack against the enemy?"
Both of them had the same remarks, which made Sokov find that he was neglecting an important thing. When the meeting was held two days ago, he did not seem to have seen Ivanov or Sidolin in Cuikov's command center. Didn't they get notice of the meeting? No, for such a big thing, how could the headquarters neglect the person who informed the meeting?
"I want to ask you something." Sokov hesitated for a moment, but still asked the question in his heart: "The headquarters held a military meeting two days ago, why didn't you go?"
"Military meeting, what kind of military meeting?" both of them asked in confusion: "Why didn't anyone notify us?"
"It seems that the headquarters has not done its job well, and he actually forgot both Ivanov and Sidolin." Sokov muttered in his heart and said to the two: "Two days ago, the commander convened the commanders of each division to hold a meeting and announced the news that our army was about to counterattack." In order to prevent the two of them, he did not mention that officers at the group level and above were going to attend the meeting, but just said the division level commander in a vague manner.
"The big counterattack is about to begin?" When the two of them heard that the big counterattack was about to begin, they immediately forgot to ask themselves why they were not notified. Instead, they asked anxiously: "Comrade Commander, tell us quickly when will our army launch a big counterattack."
"Everyone comes to the map," Sokov walked to the wall and pointed at the map and said to the two: "According to the arrangement of the base camp, General Vatujin's southwestern front and Rokosovsky's Don Front will launch a counterattack against the enemy in the Don River Basin on November 19..."
As soon as Sokov introduced the attack routes of the two fronts, he couldn't wait to ask: "Where is our Stalingrad Front, when will it counterattack?"
"The counterattack time of the Stalingrad Front is one day later than these two fronts." Sokov said to the two: "The direction of the counterattack will be in the south of the city. Our 62nd Army will not participate in this counterattack operation."
The two men who were ready to beat Sokov's last words were as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water from the beginning in the 19th day, and it suddenly became cold. After a while, Ivanov said unconvincedly: "Why don't we participate in the counterattack? You must know that in the past few months, our 62nd Army troops were fighting face to face with the Germans. Now we have finally waited for a counterattack, but we don't let us participate. What's going on?"
"Yes, comrade Commander, what's going on?" Cidolin also asked anxiously: "I finally waited for a big counterattack, but I didn't let us participate. I was worried that the commanders and soldiers would feel dissatisfied when they knew about it."
"At the meeting, many commanders raised the same question." Sokov said slowly: "Comrade Commander explained to us that since the troops of the 62nd Army suffered severe reductions in troops after a long battle, many division and brigade-level units that remained in the city had only one empty number. Not to mention counterattack, whether they can defend their positions is a question."
As the chief of staff, Sidolin still had a certain understanding of the situation in the city. When he heard Sokov say this, he seemed to understand something and asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, if I don't understand it wrong, the superiors want us to continue to block and restrain the enemy so that the troops that are carrying out counterattacks in other directions can encircle the enemy who siege the city?"
Seeing that Sidolin guessed the intention of his superiors, Sokov nodded and gave him a positive answer: "Chief of Staff, you are right. The task of our 62nd Army troops is to stick to the existing positions, block and restrain the enemy, so that our friendly forces can complete the encirclement of the enemy during the counterattack."
"The enemy has a lot of troops, with more than 100,000 people." Ivanov said with great concern: "Even if we surround them, can we eat them?"
The Soviet Command never had an accurate number of German troops in Stalingrad, so after Paulus's 300,000 troops were surrounded, they thought there were only tens of thousands of enemies in the encirclement. The Supreme Command could not figure out the specific number of enemies, let alone the commander below. Sokov did not entangle the German numbers, but said to Ivanov with a smile: "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, don't worry. What if there are more than 100,000 Germans? You must know that we have three aspects that siege them, at least millions of people, and one of ten people will be beaten. Can't we win?"
"It is barely reasonable to stick to other areas." Cidolin said thoughtfully: "After all, those troops suffered heavy losses in battle and had seriously lost their combat effectiveness. But our division is different. Not only are there thousands of troops, but the Romanian army on the opposite side is not strong in combat. If they launch a counterattack, they will definitely achieve good results."
"Chief of Staff, your idea coincides with the commander," Sokov said: "The commander told me that he will arrange troops in the near future to replace our division's defense at the Barrier Factory and the Red October Factory Workers' New Village, so that we can concentrate some of our troops and launch a counterattack against the frontal enemies to cooperate with the major counterattack of the main force."
"What, the superiors are preparing us to gather the troops to participate in the counterattack?" Cidolin was overjoyed to learn that the troops sent to various places could be rebuilt: "As long as we gather the troops and with our current strength, we should not have much problem in seizing all positions from the Romanian army."
Ivanov, who was once the commander of the Guards Division, considered the problem more comprehensive than Cidolin. He asked expressionlessly: "Comrade Commander, I want to ask, can we support a counterattack with our existing ammunition and material reserves?"
"Yes, comrade, our ammunition and supplies have been consumed a lot recently." As soon as Cidolin and Ivanov finished speaking, they immediately added: "I wonder when the superiors can replenish us?"
"I think it's so bad." Before Sokov could speak, Ivanov said first: "Now the river is frozen and the ships cannot come; the ice on the river is too thin to support the transport vehicles. I think it's probably not possible to transport new ammunition and materials into the city for a long time."
"The intelligence is not what you imagined." Sokov guessed that the two of them were afraid that the sailors in the area fleet would use gunboats instead of icebreakers to break the icebreakers, so he took the initiative to say: "In order to restore the supplies to the city, the sailors and soldiers ignored their sacrifices and used gunboats to replace the icebreakers, opening a passage on the river so that some ships could transport the urgently needed materials from the city into the city. Also, during the day today, in order to increase the supplies to the city, the Front Command even ordered the air force transport planes to take off in the snow and drop supplies for the defenders."
"I don't think it will solve any problem with gunboats or airdrops in such weather." Cidolin shook his head and said, "In such cold weather, even if the gunboat barely opens a route, the river surface will soon be frozen again. At that time, the efforts of the sailors and soldiers will be in vain. As for airdrops, it will be even more unworthy of the loss. The visibility on heavy snowy days is low, and the pilots cannot see the ground clearly. Perhaps most of the supplies thrown will fall into the hands of the Germans. I think other methods should be used to restore the transportation lines on the river."
"Do you have a way, Comrade Chief of Staff?" Sokov asked curiously.
Chapter completed!