The deputy shooter had just chosen the shooting target. A cannon shell fired by a tank flew over and hit him directly. After a loud "boom", the deputy shooter carrying the bazooka instantly turned into a blood mist in the sky.
Captain Vasily, who was staying in the command post, suddenly turned red when he saw this scene. He grabbed the phone next to him and gave an order to Paulkosky: "Company Commander, it seems that our anti-tank platoon has become the main target of the Germans. I now order you to send soldiers immediately to carry anti-tank grenades or molten bottles to blow up the enemy's tanks."
In fact, even if Vasily did not give such an order, Paulkosky, after discovering that the anti-tank platoon soldiers became targets of the enemy's tanks and armored vehicles, was preparing to let the soldiers carry anti-tank grenades to approach the enemy's tanks or armored vehicles. At this moment, when Vasily received the order, he quickly agreed loudly: "I understand, Comrade Battalion Commander, I will send someone to blow up the enemy's tanks immediately."
"Also," Vasily told him before hanging up the phone: "If possible, take back all the bazooka, and must not be put into the hands of the Germans."
The battle at the Barrier Factory reached a heightened level, but because Belkin felt that the troops in his hands were enough to crush the German attack, he did not report it to the division headquarters, which made Sokov and others not clear that the situation in the Barrier Factory had become extremely critical.
On the contrary, Lieutenant Colonel Papuchinko, the commander of the 122nd Guards who were stationed in the Workers' New Village, called Sokov and reported nervously: "Comrade Commander, there are a large number of enemies gathering in the northwest of the Workers' New Village. It seems that they are preparing to launch an attack on the Workers' New Village."
"What, the enemy gathered in the northwest direction of the Workers' New Village?" Sokov looked at the map and noticed that the enemy gathered, perhaps preparing to seize the Workers' New Village. He hurriedly asked: "How far is the place where the enemy gathered? How many troops are they likely to have?"
Lieutenant Colonel Papuchinko was silent for a moment, and then replied: "According to the report of the observation post, the place where the enemy gathered was about two kilometers away from the Workers' New Village, and the troops were about one battalion."
"Are they all infantry?" Sokov asked. "Are there any tanks, assault guns or armored vehicles?"
"No." Papuchinko answered very simply: "It's all infantry."
"Comrade Commander," Ivanov couldn't help but interrupt and asked, "What do you think the enemy is gathering outside the workers' new village? "
"What is the purpose?" Sokov covered the microphone with his hand, looked up at Ivanov in front of him, and said, "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, is the enemy's goal not obvious yet? They just want to seize the workers' new village and obtain an offensive starting point to attack the Red October Factory."
"But the workers' village has long been a ruin in the enemy's shelling and bombing." After hearing Sokov's explanation, Ivanov asked in confusion: "What role can they play even if they seize this ruin?"
"Although the workers' new village has become a ruin, as long as the German army occupied it, they can enter the factory area of ​​the Red October Factory through the underground sewer." Sokov said with a serious expression: "If the enemy enters the factory area, the situation in the city will become extremely serious."
Ivanov asked tentatively: "What kind of bad consequences will that cause?"
Although Sokov was disdainful of the low-level questions raised by Ivanov, he still explained patiently: "Once the enemy occupied the Red October factory, the barricade factory and the Derzhinsky factory will be even more unstoppable. Once these three important factories are lost, the fall of the city will be inevitable."
"What should we do?" Now the counterattack of the Stalingrad Front has entered the countdown, and no one wants to have problems at this time. Ivanov quickly asked again: "Does it need to send troops to reinforce the 122nd Guards Regiment?"
"It's not necessary." Sokov waved his hand and said, "The 122nd Guards Regiment just received a full battalion. The total force is close to 3,000. There is no big problem to defend a new workers' village."
"But, comrade, if something happens, the right wing of Mamayev's hill will be exposed to the enemy." Ivanov reminded Sokov: "I don't think we can stand by and we should find a way to support the 122nd Regiment."
"Comrade Deputy Commander," Sidolin knew that the 122nd Regiment was an old subordinate of Ivanov, and he was inevitably concerned about the safety of the regiment, so he asked politely: "How do you think we should support them?"
"Ltd. Col. Papuchinko," Sokov let go of his hand covering the microphone and said to Papuchinko: "Don't there still a dozen new rockets in your regiment? Go to the position where the enemy gathers, and shoot out all without leaving."
"Comrade Commander," Papuchinko heard Sokov's order and asked cautiously: "If we use up all the new rockets today, then will there be no new rockets to use in the next counterattack?"
Seeing that Papchinko was so dull, Sokov said unhappily: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what's wrong with you? Seeing that the enemy is about to attack you, your regiment's top priority is to smash the enemy's attack, but you are telling me that if the new rocket is consumed, there is nothing to be used during the attack. Don't you know that once the workers' new village is lost, the Red October Factory will become in danger?"
"I understand, comrade of the division commander." As soon as Lieutenant Colonel Papuchinko finished speaking, he quickly stated: "I will immediately organize the soldiers to fire rockets at the enemy's gathering position."
"That's right, comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Sokov smiled and nodded, saying with satisfaction: "As long as the enemy can be eliminated, there is no need to worry if the new rockets are consumed. When the counterattack begins, I will supplement you as appropriate."
With Sokov's guarantee, Papchinko suddenly became more confident. He expressed his opinion to Sokov: "Comrade, please rest assured. I will definitely eliminate these German robbers outside the workers' new village. We must not let them enter our defense zone half a step."
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, it is very good that you have such confidence." Sokov said happily: "I believe you will definitely be able to repel the enemy's attack. I am waiting for your good news."
As soon as Sokov put down the phone, he asked Sidolin, who was sitting opposite him, "Chief of Staff, is there any movement in the enemy in front of Mamayev's hill?"
"No." Cidolin shook his head and replied: "Maybe the Germans have just completed the change of defense and are still consolidating their defense line. They have no energy to attack us for the time being."
"Since the frontal enemy has not responded, we don't have to worry about it." Sokov focused his attention on the map again: "Let's consider what time and location should we choose to launch a counterattack against the enemy after the Stalingrad army launches an attack from the south of the city tomorrow?"
"Is that necessary," Ivanov said confidently: "We were launching a counterattack against the frontal enemies of Mamayevgang at that time. As long as we defeated them, we would have the opportunity to meet with oncoming friendly forces."
"Comrade Deputy Commander, your idea is too optimistic." As soon as Ivanov finished speaking, Cidolin refuted him: "Even if our Stalingrad front army launches an attack from the south of the city tomorrow, it may not be possible to come and meet us in one or two days. Therefore, when choosing the counterattack time and direction, we must be cautious, cautious and cautious."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, I am much more optimistic than you in this matter." Ivanov pointed to the map and said to Cidolin: "In the direction of our front-line counterattack, the Germans deployed Romanian troops. I believe that it would not take much time to break through the defense line of these servant troops."
"Comrade Deputy Division Commander, you underestimate the enemy too much." Sidolin, who had seen the Marine Battalion and the Romanian army fight for bayonets, said with a serious expression: "The Romanian army once fought with the Marine Battalion commanded by Captain Shamrich in Beigang, Mamayevgang. In the battle, the Romanian army performed extremely tenaciously and caused considerable losses to our army. Therefore, we cannot take the Romanian army lightly just because they are the German servants, otherwise they will suffer a great loss."
After Ivanov led his troops to Mamayevgang, although he had heard Cidolin mention this matter several times, he never took it to heart. According to his ideas, even if the Romanian army has combat effectiveness, it is far from enough compared to its own troops, and he can't help but underestimate the enemy. At this moment, when Cidolin emphasized again, he had to face up to this army that he looked down upon.
While Sidolin and Ivanov were bickering, Sokov kept staring at the department store on the map, thinking that Paulus later moved the command center here and became a prisoner of the Soviet army in the basement of the mall. If he could know when Paulus's headquarters would enter the department store, he could send an army to conduct sneak attacks and implement the beheading tactic. As long as the commander of the German army was killed, the remaining troops would definitely fall into chaos because they lost their unified command, so that the next battle would be easy to fight.
After arguing for a while, Sidolin and Ivanov stopped when they saw that Sokov had not come out to smooth things over. Sidolin looked at Sokov who had been leaning over to look at the map and asked curiously: "Comrade Commander, what are you looking at?"
"I was wondering where the German command was." Sokov replied casually: "If we know the exact location of the Paulus command, we can send a force to take them away."
Regarding Sokov's idea, Cidolin immediately poured cold water on him: "Comrade Commander, your idea is not realistic. Think about it, the German commanders are all afraid of death. Our division-level command is only two or three hundred meters away from the front, while their regiment-level command is ten kilometers away from the front, and the division-level command is thirty kilometers away from the front, and the group army command is even further away from the front. Even if we know where it is arranged, it is probably not an easy task to send troops to attack."
Sokov knew that Paulus's current headquarters was located in Glubinskaya, and was still very far away from his Mamayev hill. Unless the commando was airdropped near the enemy's headquarters, it would be a dream to cross the enemy's defense line and attack Paulus' headquarters. It seemed that it would be better to wait until Paulus was desperate and moved the headquarters to the department store in the south of the city to consider sending troops to capture Paulus.
At this moment, Trekov called again. In addition to asking whether the anti-tank platoon that reinforced the Derrensky factory was set off, he also told Sokov: "Comrade Sokov, I just received a call from Colonel Lyudnikov. He said that there was a fierce battle in the barricade factory and the enemy was launching a fierce attack on him. He and the troops of the commander Belkin were fighting tenaciously with the enemy."
When he learned that fierce battle was going on in the barricade factory, Sokov called Belkin as soon as he finished his call with Cuikov and asked straight to the point: "My political commissar, there is a fierce battle there, why not report to me immediately?"
"Misa," Belkin glanced at the back of the retreating enemy army outside and replied confidently: "We have just repelled a German attack. I believe we have the ability to crush all the offensives they launched. I feel that we are fully capable of dealing with the enemy's attack, so we have not called you to cause trouble."
"It's so confusing." Although Belkin is Sokov's old partner, Sokov was still very dissatisfied with his failure to report it in time: "The enemy launched a fierce attack on the barricade factory. If you don't report it to me, I don't understand the enemy's situation, how can I make overall arrangements?"
"Misha," Berkin explained to him when he heard Sokov's tone in a particularly stern manner: "I think with the strength of our regiment and the Lyudnikov division, we can completely block any attack from the enemy."
"My political commissar," Sokov said with some amusement, "Our army launched an attack in the Don River Basin today. The Germans may have thought it was the restraining action taken by our army, so they increased their attack on the city. Therefore, in addition to the barricade factory and the Derrensky factory, the enemy also assembled troops in the northwest of the Workers' New Village, preparing to seize the Workers' New Village in one fell swoop, and then gained the starting point for the attack on the Red October Factory."
After listening to Sokov's words, Belkin realized that as the Soviet counterattack in the Don River Basin began, the German offensive not only did not weaken, but instead strengthened. It seemed that they wanted to seize the city in a short period of time. He quickly said to Sokov: "Misha, I am not considering this matter well, I apologize to you. Don't worry, I will report to you at any time in the next battle so that you can understand the situation on the battlefield in a timely manner."
The German attack was stubbornly resisted by the Soviet army. Because Sokov's troops participated in the battle in every fierce battle area, the new anti-tank weapons and special tactics caused heavy losses to the German army that carried out the attack. When it was dark, they had to give up their attempts to seize the city, retracted their positions, and prepared to wait until the next day to light up before launching a new attack on the factory area.
The shrinking regiment commanded by Belkin repelled seven German attacks within one day and successfully defended the barricade factory.
Chapter completed!