Half an hour before the fire was ready to begin, Sokov suddenly received a call from Bethlei.
As soon as he heard the voice of Bo Lei, Sokov couldn't wait to ask: "Comrade Colonel, is your tank brigade ready to attack?"
"Yes, comrade of the division commander." Since Berlei's troops were under Sokov's command, he did not call the other party's nickname, but directly called his position: "I have deployed the two tank battalions from the east coast behind Mamayev's hill. After seeing the attack signal, they will advance along the canyon between the north and south hills."
"Three tank battalions, how did you marshal?"
"In the order from north to south, the three tank battalions are organized into the first battalion, the second battalion and the third battalion. The second battalion, the battalion commander of the third battalion, is the original commander; the first battalion will enter the battle under my personal command." After briefly reporting the situation, Bielei hesitated for a moment and said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, I call you for something else."
"What else?" Sokov couldn't help but feel a little slack when he heard Bi Lei say this, and he secretly said that it was less than half an hour before the attack began. If there was a problem with the Tank Brigade, I don't know if there was any time to remedy it, so he asked, "Col. Bi Lei, what happened?"
"That's right," said Bereth, seemingly embarrassed: "President Peter just sent a few strange tanks over, and I'm considering whether to let them join the battle as well."
"Strange tank?" Sokov couldn't help but be stunned and asked, "What kind of tank is it?"
"The tank without a turret is equipped with a 76.2 mm cannon on the base, with only protective armor plates around it, and the top is open like an armored personnel carrier." Bie Lei said disapprovingly: "If such a tank is put into battle, let alone the enemy's anti-tank weapons hit directly, even if a shell explodes nearby, the flying shrapnel can knock down the warriors on the car."
When he heard that it was a tank without a turret, Sokov immediately remembered the drawings he drew for Peter. Unexpectedly, after the other party produced the self-propelled train according to the drawings, he did not even call him, and directly equipped the troops. However, the war was about to start, and it was not suitable to go to Peter to question the crime for this matter. He said to the microphone: "Col. The tank you mentioned without a turret is the self-propelled artillery I designed. It is specially designed for German infantry or fortifications, but since its protective performance is not as good as that of tanks, it is necessary to put them all behind the team when attacking..."
After Bere and Sokov had been engaged in a period of time, they naturally knew that the other party had many wonderful ideas and even invented several weapons that were very practical on the battlefield. For example, new rockets often made the enemy miserable. Since Sokov had explained how to use self-propelled artillery, he said with the flow: "Okay, I will let these self-propelled artillery follow behind the tank battalion and wait for the right time to let them join the battle."
"Col. Sokov," Golikov couldn't help but ask curiously: "What is a self-propelled artillery?"
"It is to put the cannon on the base of the tank," Sokov explained. "In this way, the cannon can be extremely mobile like a tank."
After hearing Sokov's explanation, Golikov nodded and said, "If our army's artillery is equipped with a large number of such artillery, then we can quickly establish artillery positions at any location and launch artillery bombardment on the enemy."
"You are right, Comrade, Deputy Commander of the Front Army." Ivanov immediately echoed Golikov's statement: "If this self-propelled artillery is really as excellent as the division commander said, then the artillery should be loaded as soon as possible to maximize the power of the artillery."
"Comrade Deputy Division Commander," Sokov smiled faintly when he heard Ivanov's statement, and then said: "Even if the self-propelled artillery performs excellently on the battlefield, the artillery will not be completely replaced with an executive artillery. In the future, the artillery equipment will coexist with traditional artillery and self-propelled artillery."
After saying this, before Ivanov could speak, he turned around and asked Golikov: "Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army, the battle is about to begin. Do you think you are commanding here or setting up a temporary command center at the top of the hill?"
Golikov did not answer Sokov's question positively, but said with a smile: "Col. Sokov, you are the one who plays the protagonist today. You have the final say where to command the troops to fight."
Seeing that Golikov did not want to interfere, Sokov was not pretentious and directly ordered Cydolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, immediately transfer the command center to the top of the hills, where we will command the battle today."
Since becoming Chief of Staff, Sidolin has been staying in the command center in almost every battle. He can only understand what happened outside through the battle reports of his subordinates, and he has been suffocated. At this moment, when he heard Sokov's order, he immediately agreed without hesitation, and then arranged for the communications soldiers to pull telephone lines and set up antennas at the top of the hill.
Since there were originally telephone lines and communication antennas on the top of the mountain, the communications of the temporary command were soon used normally. As Sokov went to the temporary command of the mountain together, except for Golikov, Ivanov and others, even Cidolin did not leave. This time, Cidolin finally gave Cidolin the opportunity to see with his own eyes what the battle was like.
As time pointed to nine o'clock, Sokov nodded at Cidolin, who was holding a message with his headphones and holding a message, and said, "Go to start, Comrade Chief of Staff."
After receiving the order, Cidolin agreed loudly and said loudly to the sender: "General Rozanovic, I am Lieutenant Colonel Cidolin, start shelling!"
Less than a minute after the order was issued, a rumbling sound of cannons sounded from the west bank of the Volga River. The shells flew across the Volga River, flew over the Mamayev hill, and landed accurately at the position provided by the artillery observers. Amid the deafening sound of cannons, the German positions in the distance were shrouded in smoke and fire.
Sokov raised his hand and looked at the watch. When it was almost ten minutes, he called a staff officer and told him: "Start three red flares immediately and let the infantry and tanks attack."
The staff agreed and walked out of the temporary command center with a signal gun, preparing to follow Sokov's orders to fire three red signal flares to allow the offensive troops to enter the battle.
Before the staff member could reach the door, Sokov suddenly heard Golikov sigh and said leisurely: "Oh, I still miss the fact that when the regiment commander and battalion commander were the first to issue an order to attack the troops."
戈利科夫看似牢骚的这番话,却让索科夫不禁一个激灵,他心里暗想:今天的反击,注定是要被载入史册的,发出进攻信号的人,也将青史留名.戈利科夫是这样级别最高的指挥员,如果自己直接让部下发出进攻信号,表面上倒是没有什么问题,但深究起来,似乎有抢功之嫌?
Thinking of this, Sokov decided to hand over the mission of launching the signal flare to Golikov. He quickly shouted to the staff officer who had just walked to the door: "Wait a minute!"
After the staff officer stopped, Sokov quickly walked to him, reached out to him, and said, "Take me your signal gun!"
参谋不知索科夫要信号枪做什么,但还是双手捧着枪,恭恭敬敬地交给了索科夫.索科夫接过信号枪之后,直接把枪递向戈利科夫,陪着笑说:“方面军副司令员同志,我觉得让您来发射信号弹,是最合适的?”
戈利科夫听到索科夫这么说,一丝惊喜从眼眸中一闪而过.不过他并没有伸手去接信号枪,反而客套地说:“索科夫上校,今天是你在指挥战斗,由我来付出进攻信号,恐怕不太合适吧?”
“合适,简直太合适不过了.”西多林和伊万诺夫都是聪明人,听到索科夫和戈利科夫之间的对话,立即猜到索科夫是为了讨好戈利科夫,连声附和道:“我们都觉得,由方面军副司令员同志亲自发射进攻的信号弹,意义更加重大!”
见大家都众口一词,说应该由自己发射信号弹,戈利科夫假意推辞了几下后,接过了索科夫手里的信号枪.他迈步来到了指挥部外,抬手朝口中扣动了扳机.
随着三颗代表进攻的红色信号弹升空,参与进攻的数千名近卫军指战员们,从自己隐蔽的地方站起身,快递地排成了适合进攻的散兵队形,挺直身体,迈着矫健的步伐,朝着被火光和硝烟所笼罩的德军阵地前进.
随着步兵的出击,原本停放在后方的坦克部队,也陆续启动,沿着指定的路线朝前行驶.这些坦克将在超过了步兵以后,再展开战斗队形,向敌人的阵地发起冲击.
虽说索科夫知道德军在遭到炮击时,都会退往第二道防线,以躲避密集的炮击.但是今天的炮击时间太短,而是炮火的密度也没有想象得大,一旦有敌人冒着炮火留在阵地上进行防御,自己的部队就有可能遭受重大损失.
索科夫举起望远镜,神情紧张地望着被硝烟所笼罩的德军阵地,深怕什么地方会突然出现敌人的火力点,给正在接近阵地的部队以重创.但他的担心显然是多余的,被轰击的阵地上很平静,根本没有出现什么火力点.
As the artillery fire extended, the tank troops rushed to the front soon rushed into the enemy's defense line. However, after they jumped over the trenches, they stopped and stopped in place to wait for the infantry behind.
The infantry following behind the tank couldn't help but cheer when they saw that the tank had occupied the first line of defense of the German army. Then, they walked quickly and turned into a trot, hoping to enter the occupied position as soon as possible. One was to completely occupy the enemy's position; the other was to eliminate those anti-tank hands that might have been hidden to ensure the safety of the tank.
Sokov saw that some of the infantry rushing into the enemy's position jumped into the trenches to search for possible residual enemies. The other part climbed onto the tank body and prepared to rush towards the enemy's second line of defense.
"Col. Sokov," Sokov was watching the infantry in the distance boarding the car through the telescope. When he heard Golikov calling himself, he quickly put down the telescope and turned to look at the other party. Seeing Sokov focused on himself, Golikov said with a smile: "It seems that your troops are going well. The soldiers easily occupied the enemy's positions without a single shot. If you maintain this kind of offensive, I think you can meet with friendly troops going south or north at the latest tomorrow."
"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army, please be honest, it may be unrealistic to meet up." Sokov replied bitterly: "At best, you can only carry out a limited counterattack."
"Limited counterattack?" Golikov couldn't help frowning when he heard this, and asked dissatisfiedly: "Col. Sokov, why can he only carry out a limited counterattack?"
"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army, please listen to my explanation." Sokov saw Golikov's dissatisfaction and quickly explained to him: "The enemy's defense line on the Don River and the south side have been broken by our army, and the repelled troops are retreating in the direction of the city. If the enemy on the front of Mamayevgang is defeated by us and rushed to join us, then their troops will become stronger and stronger. With the strength of my division, I am afraid that it can be able to repel the same number of German troops. But if I have to deal with several times, or even dozens of times, I will forgive me, I can't do it."
In order to make Golikov realize the seriousness of the problem, Sokov also added: "Now, in addition to the shrinking regiment that is stuck in the barricade factory, the other three regiments of our division are coming out in full swing and become extremely empty. If we push forward too far, once the German army attacks us from the flank, we can easily cut off our division's retreat. Not only will the troops fall into the siege, but I'm afraid the Mamayev hill may not be able to be saved."
If Sokov had not mentioned Mamayev's Gate, perhaps Golikov would have planned to let him continue to advance and go to the Don River to meet with friendly forces. But after hearing Sokov's words, he thought that there would not be many reinforcements from the left bank of the Volga River at this moment. If the German troops on both sides really cut off the retreat of the 41st Guard Division, not only the troops would be in danger, but the Mamayev's Gate, which had little troops, would soon fall into the hands of the Germans.
After a while, Golikov looked at Sokov and asked, "Col. Sokov, I want to ask you, where are you going to push the new line of defense?"
Sokov pointed to the map on the table and said to Golikov: "I plan to let the troops break through the third line of defense of the German army and then move from attack to defense. After all, we are at a disadvantage in terms of military strength and technical equipment, and there is no need to continue to rush to the enemy's defense depth at the risk of the destruction of the entire army."
Golikov stared at the map for a while and found that after the enemy's third line of defense, there were gullies and canyons everywhere, which was not conducive to the development of armored troops. If he wanted to continue to advance, he could only rely on infantry. Compared with the enemy, his own troops were at an obvious disadvantage. If he forced an attack, there would be a danger of the entire army being destroyed.
Chapter completed!