After the troops moved into defense, the commanders of each regiment returned to the division headquarters for a meeting.
"Dear leaders, comrades," Sokov saw that all the leaders who attended the meeting were here, and stood up and said, "Why are you all sad?"
"Is this a matter of course, Comrade Commander?" The first speaker was Lieutenant Colonel Papuchinko, the commander of the 122nd Regiment. He said angrily: "Our regiment easily occupied two German lines of defense. When we were about to attack the third line of defense, we suddenly received the order to turn to the defense on the spot. Not only did the commanders and fighters of the regiment understand, but I couldn't understand."
Papchinko's words were like sprinkling a handful of salt in a red iron pot, which exploded immediately. The other regiment commanders also echoed: "Lieutenant Colonel Papchinko is right. We are fully capable of breaking through the third line of defense of the German army. Why should we issue a task of turning on the spot at this time?"
Faced with the doubts of the regiment leaders, Sokov yelled in his heart: "The superior's order is an order. If you understand, you must execute it, and if you don't understand it, you must execute it." However, on the surface, he still said kindly, "Comrade Commander, I want to ask you, if you are asked to continue the attack, where do you plan to push the front line?"
"It's all right. Of course, I'm rushing to the Don River and meeting with friendly forces heading south and north." Lieutenant Colonel Yershakov, the commander of the 125th Regiment, said dissatisfied.
"Ltd Colonel," Sokov turned his attention to Yershakov and asked slowly: "Do you think with our existing forces and technical equipment, we can break through the German defense lines and advance to the bank of the Don River?"
"Even if our troops and technical equipment are not as strong as those of the enemy, our soldiers are much braver than those of the enemy." Yershakov said dissatisfiedly: "Even if we cannot go forward to the Don River, each of our soldiers will fight to the last moment of their lives."
"If our officers and soldiers have all died in the offense, then who will defend the two lines of defense you occupy today, and the Mamayev club?" Sokov suppressed the smile on his face and said with a stern face: "Are you going to give up all these areas to the Germans?"
Hearing Sokov's questioning, Yershakov was speechless. Seeing that the other party stopped talking, Sokov slowed down and said: "Yes, the German soldiers are not as brave as our soldiers, but we have to admit that their technical and tactical skills are very high, especially those veterans who have fought in many European countries. Although our friendly forces launched an attack on the rear of the enemy, causing them to fall into chaos in a short period of time, once the enemy realizes that they are in danger, they will use all their abilities to fight us to the death.
The reason I gave you the order to turn to defense on the spot is because I found that the enemy may have set up traps for us in front. If we do not take precautions in advance, once they launch a counterattack, we will not only not be able to destroy the enemy, but will be able to be eliminated by the enemy."
Although no one refuted Sokov's remarks, the regiment commanders were still very dissatisfied. Why? Just because you judge that the enemy may have set a trap for us and order the troops to stop the attack. This reason is too far-fetched, right?
"Comrades, I'll say a few words." After seeing Sokov's words, Sidorin kept silent and quickly stood up to smooth things over: "You should know that due to the ammunition reserves and artillery range of the left bank artillery units, we can only provide us with forty minutes of artillery support, and it is limited to the first and second lines of defense.
In other words, after we occupy the second line of defense, if we want to continue attacking forward, we will never get the cover of the left bank artillery." Cidolin said with a serious expression: "On the contrary, when we launch an attack, the enemy can use the artillery they deployed behind the third line of defense to block and shoot us, and use artillery fire to kill our attacking troops in large quantities."
Speaking of this, Cidolin deliberately paused for a moment to observe the expressions on the regiment commanders' faces. Seeing everyone's faces showing surprise, he continued: "According to our analysis, the reason why the 124th and 125th regiments could easily break through the German defense line during the second attack was because the enemy transferred the main force to the third line of defense.
Comrades, have you ever thought that if your troops were attacking the third line of defense and were frustrated due to heavy casualties, the German army suddenly launched a counterattack, what kind of force would you use to block them?"
"I'm sorry, comrade in the division commander, I was wrong." After hearing Sidolin's explanation, Lieutenant Colonel Papuchinko immediately realized that he had blamed Sokov for wrong reasons. He stood up and took the initiative to apologize to Sokov: "It was me that I was not considerate. I thought that I finally had a good opportunity to fight back, but I just thought that I should drive the enemy into the Don River in one breath, but I forgot that our strength was much weaker than the enemy."
"Okay, let's not talk about this." Sokov made a gesture to Papuqinko, signaling him to sit down, and said, "Comrade Commander, since the troops have moved into defense, we must urge the soldiers to repair fortifications and strengthen the defense line to fight against possible counterattacks by the German army."
"Comrade Commander, I want to ask." Starcha, who had not spoken, asked: "How long should we stick to it?"
"Don't worry, I won't hold on for a few days." Sokov said lightly: "Because of successfully seizing the German defensive position on the front of Mamayev's hill, the defense depth of our division has been expanded. In this way, the superiors can gather more troops and technical equipment in this area. Once the assembly work is completed, we will launch another attack on the enemy."
"Comrades," Golikov saw that Sokov and Cydolin had said everything they should say and knew that he should have appeared, so he stood up and said, "I will reveal an inside story to you here. In fact, before the start of this large counterattack, the superiors also planned to send reinforcements to the city. But later, considering that the depth of the defense zone of the 62nd Army was too shallow, only a few hundred meters to one thousand meters, and in such a narrow area, the large troops and technical equipment could not be deployed at all.
In today's battle, your division has successfully expanded the defense depth of the Mamayevgang area, giving the superiors the possibility of dispatching troops and technical equipment to the city. I believe that once the assembly of the large force is completed, a new round of counterattack will be launched in the area under your control."
If Sokov said, it would make everyone a little bit doubtful. Then what Golikov said would give everyone a reassurance and make the leaders full of confidence in the future.
Since the leaders of each regiment were going back to deploy things to strengthen defense, the meeting ended in just over a dozen minutes. Sokov left Belkin and asked him: "Comrade Political Commissar, what is the situation in the barricade factory? How big do you think your regiment can control?"
"The situation is not optimistic." Belkin shook his head and said with some difficulty: "Although we seized some positions occupied by the German army in the early morning counterattack, due to insufficient troops, we cannot effectively expand the occupied area. According to my estimate, it may be difficult to expand the results before the arrival of new reinforcements."
"Isn't Colonel Lyudnikov's 138th Division in the barricade factory?" Golikov, who was sitting next to him, couldn't help but interrupt and asked, "Didn't they cooperate when you fight back?"
"After our counterattack began, the artillery regiment of the 138th Division once bombarded the retreating enemy with artillery fire, causing the enemy to fall into chaos, so that we could quickly occupy many enemy positions in the early stage of the counterattack." Speaking of this, Belkin sighed and said in a regretful tone: "It's a pity that their shells were exhausted and they could no longer provide us with artillery fire support, otherwise the results we achieved would be greater."
"I will say hello to Trikov for this matter and ask him to find a way to replenish enough shells for the artillery in the barricade factory." Golikov said: "Captain Belkin, I want to ask you, is there any difficulty if you want to recover the barricade factory from the enemy?"
When Belkin heard Golikov's question, he did not answer immediately, but instead looked at Sokov for help, hoping to get a hint from the other party. Golikov found that Belkin's eyes looked at Sokov, and waved his hand and said, "Captain Belkin, just say anything if you have something to do, don't look at Colonel Sokov."
"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army," Belkin replied respectfully: "The barricade factory, like the Derrensky factory, is equivalent to the size of a city, and our regiment and the Lyudnikov division combined have only more than three thousand people. It is obviously impossible to occupy the entire factory with this little force. Therefore, we hope that our superiors can send us reinforcements and sufficient technical equipment to ensure that they can surpass the enemy in terms of force and equipment."
Just as Golikov and Berkin were discussing the number of replenishing troops and technical equipment, Asia broke in from outside. Although there was a deputy commander of the front army in the division headquarters, in order to ensure his safety, it was not allowed to be released at will, Asia was the wife of the division commander, so how could the soldiers standing guard at the door dared to stop her?
"Asia!" Seeing Asia breaking in from outside the door, Sokov quickly met and asked in a low voice: "Why are you here?"
"Col. Sokov," Golikov couldn't help but lit up when he saw Asia breaking in from outside the door. He stopped talking to Belkin and walked over and asked, "Who is she?"
"Report to Comrade General!" Although Golikov has been here for a long time, Asia, who is staying in the lower-level health team, really doesn't know his identity. When he saw the other party ask, he quickly raised his hand to salute and replied respectfully: "I am Asia, the assistant military doctor of the division health team!"
"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army," Sokov introduced to Golikov with some embarrassment: "She is my wife Asia, please forgive her presumptuousness."
"It's okay, it's okay." Golikov said generously: "I think she is in a hurry to break in. There must be something important. Am I right, Comrade Asia?" His last sentence was directed at Asia.
"Yes, Comrade General." Asia glanced at Sokov quickly, and replied to Golikov, "I have something important to report to the division commander."
"Then you report to the division commander!" Golikov said with a smile.
Seeing that Golikov had handed over the initiative to him, Sokov hurriedly asked Asia: "Asia, what's the matter?"
"That's right. Today, thousands of wounded people were sent from the battlefield, so that our medicines and bandages were almost exhausted." Asia looked at Sokov and said, "If we don't replenish them as soon as possible, the medicines may not last tomorrow morning."
Sokov didn't expect that he would run out of medicines and bandages. After hesitating for a moment, he asked back: "Asia, have you seen it in the warehouse? If I remember correctly, I had a batch of medicines added some time ago."
Asia rolled her eyes at Sokov and said angrily: "Does we usually have no consumption of medicines and bandages? If you hadn't added a batch some time ago, I'm afraid the medicine would have been used up long ago."
"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army," Cidolin interrupted, "I wonder if you can ask the Front Army's logistics department to make an exception to add a batch of medicines to us. You must know that we have too many wounded people in today's battle, so that all the medicines in stock were used up."
"Okay, I will call Commander Yelemenko personally and ask him to arrange for you to supplement medicines." At this point, Golikov turned his head and looked at Asia and asked, "Comrade Asia, what medicines do you all need, give me a list."
"There are a lot of medicines needed," Asia said with a frown: "Anesthetics, sulfonamide, glucose, distilled water..."
"Wait, Comrade Asia." Golikov heard this and quickly raised his hand to interrupt Asia, asking curiously: "Your anesthetics are almost running out?"
"It's not that I'm almost using it, but that I should have it all." Asia said anxiously: "Because there is no anesthetic, many injured can only bite a towel for surgery when they are completely awake. Many injured people fell into coma due to unbearable pain during the operation."
"If there is no anesthetic, you can use something else instead." Golikov said thoughtfully: "I remember during World War I, because the German army lacked enough anesthetics, the military doctors used coffee and intestines to relieve pain for the wounded who performed the surgery. I think you can also try this way to relieve pain for the wounded who performed the surgery before obtaining new anesthetic supplements."
"Coffee filling, can intestines replace anesthetics?" Sokov couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise and asked in surprise: "Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army, what is the principle?"
Chapter completed!