Sokov received a call from Lieutenant Colonel Papchinko. After learning that a tank brigade in the Popov rapid cluster had successfully broken through and met with his own troops, he was overjoyed and asked quickly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, how many tanks do they have?"
"Tank?!" Hearing Sokov's question, Papuqinko was stunned at first, and then replied awkwardly: "I'm sorry, comrade of the division commander, they don't have a tank, they should have all blown up during the retreat."
After listening to Pupichinko's analysis, Sokov felt it made sense. If the brigade's tanks were not destroyed, I'm afraid it would be difficult to break through. Thinking of this, he ordered Pupichinko: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, please immediately ask the commander to come to my command center."
The two entered the command center, and Papuchinko introduced to Rukhlei: "Comrade Colonel, let me introduce you to you. This is our division commander, Colonel Sokov. Now he is the commander of the Sokov combat cluster."
Rukhrei looked at Sokov opposite him and couldn't help but be surprised. Although he had heard of Sokov's deeds and knew that he was very young, he didn't expect that he would be so young. But he quickly returned to normal. After raising his hand to salute Sokov, he reported according to the regulations: "Comrade Colonel, I am Colonel Rukhrei, the brigade commander of the 19th Independent Tank Brigade, and led his own troops to break through the enemy's encirclement. He just met with your subordinates in the west of the city."
"Thank you for your hard work, Colonel Rukhle." Sokov raised his hand and returned the favor, pulled the other party down, poured him a cup of hot tea, and asked politely: "I wonder how many troops your troops still have?"
"The mission of our brigade is to cover the retreat of the troops." Rukhlei reported to Sokov: "After all the shells were exhausted, I ordered all the tanks to be burned down and retreated eastward with the remaining soldiers. Halfway through, we encountered a defeated force, and we organized them into my tank brigade. Along the way, in order to break through the enemy's defense, we had several more battles, and now the total brigade has more than 800 troops."
"Comrade Colonel, I would like to ask how many tank soldiers are there among these 800 people?" Sokov just asked this question, and suddenly saw Rukhlei cast a vigilant look at him and quickly explained: "The tank brigade I command now lacks skilled tank soldiers. I plan to incorporate your subordinates to improve the combat effectiveness of the troops. Cultivating a tank soldier is not an easy task. If you use them as ordinary infantry, it is a waste."
Sokov's next few words made Rukhre feel a sense of confidence, because he also thought so. He felt that using tank soldiers as ordinary infantry not only could not compare with ordinary infantry, but also the casualties in each battle would be astonishingly large. Therefore, he replied very simply: "To be honest, I have only more than 70 tank soldiers left under my command. If you can really let them drive the tank again, I think everyone will be very happy."
Seeing that Ruhlei agreed to incorporate his tank soldiers into the tank brigades that lacked skilled tank soldiers, Sokov was overjoyed. Then, he organized the remaining more than 700 infantry into the 122nd Guards Regiment of Lieutenant Colonel Papchinko.
Ruhlie, who became the commander of the bare hands, suddenly asked, "Comrade Colonel, I want to ask, have General Popov and others successfully broken through?"
Hearing Rukhle's question, Sokov sighed softly and said, "They are now stubbornly blocked by the German army more than 60 kilometers away from the city. According to General Popov's telegram, they had launched fifteen attacks, but they were all repelled by the enemy without exception. I have sent my most elite tank brigade and a guard regiment to rush over to support. If everything goes well, they should be able to arrive in Lugansk tomorrow."
"Comrade Colonel, I'll ask another question." Ruhlei continued to ask: "In addition to our brigade, are there any troops belonging to the Popov rapid cluster successfully breaking through?"
"No." Sokov shook his head and said, "You are the first troops to successfully break through."
Witkov, who had never spoken, thought of a key question and asked: "Col. Ruhle, I want to ask, no one else's breakthrough was successful. Why did your Tank Brigade break through so easily?"
Since no one explained Witkov to him, Ruhlei did not know the other party's true identity. He glanced at the other party's military rank and said politely: "In the process of breaking through, our brigade encountered a small team disguised as a German. The commander of the team, Lieutenant Sasha, told me that the enemy was generally entrenched in settlements or villages. If you want to break through successfully, you must bypass these places. It was according to his guidance that I ordered the troops to bypass the settlements and villages, so that I avoided a lot of hard battles and successfully led the troops out of the encirclement."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, have you heard it?" Sokov turned his head to Vetkov and said, "Immediately send a telegram to General Popov, asking them not to entangle with the enemy on the main traffic roads, and to bypass the settlements and villages where the enemy is stationed, and to come through the uninhabited forest."
"I understand, comrade Commander." Vitkov understood Sokov's words, and might really rescue more friendly soldiers from the brink of death. He agreed and ran to the phone to urge the radio operator to send the report.
After Vitkov left, Sokov introduced to Rukhlei: "Comrade Colonel, I just forgot to introduce you to you. The Chief of Staff of the Operations Cluster, Colonel Witkov. He turned out to be the deputy chief of staff of the 62nd Army. Not long ago, he was sent here by his superiors to serve as the chief of staff."
"It turns out that he is also from the 62nd Army." Rukhre looked at Vitkov's back and said with emotion: "The officers and soldiers of the 62nd Army are all good. If they had not stubbornly resisted Paulus' attack, defended the city named after the Supreme Commander himself, and bought time for the assembly of the large army, it would probably not be easy for us to destroy Paulus' Sixth Army."
After sending the phone call, Vetkov walked back to Sokov and reported to him: "Comrade Commander, I have conveyed your meaning to General Popov truthfully. If he can really follow your persuasion, he might be able to break through with more troops."
"What's the situation with Colonel Bere?" Sokov no longer had much hope for Popov to break through the German army. He could only put the last hope of the two sides meeting on Berere's tank brigade: "Have they broken through the German army's defense?"
"The battle continues." Witkov replied awkwardly: "Col. Bere just sent a telegram saying that they will break through the enemy's defense soon."
"Comrade Colonel, I want to ask." After Luhelie and the other two said, he asked tentatively: "If both sides meet, are you going to let the troops stand there or let them all retreat into the city?"