"Major General Sokov," Zhukov asked in a stern tone: "Tell me honestly, has your position been broken by the German army?"
Sokov heard Zhukov not call his nickname, but called his surname and military rank in a stern tone. He immediately realized that the matter of giving up the position without authorization was in trouble, and he couldn't help but answered guiltily: "Comrade Marshal, my troops are still holding onto the position..."
"I'll ask you again." Zhukov asked again without waiting for Sokov to finish speaking, "Has your position been broken through by the Germans?"
"No, comrade Marshal." Sokov heard that Zhukov was angry. If he reported truthfully at this moment, he might add fuel to the fire, so he decided to play a word game and sniff the words: "My troops are still sticking to the position allocated to us, and no inch of land is thrown to the Germans."
When Zhukov learned that the German army had not broken through Sokov's defense line, his anger weakened a little. He slowed down and asked in confusion: "Since the Germans did not break through your position, why could they appear outside Prokholovka in extreme times? What's going on?"
"Comrade Marshal," Sokov considered that Zhukov might not understand the situation here, so he explained to him: "Yesterday the enemy broke through the friendly defense line of our right wing and occupied their positions. In order to prevent the enemy from forming an encirclement on our troops, I organized the troops to launch a counterattack and restored the lost positions. However, due to the heavy losses in the battle, I was unable to defend the too wide front, so I curled the troops to the main positions last night and prepared to continue to stalemate with the enemy."
"Major General Sokov, as far as I know, have you transferred all the troops in the direction of Oboyang?" Zhukov waited for Sokov to finish speaking, his tone became stern again: "Doesn't there be enough troops to defend the right wing position and let the enemy pass by you in a swagger to attack Prokholovka City?"
"Comrade Marshal, I only add three brigades to the main defensive position. The rest of the troops are placed on the banks of the Pushore River as reserves, and at the same time prevent the enemy from launching forced transit operations." Sokov knew that his answer was difficult to satisfy Zhukov, and he added specifically: "Although I do not have too much force to defend the secondary position, I sent ten anti-tank squads equipped with firepower groups to attack the enemy in this area."
"Anti-tank squad equipped with firepower teams?" Sokov's words aroused Zhukov's interest: "Then can you tell me how many people are in your squad?"
"Ten people, comrade Marshal." Sokov replied: "A small team is ten people, and ten teams are one hundred people. The task I assigned them is to use the tactics of fighting guerrillas, attacking enemy tanks, armored vehicles, and trucks transporting troops or fuel and ammunition."
"Ten small teams, one hundred people." Zhukov repeated the data that Sokov said and said disapprovingly: "What threat can this little person pose to the Germans?"
"Comrade Marshal, although I sent only one hundred teams, the role they played would never be worse than that of a regiment fighting position." In order to further convince Zhukov, he also specifically mentioned a war example that took place during the Stalingrad defense war: "During the Stalingrad defense war, on a hill south of Kretskaya, four soldiers of the 84th Regiment of the 33rd Division of the Guards destroyed 15 enemy tanks with the four anti-tank rifles they carried. I believe that the ten anti-tank teams I sent will achieve more brilliant results than them."
Zhukov saw the battle example mentioned by Sokov in the battle report reported by the 62nd Army. At that time, he felt that four anti-tank soldiers destroyed 15 German tanks, but no casualties were found. The result was too incredible. However, after subsequent verification, it was found that this classic battle example was real.
Now that Sokov said that the ten anti-tank squads he sent could achieve greater results, Zhukov only thought for a moment and then agreed with the other party's statement. You should know that the bazooka equipped by Sokov's troops was much more effective against the tanks used by the Germans than the anti-tank guns.
"Then let your anti-tank squad take action quickly." Zhukov said to the microphone: "Now the enemy has arrived at the city of Prokholovka and is fighting fiercely with our army. If your anti-tank squad can work as soon as possible, it can also reduce the pressure on the defending troops."
The ten anti-tank squads sent by Sokov were scattered on the vast battlefield with a width of 15 kilometers and a depth of 30 kilometers, and were immediately lost like a drop of water falling into the sea. They cleverly used terrain such as gullies, craters, trenches and woods to attack German tanks and armored vehicles that appeared in front of them with rockets.
The battalion commander of the first battalion of the 84th Marine Brigade was the Navy Major Shamrich. After receiving the order from the brigade commander to send an anti-tank squad to harass the enemy, he immediately called the platoon leader Sergeant Hollor and told him: "Comrade Sergeant, according to the orders of the superiors, our battalion will send an anti-tank squad, but will harass the enemy's transportation line. After discussing with the deputy battalion commander, I decided to hand over this honorable mission to your platoon to complete. You immediately select nine soldiers, carry a rocket and as much ammunition as possible to carry out the mission. Remember, the commander asked you to fight guerrillas, not position warfare, so don't stay in one place all the time, and shoot one shot and change another place. Do you understand?"
Sergeant Hollor was a veteran who participated in the Stalingrad defense battle and an old subordinate of Sokov. He was naturally clear about this guerrilla tactic. He heard Shamrich's question and quickly replied loudly: "I understand, Comrade Battalion Commander, when we attack the enemy, we will definitely change positions at any time so that the enemy will not find our traces."
After selecting the members of the team, Hollor set out quietly before dawn. He did not control the activity area close to the position like the other teams, but headed towards the Pushore River.
When it was almost dawn, Hollor had already taken his squad for seven or eight kilometers. The anti-tank hand carrying the bazooka could not bear it and complained: "Comrade Sergeant, the position of our ambushing the enemy is too far from our army's position."
As soon as he finished speaking, the ammunition hand carrying a few rockets echoed: "That's right, Comrade Sergeant, we were so tired after a day of forced marching that we could set up an ambush near the position. Why did we have to go so far?"
Seeing his soldiers complaining, Hollor stopped and said to them: "Comrades, I know everyone is tired, but there is a reason why I don't choose to set up an ambush near our position."
"There is a reason?" the anti-tank hand asked in confusion: "What's the reason?"
"That's right, setting up an ambush in an area close to the position is not only not necessary to go far, but also quickly withdraw our position when it is found that the situation is critical." After talking about the advantages of setting up an ambush near the position, Hollor continued to say: "Did you think at that time that it is because of the close to our position that the enemy will definitely not choose to pass there in order not to conflict with us. Even if there is an enemy who wants to pass here, he will definitely maintain a high level of vigilance, which will bring some difficulty to our ambush. On the contrary, if we choose the ambush location far away from our position, the enemy will relax their vigilance when passing through these areas, so that we can easily destroy them."
After hearing what Sergeant Hollor said, although the soldiers were still half-believing and half-doubted, they who were used to obeying their superiors stopped talking, but followed Hollor and continued to walk forward.
After walking a kilometre or two, a rumbling sound of cannons came from a distance. Sergeant Hollor looked in the direction where the cannon sound came. Knowing that the German army was about to start the attack, he decided to find a suitable place to hide nearby. He looked around and found a simple road passing by a forest, and there was a long gully outside the forest. Seeing such a terrain, Sergeant Hollor couldn't help but be overjoyed and hurried over with his people to conduct a careful investigation.
After getting closer, Hollor found that the gully was about fifty meters away from the highway, and one end extended into the woods. After seeing the terrain clearly, Hollor nodded secretly. He thought to himself: This gully is only fifty meters away from the highway, and anti-tank hands hide in the ditch, which can easily destroy German tanks on the road. Moreover, this gully is connected to the woods. Once the battle is not going well, he can also lead people to retreat into the woods along the gully.
Thinking of this, he immediately ordered everyone: "Comrades, let's choose the ambush place here. I think everyone must be very tired after such a long march. Let's take the time to rest while the enemy hasn't come yet."
Everyone was hidden in the gully, some began to close their eyes and rest, while others began to eat and drink water. The anti-tank hand sitting next to Hollor quietly listened to the rumbling cannons in the distance, and whispered to Hollor: "Comrade Sergeant, tell me, how long will the enemy be here?"
"I just looked at it. It is about eight to ten kilometers away from the shelled position." Hollor replied: "Even if the enemy immediately launches attack on the position after the shelling stops, it will take two or three hours to get to our place."
However, Hollor was just an ordinary sergeant, and he was not qualified to know many things. For example, Sokov ordered the abandonment of the secondary positions and concentrated all his troops on the main positions, so he had no idea. According to his idea, after the shelling of the German army, it would take at least an hour to break through the position, and then arrive here, at least two or three hours passed.
But what he didn't expect was that the Flag Guard Division, which was carrying out the attack, attacked a position that no one could defend. Since it was not resisted, the tanks naturally advanced towards the Soviet army's defense depth after breaking through the position.
When Hollor saw a large number of German tanks appearing, he was stunned. He did not expect that it only took forty minutes to pass from the arrival of the ambush positions by himself to the appearance of the German armored troops.
Seeing Hollor's stunned look, the anti-tank hand beside him was still scared. He asked in a panic: "Comrade Sergeant, the German tanks are coming, will we take action?"
"When it comes, what are you doing?" Hollor glared at the anti-tank hand and said sternly: "You haven't seen twenty or thirty tanks coming here. Do you think that the rocket launcher you carry can destroy so many tanks?"
"What should we do?" asked the anti-tank hand.
"The enemy is powerful, we cannot fight head-on." Hollor quickly ordered the members of the team: "Everyone listens to my orders and immediately moves along the gullies into the woods, so as not to be discovered by the enemies coming."
What happened next proved that Hollor made the decision was completely correct. As soon as they retreated to the woods, they saw two tricycles coming over and stopping by the gully. Two German soldiers who came down from the sidewalk looked into the ditch for a while, then shot two shuttles and threw a grenade. After confirming that there was no hidden Soviet army here, they took the motorcycle back and continued to advance eastward along the tank road.
The soldiers hiding in the woods looked at the German armored troops passing by, and were all silent. They thought to themselves: If Hollor had not ordered everyone to hide in the woods, but to continue to hide in the gully, they might have been discovered by the Germans at this time and started a firefight.
The members of the team were very eye-catching, and no one was so arrogant that they thought they could escape from twenty or thirty German tanks, as well as several armored vehicles and tricycles. If they really fought, even if the rocket launcher equipped by the team could destroy one or two German tanks, the destruction of the entire army would be inevitable.
After this German group, before Hollor and others came out of the woods, they saw new German troops appear. The troops advancing along the highway this time, not only tanks, armored vehicles and motorcycles, but also hiking infantry, and artillery troops that had been pulled by trucks.
Seeing this, Hollor couldn't help but take a breath. If the enemies passing by today were of this scale, they would have no chance at all. As soon as they opened fire, the enemy would easily destroy them all by relying on the advantages of firepower and number of people.
When the anti-tank hand saw this, he felt panicked. He leaned close to Hollor's ear and whispered: "Comrade Sergeant, the situation is not very good. Look, should we withdraw?"
"No, you can't retreat." Hollor, who was struggling to ride a tiger, knew very well that retreating at this time would easily expose his target, and he would not be able to escape the fate of being destroyed by the enemy at that time. Therefore, the only option is to continue to hide, and wait until the enemy's large troops have passed, and then find an opportunity to attack the lonely small troops behind him: "Tell everyone, wait patiently, the enemy's troops cannot be infinite. After these large units pass, there may be lonely small troops passing by, and they can be used as our ambush targets at that time."
In the next hour, there were still many German troops passing through the small team. Through their costumes, the soldiers recognized that the first one was the Flag Guard Division, and the Skeleton Division was followed closely by the Skeleton Division.