Romanov had a good impression of Sokov, so he invited him to ride with him when he went to the Kozelsk area. Perhaps because he often did political propaganda work for commanders and fighters, Romanov was very good at talking.
During the more than an hour-long drive, he was almost the only one talking, and Sokov couldn't even get a word in.
From Romanov's chat, Sokov learned a lot of things that did not involve leaks but could not be understood at his level. For example, Sokov only knew that the left wing of the Western Front was advancing too fast.
After the German army occupied Susinich, their supply lines were cut off and they were surrounded by the German army, but he did not know which army it was.
After Romanov's introduction, he finally figured out that the troops west of Sushinich were the 322nd and 323rd Infantry Divisions of the 10th Army commanded by General Golikov. But as Golikov
After being dismissed, these troops were assigned to the command of Rokossovsky. Now the troops of the 10th Army are newly added to the base camp and are commanded by General Popov.
Hearing this, Sokov couldn't help but smile and said to Romanov: "Comrade political commissar of the battalion, the left wing of the army is the 10th Army commanded by General Popov, and the right wing is the 61st Army commanded by General Popov.
We're between two Popovs, it's so fun!"
"That's right!" Romanov nodded and said: "We are between two Popovs. This is exactly what the old saying says: a good omen."
Sokov was about to ask sideways why being between two Popovs was a good omen, but the car stopped. He quickly looked out the window and found that he had arrived at his destination.
The person in charge of the prisoner of war camp was a major. He had received orders from General Popov and was very enthusiastic about Romanov and his party. After a brief greeting, the screening of prisoners of war began.
There were five small tables outside a large wooden house, and in front of each table, there were lines of hundreds of people. The political workers brought by Romanov were sitting behind these tables, and they asked the prisoners of war expressionlessly.
Name, age, previous unit, and reason for being captured are recorded one by one. Prisoners of war who pass the review will get a small piece of paper with their name on it and go to the wooden house for a physical examination; for those who fail,
As long as the political workers wave their hands to review the prisoner of war, there will be soldiers on duty to take the prisoner of war away from here.
It has to be said that the work efficiency of Romanov's team is still very high. In just one hour, the screening of thousands of prisoners of war in this prisoner of war camp was completed. After selecting the prisoners of war, Romanov arranged for two staff officers to take the
These prisoners of war returned to Sushinich, and he took the rest of the people and continued to the new prisoner of war camp. In this way, before dark, Romanov selected eight from the six prisoner of war camps in the Kozelsk area.
Thousands of qualified soldiers.
Seeing the staff and political workers gathering prisoners of war and preparing to return to Susinich, Sokov finally asked the question he wanted to ask: "Comrade political commissar at the battalion level, I wonder how much our battalion can get from these rescued commanders and fighters.
Replenishment of troops?"
Several prisoners of war who stood relatively close to Sokov couldn't help but get wet when they heard that the other party did not use the humiliating "prisoner of war" to address them, but used the word "commander and combatant."
They secretly thought in their hearts: It would be great if we could follow this captain.
Naturally, Sokov couldn't guess what the prisoners of war were thinking. He was waiting for Romanov's answer. Unexpectedly, Romanov hesitated and replied: "Captain Sokov, I really don't understand this."
Clearly, I am only responsible for screening and selecting prisoners of war. As for the allocation of troops, Chief of Staff Malinen should be responsible."
Romanov's answer made Sokov a little disappointed. He was worried that he would be in vain, so he asked tentatively: "Comrade political commissar at the battalion level, can I recruit a group of commanders and fighters here myself?" He turned away and looked away.
He glanced at the prisoners of war who had been screened out, and continued, "If you agree, I would like to select from those officers and soldiers who have been screened out."
"That's no problem." Regarding Sokov's request, Romanov readily agreed: "I'll talk to the commander in charge of the prisoner of war camp, and there should be no problem."
Romanov invited the captain in charge of the prisoner-of-war camp and told Sokov that he wanted to select another group of prisoners. After hearing this, the captain scratched the back of his head and said to Sokov in a consultative tone: "Captain
Comrade, after the screening just now, there are still 617 prisoners of war left in the prison camp. Otherwise, if you take them all away, I can return to the army early."
Sokov participated in the entire screening process and knew the reason why these more than 600 prisoners of war were screened out. It was because they obeyed the orders of their superiors during the battle and did not resist, so they laid down their weapons and surrendered to the German army. At that time, he saw
Sokov felt quite regretful that so many able-bodied prisoners of war had been screened out. When he heard the captain say this, he couldn't help but feel ecstatic. However, he did not have the right to make his own decisions in this matter.
Therefore, he could only cast a questioning look at Romanov.
"Captain Sokov," Romanov said reasonably: "If you think you can control these prisoners of war, integrate them into your camp." Hearing Romanov's permission, Sokov couldn't help but be overjoyed.
, quickly pulled the captain and walked towards the group of prisoners of war.
The prisoners of war who had been screened out were already in despair, not knowing what kind of fate awaited them next. Seeing that Captain Sokov was willing to take him in, he agreed without hesitation.
Since it was getting late, Sokov stayed in the prisoner of war camp for the night, and had a heart-to-heart talk with the commanders and fighters who were about to become his subordinates to increase their sense of identity with him.
Early the next morning, Sokov pestered the captain in charge of the prisoner of war camp and asked him to provide him with thirty trucks to send these commanders and fighters to the unknown highlands. Fortunately, there were still many in the position at the foot of the mountain.
Sokov placed them all in the vacant shelter and sent people to bring them food and water.
Seeing that the battalion commander had gone out and brought back hundreds of men, the company commanders of each company could not sit still and ran to the battalion command post to find Sokov, hoping to add soldiers to their companies.
Thinking that more than 600 soldiers had been added to the camp, Sokov showed a rare act of magnanimity and announced in public: "From now on, the quota of soldiers for each company will be 200. Later, the company commanders of each company will select people."
When the company commanders heard Sokov's decision, they immediately cheered and shouted in unison: "Ula! Ula!"
After everyone calmed down, Belkin asked curiously: "Comrade Battalion Commander, you have brought back more than 600 people this time. Even if the number of people in each company is increased to 200, there are still many people left. What are you going to do?"
arrange?"
As for how to distribute the issue, Sokov had already thought about it on the way back: "The guard platoon and engineer platoon will be increased to fifty people; in addition, soldiers who have served as health workers and communications troops will be selected to be added to the health team respectively.
And the communications class." At this point, he glanced at Maxim who was sitting in front of the walkie-talkie, raised his voice and said, "The communications class was upgraded to a communications platoon, and Corporal Maxim served as the platoon leader."
"In addition, we also need to select soldiers who have served as artillery and tank soldiers," Sokov continued enthusiastically: "organize artillery platoons and tank platoons..."
"Wait a minute, comrade battalion commander." Belgin felt that Sokov was getting more and more ridiculous, so he quickly interrupted him and reminded him carefully: "We don't have artillery and tanks at all now. We have established artillery platoons and tank platoons.
Is it unnecessary? Besides, with your expansion method, will your superiors agree?"
Regarding Belkin's worries, Sokov said with a smile: "Comrade Deputy Battalion Commander, don't worry. Although we now have artillery and tanks, we will have them sooner or later. Instead of waiting to form the army with these equipment, it is better to put them first
Once the troops are formed and equipped, my troops can immediately go into battle. As for whether the superiors will have any objections to our expansion, you don't have to worry. Once the blame is placed on me, I will bear all the responsibilities.
