Two days later, Ozor took the initiative to look for Sokov and told him with an excited look: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, the fortifications of the tunnels on the north and south slopes have been roughly completed. I am here to invite you to inspect."
"Basically completed?" Sokov asked curiously when he heard the word Ozor used: "What does it mean?"
"I didn't explain it clearly," Ozor explained: "The main project of the tunnel has been completed, and the rest is to use reinforced concrete to reinforce the key parts."
"Comrade Political Commissar," Sokov has been to the tunnel fortifications only a handful of times since the start of construction. When he heard that the construction was basically completed, he smiled and said to Belkin: "Let's go and take a look at the tunnel fortifications together."
Under Ozor's leadership, the two arrived at the foot of the hillside on the south slope. There was a man-high cave entrance, which seemed to lead to the fortifications of the tunnel. Ozor stopped at the entrance and said to Sokov and Belkin: "Lieutenant Colonel, Comrade of the Political Commissar, there are twelve exits on the south slope, which is one of them."
Sokov and Belkin followed Ozor and found a corridor that was slanted upwards inside. The corridor was about one meter wide and two meters high inside. Even if tall soldiers walked inside, they didn't have to bend down. Every ten meters on the earth wall, there was a gas lamp for lighting.
Ozor, who led the way in front, walked and turned back to Sokov and Belkin behind him, explaining: "Lieutenant Colonel, political commissar, this is a spare corridor. After the battle begins, we will close it so that the enemy will not be discovered. If we want to attack, we can also open the exit in the shortest time."
The three of them walked forward for more than a hundred meters and felt that the corridor suddenly became wider. There were adjacent rooms on both sides of the corridor. Seeing this, Belkin asked curiously: "Major Ozor, what are these rooms used for?"
"Comrade Political Commissar," Ozor stopped and shook the black room with the flashlight in his hand: "These rooms are used to stockpile ammunition and food. After all, the time the troops have to take in the tunnel is not a day or two."
"It's not enough to just store ammunition and food," Sokov counted the rooms secretly. There were about twenty. If the ammunition and food required by the troops were piled up, it could last for about half a month. But as soon as he saw the tunnel, he thought of Shangganling. He didn't want the troops to have water shortage near the Volga River, so he continued to ask: "I want to ask, where do we store the water we usually use?"
"Don't worry, comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I've already thought about it." Ozor took Sokov and Belkin to another place that could accommodate hundreds of people, and said to the two: "Did you see the row of metal buckets with lids against the wall? One bucket contains five hundred kilograms of drinking water, and twelve buckets are six tons of water." He stomped a square cement board on the ground with his feet, and a hollow sound came from under the cement board, "There is groundwater under this cement board. Once there is a shortage of water, you can open the cement board to get water."
Hearing that ammunition, food and water were stored, Sokov looked up at the top of his head and asked with some concern: "Major Ozor, can the soil above withstand the bombardment of German heavy artillery?"
"Don't worry, comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Hearing Sokov's question, Ozor grinned and said, "The soil above is more than fifteen meters, and we have to use reinforced concrete to reinforce it. No matter how dense the German heavy artillery is, we don't want to blow up the fortifications."
When Belkin heard Ozor say this, he squinted his eyes and said, "It's great, it's great. As long as we hide in fortifications, no matter how strong the German artillery fire is, we can minimize the casualties of the commanders and fighters."
"The tunnel cannot be used for simple defense, we must use it as a stronghold for attack." Sokov said to Ozor: "Comrade Major, please take us to see other exits."
The three of them spent more than an hour walking the fortifications on the south slope. When they came from the tunnel to the trenches, Ozor asked nervously: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, how about it? Are you still satisfied with this fortification?"
Sokov thought for a while, and then said, "These entrances and exits set up in the trenches are too narrow, which is not conducive to the troops' attacks. Think about it, when the enemy's shelling is over and their infantry strikes the hillside, and our soldiers are still crowded in the tunnel and unable to come out in time because the exit is too narrow. Is it a bad thing?"
"I understand, comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Ozor nodded in response to Sokov's opinion: "I will have someone expand the exit of the tunnel later."
While Sokov was talking to Ozor, an armored train drove past the railway several hundred meters away and headed towards the factory area. Seeing the only three 76.2mm caliber artillery on the armored train, Sokov muttered in his heart. He didn't think that the existing equipment of the armored train could block the German tanks. If he wanted to deal with the German tanks, he had to find a way by himself.
After the train left, Sokov turned around and asked Ozor: "Major Ozor, if the German army targeted the Mamayevgang, they would definitely use tanks to cover the infantry's charge. Although the enemy's tanks cannot be driven up with the slopes of the north and south slopes, if they were allowed to stop at the foot of the hillside and provide fire support to the infantry with tank guns and machine guns, it would be a headache for us."
Ozor guessed what Sokov wanted to express, so he asked tentatively: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, are you planning to build an anti-tank trench near the railway?"
"That's right," Sokov nodded and said, "I'm planning to dig an anti-tank trench in front of the minefield and barbed wire so that the enemy's tanks cannot drive over."
"This is easy to deal with." Ozor said carelessly about Sokov's idea: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you only need to give me two thousand people, at most two days, and I can build a circular anti-tank trench in front of Mamayev's post."
"Wait a minute, Major Ozor." Seeing that Ozor promised so readily, Sokov decided to move the later "Goran trench" to the Stalingrad defense battle in advance. He said to Ozor tentatively: "The anti-tank trench I want to build is 6 meters wide, the bottom is 4 meters wide, and the depth is 9 meters. Generally, the anti-tank trench is built, and the dirt excavated should be piled on both sides, but the soil excavated from this anti-tank trench should be piled on one side close to our position, and a soft soil embankment of more than two meters high..."
"Lt. Colonel Sokov, don't say anything more." Before Sokov finished speaking, Ozor interrupted his words: "Do you know how large our engineering is fortification that is digging such a fortification?"
Sokov just thought about how to copy the "Golan Trench", but he had never considered how much engineering it would be to dig such an anti-tank trench. Therefore, after hearing Ozor's question, he was stunned at first, then shook his head and asked, "How big is it?"
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I will calculate it for you now. The anti-tank trench you mentioned is trapezoidal. Calculate according to the trapezoidal formula: trapezoidal area = (upper bottom + lower bottom) × height ÷ 2. That is to say, (4+6) × 9÷ 2=45, and the length of the anti-tank trench is about 3,800 meters, and the total excavated earth should be 171,000 cubic meters. Even if two thousand soldiers participate in the construction, the earth to be excavated will be 85.5 cubic meters."
After listening to Ozor's calculations, Sokov was shocked: "Ah, everyone has to dig so much earthwork? So, we are not able to complete such anti-tank trenches now?"
"Yes, comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you are right at all." Ozor nodded and said affirmatively: "You require the depth of the anti-tank trench to be nine meters. Without the help of excavators and heavy lifting machinery, the soldiers will dig with shovels and picks, and they will not be able to complete the work even in two months."
"Since the project volume is so large," Sokov felt that he was a little too presumptuous and could only say helplessly: "Then let it go."
Although he heard Sokov say that he would no longer build anti-tank trenches, some of the things he just said aroused Ozor's curiosity: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, can I ask, why should all the soil dug out of such anti-tank trenches be hidden near our position?"
Although it is impossible to build the "Goran trench" in front of the Mamayev post, Sokov did not give up. He thought that he would tell Ozor the characteristics of this anti-tank trench, and that it might be used in the future: "When the German army saw that there were anti-tank trenches ahead blocking the road, even if the bulldozer was used, since all the accumulated soil was piled on our side, the bulldozer would have no soil to fill.
If they build a bridge on the anti-tank trench, they will have more than two meters higher than the other end of the trench. The bridge is built at one end and the other is low, and the high end is placed on the soft earth embankment, causing the cross-bridge tanks to sway left and right, and they will roll into the trench at any time.
Even if the tanks can come by luck, they will be a tragic fate. Because when crossing the earth dike, the car body is raised and the weak bottom of the armor is exposed; when crossing the earth dike, the fragile top is exposed, which is equivalent to giving our army two excellent opportunity to aim and shoot. Even anti-tank rifles with poor penetration can be killed."
After hearing Sokov's words, Ozor widened his eyes in surprise and looked at Sokov with admiration, "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you are so amazing. I have never heard of the anti-tank trench you mentioned before. If it weren't for the time being and the construction machinery that there were no supporting construction machines, I would have wanted to personally lead people to build the anti-tank trench you mentioned."
"Comrade Brigade Commander," Belkin, who was standing by, said disapprovingly after hearing Sokov's words: "Your anti-tank trench can certainly block the enemy's tanks, but it will also limit the range of movement of our tanks."
"Comrade Political Commissar, it's not what you think." Before Sokov could speak, Ozor had already defended him first: "Don't the soil dug out of the anti-tank trench is piled on one side of our army? We can use bulldozers to push the soil into the anti-tank trench, or clear one or two gaps from the earth wall, and then set up a rut bridge to allow our tanks to pass smoothly."
After hearing Ozor's explanation, Belkin was stunned at first, then looked at Sokov with a smile and said, "Comrade Brigade Commander, you are really not simple. You can actually come up with such a clever anti-tank trench. Unfortunately, we don't have enough time and no necessary engineering machinery. Otherwise, we could really consider digging such an anti-tank trench to prevent the German tanks from approaching Mamayev."
"Since we cannot dig anti-tank trenches, then forget it." Although the inability to build this famous "Golan trenches" made Sokov feel very sorry, there was nothing he could do. He could only use other methods to deal with the German tanks: "Comrade Major, when laying out minefields, you should lay more anti-tank mines on the inside of the railway, near the Mamayev Gate, so that some German tanks can be eliminated."
"Ltd. Colonel, you should have said this earlier." Ozor's face showed a embarrassed expression when he heard Sokov say this: "When I went to the warehouse to collect mines and explosives two days ago, I heard from the quarantine that all the anti-tankres were handed over to the defense forces outside the city..."
Sokov could not dig the anti-tank trench, and he could still think of it; but now, he didn't even have the anti-tank mines he urgently needed. How could he deal with the German tanks in the next battle? Thinking of this, Sokov's brow couldn't help but twist into a knot.
"Oh, anti-tank trenches cannot be dug, and there are no anti-tank mines." Berkin sighed, "After the battle starts, we can only watch the enemy's tanks rush to the feet of Mamayevgang, and use tank guns and machine guns to cover the infantry's charge."
Seeing Sokov remained silent, Ozor asked carefully: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, do you have any other way to deal with the German tanks?"
"Train!" Sokov could not help blurting out when he heard Ozor ask himself: "Even if there are no anti-tank mines and no anti-tank trenches, we can still dig traps to deal with enemy tanks."
"Dig a trap?" Ozor couldn't help but feel a little lost when he heard Sokov say this, and then asked curiously: "How to dig?"
"Comrade Major, we can dig some rectangular pits two or three meters deep on the inside of the railway, cover them with wooden boards, and then sprinkle them with soil." Sokov introduced his new trap to Ozor: "There is no problem for the German infantry to step on them. But when their tanks are crushed, the boards will break because they cannot withstand the weight of the tank, so that the enemy tanks can overturn or fall directly into the pit."
"Yes, this is a good idea." After hearing Sokov's words, Ozor immediately applauded: "Digging a few such traps in front of the minefield will definitely not attract the attention of the enemy. Once the tank is crushed, the heavy body will collapse the wooden boards covered in the deep pit, causing the tank to fall into the pit. This is really a good idea. I will arrange for people to dig the pit immediately."