Hearing that Sokov was assigning a task to Krelov, Sokov felt that there should be nothing wrong with him here, so he quickly stood attentively and asked, "Comrade Commander, can I leave?"
"Yes." Cui Kefu nodded and said, "Although the attack will take a few days to start, you still need to make all preparations in advance, do you understand?"
"Full understand, Comrade Commander."
"Very good." Trekov nodded with satisfaction to Sokov's answer, and then said, "Now you can return to Mamayev's hill."
According to Sokov's idea, after leaving the Army Command, he immediately returned to Mamayev's hill. Now that he was in chaos, he would have returned to his territory and security point as soon as possible. Halfway through, he found that he could not leave because the German army was launching an attack on the Krutoy Ditch where the 42nd Guards Regiment was located.
Sokov had no choice but to take people to Colonel Yelin's regiment command post for a while. Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the door, he heard someone asking himself: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, why are you here?"
Sokov looked closely and found that the person who was asking was Rodimtev. He quickly stood up and replied: "Report to Comrade General, Commander Cui Kov called me to the headquarters to accept the task."
"What mission?" Rodimtev asked casually.
"Sorry, Comrade General." Logically speaking, Rodimtev is now Sokov's immediate boss, and even if he tells him the task assigned by Cuikov, it doesn't matter. But now it is in Colonel Yelin's command post, where there are many people. What should I do if there is a leak? It is precisely for this reason that Sokov said tactfully: "This involves important military secrets, and I can't tell you."
Fortunately, Rodimtev was also an old soldier and knew the principle of confidentiality, so when he heard Sokov say this, he did not continue to ask. He changed the topic in time and said to Sokov: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, come to me. The Germans are launching an attack on the first battalion's position. Come and see if they can defend the position?"
Sokov came to the lookout, took a telescope handed over by the staff next to him, and looked into the distance, and saw the defensive position of the first battalion shrouded in a smoke of gunpowder. Through the smoke, German tanks and infantry could be vaguely seen rushing towards the position where the position was.
He heard Colonel Ye Lin, who was calling not far away, shouted at the microphone at the top of his lungs: "Captain Fedothiev, I order you to defend the position at all costs. Keep it for me at all costs. Have you heard?"
After Ye Lin put down the phone, he walked to Rodimtev's side and reported to him: "Comrade Commander, I have called Captain Thoyev to order him to firmly defend his position."
Rodimtev put down the telescope in his hand, stared at Ye Lin and asked, "Comrade Colonel, do you think the first battalion can defend the position?"
"Comrade Commander, this is hard to say." Faced with Rodimtev's problem, Ye Lin said with some embarrassment: "If our regiment had just entered the defensive position, the German offensive scale would not be able to break through our regiment's defense at all. But now our troops have suffered heavy losses in battle. Although the newly added militiamen will fire guns, they have no combat experience. I am worried that when someone sees tanks rushing in front of us, they will turn around and escape, which will affect the morale of our regiment."
"Comrade Colonel, you are too pessimistic." After hearing Ye Lin's words, Rodimtev said to him in a stern tone: "Don't see the recruits who just supplemented your regiment, all militias from various factories and mines. I admit that they lack sufficient military training and no combat experience, but they are defending their homes. Seeing these Germans trying to destroy their homes, they will surely burst out with superhuman combat power."
Seeing that Rodimtev was so confident in his subordinates, Colonel Ye Lin couldn't say anything else, so he could only follow his words: "Comrade Commander, maybe you are right. Our soldiers will use their flesh and blood to block the enemy, so that they cannot be unable to occupy the factory behind us."
Sokov didn't speak, but just held the telescope and watched quietly at what was happening in front of him, but he was thinking in his heart: the artillery observers deployed on the Mamayev hills should be able to see the enemies attacking here. Should they guide the artillery on the east coast to block the shooting to relieve the pressure on the defenders?
Just as Sokov was worried about the defenders, the whistling of artillery shells came from the air. Then in the German attacking queue, the soil blown up by the shells soared into the sky. Not only could the German soldiers near the explosion be blown away, but even the tanks that opened the way in front were torn and crushed by the power of the explosion, and then threw them high into the air. Faced with the sudden arrival of Soviet artillery fire, the German officers and soldiers who were charging had to lie on the ground to avoid the killing of artillery fire.
"Col. Yelin," Rodimtev saw his artillery fire and forced the Germans to lie on the ground, and hurriedly urged Yelin: "Call the first battalion immediately and ask them to carry out counter-charges, and they must attack the enemy."
Hearing the order given by Rodimtev, Ye Lin did not dare to neglect, so he quickly picked up the microphone and called Captain Fedoseyev again: "Comrade Captain, have you seen the enemy be suppressed by our army's artillery fire?... Very good. Since you have seen it, you and your subordinates should stop hiding in the trenches and counterattack. Immediately order each company to counterattack and must drive the enemy away from our positions."
A few minutes after the order was issued, Sokov saw an officer wearing a large brimmed hat jumping out of the trench with a submachine gun in his hand, standing above the trench, turning around and shouting a few words at the soldiers, and then rushed forward with the gun. Seeing the officer charging forward, two or three hundred soldiers crawled out of the trench and following the officer charging forward.
"Comrade Commander," Ye Lin, who put down the phone and returned to the lookout, saw clearly the commander who led the charge, and said to Rodimtev proudly: "The commander who took the lead in the attack is Captain Fei Duoshev, the commander of the first battalion."
"Good, really good." Seeing his officers leading the team to charge in the enemy's rain of bullets, Rodimtev couldn't help but sigh: "I believe they will definitely defeat the enemy."
However, Rodimtev's words seemed to be a bit too early. When everyone saw Fedothiev charging forward, they suddenly shook all over and stopped in place. They first knelt on their knees. After maintaining this posture for a few seconds, they fell down crookedly. Seeing the battalion commander fallen, the soldiers who were charging were in chaos. In order to avoid flying bullets and shrapnel, they had to lie on the ground again.
Seeing this situation, Rodimtev couldn't help but be anxious: "Hey, what's going on? Why are they all lying down?"
"Comrade Commander," Ye Lin saw clearly that as Captain Fedoseyev fell, the commanders and soldiers who were charging all lay on the ground. "The first battalion commander Captain Fedoseyev died, and the troops lost their unified command, so they became a little at a loss."
"College, send someone to take over his command immediately." Seeing that his troops had to rush forward to defeat the enemy, but because the battalion commander who led the charge fell, the charge ended, Rodimtev couldn't help but be anxious and urged Ye Lin: "Don't be slow, act quickly."
Sokov didn't care at all about who Ye Lin would ask to take over Captain Fedoseyev's command. He only hoped that Rodimtev would not notice him. If he was asked to lead his troops to charge, he really didn't know what to do?
However, before Colonel Yelin found a suitable candidate, Sokov saw an officer climbing up from the ground and shouting loudly at the soldiers around him. Sokov saw clearly that the officer who had just stood up was Captain Dragan, the company commander of the first battalion and one company. His heart was immediately full of expectations, hoping that Dragan could lead these commanders and fighters lying on the ground again to launch another charge towards the German army.
But Dragan shouted in place for a long time, but there were very few people who got up. Dragan was so angry that he fired two shots at a militia company lying not far away. When he saw Dragan shoot, Sokov trembled in his heart, thinking that why Dragan is so violent that he actually shot at the warriors. If everyone is killed, who will continue to attack?
Fortunately, he quickly saw clearly that Dragan's bullets did not hit the militia, but all hit the soil beside the militia. The frightened soldier suddenly jumped from the ground and rushed forward with a spear with a bayonet. The other soldiers were lying on the ground, and no one noticed that Dragan fired at the militia who did not dare to get up. They only saw one man rushing forward with a gun, so they stood up and rushed forward with shouts.
Seeing his troops rushing up, the artillery observer was worried that the artillery fire would accidentally hurt his people, so he quickly sent a signal to the east coast to stop the artillery fire. Seeing that the Soviet artillery fire had stopped, the German army quickly got up from the ground, turned around and ran backwards.
The counterattack of the first battalion achieved great results, but their casualties were not small. More than a hundred soldiers died in the battle, including the battalion commander Captain Fedoseyev. After listening to the casualties reported by Ye Lin, the muscles on Rodimtev's face twitched violently a few times, and then ordered: "Comrade Colonel, since Captain Fedoseyev, the first battalion commander, died, I think I will let Captain Dragan take over his position."
"I understand." Ye Lin nodded vigorously, then said to the microphone: "Captain Draggan, I have now officially appointed you as the acting battalion commander of the first battalion, do you understand?"
"Comrade Commander." Dragan said with some concern about Ye Lin's appointment: "But the deputy political battalion commander is still there, do you see if it is up to him..."
"Captain," before Draggan finished speaking, Ye Lin interrupted his later words: "Appointing you as the first battalion commander is what the division commander means, so you can do it well. If you can't defend the position, I will still remove your post."
When Draggan learned that it was the division commander Rodimtev who appointed him as the battalion commander, he did not refuse, but straightened his back and replied: "I understand, comrade commander, I firmly obey the orders of my superiors. Please rest assured that as long as there is a soldier in our battalion, there will never be an enemy rushing into our position."
"Lieutenant Colonel Sokov," Seeing that the enemy was defeated, Sokov was about to say goodbye to Rodimtev and return to Mamayev's hill, but was stopped by Rodimtev: "I have something to say to you."
Sokov stopped quickly, looked at Rodimtev, waiting for him to assign tasks to him. Rodimtev said: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, the weapons and ammunition of the 42nd Guards Regiment were provided by your brigade before. After these days of battle, their ammunition was consumed very strongly. Do you see if you can support them again?"
Rodimtev's request put Sokov in a dilemma. Before leaving Mamayev's hill, he also mentioned that the troops' ammunition consumed too much and they might face difficulties in supply. At that time, Sokov considered that the entire brigade was mainly German equipment, so he just asked the troops to collect weapons and ammunition that could still be used immediately after repelling the enemy to supplement the troops' consumption. There were also many Soviet equipment and supporting ammunition in the warehouse, but those were all used by Sokov to use them to arm the troops after the ammunition of German equipment were exhausted. How could they be easily handed over to others?
Seeing Sokov frowning and not speaking for a long time, Rodimtev knew that the other party was in a fierce ideological struggle, so he reminded him: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, if Colonel Yelin's troops could not defend their positions because of lack of ammunition, then your flanks would be directly exposed to the enemy. At that time..."
Although Rodimtev had not finished speaking, Sokov had already understood what he meant. Blackmail, this was simply blackmail. Sokov cursed in his heart. If you want to give it, you really can't say this. After all, others are using open conspiracy, and even if you want to refuse, you can't find a suitable reason.
Thinking of this, Sokov could only sigh and raised his head to Rodimtev and said helplessly: "Comrade General, I can provide two hundred rifles, one heavy machine gun, two light machine guns, and supporting ammunition for the 42nd Guards Regiment. This is my limit. If there are more, I really can't come up with it."
When Sokov spoke, Rodimtev kept observing the expression on his face and confirmed that what he said was the truth, so he did not make any more requests. Instead, he said to Ye Lin: "Comrade Colonel, immediately send a platoon to escort Lieutenant Colonel Sokov back to Mamayev. Tell the officers who led the team that they must want to protect their eyes to ensure the safety of Lieutenant Colonel Sokov. Do you understand?"
"I understand, comrade of the division commander." Ye Lin turned his head and looked at Sokov, and replied loudly: "We will definitely escort Lieutenant Colonel Sokov back to Mamayev's hill safely."
Chapter completed!