Chapter 487 The officer who is loyal to his duties
Sokov knew that the squad was ready to set off, but now ordered them not to set off for the time being and stayed to wait for further orders, worried about the battalion commanders' opinions. As soon as he saw Cidolin finishing the phone, he asked with some confidence: "Chief of Staff, the battalion commanders of each battalion have not raised any objections to our order, right?"
"Create objections? What will they have?" Sidolin said when he heard Sokov say this, and a confused expression appeared on his face: "Isn't it natural to obey the orders of his superiors?"
Sidolin's answer made Sokov realize that he was thinking too much. The Soviet army was very strict. Even if the orders issued by superiors were wrong, the subordinates would usually execute them unconditionally. He just ordered them not to set out for the time being, and it was not a matter of changing the orders every day. I guess they would not have any bad ideas because of this.
Sokov grinned, then changed the subject: "The political commissar has been out for a few days, when will he come back?"
In order to boost morale, Belkin and the director of the Political Department, Dmitry, led political workers to go deep into the grassroots troops, talked to the commanders and fighters, and helped them build confidence in victory through various propaganda. If it were only in the Mamayevgang area, Sokov was not worried, but Belkin went to the defense zone of the Third Battalion, where the enemy and us defense lines were intertwined. Usually, the buildings on a street accounted for half of the enemy and us. No matter which side of the troops passed by, they might be attacked.
Seeing that Sokov was so concerned about Belkin's whereabouts, Sidorin quickly replied: "Comrade Brigade Commander, I was on the phone with the Third Battalion today. The battalion commander Andre told me that the political commissar went to the building where Sergeant Vasily was defending, and there would be no danger. Don't worry."
The Pavlov building, which was originally led by Sergeant Pavlov, has now become a Vasily building. Sokov is still unsure whether his subordinates can defend this building. He is not sure whether the appearance of his little butterfly will have any impact on the real history.
So he waited for Cidolin to finish his speech and asked, "How is the situation in that building? Or is it attacked by the enemy every day?"
"It is inevitable to be attacked by the enemy. After all, the building is located at the entrance of Soviet Street. The enemies who want to enter the street are within their firepower coverage." Cidolin replied: "Since the enemy suffered several losses from new rockets, they have adjusted their tactics and no longer used infantry to attack with tanks or assault guns, but bombarded and bombarded the building, trying to enter Soviet Street from the square on January 9 after destroying the building."
"How is the casualties of the defenders in the building?" Sokov couldn't help but worry about the safety of the officers and fighters in the building: "Also, the building has not been blown up, right?"
"The building was blown up in the enemy's shelling and bombing, but fortunately it did not collapse completely." Cidolin said with a smile: "Although Sergeant Vasily was not long after enlisting in the army, he had a very talented command. Whenever the enemy's shelling and bombing began, except for one or two soldiers to monitor the enemy's movements, the rest of the people retreated to the basement or the newly built cover nearby, and waited for the shelling and bombing to end before returning to eliminate the enemies who were trying to attack. In the past half month, they wiped out thousands of enemies, but their casualties were only more than twenty."
The Vasily Building is a place where Sokov wants to defend no matter what. At this moment, he heard that more than 20 people were injured and killed by Vasily, so he quickly asked, "Do you have any additional troops for them?"
"Comrade Brigade Commander, don't worry." Sidolin could not guess what Sokov was thinking, and quickly explained to him: "The Third Battalion Commander has always regarded the defense of the Vasily Building as the top priority. He will add one soldier in the building, so that the number of defenders has never decreased. In addition, he also gives priority to the various weapons and ammunition required in the building. By the way, Comrade Brigade Commander, after this batch of new rockets arrive, how much do you plan to dial Vasily and the others?"
Although Sokov didn't know how many of the upcoming rockets there were at this moment, he replied without hesitation: "Give them twenty first, and after using them, we will give them priority to replenish them."
Sidolin quickly wrote down what Sokov said in his notepad, nodded and said, "I understand. I will give Sergeant Vasily twenty rockets first, and after they use it, they will provide priority supply."
…………
After Vitkov personally transported the rocket across the river with the ship, he left two reliable subordinates to guide the unloading and transportation. He took the quarantine officer from Moscow to the brigade command center in Mamayevgang to meet Sokov.
After returning to the command center, Vitkov and Sokov and Sidolin shook hands one by one, pointed to the officer standing beside him and introduced to the two: "Brigate Commander, Chief of Staff, I'll introduce you to Captain Valman. He brought people to us from Moscow."
Regarding the detailed process of the rocket being detained by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kamisin, Sokov planned to ask Vitkov privately later. Therefore, after greeting Valman, he asked in a casual tone: "Comrade Captain, I want to ask, how many rockets did you send this time?"
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," although Vitkov's rank was higher than Sokov in the command center, Captain Valman knew very well that the highest commander in Mamayev's lieutenant colonel was the one who asked him about it, so he replied respectfully: "The rockets we sent this time are 350, all of which were produced by several arsenals directly under the Weapons and Equipment Department."
After hearing this number, Sokov was so happy that he couldn't stop talking. He smiled at Valman: "Comrade Captain, I also want to ask a question. If there is no secret, I hope to get an accurate answer."
"Lt. Colonel," said Valman with a smile, "if I was right, you would like to ask, what is the monthly output of our arsenal?"
"That's right, right." Seeing that Valman guessed his true thoughts, Sokov nodded quickly and replied: "I do want to understand the production capacity of the arsenal, because the number of rockets we have determines whether we can defend the Mamayev hill, which is crucial to Stalingrad, with the smallest casualties."
"The arsenal is tapping potential internally," perhaps the question Sokov asked, which involved some secrets, so Valman did not give him an accurate answer, but said in a big way: "Since October, thousands of rockets are produced every month, I think there is still no big problem."
"Comrade Deputy Brigade Commander," Sokov asked the questions he was interested in, and looked at Vetkov and asked, "When will the rocket be sent?"
Witkov raised his hand and looked at his watch, and replied, "I think it will take about forty minutes at the fastest time before it will be transported here one after another."
"Chief of Staff, call several battalion commanders immediately and notify the squad to come and take the rockets." Hearing Sokov's order, Sidorin agreed loudly, then picked up the phone, called the battalion commanders of each battalion, and asked them to send the squad to come and take the rockets.
Looking at Sidolin who was on the phone, Witkov asked curiously: "Comrade Brigade Commander, are you planning to let the squads deep behind enemy lines bring a few rockets?"
"Yes, Deputy Brigade Commander." Sokov nodded and said with certainty: "Last time, Goriya Dawei used four rockets to kill one of the enemy's regiments and more than 200 garrison troops. If several small squads that were moving deep behind the enemy brought rockets, they could use rockets to attack the enemy's barracks, warehouses and command centers in a distance, causing huge losses to the enemy and slowing down the speed of the enemy's aggregation."
Vitkov agreed with Sokov: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, you are right. This kind of rocket is easy to carry. If used in large quantities in the rear of the enemy, it will not only cause huge losses to the enemy, but also completely disrupt the German attack steps against the city." Speaking of this, he couldn't help but sigh, "It's a pity that when I was the brigade commander, I only used this new rocket in defense. No matter how powerful it is, the enemies that can be eliminated are very limited."
After Cydollin made the phone call, he personally poured a cup of hot tea for Captain Valman, and then asked curiously: "Comrade Captain, can you tell us how the batch of rockets you escorted were seized by people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs?"
Sokov originally planned to wait for the right time to learn about the detailed process of the rocket being seized from Vetkov, but at this moment Cidolin had asked this question first, so he pricked up his ears and listened to Valman's reply.
Hearing Cidolin's question, Valman couldn't help but smile bitterly, and then said to Cidolin: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, according to the orders of the Ministry of Weapons and Equipment, the batch of rockets I escorted were transported out from Moscow by train, and unloaded the truck across the river in Kamisin, and then transported to the left bank of the Volga River by truck..."
"Comrade Captain," Ciedorin interrupted Valman's words in a hurry when he heard this: "We are all very clear about the transport path of the rocket. You should tell us about the detention."
Valman nodded and continued, "After the rockets were unloaded at the railway station in Kamisin, I was waiting for the transport convoy arranged by my superiors to help us transport the rockets to the river to load the ship. Unexpectedly, several officers suddenly came, one of them was Captain Simonenko of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He gave me an order that the rockets would no longer be transported to Mamayev Hill, but to the First Guards Army."
Although the rocket was finally transported to Mamayev hill as planned after mediation by Khrushchev and others, Cidolin asked nervously: "Comrade Captain, how did you deal with the orders given to you by Captain Simonenko?"
Valman said with a serious expression: "The order given to me by my superior is to send this batch of rockets to Mamayev. At this time, I suddenly received an order from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Before I could execute it, I must ask my superior Major Yakov. Therefore, I found a telephone number in the stationmaster's office that could contact Moscow and reported the situation to Major Yakov. After the major learned about the situation, he said that he would immediately report the matter to the People's Committee Member Comrade Ustinov and ordered me to watch the rockets. Unless it was someone from the 73rd Infantry Brigade to collect it, no one would give it to..."
"Brigit Commander, Chief of Staff," Vitkov interrupted, "When Comrade Khrushchev and I arrived at Kamisin, Lieutenant Colonel Gritzenko, the representative of the First Guards Army, had already arrived at the station with his convoy, trying to transport all the rockets away, but Captain Valmann was stopped."
"Captain Valman," after hearing Vitkov's remarks, Sokov couldn't help but respect the principled captain in front of him. He stood up with the table and straightened his body and said: "On behalf of all the commanders and fighters of the 73rd Infantry Brigade, I would like to express my gratitude to you for all your doing for us." After that, he raised his hand and saluted the other party with a solemn military salute.
Valman did not expect Sokov to suddenly salute him, and quickly stood up, waved his hand to Sokov and said, "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you are so kind. I am just doing my duty."
"Captain Valman is amazing," Witkov praised the other party: "When Comrade Khrushchev and I arrived at Kamisin Station, we heard Captain Simonenko from the Ministry of Internal Affairs threaten him, saying that if he did not agree with Lieutenant Colonel Gritzenko pulling away the rockets, he would be shot on the spot. Faced with the threat from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Comrade Captain still adhered to his principles and refused to make any concessions."
When he learned that Captain Valman in front of him still dared to stick to his principles when facing the threat from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Sokov couldn't help but show a surprised expression on his face. Considering that the other party offended the Ministry of Internal Affairs for his own troops, if he had asked him to return to Moscow like this, he would inevitably be troubled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs staff in the future, so he decided to keep the other party. After Sokov's thought of leaving the other party in his heart, he asked tentatively: "Comrade Captain, I want to keep you in my troops. I don't know what your opinion is?"
Faced with Sokov's sudden request, Valman was stunned at first, but then he understood the other party's intention. He knew very well that he had to offend the staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for his duties. If he returned to Moscow, he would definitely be troubled. I believe that there might be a glimmer of life if he stayed in Stalingrad, where the war was fierce. However, he did not immediately agree to Sokov's request, but said tactfully: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, if I want to stay, I must get permission from my superiors."