Hearing Sokov's question, Ataman hesitated for a moment, and then replied: "Comrade Colonel, our troops must wait until dark until they arrive here to take over the defense."
After saying this, Ataman saw Sokov's face full of questions and quickly added: "Don't get me wrong, it's not that we intend to delay time, but because the troops that are going to take over the defense are still fighting with the Germans and will not be able to withdraw from the battle for a while."
Although Sokov stayed in Stalingrad for quite some time, except for the battle in the factory in the Red October, he either led his troops to put out fires or stayed in Mamayev hills. So far, he had no idea about the specific locations of the barricade factory and the Derzhinsky tractor factory.
He held the paper and pen and pushed it to Ataman, and said with a smile: "Captain, can you draw me the locations of the barricade factory and the Derrensky factory, as well as the defense zone of your division?"
Ataman cooperated with Sokov's request. He took the paper and pen and quickly drew a sketch. While drawing, he also introduced Sokov: "The barricade factory is on the west side of Liumeng Street, while the Derzhinsky factory is on the north side..."
After Ataman's explanation and Sokov's comparison with the sketch and map, he finally ordered the three positions to be located, as well as the 95th Infantry Division and the 138th Infantry Division to each of their defense areas. His location was quite close to the Derrensky factory. Unfortunately, the 37th Guards Division was in a tough battle and could not draw any force at all. Seeing the replacement of the defense here, Cuikov had to settle for the second best and sent Lyudnikov's troops.
After figuring out the general situation, Sokov said rationally: "I understand, comrade Captain, before your troops arrive here, we will definitely stick to Six-sided Street well and never let it fall into the hands of the Germans."
"Are you allowed me to leave?" Seeing that his mission had been completed, Ataman said goodbye to Sokov: "I want to go back and report to my superiors, saying that I have established contact with you and bring the troops here to replace the defense after dark."
"Allow, comrade Captain." Sokov nodded and asked with concern: "I guess your way back will not be too safe. Do I need me to send a few soldiers to escort you back?"
"Thank you for your kindness," Ataman said, waving his hand, "I brought two soldiers with me. Even if I encounter sporadic enemies on the way, we are fully capable of dealing with it."
After Ataman left, Sokov immediately picked up the phone and told Agranov: "Captain, the friendly forces that came to take over our defense will arrive after dark. Before that, you must guard the Six-sided Street at all costs, do you understand?"
"Don't worry, comrade Commander." Agranov looked at the German soldiers who were beaten out of the window and fled in panic by artillery, and said confidently: "According to the current situation, let alone persist until dark, we will have no problem even if we persist until dawn tomorrow."
"Comrade Captain," although Sokov had been staying in his command, he could judge based on the sound of gunfire outside that these two attacks to repel the German attacks were masterpieces of the artillery company, and the role of the infantry was limited, so he reminded Agranov: "Although we repelled the enemy's two attacks, they were definitely unwilling to fail. It won't take it easy for you to launch the third and fourth attacks."
Sokov not only reminded Agranov in this way, but also Selyosha. After doing all this, he was about to ask the radio operator to send a call to Sidolin and ask if the people sent by Orel were to Mamayev. However, the radio operator handed him a telegram first: "Comrade Commander, this is the telegram sent by the Chief of Staff just now."
Sokov thought to himself that what would happen if Cidolin called me at this time? With a full of questions, he took the telegram from the radio operator. After only a few glances, his brows frowned tightly. It turned out that Cidolin informed him that the German army was shelling the tank whose crew had all died, as if he wanted to destroy it to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Soviet army.
Seeing the telegram, Sokov's mood immediately became heavy. He held the telegram tightly in his hand, walked back and forth in the room, thinking quickly in his mind about what measures should be taken to prevent the German army from destroying the tank.
However, he racked his brains and thought for a long time, but there was no proper solution. He shook his head, stopped his steps, and said to the radio operator helplessly: "Runner, call the Chief of Staff and ask him to closely monitor the enemy's movements. If there is any new change, report it to me immediately."
Seeing the radio operator ticking the newspaper, Sokov felt a little regretful, thinking that when he came out, he should bring more communication soldiers and lay a telephone line from Liumian Street to Mamayevgang, so that he could remotely control the battle in the direction of Mamayevgang on Liumian Street.
While anxious, Sokov suddenly thought of the phone in the room, and could contact Cui Kov. He did not have the ability to suppress the enemy's long-range artillery fire, but Cui Kov could. Thinking of this, he quickly picked up the phone and connected to the Army Command. When a sound came out of the microphone, he immediately said: "I am Colonel Sokov. Please help me find Commander Cui Kov. I have important things to report to him."
The staff officer who answered the phone heard that it was Sokov, the commander of the 41st Division of the Guards, wanted to find the commander, but did not dare to neglect it. He quickly notified Cuikov. Cuikov picked up the microphone and asked, "Col. Sokov, what's the matter with me?"
"Comrade Commander, this is the situation." Sokov was worried that Cuikov would not be polite to the tiger tank like Krelov, so he said bluntly: "Our troops in Mamayevgang seized a new German tiger tank. Since there was no person who knew how to drive the tank, he could only park it at the foot of Beigang..."
Before Sokov finished speaking, Cuikov interrupted and said, "General Orel has reported to me about this matter, and he has sent people to receive the tank. What, is there any problem?"
"Lieutenant Colonel Sidorin just reported to me that the enemy was shelling the tank, and seemed to want to destroy it so as not to be captured by our army." Sokov asked Cuikov: "Comrade Commander, this is a new tank. If our military personnel get it, it will be very helpful to improve our army's weapons and equipment. I hope you can find a way to stop the German shelling."
"Stop, how can I stop the enemy's shelling?" Cui Kefu said dissatisfiedly: "The enemy's artillery does not obey my command. If I don't let them continue shelling, can they stop?"
"The artillery on the east coast can be suppressed by the enemy, so that they cannot continue to bombard the Tiger tanks, so that the people sent by General Orol have the opportunity to drive the tanks to a safe place to hide."
"But the artillery on the east coast doesn't know where the enemy artillery is." Cui Kefu said hesitantly: "How do they suppress the enemy's artillery fire?"
"There are several artillery observers in Mamayev Hill. I think they can provide firing parameters to the artillery on the east coast to guide artillery fire to suppress the enemy's artillery positions."
If Sokov hadn't reminded me, Cui Kov would have long forgotten that there were special artillery observers on Mamayev's post, who were indicating the shooting direction for the East Coast artillery. Cui Kov nodded and said, "Okay, I'll contact the commander of the group army's artillery immediately and let him deal with this matter."
Just now, we had negotiated with Cuikov to deal with the German artillery, and the radio operator sent another telegram to Sokov: "This is a telegram just sent by the Chief of Staff."
In the new telegram, Sidorin reported to Sokov that the personnel sent by General Orol to receive the tank had arrived. Because the enemy's artillery fire was too strong, two tank soldiers tried to rush into the Tiger tank, but they all fell into the artillery fire.
Seeing this content, Sokov was shocked. He didn't know how many tank soldiers Orel sent over, but if the tank soldiers were forced to rush towards the Tiger tank in the enemy's fierce artillery fire, what was the difference between it and dying. Moreover, the enemy's artillery fire was so fierce that even if one or two tank soldiers luckily entered the tank, how far they could drive the Tiger tank was still an unknown number.
In order to avoid unnecessary sacrifice, he asked the radio operator to send a report to Cydolin: Before the enemy's artillery position was suppressed by our army's artillery fire, it is strictly forbidden to send tank soldiers to rush towards the tanks in the enemy's artillery fire.
Cidolin may be guarding next to the telegraph plane. The telegraph here has just been sent for less than two minutes, and his call came: "The order has been received, the tank soldiers have stopped their risky actions and are waiting for our artillery to suppress the enemy's artillery positions."
Five or six minutes later, a rumbling sound of artillery sounded on the east coast. The group artillery troops carried out fire suppression on the enemy's artillery positions based on data provided by observers on Mamayev's mount. The German artillery fire that was bombarding the tiger tank suddenly stopped. Seeing that the time was ripe, the tank soldiers hidden on the hills rushed to the foot of the mountain without waiting for the alarm to be lifted.
Because there was no enemy artillery fire intercepting, they successfully entered the interior of the Tiger tank. After simple exploration, they mastered the driving of the Tiger tank. However, not long after they drove, they were blocked by the bullet craters in front. In desperation, one of the tank soldiers came out of the tank and ran to the hills for help from the infantry.
The 125th Guard Regiment of Yershakov's Guards was defending the North Gate. He learned that the tank was blocked by a crater, and without saying a word, he sent a company to ask the officers and soldiers to carry tools, but adjust the crater so that the tank could pass smoothly. While the troops set off, he also called to report the matter to Sidolin.
After hearing this, Cidolin asked back: "Lt. Col. Yershakov, how long does it take to fill those craters?"
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Yershakov saw the craters at the foot of the mountain with his own eyes, so he said with some embarrassment: "There are about twenty craters from the location where the Tiger tank is parked to the accessible roads. It will take at least five or six hours to fill all of these craters."
"What, it takes five or six hours?" Sidolin was displeased when he heard that it would take so long. He said to Yershakov in a stern tone: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I can only give you one hour at most, and I must fill all the craters. Do you understand?"
Knowing that this was an unfinished task, Yershakov had no choice but to bite the bullet and replied: "Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff, fill all the craters in one hour so that the tank can pass."
However, the Germans were unwilling to let their Tiger tank fall into the hands of the Soviet army. Since the shelling did not work, they dispatched bombers to try to blow up the Tiger tank that was about to be transferred.
Seeing four bombers appearing in the air, Yershakov guessed the enemy's destination and quickly ordered the soldiers to set fire around the tank, trying to make the enemy plane think that the Tiger tank had been shot and caught fire during shelling.
At the beginning, due to the heavy smoke on the ground, the enemy planes could not see the target clearly. They really thought that the Tiger tank they were ordered to attack had already been shot and caught fire. However, the German observation post on the ground found that the tank was still intact, so they reported the information layer by layer.
The enemy plane received a notice from the command center and learned that the target they were going to attack was still intact. The fire and smoke they saw were just a trick made by the Russians. So the four enemy planes lowered the high ground and dived towards the location of the Tiger tank.
Although it was difficult for German pilots to hit the target accurately due to the smoke, the bombs they dropped still caused great casualties to the officers and fighters who were filling the craters. Seeing this, Yershakov quickly ordered several machine guns on the top of the mountain to shoot in the air. He did not expect to shoot down the enemy planes, but only hoped to drive the enemy planes away so as not to suffer greater losses.
The enemy plane was diving and dropping bombs suddenly saw several machine guns shooting at him on the hillside. Although the chance of his plane being hit by a machine gun was not high, the four planes still raised their heights in turn, hovering in the air, preparing to find a suitable opportunity to dive again and destroy the new Tiger tank so that it would not fall into the hands of the Russians.
When Cidolin learned that the enemy plane was hovering over Beigang, he hurriedly ordered people to move two 12.7mm twin anti-aircraft machine guns hidden in the tunnel to the top of the hillside and shoot at the enemy plane from the side. The enemy planes were hovering at high altitude, carefully avoiding the machine gun fire at the top of Beigang Mountain. Unexpectedly, there would be a sudden explosion of air defense fire in Nangang. One of the planes was hit by bullets, and a stream of black smoke came out under the wings. The pilot was so scared that he did not dare to circle over Mamayev Gang anymore. He hurriedly threw away the bombs carried on the plane, turned half a circle, and flew away to the west.