Shulka and his party waited in the private house for two days.
Although the environment in private houses is much better than outside, it is a kind of psychological torture for people, especially in order not to attract the attention of the Germans, they cannot step out of the houses, even if they are bombed by German artillery fire and aircraft...
…These artillery fires and aircraft strafing were not aimed at houses in the village, but at a line of defense built against the Soviet troops outside the village.
That was the first unit of the 316th Division. They were the only fully-equipped unit of Moscow's 16th Army Supplement. Even the Fourth Tank Brigade could not be considered "fully-equipped."
Active in the village is the anti-aircraft artillery battalion of the 4th Tank Brigade. They built air defense positions in this area to protect the Volokolamsk logistics supply line... When the 4th Tank Brigade "moved out" from Tver, Volo
Kolamsk became a supply line.
This arrangement was made so that the tanks and troops hidden in civilian houses would not be exposed. Even the soldiers of the 316th Division on the outer defense line knew nothing about it.
But even so, artillery shells would still hit the village one after another, sometimes setting houses on fire. The soldiers in the artillery battalion hurriedly organized firefighting, but the soldiers hiding inside still did not dare to move and could only watch helplessly.
everything.
Shulka believed that if the fire really spread, it would be difficult for them to hold on. At that time, the soldiers rushing out of the house might be seen by German reconnaissance planes or scouts, and their feet would be exposed.
Fortunately, it had been raining and snowing during this period, and the house was very humid. In addition, the water supply system in the village had been repaired, and the soldiers of the artillery battalion quickly put out the fire.
That was not what the instructor cared about. He sat next to Shulka who was cleaning his gun out of boredom and asked in a low voice: "Is this your idea?"
"What?" Shulka pretended not to know what the instructor meant.
"Don't pretend to be confused, Comrade Shulka!" the instructor said: "That's not the order from our superiors, at least it's not for us to stay here and smell our own urine!"
Everything is good when you stay in a private house. The food is dry food prepared early in the morning. The place you live in is very dry upstairs. Some houses even have a small bed on the roof... I learned this through the phone. For everyone
The units were able to coordinate, and telephone lines were connected between the houses. When the soldiers were bored, they would use the phone to chat with other units.
The only bad thing is that there are no toilets in private houses. In rural huts, toilets are usually built outdoors.
Therefore, the soldiers could only dig a hole in the corner of the house with engineering shovels to solve the problem.
This is not bad, a few soldiers drank some wine and were dizzy and urinated everywhere. The actors and actresses always like to face the tank treads. They think that there are not many such opportunities in normal times.
If Fedosiev finds out, he will give them a scolding.
"Hey!" he said, "don't you know you're going to be following the tracks of a tank?"
"It doesn't matter, Comrade Second Lieutenant!" the actor replied with a smile: "I am not the only one following the track, and I will never stand directly behind it!"
These words immediately attracted a lot of scolding from other soldiers.
If this goes on for a long time, the house will naturally smell so bad that it "smells like your own urine" as the instructor said.
After hesitating for a moment, Shulka replied: "Yes, Comrade Instructor, this is indeed my idea!"
The instructor frowned and said, "Then you have to hope that this idea will work, otherwise they won't give up!"
Shulka nodded silently.
"Do you know what they will do?" The instructor almost gritted his teeth and said to Shulka: "They will put all the responsibility on you, the reasons for the failure, the losses, everything...
Because you disobey orders and don’t listen to their commands!”
Shulka asked rhetorically: "If we obeyed the order, wouldn't they do this?"
Hearing this, the instructor couldn't help but be stunned.
What Shulka said is that as the saying goes, there is no need to accuse others. Even if everything is carried out in accordance with the orders of the Supreme Command... But as long as the battle is defeated, the best excuse is that the soldiers on the front line were not brave enough.
Not determined enough.
Similar things have happened many times.
"So!" Shulka said: "I think our choice is not wrong, and we can only do this!"
Seeing that the instructor didn't speak, Shulka added: "To a certain extent, they even helped us!"
"What's the meaning?"
"You know!" Shulka said: "The Germans have placed many spies in our army. These spies will always pay attention to the movements of their superiors and even obtain information from them..."
The instructor understood after hearing this.
If you have even deceived your superiors, then the Germans will be convinced.
Shulka's guess was correct.
Von Bock had no doubts about the 4th Tank Brigade heading north to Tver, and the information from intelligence personnel played a decisive role in this.
The German Gestapo had a systematic method in this regard, and they were very good at using Soviet prisoners.
Some Soviet prisoners, especially officers, were not originally going to be German intelligence agents, and they did not even think about it.
but……
However, the Gestapo would obtain a little bit of useful information from them during the interrogation. It doesn't need to be much, just a little is enough, such as the firepower deployment of a certain front line, the location of the ammunition depot, etc.
Some of the information was even out of date and completely useless. It was only when the Soviet officers knew that the German troops had occupied these areas that they could safely disclose it.
But...if they think this can fool the Germans, then they are thinking too simply.
The Gestapo would record all of this and use it as evidence, evidence of the surrender of these officers.
Then things become simple.
The Gestapo would take these recordings and say to these Soviet officers: "We will let you go back. You must work for us, that is, collect some intelligence that is useful to us. Otherwise..."
Otherwise, needless to say what follows, the Germans will send the recording directly to the Soviet army, and even play it on the front line, and then these officers will not be able to explain clearly even if they are full of words.
It was through this method that the Gestapo successfully placed many valuable intelligence personnel in the Soviet army.
"They are finished!" Von Bock said happily to his adjutant: "The 4th Tank Brigade is attacking Tver!"
"Are we going to Tver to surround them?" the adjutant asked.
"No!" Von Bock said: "What we want to attack is not Tver, but Volokolamsk. Our armored division cannot confront the Russian tank brigade head-on, otherwise it will suffer heavy losses!"