Of course, the "absolute" that Major Mikhailovich said did not hold true, because ten minutes later Major Mikhailovich went to the Ministry of Internal Affairs... He went to ask for people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, asking for at least the 82nd
While the infantry regiment was "maintaining order" at the port, deserters were handed over to the 82nd Infantry Regiment.
This request was quickly agreed to.
Because this was originally in line with the original intention of the Soviet army to establish "punishment camps", and on the other hand, the battle in Stalingrad also entered an extremely period of shortage of soldiers. Being able to use these deserters can be regarded as solving a problem for the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The 82nd Infantry Regiment stayed in the port for two days.
In two days, more than 200 deserters were taken in... Most of the deserters were soldiers, and a few were workers.
The reason why workers are defined as "deserters" is because some workers are not allowed to leave Stalingrad, such as metallurgical factories and tractor factories.
Major Mikhailovich originally did not want to accept these workers, but the NKVD officer asked: "Why not? Are you worried that they will not be able to fight?"
"Of course!" Major Mikhailovich replied: "They can't even pull the bolt!"
This is an exaggeration. In fact, workers are engaged in military training in their spare time, and there is no way that they can't pull the bolt.
"But what's the difference?" the Ministry of Internal Affairs officer asked, "all you need is a 'punishment camp', right?"
Major Mikhailovich was speechless. Of course he did not dare to answer that there was an arrogant deputy commander in the regiment who thought he could suppress these "deserters" and lead them into normal battles.
So in the end, no one was left behind, 215 people, an enhanced company size, and the company commander was of course Sokolov.
"I have to remind you, Shulka!" Mikhailovich said when he handed the list to Shulka: "We may not have time to train them at all, and you know why!"
Shulka nodded.
Of course he knew the reason. The fighting in Stalingrad was tense, and the 82nd Infantry Regiment only returned to the second line to rest for a few days, and would soon be sent to the battlefield again.
In other words, the "deserter company" will go to the front line with the troops without receiving any training.
"What can we expect from them?" said Major Mikhailovich. "That's a company of deserters!"
"Comrade Mikhailovich!" Shulka replied: "Not long ago, the same was true of the 82nd Infantry Regiment!"
Major Mikhailovich was speechless for a moment.
After a moment of silence, Major Mikhailovich asked: "Comrade Shulka, I just want to know why you believe they won't escape again!"
"Yes, dignity!" Shulka nodded: "This is the only thing I can give them, but I believe this is what they need most!"
Shulka did exactly that.
Sokolov's company was incorporated into Valery's 1st Battalion by Shulka and became the fifth company of the battalion.
During this period Valery also protested against this.
"Comrade Captain!" Valery said: "I thought they should be separated and added to each unit!"
"Tell me your reasons!" Shulka said.
"That way we can make better use of and supervise them!" Valery replied: "If we group them together and give them equipment, they are very likely to..."
Valery stopped talking next.
But Shulka knew what Valery meant, and he was worried that it would be difficult to control it if he didn't break it up.
"Don't worry, Comrade Valery!" Shulka said: "It does not require any control or supervision, you just need to assign them normal combat tasks!"
"But……"
"No buts, Valery! This is an order!" Shulka emphasized his tone: "At the same time, I emphasize again that as the battalion commander, you should assign combat tasks 'normally', just like other troops, do you understand?"
"Yes, Comrade Captain!" Valery stood up helplessly and responded.
One headache is the supply issue.
Supplies are divided into two aspects, one is equipment and the other is food.
The main food problem is that the food for "deserters" is halved according to the normal ration.
According to the above statement, these "deserters" are all going to be sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder, so what difference does it make whether they are full or hungry?
What's more, giving so much food to these traitors is a complete waste. It is right to leave precious food to the heroes fighting on the front line.
Therefore, Sokolov could only be allocated half a piece of bread a day, which could only ensure that they would not starve to death within a few days.
Shulka solved this problem using the principle of equal distribution, asking other soldiers of the 82nd Infantry Regiment to tear off a small piece of bread from their ration to make a bucket, and then sent it to Sokolov's company.
"What is this?" Sokolov looked at the pieces of bread and asked Shulka in confusion.
"I promised you that I would treat you like ordinary soldiers!" Shulka replied: "At least that is the case in my army. In this case, the food you get should be the same as other people!"
"You don't need to do this, Comrade Shulka!" Sokolov replied: "I believe you..."
Shulka laughed: "If you even have less food than others, then what else can you believe in me?"
Sokolov was silent for a moment, then nodded heavily and took the bucket of broken bread.
"I understand, Comrade Shulka!" Sokolov said: "We are an ordinary army, so we deserve this!"
"Yes!" Shulka patted Sokolov on the shoulder.
There is no way to solve the problem of equipment. A normal infantry company should be equipped with machine guns, mortars, submachine guns and other weapons. However, the superiors can only assign one rifle to the "deserters" and only two ammunition.
Clip 10 bullets.
This is partly because the "punishment battalions" are often just cannon fodder. They only need to rush forward with the enemy's artillery fire and bullets to step on mines or use corpses to spread barbed wire, so they don't need too much ammunition.
On the other hand, they are worried that the "deserters" will rebel.
Shurka's approach was to give each of them a base ammunition based on the normal amount of ammunition, plus 4 grenades.
As for heavy equipment such as machine guns...
"You should go to the battlefield and equip yourself!" Shulka said: "Is there any problem in getting it from the enemy or from dead comrades?"
"No, no problem, Comrade Shulka!" Sokolov replied.
He knew that equipment could not be distributed evenly like bread because the military quality of the fifth company could not keep up.
Therefore, this kind of deliberate distribution that harms the combat effectiveness of the entire army is abnormal.