Chapter 644: venture across the river

  Chapter 644 Adventure across the river

  Early the next morning, Sokov began to readjust the defense of Mamayev Gang.

Sokov first regrouped the sailors assigned to each battalion and returned them to the Marine Battalion in Shamrih, allowing them to defend the North Ridge position; and the merged new 1st Battalion and New 2nd Battalion were in charge of the South Ridge position defense. As for Andrei's 3rd Battalion, they still stayed in the city and engaged in street fighting with the enemy, so that the enemy could not attack Mamayev Gang from the flank.

  Regarding these arrangements by Sokov, Belgin also asked curiously: "Comrade commander, are you readjusting the defensive deployment of the downsized regiment, are you planning to concentrate on defending Mamayev Post?"

"That's right." For Belkin, his old partner, Sokov naturally would not hide his true thoughts from him: "Since we no longer need to be responsible for the defense of the Red October factory, we should concentrate all our energy on Mamayev Hill. As long as we hold here, the enemy will not be able to divide our defense line, nor will we be able to cut off our connection with the east bank. As long as soldiers and weapons and ammunition are continuously brought in, the enemy will not be able to seize the city. Attempts cannot succeed."

   "If our regiment doesn't participate in this counterattack, will the deputy division commander have any objections?" Belkin asked tentatively: "After all, all the troops that will go into battle at that time will be his subordinates."

   "Commander Belkin, you don't have to worry about this matter." Sokov comforted the other party and said: "Colonel Ivanov, I will explain to him."

  The two were talking when the phone on the table rang. Sidolin got up, picked up the phone, and said: "I am Sidolin, Chief of Staff, where are you? ... Comrade Commander, hello! ... Do you have any instructions? ... Artillery observer? ... Yes, yes , There are still two artillery observers sent from the east bank, I wonder if you have any tasks for them to complete?...Understood, I will convey your thoughts to Comrade Commander."

   Seeing Sidolin put down the phone, Sokov immediately asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, what did the commander say on the phone? I seem to have heard him mention the artillery observer."

   "The commander said on the phone," Sidolin replied: "The counterattack will officially begin at nine o'clock tomorrow morning!"

"What, nine o'clock tomorrow morning?" Sukov couldn't help being startled when he heard Sidolin's time: "Damn, the superior said that there are three divisions participating in the counterattack this time, but now there are only three divisions in the city. Gurdiyev's 308th Division, my 41st Guards Division and another infantry division have not even seen a shadow, and they will launch a counterattack tomorrow, what should I use to counterattack?"

"Comrade commander, don't worry!" Sidolin naturally understood why Sokov was in a hurry, and quickly explained: "I haven't finished my words yet. The commander said that in order to speed up the entry of troops into the city, he planned to let the troops enter the city." Troops of the 41st Guards Division boarded barges at Red October and proceeded downriver to disembark at North Hills."

"Go down the river?" Sokov thought of the last time he returned to the city, he had planned to take a boat down the river, but the superior reminded himself that there was a section of the river where the water flow was slow and it was blocked by German artillery fire. If one wanted to pass through that area by boat, the entire army might be wiped out by the enemy's artillery fire, so frightened Sokov could only give up this plan. Hearing that Ivanov planned to take this road with his troops, he became impatient. He didn't want to be a bare-bones division commander, so he said loudly: "Don't you know, Comrade Commander, that a section of the river from Red October Town , in an area blocked by German artillery fire? Slow-moving barges passing there could easily be sunk by enemy fire."

After waiting for Sokov to finish speaking, Sidolin said, "Comrade Commander, the commander has taken into account all your concerns. Due to some circumstances, the original plan had to be adjusted, so we had to risk letting the troops Passed through that dangerous river section by boat. He just called to ask us to send artillery observers to monitor the movement of enemy artillery, and once we find the exact position, we will immediately call our artillery to suppress it."

Sokov knew in his heart that even if the artillery observers found the location of the German artillery in the shortest possible time, measured the position in time and reported to the artillery on the east bank, at least they would need to call the artillery to destroy the enemy's artillery. Five or six minutes. Five or six minutes does not seem to be a long time, but the German artillery can fire at least hundreds of shells. Even if it cannot sink even a barge, it can still cause huge casualties to the soldiers on the barge.

  In order to avoid unnecessary casualties, he was going to call Chuikov to ask if he could launch a counterattack according to the original time. However, when he touched the microphone with his hand, he suddenly remembered that Sidolin had mentioned that the reason for the early attack was because the situation had changed, so he asked curiously: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you just said that something happened. , can you tell me what's going on?"

"In order to prevent us and our friendly forces from joining forces in the north of Orlovka, the enemy concentrated a large number of infantry, and under the cover of aircraft, tanks and artillery, launched attacks on the unnamed highlands again and again. The troops standing on the ground, A division is lost almost every day." Sidolin replied with a serious expression: "And our troops approaching Orlovka were stubbornly blocked by the enemy and could not move forward at all. The commander worried that if the unknown If the high ground is lost, the enemy going north will turn around and go south, and our counterattack will become more difficult."

  Sokov did not expect that the situation in the north of Orlovka would become so severe. If the German army really recaptured the unnamed highland, it would mean that the attempt to join forces inside and outside the city would be in vain. At that time, the Germans only need to leave a small number of troops to block Rokossovsky's troops by virtue of the dangerous terrain, and then boldly mobilize troops to deal with the defenders in the south of the city.

   Seeing that he could not change the matter, Sokov secretly sighed in his heart, and then asked, "When will Colonel Ivanov's troops leave?"

"Depart after dark." Sidolin explained to Sokov: "After dark, the enemy's air force will not be able to dispatch, and the chances of their artillery hitting the target will be greatly reduced. At the same time, deploying in the mountains The artillery observers on the post can also judge the position of the enemy's artillery positions preparedly according to the muzzle flames when the German artillery fires, and call our artillery to carry out precise strikes, striving to destroy the enemy's artillery positions in the shortest possible time. "

"When a troop lands in an unfamiliar area, it's better during the day, at least you can see the surrounding environment clearly; but it's not good at night, because the dark lights are easy to cause confusion." Sokov told Sidolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you must Special personnel must be dispatched to respond.”

"Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Sidolin assured Sokov: "I will definitely let the comrades in the 41st Guards Division successfully board the Beigang position." After saying this, he paused for a moment , and then asked, "Comrade Commander, I would like to ask, where will the soldiers of the Guards Division be placed after they land?"

  Sokov had previously calculated that the tunnel fortifications on the north and south hills could accommodate 6,000 people. This time, 8,000 people came at once. If they were all stuffed into the tunnel, it might cause suffocation. So after thinking for a while, he replied: "The space in the tunnel is limited, and I'm afraid it can't accommodate so many troops at one time. According to our combat deployment yesterday, the 122nd and 124th Guards Regiments, as the first echelon, first launched an attack on the enemy. Attack, and the second echelon is composed of the 125th Guards Regiment. In my opinion, let the 125th Regiment live in the tunnel, and the two offensive regiments are deployed on the open ground east of Nangang.”

When the infantry brigade was stationed everywhere on the Mamayev post, it had been stationed in the open space to the east of the southern post for a long time, so Sidolin did not object to Sokov's statement, but nodded and said: " Well, Comrade Commander, I will send the guard battalion to settle them after the soldiers of the Guards Division have landed."

Hearing this, Belkin couldn't help asking: "Comrade commander, if it's cold today, especially at night, if the soldiers are allowed to stay on the open ground, will there be frostbite? Large areas of frostbite, I am afraid that in tomorrow's offensive battle, the combat effectiveness of the troops will be greatly reduced."

Belgin’s words reminded Sokov that when he was doing business in Moscow in his previous life, the market where he was located had implemented the 007 policy, requiring merchants to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 4 weeks a month. Open for business. It was also October, and since there was no heating, it didn’t matter during the day, but at night, those merchants who set up stalls on the roadside had suffered from a lot of frostbite, so much so that the next day a week, there was an ambulance from the hospital to treat those people. Merchants who were frostbitten.

  In order to avoid the recurrence of similar incidents, Sokov thought for a long time, and then asked Sidolin: "Chief of Staff, do we still have tents in our warehouse?"

"Yes," Sidolin nodded and said, "There are tents that can accommodate five or six thousand people, but I am worried that after dawn, the place where the tents are placed will be discovered by enemy reconnaissance planes. Trouble."

"The tents are set up on the east side of Nangang, just to prevent the soldiers of the Guards from getting frostbite at night." Sokov said to Sidolin: "As for tomorrow's daytime, the enemy's attention will be distracted by our counterattack." Attracted, not caring about the tent we set up."

"Then I will immediately arrange the manpower and move out the tents." Sidolin is also a smart man. Although Sukov didn't say it clearly, he also knows what to do: "When it gets dark, let the soldiers of the guard battalion Set up tents in the open space so that the soldiers of the Guards can find a suitable place to spend the cold night."

  After dark, Sokov took Belkin to the observation post on the top of the hill, raised his binoculars and looked towards the upper reaches of the Volga River, trying to see if Ivanov's fleet had set off. Then he couldn't see anything at all because of the darkness and limited visibility.

After an unknown period of time, a red light suddenly appeared from the direction of the German defense zone, and Belkin, who was standing aside, exclaimed: "Comrade commander, the enemy has started shelling!" The artillery observer shouted, "Comrade observer, quickly measure the position of the enemy artillery, and then call the artillery fire on the east bank to suppress."

When Bergin was busy, Sokov didn't even glance in the direction of the enemy's artillery positions. He held up his binoculars and stared intently at the upper reaches of the Volga River, hoping to find the fleet going down the river. Unfortunately, there was still nothing. can not see.

   After a while, Sokov saw a ball of flames, and he quickly saw clearly that it turned out that a barge had been hit by enemy artillery fire, and the supplies piled up on the bow were blazing. Although there were no figures around, Sokov felt as if his heart had been pulled violently. He was worried that some shells would penetrate the deck and cause casualties to the soldiers staying in the cabin.

With the help of the fire, Sokov saw jets of water shooting up into the sky around the barge from time to time, but because the sky was too dark, the accuracy of the German artillery's shooting was greatly reduced. Except for the unlucky barge, they did not shoot again. Hit any target.

  The artillery on the east bank rang out. In addition to cannons and howitzers, the artillery commander even used rocket launchers. Sokov saw one rocket after another flying over his head with long tails of flame, and after drawing beautiful arcs in the air, they plunged into the German artillery positions that were being bombarded. Turned it into a sea of ​​fire. A few minutes later, the German artillery positions hit by Soviet artillery fire were completely dumb.

  Seeing that the enemy's shelling stopped, Sokov breathed out a foul breath, and said with relief: "Thank God, the enemy's artillery fire was suppressed by our army. It seems that Colonel Ivanov can successfully land with his troops."

  Belkin also saw the burning barge and said worriedly: "Comrade commander, look at that barge. The fire has not diminished. Could it be that all the soldiers on board died?"

   "Damn, the enemy's shelling has stopped, why haven't I seen anyone come out to fight the fire!" Sukov also felt the same about Belkin's statement. It stands to reason that the enemy's shelling has stopped, and the soldiers hiding in the cabin should come out to fight the fire, but there is not even a single person on the deck illuminated by the fire. Could it be that all the soldiers on the ship died?

As soon as this idea came up, it was rejected by Sokov. A barge can hold thousands of people, and judging from the damage to the ship, it only suffered two or three shells at best. How could it be possible to kill the people on board? Are they all killed? The exit must have been blocked by fire, preventing the soldiers in the cabin from coming out to fight the fire.

Thinking of this, he said to Belkin: "I think the entrance may also be on fire, preventing the soldiers hiding in the cabin from coming out to fight the fire. It's a pity that we are too far away from here, so even if you want to help them No. Just hope, God willing, that more people from this barge survive."

  (end of this chapter)