"I am Lieutenant Sergeyev, commander of the cannon company!" The tall and thin man on the left saluted Sokov first.
As soon as he finished speaking, the slightly shorter lieutenant next to him also saluted Sokov and said clearly: "I am Lieutenant Ajik, commander of the anti-tank gun company."
After Sokov's eyes swept across their faces again, he asked, "Are you all ready?"
"Yes, Comrade Major, we are ready for all battles." Sergeyev immediately replied loudly: "We can enter the battle at any time."
But Ajik said nothing, just nodded vigorously, indicating that he was ready.
"We can't go into battle yet, because the commanders and fighters in the battalion are on their way to Sushinich." Sokov smiled at the two of them and asked: "Which one of you has a map? We can take advantage of this opportunity. Study the terrain of the combat area."
"I have a map." Ajik agreed quickly, opened the map bag, took out a map from it, and spread it out on the table next to him.
Sokov took out a pencil from his satchel, marked the four villages that were about to be captured on the map, and said to the two of them: "Comrades, company commanders, the four villages that our superiors ordered us to capture are in the shape of a diamond on the map. Distribution. Since the names of the villages are long and difficult to pronounce, in order to facilitate memory, I use numbers to distinguish them and serve as our attack sequence."
Ajik stared at the map for a while, then raised his head and looked at Sokov, and asked tentatively: "Comrade Major, I would like to ask how many troops the enemy has in these villages?"
When accepting the mission, although the division chief of staff did not specify how many enemies were in these villages, Sokov estimated that there would not be too many. "According to the division chief of staff, the German army occupied more than a dozen such villages. According to my estimate, the strength of each village is about one platoon."
After listening to Sokov's answer, Ajik thought to himself: After such a long battle, there should be very few troops left in the major's battalion. Are they capable of capturing these four villages? Thinking of this, he asked tentatively: "Comrade Major, may I ask how many people are in your battalion?"
"More than nine hundred people." After Sokov answered this question, before waiting for Ajik to ask again, he took the initiative and said: "The whole battalion is equipped with all German equipment, half of which are machine guns and submachine guns. But it is regrettable. The thing is, there is not a single artillery piece in the camp, but fortunately with your participation, I should have no problem seizing the villages occupied by the enemy."
"A battalion has more than 900 people?!" Hearing this number, Ajik and Sergeyev looked at each other, and both saw surprise in each other's eyes: "Nowadays, many infantry regiments only have 500 or 600 people. You It’s incredible that there are more than 900 people in one camp.”
"Nothing surprising." Sokov folded the map on the table, handed it back to Ajik, and said lightly: "Our battalion has added many commanders and fighters rescued from prisoner of war camps, so we can reach such a large number of people."
After Sokov waited for Ajik to place the map, he asked with a smile: "How many artillery pieces do each of your two companies have, and how many shells does each gun have?"
Sergeyev was the first to answer the question: "Our company has six artillery pieces, each with thirty rounds of shells."
Ajik continued: "My company has four anti-tank guns, and they don't have many shells. Each gun only has eighteen rounds."
Sokov's smile suddenly froze on his face. According to his original idea, he would attack each village, first let the artillery company cover the German troops in the village with firepower, and then launch the attack after the enemy was stunned. But now each cannon only has thirty rounds of shells, not to mention the fire coverage. If you don't use it sparingly when attacking the first village, when you attack the next three villages, you will have to risk the enemy's artillery fire. , charged forward one after another.
Thinking of this, Sokov said to the two company commanders: "Let's go with me to see the terrain."
When leaving the division headquarters, Sokov left behind a soldier from the guard squad and asked him to stay here to wait for Belkin, while he and the two company commanders took the remaining soldiers and followed the division. guide, and rush to the area where the troops are about to attack.
Under the guidance of the guide, they walked through the knee-deep snow and walked through the forest to the vicinity of Village No. 1. On the way, Sokov felt strange in his heart. The 16th Army had occupied Susinich for a long time, so why didn't it take over this village so close to the city?
After they stopped at the edge of the forest, Sokov found an ideal viewing position, raised his binoculars and looked toward the village. I saw that the houses in the village were one in the east and one in the west, which seemed very scattered. Sokov felt very satisfied with this distribution. If the houses in the village were too concentrated, after the troops rushed into the village, they would be crowded together and become the target of the enemy.
Although seen from a distance, the entire village is covered in snow. But based on his own experience, Sokov soon discovered that there were trenches built by the German army and some civil fire points in the south of the village. There was a fire burning at the entrance of the village, and two German soldiers wearing military coats were warming themselves around the fire. Not far behind them was a tank covered in snow.
Sokov put down the telescope and said to Ajik: "Lieutenant Ajik, have you seen the tank at the entrance of the village?" Before the other party could speak, he continued, "As soon as the battle starts, concentrate your artillery fire to destroy it. Otherwise, it will cause huge casualties to our attacking troops. And you, Lieutenant Sergeyev, your company's mission is to use direct-aimed shooting to directly destroy the enemy's civil fire points at the entrance of the village."
Sergeyev visually measured the distance and said with some embarrassment: "Comrade Major, the distance from our position to the entrance of the village is more than a thousand meters. My company is full of new recruits and lack combat experience. If we want to let It’s a little difficult for them to hit a target that far away.”
Just when he was looking at the terrain, Sokov was thinking in his mind that if his artillery platoon could be equipped with a few artillery pieces, not to mention the firepower points outside the village, even the tanks parked at the entrance of the village could be cleared away. . Hearing Sergeyev's concern at this moment, he said carelessly: "Comrade Lieutenant, I have an experienced artillery force under my command. I can temporarily lend them to you."
"Aren't you commanding an infantry battalion?" Sergeyev asked with some surprise: "Why is there artillery in the battalion?"
"The battalion I command is a mixed battalion of various arms," Sokov said with some arrogance: "In addition to artillery, there are also tank troops, engineers and communications troops. If conditions permit, I would also like to form another flying squadron... …”
When Ajik heard this, he couldn't stand it anymore and quickly interrupted Sokov: "Comrade Major, when will we launch an attack on the village?"
