"I have an idea," Sokov whispered to Vanya as he lay in the ditch: "Let Ernst pretend to be a German commander and drive away this enemy on the road."
"Is it possible?" Vanya asked in a skeptical tone.
"Under the current circumstances, we can only give it a try." Thinking that if he continued to stay here, Ernst would come later and it would be inconvenient for him to deploy tasks to him, so he whispered to Belgin. : "Comrade Belkin, you stay here. If the enemy discovers our soldiers hiding by the road, you can decisively order the troops to open fire." Then he said to Vanya, "Comrade Captain, follow me!"
The Second Company was hidden behind a hill. The road turned a corner here. The enemy who was resting on the roadside could not see the movement here at all. After Sokov climbed to the location of the second company with Vanya, Vasily immediately came up to him and asked Sokov in a low voice: "Comrade Battalion Commander, do you want our company to go up and destroy the enemy?"
Sokov glanced at him and said: "If I want to destroy the enemy, Captain Vanya's company is enough to complete the task. Why bother looking for you from afar?"
Knowing that Sokov came here not to put his troops into battle, Vasily couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. He asked in confusion: "Comrade Battalion Commander, since you won't let us participate in the war, is there anything important for you to come here?"
"I came here to ask you to borrow some soldiers." Sokov replied: "I want to put them to great use."
"Grissa, bring a few people over here!" Vasily turned to greet Grissa in a low voice, who was hiding not far away: "Comrade Battalion Commander has a task for you."
Upon hearing Vasily's call, Grisa immediately led several soldiers, bent down and ran in front of Sokov, stopped his body and said: "Comrade Battalion Commander, I am waiting for your orders, please give instructions!"
"Vasily, do you have any captured German uniforms in your company?" Sokov thought that his troops had been doing guerrilla work recently, constantly attacking the enemy's transportation lines. Among the many supplies captured, military uniforms were indispensable. When heading towards Kursk this time, a lot of supplies were left in the camp, so he specifically asked Vasily if there were any German uniforms here. If not, he could only find another way.
Fortunately, Vasily's answer did not disappoint Sokov: "Yes, Comrade Battalion Commander. I thought that you might arrange people to disguise themselves as Germans and go deep into their defense areas to conduct reconnaissance, so before leaving the camp, Someone specially brought German uniforms.”
Upon hearing Vasily's answer, Sokov immediately asked in surprise: "How many sets are there?"
"But the number is not large, probably only a dozen sets."
Sokov originally thought there were only four or five sets, but he didn't expect there to be more than a dozen sets. He quickly ordered Vasily: "Hurry up and get the military uniforms. I will put them to use soon."
Ernst, who was operating with the battalion headquarters, after receiving the notification from the soldiers, guessed that Sokov must have something urgent to do with him, so he rushed over immediately. He trotted up to Sokov and asked breathlessly: "Major, what's the matter?"
"Corporal Ernst," Sokov said politely to Ernst: "On the road ahead, there is a group of soldiers from the Eastern Battalion. It seems that they plan to rest for a long time. In order for our army to rush to Kurdistan as soon as possible, Ersk, I need you to disguise yourself as a German commander and drive those enemies away. Do you understand?"
"Major," Ernst asked immediately after Sokov finished speaking: "Can I ask how many people there are on the other side? Am I going to perform the mission alone?"
"Don't worry, Corporal Ernst, how could I let you go on such a dangerous mission alone?" Sokov quickly explained to Ernst: "Second Lieutenant Grisa will lead a dozen soldiers to accompany you. We went together."
The Second Company carried a total of thirteen sets of military uniforms. Except for one set of captain and one set of corporal uniforms, the rest were all ordinary soldiers' uniforms. Ernst, who plays the leading role, naturally wears the captain's uniform; Grisa wears the corporal uniform, and the rest wear the uniforms of ordinary soldiers.
After the change of clothes, a freshly prepared German patrol team appeared on the road. But when they rounded the hill and appeared in the sight of the Dongfang Battalion soldiers, many soldiers hurriedly put down their lunch boxes and pointed their guns in the direction of the squad. When they saw clearly that it was a German patrol, they put away their guns and continued to sit down and eat.
Ernst led twelve "German soldiers" wearing German uniforms and carrying submachine guns, and walked along the road toward the enemy's resting place. Grisa, who was walking beside him, saw that the enemy had a machine gun on the top of the bridge, but it was not the G34 general-purpose machine gun installed by the German army, but a rare Czech light machine gun. The chief and deputy machine gunners were standing next to the machine guns chatting. After they glanced at Ernst and the others, they continued chatting on their own.
Seeing a group of patrols approaching him, a sentry on duty immediately approached him and asked in blunt German: "Stop, which section are you from?"
Ernst ignored him, pulled him aside with his hands, walked straight to the crowd, put his hands behind his back, and asked with a straight face: "Who is in charge here?"
As soon as he finished speaking, an officer in a captain's uniform stood up, raised his hand to salute him, and said in broken German: "Mr. Captain, the person in charge here is the SS First Class Commando Squadron Leader Joe." Nas is in charge!”
Sokov only told that there was an enemy force here, but did not say that these were not Germans. So after listening to the captain's German with a strong Russian accent, Ernst glanced at the captain and asked with some surprise: "Are you Russian?"
"Yes, Mr. Captain." The captain hurriedly straightened his body and replied: "My name is Luo Erbin. I used to be in the Russian army. Now I am the battalion commander of the 47th Eastern Battalion."
Ernst knew that in each Eastern battalion, there would be an Eastern Soldier Supervision Group, composed entirely of SS soldiers. Their responsibility was to supervise the operations of this unit. The Jonas the captain mentioned should be the leader of the inspection team, so as soon as the captain finished speaking, he looked at the officers and soldiers still standing by the fire and asked coldly: "Who is Jonas?" ?”
An SS soldier squeezed out from the crowd and came to him. After raising his hand in salute, he asked absently: "Hello, Mr. Captain, I am Jonas, the leader of the first-class commando team. May I ask if you have any questions?" What's the matter?"
Seeing that the other party was just a soldier of the SS, Ernst asked sharply: "Who told you to light a fire here?"
"Mr. Captain," Jonas quickly explained to Ernst: "After driving for a long time, the soldiers were hungry, so I asked them to get off the car to rest and have something to eat."
"Don't you know that guerrillas often appear in this area?" Ernst deliberately frightened the other party and said, "How dare you stay here? Pack your things and leave immediately."
"Yes, Mr. Captain." Jonas replied in a panic: "Let's leave now." Then he turned to the officers and soldiers of the Eastern Battalion and shouted in the same broken Russian, "Let's go, let's go immediately!"
When the officers and soldiers of the Eastern Battalion heard Jonas's shout, they hurriedly extinguished the bonfire, simply packed up their things, and then waited for the bus. Just as Jonas turned around and was about to sit on the bridge, Ernst suddenly asked: "Mr. Captain of the first-class commando team, where are you going?"
"Go to the Tim area, where a large number of Russian guerrillas were discovered. We were ordered to annihilate them." After Jonas closed the car door, he finally said, "The garrison in Kursk is empty, so we have to annihilate them." These troops composed of Russian prisoners of war have been mobilized to wipe out the damn guerrillas." After that, he raised his hand and patted the driver on the shoulder, "Drive!"
When the enemy's convoy went away, the commanders and soldiers came out of their hiding places one after another. Sokov walked up to Ernst, nodded at him, and said approvingly: "Well done, Corporal Ernst, well done."
"Major, I think there is something I need to report to you." Ernst hesitated for a moment, and then said to Sokov: "The SS first-class commando squad leader just let it slip unintentionally. The city of Kursk is empty and there is no way to mobilize troops to clear out the guerrillas in the Tim area, so we can only mobilize the Eastern Battalion composed of prisoners of war to fill the gap."
Hearing what Ernst said, Sokov couldn't help showing an expression of surprise on his face. He turned his head and glanced at the commanders next to him, and then ordered Vanya: "Comrade Captain, send out reconnaissance personnel immediately. Go to Kursk to conduct reconnaissance and find out the enemy's deployment."
But when Vanya followed Sokov's order and arranged for men to rush to the direction of Kursk for reconnaissance, the commanders and fighters of the first and second companies realized that they were marching towards the rear of the German army. They couldn't help but become nervous. Thinking: Why didn’t we retreat and instead came to the enemy’s rear? If a fight breaks out, will reinforcements come to support us? Also, if you are injured in battle, can you get medical treatment in time?
Although the soldiers were all making their own little calculations in their hearts, since Sokov had given the order, they could only carry it out unconditionally. Even if there was a mountain of swords and a sea of fire ahead, they could only brave the situation.
Compared with the soldiers, commanders at all levels are much more optimistic. When Sokov initially proposed to attack Kursk, they were worried that the enemy's troops were too strong and that their own attack would be purely an attack on an enemy. Now that they learned that the troops in Kursk city were weak, everyone's thoughts changed drastically. They wanted to rush into the city immediately and eliminate the limited number of defenders.
