Before the reinforcements from the base camp arrived, Sokov felt that there were more important things to do, so he ordered his staff to call the four battalion commanders and inform them to come to the brigade headquarters for a meeting immediately. The four battalion commanders, who had just returned to the battalion headquarters and had not had time to take a sip of water, received the notice and thought that Sokov was going to comment on today's military competition, so they rushed over without hesitation.
Seeing that all four battalion commanders had arrived, Sokov said: "Comrade battalion commander, I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"
The battalion commanders may have never heard anyone speak to them in this tone, so after Sokov asked the question, they hesitated for a while, and then the battalion commander Vanya said carefully: "Comrade Brigade Commander, then Let’s talk about the good news first.”
"The reinforcements sent to us by the base camp will arrive tomorrow at the latest." Seeing that Vanya chose to hear the good news first, Sokov said with a smile: "As soon as they arrive, we can shrink our defenses and concentrate our strength. Conduct one-way defense.”
"Great, this is really great." Although the four battalion commanders had known about the arrival of reinforcements for a long time, they still felt very happy when they heard Sokov mention it at this moment. What makes them happiest is undoubtedly the shrinking of the defense line. After all, five or six thousand people defending a city are two completely different concepts from simply defending one direction.
After the room returned to calm, Andre asked tentatively: "Comrade Brigadier, tell me, what is the other bad news?"
Seeing that everyone's eyes were focused on him, Sokov sighed softly and said: "When the large forces enter Kursk, the warehouse area we currently control must be handed over to friendly forces immediately."
After listening to Sokov's words, the battalion commanders couldn't help but feel a little bit in their hearts, secretly saying that this was really bad news. If the warehouse area is really handed over to friendly forces, he will no longer be able to receive supplies as he likes now. People can persist without food; but if their guns are out of ammunition, they are no better than burning fire sticks.
Vasily, who was in charge of guarding the warehouse, waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and immediately stood up and asked: "Comrade Brigadier, should I do something?" The purpose of Vasily's question was that there was still a trace of luck in his heart, thinking that Sokov For my own sake, I would leave one or two warehouses of supplies behind.
"All warehouses, not one left, will be handed over to friendly forces." When Sokov said this, he saw the embarrassed expressions on the faces of the battalion commanders, and added: "But before the handover work is carried out, each battalion should Send people to the warehouse to collect the supplies they need."
"Captain Vasily," Sokov told Vasily: "All officers and soldiers of my brigade, no matter what materials they want to receive, ammunition, oil, supplies and combat equipment, as long as they are available in the warehouse, they will be distributed."
After Vasily, who was full of joy, answered resoundingly, Sokov turned to the other battalion commanders and said: "In the warehouse we occupied, the weapons and equipment stored were both those of the German army and those of our army captured by the enemy. Nowadays, some troops are all equipped with German equipment, while some are standard equipment of our army. In the coming days, we can capture the weapons and ammunition required for German equipment in battle; and equip our army It may be much more difficult to supply troops with standard weapons. Therefore, you should use the precious time left to replenish the troops with sufficient ammunition and supplies."
"Comrade Brigadier," Brisky waited for Sokov to finish, then stood up and asked regardless of the other party not announcing the end of the meeting: "Are you allowed to return to the army now? I need to immediately arrange the work of collecting ammunition and supplies from the commanders and soldiers. .”
"Permission to leave." Sokov nodded to Briski, and then said to everyone: "Time is running out. You all should return to your respective units immediately and seize the time to collect supplies. Dismissal!"
Watching the battalion commanders leaving, Belkin asked with some worry: "Comrade Brigade Commander, if the friendly forces take over the warehouse area and find that all the warehouses inside are empty, will we have any trouble? "
"What kind of trouble will there be, my comrade political commissar?" Sokov looked at Belkin and asked in surprise: "Our troops did not leave any documents when they received the supplies. Even if the superiors tracked them down, we It can also be said that when we occupied the German warehouse area, it was almost empty."
In response to Sokov's statement of completely shirking responsibility, Belkin's muscles on his face twitched violently for a few times, and then he asked: "But if the superiors want to thoroughly investigate this matter, what should we do?" ?”
Sokov found Belkin's concerns laughable. He said to the other party: "Comrade Political Commissar, don't forget that after we captured Kursk, we added thousands of new soldiers. If we don't use the weapons and equipment in the German army's warehouse, where can we find weapons to fight against them?" Are they armed?"
Sokov raised his hand and patted Belkin gently twice on the shoulder, and then said: "Don't worry, comrade political commissar, as long as we can hold on to Kursk, our superiors will understand our difficulties, absolutely not The matter will be pursued.”
Each battalion sent manpower to the warehouse area to collect the supplies they needed. Several battalion commanders all held similar thoughts. Anyway, these are free things. You can move as much as you can. Otherwise, once friendly forces take over the warehouse area, it will not be so easy to receive supplies in the future.
In order to pull the supplies back to their respective battalions as soon as possible, the battalion commanders also showed their magical powers across the sea. Except for an infantry company in the first battalion that stood in the west of the city, the rest were sent to the warehouse by Captain Vanya to transport supplies; while the second battalion Captain Vasily took advantage of his position to use military trucks in the warehouse to transport weapons, ammunition and various supplies to the second battalion's new location. And Andrei, the commander of the third battalion, saw the military camp in the warehouse. The trucks were all requisitioned by Vasily, so he used civilian vehicles, including buses, to help the third battalion pull ammunition and supplies; even the newly appointed commander of the fourth battalion, Captain Brisky, offered 300 grams of bread a day. At the cost of doing this, he summoned five to six hundred able-bodied workers to help him carry the supplies...
Sokov and Belkin went to the warehouse area. Seeing the lively scene of military and civilian mobilization to transport supplies, they couldn't help but smile and said: "It seems that these battalion commanders are not simple, they all know how to Use their own methods to move as much ammunition and various materials as possible back to their own stations. In the following battles, as long as nearly 50,000 rounds of ammunition are not consumed in one battle again, our existing The ammunition will last a long time."
The two were talking when suddenly the rumble of cannons came from the south of the city. Hearing the sudden sound of artillery, Sokov couldn't help but panicked. He quickly rushed into the office in the warehouse area and asked loudly to Vasily who was sitting at the table on the phone: "Captain Vasily, what happened?" Yes? Why are there gunfire sounds from the south of the city?"
Vasily nodded, looked up at Sokov, and said with a serious expression: "Comrade Brigade Commander, Commander Zhelya of the Second Company reported that the enemy is shelling the defensive position of the Second Company, and it seems that they are preparing to cross Teneb again. Pull the river.”
"Captain Vasily, tell Zheliya to ask the soldiers to pay attention to concealment and do a good job in artillery protection. Try to reduce the losses of the troops in the shelling." After telling Vasily, Sokov turned to Belkin and said, "Political Commissar Comrade, let’s go back to the brigade headquarters now.”
As soon as Sokov returned to his headquarters, he immediately called Rotmistrov. He said urgently into the microphone: "Comrade General, the German army is shelling our southern position. It seems that they are preparing to cross the Tenebra River again and launch an attack on our defensive position."
"Don't worry, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." After Rotmistrov finished speaking to Sokov, he immediately comforted him and said: "When the German army begins to cross the river, my artillery will give them a severe lesson and completely crush them. Their attempt to seize the position south of the city."
The Tenebra River is actually not wide and the current is not fast. But after crossing the river, there is still a vast plain soaked by stagnant water. When the German infantry passes through this area, it will move slowly and become a target for Soviet shooting. This time, the German troops who took advantage of the bombardment to cross the river in large numbers were well prepared. They also specially brought in four amphibious tanks to cover the infantry attack.
The amphibious tank was originally planned by the German army to attack the English Channel. Later, it was discovered that it had fatal flaws and was shelved. It was not until the outbreak of the Soviet-German War that these amphibious tanks participated in the first actual battle when the German army attacked the Brest Fortress and forcibly crossed the Bug River. In order to effectively break through the Soviet defenses south of Kursk this time, the German commander specially borrowed these four tanks from friendly forces to strengthen the offensive firepower of the offensive forces.
Although these tanks were modified from No. 3 light tanks, these tanks still caused a headache for the Soviet army, which lacked anti-tank weapons. Zheliya looked at the tanks moving in the water and the infantry hiding behind the tanks. He quickly picked up the microphone and reported to Vasily: "Comrade Battalion Commander, the situation is not good. During this attack, the enemy Tanks are dispatched, and our company lacks anti-tank weapons and may not be able to stop them."
"Hell, where did the German tanks come out from?" After listening to Zheliya's report, Vasya shouted angrily: "Did they come up from the river?"
"Yes, Comrade Battalion Commander, you are right." Hearing what Vasily said, Zheliya nodded vigorously and said in a positive tone: "The enemy's tanks swam over the water."
Vasily had never heard of a tank that could swim. When he heard what Zheliya said, he thought that the opponent was stunned by the enemy's artillery fire, so he said with some displeasure: "Lieutenant Zheliya, I don't care what you use." You must block the enemy by any means. If you let them rush past your position, you can probably guess the consequences even if I don't tell you."
"Understood, comrade battalion commander." Zheliya heard from Vasily's tone that the other party did not believe the situation he reported, but only ordered him to stick to it, so he replied bravely: "Don't worry, our company only needs to If there is one person here, he will never let the German tanks pass."
After Vasily put down the phone, he remembered the swimming tank Zheliya mentioned and felt that he should report the matter to Sokov, so he picked up the phone.
"What, Captain Vasily, what did you say? Repeat it again." When Sokov heard Vasily mention the tank that could swim, he thought he had heard it wrong, and quickly said into the microphone: "The tank that can swim, just right." Rushing towards the Second Company's position? I understand, let Zheliya hold on, we will provide them with artillery support as soon as possible."
As soon as Sokov put down the phone, Belkin asked curiously: "Comrade Brigade Commander, I just seemed to hear you talking about a tank that can swim. What on earth is going on?"
"In order to attack Britain a few years ago, the Germans modified some of their Panzer III light tanks and turned them into amphibious tanks that could swim or lie on the water. But later they found that this tank was of little use, so it was temporarily shelved." Sokov explained to Belkin: "It wasn't until the German army attacked the Brest Fortress that they used this tank to forcefully cross the Bug River. After this battle, I never heard of this tank again. I thought They were all lost in the war and I didn’t expect them to appear here.”
"Most of the soldiers of the Second Company who are sticking to the position are new recruits. When they see the enemy tanks galloping towards them, some people will definitely be scared to death." Belkin carefully reminded Sokov: "If we don't Find a way to destroy the enemy's tanks as soon as possible, and some soldiers will become deserters out of fear."
"Don't worry, Comrade Political Commissar, I won't let deserters appear in the Second Company." After finishing speaking, Sokov picked up the phone on the table, dialed the artillery company, and said to the company commander Porochenko: "Porochenko Company commander, your company’s mission has come.”
Porochenko: "Comrade Brigade Commander, I obey your orders, please give instructions!"
"Four German light tanks are rushing towards the defensive position of the Second Company in the south of the city." Sokov said into the microphone: "The task of your company is to use artillery fire to destroy these enemy tanks." Considering that the artillery company may Without knowing the specific location of the German amphibious tanks, Sokov specifically added, "You immediately send artillery observers to the front, and they provide firing parameters to guide your artillery for bombardment."
"Comrade Brigadier, don't worry, we have observers staying at the second company's position." Porochenko waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and immediately expressed his position: "I will contact them immediately and let the artillery Soldiers use data provided by observers to eliminate enemy tanks."
"Very good, Comrade Porochenko, you did a good job." Sokov affirmed Porochenko's precautionary approach, and finally drew a huge pie for the other party: "Wait for us When the artillery battalion is formed, I appoint you as the battalion commander."
