Two days later, Ozor took the initiative to come to Sokov and told him with excitement: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, the tunnel fortifications on the north and south slopes have been roughly completed. I am here to ask you to inspect."
"Approximately completed?" Sokov heard the word used by Ozor and asked curiously: "What does it mean?"
"I didn't make it clear." Ozor explained: "The main work of the tunnel has been completed, and the remaining work is to reinforce the key parts with reinforced concrete."
"Comrade Political Commissar," Sokov has been to the tunnel fortifications only a handful of times since the construction started. When he heard that it was basically completed, he smiled and said to Belkin: "Let's go and see the tunnel fortifications together."
Under the leadership of Ozor, the two came to the foot of the southern slope. There was a cave entrance as high as a person, which seemed to lead to the tunnel fortifications. Ozor stopped at the entrance of the cave and said to Sokov and Belkin: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel and Political Commissar, there are twelve exits on the south slope, and this is one of them."
Sokov and Belkin followed Ozor and found that there was a corridor that went upwards diagonally. The corridor was about one meter wide and two meters high inside. Even tall warriors did not have to bend when walking in it. waist. Every ten meters or so on the earthen wall, there is a gas lamp for lighting.
Ozor, who was leading the way, turned around and explained to Sokov and Belkin behind him as he walked: "Lieutenant Colonel, political commissar, this is a backup corridor. After the battle starts, we will seal it to avoid being blocked by the enemy." Discovered. If we want to attack, we can open the exit in the shortest time."
The three of them walked forward for more than a hundred meters and felt that the corridor suddenly widened. There were adjacent rooms on both sides of the corridor. Seeing this, Belkin asked curiously: "Major Ozor, what are these rooms used for?"
"Comrade Political Commissar," Ozor stopped and swung the flashlight into the dark room: "These rooms are used to store ammunition and food. After all, the troops have to spend a lot of time in the tunnels. Not one or two days.”
"Just having a place to store ammunition and food is not enough," Sokov secretly counted the rooms. There were about twenty of them. If they were filled with the ammunition and food needed by the troops, they would be able to be used for about half a month. But when he saw the tunnel, he thought of Shangganling. He didn't want the troops to be short of water near the Volga River, so he continued to ask: "I want to ask where the water we usually use is stored. place?"
"Don't worry, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I have already thought about it." Ozor took Sokov and Belkin to another place that can accommodate hundreds of people, and said to them: "You see Are there those metal buckets with lids in the row against the wall? One bucket holds 500 kilograms of drinking water, and twelve buckets are six tons of water." He stamped a square cement board on the ground with his foot, and there was a sound coming from under the cement board. He heard the hollow sound, "There is underground water under this cement slab. Once there is a shortage of water, you can open this cement slab to get water."
Hearing that ammunition, food and water were stored somewhere, Sokov looked up and asked with some concern: "Major Ozor, can the soil above withstand the bombardment of German heavy artillery?"
"Don't worry, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Hearing Sokov's question, Ozor grinned and said, "The soil above is more than fifteen meters, and we need to reinforce it with reinforced concrete. No matter how dense the German heavy artillery is, they can't even try to blow up the tunnel fortifications."
When Belkin heard what Ozor said, he smiled and squinted his eyes and said: "Great, this is great. As long as we hide in the fortifications, no matter how fierce the German artillery fire is, we can reduce the casualties of our commanders and soldiers to lowest."
"The tunnel cannot be used simply for defense. We must use it as a base for attack." Sokov said to Ozor: "Comrade Major, please take us to see other exits."
The three of them spent more than an hour walking through the tunnel fortifications on the south slope. When they came from the tunnel to the trench, Ozor asked with some anxiety: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, how are you? Are you satisfied with this fortification?"
Sokov thought for a while and then said: "These entrances and exits set up in the trenches are too narrow, which is not conducive to the troops' attack. Think about it, when the enemy's shelling ends and their infantry charges towards the hillside, And our soldiers are squeezed into the tunnel and unable to come out in time because the exit is too narrow. Is this going to be a bad thing?"
"Understood, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." In response to Sokov's suggestion, Ozor nodded: "I will have people widen the exit of the tunnel later."
While Sokov and Ozor were talking, an armored train passed by the railway a few hundred meters away and headed towards the factory area. Seeing the only three 762 mm caliber guns on the armored train, Sokov muttered in his heart. He did not think that the existing equipment of the armored train could stop the German tanks. If you want to deal with German tanks, you have to find a way on your own.
After the train had gone away, Sokov turned around and asked Ozor: "Major Ozor, if the German army targets Mamayev Heights, they will definitely use tanks to cover the infantry charge. Although the north and south sides The slope is so steep that enemy tanks cannot drive up it, but if they stop at the foot of the slope and use tank guns and machine guns to provide fire support to the infantry, it will be a headache for us."
Ozor guessed what Sokov wanted to express, and asked tentatively: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, are you planning to build an anti-tank trench near the railway?"
"That's right, that's right." Seeing that Ozor understood his intention, Sokov nodded and said, "I just plan to dig an anti-tank trench in front of the minefield and barbed wire to prevent enemy tanks from driving over. .”
"This is easy to handle." Regarding Sokov's idea, Ozor said carelessly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you only need to give me two thousand people, and I can build a road in front of Mamaev Hill in two days at most. Circular anti-tank trench."
"Wait a minute, Major Ozor." Seeing that Ozor agreed so readily, Sokov decided to move the "Golan Trench" in future generations to the Battle of Stalingrad in advance. He tentatively asked Ozor. Zoll said: "The anti-tank trench I want to build is 6 meters wide at the mouth, 4 meters wide at the bottom, and 9 meters deep. Generally, when building anti-tank trenches, the excavated soil should be piled on both sides, but this kind of anti-tank trench All the excavated soil should be piled close to our army's position and formed into a soft earth embankment more than two meters high..."
"Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, please stop talking." Before Sokov could finish speaking, Ozor interrupted him: "Do you know how much work we have to do to dig such a fortification?"
Sokov only thought about how to copy the "Golan Trench", but he really didn't consider the huge amount of work involved in digging such an anti-tank trench. Therefore, after hearing Ozor's question, he was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and asked: "How big is it?"
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, let me calculate it for you now. The anti-tank trench you mentioned is trapezoidal. Calculate according to the trapezoidal formula: trapezoid area = (upper base + lower base) x height ÷ 2. In other words, (4+6)x9÷2=45, multiplied by the length of the anti-tank trench, which is about 3,800 meters, the total earthwork to be excavated should be 171,000 cubic meters. Even if two thousand soldiers participate in the construction, the earthwork to be excavated per person will be 855 cube."
After listening to Ozor's calculations, Sokov couldn't help but be surprised: "Ah, everyone has to dig so much earth? So, we don't have the ability to complete such an anti-tank trench at all now?"
"Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what you said is absolutely correct." Ozor nodded and said firmly: "You requested that the depth of the anti-tank trench be nine meters. Without the help of excavators and heavy lifting machinery, , relying on the soldiers to use shovels and pickaxes to dig, even if it takes two months, they will not be able to complete the work."
"Since the amount of the project is so large," Sokov felt that he was taking it for granted, so he could only say helplessly: "Then forget it."
Although I heard Sokov say that no more anti-tank trenches would be built, some of what he just said aroused Ozor's curiosity: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, can I ask why this kind of anti-tank trenches are dug?" Are you going to hide all the soil that comes out of the soil close to our army’s position?”
Although it was impossible to build a "Golan trench" in front of Mamayev Hill, Sokov did not give up. He thought it was better to tell Ozor about the characteristics of this anti-tank trench, which might be put to use in the future: "The German Army Seeing that there are anti-tank trenches blocking the road ahead, even if bulldozers are used, since all the soil is piled on the side of our army, the bulldozers will have no soil to fill.
If they build a bridge over an anti-tank trench, the other end of the trench will be more than two meters higher. One end of the bridge will be higher and the other lower, and the higher end will be built on a soft earth embankment, causing the tanks crossing the bridge to swing left and right. It shakes and falls into the trench at every turn.
Even if the tanks are lucky enough to come over, a tragic fate awaits them. Because the car body was raised when crossing the earth embankment, the weak bottom of the armor was exposed; when crossing the earth embankment and coming down, the fragile top was exposed, which was equivalent to giving our army two excellent aiming and shooting opportunities. Even if it penetrated Anti-tank rifles with poor penetration can also kill these tanks. "
After hearing Sokov's words, Ozor's eyes widened in surprise. He looked at Sokov with admiration and said: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you are really amazing. The anti-tank trench you mentioned, I have never heard of it before. If time were not tight and there were no supporting construction machinery, I would personally lead people to build the kind of anti-tank trench you mentioned."
"Comrade Brigadier," Belkin said with some disapproval after listening to Sokov's words: "This kind of anti-tank trench of yours can certainly block enemy tanks, but it will also limit the range of activities of our tanks. .”
"Comrade Political Commissar, it's not what you imagined." Before Sokov could speak this time, Ozor had already defended him: "Isn't the soil dug out from the anti-tank trench piled on one side of our army? ?We can use bulldozers to push the soil into the anti-tank trenches, or clear one or two gaps in the earth wall, and then set up rutted bridges to allow our tanks to pass smoothly."
After listening to Ozor's explanation, Belkin was stunned for a moment, then looked at Sokov and said with a smile: "Comrade Brigade Commander, you are really not simple, you can actually come up with such a clever anti-tank trench. It's a pity that we There is not enough time and the necessary construction machinery, otherwise we can really consider digging such an anti-tank trench to prevent German tanks from approaching Mamayev Hill."
"Since we can't dig an anti-tank trench, forget it." Although Sokov felt very sorry that he couldn't build this famous "Golan trench", there was nothing he could do about it. He could only use other methods to deal with the German tanks: "Comrade Major, when laying out the minefield, you should lay more anti-tank mines on the inside of the railway, near Mamayev Hill, so that some of them can be eliminated. German tanks.”
"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you should have told me about this earlier." When Ozor heard what Sokov said, he showed a troubled expression on his face: "When I went to the warehouse to collect mines and explosives two days ago, I heard that the military supplies The official said that all anti-tank mines were handed over to the defense troops outside the city..."
There was no way to dig anti-tank trenches, so Sokov was still able to get through it; but now, he didn't even have the anti-tank mines he desperately needed, so how could he deal with German tanks in the next battle? Thinking of this, Sokov couldn't help but frown.
"Alas, we can't dig anti-tank trenches, and there are no anti-tank mines." Belkin sighed and said: "When the battle starts, we can only watch the enemy tanks rush to the foot of Mamayev Hill. Use tank guns and machine guns to cover the infantry charge."
Seeing Sokov's silence, Ozor asked cautiously: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, is there anything else you can do to deal with the German tanks?"
"Trap!" Hearing Ozor ask himself, Sokov couldn't help blurting out: "Even if there are no anti-tank mines and no anti-tank trenches, we can still dig traps to deal with enemy tanks."
"Dig a trap?" Hearing Sokov say this, Ozor couldn't help but feel a little lost, and then asked curiously: "How to dig?"
"Comrade Major, we can dig some deep rectangular pits two to three meters deep inside the railway, cover them with wooden boards, and sprinkle soil on them." Sokov introduced a new trap he had come up with to Ozor: "The German infantry had no problem stepping on it. But when their tanks ran over it, the wooden boards would break because they could not bear the weight of the tanks, allowing the enemy tanks to roll over or fall directly into deep pits. "
"Yes, this is a good idea." After listening to Sokov's words, Ozor immediately clapped his hands and applauded: "Dig a few such traps in front of the minefield, and it will definitely not attract the enemy's attention. Wait for the tank to run over. , the heavy car body would collapse the wooden planks covering the deep pit, causing the tank to fall into the pit. This is really a good idea, and I immediately arranged for manpower to dig the pit."
