The captain's words aroused great curiosity in Samoylov, "Comrade captain, can you tell me what is going on?"
Perhaps because he learned that the second lieutenant from the Ministry of Internal Affairs in front of him could easily pass through the enemy's well-defended positions, the captain's attitude towards him changed greatly. The politeness to him just now was just out of fear of his identity; but the courtesy to him now was out of admiration for him.
"It's like this, Comrade Second Lieutenant." The captain told Samoilov: "The superiors found that the shortest way is to join forces with the defenders of Orlovka and launch an assault from the riverside defended by the German army. So we mobilized our troops to attack there. Unexpectedly, when we advanced towards the river, we were bombed by enemy planes, causing a large number of tanks, armored vehicles and personnel carriers to be blown up, and our infantry also suffered heavy casualties.
However, in order to fulfill the orders of their superiors, the commanders and soldiers bravely rushed to the river, put the wooden boats they carried into the river, and prepared to cross the river to seize the position on the other side. But the German machine guns on the hillside on the other side started shooting, knocking down the commanders and soldiers who were about to board the ship in pieces by the river like target practice.
Without any cover from artillery fire, the soldiers who boarded the wooden boat began to force the crossing. They pressed their bodies against the wooden boat and paddled sideways, not only to avoid bullets fired from the high ground on the other side, but also to avoid the enemy's Mortar shells. During the process of crossing the river, wooden boats filled with soldiers were hit by artillery shells from time to time, and human bodies and fragments of the wooden boats were mixed together and blown into the sky. As soon as the fleet reached the center of the river, more than half of the wooden boats were lost. The river was full of floating corpses, but our soldiers still tenaciously climbed onto the river bank..."
If Samoilov had left a few minutes later and could have heard with his own ears what Sokov said to others, he would have been surprised to find that the situation analyzed by Sokov was actually different from what the captain said. Not much.
After the captain introduced the situation, the truck also arrived at a small village. The car stopped at the entrance of the village, and the captain quickly called to Samoilov: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, we will get off the car here. Someone will take you to see the division commander later."
As soon as Samoylov and the others got out of the car, they saw a major and two soldiers walking along the village path. The captain quickly stepped forward to salute and report to the other party. After listening, the major nodded, turned his attention to Samoilov and his men standing aside, and said: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, take your people and follow me."
Samoilov stretched out his hand to the captain and said friendly: "Comrade Captain, thank you for bringing us here. We will see you later."
"See you later." The captain shook hands with Samoilov, turned around and got into the truck parked nearby.
The major led them to a wooden house with a sentry stationed on guard. Then he stopped and said to Samoylov: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, let your people stay outside. I will take you in alone to see the division commander."
As soon as Samoylov waited for the major to finish speaking, he turned around and ordered his subordinates: "You stay here and wait for me to come out." After saying that, he raised his legs and prepared to walk towards the wooden house, but was stopped by the major.
"Major," Samoilov asked curiously, not knowing why the major stopped him, "why did you stop me?"
"I'm sorry, Comrade Second Lieutenant." The Major said dryly, "Please hand over your weapons."
After the major reminded him, Samoilov realized that he was still holding a submachine gun in his hand. If he really went in like this, the major and the others would probably not be relieved. He casually handed the submachine gun to a soldier next to him, then took off the gun and stuffed it into the soldier's hand. Then he asked the major: "Comrade Major, can we go in?"
Samoilov followed the major into the division commander's room and saw a colonel and a lieutenant colonel standing next to a wooden table, leaning over the map above. He quickly took two steps forward and raised his hands to his forehead. , reported loudly: "Comrade Colonel, Second Lieutenant Samoilov, the guard platoon commander of the 73rd Infantry Brigade, reports to you!"
The colonel stood up straight, looked at Samoilov from head to toe, and asked coldly: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, which army group does the 73rd Infantry Brigade belong to? Why have I never heard of it?"
"Comrade Colonel," Samoylov stood up and replied respectfully: "Our brigade belongs to General Chuikov's 62nd Army. The brigade commander is Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, who is mainly responsible for the Mamayev Hills. defense."
After listening to Samoylov's words, the colonel showed a surprised expression on his face: "Since you are responsible for the defense of Mamayev Heights, why are you here?"
"That's it, Comrade Colonel." Samoylov explained to the other party: "Our brigade commander received an order from his superiors a few days ago, asking him to lead his troops northward to the Orlovka area and wait until The friendly forces outside the encirclement rushed in to join us. But after we arrived at Orlovka, we found that the friendly forces could not break through the enemy's defenses and rushed over to join us. At the same time, our retreat was also cut off by the Germans. In desperation, we Next, the brigade commander led us to implement a breakout operation."
The person who spoke this time was the lieutenant colonel next to him. He asked kindly: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, you said that your brigade commander led you to break out. Can you tell me where you broke out from?"
Samoilov glanced quickly at the map on the table and asked tentatively: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, can I point out the location of the breakout for you on the map?" After receiving permission, he came to the table He lowered his head and inspected carefully for a moment, pointed to the breakout position with his finger, and said, "Comrade commanders, this is where we broke out."
"What, protruding from this position?" When the two commanders saw clearly where Samoylov was pointing, they both exclaimed in unison: "This is impossible?"
The attitude of the two people confused Samoylov, but he quickly remembered the situation that the captain introduced to him on the road, and asked tentatively: "Two comrades, are you because there was a unit two days ago?" If the whole army is destroyed there, do you think it is impossible for us to break out from there?"
"Yes, Comrade Second Lieutenant, you are right, that's what I thought." The colonel did not hide his thoughts and said to Samoilov truthfully: "You know, in order to seize that high ground two days ago, we We packed a division in, but they couldn't even reach the top of the hillside. Therefore, I think it's incredible that you said we could break out from there."
"The division commander is right." As soon as the colonel finished speaking, the lieutenant colonel added: "The enemy's firepower point set up at a high place cannot be destroyed by our artillery fire. If we hit it close, the shells will fall on the hillside and explode; Far away, the cannonballs flew over the enemy's fortifications. As a result..."
"Chief of Staff, stop talking." Before the lieutenant colonel finished speaking, the colonel interrupted him and looked at Samoylov and continued to ask: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, tell me when you broke through the German defense line, What price did you pay?"
From the conversation between the two, Samoylov knew that the colonel was the division commander and the lieutenant colonel was his chief of staff. Seeing that the division commander was eager to know the situation of the battle, he answered truthfully: "Because we adopted sneak attack tactics and were assisted by tanks during the attack, the casualties of the troops were not large. It seemed that there were only casualties. More than thirty people!"
"What, only thirty casualties?" Samoilov's words left the two of them completely speechless. A position that could not be captured even with thousands of casualties was taken by this army with only more than thirty casualties. It made them feel ashamed and asked, "Is this true?"
"Of course it's true." Samoilov nodded and replied in a positive tone: "This kind of situation of achieving big results with small casualties is not uncommon in the battle cases of our 73rd Infantry Brigade."
From the tone of Samoilov's words, the colonel felt that the other party did not seem to be lying, so he put away his contempt for him and said politely: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, I am Colonel Korogotsky, commander of the 292nd Infantry Division. This is my chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Starcha. My division belongs to the 24th Army of the Don Front. Is there anything I can do for you?"
Only at this moment did Samoilov figure out the number of this unit. When he heard the other party asking if there was anything he could do for him, he quickly said: "Comrade Colonel, the brigade commander ordered me to come and look for friendly troops so that we can Can rendezvous with friendly forces as soon as possible..."
Before he finished speaking, a telephone on the table rang. The chief of staff quickly picked up the phone and said: "This is the headquarters of the 292nd Infantry Division. Where are you from?...Hello, Comrade Commander, what are your instructions?" As he spoke, his eyebrows suddenly raised, and then he glanced at Samoilov in surprise, and then said, "Yes, the 73rd Infantry Brigade sent us. Liaison officer, he is in our command post at the moment, do you want to talk to him?...Okay, I will hand the microphone to him right away."
With that said, the chief of staff handed the microphone in his hand to Samoylov and said politely: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, the new commander of our group army, General Jia Xiaoning, wants to speak to you!"
Knowing that the commander of the group army wanted to speak to him, Samoilov couldn't help but feel a little nervous. He took the microphone from the chief of staff and said in a panic: "Hello, comrade general, I am the guard platoon leader of the 73rd Infantry Brigade. Lieutenant Samoilov, do you have any instructions?"
"Hello, Comrade Second Lieutenant." Jia Xiaoning did not talk to him in a arrogant tone just because the person he was talking to was a Second Lieutenant. Instead, he asked politely: "I have received a message from the Commander of the Front Army. General Rokossovsky’s phone call. I learned that your troops have broken out of the encirclement and are planning to send troops to meet you. Can you tell me where your troops are now?"
