After the soldiers in the cabin escaped, they were quickly transferred to two other barges by soldiers from the guard battalion using armored boats. As the load on the ship decreased, the barge, which was sinking, stopped sinking. A sailor who escaped from the cabin, after some inspections, believed that the barge would not sink for the time being and could continue to travel, so he sent a signal to the tugboats in front to let them continue moving forward without stopping to regroup.
An hour later, the fleet docked near the north post of Mamayev Hill. The sailors on the barge lowered the gangplank and prepared for the soldiers to disembark. At this moment, Sokov received a call from the headquarters. Krylov said briefly on the phone: "Colonel Sokov, come to the headquarters immediately. The commander is convening an emergency military meeting."
"Comrade Division Commander, I guess it has something to do with tomorrow's counterattack." Belgin learned that Krylov informed Sokov to attend the meeting, and quickly urged him: "Go quickly, the soldiers of the Guards Division are settling down for work. I will check it myself."
Sokov hurried to the army headquarters with several soldiers. As soon as he entered the door, he saw that many people were already sitting at the table in the room. Chuikov, who was talking, saw Sokov coming in and quickly waved to him and said: "Colonel Sokov, come and sit down quickly. Our Everyone is here, I’m just waiting for you.”
After Sokov sat down on Krylov's left, Chuikov pointed to the colonel sitting on Sokov's left and introduced him: "Colonel Sokov, let me introduce to you, this is your Deputy Division Commander Colonel Ivanov.”
When he learned that the unsmiling, dark-skinned colonel sitting next to him was the original commander of the 41st Guards Division, Sokov quickly stood up, reached out to him, and politely said: "Hello, Ivan Colonel Nove, nice to meet you!"
"Hello, comrade division commander." Ivanov also stood up, took Sokov's extended hand, and said in a polite and distant tone: "I'm glad to fight alongside you."
"You know Colonel Gurdiev, the commander of the 308th Infantry Division, so I won't introduce him to you alone." Chuikov waited for Sokov and Ivanov to finish shaking hands, and then pointed to the man sitting opposite him. A colonel said: "This is Colonel Gorishny, commander of the 95th Infantry Division."
After Sokov shook hands with Gurdiev and Gorishny respectively, Chuikov continued: "The counterattack launched tomorrow morning will involve your three divisions. Now I ask the chief of staff, General Krylov I’ll assign you a task.”
After Chuikov finished speaking, Krylov stood up and walked to the wall, pointed at the map on the wall with his explanatory stick, and said to Sokov: "Colonel Sokov, let me first introduce to you the combat mission of your division: you After attacking from Mayev Hill, we must quickly break through the enemy's two lines of defense and find a way to capture the Razgulyaevka concession station in the shortest possible time, as well as the areas extending southwest from the station. to the section of railway that turns to Gunlak. In this way, the central battle line can be straightened, and relying on the anti-tank obstacle of the railway embankment, our army can seize Gorogish and Alexandrovka. , create favorable conditions.…”
After introducing the mission to Sokov, Krylov assigned combat missions to Gurdiev and Gorishny. Ivanov tilted his head, leaned close to Sokov's ear, and asked in a low voice: "Comrade division commander, the task given to us by our superiors is too simple. It only takes us two or three hours at most to complete the task. Look, Should we ask our superiors to give us more tasks?"
"Colonel Ivanov." Sokov did not want to waste too many troops in this meaningless counterattack, so he answered Ivanov's question calmly: "What did the superiors arrange for us?" Let’s just carry out the task and don’t make any more unnecessary mistakes.”
After Krylov finished arranging the combat tasks of each division, he returned to the table and sat down. He nodded to Chuikov and signaled that he would give him the right to speak next. Chuikov, who understood everything, stood up, glanced at the subordinates sitting around the table one by one, and asked: "Comrade commanders, the mission is clear, do you have any questions?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Gorishny stood up and asked: "Comrade Commander, I would like to ask, will the superiors provide us with artillery preparations before the attack? Also, can our troops receive artillery fire preparations during the attack?" Is the air force and tanks cooperating?”
After hearing Gorishny's series of questions, Chuikov and Krylov looked at each other, and both saw helplessness in each other's eyes. Chuikov coughed lightly and said: "Before your attack begins, our artillery deployed on the left bank will provide you with half an hour of artillery preparations. After the attack begins, the troops attacking from the Red October Factory will receive other The support of Colonel Lei's tank battalion. As for air support, I'm sorry to say that due to various reasons, our air force is not yet able to regain air supremacy from the enemy's air force."
"Comrade Division Commander," Ivanov couldn't help but become anxious after hearing Chuikov's answer to Gorishny. He once again leaned into Sokov's ear and whispered: "We have no air cover, and when the infantry attacks, How can we fight this battle without the support of tanks? How can we fight it?”
Perhaps because Ivanov was too excited, the voices behind him became more and more frequent, so much so that even Chuikov heard it. Chuikov glanced at Ivanov, then turned his attention to Sokov, and asked: "Colonel Sokov, have you thought about how to attack?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander." After hearing Chuikov's question, Sokov quickly stood up and replied: "I plan to divide the troops into two echelons, with the Guards Regiment as the first echelon and attack the enemy. The position was launched to attack; and the 125th Guards Regiment served as the second echelon. When the first echelon troops broke through the enemy's defense line, the second echelon took over the defense..."
In front of everyone, Sokov only talked about the cooperation between the first and second echelons in the battle, and did not mention at all that one of the regiments would be brought back to assist in defense. Chuikov couldn't help interrupting what Sokov was saying: "Colonel Sokov, I have been listening to you for a long time. You have been talking about how to use the three regiments of the 41st Guards Division. The shrinking regiment in Mayevgan, but he has no intention of letting them participate in the battle. What on earth is going on?"
"That's it, Comrade Commander." Seeing Chuikov's eyes full of confusion, Ivanov's face turned livid. Sokov felt that he needed to explain it in public, lest Ivanov think that It's not good if he deliberately consumes his troops: "We all know that whoever occupies Mamafgan can control the entire city, factory area and Volga River. In order to achieve this goal, the enemy will not hesitate to sacrifice the lives of soldiers. and weapons and ammunition, launching attacks again and again against our defensive positions.
The commanders and fighters of the downsized regiment have been fighting the enemy on this highland for three full months. They have rich defense experience and know what to do to block the enemy's attack. Therefore, I'm not going to throw them into a counterattack that has little chance of winning. "
"Colonel Sokov!" As soon as Sokov's words came out, Gorishny retorted loudly: "How did you say that? What is a counterattack with no chance of winning? Don't you think highly of this plan formulated by your superiors at all? A counterattack plan?"
"Yes, Colonel Gorishny." Sokov looked at the other party and said in a neither humble nor condescending manner: "I am indeed not optimistic about this counterattack, but since the superior has issued a counterattack order, I will still carry it out unconditionally and find a way to obtain Greater results."
Hearing Sokov's answer, Gorishny became a little anxious: "You are talking about defeatism..."
"Colonel Sokov, this idea of yours is completely wrong." A familiar voice came from the door. Everyone turned to look. After seeing clearly that the speaker was Khrushchev, they all stood up from their seats. . Just listen to Khrushchev continue: "Without the support of air force and artillery, launching a local counterattack against the enemy, the probability of victory is indeed low. But why do we continue to carry out counterattacks against the enemy? Just to disrupt them Their offensive deployment prevented them from launching uninterrupted attacks on us as planned, thus buying us precious time to consolidate our defenses and gather our forces."
After hearing what Khrushchev said, Sokov quickly admitted his mistake: "I'm sorry, Comrade Military Commissar, I was wrong. I will definitely reflect on it deeply..."
"Okay, stop saying these useless words." Khrushchev guessed that Sokov didn't really admit his mistake and didn't want to listen to his nonsense, so he interrupted him and asked: "You guys Are you all ready to attack?"
"Before I came to the headquarters, the fleet carrying the commanders and fighters of the 41st Guards Division had just arrived at the north post of Mamayev Ridge and had not had time to disembark." When Sokov said this, he couldn't help but look at Yi next to him. Vanov took a look and said cautiously: "If we hurry up and launch the attack on time, there should be no problem."
Khrushchev walked up to Ivanov, stopped, looked him up and down, and asked with concern: "Comrade Colonel, the fleet you are traveling in was shelled by the enemy on the road. I heard that there was a A barge was hit by artillery fire, how is it? Are there any heavy casualties among the commanders and crew on board?"
"Comrade Military Commissar," Ivanov faced Khrushchev, straightened his body and replied: "The barge was hit by four artillery shells, one of which penetrated the deck, fell in the cabin and exploded, causing 13 29 people were killed and 29 injured. In addition, the only hatch was damaged by a shell, causing all the commanders and combatants to be trapped in the cabin. If the commander had not sent people to rescue in time, it is estimated that hundreds of commanders and combatants on the ship would have died. They will all sink to the bottom of the Volga River with the barges."
"Comrade Colonel," Khrushchev patted Ivanov gently twice on the shoulder and continued: "Keep in mind the blood debt owed by the Germans to you, and you must pay them tribute in tomorrow's battle. Let’s get this blood debt back.”
"Don't worry!" Ivanov expressed his stance to Khrushchev with a solemn expression: "Our commanders and fighters will definitely teach the Germans an unforgettable lesson in tomorrow's battle."
