With Yegor as their guide, Sokov and the others accelerated their progress. It took less than five minutes to arrive at a half-collapsed building. Sokov looked around and asked Yegor, who was standing in front of him: "Lieutenant, is your battalion command post here?"
"Yes." Yegor nodded and pointed to the ground with his hand: "The battalion commander's command post is in the basement below us."
Sokov looked down and saw that there was a row of transom windows slightly above the ground near the street, which should be the basement where the battalion headquarters was located. He raised his head and asked Yegor: "Lieutenant, are there several exits from the basement?"
"Two!" Yegor raised two fingers and explained to Sokov: "There are two units in this building. In order to hide the troops, the battalion commander has ordered people to open the basements of the two units. …”
"It's not enough to open up the basements of the two units." Sokov waited for Yegor to finish, then shook his head and said: "The exits from the basement are all inside the building. Once the enemy's artillery fire collapses the building, You'll be trapped in the basement."
After settling the accompanying soldiers, Sokov and Seryosha followed Yegor into the building. There were many soldiers sitting in the corridor. They were leaning against the wall with their eyes closed and concentrating. When they heard footsteps coming from outside, they found that Yegor came in with an officer. They all stood up and paid attention to the visitors.
"Hello, comrades!" Seeing that his arrival had alarmed the soldiers in the corridor, Sokov quickly stopped and raised his hand to greet them: "Thank you for your hard work!"
The soldiers only knew that a commander was coming. They never dreamed that the person coming was actually the division commander. After a brief silence, everyone shouted in unison: "Hello, division commander!"
Sokov shook hands with the soldiers present one by one, chatted briefly with them, and finally said: "Comrades, if you continue to fight the enemy after dawn, you should rest early." After sitting down to rest, Sokov followed Yegor into the basement.
Andrei, who was busy, saw Sokov walking in. He quickly stepped forward, raised his hand in salute, and then reported respectfully: "Comrade division commander, the commander of the new third battalion, Captain Andrei, reports to you, You are welcome to come to my place to inspect the work.”
"Comrade Captain, how is the situation here?" Sokov went straight to the table, pulled a wooden stool and sat down, looked up at Andre and asked: "Has the enemy launched a large-scale attack on you? ah?"
"No, Comrade Division Commander." Andre shook his head and replied: "The enemy continuously launched attacks on us and suffered heavy losses, so they adjusted their deployment and no longer attacked with large units, but with squads and platoons as units. , using infiltration tactics to compete with us for position."
"The enemy is not a fool. When they see that one tactic cannot work, they will definitely use new tactics to deal with you." Sokov asked with a normal expression: "Comrade Captain, what tactics did you use to deal with it?"
"Comrade Division Commander," Andre replied: "We are using the tactics you proposed before to deal with this German penetration tactic!"
Andrei's words confused Sokov, and he asked in confusion: "The tactics I proposed? Comrade Captain, are you mistaken? When did I propose new tactics to you?"
"Comrade Commander, have you forgotten?" Seeing Sokov's confused look, Andrei quickly explained to him: "You once told us how to fight street fighting. Arrange snipers on the streets where the enemy must pass. Hands, machine gunners and anti-tank fighters, use snipers to kill important targets, use machine guns to shoot groups of enemies, and use anti-tank fighters to blow up enemy tanks... The enemy is helpless in the face of our defense, and they have to stop In order to attack, they took gestures against us..."
When Sokov heard this, he couldn't help but interjected and asked: "It was precisely because of the enemy's gesture that you asked Vasily and the others to form a sniper team to eliminate the lone enemy."
"Actually, the sniper unit was not formed by me, but by Vasily." Andrei was not a person who liked to take credit for his subordinates. He reported truthfully to Sokov: "He came to the camp in person. The department and I studied for an hour and decided to form a sniper team, mainly the soldiers who stayed in the Vasily Building. Then we selected sharpshooters from each squad to form a sniper team, hiding in every corner of the defense zone, and sniping out. The Germans are now in sight.”
"Your results are very good." Sokov couldn't help but ask, thinking of the astonishing record of killing more than 400 German soldiers in three days: "Among so many sniper groups, is there anyone who performed particularly well?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander."
"who is it?"
"Zina and Susanna from the guard company." After Andre finished speaking, he asked tentatively: "Comrade division commander, do you need me to call them over?"
Hearing the names of the two women, Sokov was curious about who the other party was, so he nodded and agreed to Andre's proposal. While Andrei sent someone to call Zina and Susanna, Sokov turned and asked Seryosha who was standing next to him: "Seryosa, what's going on with these two female soldiers?"
"Misha, why have you forgotten that these two female soldiers joined in Kursk?" Seryosha leaned close to Sokov's ear and whispered: "Their marksmanship is good, and they are very good with friendly comrades." They even beat each other in a shooting competition.”
After Seryozha reminded him, Sokov really remembered the two female soldiers, and said "Oh", "It turns out it's the two of them. I really didn't expect that they would actually come to the New Third Battalion." Come."
"You were recuperating in the medical team at the time, and all matters in the brigade were under the responsibility of Colonel Vitkov, who was sent by your superiors." Seryosha explained: "So the two of them went to the third battalion with the authorization of Colonel Vitkov. of."
Not long after, two heroic female soldiers walked in from outside. When they saw Sokov sitting at the table, they couldn't help showing surprised expressions on their faces. Zina quickly stepped forward, raised her hand to salute Sokov, and asked excitedly: "Comrade Commander, why are you here?"
"I came to inspect the third battalion. I happened to hear that you two were here, so I asked Captain Andre to call you over to meet." Sokov raised his hand and looked at the two female soldiers and asked with interest. : "Are you used to life here?"
"There's just no place to take a bath, and I feel a little uncomfortable." As soon as Sokov finished asking the question, Zina blurted out, "It would be nice if I could take a bath somewhere."
When Sokov heard Zina mention taking a bath, he remembered a movie about the defense of Stalingrad that he watched in later generations. A group of Soviet soldiers who defended a building went outside to find the heroine in order to let her take a bath. A bathtub filled with water. This kind of thing was easy to do in peacetime, but those soldiers spent a lot of effort to complete it.
But before Sokov could say anything, Susanna pulled Ratina's sleeve with her hand and said to Sokov with a smile: "Comrade Commander, Zina is talking nonsense. There is no condition for taking a bath in front of you." .”
Andrei, who was next to him, was deeply afraid that Sokov would blame the female soldier, so he quickly came out to smooth things over: "Ever since the enemy blew up the water tower on Mamayev Hill, the city's water supply has been completely cut off."
"The water supply was interrupted?" If Andre didn't mention this, Sokov really hadn't considered how the residents in the city would solve their domestic water problems. He quickly asked: "What about the residents who stayed in the city? To solve the water shortage problem?”
"The tap water supply was cut off, so residents could only go to nearby rivers or wells to fetch water. Fortunately, there are several small streams leading to the Volga River in the city, otherwise the residents would not even be able to drink water." Andre finally added, "Comrade division commander, depending on the weather, it may snow tonight. Snow accumulation can also alleviate residents' water difficulties to a certain extent."
After Sokov and Andre chatted for a while, he saw that the two female soldiers were still standing at attention, so he waved his hands towards each other and said: "Zina, Susanna, since we are all acquaintances, there is no need to be so restrained. , everyone, sit down. I also want to hear about the results of your battles."
"Comrade division commander, you may not have thought of it." As soon as Sokov asked about the results of the two female snipers, Andre said excitedly: "In the battle yesterday, the two of them killed almost twenty An enemy."
"What, you two killed almost twenty enemies?" Sokov's face showed a surprised expression: "This is simply unbelievable."
"Susanna," Andre turned to look at Susanna and said to her with a smile: "Report to the comrade the division commander on how you eliminated the enemy yesterday."
Susanna agreed and began to report to Sokov: "Yesterday morning, after Zina and I accepted the mission, we hid in the ruins of a street in the north. ... By noon, there was a three-wheeled vehicle A motorcycle drove down the street. There were three German soldiers on the car, one of whom was an officer sitting in a sidecar. Seeing the enemies entering the shooting range a little bit, Zina asked me for instructions, who should I shoot first?
I looked at the surrounding terrain. There were bricks and rubble everywhere. Once we fired, the enemy who was not hit would jump out of the car and hide in the nearby ruins, making it difficult for us to eliminate him. So after a brief thought, I told Zina to shoot first at the German soldier sitting behind the motorcyclist and the German officer already sitting in the sidecar. "
"Susanna, why did you make this choice?" Seryosha heard this and couldn't help but interrupt and asked: "Can you tell me your reasons?"
Susanna nodded and continued: "If we shoot at the rider driving the motorcycle first, the motorcycle will lose control, causing the bullet fired by the other shooter to miss the target. And we directly shoot at the soldiers behind the rider, as well as those sitting on the motorcycle. The officer in the sidecar will not cause the car to change easily, so that we will have enough time to kill the driver calmly after completing the first shot."
"Well, it makes sense." After listening to Susanna's explanation, Seryozha felt that it made sense. After nodding his head several times, he urged the other party: "Susana, please continue."
"The tap water supply was cut off, so residents could only go to nearby rivers or wells to fetch water. Fortunately, there are several small streams leading to the Volga River in the city, otherwise the residents would not even be able to drink water." Andre finally added, "Comrade division commander, depending on the weather, it may snow tonight. Snow accumulation can also alleviate residents' water difficulties to a certain extent."
After Sokov and Andre chatted for a while, he saw that the two female soldiers were still standing at attention, so he waved his hands towards each other and said: "Zina, Susanna, since we are all acquaintances, there is no need to be so restrained. , everyone, sit down. I also want to hear about the results of your battles."
"Comrade division commander, you may not have thought of it." As soon as Sokov asked about the results of the two female snipers, Andre said excitedly: "In the battle yesterday, the two of them killed almost twenty An enemy."
"What, you two killed almost twenty enemies?" Sokov's face showed a surprised expression: "This is simply unbelievable."
"Susanna," Andre turned to look at Susanna and said to her with a smile: "Report to the comrade the division commander on how you eliminated the enemy yesterday."
Susanna agreed and began to report to Sokov: "Yesterday morning, after Zina and I accepted the mission, we hid in the ruins of a street in the north. ... By noon, there was a three-wheeled vehicle A motorcycle drove down the street. There were three German soldiers on the car, one of whom was an officer sitting in a sidecar. Seeing the enemies entering the shooting range a little bit, Zina asked me for instructions, who should I shoot first?
I looked at the surrounding terrain. There were bricks and rubble everywhere. Once we fired, the enemy who was not hit would jump out of the car and hide in the nearby ruins, making it difficult for us to eliminate him. So after a brief thought, I told Zina to shoot first at the German soldier sitting behind the motorcyclist and the German officer already sitting in the sidecar. "
"Susanna, why did you make this choice?" Seryosha heard this and couldn't help but interrupt and asked: "Can you tell me your reasons?"
Susanna nodded and continued: "If we shoot at the rider driving the motorcycle first, the motorcycle will lose control, causing the bullet fired by the other shooter to miss the target. And we directly shoot at the soldiers behind the rider, as well as those sitting on the motorcycle. The officer in the sidecar will not cause the car to change easily, so that we will have enough time to kill the driver calmly after completing the first shot."
"Well, it makes sense." After listening to Susanna's explanation, Seryozha felt that it made sense. After nodding his head several times, he urged the other party: "Susana, please continue."
"Well, it makes sense." After listening to Susanna's explanation, Seryozha felt that it made sense. After nodding his head several times, he urged the other party: "Susana, please continue."
