The repulse of the German attack was originally a happy thing, but for Belkin and the troops under his command, it was another matter. After finally deploying the troops, the commanders and soldiers were gearing up and preparing for a good fight with the Germans. Unexpectedly, before the enemy came close to the position, they were beaten by a barrage of artillery fire from the rear and fled in panic. They didn't even have the chance to fire a shot. No.
When seeing the enemy's retreat, the company commanders of each company called Belkin one after another to ask for a fight, saying that since the attacking enemy had been repulsed, should we take the opportunity to launch a counterattack and take back the lost areas in the factory from the enemy's hands? .
Although Belkin rejected this unrealistic request, he felt that the setback of the German offensive was indeed a good opportunity to counterattack, so he called Sokov: "Misha, Germany The human attack was repelled by our artillery. Do you think we should take some action?"
Sokov and Belkin have been working together for a long time, so he naturally understands that the action the other party is talking about is definitely not for the soldiers to line up in a neat formation and charge at the enemy with guns in hand, but for a night attack or something like that. Then he asked: "Comrade Political Commissar, do you plan to use the night to launch a counterattack for the enemy?"
"Counterattack does not count." Belkin replied: "I just plan to let the soldiers use the sewers to approach the area occupied by the enemy, and then throw a few grenades and the like to prevent them from sleeping well at night."
"Your idea is good." Sokov replied with a smile: "Comrade Political Commissar, according to your idea, after dark, let the soldiers use the sewers to approach the enemy-occupied area, then throw a few grenades everywhere to let them Get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom." Belkin laughed after hearing this, then put down the phone and assigned tasks to the company commanders.
Lyudnikov, who was sitting opposite Sokov, looked at Sokov in confusion and asked puzzledly: "Colonel Sokov, what do you mean by letting the Germans get up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night? ?”
"Oh, this is a joke between the political commissar and I." Sokov explained to the other party: "It is to send troops to carry out night attacks on the enemy so that they will not be able to sleep well at night."
"So that's what happened." After listening to Sokov's words, Lyudnikov nodded slightly, and then asked tentatively: "I want to ask, since you want to carry out a night attack on the enemy, can you Take the opportunity to regain some lost positions.”
"I'm sorry, Comrade Colonel." Seeing Lyudnikov looking at him expectantly, Sokov replied apologetically: "To recapture the lost positions from the enemy's hands is indeed nothing to us. Big problem. But after we capture it, we must divide our forces to defend it. Do you think we have enough troops now to defend more positions?"
Regarding Sokov's question, Lyudnikov was silent for a long time, and finally shook his head and replied with difficulty: "Our troops are only enough to hold on to the current area. If we have to divide our troops to guard, the strength of the troops everywhere will change." If they are weak, they may be defeated by the Germans one by one."
Seeing that Lyudnikov could understand the current situation of the army so clearly, Sokov was surprised. He had thought that the other party would be stubborn and insisted on regaining the lost positions, and even prepared a series of events in his mind. Rhetoric to convince Lyudnikov. Unexpectedly, the other party did not insist on regaining the position, and the words he had prepared were of no use.
However, in order to appease the other party, he reorganized the vocabulary in his mind and said to Lyudnikov: "Comrade Colonel, after a long period of offensive, the Germans also suffered a heavy loss of their troops. Don't look at it now They occupied most of the factory areas, but in order to defend these places, they had to disperse their forces. As a result, every place was guarded by troops, and every place faced a shortage of troops. As for us, we used all our forces to Concentrating on this small area, we can launch an attack on the Germans anywhere at any time and achieve the desired results..."
"Colonel Sokov," Lyudnikov asked thoughtfully after listening patiently to Sokov's words: "If we have the ability to restore the lost position but fail to do so, if our superiors find out, What will they do with us?"
"If we care too much about the gains and losses of a city or a place and use up all the troops we have, when the enemy launches another attack, where should we mobilize enough troops to defend these places? Countless sacrifices will be made by then. The positions captured by the commanders and fighters will be recaptured by the enemy." Sokov explained to Lyudnikov in a simple and easy-to-understand way the principle of "If you save people and lose land, everyone and land will be saved; if you save land and lose people, you will lose both people and land": " But if we voluntarily give up some positions and preserve our troops, when the counterattack begins, we can use these preserved troops to attack the enemy and regain the lost positions."
"Colonel Sokov, I have to say, what you said is very reasonable." Sokov's words obviously convinced Lyudnikov. After listening, he nodded and said: "Although this kind of tactics is different from what I used to say." The tactics you are familiar with are completely different, but it is obvious that the tactics you mentioned are more suitable for the situation at hand."
"Comrade Division Commander," while the two were talking, an officer came in from the door and reported to Lyudnikov: "Two strange tanks came from the south and were parked outside."
"A strange tank?" After listening to his subordinate's report, Lyudnikov asked strangely: "What a strange method?"
"Comrade division commander, I have never seen a tank like this before." The officer replied: "It is just an artillery mounted on the base of a tank..."
Before the officer finished speaking, Sokov jumped up from his seat. He grabbed the other person's arm and asked curiously: "Where is the strange tank you mentioned? Take me there quickly." Seeing the officer, With a blank look on his face, he said to Lyudnikov, who was also puzzled across from him, "It should be that the automatic artillery that Director Peter gave us has arrived."
After Lyudnikov figured out what was going on, he said to the officer: "Didn't you hear what Colonel Sokov said? Why don't you take him to see those two strange tanks?"
…………
After dark, Captain Paulkoski, the commander of the first company, led 20 soldiers and got into a sewer in the area he was defending. After entering the sewer, they were led by a guide and headed towards the location of the No. 6 production workshop.
The soldier who acted as the guide came from the Lyudnikov Division. His company had fought in the No. 6 Production Workshop and was familiar with the terrain there. Knowing that friendly forces would launch an attack on the enemy occupying Factory No. 6, he volunteered and took the initiative to serve as the guide for this small force.
On the way, he curiously asked Paulkoski: "Comrade Captain, there are at least more than a hundred Germans in Factory No. 6. Can you deal with them with just this small number of people?"
After listening to the guide's question, Paulkoski smiled and replied: "Comrade soldiers, if we were to attack them, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to squeeze enough people into their teeth. But now we are just going to sneak attack them and deal with them." There will be no problem.”
Paulkoski originally thought that he could successfully enter Factory Building No. 6 by following the sewer. Unexpectedly, as I walked, I suddenly discovered that the sewer in front of me had collapsed and the road was blocked by falling gravel. They tried to bypass the blocked area, but took several detours and found that the sewers leading to the factory were also blocked.
When he saw that the first sewer was blocked, Paulkoski thought it was shelling or bombing that caused the sewer to collapse. But seeing that all the sewers were blocked, he knew in his heart that the Germans were probably worried that the defenders would use the sewers for sneak attacks, so they blew up all the sewers leading to the defense area.
"Comrade Company Commander," seeing that the road was blocked, the soldiers following Paulkoski became a little anxious and asked Paulkoski in a low voice: "The road is blocked by the Germans. What should we do next?" ?”
"Comrade soldier," Paulkoski turned to ask the guide: "How far is our location from the defensive position outside the factory?"
The guide did not speak. He climbed out from a gap nearby and observed for a while, then climbed back and reported to Paulkoski: "Comrade Captain, there is still about a hundred meters away from the enemy's position."
"More than a hundred meters away." After hearing the distance mentioned by the guide, Paulkoski began to think about it. It was obviously unrealistic to drop bombs towards the enemy's position from such a long distance. Although the grenades currently equipped are custom-made by the division commander from the Red October Factory and are lighter than commonly used grenades, it is obviously impossible to throw them a hundred meters away. In order to blow up the enemy, they must get closer. Thinking of this, he said to his men: "Comrades, the sewer leading to the enemy's position has been blocked by the enemy. If we want to complete the mission, we can only return to the ground and get close to the enemy's position before dropping bombs."
The difficulty of the task increased, and Paulkosky felt it was necessary to report the situation immediately so that Belkin could grasp the true situation in the factory. He quickly ordered the accompanying telegraph operator to send a report to the regiment headquarters and report to Belkin that the sewers near the German positions were blocked.
The telegram soon appeared in Belkin's hand. After reading the telegram, he looked up at the regiment's chief of staff, Captain Vanya, and asked: "Comrade chief of staff, in addition to the situation where the sewers are blocked in the first company, the other two How is the situation of the company?"
"Comrade Commander, I have not received telegrams from the other two companies yet." Vanya replied respectfully: "But according to the situation reported by the first company, the enemy may have been on guard against our possible use of the sewers. We sneaked into their defense area and made a sneak attack, then blew up the sewers near the defense area to prevent us from using the sewers to enter their defense area."
"Is there any solution?" Belkin asked.
If this was the case near Mamayev Heights, Vanya would certainly not hesitate to persuade Belkin to cancel the night attack plan. But now they are at the barricade factory. Not only Sokov knows about the night attack plan, but also the friendly division commander Lyudnikov knows that if the sewer is blocked and the troops cannot enter the enemy's defense area according to the original plan, they will directly If I cancel my plan, I'm afraid I will be laughed at.
It was out of this consideration that after thinking about it, Vanya replied: "Comrade Commander, I think we should call back the team that carried out the sneak attack mission. Since the sewer is blocked by the enemy, we should approach the enemy from the ground." position, according to the original plan, we threw grenades and then retreated."
"Well, that's it." Belkin nodded and replied: "Call back the team immediately and ask them to carry out a sneak attack on the enemy according to the original plan. No unauthorized withdrawal is allowed before the mission is completed."
Vanya agreed and was about to tell the operator to send the report. But he quickly remembered something and asked Belkin tentatively: "Comrade commander, the enemy situation in the factory has changed. Do I need to report to the division commander?"
"No. There is no need to tell the division commander about such a small matter." Belkin waved his hand at him and said: "When the small team we sent completes the task and reports the results, just mention this to him."
Paulkoski knew that no matter what accident happened, the sneak attack mission assigned to him by the regiment would be impossible to cancel, so he climbed out of the sewer with the members of the squad without waiting for a call back from the regiment. After leaving the sewer, he called a sergeant and told him: "Comrade Sergeant, you stay with three soldiers to serve as security here. Once we retreat and the Germans catch up, you must be responsible for covering us." We retreat, do you understand?”
"Understood, comrade company commander." The sergeant replied quickly: "We will definitely cover your retreat."
I saw the sergeant leading three soldiers into two nearby bomb craters, setting up their submachine guns, and aiming at the German positions in the distance. Paulkoski nodded and led the remaining soldiers to crawl towards the enemy's position.
When he was still about twenty meters away from the enemy's position, Paulkoski made a gesture to order the soldiers to stop. He listened to the trench not far away and found that it was quiet inside, with no movement at all. He quickly grabbed a soldier next to him, leaned close to his ear and whispered in his ear: "Go to the trench and see what is going on inside, and why there is no movement from the enemy at all."
The soldier agreed softly and quickly crawled toward the enemy's position on his hands and feet. When he reached the edge of the trench, he carefully poked his head in and took a look. Seeing that there were no enemies in the trench, he turned over and jumped in. He then carefully searched along the trench with his gun.
After waiting for about two or three minutes, Paulkoski saw the soldier running out of the trench again. He did not crawl towards him, but bent over and trotted over. The soldier ran to Paulkoski and squatted down, reporting in a low voice: "Comrade company commander, I looked carefully and there is no enemy in the trench, and I don't know where they are hiding."
