After Copetu led his men to jump into the trench, he said to Yefim in a reproachful tone: "Comrade soldier, what are you shouting for? Are you worried that the enemy will not discover our whereabouts?"
"No, squad leader." Yefim quickly waved his hands and explained to Copetuo: "We have carefully checked the trenches and found no trace of the enemy. It seems that they have given up here."
"What, the enemy has abandoned this place?" Coppet thought he heard wrongly, and asked specifically: "Are you sure?"
"Yes." Yefim nodded vigorously and replied: "We just found a German command post. It was a mess and there was no one inside."
In order to find out what was going on, Kopetuo quickly told Yefim: "Take me to see it quickly."
In a short time, Kopetuo followed Yefim to a headquarters. From the cigarette butts and chocolate wrappers thrown on the ground, he judged that this was at least a battalion-level command post. Judging from the scattered papers on the ground, the Germans were moving very quickly. Although he didn't understand what happened, he felt that he should report the matter to his superiors immediately.
Belkin received the telegram sent by Kopetu from the front and learned that the German army had disappeared without a trace. He also felt strange, so he called Sokov and reported the matter to him.
"What the heck, the Germans ran away." As soon as Sokov put down the phone, he said to Sidorin and Ivanov: "They ran really fast."
"What on earth is going on?" Ivanov did not connect the disappearance of the German troops with the Soviet army's centripetal attack on the Gumlak area, so he asked strangely: "How could the enemy retreat for no reason? Woolen cloth?"
"Comrade Deputy Division Commander, have you forgotten that not long ago, the commander told us that the friendly forces on the periphery were being ordered to carry out a centripetal attack on the Gumlak area." Sokov reminded the other party: "The 24th German Army The disappearance of the armored division may be related to this incident."
"Yes, I think so too." Sidorin promptly supported Sokov's statement. But he was also confused about the whereabouts of the German army: "But where will the German 24th Armored Division withdraw?"
Sokov was not a god, nor was he a roundworm in Paulus' belly, so he naturally could not guess where the 24th Armored Division had withdrawn. Hearing Sidorin's question, he shook his head slightly and said: "However, where has the German 24th Armored Division withdrawn, but I know that they will no longer attack the Belkin regiment's defense in a short period of time." Launch a new offensive in the zone.”
Sidorin and Ivanov were originally worried about whether the Belkin regiment could block the German attack. Now they heard that the enemy would not launch new attacks in a short time, and they couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief. In this way, there is no need to consider where to deploy troops to strengthen the defense of the right wing.
After a while, Sidorin asked tentatively: "Comrade division commander, since the Germans have retreated, should the Belkin regiment be allowed to occupy the positions abandoned by the Germans?"
"No need." Sokov shook his head and said: "We don't have that many troops now. If the Belkin regiment is allowed to occupy the positions abandoned by the enemy, their existing troops will be dispersed. Once the Germans Launching a new attack would put them in a very dangerous situation."
After Sokov finished speaking, he felt that he should explain it to Belkin personally, lest the other party get mad and send troops to occupy the positions abandoned by the German army. After dialing the phone, he said into the phone: "My comrade political commissar, according to our analysis, the 24th Armored Division in front of you should have retreated. As for the positions they gave up, my opinion is not to occupy them for the time being. So as not to scatter your forces."
"I understand." Before Sokov called, Belkin was also worried about whether to occupy the positions abandoned by the Germans. Don't occupy it. All the officers and soldiers are panicking. They feel that it would be a pity not to eat this big piece of fat in front of them. But we must send troops to occupy it. Once the only troops in the regiment are scattered, the defenses everywhere will be destroyed. Strength will become weak. If the German army launches a counterattack, it can use various attack tactics to break through its own defenses. Now that Sokov has expressed his stance, Belkin naturally agreed: "For the time being, we will not send troops to occupy the positions abandoned by the German army."
After Ivanov watched Sokov finish the phone call, he kindly reminded him: "Comrade division commander, I think this matter needs to be reported to the commander. Otherwise, he saw such a large area and you didn't send troops to recover it." , I’m afraid there will be bad associations.”
Although Sokov's position is not low, he is still too young, lacks a lot of life experience, and still has many shortcomings in handling things. Hearing Ivanov's reminder at this moment, he immediately realized that he had almost made a big mistake again, and quickly asked the communications soldier to connect the phone to the headquarters, preparing to report the matter to Chuikov personally.
Chuikov received a call from Sokov and learned that the German 24th Armored Division had retreated and was missing. He was shocked and immediately asked: "Colonel Sokov, since the German army has retreated, have you taken any action?" ?”
"No, Comrade Commander." Sokov replied respectfully: "I ordered the troops to stay on the current position and not to take any action."
"What, you let the troops stay on the existing position and not take any action?" Chuikov couldn't help but become anxious when he heard this: "Since the German army has voluntarily abandoned its position, the first thing you should do is send The troops go to occupy the position and control as much area as possible in the hands of our army. Do you understand?"
"Comrade Commander, please listen to my explanation." Sokov didn't want to occupy more land, but he had limited troops and could only choose to give up appropriately: "If I order the drawdown regiment to garrison the positions abandoned by the Germans, then Their overall defense force will become weak due to the expansion of their defense zone. Once the German army launches a counterattack, the troops of the reduced regiment may be defeated by the enemy one by one. By then, I am afraid that regardless of the newly occupied position, even the original position will be lost. Our position may also be lost.”
"Don't you still have three regiments?" Chuikov may have heard that Sokov had no intention of sending troops to occupy those positions, and felt very unhappy: "If necessary, they can be sent over to support the shrinking regiment."
"Comrade Commander, our friendly forces have cut off the German army's retreat." Sokov was worried that Chuikov would really move the three frontal defense regiments to the right flank of Mamayev Hill on a whim, so he reminded him: " When the enemy is cornered, they will inevitably consider returning here, and they will try to regain their lost positions. By then, there may be a fierce battle in the Mamayev Hills area. If our army does not have enough troops, we may suffer If you lose, the position you just captured may be lost again.”
"You are still thoughtful." After Sokov's analysis, Chuikov immediately realized that he had thought of the problem too simply: "Well, just as you said, the drawdown regiment will stick to the existing position. Positions abandoned by the Germans will not be occupied for the time being."
After obtaining Chuikov's permission, Sokov finally breathed a sigh of relief. After he put down the phone, he said to Sidorin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, our next focus of work should be on the three towers in front of Mamaev Hill. According to my guess, the German army will launch another attack on us in less than two days."
"No way." Sidorin was skeptical about Sokov's statement: "The German 71st Infantry Division suffered heavy losses from us. Even if they were allowed to launch a counterattack, I guess they wouldn't have the strength. .”
"Comrade Chief of Staff, never underestimate the enemy." Seeing that Sidorin underestimated the strength of the German army, Sokov reminded him: "Yes, the 71st Infantry Division was indeed crippled by us. But the German army still has several more With the strength of one division, even if they bring in another division, do you think we can stop them with our current strength?"
Sidorin thought for a while, then shook his head and said, "I think it can't be stopped."
When Ivanov heard this, he couldn't help but blush. In any case, the other three Guards regiments were all his old subordinates, but in Sokov's heart, they seemed to be inferior to the dissatisfied troops such as the downsizing regiment. Not on. He coughed lightly and said, "Comrade division commander, what do you think we should do to stop the German attack?"
"Still the same sentence, seize the time to repair the fortifications and establish a complete defense system before the German attack begins." Sokov specifically emphasized: "Now we have three lines of defense in front of Mamayev Hill, especially The second line of defense will be the focus of our defense.”
"Second line of defense?!" Sidorin and Ivanov couldn't help but look at each other when they heard what Sokov said. Neither of them understood what Sokov meant. Sidorin asked curiously: "Comrade Division Commander , why is it the second line of defense?”
"The enemy has powerful artillery fire. When they attack our division's defense line, they will definitely carry out intensive shelling, which will cause us huge casualties." Sokov explained to the two men: "The location of the second line of defense can Receive support from the artillery on the left bank. When necessary, artillery fire can be called to intercept the attacking enemy to reduce the pressure on our defenses."
"It makes sense, it makes sense." Sokov explained, and Ivanov remembered that during the last counterattack, Sokov had actively ordered the troops to stop the attack in time after occupying the second line of defense. This was to prevent the troops from not receiving artillery support from the left bank when attacking the third line of defense, but also being exposed to German artillery shells. He took the initiative and said: "I will go to the front in person later and instruct the three regiment leaders to focus on strengthening the second line of defense."
"Comrade Commander," Sidorin waited for Ivanov to finish his statement and then asked, "Do we need to take any action to cooperate with the actions of friendly forces?"
"Cooperate with the actions of friendly forces?" Hearing Sidorin's question, Sokov was really dumbfounded: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the peripheral troops are still dozens of kilometers away from us. They have to break through the layers of German defenses and reach us. It will still take a long time here. As for the defenders in the city, they are still very weak and can only carry out some small-scale counterattacks, which is not of much help to our defense here.
Our current task is to consolidate the defense line. As long as we can hold our position and wait until supplies and soldiers from the left bank are continuously transported across the river, we can shift from the current defensive state to the offensive. Do you understand? "
"What about the small team that was originally scheduled to be sent to the Gumlak area?" Sidorin continued to ask: "Will it still be sent out?"
"Of course we have to send it." Sokov nodded and said: "Although we will fight positional battles with the Germans for a long time in the future, our sabotage activities behind the enemy's rear must not stop. Comrade Deputy Division Commander, please wait a moment When we went to inspect the front line, we successfully asked the three regiment commanders to mobilize capable personnel to form an action team behind enemy lines. If possible, we will send them to behind enemy lines tonight."
"Don't worry, comrade division commander." Ivanov felt particularly proud when he thought that the small team he was about to send might use rockets to destroy Paulus's army headquarters: "I will arrange this."
"Chief of Staff," Sokov recalled the guerrillas who had acted with Guchakov and the others, and quickly asked Sidorin: "Do we still have contact with the Ignatov brothers' guerrillas? How are they doing recently? Already?"
"Before the major counteroffensive began, some of the guerrillas who participated in the attack on the station were ordered to move to the Don River to meet the friendly forces moving south. Others stayed in place and continued to persist in the guerrilla fighting." Sidorin told Sokov The report said: "The guerrillas of the Ignatov brothers stayed and continued fighting with the enemy."
Since the last attack on the German station and the seizure and burning of a large amount of military supplies, the guerrillas in that area have become a thorn in the side of the German army. Paulus sent many troops into the forest to eliminate the guerrillas. If the war situation had not changed and Paulus had to withdraw the suppression troops, I am afraid that the guerrillas would have been severely weakened. But even so, several guerrilla groups suffered considerable losses.
"There is also Captain Andre's third battalion," Sidorin reminded Sokov: "From the counterattack until now, we have not given any combat orders to the battalion. You see, in the following days, we should What tasks should be assigned to them?”
"Their strength is limited. Even if we order them to launch a counterattack, I'm afraid it will be difficult to achieve any results." After staring at the map for a while, Sokov sighed softly, although he knew very well that he was currently active in the third battalion. In the area, the German army did not have much strength. Even if Andre was ordered to seize the department store, it could be done. But once the department store is occupied by his own troops, after Paulus leaves the Gumlak area in the future, it will be impossible to set up a new headquarters in the department store like in real history. In order to be able to capture Paulus alive in the future, Sokov decided that the troops in the city would not attack too violently for the time being, so as not to frighten the Germans. He ordered Sidorin: "Let them maintain the status quo and defend the existing positions." Just stay in position, don’t attack the enemy easily.”
"Understood." Of course Sidorin could not guess Sokov's true thoughts. He thought that the other party was worried that the third battalion would seize too many places and not have enough troops for defense, so he nodded and agreed: "I will immediately give Andrei The captain called and assigned him the next task."
