Sidorin called the army headquarters and reported the reconnaissance information to Krylov.
After listening, Krylov asked: "Lieutenant Colonel Sidorin, what do you think the enemy's purpose is for doing this?" He was afraid that the other party would not understand, so he added, "I want to ask, Sokov How do you know that the enemy is going to run away?"
Sidorin couldn't answer this question. After all, Sokov didn't say anything just now. He could only look at Sokov for help, hoping that he could explain it to Krylov in person.
Sokov understood what Sidorin meant, walked over, took the phone, put it to his ear and said: "Hello, Comrade Chief of Staff, I am Sokov."
"Colonel Sokov." Krylov on the other end of the phone asked in an official tone: "Tell me, how did you judge that Paulus was going to escape?"
"Report to Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov said respectfully: "According to the scout's report, the German armored divisions will rush to the southwest to assemble. And Hoth's armored forces are in that direction, far away from the enemy who is besieged by us. It's only a few dozen kilometers. If the enemies inside and outside the encirclement attack each other, I think our encirclement will be broken, and the encircled enemies will be able to successfully break through."
"Nonsense." As soon as Sokov finished speaking, Krylov said angrily: "Colonel Sokov, what are you talking about? On what basis do you believe that the enemy is gathering to the southwest in order to break through the defense line? Break out of our encirclement?”
Hearing Krylov's anger, Sokov did not panic, but said slowly: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the scouts we sent behind enemy lines captured an order from the enemy, which ordered the armored divisions to assemble toward the southwest. Prepare to carry out combat missions. I think when the Germans refer to combat missions, they should refer to breakout operations."
"Chief of Staff, give me the microphone." Chuikov heard the conversation between Krylov and Sokov, and reached out to Krylov, "Let me talk to Colonel Sokov."
"Colonel Sokov, this is Chuikov." Chuikov took the phone and asked, "I have two questions for you. First: Are you sure the enemy is gathering in the southwest to break out?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander." Sokov nodded and replied in a positive tone: "I think it is very likely that the enemy will break through."
"If the Germans want to break out from the southwest, they can carry out a breakout operation at the end of November." Chuikov said calmly: "You know, our army's encirclement had just been formed at that time, and it was very easy for the enemy to break through the encirclement. What happened. How could we launch a breakout operation after a month?"
"And." Without waiting for Sokov to answer, Chuikov asked again: "Now the enemy has mobilized only armored troops, but what about their infantry? Is it possible that Paulus is willing to leave so many infantrymen alone and only let them A few armored divisions break out?"
"Comrade Commander, I think the German army chose to gather in the southwest because they have plans to break out." Sokov analyzed to Chuikov: "The armored division has high mobility. Once the breakthrough is successful, they can fight with Hott outside the encirclement. Join forces. Then, if we turn around and attack the rear of our encirclement, we will be able to open a larger gap, allowing the infantry who are still surrounded by our army to successfully jump out of the encirclement."
After listening to Sokov's analysis, Chuikov was silent for a long time, and finally said: "Colonel Sokov, I admit that what you said is entirely possible. But, what can we do now? The entire 62nd Army The troops suffered heavy casualties in the months-long city defense battle. Apart from carrying out small-scale local counterattacks, they had no ability to actively attack the enemy. In other words, even if we knew that the enemy wanted to break out from the southwest, we could not I can only watch helplessly.”
"Comrade Commander, how can you just watch?" Hearing what Chuikov said, Sokov couldn't help but become anxious: "Even if our group army's capabilities cannot severely damage or delay the enemy's actions, we should at least report this matter to the enemy. Report from superior..."
"Report to the superior?!" Chuikov sneered and said: "Where is our superior? Since it was announced that all the troops of the Stalingrad Front would be handed over to General Rokossovsky's Don Front, we and the original front have The contact with the headquarters has been completely interrupted, and we can’t contact the commander of the New Front Army temporarily. In a word, we can neither contact our superiors nor contact friendly forces, so the only thing we can do is We watched helplessly as the enemy fled from our defense zone."
For Chuikov's statement, which was like a fantasy, Sokov really couldn't find a reason to refute it. After all, the actual situation of the Soviet army was like this. The troops of the various group armies were inseparable from each other and acted on their own in battle. war. When the head of the front army is under the command, the situation is relatively better, and there is still more or less cooperation; but once the command from the superior is lost, the situation will return to the original chaotic situation.
"Then what should we do?" Sokov was anxious. He knew that the enemy was about to launch a breakout, but he could not warn the friendly forces. This gave him a headache. Since Chuikov could not contact Yereomenko or Rokossovsky, Sokov naturally could not contact him. He asked anxiously: "Is it possible to watch the enemy break through the friendly defense line and jump out of the encirclement to join Hott? ?"
"Colonel Sokov, I understand your mood, and I am equally anxious." Chuikov reorganized the words in his mind, and then said: "What we can do at the moment is to send people to the left bank of the Volga River to find The original front army headquarters informed them of the enemy’s movements and allowed them to make decisions.”
Although Sokov understood the progress of the Battle of Stalingrad, in many cases, as an ordinary division commander, he was unable to change the unfavorable situation and could only watch the situation go out of control: "Well, Comrade Commander, now we can only follow the method you mentioned, send people to find the original front army headquarters, let them get in touch with General Rokossovsky, strengthen the defense in the southwest of the encirclement, and prevent Enemy breakout."
After finishing the conversation with Chuikov, Sokov sat at the table, staring at the map in front of him and wondering, should he launch an attack at this time? If an attack is launched at this time, it can hold back the German armored divisions and prevent them from rushing to the southwest in a short time. But in doing so, there will be a huge price to pay to seize the position from the defenders who have been reinforced by armored troops.
what can we do about it? Should we attack, or should we continue to maintain the status quo, wait for the enemy's armored divisions to leave, and then launch an attack to seize the lost position from the enemy?
Seeing Sokov staring at the map in silence, Sidorin guessed what he meant and asked tentatively: "Comrade division commander, are you considering whether you should attack the enemy at this moment?"
"That's right." After Sokov gave an affirmative answer, he told Sidorin and Ivanov his thoughts. Finally, he asked: "Tell me, what should we do now?"
Both Sidorin and Ivanov hoped that their troops could delay the enemy so that they could not rush to the southwest quickly, thereby buying time for the friendly forces standing there. However, as commanders, they are all aware of the disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves. Facing the enemy's two armored divisions, the 41st Guards Division can barely use it for defense, let alone take the initiative to attack the enemy. It was out of this consideration that both Sidorin and Ivanov remained silent and did not express their opinions easily.
Seeing that his two deputies did not express their opinions easily, Sokov guessed their thoughts and took the initiative to say: "If you don't say anything, then I will treat it as if you agree to wait until the enemy's armored division moves. Then launch an attack on the enemy in front."
"Comrade Division Commander," Anisimov, the division political commissar who had just walked in from outside, reported to Sokov: "I just came back from the top of the mountain and saw a group of people coming across the river, heading towards our Mamaye Coming from the direction of Fu Gang."
Ivanov said disapprovingly: "Comrade political commissar, are you the comrade who delivers supplies? You don't have to report such a small matter to the division commander. He has more important things to deal with."
"No, if it were just an ordinary soldier, I would not come to report to the division commander in person." Anisimov explained: "There were more than a dozen people who came, and there seemed to be some big shots among them."
"Is there a big shot?" When Sokov heard what Anisimov said, he immediately thought that after the base camp handed over the task of annihilating Paulus to Rokossovsky, he had walked across the frozen river to the city. I came to visit Chuikov. Could it be that the big man Anisimov mentioned was Rokossovsky? Thinking of this, Sokov stood up suddenly and said to Sidorin: "Chief of Staff, you are responsible for everything here. Deputy division commander, political commissar, follow me out to greet us."
Under the protection of more than a dozen soldiers, the three people arrived at the top of the hill. At this moment, the group of people from Anisimov's institute had now passed the center of the river and were about to reach the right bank. Sokov raised his binoculars and looked at them, and soon found familiar faces in the crowd, including Khrushchev and Yeremenko.
Seeing the two people heading towards Mamayev Heights, Sokov's heartbeat couldn't help but accelerate. He rushed into the observation post nearby, grabbed the phone hanging on the wall, connected to the division headquarters, and directly told Sidorin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, please tell Commander Chuikov immediately that former front commander Ye General Liaomenko and Military Commissar Comrade Khrushchev are coming towards our Mamayev Hill."
"What, Commander Yeremenko and Comrade Khrushchev are coming towards our Mamayev Hills?" Upon hearing the news, Sidorin was shocked. He quickly replied: "I will immediately Report this to Commander Chuikov.”
"Comrade Commander," Ivanov also recognized Yeremenko and Khrushchev in the crowd from the telescope, and walked in to ask Sokov for instructions: "It is Commander Yeremenko and the military commander. Comrade Comrade Khrushchev is here, do we need to rush over to greet him?"
"No, no, no," Sokov shook his head and said, "Our battle here is not over yet. As division leaders, we cannot leave our posts for a long time. In my opinion, let Lieutenant Samoilov lead the people. Welcome. Let’s go back to the headquarters.”
"Okay," now that Sokov had said so, Ivanov couldn't refute and could only nod in agreement with his proposal. On the way back to the headquarters, he made a special trip to the guard camp, found Lieutenant Samoilov, and asked him to lead a guard platoon to greet Yereomenko and Khrushchev.
As soon as Sokov returned to the headquarters, Chuikov's call came. Chuikov was originally inspecting the counterattack at the barricade factory. He received a call from Krylov and knew that Yeremenko and Khrushchev were rushing to Mamayev Hill, so he called Sokov specifically to confirm: "Colonel Sokov, I heard that Commander Yeremenko and Comrade Khrushchev are on their way to Mamaev Hill. Is this true?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander." Sokov quickly and respectfully replied: "I just saw clearly from the top of the mountain that they are Commander Yeremenko and Military Commissar Comrade Khrushchev."
After confirming that the intelligence he had received was true, Chuikov then asked: "Colonel Sokov, the battle there is not over yet. They may be in danger. Have you taken any protective measures?"
"I shot Lieutenant Samoilov to lead the guard platoon to meet them." Sokov knew what Chuikov was worried about, so he assured him: "Don't worry, Comrade Commander, I assure you that their safety can be guaranteed." Guaranteed."
"You did it right." After Chuikov praised Sokov, he continued: "I will go to your place immediately, meet with the two front army chiefs, and tell them the situation you reported. I hope to pass them, Pass this important information to General Rokossovsky."
After waiting for more than half an hour, Yereomenko and Khrushchev walked into the division headquarters under the protection of Samoilov. When Sokov saw the two people walking in, he quickly shouted loudly: "Everyone stand at attention!"
Following Sokov's shout, both staff officers and communications soldiers stopped what they were doing, stood up, faced Yereomenko and Khrushchev, and paid attention to them.
Sokov walked quickly in front of the two men, raised his hand in salute, and reported loudly: "Comrade Commander, Comrade Military Commissar, Colonel Sokov, Commander of the 41st Guards Division, are reporting to you that you are welcome to come. Our division headquarters came to inspect the work.”
"Colonel Sokov," in front of everyone, Khrushchev did not call Sokov by his nickname, but said seriously: "All our troops have been handed over to the Don Front, and now the two of us The mission in Stalingrad has come to an end. Before leaving here, I accompanied Comrade Commander to visit you, the defenders of the city. It is precisely because of your existence that the enemy never occupied Mamayev Hill. .”
"Well done, Colonel Sokov." As soon as Khrushchev finished speaking, Yeremenko continued: "You and your subordinates are all well done. I want to award you with a medal, and for everyone. The commanders and soldiers who stood firm at Mamayev Heights were awarded the medal. You are our heroes. I believe that our descendants will remember the great achievements you have made today."
