After Merkulov received Sokov's order to leave a battalion responsible for handing over defense to friendly forces, he took his troops and set off in the direction of the Red Army Village.
When passing through the defense zone of the 71st Guards Division, he and Political Commissar Sheiko made a special trip to visit Sivakov.
Seeing Merkulov suddenly appearing in his headquarters, Sivakov quickly stepped forward to salute and asked in surprise: "Comrade General, why did you come to my place?" The reason why Sivakov asked this , because when he saw Merkulov appearing in his defense zone, he was worried that the other party would not be able to defend the city and evacuated on his own initiative.
"Comrade Commander gave me an order to hand over the defense of the city to the two divisions of the 21st Group Army, and then lead the main force of the division to move towards the Red Army Village." Merkulov held Sivako in his hand He held his husband's hand and said gratefully: "Colonel Sivakov, if it hadn't been for your timely rescue, I'm afraid the enemy would have rushed into Donetsk."
Merkulov knew very well that once the Germans rushed into Donetsk, it would not be easy to drive them out. Therefore, I must visit Sivakov in person to express my gratitude for his help.
"Comrade General, you don't need to thank me." Sivakov said with a smile: "Actually, I also acted under orders."
"Act under orders?" Merkulov couldn't help but be startled when Sivakov said this. He asked tentatively: "Could it be that Comrade Commander gave you the order?"
"Yes, Comrade General." Sivakov nodded and gave him an affirmative answer: "He said that your division does not have any heavy weapons. It is very difficult to block the German division reinforced by artillery and tanks. It is a difficult matter, so I am ordered to send a regiment to accompany the tank team to assist you in defeating the enemies attacking the city."
"Sure enough, it was an order issued by Comrade Commander." When the city was in danger, political commissar Sheiko once told him that Sokov would never turn a blind eye to the situation in Donetsk. At the critical moment, he would definitely send Troops came for reinforcements. Merkulov didn't believe it at the time, but now it seems that Sheiko's judgment was completely correct.
Sivakov said to Merkulov: "Comrade General, if you have nothing to do, I suggest you rush to the cluster headquarters immediately. Maybe he will assign you a new combat mission."
Merkulov felt that what Sivakov said made sense, and after a brief chat, he hurriedly left the 71st Division headquarters, and took a car with Sheiko to the cluster headquarters in the Red Army Village. .
Sokov received a report from the sentry on duty outside the city and learned that Merkulov and Sheiko had entered the city. He curiously said to Vitkov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, this General Merkulov It's quite fast. It's less than two hours since I gave him the order. Could it be that the troops of the 21st Army arrived so quickly?"
"I don't think so." Vitkov shook his head and expressed his suspicion. "Judging from my many years of work experience, General Merkulov might have led the friendly forces before they arrived in Donetsk." Troops left Donetsk."
"What, General Merkulov led his people to leave the city before the friendly forces arrived?" Sokov asked in surprise.
"Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Seeing Sokov's worried look, Vitkov comforted him and said, "Even if they have to leave the city, they will leave one battalion or two companies to continue to defend the city. They will only leave there after friendly forces arrive and they hand over the defense."
Ten minutes later, Merkulov appeared in the headquarters.
Sokov quickly stepped forward and reached out to the two of them: "Hello, General Merkulov and Colonel Sheiko!"
"Hello, Comrade Commander." The two replied respectfully.
"General Merkulov, your division fought well and tenaciously withstood the enemy's attack." Although repelling the enemy attacking Donetsk was the result of multi-faceted cooperation, when Merkulov faced In spite of this, Sokov did not hesitate to praise him.
"Comrade Commander," Merkulov felt a little embarrassed after hearing Sokov's praise: "Our division did not fight well. If the friendly forces had not arrived in time, I am afraid the enemy would have rushed into the city."
"General Merkulov, when we fight, we cannot care about the gains and losses of one city or one place. Sometimes in order to better eliminate the enemy, we can give up some positions appropriately to disperse the enemy's strength, so as to achieve the goal of defeating them one by one. "
Sokov's words made Merkulov find it a bit difficult to accept. In the past, when his superiors learned that the enemy was attacking his defense area, they would give simple and rude orders: "Resolutely hold the position and do not retreat even a step." But. What Sokov said now was exactly the opposite of his former superior, which left Merkulov at a loss.
Sokov saw Merkulov's doubts and explained to him: "Comrade General, I think you should know that some time ago, the German army lost many positions under the powerful offensive of our two fronts. And was forced to move to the Dnieper River bank?"
If Merkulov didn't know about such a big thing, he wouldn't have to be a division commander. He nodded quickly and replied affirmatively: "I know."
"The enemy was originally at a disadvantage in terms of troops and equipment, but as they gave up large areas of land, their troops and technical equipment gradually concentrated in one place. In this way, they were able to form a local advantage and, at the right time, Launch a counterattack against our army." Sokov said: "It is through this method that our army became dispersed after occupying many places, so that it was powerless in the face of the enemy's counterattack. .”
Regarding Sokov's statement, Merkulov thought about it carefully, and it seemed that this was really the case. After Sokov finished speaking, he asked: "Comrade Commander, I would like to ask, are you concentrating all our troops in the Red Army Village for any major military operation?"
The reason why Sokov wanted to transfer the Merkulov Division back to the Red Army Village was indeed to concentrate all the forces and carry out a large-scale operation against the enemy. Seeing that Merkulov had guessed his intention at this moment, he couldn't help but smile and said: "Yes, Comrade General. The German troops are now staying more than 20 kilometers away from the city. Although they have not launched The intention was to attack, but we were firmly restrained."
"Comrade Commander," Merkulov asked tentatively, "What are you going to do?"
"General Merkulov, come and take a look." Sokov called Merkulov to the table, pointed to the map spread out on the table, and said to him: "Look, the enemy's large army They are concentrating on our northwest direction. I want to take advantage of them to stand still and send a force to bypass their flanks. When the enemy is not prepared, I will give them a thunderous blow and completely disrupt their attack plan. .”
"Comrade Commander," Merkulov asked awkwardly after hearing this: "I wonder which troops you are afraid of to carry out this glorious and arduous task?"
"My old troops have combat experience in this area. I plan to take them personally to carry out this mission." Sokov raised his head and said to Merkulov: "The reason why I transferred your division here is to Let you take over the defense."
Knowing that Sokov was going to let the 41st Guards Division carry out this arduous task, Merkulov couldn't help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief. According to his idea, it was already very good that his troops could block the German attack. It’s hard. If you take the initiative to attack the enemy, isn't that asking for death?
When Vitkov heard that Sokov planned to personally lead the troops back to the enemy's flank, he was shocked and quickly persuaded: "Comrade Commander, you are now the top commander of the cluster. You cannot leave your post without authorization. This You can let others do this kind of thing."
The reason Sokov was unwilling to stay at the cluster headquarters was because it was an empty space. Except for himself and Vitkov, the rest of the personnel were from the 41st Guards Division. Every time I hear someone call me commander, I always feel scared. On the contrary, he still likes to hear the commanders and fighters of the 41st Guards Division call him division commander.
"Comrade Chief of Staff, it is enough for you to take charge of the overall situation here." Sokov sighed and said with some regret: "If Colonel Ivanov is still alive, I can completely entrust this task to him. But now that he has died, I still feel uneasy about leaving the Guards Division under the command of others, and I still have to go there myself."
…………
Sokov acted very quickly and completed the assembly of his troops that afternoon, preparing to set off as soon as dark.
Division Chief of Staff Sidorin asked tentatively: "Comrade Division Commander, are we really going to sneak attack the German army?"
"Yes." Sokov looked at Sidorin and asked in surprise: "Is there something wrong?"
"After this period of fighting, each regiment has suffered a certain degree of attrition." Sidorin reminded Sokov: "Now there are only more than 12,000 people left in the division, and we have to attack troops that are twice as many as us. Aren’t the enemies sent to death?”
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov said with a chuckle: "In war, the number of troops and equipment is certainly an important factor. But as long as we use our brains and think of more ways, we can still overcome the problem of insufficient troops and equipment. .”
"If we want to carry out a sneak attack, Colonel Bely's tank brigade will definitely not be able to accompany us." Sidorin reminded Sokov again: "In other words, we can only use infantry to deal with the German armored forces."
"We are called infantry, but we have equipment that other infantry units do not have." Sokov said to Sidorin with a smile: "Don't forget, our rocket launchers are great weapons against enemy tanks. And the new rocket launchers , it is a devastating weapon against dense German infantry. With these weapons, our combat effectiveness will never be weaker than an armored division."
After Sidorin waited for Sokov to finish speaking, he stared at him for a long time, and finally nodded and said: "Okay, Comrade Commander. From what I know about you, your judgment of things has always been very accurate. Since you said our sneak attack can win, I decided to believe you."
Sokov's idea is very simple. After the troops approach the enemy, they will not launch a strong attack, but adopt a piecemeal tactic of eating a small piece of the east side today and destroying a small piece of the west side tomorrow. In just a few days, many German troops will become incomplete. At that time, I will concentrate my forces and give them a thunderous blow.
When stationed in the Red Army Village, Colonel Yershakov reported to Sokov that they had captured a German warehouse containing tens of thousands of German military coats. The reason why Sokov came up with the idea of sneak attack on the enemy was entirely because of these military coats. Although the entire division cannot afford one for each person, as long as most people wear German military coats, they can legitimately pretend to be German troops and approach the enemy in a swaggering manner. When they are not paying attention, bite them hard like a wolf.
After dark, a troop wearing German military coats left the Red Army village in a mighty manner and headed west along the road. Of course, this force is not all infantry. There are more than 30 trucks and a dozen captured German armored vehicles in the middle. The trucks were loaded with new rockets, while Sokov and members of the division headquarters were on the armored vehicles.
Although Sidorin had been Sokov's chief of staff for a long time, he spent most of his time at the headquarters, commanding the troops on Sokov's behalf. This was the first time he had participated in a combat operation like this. He asked Sokov with some anxiety: "Comrade division commander, is it true that the enemy will not discover our whereabouts?"
"If the German army deploys scouts nearby, they will definitely find our troops." Sokov said with a serious expression: "But as long as they see the German military coats our troops are wearing, they will think that we are coming from somewhere." German troops were brought in, so our chances of being attacked were very small."
"Comrade division commander, what I am most worried about is that the enemy regards us as one of their own, while the guerrillas operating in the nearby forest regard us as Germans." Sidorin said worriedly: "If we If a man fights with his own people, what will he do?"
"You don't have to worry about this. After repeated raids by the enemy, our guerrillas can't be found in this area." Sokov comforted Sidorin: "So you don't have to worry at all, we will have misunderstandings with our own people. "
"But what if there is a misunderstanding?" Sidorin asked unyieldingly.
"Chief of Staff, in fact, before the troops set off, I had already sent some soldiers under Mihiga, who are veteran guerrillas who have experienced hundreds of battles, to search for possible guerrillas in the forests along the way. Sokov said: "If guerrillas are really discovered, they will greet them in advance to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings."
