When the convoy passed the pontoon and arrived at the west bank of the Theod River, Koshkin, who was sitting in the co-pilot's seat, turned and asked: "Comrade Commander, which unit are we going to?"
"Yes, Misha, we have arrived at the West Bank now, which unit should we go to?"
Sokov thought for a while and then replied: "Go to Major Sukhalev's 109th Infantry Brigade. They are responsible for protecting the right wing of the landing site. The task is not light."
Lunev heard the implication of Sokov's words. Fedyuninsky's 2nd Assault Army on the right wing is not yet fully in place. It is unrealistic to expect them to protect his right wing. Therefore, he must rely on the existing force to ensure the safety of the right wing. He nodded and said in agreement: "Okay, let's go to the 109th Infantry Brigade."
When we arrived at the 109th Infantry Brigade, a small-scale battle had just ended. When Brigadier Sukhalev saw the arrival of Sokov and Lunev, his face was full of surprise. After raising his hand in salute, he reported to the two people: "Comrade Commander, Comrade Military Commissar, our brigade has just Ended a battle and killed hundreds of enemies.”
"Well done, Major Sukharev." Sokov reached out and shook hands with the other person and said, "Take me to the observation post to see the situation on the battlefield."
Sukhalev took Sokov and Lunev to his observation post, stood in front of the lookout, pointed outside and said: "Comrade Commander, Comrade Military Commissar, you can clearly see the entire battlefield from here. Case."
Sokov walked to the lookout, picked up the telescope placed next to him and looked into the distance. He saw that the front of the Soviet position had turned into pitch black, with one bomb crater connected to another, and all around the crater were scattered. corpses of German soldiers.
"Misha," Lunev said with joy on his face when he saw this scene. He put down his binoculars and turned to Sokov and said: "The soldiers of the infantry brigade fought well. There are at least three German corpses in front of this position. More than a hundred weapons. In other words, they destroyed at least two companies of enemies."
But what Lunev didn't expect was that after he finished speaking, Sokov didn't react at all and just kept looking with the telescope. Seeing that Sokov was ignoring him, Lunev gently pushed his hand on the other person's arm and said, "Misha, did you hear what I said?"
Sokov put down the telescope in his hand, turned to look at Lunev, and asked in a daze: "Comrade Military Commissar, what did you just say?"
Lunev quickly repeated what he said to Sokov, and then asked with some surprise: "Misha, I saw that you kept looking through the telescope. Did you find anything wrong?"
Sokov nodded, but did not explain what he saw. Instead, he turned around and rushed to Lednikova who followed her in. "Comrade Second Lieutenant, since you are a member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, you must be very observant. Come and take a look." Look, what’s wrong on this battlefield?”
Lednikova took the telescope from Sokov's hand, stood at the lookout and looked at the battlefield in the distance, quickly looking for anything wrong. But after looking at it for a long time, she didn't find anything wrong. She could only return the telescope to Sokov and said apologetically: "I'm sorry, Comrade General, I really can't see anything wrong."
"What about you?" Sokov handed the telescope to Koshkin again: "Koshkin, come and see if there is anything wrong."
When Koshkin raised his telescope to observe the battlefield, Sukhalev, who was standing next to him, felt uneasy and thought to himself: I have observed carefully and found nothing wrong on the battlefield. What does Comrade Commander mean when he says this? Woolen cloth?
After putting down the telescope, Koshkin also shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I didn't find anything wrong."
"What about you?" Sokov looked at Sukhalev again and asked, "Have you discovered the problem?"
Sukhalev thought about the battlefield he had been observing for so long and found nothing unusual. At this moment, even if Sokov allowed himself to read it again, he probably wouldn't be able to figure it out. Thinking of this, he quickly shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I don't know."
Lunev was trying to smooth things over by saying, "Okay, Misha, don't be so pretentious and tell us quickly what went wrong."
"Major Sukhalev, if I'm not wrong, after you repelled the enemy, you didn't send anyone to clean up the battlefield." Sokov continued to look at Sukhalev and asked: "How is it? I'm right. Bar?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander, you are right." Sukhalev confirmed Sokov's statement and further explained: "Because there are snipers on the enemy's position, and the entire battlefield is in their It was within the mortar strike range, so after repelling the enemy's attack, I did not send anyone to clean up the battlefield."
"Major Sukharev, if you send someone to clean the battlefield, you will be able to find out what the problem is." After Sokov finished speaking, he did not show off, but called everyone to the lookout point and pointed into the distance. On the battlefield, he said to them: "Do you think there are any characteristics in the distribution of German corpses?"
Lednikova looked outside and said casually: "Their corpses are basically scattered around the crater, which proves that most of them were killed by artillery shells."
But Sokov did not express his opinion after hearing this. Instead, he smiled and asked the others: "Do you have any other opinions?"
Koshkin stared in the direction of the battlefield and began to think quickly in his mind, recalling whether he had missed any important clues while observing the battlefield. Hearing Sokov's question at this moment, he said without hesitation what he had observed: "Comrade Commander, I found that there are few corpses on the battlefield at the two ends and many in the middle."
After hearing this, Sokov showed a satisfied smile on his face. Unexpectedly, Koshkin actually saw this. However, he was not in a hurry to reveal the answer to the mystery, but continued to ask Sukhalev: "Major, how many times has the enemy launched attacks on your position?"
Sukhalev replied without thinking: "A total of five attacks were launched, all of which were infantry attacks without tanks."
"How many troops are dispatched each time?"
"One company at a time." The standard configuration of a German infantry company is 215 people, which is much higher than the Soviet army's 120 people. Sukhalev replied: "I can confirm that each time the number of people put into the attack is one, Even around."
"Comrade commanders," Seeing that all the questions that should be asked, Sokov revealed the answer to everyone: "Don't you want to know what I found wrong on the battlefield? I will tell you the correct answer now. You guys, there’s something wrong with the distribution of the corpses.”
"Is there something wrong with the distribution of the corpses?" Lunev asked in surprise, "What's wrong?"
Seeing that everyone's eyes showed similar questions to Lunev, Sokov explained: "As a commander, you should be very clear about the distribution of the bodies of the enemies who attacked our position after they were repulsed. , there will be the most close to the starting position, and the closer to our position, the fewer. This is because under the intensive firepower of our army, the number of enemies who can rush to our position is far less than the number of enemies who leave the starting position. number of people at the time.
Let me use an analogy: we repelled the enemy's attack and wiped out more than a hundred of them. As for the distribution of their corpses, the positions far away from the position should be the most numerous, with sixty or seventy people in them. The closer to the position, the fewer the positions, so it would be good to have twenty or thirty people. "
"Misha, your statement is very interesting." Lunev interjected and asked: "But why do we see that the distribution of corpses is less at the two ends and more in the middle?"
"Comrade Military Commissar, this is exactly the problem." Sokov said: "I suspect that among the corpses in the middle area, there are a large number of German soldiers pretending to be dead."
"What?" Everyone was shocked when they heard what Sokov said: "Among the corpses in front of the position, are there German soldiers pretending to be dead?"
"Yes, I think this possibility is very high." Sokov first confirmed his statement, and then further explained to everyone: "Everyone has been on the battlefield. It should be clear that when people charge, If you are hit by a bullet, you will definitely fall to the ground on your back under the huge inertial impact. But if you look carefully at the corpses, especially the corpses in the middle, they are basically face down."
After hearing what Sokov said, Runev quickly grabbed the telescope and looked at the battlefield in the distance. After looking at it for a while, he nodded vigorously and confirmed Sokov's statement: "Misha, you are right. The corpses in the middle are basically on their backs."
"Comrade Commander, what is going on?" Sukhalev asked in surprise: "How can you be sure that those corpses are Germans pretending to be dead?"
"Comrade Military Commissar, take a closer look. Are most of the corpses lying on their backs lying on top of the corpses on their backs?"
"Yes, that's true."
Lunev’s words once again proved the correctness of Sokov’s analysis, but Sukhalev still asked in confusion: “Comrade Commander, I don’t understand where so many Germans pretending to be dead come from. What about?"
"Needless to say, they naturally stayed there when they attacked you." Sokov was worried that Sukhalev didn't understand what he meant, so he explained to him specifically: "For example, if the enemy attacks you When launching the attack, after reaching the middle area, some of the enemies fell down and pretended to be dead. There were only a few dozen or twenty of them lying down at one time to avoid being noticed by you. They launched five charges at you, each time If there are more than ten or twenty people lying down, five times it will be nearly a hundred people.”
After listening to Sokov's words, Sukhalev suddenly realized: "Comrade Commander, I understand that the Germans deliberately pretended to be dead in front of our position, just to wait until dark and launch a surprise attack on our position."
"Yeah, I think it should be like this." Sokov nodded slightly, confirming Sukhalev's guess: "Hundreds of German soldiers are pretending to be dead in front of your position, just to wait until the dead of night and then lurk quietly. Go to the front of your position, launch an attack by surprise, and seize your position in one fell swoop.”
Sokov's words shocked Sukhalev into a cold sweat. He said in his heart: It's so dangerous. If Comrade Commander hadn't happened to come and find the enemy who was pretending to be dead on the battlefield, maybe his defense zone would be there. Under attack from the enemy tonight. He raised his hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, and then asked tremblingly: "Comrade Commander, what should we do?"
"Prepare a few mortars." Sokov said to Sukharev: "Aim at those Germans who are pretending to be dead. I want to see if they can continue to lie there and pretend to be under the attack of artillery fire." Corpse.”
Sukharev picked up the phone on the table, connected to the brigade headquarters, and told the chief of staff: "Chief of Staff, immediately order the artillery company to fire at the area in front of the position with the highest concentration of corpses!"
After receiving this incomprehensible order, the brigade chief of staff asked in confusion: "Comrade Brigade Commander, the enemies are all dead, why should we bombard their corpses?"
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sukhalev said with a bit of laughter after hearing what his Chief of Staff said: "We have all been deceived by the Germans. In the area with the highest concentration of corpses, not all of them are German corpses. There are also Most of them are enemies who are pretending to be dead. I order you to fire just to drive away the enemies who are pretending to be dead from our position."
After figuring out what was going on, although the brigade chief of staff found it a bit strange, he quickly contacted the commander of the mortar company and ordered him to fire at the pile of corpses in front of the position. Originally, the artillery company commander resisted this order, but when he heard that there were many German soldiers pretending to be dead among the corpses, he immediately changed his mind and asked his artillerymen to fire on the pile of corpses.
A few minutes later, nine mortars fired at the pile of corpses in front of the position. When the shells landed on the pile of corpses and exploded, causing blood and flesh to fly everywhere, everyone in the observation post held back their screams and stared intently at the pile of corpses to see if any living enemies had escaped from it. But what is regrettable is that the mortars fired two rounds in succession, blowing countless corpses into pieces flying in the sky, but still no one was seen getting up and running away.
Seeing this scene, Sokov couldn't help but murmur in his heart: "Did I make a mistake in my judgment? There are no enemies pretending to be dead in the pile of corpses?"
Just when he began to hesitate whether he should cancel the bombardment order, Koshkin, who was standing next to him, suddenly exclaimed: "Look quickly, there are really German soldiers pretending to be dead."
Sokov ignored the telescope and looked in the direction of the battlefield. Sure enough, he saw many figures shaking near the explosion point. They were sometimes running and sometimes lying down, as if they were avoiding the shells falling from the sky.
"Misha, you are right, there are indeed many enemies pretending to be dead among the piles of corpses in the middle area." Lunev said with emotion: "Look, they were beaten by our artillery fire and fled in all directions. "
When Sukharev saw this situation, he was ashamed. He blushed and admitted his mistake to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, I was wrong. My vigilance was so poor that even the enemy was hiding in my position." I didn't even notice that I was pretending to be dead, please punish me."
"Comrade Major," Sokov was in a very good mood at the moment. How could he punish Sukhalev for such a trivial matter. He put his hand on the other person's shoulder and said sincerely: "Remember the lesson learned this time. Next time you encounter such a situation, even if you can't send people out to clean the battlefield, you can still order the artillery to fire a few shots to destroy the loaded equipment." The dead German soldiers were scared away.”
