Red Moscow

  Chapter 148 Intermittent battle

Although the German attack was repulsed, Sokov felt very uneasy. He would not naively think that the German army had endured for several days in a row just to carry out a round of anticlimactic attacks. There must be some kind of conspiracy in it. . After talking with Savyev, he explained a few words to Belkin, and took two guards to the high ground.

  Although Sokov has come to the high ground quite a few times, but this time, he was a little dumbfounded. The fortifications he was familiar with had long since disappeared under the attack of the German army's intensive artillery fire, leaving only black craters everywhere and a thick layer of virtual soil. He walked on the ground for a while, but he couldn't find the company command post, so he stopped a passing soldier: "Comrade soldier, where is your company command post?"

  The soldier stopped, pointed to the ground, and said loudly to Sokov: "Comrade Major, you can find the company command post by following the telephone wire."

  Sokov looked down and saw that there was indeed a telephone line on the ground. Although several sections were buried in the void, he could barely see the direction of the line. He followed the telephone line to the door of the company command post. Company commander Savyev was sitting in a half-collapsed bunker, asking a health worker to bandage the wound on his right arm.

  Seeing Savyev's head and arms wrapped in thick bandages, Sokov couldn't help but asked worriedly, "Comrade Captain, why, are you injured?"

"Some skin trauma." Seeing Sokov's arrival, Savyev wanted to stand up and salute, but because of his leg injury, he couldn't stand up for a while, so he could only smile apologetically at Sokov: "Leg The wounds on the upper body were wounded by shrapnel from shells; the head and shoulders were scratched by bullets."

  Seeing that Savyev was wounded in many places, and the commander Stepan didn't see anyone, Sokov worried that he had an accident, so he hurriedly asked, "Where is the instructor?"

   "Don't worry, Comrade Battalion Commander." Savyev knew what Sokov was worried about, and quickly replied, "He was not injured at all during the battle, and he is leading the soldiers to rush to repair the fortification."

"Healer, send Captain Savyev to the health team immediately." Although Savyev pretended to be disapproving, in Sokov's eyes, his injury was serious, and he planned to order him to go to the medical team first. Leave the high ground and go to the health team for treatment. Knowing that Stepan was safe and sound, he said smoothly, "On the high ground, the instructor will be in charge."

   "No, Comrade Battalion Commander." Hearing that Sokov wanted to let him leave the position, Savyev immediately said stubbornly: "My injury doesn't matter, let me continue to stay here and command."

Sokov ignored him, but turned around and said to the guards following him: "You two stay here, and after the health workers finish bandaging, send Captain Savyev to the health team." After ordering the soldiers , Sokov walked towards the south **** with one foot deep and one foot shallow.

  When Sokov saw Stepan, he was leading more than 20 soldiers on the southern slope, collecting usable weapons and ammunition from the killed German soldiers. Sokov stood in the trench that had just been cleared, raised his binoculars and looked at the German positions in the distance for a while, and saw that there was a busy scene there, which should be preparations for a new offensive. After putting down the binoculars, he leaned over and shouted at Stepan on the hillside, "Hey, Stepan instructor, come to me."

Stepan was bending over to pick up the ammunition on the German corpses, but he didn't hear Sokov's shout. After being reminded by a soldier, he found Sokov standing in the trench, and quickly handed the ammunition to the soldier , Xiao Pao came to Sukov, and asked with some surprise: "Comrade Battalion Commander, why did you come up?"

"I'll come up and take a look." Sokov glanced at the hillside full of German corpses, and said to Stepan: "Instructor Stepan, because Captain Savyev's injuries are not serious, I have ordered him to be taken away." Send it to the health team. From now on, I will hand over the defense of the highlands to you. The Germans will soon launch a new offensive, and you must prepare for battle as soon as possible."

   "Understood, Comrade Battalion Commander." Stepan replied with his head held high: "No matter how fierce the enemy's attack is, we will never take a step back."

   Regarding Stepan's answer, Sokov nodded in satisfaction, and then asked, "Do you have any difficulties?"

Hearing Sokov's question, Stepan asked tentatively with a bitter face: "Comrade Battalion Commander, in the just-concluded battle, the German tanks parked at the foot of the mountain caused a lot of casualties to our company. Listen It is said that there is an anti-tank gun in the battalion. I wonder if it can be deployed on our position? In this way, the threat of German tanks to us can be greatly weakened."

  If Stepan made other requests, maybe Sokov would try his best to satisfy him. But for his request for an anti-tank gun, Sokov refused without hesitation: "No, there is only one anti-tank gun in the whole battalion, and there are few shells. The area they are defending now is very important. Feel free to adjust."

   Knowing that Sokov was unwilling to assign the anti-tank gun to the third company, Stepan showed a disappointed expression on his face. But he still said in a measured manner: "Well, Comrade Battalion Commander, although we cannot be equipped with anti-tank guns, we will still try our best to guard the unnamed high ground."

In order to strengthen Stepan's confidence in holding the position, Sokov said to him: "Don't worry, comrade instructor, you are not fighting alone. Captain Vasily's machine gun company is ready to support you at any time. If you stand up If you can’t hold back the enemy’s offensive, just call me, and I will immediately deploy the machine gun company for reinforcements.”

Originally, Sokov wanted to stay in the position for a while longer, but the third company's communications soldier came to report to him: "Comrade battalion commander, I have your call in the company's command post, and it's a call from the political deputy battalion commander." .”

Sokov knew that there was no urgent matter, and Belkin would not call to the high ground, so he hurriedly followed the signal soldier to the company command post, picked up the microphone hanging on a wooden post, and asked loudly: "Hi, Deputy Battalion Commander, I'm Sokov, what happened to you?"

   "The division commander just called to see you." Belkin said: "I want you to call him back immediately, there are important combat tasks assigned to us."

  Currently the contact with the division headquarters mainly relies on the telegraph machine, either sending a telegram or talking in plain language. But there was no radio station on the high ground, so Sokov had to go back to the battalion command post to communicate with Chernyshov, so he said unequivocally: "Understood, I will rush back to the battalion command post immediately."

  (end of this chapter)