Red Moscow

  Chapter 154 Divide up and attack

  In the temporary headquarters in the village, the deputy battalion commander Belkin and the company commanders gathered around a long wooden table, staring at a map placed on it. And Sokov walked back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, thinking about how to fight the next battle.

   After walking for an unknown amount of time, he finally stopped, turned to face the table, fixed his eyes on Andre, and asked, "Captain Andre, let me ask you, can your second company continue to fight?"

"Yes, Comrade Battalion Commander!" Hearing Sokov call his name, Andrei hurriedly stepped forward and replied loudly: "Although in the battle to liberate the village, my company lost a third commanders and fighters, but the overall combat effectiveness has not been greatly affected, and we can continue to serve as the main offensive mission."

Sokov nodded, "Okay, since you are so confident, I will leave the task of capturing No. 2 village to your company." Seeing the eagerness of the other company commanders, he continued to assign tasks : "Saviyev's third company stayed in the village, the third village was attacked by Vanya's first company, and the fourth village was captured by Vasily and I leading the artillery company. The two artillery companies each allocated half of their strength to go to the village. Assist the No. 1 and No. 2 companies. Once the No. 2 and No. 3 villages are captured, except for the necessary guards, the rest will rush to support the No. 4 village. Does anyone have any questions?"

   "Comrade battalion commander, I have a question." Savyev asked a little aggrieved: "Why should our third company stay in the village? Our company can definitely perform more difficult tasks."

"Captain Savyev," Sokov looked at him and said, "When you even held on to the unnamed highlands, you lost 70% of your personnel, and you have basically lost the ability to attack fortifications. That's why I decided to let you even hold on to the village. Yes. Besides the third company commander, who else has any problems?"

"Let me say a few words," Belkin interjected: "Comrade Battalion Commander, according to the combat plan we have formulated in advance, after successfully capturing Village No. 1, we will successively capture Village No. 2, Village No. Villages No. 4 and No. 3. But you suddenly adjusted the battle plan and made my battalion's troops scattered. Will this cause several directions to fail to successfully complete the task of occupying the village?"

Regarding Belkin's question, Sokov walked to the table, pointed to the map and said to everyone: "The German troops in these four villages are very weak and cannot stop our attack at all. It can be seen in the battle. In addition, everyone should also see that because the offensive front is too narrow, too many troops cannot be deployed, so only one company can be deployed at a time, and the rest of the company can only stare aside. This is my One of the reasons for splitting up and attacking."

"Reason 2, if we continue to attack in a clockwise direction according to the original deployment, after the Germans have mastered our rule, they will deploy troops to strengthen the villages that are about to be attacked by us, so as to increase The difficulty of our attack. In this way, after we have pulled out the No. 2 and No. 4 villages in turn, we will be unable to launch a new attack in the face of No. 3 village, which is waiting for work.

  We are now attacking three villages at the same time. The Germans have too few soldiers to take the initiative to attack and cannot support each other. They can only stay in the village honestly and wait for us to beat him. I say that, do you understand? "

  After listening to Sokov's explanation, the company commanders who were still suspicious at first understood Sokov's intentions, and replied neatly: "Understood, Comrade Battalion Commander!"

   "Since we all understand, let's go back to our respective troops immediately." Sokov raised his hand and looked at his watch, and then said: "The attacking troops will leave in half an hour, everyone hurry up and prepare."

After the company commanders left the command post, Belkin tried to persuade Sokov to stay and let himself and the machine gun company go to capture Village No. 4: "Comrade battalion commander, I think it's better for you to stay in the command post. Are you going to attack Village No. 4?"

   "No," Sokov unequivocally rejected Belkin's proposal: "According to the information we have, Village No. 4 is the most heavily defended. With your command ability, I am not at ease."

If others say that his command ability is not good, Belgin will definitely fight with the other party, but since Sokov said this, he just smiled lightly. After all, countless facts have proved that Sokov's command The ability is indeed beyond my reach.

   After half an hour, when Sokov came out of the command post, he found that the troops of the first company and the second company had already moved out, and the machine gun company led by Vasily was lining up in the open space not far away.

Seeing Sokov walking towards him, Vasily yelled: "Everyone listen to my password: stand at attention!" Then he trotted up to Sokov, raised his hand and saluted and said, "Comrade battalion commander, the machine gun company has assembled Finished, please instruct!"

   Sokov glanced at the neatly lined troops in the distance, and then told Vasily: "Let's go!"

  The machine gun company had just arrived at the entrance to the north of the village, when suddenly a soldier standing guard at the entrance of the village ran over and reported to Sokov: "Comrade battalion commander, we found two children outside the village."

"Children?" Hearing what the soldiers said, Sokov couldn't help being taken aback, so after occupying the village, he ordered people to search it carefully, and none of the villagers found it. Where did these two children come from? ? In order to clarify this problem, he immediately ordered the soldiers, "Bring them here."

   After a while, the soldier brought back two little boys, one tall and one short, and came to Sokov. Sokov squatted down and asked kindly: "Son, can you tell me what your name is and which village you are from?"

  The tall boy did not immediately answer Sokov's question, but instead asked: "Are you the Red Army?"

   "Yes, we are the Red Army." Sokov pointed to himself and said, "Have you seen my uniform? This is the uniform of the Red Army."

   After listening to Sokov's answer, the two children looked at each other, and the tall boy replied, "We are from Yuzhrayaya Varoda Village. My name is Valoja, and his name is Anton."

   Yuri Raya Valoda Village? After hearing the name of the place, Sokov hesitated for a moment before remembering that this was the village numbered No. 4 by him, which was the village he was planning to lead the machine gun company to capture. He put a hand on Valoja's shoulder and continued to ask, "Valoga, tell me, why are you here?"

  (end of this chapter)