Red Moscow

  Chapter 356 The unexpected counterattack

  Although Cuikov stated that he would carry out a counter-assault in the area broken by the German army as soon as possible, it still took four or five days for the mobilization and assembly of troops. On the evening of August 28, Sokov suddenly received a call from Chuikov. The trusted commander of the army group said on the phone: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, come to my headquarters immediately."

   Sokov took a guard squad to the station of the 30th Independent Armored Train Battalion in the northern factory area, and found the Chuikov command headquarters here.

  When Sokov walked into the conductor, he saw several commanders in the room, surrounded by a table, listening to what Chuikov said. Sokov walked quickly behind Chuikov, raised his hand and saluted, and said: "Comrade Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, commander of the 73rd Infantry Brigade, has been ordered to come here. I obey your orders, please instruct!"

Seeing Sokov coming, Chuikov nodded to him, and then he introduced the members of the headquarters: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, let me introduce you, this is Comrade Gurov, the Military Commissar of the Army Group, this is the staff officer Major General Krylov, Deputy Chief of Staff Colonel Vitkov, Colonel Gorokhov, Commander of the 124th Rifle Brigade, Colonel Borvinov, Commander of the 149th Rifle Brigade."

After the introduction, Chuikov greeted Sokov: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, come to the map, and I will introduce the current situation to you." After Sokov came to his side, he pointed to the northwest direction of the factory area, "According to the latest information we have, in the enemy's encirclement, the 54th Fortified Area belonging to the 4th Tank Army is still fighting tenaciously. Tell me, what should we do now?"

"Since we already know that there are friendly troops in the enemy's encirclement, we should rescue them." Sokov pointed to the location of the 54th fortification area, and said to Chuikov: "Comrade commander, I think we should send a troop , to carry out an assault in the direction of the fortified area. In this way, not only can the besieged troops be rescued, but also the enemy who breaks through the line of defense can be dealt a head-on blow, so that the main force of the cut off group army can regain contact with the city."

   "Chief of Staff," Chuikov waited for Sokov to finish speaking, then looked up at Krykov and said, "It seems that Lieutenant Colonel Sokov's thinking coincides with yours."

"Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, if I give you two infantry brigades." Chuikov turned to Sokov and asked, "Can you defeat the enemy in the northwest of the factory area and rescue the troops trapped in the 54th fortification area? And re-establish contact with the main force of the separated army?"

   "Comrade Commander," Sokov said confidently to Chuikov's question, "With the support of artillery and air force, I think such a mission should be possible."

"During the offensive, the troops under your command received neither artillery support nor the cooperation of the air force." Chuikov said with a serious expression: "There are only two infantry brigades to attack the German armored division. How about it, have confidence ?"

   "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander." Sokov waited for Chuikov to finish speaking, and immediately released his opinion: "This is purely for the soldiers to die. Sorry, I can't complete such a task."

Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Chuikov said firmly: "I think you have the ability to complete such a task." Then he pointed to the two infantry brigade commanders and said to Sokov, "From now on, I will be You are appointed commander of the 'Northern Group' to command the 124th and 149th Infantry Brigades to launch a counterattack against the enemy tomorrow morning."

  The sudden appointment made Sokov a little dumbfounded. He stared at Chuikov with wide eyes, thinking what time it was, and Chuikov still had the heart to joke with himself, making himself the commander of the northern group. Isn't it a joke to command two colonels as a lieutenant colonel?

Seeing Sokov staring at him without speaking, Chuikov guessed the other party's intentions, and said to him: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, I am not joking with you. After discussions with the chiefs of the group army, it was decided to appoint you to command the 124th and the 124th. The troops of the 149th Brigade will attack the German-occupied area tomorrow morning."

  Although Cuikov had already talked about this, Sokov did not dare to take this task lightly. Not to mention that there was no artillery and air force cooperation in the attack, even if there was, it is still unknown whether the two colonels are willing to obey their orders. Thinking of this, he turned his gaze to the two colonels and brigade commanders standing aside.

Gorokhov misunderstood the purpose of Sokov's look at him, and hurriedly stepped forward and reported loudly: "Report to Comrade Commander, the 124th Infantry Brigade is fully staffed, and the political workers are mobilizing before the battle. , can go into battle at any time." The commander he shouted was naturally not Chuikov, but Chuikov.

  Borvinov saw that Gorokhov had made his statement, and hurriedly stepped forward and reported: "Comrade Commander, the 149th Infantry Brigade has made all combat preparations and is ready to perform combat missions at any time."

Regarding the attitudes of the two brigade commanders, Cuikov nodded in satisfaction, and then said to Sokov: "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, look, the two brigade commanders are ready, what do you do as a commander?" considerate?"

  Sokov stared at the large-scale military map on the table, secretly thinking about how to use two infantry brigades to defeat the German armored and motorized infantry divisions. Even if the number of German troops is smaller than their own in the area where the attack is carried out, their equipment can make up for this difference.

"Lieutenant Colonel Sokov," seeing Sokov staring at the map without speaking, Chuikov thought that the other party was timid, so he raised his voice and asked, "Didn't you hear what I said? Let me ask you, can you The ability to defeat the enemy and join forces with besieged troops?"

"Comrade Commander, I don't think the attack can be carried out during the daytime tomorrow." Sokov looked at Chuikov and said, "The enemy's artillery, tanks and air force can easily defeat our attacking force, so we must adjust the attacking time. .”

   "Tomorrow daytime attack, this is already the deadline." Chuikov waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and reminded him: "The attack date cannot be postponed any longer."

"No, Comrade Commander, you are mistaken. I am not trying to postpone the date of the attack, but to turn the storm into a sneak attack." Seeing that Chuikov misunderstood himself, Sokov quickly explained: "The attack during the day is very harmful to our army. It is very disadvantageous because we will have to face the German tanks and their tanks will easily overwhelm our infantry. But if the fighting takes place at night, then the enemy will lose their superiority in tanks and air force , so that our troops can easily approach the enemy and force them to engage in melee combat, even machine guns, submachine guns, rifles, grenades, and the enemy, even hand-to-hand combat..."

   "Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, your plan is good. I agree, and I will fight this battle according to your ideas." Chuikov said, extending his hand to Sokov, "I wish you success!"

  ...

  Although Sokov is the commander of the temporarily formed Northern Group, he did not pin all his hopes on the two infantry brigades. On the way to the location of the new headquarters, he called Andrei and transferred his third battalion. In this way, even if the attack of the two infantry brigades was frustrated and suffered a disastrous defeat, he could still use the commanders and fighters of the third battalion to fight a **** path from the enemy's encirclement.

   When several troops were secretly mobilizing, Sokov and the other two brigade commanders came to the new headquarters, which was only one kilometer away from the place where the battle was about to take place. Although it is possible to better observe the situation on the battlefield, once the German army counterattacks after being attacked, it can rush outside the headquarters in a very short time.

  However, the several commanders staying in the headquarters didn't seem to care about their own safety, but sat together to discuss the upcoming attack. Gorokhov first said: "Comrade commander, my brigade has entered the attack position. After the battle starts, they will immediately rush to the 54th fortification area, get in touch with the troops standing there, and help them. Get out of the enemy's encirclement."

Just when Bolvinov was about to make a statement, Sokov raised his hand to stop him: "Colonel Bolvinov, please wait a moment, I have something to say to Colonel Gorokhov. Colonel," Sokov said Kov said this to Gorokhov: "I think it is enough to send one battalion to rescue the troops in the 54th fortified area, and the other three battalions and Colonel Borvinov's 149th Brigade, together Launch an attack in the southwest direction, find a way to break through the German defense line there, and re-establish contact with the main force of the separated army."

   After the mission was deployed, the two brigade commanders did not leave immediately. On the contrary, Borvinov asked with some trepidation: "Comrade commander, do you think our counterattack will be successful?"

"Sorov once said: Surprise can win!" Sokov said to him with a smile: "The enemy may have been dazzled by the recent victory, so they have become paralyzed. Under such circumstances, a sudden attack on them will definitely be defeated."

After Sokov finished speaking, seeing the two brigade commanders still looked hesitant, he coughed heavily and said to them: "Two brigade commanders, I don't know if you have noticed a phenomenon. The German After people broke through the junction of our army and the 4th tank army, the attack suddenly became slow, tell me, what is the reason for this?"

Hearing Sokov's question, the two brigade commanders frowned and thought for a while, and then Gorokhov replied: "I think it must be that the German officers and soldiers have become exhausted after a long period of fighting, so The German commander would slow down the attack so that the soldiers could take a good rest."

  Borvinov had another idea: "Could it be our guerrillas behind the enemy that held back the enemy?"

"The German army is advancing too fast. Even if our army wants to form guerrillas behind them, it will have to wait until September at least." Regarding the analysis of the two brigade commanders, Sukov commented: "As for the German officers and soldiers becoming tired Unbearable, it is not reliable to say that the commander slowed down the attack speed in order to allow them to rest."

"Comrade Commander," Seeing that the reasons for his speculation were all denied by Sokov, Gorokhov couldn't help asking curiously: "Then why do you think the enemy slowed down the attack speed? "

"Supply, if I'm not mistaken, the German supply line must be too long, temporarily unable to provide enough supplies for the attacking troops ahead." Sukov said confidently: "The enemy advancing towards Stalingrad, because of the appearance of It was difficult to resupply, so they had to slow down their attacks to wait for resupply from the rear."

"If this is the case, that would be great." Gorokhov immediately showed joy on his face when he heard Sokov say this: "If there is a problem with the German army's supplies, then we can achieve greater success." Results."

  The attack started at three o'clock in the morning, and this time is the most tiring time for people. After successive victories, the German army has become underestimating the enemy. They feel that the Soviet army can't wait to have two more legs when they see them. How dare they take the initiative to provoke themselves. Therefore, except for a few sentry posts, the rest of the officers and soldiers are in tents. Sleep soundly.

  But when the patrol team in the camp exchanged fire with the rushing Soviet troops, there were only a handful of people who immediately woke up from their sleep. It was not until gunfire and explosions rang out that the German soldiers sleeping in the tent were awakened. They didn't care about putting on clothes, so they took up weapons and rushed out of the tent, trying to stop the Soviet army from rushing into the camp.

  However, after rushing out of the tent, I saw flames everywhere outside, and people running around everywhere. There were no unified German soldiers, so they could only fire guns around in a panic, regardless of whether the bullets could hit the target after flying out.

  After the first battalion of the 124th Brigade quickly penetrated the German camp, leaving a company here to continue to entangle with the chaotic German army, the remaining two companies quickly rushed to the 54th fortification area.

  The Soviet army stationed in the fortified area now only has a small infantry battalion and a machine gun company with a pitifully small number. The soldiers waiting for the battle, they first saw the enemy's camp in the distance burst into flames, and then heard gunshots and explosions, guessing that the enemy must have been attacked. Because he was confused about the situation, the Soviet battalion commander did not give an order to attack, but let the soldiers enter the trenches and prepare for battle.

   After more than ten minutes, a figure suddenly ran towards the position. An impatient soldier was about to shoot, but was stopped by the officers around him. The officer told them in a low voice: "Don't shoot, lest you hit your own people."

  The figure running towards the position stopped at a distance of 30 to 40 meters from the trench. Then I vaguely heard someone shouting: "Hey, comrades in the fortification area, we are from the 124th Infantry Brigade, and we came here specially to rescue you."

Although the other party spoke Russian, the Soviet battalion commander was still worried. He called a corporal beside him and told him, "Comrade corporal, take two people over to have a look. Find out whether it's your own or the Germans." After that, come back and report to me immediately."

  (end of this chapter)