Red Moscow

  Chapter 453

   "How is the battle outside?" Sokov felt that since the beginning of the war, he had never called a meeting of the battalion commanders, so he thought that he would call everyone over today and talk to them about some of his ideas. But before that, he wanted to confirm whether the battle outside was over, and he couldn't affect the command of the battalion commanders because of the meeting, so he looked at Sidolin and asked, "I'll call the battalion commanders together for a meeting." , won't have any effect?"

   "No, Comrade Brigadier Commander." Sidolin shook his head and said, "The enemy's offensive today has ended at this moment. Even if you call the battalion commanders here, it will have no effect."

   Hearing Sidolin's reply, Sokov immediately gave him an order: "Comrade Chief of Staff, immediately call the battalion commanders and order them to come to the headquarters immediately. I want to hold an emergency military meeting."

Although the troops were able to repel several German attacks every day, the casualties were quite considerable. Sidolin was struggling with this matter. I heard that Sokov was going to call a meeting of the battalion commanders. I guess he might have some new ideas. Deployment, not daring to be negligent, immediately called several battalion commanders and informed them to rush to the headquarters for a meeting immediately.

   Only five minutes later, the battalion commanders who received the notification came to the headquarters one after another. The four battalion commanders, except Goria, were shocked when they saw Sokov lying on the camp bed, and hurried forward to ask what happened. Concerned about everyone, Sokov waved his hand at them, pretending to be relaxed and said: "It's just a small injury, it's okay, just lie down for two days and you'll be fine."

Seeing that all the battalion commanders had arrived, Sokov said straight to the point: "Comrades battalion commanders, I called you here today because it is related to sticking to Mamayev Post. Everyone knows that today's fighting It is becoming more and more cruel, and the casualties of our army are also increasing. If this trend continues, at most half a month, Mamayev Post will be taken by the Germans..."

   Before Sokov finished speaking, Captain Vasily, the commander of the second battalion, couldn't wait to say: "Comrade brigade commander, tell us how to fight next? We will listen to you."

   "Comrade Vasily," Seeing that Vasily interrupted Sokov, Sidolin gave him a hard look and said displeasedly, "Don't interrupt the brigade commander casually."

After the room regained calm, Sokov continued: "At present, there are more than 3,000 people left in the whole brigade, and it doesn't make much sense to stay in Mamayev Gang. The troops can only use refueling tactics to go into battle one by one. In order to better attack the enemy, I plan to adjust the deployment."

Speaking of this, Sokov paused for a moment, and then turned his attention to Andrei, the commander of the third battalion: "Captain Andrei, I plan to send you to lead the troops to the left flank of Mamayev Gang, where the beaten Dispersed troops, and the enemy in the city, so as to achieve the purpose of covering our left wing."

"Comrade Brigadier," Andrei said with some embarrassment to Sokov's order: "Most parts of the city have been turned into ruins under the bombing and shelling of the enemy. Build defenses in such parts , I am afraid it will be difficult to block the enemy."

"Lieutenant Andrei, I sent you to lead the troops to the city, not for you to engage in positional warfare with them, but for street warfare." Seeing that Andrei did not understand his intentions, Sokov patiently explained to him : "It is much easier to annihilate the enemy on the ruins of the city than on the steppe between the Volga and the Don. Although the enemy is strong, it is impossible to fight in narrow streets and bombed buildings. Their strength always suffers heavy losses, and they are in a passive situation. They often don't understand where the bullets came from, and where death awaits them."

After listening to Sokov's words, Andrei said thoughtfully: "Comrade Brigadier, do you mean that we should learn from Sergeant Vasily, occupy one or several buildings, and Is there a support point for firepower to block and destroy the enemies rushing into the city?"

"If a certain unit has the strength of Sergeant Vasily and the others, it is possible to occupy one or several buildings with favorable terrain and block the German army's advance path." Sokov continued after waiting for Andrei to finish speaking. : "But I hope you can make full use of every soldier under your hand, and fight the enemy in every street and every building. As long as there is one soldier alive, even if the enemy has occupied the living room, then we Still fighting with him in the kitchen or the bedroom..."

After Sokov passed on some common sense of street warfare he knew to Andrei, he turned to the other battalion commanders and said, "The task of your battalions is to stick to Mamayev Post. But I don't want you to just Instead of purely passive defense, we should adopt various means to hold the initiative on the battlefield in our own hands."

   "Comrade Brigadier." Vanya, the commander of the first battalion, who has always been the most calm, immediately asked humbly after Sokov finished speaking: "I want to ask, how should we take an active defense?"

"Commanders," Sokov saw from the eyes of the crowd that they had the same doubts as Vanya, and he simply said to the crowd, "I think everyone knows that as long as the enemy doesn't attack, We stayed in the tunnel with peace of mind, no matter how fierce the battle on the left and right flanks was, it had nothing to do with us; if the enemy attacked, our commanders and fighters would desperately resist, never step back, and resolutely drive the enemy away from the front of the position. "

   Sokov stopped here on purpose to observe everyone's expressions. Seeing that everyone nodded in agreement with him, he went on to say: "However, this can only be regarded as passive defense, and active defense means that when the enemy is attacking, we will firmly resist; if the enemy does not attack, we will not be idle." Therefore, we must adopt various means to disrupt their deployment so that they cannot launch an attack on Mamayev Post according to the original plan."

   Everyone agreed with Sokov's words, but they were still at a loss as to how to implement them, so Vanya asked again on behalf of everyone: "Comrade Brigadier, can you explain in more detail."

"Captain Vanya, let me give you an example." Sokov stared at Vanya and said, "The enemy is going to attack Mamayev Gang, and their camp will not be too far from us. Wait until the night is quiet , can we send a small force to sneak attack, throw the enemy's camp into chaos, keep them restless all night, so that they can disrupt their attack plan for the next day.

   Also, the enemy is going to attack Mamayev Gang, and the ammunition and various military supplies they consume every day are not a small amount. They will definitely need transport convoys to deliver supplies to them around the clock. Suppose you send out a small force to attack the enemy's convoy, blow up their supply points, and leave the enemy's guns with no bullets and no food in their stomachs. Tell me, can they still attack us like this? "

   "No." As soon as Sokov finished speaking, several battalion commanders replied in unison.

"Very good." Seeing that everyone understood his intentions, Sokov gave an order to the battalion commanders: "After you go back, immediately deploy elite troops to form a small team, go deep into the enemy's rear, and attack their rear. Lines of communication, blowing up their supply depots, and raiding their bivouacs at night kept the enemy restless throughout the night. As soon as the enemy became exhausted and lost most of their supplies of ammunition and supplies, they would attack Mamayev Gang's attack will weaken. Do you all understand?"

   "Understood, Comrade Brigadier Commander." The battalion commanders replied loudly.

   "Now that you understand, then you will go to your respective troops to assign tasks." After Suokov signaled everyone to leave, he deliberately added: "The third battalion commander stays."

  Andre guessed that Sokov might have something to explain to himself, and when the other battalion commanders left, he immediately asked: "Comrade battalion commander, do you have any instructions?"

"That's right, Captain Andre." Sokov reorganized the vocabulary in his mind, and then said to Andre: "The building that Sergeant Vasily and the others are holding on to is extremely important. It cannot be occupied by the Germans. Therefore, when you lead your troops around, you must provide them with the help you can."

Sokov's words made Andre a little confused. He scratched the back of his head and asked, "Comrade Brigadier, how can I help them? Should I send reinforcements to the building? But there are only three units in that building." , the number of troops that can be accommodated is limited, if too many troops are put in, as long as they are bombed or shelled, many unnecessary casualties will be caused."

"Captain Andrei, I am not asking you to send troops to strengthen the defense of the building. If there is a need for troops there, I can send a platoon or even a company directly there. Why should I order you?" Sokov said: "When the Germans When you realize the threat to them from the building that Vasily and the others are defending, you will definitely send out heavy troops to attack them. You can send several combat teams to provide support for Vasily and the others with firepower nearby."

   "Combat team?!" Hearing what Sokov said, Andre hesitated for a moment, then asked back: "Do you mean a certain number of combat units?"

After being reminded by Andre, Sokov realized that this word would not appear until October, so he nodded quickly and said, "That's right, it is a combat unit with a limited number of people. Each combat team should consist of one A sniper, two machine gunners, an anti-tank man, and several infantrymen consist of seven to ten people. The sniper can kill the enemy's important targets from a long distance; the machine gunner can attack the assembled German troops The anti-tank fighters used effective anti-tank weapons to destroy the German tanks in the city..."

  Such a combat team, Sokov has mentioned it many times, but it is the first time to propose it to Andrei so formally. After hearing this, Andrei said with some embarrassment: "Comrade Brigadier, there is nothing wrong with machine gunners and infantry. But there are not many snipers and anti-tank fighters..."

"Captain Andrei, I understand your difficulties." Sukov knew that the third battalion was the unit with the heaviest casualties in the whole brigade, so seeing Andrei in such a difficult situation, he said tactfully: "I know that snipers and anti-tank It is not easy to find hands, but this kind of combat team does not need too many, four or five are enough. They don't have to fight head-on with the Germans, but use the tactics of hit and go, so that the enemy can't figure out what we are location."

After Andrey left, Sokov remembered the infantry brigade composed of sailors, and quickly asked Sidolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, how is the situation of the 92nd Infantry Brigade?" He specifically emphasized which unit he was talking about, "it is the infantry brigade composed of sailors from the Baltic Fleet and the North Sea Fleet."

After hearing Sokov's question, Sidolin sighed softly, and said: "Comrade brigade commander, since Colonel Tanasorov left the battlefield with the brigade headquarters, the entire brigade has lost its unity. Command. Although the sailors showed extraordinary tenacity, they still failed to completely drive the enemy from the station, and the entire force has now been dispersed."

Sokov has always wanted to recruit all the sailors into his command. Now that he heard that this heroic unit was defeated because of the escape of the brigade commander, his expression became serious: "Commander Chuikov, for How were the brigade commanders and political commissars who fled the battle handled?"

"They had just fled to the sandbar, and they were captured by Chief of Staff Krylov." Sidolin knew the inside story of this matter better, and at this moment when Sukov asked, he simply said: "Brigade Commander Colonel Tanasorov and Political Commissar Andreyev were sent to court-martial, and the troops were handed over to the command of the director of the Political Department, Vlasov."

   "Since the troops have been handed over to the command of Comrade Vlasov, why are they still dispersed by the enemy?" Sukov asked in puzzlement: "What is going on?"

"Vlasov is an excellent political worker, but not an excellent military commander." This time, without waiting for Sidolin to speak, Belgin interjected: "He led the troops in the battle to capture the station. , was hit by a stray bullet and died with honor. The remnants of the brigade, under the command of the first battalion commander, Captain Remusev, continued to fight the enemy near the station."

   "It's a pity, it's a pity." Sokov didn't expect such a heroic unit to be ruined because of the brigade commander's greed for life and fear of death. He looked at Sidolin and said, "Comrade Chief of Staff, can you get in touch with Captain Remusev?"

"Comrade Brigadier, if you say to communicate by phone or telegram, I can't do it." Sidolin looked at Sokov and said, "But if you need to communicate with Captain Remusev, I will You can send a messenger to find them."

"Immediately send out the messengers, we must find them, and bring them back to Mamayev Post for rest." Sokov waited for Sidolin to finish speaking, and immediately said unequivocally: "We cannot let such a team The hero's troops disappeared without a sound in the street battles of Stalingrad."

  (end of this chapter)