Red Moscow

  Chapter 502 Arming the Factory Area (Part 2)

  Led by the deputy factory manager, Sokov and the others came to the assembly workshop located in the north of the factory. Along the way, they encountered several sentry posts. The militiamen at the posts saw that the deputy director of the factory was leading the way and let them pass without checking at all.

After passing five or six checkpoints in a row, Briski smiled and said to Sokov: "Comrade Brigadier, fortunately, Comrade Deputy Factory Manager personally guides us this time, otherwise we will be delayed when we pass through these checkpoints." Less time."

   "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," the deputy factory director heard Briski's words, and quickly explained to Sokov: "These sentry posts were just established to prevent the Germans from sneaking into the factory area."

Sokov carefully calculated on the way here. Basically, there is one such post at three to five hundred meters, and there is a squad of troops in each place. Even if the enemy really comes in, these posts will at least have time to issue an alarm. . He said: "Comrade deputy factory manager, the arrangement of your outposts is very reasonable. The distance between the two outposts is several hundred meters, and you can see each other. The outposts can also provide support in a timely manner. There is a squad on each outpost, facing the enemy's attack, it should be no problem to support for a few minutes."

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you are right." As soon as Sukov finished speaking, the deputy factory manager echoed: "After the comrades of the Guards Division came, they personally arranged such a sentry post for us. The reason they said , as you just said."

  When he came to the assembly workshop, Cousteau, the workshop director, was already waiting at the door. After a hug with the deputy factory manager, he said politely to Sokov: "Hello, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, on behalf of all comrades in the assembly workshop, I welcome you to come."

   When Sokov shook hands with Cousteau, he asked casually: "Comrade Cousteau, I would like to ask, how many workers are there in your workshop?"

   "There are 823 workers and cadres in the workshop." Cousteau replied: "Among them, there are 539 workers with guns in their hands."

  Sokov didn't expect that there would be so many people in an assembly workshop. He couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise, and said in amazement, "There are so many people in a workshop?"

After the deputy factory manager and Cousteau looked at each other, he said with a smile: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the workers in the assembly workshop are not the most in the entire Red October Tractor Factory. There are two workers in the workshop with the largest number of workers." How about a thousand people?"

Sokov thought silently, there are more than 500 armed workers in this workshop, plus the 300 people he brought, they can make up two battalions. As long as the factory here is strong enough to block the attack of a German battalion, Still no problem. Thinking of this, he immediately asked Cousteau: "Comrade Cousteau, I would like to ask, is your factory here strong? Also, have you built any fortifications?"

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, our workshop building is a solid fortification." Cousteau replied confidently: "The basement of the workshop is our shelter when we are bombarded and bombed. The windows on the ground floor of the workshop are blocked with bricks, leaving only There are some necessary shooting holes. Around the factory building, there are two permanent fire points, which can be used to install anti-tank guns or heavy machine guns. These permanent fire points are all made of reinforced concrete structures, which cannot be destroyed by ordinary German artillery fire..."

"Comrade Cousteau, I have a question." Sokov waited for Cousteau to introduce the fortifications of the workshop, and asked: "Since you have so many armed workers and such strong fortifications, why How about not assisting the destroyer battalion to drive out the enemies who broke into the factory?"

   Cousteau didn’t answer Sokov’s question, but turned to the deputy factory director for help. Seeing Cousteau's gaze, the deputy factory manager coughed lightly, and then explained to Sokov: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, this place is more than 800 meters away from the daytime breakthrough. Our firepower They couldn't hit the enemy at all, and Comrade Cousteau didn't receive an order to attack, so they could only watch from the sidelines when the battle was most intense."

"Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Cousteau said with a blushing face: "We are an assembly workshop, and we assemble T-34 tanks for friendly troops every day. If this place is occupied by the German army, the consequences will be disastrous. Therefore, in the We can't attack casually until we get permission from our superiors."

After listening to the deputy factory director and Cousteau, Sokov didn't want to get entangled in this matter anymore. After all, his task was to help defend, but to investigate the responsibility of the daytime. He changed the topic and asked: "Ku Comrade Stowe, since the assembly workshop is so important, it will definitely be attacked by enemy planes, have you established an air defense position?"

   "Yes, there are air defense positions." Cousteau pointed upwards with his hand, and said, "On the roof, we have deployed six M1939 37mm anti-aircraft guns, and the women's anti-aircraft artillery unit is responsible for air defense."

Knowing that there was a women's anti-aircraft artillery unit deployed on the roof, Sokov immediately became interested. He tentatively asked Cousteau: "Comrade Cousteau, can you take me up to have a look?" He was afraid that the other party would refuse, so he added One sentence, "The anti-aircraft gun you mentioned weighs two tons each. I want to see how it is carried up?"

   Cousteau looked at Sokov with some surprise, and explained: "This is very easy to handle. The anti-aircraft guns are dismantled, and the parts are moved up in batches and reassembled."

"Oh, so that's the case." Sukov really didn't expect that the other party would dismantle the anti-aircraft gun and reassemble it after moving it to the roof. This made him more interested, " Comrade Cousteau, can we go up to the roof and have a look?"

"Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Cousteau did not make things difficult for him as Sokov imagined, but replied very straightforwardly: "I will go up with you." After finishing speaking, Cousteau called a deputy, Let him be responsible for arranging the commanders and fighters of the fourth battalion, and take Sokov and the deputy director to climb the fire escape to the roof.

  Sokov and the others had just climbed up the fire escape to the roof when they heard a woman's voice shouting sharply: "Don't move, password!"

   Sokov looked up and saw a female soldier in uniform, holding a rifle, aiming at the three of them, as if ready to shoot at any time. Before Sokov could speak, Cousteau had already said: "It's me, Cousteau. The deputy factory director and a commander are here. I'll take them up to see the air defense positions."

   "Oksara, what happened?" Sokov felt a familiar voice came from behind the female soldier: "Who climbed up the fire escape?"

"Comrade Lieutenant," the female soldier known as Oksara heard the voice, quickly put away the gun in her hand, turned her head and said to the back: "It's Director Cousteau, he said to bring the deputy factory director and a Commander come up and take a look."

  A female officer wearing a steel helmet came out from behind Oksara and said to Cousteau who was still standing on the fire escape: "Please come up, Director Cousteau."

  After seeing the female officer's face clearly, Sokov couldn't help but exclaimed: "Lieutenant Ulanova, is that you?"

"Who are you?" Hearing someone call her name suddenly, and that person was not the Cousteau she was familiar with, Ulanova asked vigilantly: "How do you know my name?" After asking After that, she regretted a little in her heart, and felt that she should not ask. After all, the other party came up with Cousteau before, and it is not surprising that she knew her life and military rank.

   "It's me!" Sokov jumped from the fire escape to the roof, took a few steps towards Ulanova, and said in a loud voice, "I am Lieutenant Colonel Sokov."

  Ulanova heard Sokov self-reported his family name, and quickly looked at him carefully. She had stayed in Mamayev Post for a while, so she naturally knew Sokov. When she saw clearly that the commander standing in front of her at the moment was indeed Sokov, she let out an "ah" and then asked pleasantly, "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, it's really you! Why did you come here?"

  (end of this chapter)