Red Moscow

  Chapter 519 A False Alarm

"Captain Briski," Sokov feared that the soldiers who were cleaning the battlefield would suffer, so he quickly called Briski and urged him, "A battalion of German infantry is coming towards us. Get your warriors up to speed and clear the field before the enemy arrives."

   "Understood, Comrade Brigadier," Briski replied on the phone, "I'll give them an order immediately."

Soldiers from the 10th Company and the 1st Company of the Destroyer Battalion were cleaning the battlefield. After hearing the whistle from the trench, the soldiers stood up straight, turned their heads and looked towards the direction of the trench, with astonished expressions on their faces. .

  The soldiers of the tenth company could hear the meaning of the whistle, but the soldiers of the first company of the annihilation battalion did not understand. Ganin was a worker who had just joined the destroyer battalion. After hearing the whistle, he curiously asked the soldiers of the 10th Company beside him: "Hey, I'm talking about Comrade Sergeant, what does this one long and two short whistle mean?" what?"

The sergeant who was asked frowned and said: "No, the whistle is to remind us to speed up, and maybe we will start fighting soon." He raised his leg and kicked him, cursing, "What are you still doing in a daze, why don't you speed up quickly, do you want to stay here and be shot by the Germans?"

  Ganin let out an "oh", and quickly bent down to search the German corpses on the ground. In addition to taking away their weapons and ammunition, he also took out a pack of unopened cigarettes from a German soldier's pocket. After seeing the label on it clearly, he said in surprise: "Comrade Sergeant, look, it is actually a 'Petersburg' brand cigarette. It seems that he has been to Leningrad before."

   Without further ado, the sergeant took the pack of cigarettes from his hand and put it in his pocket. But seeing Ganin's displeasure, he took out half a pack of cigarettes from another pocket and handed it over: "This is for you, it's a real German cigarette."

Ganin didn’t know that the veterans of the Soviet Army didn’t like to smoke German cigarettes, because they smelled like horse manure. Seeing that the sergeant exchanged German cigarettes for his own domestic cigarettes, he immediately took them happily and stuffed them into his own cigarettes. pocket.

  After the soldiers who cleaned the battlefield returned to the trenches, Briski immediately mixed the two companies, and each squad was half veterans and half recruits.

   Regarding Briski’s arrangement, Balshak, who was standing in the factory building with Sokov, asked with some concern: “Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, will the mixed formation of troops in this way cause confusion in command?”

"Don't worry, Major Bolshak." Sokov explained to Bolshak: "The commanders and fighters of the 10th company all have rich combat experience. After mixing them with your 1st company, you can improve the strength of the troops. Combat effectiveness. As for command, since the two companies are under the unified command of the tenth company commander, there will never be any confusion in command."

"That's good." After listening to Sokov's explanation, Balshak immediately felt a lot more relieved: "Our workers are very brave, but it's a pity that they don't have much combat experience and are mixed with your troops. I believe they will soon be able to adapt to this battlefield of blood and fire."

  The troops stood in formation in the trenches, waiting for the German soldiers of that battalion to throw themselves into the net. This wait lasted for more than two hours, but the enemy was always found.

   Seeing that the enemy has not come, the soldiers can't help but relax a little. Except for a few who continue to monitor the direction of the gap in the wall, most of the soldiers are sitting in the trenches eating dry food and drinking water. As soon as Ganin took out the cigarette case from his pocket, several familiar workers saw him and asked curiously, "Ganin, where did you get these German cigarettes?"

Ganin pouted at the sergeant not far away, and said to his robe, "I exchanged a pack of captured Petersburg cigarettes with Comrade Sergeant." Several workers stretched out their hands to Ganin, He asked for cigarettes, to try how German smoke tasted.

"Strange, what's going on here?" Seeing that the German army hadn't appeared for a long time, Sokov couldn't help wondering: "No matter how slow the Germans walked, they should have appeared. Why haven't we seen their soldiers until now?" Where's the shadow?"

   "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," said Borshak tentatively standing beside him, "you also misheard, the Germans are not coming in our direction at all."

   "Probably not." Hearing what Balshak said, Sokov's heart was beating, and he thought silently: "Could it be that I heard it wrong?"

Seeing the hesitant expression on Sokov's face, Balshak felt even more wishful thinking that Sokov must have misheard, and there were no Germans coming in this direction, otherwise it would be impossible to wait There was no movement for more than two hours. He anxiously suggested to Sokov: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I think you should call General Guriyev again and ask what's going on."

"Okay, Comrade Major." In order to find out what was going on, Sokov decided to call Guriyev and ask if there were really German troops coming towards him. He picked up the phone and heard After there was a voice inside, he told the operator: "Please approach the Guards Command for me."

  After the call was connected, an impatient voice came out of the receiver: "I am Lieutenant Colonel Zalijuk, where are you? What's the matter, hurry up!"

  Sokov heard Lieutenant Colonel Zalijuk's anxiety from his voice, and couldn't help but regret that he shouldn't have called at this time. Maybe he didn't hear anyone speak for a long time, Zalijuk became more impatient: "Hey, what's the matter with you, why don't you speak?"

   "Comrade Chief of Staff," Zalijuk's voice woke up Sokov from hesitation, and he quickly said into the microphone: "I am Lieutenant Colonel Sokov. I have an urgent matter to find General Guriyev."

"Oh, it's Lieutenant Colonel Sokov." Hearing that it was Sokov, Zalijuk's voice softened a lot: "Comrade Commander went to inspect the defense area of ​​the 117th Regiment. If you have anything to do, you can directly say to me."

"That's right, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov thought that Guriyev had gone to inspect the grassroots troops, and he would definitely not be able to return within a few hours. He didn't have so much time to waste, so he cut straight to the point and confronted Zalijiu. Ke said: "More than two hours ago, General Guriyev called me and said that a battalion of German infantry was moving towards our defense zone. After I received the call, I immediately deployed defenses, and then waited. I have been waiting for such a long time, but I still haven’t seen the enemy appear. I want to check with the general if I heard wrong just now.”

"Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, you heard me right." Zalijuk replied: "More than two hours ago, a battalion of German troops indeed marched towards the area you defended. But now, they are attacking the second worker. village."

   "They are attacking the Second Worker's Village?" The Second Worker's Village is a residential area with about fifty houses, and the 117th Guards Regiment is in charge of defense. Hearing this, Sokov immediately understood why Guriyev went to the 117th Regiment. His feeling was that there was an attack by the German army, but he was very eager to understand why this group of enemies gave up attacking the assembly workshop and went to attack What about the heavily fortified No. 2 Workers' Village? "Comrade Chief of Staff, I don't understand why the enemy would abandon us and attack the 117th Regiment's defense zone."

"Lieutenant Colonel Sokov," Zalijuk explained to Sokov, "We captured several German officers of the battalion during the battle. After interrogating them, we found out that their original attack target was indeed the When you were about to reach the place, you received an order from your superiors saying that you were supported by a tank brigade and ordered them to turn around and attack the second worker’s village.”

   "So it is, I understand, Comrade Chief of Staff. Thank you!"

After putting down the phone, Sokov let out a bad breath, and then said to Balshak: "Comrade Major, I have made it clear that the German army was originally ordered to attack us, but halfway there, they received a message from their superiors." The order, saying that we have the support of a tank brigade here, ordered them to turn around and attack the second worker's village immediately."

"Tank brigade, what tank brigade? Where did we get the support of some tank brigade here?" After Balshak said these words in a daze, he suddenly remembered something, and raised his hand to pat his forehead, annoyed. Said: "Damn, damn, how did I forget this."

He looked at Sokov and said: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, it seems that your strategy has succeeded. The Germans really regarded the tanks without ammunition as reinforcements for our tank troops, so that they dared not attack. "

  Sokov picked up the phone again and called Briski: "Comrade Captain, cancel the battle alert and let the soldiers take a good rest. Remember, don't forget to keep someone on guard."

"Comrade Brigadier, I don't understand." Briski was worried when he saw that the German army had not appeared for a long time. At this moment, he suddenly received a call from Sokov, ordering him to cancel the combat alarm. He asked in a daze: " The enemy has not yet appeared, why should the battle alert be lifted?"

"The enemy attacking us received an order on the way and turned around to attack the second worker's village." Sokov said briefly to Briski: "The reason why they stopped attacking us was because they thought we had The reinforcements of a tank brigade had to be abandoned."

"I see, Comrade Brigadier." After figuring out the reason, Briski also breathed a sigh of relief: "It turned out that our deception tactics worked, scaring the Germans from acting rashly. I will arrange for the soldiers to rest now. When the Germans come back to their senses and attack us again, the soldiers will be able to rest easy and beat them to pieces."

  (end of this chapter)