Red Moscow

  Chapter 602

  The captain's words aroused Samoilov's great curiosity, "Comrade captain, can you tell me what's going on?"

   Perhaps it was because he learned that the second lieutenant of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in front of him could easily pass through the enemy's heavily defended positions, and the captain's attitude towards him changed greatly. Just being polite to him was out of fear of his identity; but being respectful to him now was out of admiration for him.

"That's right, Comrade Second Lieutenant." The captain told Samoilov: "The superiors found out that going to join forces with the defenders in Orlovka and carrying out an assault from the riverside defended by the Germans is the shortest route. Then we mobilized our troops to launch an attack there. Unexpectedly, when we advanced towards the river, we were bombed by enemy planes, resulting in the destruction of a large number of tanks, armored vehicles and personnel carriers, and our infantry suffered heavy casualties.

  However, in order to fulfill the orders of their superiors, the commanders and fighters bravely rushed to the river, put the wooden boats they carried into the river, and prepared to cross the river to seize the position on the other side. However, the German machine guns on the hillside on the opposite bank began to fire, knocking down the commanders and fighters who were about to board the ship in pieces by the river like a target.

Without any artillery cover, the soldiers boarded the wooden boat and began to cross. They pressed their bodies close to the wooden boat and paddled sideways, not only to avoid bullets from the high ground on the other side, but also to avoid the enemy's attack. Mortar shells. During the process of crossing the river, wooden boats full of soldiers were hit by shells from time to time, and fragments of human bodies and wooden boats were mixed together and blown into the sky. As soon as the fleet rowed to the center of the river, more than half of the wooden boats were lost, and the river was full of floating corpses, but our soldiers still tenaciously landed on the river bank..."

If Samoilov left a few minutes late and could hear what Sokov said to others, he would be surprised to find that Sokov's analysis of the situation was different from what the captain said. Not much.

   After the captain introduced the situation, the truck also came to a small village. The car stopped at the entrance of the village, and the captain quickly greeted Samoilov: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, we will get off here, and someone will take you to see the teacher later."

   As soon as Samoilov and the others got out of the car, they saw a major walking along the village path with two soldiers. The captain hurried forward to salute and report to the other party. After listening to the major, he nodded, turned his eyes to Samoilov and his subordinates standing aside, and said, "Comrade Second Lieutenant, take your people and follow me."

  Samoilov extended his hand to the captain and said friendlyly: "Comrade captain, thank you for bringing us here, we will meet later."

   "There will be a period later." The captain shook hands with Samoilov, turned around and boarded the truck parked aside.

  The major led them to a wooden house with sentries standing guard, then stopped and said to Samoilov: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, let your people stay outside, and I will take you in alone to see the division commander."

  As soon as the major finished speaking, Samoilov turned around and told his subordinates: "Stay here and wait for me to come out." After speaking, he raised his legs and was about to walk into the wooden house, but was stopped by the major.

   "Major," Samoilov asked curiously, not knowing why the major stopped him, "Why did you stop me?"

   "I'm sorry, Comrade Second Lieutenant." The major said dryly, "Please hand over your weapons."

  After being reminded by the major, Samoilov realized that he was still holding a submachine gun in his hand. If he really went in like this, the major and the others probably wouldn't be at ease. He casually handed the submachine gun to a soldier next to him, then took off the gun and stuffed it into the soldier's hand, and then asked the major: "Comrade major, can we go in?"

Samoilov followed the major into the division commander's room, and saw a colonel and a lieutenant colonel standing by a wooden table, looking down at the map on it, and quickly stepped forward two steps, raising their hands to their foreheads , Reporting loudly: "Comrade Colonel, Second Lieutenant Samoilov, the guard platoon leader of the 73rd Rifle Brigade, reports to you!"

  The colonel stood up straight, looked Samoilov from head to toe, and asked coldly: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, which army does the 73rd Infantry Brigade belong to? Why have I never heard of it?"

"Report to Comrade Colonel," Samoilov stood up and replied respectfully: "Our brigade belongs to the 62nd Army of General Chuikov. defense."

  After listening to Samoilov, the colonel showed a surprised expression on his face: "Since you are in charge of the defense of Mamayev Gang, why did you appear here?"

"That's right, Comrade Colonel." Samoilov explained to the other party: "Our brigade commander received an order from his superiors a few days ago, asking him to lead the troops northward and go out to the Orlovka area. The friendly forces outside the encirclement rushed in to join us. But after we arrived in Orlovka, we found that the friendly forces could not break through the enemy's defense and rushed over to join us. At the same time, our retreat was also cut off by the German army. Next, the brigade commander led us to carry out the breakout operation."

  The person who spoke this time was the lieutenant colonel next to him. He asked kindly: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, you said that your brigade commander led you to break through. Can you tell me where you protrude from?"

Samoilov quickly glanced at the map on the table, and asked tentatively: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, can I point out the location of the breakout for you on the map?" After getting permission, he came to the table He looked down carefully for a moment, pointed to the position where the encirclement broke out, and said, "Comrades, two commanders, we protruded from this position."

   "What, protruding from this position?" When the two commanders saw clearly the position Samoilov pointed to, they all exclaimed in unison: "Is this impossible?"

The attitudes of the two confused Samoilov, but he quickly remembered what the captain had introduced to him on the road, and asked tentatively: "Comrades, two commanders, do you have a troop because two days ago? The entire army was destroyed there, do you think it is impossible for us to break out from there?"

"That's right, Comrade Second Lieutenant, you're right, that's what I thought." The colonel didn't hide his thoughts, and said truthfully to Samoilov: "You know, in order to seize that high ground two days ago, we I filled in a division, but I couldn’t even make it to the top of the hill. Therefore, I think it’s unbelievable for you to break out from there.”

"The division commander is right." As soon as the colonel finished speaking, the lieutenant colonel added: "The enemy's firepower points built on high places cannot be destroyed by our artillery fire. If they are close, the shells will fall on the hillside and explode; Far away, the shells flew over the enemy's fortifications. As a result..."

"Chief of staff, stop talking." Before the lieutenant colonel finished speaking, the colonel interrupted him, but continued to ask Samoilov, "Comrade second lieutenant, when you broke through the German defense line, How much did it cost?"

  From the conversation between the two, Samoilov knew that the colonel was the division commander, and the lieutenant colonel was his chief of staff. Seeing that the division commander was eager to know the situation of the battle, he replied truthfully: "Because we adopted a sneak attack tactic, and we also got the cooperation of tanks during the attack, the casualties of the troops were not large. It seems that there were only casualties. More than thirty people!"

"What, only thirty or so casualties?" Samoilov's words made the two of them completely speechless. A position that could not be captured by thousands of casualties, this army actually took more than thirty casualties. It made them feel ashamed, "Is this true?"

   "Of course it is true." Samoilov nodded, and replied in an affirmative tone: "This kind of situation where small casualties achieve great results is not uncommon in the battles of our 73rd Infantry Brigade."

From Samoilov's tone of voice, the colonel felt that the other party didn't seem to be lying, so he put away his contempt for him and said politely: "Comrade second lieutenant, I am Colonel Korogotsky, commander of the 292nd Infantry Division. This is Lieutenant Colonel Starcha, my chief of staff. My division belongs to the 24th Army of the Don Front. May I help you?"

It was only at this moment that Samoilov figured out the number of this unit. When he heard the other side ask if there was anything he could do for him, he quickly said: "Comrade Colonel, the brigade commander ordered me to come and look for friendly troops so that we can Can rendezvous with the friendly forces as soon as possible..."

Before he finished speaking, a telephone on the table rang, and the chief of staff quickly picked up the receiver and said, "This is the headquarters of the 292nd Infantry Division. Where are you? ... Hello, Commander Comrade Comrade, what instructions do you have?" When he was speaking, his eyebrows suddenly raised, and then he glanced at Samoilov in surprise, and then said, "Yes, the liaison officer sent by the 73rd Infantry Brigade You are in our headquarters right now, would you like to speak to him? ...Okay, I will hand him the microphone right away."

   As he spoke, the chief of staff handed the microphone in his hand to Samoilov, and at the same time said politely: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, the new commander of our army, General Jia Xiaoning, wants to speak to you!"

Knowing that the commander of the army group was going to talk to him, Samoilov couldn't help feeling a little nervous. He took the microphone from the chief of staff and said in a panic: "Hello, Comrade General, I am the guard platoon leader of the 73rd Infantry Brigade. Second Lieutenant Samoilov, do you have any instructions?"

"Hello, Comrade Second Lieutenant." Jia Xiaoning didn't talk to him in a high-spirited tone because the person he was talking to was a second lieutenant, but asked politely: "I received a letter from the commander of the Front Army." General Rokossovsky's phone call, I learned that your troops have escaped from the encirclement and are planning to send troops to meet you. Can you tell me where your troops are now?"

  (end of this chapter)