Red Moscow

  Chapter 752 Defense (Part 1)

   As soon as it was dawn, Sokov and Belkin came to the roof of the building and looked down at the terrain. The two held up the binoculars. Looking down from here, they could see the entire defensive zone clearly.

   There is a building in the distance, but after the enemy's shelling and bombing, it has already become a ruin. In front of the archives building, there is an open land, but it is fragmented by trenches and traffic trenches. The damaged German tanks and armored vehicles were all blackened by the flames, and they were parked in front of the trenches in a disorderly manner, or were placed horizontally between the trenches.

Seeing this scene, Sokov put down his binoculars and said to Belkin: "Comrade Commissar, this building is in the direction of Germany's frontal breakthrough. We must firmly hold it. This way the enemy cannot rush to the barricade factory or the Volga River." side."

   "Since the friendly army can hold its position under the onslaught of the enemy." Belkin also put down the binoculars in his hand, turned his head and assured Sokov, "Then we will definitely be able to hold on."

"If you want to block the enemy's attack, you can't just rely on words." As Sokov said, he raised the binoculars again and looked down at the defensive position below: "Now, let's see how the fortifications are being repaired." ?”

  As the telescope lens moved, Sokov saw a new trench, which had been formed on the basis of the original trench. Moreover, there is a firepower point every 40 to 50 meters. The firepower point is covered with two layers of logs, which is enough to withstand the bombardment of mortars.

Sokov was very satisfied with such fortifications. He nodded to Belkin and said: "Comrade Comrade, our newly built fortifications may not be able to withstand the repeated bombardment of German artillery. First, don't deploy too many troops, lest you suffer heavy losses in the shelling before you see the enemy's face."

"I understand, Misha." Belkin nodded and said, "I plan to place only one company of the new battalion on the defensive position outside the building, and the other two companies to hide elsewhere. Waiting for the front line After more than half of the troops are casualties, another company will be sent to take over the defense."

  Sokov knew that each company in the downsizing regiment had two or three hundred people, even more than a regiment of friendly troops. It was more than enough to use one company to defend the frontline positions. Pointing to the ruins of buildings in the distance, he said to Belkin: "Comrade Commissar, I suggest you set up several combat teams in the ruins. Each team consists of five people, one sniper, two One machine gunner and two submachine gunners, they can rely on the terrain to harass the advancing German troops..."

When Sokov said this, he suddenly remembered one thing: in real history, Vasily Zaitsev was sniping and killing the enemy everywhere at the moment, but because of his own appearance, he was asked to command the troops to stick to Vasily building, resulting in a drastic reduction in the number of enemies he kills. Should he send someone to take over his position, so that he can be a sniper with peace of mind and freely snipe and kill the enemies he encounters.

"Misha, Misha..." Seeing that Sokov had just finished speaking halfway, Belkin suddenly stood there in a daze. Thinking that something had happened to him, he quickly grabbed his shoulder and shook vigorously a few times. , while leaning close to his ear and shouting his name loudly: "What's wrong with you?"

"Oh, I'm fine." Belkin's shout woke up Sokov from his contemplation. He shook his head and said, "I suddenly thought of something, so I'm a little distracted. Let's continue talking about defense." .”

He pointed his hand towards the roof where he was standing, and said to Belkin: "Comrade political commissar, didn't you bring a lot of German mortars this time?" A 50mm caliber mortar has a range of 500 meters, and if you set up a mortar position on the roof, you can use artillery fire to support the defenders outside the building at any time."

"We brought six mortars this time, and each gun has about fifty shells." Belkin said with some regret: "If I knew that I could use artillery fire to attack the enemy here, I should have brought more shells here." .”

"It doesn't matter if there are few shells, you can save them. But I see that you carry a lot of machine gun bullets." When mentioning machine guns, Sokov thought to himself: The troops are still equipped with MG34 machine guns. Replace it with an MG42 machine gun. Although the weapon consumes bullets, its lethality is not weak: "You establish machine gun positions on the roof and the fifth floor, so that you can form crossfire with those firepower points in the fortifications outside the building, and wipe out a large number of attacking enemies. .”

After listening to Sokov's order, Belkin hurried to the side, picked up the phone that had just been set up, and said into the microphone: "Chief of Staff, I am Belkin, and immediately ordered Lieutenant Griza to come to the roof to report to the division commander. report to me."

  After putting down the phone, Belkin explained to Sokov: "Misha, you know that Lieutenant Griza is very capable. I plan to let his company deploy defenses on the roof."

  Sokov smiled lightly and said: "Comrade Political Commissar, you are the head of the downsizing regiment. You can decide how to deploy it yourself. You don't have to ask me for instructions on everything."

Seeing that Sokov was so reasonable, Belgin smiled gratefully at him and said, "Misha, to be honest, I have a commander with a much higher position than me by my side. But with your words, my heart is much more at ease."

  After receiving the notification, Lieutenant Grisa immediately ran all the way to the roof. Seeing that both Sokov and Belkin were there, he quickly stood up and reported to them: "Report to the division commander and regiment commander, Lieutenant Grisa, commander of the fourth company of the new second battalion..."

"All right, all right, you don't have to do this in front of us." Sokov didn't wait for Griza to finish, he interrupted him directly, and asked straight to the point: "Comrade Lieutenant, is there anyone in your company?" How many mortars and machine guns?"

Griza is Sukov's old subordinate. As soon as he heard this question, he knew that his superior must have some important task for him, so he quickly replied truthfully: "Report to Comrade Commander, our company has six mortars. and twelve MG34 machine guns."

  After listening to the data reported by Griza, Sokov turned to Belgin and said, "Comrade Commissar, since you have figured out their equipment, then you can assign tasks."

Belgin nodded, and then said to Grisa: "Comrade Lieutenant, your company is responsible for the defense of the fifth floor and the roof. Mortars are placed on the roof, providing artillery support to the defenders outside the building when necessary, suppressing Charging enemy."

   "Understood, Comrade Leader."

Seeing that Belgin was assigning missions to Grisa, Sokov felt that there was no need to stay here to get in the way, so he said to him: "Comrade political commissar, you continue to assign missions, I will go to the defensive position outside the building to see Look, talk to the fighters."

   "Misha!" Belkin quickly stopped Sokov and reminded him, "The enemy may launch an attack at any time. I think you should stay in the building. At least this will ensure your safety."

   "It's okay, Comrade Political Commissar, don't worry." Sokov waved his hand at Belkin and said disapprovingly, "It's not my first time on the battlefield. I will pay attention to my own safety."

  (end of this chapter)