Red Moscow

Sokov worried that the infiltrated German army might cause losses to the friendly forces, so he couldn't wait to order the director of the communications corps to get through the phone of the front army headquarters.

After receiving the call from Sokov, Konev was still a little surprised: "Comrade Sokov, do you have any good news for calling me at this time?"

"I'm sorry, Comrade Commander of the Front Army." Hearing what Konev said, Sokov said with some shame: "I think what I brought you is bad news."

"Bad news?" Hearing what Sokov said, Konev immediately thought of Kazakhya Compass Town, and asked in a panic, "Is there something wrong with Kazakhya Compass Town?"

"No, no." Seeing that Konev actually contacted Kazakhya Compass Town, Sokov immediately shook his head and replied like a rattle: "Comrade Commander of the Front Army, Kazakhya Compass Town is now firmly established. The control is in the hands of our army, even if the enemy launches an attack, they will never want to take the town from our hands."

Knowing that Kazakhya Compass Town was fine, Konev became relaxed again. For him, as long as the town is in the hands of the Soviet army, then when the main force launches an attack on Kharkov, Sokov's troops will This will cover the flanks in the direction of the town. He asked casually: "Comrade Sokov, what do you mean by bad news?"

"One of my troops was on the way to Kazakhya Compass Town, and encountered several German soldiers disguised as our army."

"Oh, I met Germans disguised as our army." Konev asked with interest: "How many such enemies are there, and what are their tasks?"

Konev's words stopped Sokov. Since Shamrikh and the others did not leave any survivors, Sokov had no idea how many enemies had infiltrated the defense zone and what their tasks were. He could only reply in embarrassment: "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander of the Front Army, I don't know."

"you do not know?!"

Facing Konev's doubts, Sokov could only explain: "Because the enemy was found out and tried to resist, they have been completely wiped out by our commanders and fighters, leaving no survivors."

"No one was left alive." Hearing this, Konev said with some displeasure in his heart: "Comrade Sokov, our main task now is to launch an attack on the enemy occupying Kharkov. But you If you bother me with such insignificant things, maybe the situation is not as serious as you imagined, these enemies who were killed by you are just enemy scouts."

After hearing these words, Sokov didn't know how to interface for a while.

Hearing Sokov's silence, Konev continued: "Comrade Sokov, even if some enemies infiltrate our defense zone, how many of them can there be? You know, with the Voronezh Front Army, we will always There are 600,000 to 700,000 troops, and what kind of harm can a few German soldiers do to us?"

Seeing Sokov put down the phone, Sameko had a very serious expression on his face, and quickly comforted him, saying, "Comrade Commander, General Konev is right. We have gathered six or seven hundred thousand people in the direction of Kharkov. The army, not to mention a few German soldiers, even a company of enemies will pose a limited threat to us."

Sokov originally felt disappointed because Konev did not pay attention to this matter. But after hearing what Sameko said, he immediately had a new idea. He could arrange manpower to search for the infiltrated enemy, and there was really no need to alarm Konev. You know, he is currently dispatching troops nervously and has no time to take care of such trivial matters.

After trying to understand this, Sokov called the director of the communications army to him and asked, "Comrade director of the communications army, can we talk to Colonel Keida in Compass Town, Kazakhia?"

"Yes, Comrade Commander." The Director of the Communication Corps nodded and replied, "The telephone line between us and Compass Town of Kazakia has been laid, and you can talk to the commander there at any time."

"Then immediately connect me to the headquarters of the 188th Division. I want to speak to the division commander, Colonel Koida."

The call was connected quickly, and Keida on the other end of the line asked nervously, "Comrade Commander, what instructions do you have?"

Sokov did not immediately explain the task to the other party, but asked about other things: "Have the troops of the 98th Guards Division arrived at Kazakia Compass Town?"

"According to the report from the observation post, about half an hour ago, about a regiment of troops boarded hundreds of trucks, passed through the town, and headed south." After answering Sokov's question, Keida tentatively asked : "Comrade Commander, are you calling to ask about this?"

"Comrade Colonel, I'm calling you for something else."

"Other things?" Keida asked puzzledly, "What is it?"

"It was the Guards regiment that just passed through the town. On the way, they encountered five German soldiers disguised as our army. According to the report of Colonel Chuvashov, the commander of the 98th Guards Division, the IDs they used were all Gucha The certificates of the commanders and fighters of the Cove Battalion."

"The certificates of the commanders and fighters of the Guchakov Battalion?" Koyda was startled into a cold sweat when he heard what Sokov said, and asked quickly: "Comrade commander, what is going on here? How could the enemy have a battalion of commanders and fighters?" What about the documents?"

"I guess the enemy collected them from the sacrificed commanders and fighters when they attacked the hospital." Sokov said, "I don't know how many IDs of our sacrificed commanders and fighters fell into the hands of the Germans during the battle. Therefore, I want to give you an important task, and immediately send people to search around the town to see if there are any fish that slipped through the net."

Although the task assigned by Sokov is not very high, in such a vast area, looking for enemies disguised as their own is tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack. But Keida still replied unequivocally: "Understood, Comrade Commander, I will immediately send people to search nearby, and must catch all the enemies who infiltrate."

"Colonel Keida, your division must have suffered a lot of casualties when they captured Kazakia Compass Town, right?"

"Yes, Comrade Commander." As soon as Sokov mentioned the casualties, Koyda began to complain: "Our division fought brutally in the compass town of Kazakhia, and the number of casualties has reached three. One-tenth, individual companies even have only one empty number left, such as the Guchakov Battalion.”

"The Guchakov Battalion has long since ceased to exist in your division's organizational structure." Seeing that Koida mentioned the Guchakov Battalion again, Sokov quickly reminded him: "Now Major Guchakov is the 73rd Infantry The brigade commander, the remaining fighters of the battalion, were also incorporated into the infantry brigade. After Kharkov is liberated, I will replenish your division with troops, and then you can rebuild a battalion."

Koyda pretended not to mention the Guchakov Battalion to Sokov in order to hint to the other party that he had lost a complete battalion in this battle, and hoped that Sokov could replenish him. Seeing that the goal had been achieved at this moment, he hurriedly said, "Comrade Commander, if you have nothing else to do, I would like to assign tasks to my subordinates to search around the town for enemies pretending to be our soldiers."

"Wait a minute, Colonel Keda." Sokov quickly stopped Keda, and said to him: "Since your division has suffered such heavy casualties, there may not be many people who can be dispatched to carry out the search mission. I will immediately Contact Major General Fomenko and ask him to send his men to assist you as well."

"Comrade Commander, if you want the assistance of General Fomenko's 84th Division, I'm afraid you must come forward." Koyda cautiously reminded Sokov: "After all, others are generals, and I am just a colonel."

Hearing what Keida said, Sokov felt that it was very reasonable. If a colonel came to ask him to assist him with some work at this moment, he would definitely not pay attention. He quickly said: "Okay, I will call Major General Fomenko and ask him to send people to assist you in your search."

After finishing the call with Koida, Sokov asked the director of the communications corps to connect to the headquarters of the 84th Division. He wanted to talk to Major General Fomenko.

After the call was connected, Sokov asked straight to the point: "General Fomenko, where are you now?"

When Fomenko learned that it was Sokov who called him, he felt guilty for a while, because he obeyed Sokov's order and refused to let the troops occupying October Town rush to Kazakhya Compass Town. Supporting the 188th Division fighting here caused the division to suffer undue casualties.

Hearing Sokov's question at this moment, he was stunned for a moment, and then replied: "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I don't understand what you mean. Shouldn't I be in my division headquarters."

Sokov realized that his expression was not accurate enough, which made Fomenko confused, and quickly added: "General Fomenko, I mean to ask whether you are in the compass town of Kazakhia now or somewhere else. ?”

"In Kazakhya Compass, of course," Fomenko replied: "The divisional headquarters of the 188th Division is in the school south of the town, and mine is in the church in the middle of the town. Comrade Commander, What are you asking for this?"

"General Fomenko, the situation is like this. A group of German soldiers disguised themselves as our army and used our army's credentials to infiltrate our defense line." Sokov told Fomenko what happened on the phone. After a detailed introduction, he said: "Because the 188th Division suffered heavy casualties in the battle that ended not long ago. If you rely solely on their strength to search for these infiltrated enemies, the strength seems a bit weak, so I would like to ask you to send manpower , to assist the 188th in its search work."

After figuring out that Sokov called him only to let him send manpower to help the 188th Division, Fomenko couldn't help secretly heaving a sigh of relief, and then replied loudly: "Don't worry, Comrade Commander, I will contact the 188th Division immediately." Colonel Ida got in touch and discussed with him about sending troops to conduct a joint search around the town."

After cooperating with the joint operations of the two divisions, Sokov put down the phone, picked up the cold tea at the table, took a few sips, and then raised his head and asked Sameko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, do you think I Are there any deficiencies in the deployment?"

Sameko, who was standing next to him and wanted to talk for a long time, heard Sokov ask him this, and quickly reminded him: "Comrade Commander, have you forgotten the task that Marshal Zhukov gave you?"

Sokov was stunned for a moment, then raised his hand and slapped himself heavily on the forehead: "Confused, I am really confused, how could I have forgotten this matter."

According to the earliest plan, it should be the troops of Koida to rescue the Italian prisoners of war, but because the division was entangled by the Germans in the town of Compass in Kazakhia, there was no strength left to carry out this task. Sokov stood up and walked back and forth in the command post with his hands behind his back, wondering which unit should be sent to carry out this task.

"Comrade Commander, I have an idea, do you want to hear it?"

Sokov stopped, facing Sameko and said: "Comrade Chief of Staff, if you have any thoughts, just say it. Even if you say something wrong, I won't blame you."

"Comrade Commander, according to our original plan, the 98th Guards Division will disguise itself as a German army after passing through Kazakhya Compass Town, and then escort a group of so-called 'captives' into the enemy's defense zone." Samee Ke said cautiously: "See if you can divert the 98th Guards Division to a prisoner-of-war camp. The enemy will definitely not have any doubts when they see such a large group of prisoners from our army. Colonel Chuvashov and the others may be able to easily Take down the prisoner-of-war camp and free all the Italian prisoners of war held in it."

Sameko's proposal made Sokov's eyes shine. If the commanders and fighters of the 98th Guards Division pretended to be German troops according to the original plan, and then escorted a group of "prisoners of war" from our army into the enemy's defense area, their identities would be exposed to some extent. possible. But if they diverted in time and went directly to the prisoner-of-war camp outside Jergach, the guards there would definitely not be suspicious when they saw a team of their own escorting a group of Soviet prisoners of war. In this way, it is possible that Chuvashov's troops will be able to capture the German prisoner-of-war camp and free the Italian prisoners held there without bloodshed.

"Chief of Staff, I think your plan is completely feasible." Sokov said politely: "Let's sit down and discuss some details first, and formulate a new action plan."

Sameko was also polite, pointing to the map and telling Sokov his detailed plan. Sokov patiently listened to the other party's explanation, only occasionally interrupting his words to raise some questions in his mind.

In this way, in less than half an hour, a new battle plan was freshly released.

Sokov picked up the battle plan and went through it carefully, picked up a pencil and signed his name in the lower right corner, then called the director of the communications corps, and handed him the plan in his hand: "Comrade chief of the communications corps, immediately send this A telegram was sent to Colonel Chuvashov, commander of the 98th Guards Division, ordering him to carry out our new order."

The director of the Communication Corps took over the plan from Sokov, looked down for a few times, nodded vigorously, and said, "Yes, Comrade Commander, I will personally send a telegram to the headquarters of the 98th Guards Division."