Red Moscow

Early the next morning, as soon as Sokov woke up, Sameko reported to him: "Comrade Commander, just received a call from the maintenance station chief. They towed a total of 21 destroyed tanks back to the maintenance station yesterday. , After overnight repairs, 7 tanks can be put back into battle."

The 219th Tank Brigade lost more than 40 tanks in the battle on the first day. For the 27th Army, which had a small number of tanks, it was tantamount to worsening the situation, which made Sokov very distressed. At this moment, I heard that 7 tanks have been repaired and can be reorganized into the army. I can't help but feel happy.

"Comrade Chief of Staff, the workers in our maintenance station are all good. They were able to repair 7 tanks destroyed by the Germans in such a short period of time." Sameko's report made Sokov feel a little bolder. Thoughts: "I wonder if they can repair all the remaining tanks? You know, the superior may not provide us with new tanks in a short time, so we can only make a fuss about repairing the old tanks."

After Sokov finished speaking, Seeing Sameko did not respond, and realized that he was asking blindly. Sameko is his own chief of staff, and he can give him advice on how to fight; but when it comes to repairing tanks, he is just like himself, an out-and-out layman.

He quickly raised his hand and pointed at Sameko, and said, "Comrade Chief of Staff, please call the maintenance station chief and ask him to come to the headquarters when he is free. I want to talk to him."

When Sameko called the maintenance station chief, Managarov, who was sitting on the side, came over and said to Sokov: "General Sokov, I think what you said is very reasonable. The number of tanks is not large, and the superiors will not replenish the tanks lost in the battle for a long time, so we can only find a way to solve them.”

"That's right, Comrade General." Sokov nodded, and replied affirmatively: "The tanks we lost in the battle, as long as the comrades in the repair station can repair them in time, we can alleviate the difficulty of our lack of tanks. .”

"General Sokov," Derevyanko interjected, "can the comrades at the maintenance station repair destroyed German tanks besides our own?"

Hearing Derevyanko's question, Sokov hesitated for a moment, and then replied: "General Derevyanko, the structure of the tanks is similar. I think since they can repair our army's tanks, they can repair the German tanks." Tanks shouldn't be a big problem."

The maintenance station manager who received the call learned that Sokov wanted to see him, immediately explained the work to his deputy, and rushed to the headquarters in a hurry.

As soon as he entered the church hall, the maintenance station manager was a little dumbfounded. There were seven or eight generals in front of him, and he didn't know who was Sokov who called him over. He stood there and thought for a while, thinking that since Sokov is the commander of the two armies, he must be an elderly commander with a high rank. Soon he chose Managaro Husband, I think this should be to meet his General Sokov.

The head of the maintenance station came to Managarov, straightened his body and said, "Hello, General Sokov, I am Adil, the head of the maintenance station. I am here on your order, please give me instructions!"

After Adil finished speaking, there was silence waiting for him, and all the commanders looked at him with stunned expressions on their faces. After a while, Managarov pointed at Sokov with his hand, and said to Adil with a smile: "Comrade Station Master, you made a mistake. He is General Sokov who wants to see you."

Seeing that the commander of the two armies was actually such a young major general, Adil couldn't help being a little surprised. He hurried to Sokov again and repeated what he said just now.

"Hello, Comrade Adil." Sokov held Adil's hand and said enthusiastically: "On behalf of all the commanders and fighters of the 27th and 53rd Army, I welcome you. Please sit down!"

As soon as Adil sat down, a soldier immediately brought him tea and put a plate of biscuits in front of him.

"Comrade Adil, it seems that you have been busy all night." Seeing the other party's heavy dark circles, Sokov guessed that he must have participated in the overnight repairs, so he said kindly: "Please eat something first, drink Let's have some tea."

Adil quickly ate two biscuits with tea, and then asked Sokov curiously: "General Sokov, I wonder if you are so eager to recruit me, is there anything important?"

"That's right, Comrade Adil." Sokov smiled and said to Adil: "I heard that you repaired 7 tanks overnight, is that the case?"

"Yes, the comrades at the maintenance station repaired 7 tanks after a night of hard work." Adil replied truthfully: "These tanks can be returned to the army today."

"Can the remaining tanks be repaired?"

"It's hard to say, General Sokov." Adil said with some embarrassment when he heard Sokov's question: "Some tanks were severely damaged, and the steel plates of the tanks were all broken into pieces. The skin peeled off like a husk. The internal parts of the tank also melted under the high temperature, sintered into pieces, and could not be used at all."

Sokov couldn't help feeling disappointed when he heard this, but he was helpless. A tank that was so badly damaged had no repair value at all except for returning it to the furnace.

Seeing that Sokov was silent, Adil went on to say: "We even found dead tank soldiers in some tanks. Usually, our workers will move out the remains of the tank soldiers and say goodbye to them in some tanks. After the ceremony, bury them on the spot."

Adil's words reminded Sokov that the 219th Tank Brigade lost so many tanks yesterday, and the number of sacrificed tank soldiers would not be small. It is necessary to arrange special personnel to collect and bury these sacrificed tank soldiers. Thinking of this, he said to Sameko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, please call General Solomatin and ask Colonel Timofevich, the commander of the tank brigade, to organize his staff immediately to check whether there are any And the remains of our tank soldiers."

"Understood, Comrade Commander." Hearing Sokov's order, Sameko said with a solemn expression: "I will immediately contact Solomatin and ask him to organize people to search for the remains of tank soldiers."

"Comrade Adil," Managarov tentatively asked Adil in order to break the dull atmosphere in the headquarters: "Can you repair the German tanks? You know, my troops are fighting the enemy in the northwest of the city. , Destroyed dozens of tanks, if they can be repaired, our tank force can be strengthened."

"Comrade General," Adil said, turning his head and looking at Managarov, "I'm still saying that whether the tank can be repaired and put back on the battlefield, I can only make the final decision after I have checked its damage. in conclusion."

"If the German tanks cannot be repaired, what are you going to do with them?" Derevyanko interrupted and asked.

"It's very simple." Adil didn't know Derevyanko, but he still said without hesitation: "Of course it is recycled. It would be great if the Germans provided us with scrap iron."

"Do you think the German tanks are better than our tanks?" Derevyanko continued to ask.

Adil thought for a while and replied: "Compared with our steel, the steel grade of their tank is very low, and the alloy contained in it is also less."

As soon as he talked about his own work, Adil began to talk about it endlessly: "My workers and I once carefully dismantled the German tank, inspected every part and every part of it, and studied it. Its mechanical properties, materials and processing methods, I want to find out what advantages the Germans have in the manufacturing process.

But after our careful research, we found that there is nothing to recommend. Take their welding technology as an example, it is far behind ours, and it cannot be compared with our KB and T-324 tanks at all..."

Among the several generals present, except Sokov who knew how to drive a tank, the rest knew nothing about their manufacturing process and the materials used. Although the content of Adil's narration became more and more profound, and there were more and more incomprehensible terms, but no one interrupted his narration, and he still listened patiently and quietly.

After an unknown period of time, Adil's narration finally came to an end. While secretly relieved, Sokov politely asked the other party: "Comrade Adil, do you have any difficulties? If so, please feel free to bring them up." , I will try my best to solve it for you."

"How should I put it, General Sokov." Adil was silent for a while after hearing Sokov asking himself to make a condition, and then said cautiously: "Our maintenance station is still short of manpower, if you can help me solve this problem , I think the speed at which we repair tanks can be greatly improved."

Sokov wanted to help Adil, but the technical work of tank maintenance cannot be solved by just finding a few people. He said to Adil in a difficult way: "Comrade Adil, I also want to help you. .But, you know that not everyone can help you with the professional technicians needed to repair tanks.”

"General Sokov, I think you misunderstood me." Adil didn't wait for Sokov to finish, and interrupted him: "You think I want you to draw people from the army to help Us? No, I didn't mean that?"

Not this meaning, how many meanings? Sokov asked puzzledly: "Comrade Adil, I'm afraid there are not many technicians you need in the army."

"Yes, General Sokov, I know this very well." Adil agrees very much with Sokov's statement: "When it comes to fighting, the commanders and fighters in the army are all good. But if it comes to Repairing tanks, most of them don't even know how to do it."

Sokov felt that the other party seemed to have something to say, so he asked tentatively: "Comrade Adil, what do you think in your heart, why don't you tell me and listen. As long as I can help, I will definitely do my best."

"General Sokov, there is a machinery factory in Klemenchug. As far as I know, there are still a large number of technicians in it." Adil said cautiously: "Can you classify all these technicians as I command?" Perhaps because he was worried that Sokov would disagree, he also emphasized specifically, "I assure you, as long as we have these technicians, the number of our repaired tanks will be increased, and we will be able to make more Destroyed tanks are back on the battlefield in a short period of time."

It has to be said that Adil's proposal was very attractive, and Sokov couldn't help but turned his head and asked Sameko, "Comrade Chief of Staff, is there a machinery factory in the city?"

"Yes, Comrade Commander, there is indeed a medium-sized machinery factory with about 300 workers, half of whom are skilled workers."

Sokov didn't know about the factory. Even if Sameko told him, he didn't have the slightest idea, so he asked, "Where is the factory?"

"To the southwest of the city," Sameko replied, "about three kilometers from the bridge over the Dnieper River."

"Comrade Adil," Sokov waited for Sameko to finish speaking, then turned to look at Adil again: "Where is your maintenance station now?"

"It's on the east side of the city." As he spoke, Adil pointed out the location of the maintenance station on the map with his hand.

"To the east of the city?!" Sukov saw clearly where the repair station was, frowned and said, "It's too far away from the battlefield. Every time I just drag those destroyed tanks back to the repair station, I'm afraid it will take A lot of time."

"Yes, General Sokov." Adil said helplessly, "The location assigned to us at that time was too far away from the battlefield, so that we had to allocate some manpower to transport the destroyed tanks on the battlefield."

Sokov stared at the map in front of him, tapped his fingers lightly on the table, his mind was spinning rapidly, trying to think about the problem of relocating the maintenance station.

"Comrade Commander," Sameko saw Sokov staring at the map in a daze, quickly patted his arm, and asked curiously, "What are you thinking?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov replied with a wry smile, looking up at Sameko, "I'm considering whether to change the location of the maintenance station so that they can better complete the repair work."

"Is there a suitable place?"

"I want to move the maintenance station to the machinery factory." Sukov pointed to the location of the machinery factory, and continued: "You also said just now that the machinery factory is only three kilometers away from the Dnieper River Bridge, and the maintenance station is placed here. , it can be as close to the battlefield as possible. More importantly, there are lathes, boring machines, milling machines and other large machines in the machinery factory, which are very helpful for maintenance work and help improve the work efficiency of the maintenance station."

After Sokov finished speaking, before Sameko expressed his opinion, he turned to Adil again and asked: "Comrade Adil, do you have any different views on the relocation of the maintenance station to the machinery factory? "

Sokov's words made Adil feel like a pizza fell from the sky. He shook his head vigorously and said emotionally: "General Sokov, I don't have any different opinions. If our maintenance station can be moved into mechanical factory, and using those ready-made machinery and equipment, I think our work efficiency can be greatly improved."

Now that Adil has no objections, Sokov told Sameko: "Chief of Staff, since Comrade Adil has no objections, you should arrange vehicles and manpower as soon as possible, and move the maintenance station to the machinery factory. And make sure they get to work as quickly as possible."