Red Moscow

"Impossible, how is this possible?" The instructor yelled in surprise after a brief absence: "You know, he is just a captain, how can he be qualified to take up a position that belongs to the rank of a general?"

The teacher's voice was loud, and passed through the closed door to the outside office. The female secretary who was typing was taken aback, she quickly put down her work, got up and went to the door, put her ear to the door, and listened carefully to the movement inside.

"Christonia, don't completely believe what you see with your eyes." The teacher's surprise was obviously expected by the dean, and he said calmly: "Although the collar badge on his shoulder is the rank of captain, But that doesn't mean he's really a captain."

From the dean's words, the teacher heard the overtones, and his breathing became rapid. After taking two deep breaths, he forced himself to ask calmly: "Comrade Dean, can you tell me the real identity of Captain Sokov?" Worried that the dean would continue to hide something from him, he specifically emphasized that , "As his instructor, I have the right to know the true information about him."

"In fact, you also know his real identity." The dean stood up, walked out from behind his desk, came to the teacher, raised his hand and patted him on the shoulder: "He is the former commander of the 27th Army Group Lieutenant General Sokov."

"What, he is General Sokov?" The instructor's eyes widened in surprise.

"That's right, he is your idol, General Sokov." After the dean said this, he said with some regret: "Although his deeds are often published in the newspapers, due to confidentiality reasons, the newspapers have never published them. It’s normal that you don’t know him after seeing his photo.”

"Comrade dean, I don't understand." It took the instructor quite a while to wake up from the shock, and he asked full of doubts: "Since Sokov is a general, why does he wear the rank of captain? "

"You are now in charge of the intermediate commander training class, and the students in it are basically captains or majors, and maybe one or two captains." Facing the questions raised by the instructor, the dean explained to him: "Have you Have you thought about how much psychological burden it will bring to other students if Sokov, who is participating in the training, wears his lieutenant general title and sits in it? In order to avoid this situation, he only Wearing the rank of captain, when he advances to a higher-level training class, his rank will be changed to lieutenant colonel. When he enters the most advanced training class, he will wear his real military rank."

After the dean's explanation, the teacher finally understood what was going on, and he asked a little nervously: "Comrade dean, I feel a lot of pressure now."

The dean laughed after hearing this: "Look, I'm not wrong. As an instructor, you just became uneasy after knowing the true identity of General Sokov. Those who were in the same training with him The commanders in the squad, if they know his identity, what kind of reaction will they have?"

The teacher took out the cigarette case from his pocket, shook out a cigarette from it tremblingly, put it in his mouth, and struck a match to light the cigarette. But because he was too nervous and his hands were shaking too much, he quickly cut a few matches and did not light the cigarette.

The dean took the match from the teacher, lit his cigarette for him and said, "Christonia, the reason why I put General Sokov in your class is because you are a teacher in the intermediate training class. The strongest. As long as you treat him as an ordinary student, you won't be so nervous."

"Then what should I tell them when I'm in class?"

"It's not the first time for you to lead an intermediate training class. Do you need me to teach you what to talk about?" The dean said to the teacher: "If you still feel unconfident, you don't have to look at General Sokov during the lecture, right?" As if he didn't exist."

The teacher took another two puffs of the cigarette, then put the cigarette butt out in the ashtray, looked up at the dean and said, "Okay, Comrade Dean, then I will try."

Having said that, when the teacher saw Sokov in the classroom the next day, his heart beat faster. He remembered what the dean said, and tried his best to avoid looking at where Sokov was during the lecture . But even so, his condition was still not ideal, and the whole military theory class was stumbling, which made the students below frown.

The instructor also realized his gaffe, put down the books, and said to many students in the audience: "Students, this is the end of today's military theory class. Next, we will discuss the classic battle cases included in the textbook. .”

As soon as the teacher said that he would introduce a few classic battle cases included in the textbook, the students automatically ignored the teacher's absence, but looked at each other curiously, wanting to hear what he said about those classic battle cases.

Seeing the students in the audience sitting upright and looking at him expectantly, the teacher regained his confidence and said, "We all know that the Battle of Stalingrad was a great turning point. The Japanese Army not only wiped out the most elite 6th Army of the German Army in this city named after the Supreme Commander himself, but also captured tens of thousands of German officers and soldiers, including Commander Paulus.

According to post-war statistics, the soldiers who entered Stalingrad survived for 24 hours; while the officers survived for only 72 hours. But even in such a tragic battle, the defense line of the entire city was never cut apart by the German attack. The reason is that the troops who stood firm on Mamayev Post are indispensable..."

When the teacher said this, he accidentally saw Sokov, and suddenly shuddered all over. He suddenly realized that it seemed a bit inappropriate for him to talk about the significance of holding on to Mamayev Post in the entire Stalingrad War as he used to. After all, the commander of the troops holding on to Mamayev Listen to the class below.

After the teacher explained the importance of sticking to Mamayev Post, he focused on Sokov. His attitude towards Sokov has changed at the moment. The politeness yesterday was because he thought the other party was a great talent. At this moment, the teacher who already knew Sokov's identity changed his attitude towards Sokov from being polite to respectful.

He looked at Sokov, and said respectfully: "Captain Sokov, I wonder what you think of what I said?" Knowing Sokov's identity, he was very careful in what he said, so as not to say the wrong thing and offend him unintentionally own.

Sokov was surprised to hear that the teacher asked him to comment on the defense of Mamayev Gang. Why did he get involved with himself again during the lecture? But since the teacher took the initiative to ask him to share his views, Sokov couldn't refuse. He looked at the teacher and said, "Comrade teacher, can you do me a favor and let me go to the blackboard? Because some things are not clear, I have to draw pictures to explain in detail."

"No problem, I'll help the podium right now." The teacher readily agreed to Sokov's request, and even planned to push Sokov's wheelchair in person, but Sokov politely refused.

Hearing that Sokov said that he would go to the blackboard to draw a diagram, the most excited people were Victor and Sukharev. Without waiting for the teacher's instructions, they got up and pushed Sokov to the blackboard.

After thanking the two, Sokov said to the students present: "Comrades students, let me share my views on the Mamayev Hill during the Stalingrad Defense War.

First of all, I think it is necessary to have strong fortifications to defend Mamayev Post. Everyone knows that in the early days of the battle, the Germans had an absolute advantage not only in terms of military strength, but also in terms of equipment. As a rule, solid fortifications should be built in key defensive areas to minimize casualties when troops are subjected to heavy shelling and bombing by the German army.

But before the start of the battle, our army had disagreements about whether the German army would attack Stalingrad. In the eyes of most people, Caucasus oil is far more attractive to Germans than Stalingrad. It is precisely because of the existence of this kind of erroneous thinking that when the enemy approached Stalingrad, the fortifications in the city began to rush. In this case, even if they wanted to repair the fortifications, there was no time at all.

Since there was no time to build permanent fortifications, the troops standing on Mamayev Hill used reverse slope fortifications and tunnel fortifications to improve the defense of Mamayev Hill..."

"Comrade Captain," just as Sokov said this, a captain raised his hand and asked, "Can you explain to us what is a reverse slope fortification?"

Sokov had long expected that someone would ask such a question, so he asked Victor and Sukharev to push himself to the blackboard in advance. Hearing the question raised by the captain student at this moment, Sokov turned the wheels of the wheelchair so that the wheelchair faced the blackboard. He picked up chalk and drew a simple figure on it.

He explained while drawing: "We usually build fortifications on the side of the hillside facing the enemy's attack to resist the German attack, and this direction is the positive slope. Building fortifications on the positive slope can indeed be the first time Discover the attacking enemy, but at the same time it also has a fatal shortcoming, that is, it is easy to be killed by the powerful artillery fire of the German army.

As for the reverse slope, as the name suggests, it is behind the high ground, where it is not easy to be bombarded by the enemy. Placing troops here can greatly reduce their casualties.

Now that I have said this, some students may want to ask, since there is a reverse slope fortification, why do we need to dig any tunnels? "

Before the students below had a chance to speak, Sokov asked himself and answered: "Although the troops hiding on the reverse slope can effectively avoid the German artillery fire, they will still pay a huge price when encountering the bombing of enemy planes." casualties. Therefore, tunnel fortifications came into being.

The troops originally placed on the surface of the hillside can move into the tunnel in time when the enemy's shelling or bombing starts, and hide underground to avoid the enemy's shelling or bombing, minimizing the loss of our army. "

"Comrade Captain, I have a question." As soon as Sokov said this, a major stood up and asked him, "Our troops are hiding in tunnels, and it is difficult to observe the enemy's movements. .Once the enemy launches an attack at this time, isn't it possible for our position to be lost?"

"Comrade Major," Sokov said, looking at the major who asked the question, "When the troops retreat into the tunnel, they will also leave a few observation posts outside to monitor the movements of the German troops. Due to our tunnel fortifications, there are exits and The fortifications on the front and back slopes are connected. Once the enemy is found to be attacking, our commanders and fighters can attack in time.

Even if the surface positions are unfortunately occupied by the German army, it is nothing special. Our commanders and fighters staying in the tunnels can still fight the enemy. It can even launch a counterattack when the time is right to take the position back from the enemy's hands. "

The major who asked the question obviously had never seen this kind of fortification connecting the back slope and the tunnel, so he naturally didn't know how effective it would be. After waiting for Sokov to finish speaking, he tentatively asked: "Comrade Captain, is such a fortification really effective?"

"Of course," Sokov nodded, and said in an affirmative tone: "The 73rd Infantry Brigade that stood firm on Mamayev Post, and the 41st Infantry Division that was reinforced later, if this tactic had not been adopted, Mamayev Fugang has long been occupied by the Germans."

Although Sokov knew that the students here knew the importance of Mamayev Hill in the battle to defend Stalingrad, he added: "Once the Germans occupy Mamayev Hill, the industrial areas in the north of the city and the south of the city The old city will be split into two parts that are not connected to each other. The Germans can set up artillery on the high ground and bombard the boats crossing the river, and our army has occupied the area in the south and north of the city."

"What I just said is just the first point, and what I'm going to talk about next is the second reason." Sokov continued; "Being able to defend Mamayev Post, in addition to having a complete defense system, the support of friendly forces is also very important."

After he drew a few strokes on the blackboard, he continued: "At that time, the right wing of Mamayev Hill was the Red October Factory. A regiment of troops was sent to strengthen the defense of the factory area.

As for the left wing, it is a unit directly under the 62nd Army. It is precisely because there are friendly troops serving as cover on both wings that the troops standing on Mamayev Post can concentrate on defense. "

Hearing this, the instructor couldn't help nodding slightly. He didn't expect that when Sokov talked about his classic battles, not only did he not take credit for himself, but he even distributed part of the credit for defending Mamayev Post to the friendly forces on the two wings.

"In addition to the perfect fortifications and the cover of friendly forces on the two wings, another important factor is that the commanders and fighters performed extremely bravely in the battle." Sokov recalled that when the Marine Battalion took over the defense of Beigang, he was leading the battle. With ammunition and food running out, Battalion Commander Shamrih led all battalion commanders and fighters to use bayonets with the invading enemy: "During the most intense battle, the troops who took over the defense mission of Beigang were the newly arrived Marine Battalion. .

Due to their hasty arrival, the troops were not replenished in time, resulting in insufficient ammunition. Faced with several times the enemy's attack, Battalion Commander Shamrih personally led the commanders and fighters of the whole battalion to fight the enemy with bayonets, repelled several times of the enemy's charge abruptly, and held the position. "

As soon as Sokov finished speaking, someone immediately raised a question: "Comrade Captain, you seem to be very clear about what happened on Mamayev Hill. Did you ever participate in this defense battle?"