Red Moscow

Sokov did not reject the kindness of Kurishenko and Sidolin, and asked them to deploy a company of guards near the observation post, lest the German army jump over the wall in a hurry and rush directly to the observation post.

The two came to the observation post, raised their binoculars and looked into the distance. It's a pity that apart from the billowing black smoke and the dazzling flames rising from the German positions in the distance, it is impossible to see the situation on the positions clearly.

"Comrade Sokov," Don't see that Shtemenko participated in many battles, but at that time he fought in defensive battles, and he was also the first time a big girl got on the sedan chair in such an offensive battle. He asked Sokov curiously: "Such intensive artillery fire should be able to destroy all the fortifications on the German positions?"

"Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff, don't look at the fierce artillery fire of our army, but there is still a big gap between the falling shells." Sokov explained to Shtemenko: "If the German soldiers were in the middle of these bombs, Even if there is no slag left, it will be blown to pieces. But if you encounter fortifications, you may not be able to destroy them. Especially those two-meter-thick reinforced concrete fortifications, small-caliber artillery When it is printed, there is only one white mark.

After each bombardment, when the Germans return from the second line of defense, they can even use these fortifications directly to resist our army's attack. "

After hearing this, Shtemenko sighed softly, "I used to think that as long as we carried out strong artillery preparations before attacking, we could destroy the enemy's fortifications. Charge, and you will be able to break through the enemy's line of defense smoothly."

Speaking of this, he shook his head with a wry smile, and continued: "It seems that I have thought the problem too simply. Fighting on the map and fighting on the actual battlefield are two completely different concepts."

Although Sokov agreed with Shtemenko's statement in his heart, he didn't dare to go along with it casually, lest he accidentally offend a lot of people.

Shtemenko put down the binoculars, but unexpectedly found that Sokov was holding the binoculars in a daze, and couldn't help asking curiously: "Comrade Sokov, what are you thinking?"

Sokov was awakened by Shtemenko's voice. He looked up at the other party and said insincerely: "Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff, I was thinking: Lunev said he would come to investigate my problem, but the result is over." Why hasn't it appeared in such a long time?"

"His schedule has undoubtedly been delayed." Shtemenko shrugged and said, "You must know that you are about to command the troops to attack the enemy, and your superiors will certainly not allow any time to interfere with your command. So there must be someone Greeted him and told him not to come to the front for the time being."

"Oh, so that's the case." Before Sokov came to the frontier, he had been worried about missing out with Lunev. Now that he heard what Shtemenko said, he felt more at ease.

"Who is it? Stop!" The vigilant voice of a sentry suddenly came from outside the observation station.

Sokov came to the door in two steps, looked out and saw that Yakov was being blocked by a sentry with a gun, and quickly said to the sentry: "Comrade Corporal, that is Colonel Yakov from Moscow." , ask him to come here."

Hearing what Sokov said, the sentinel quickly lowered his gun and turned to one side to make way for Yakov.

"Yakov, where did you go?" Sokov waited for Yakov to enter the observation post, and asked in a reproachful tone, "I have been here for so long, and I haven't seen you."

"I distributed weapons to the soldiers in the 122nd Regiment. When I heard that you had come to the front line, I immediately came to see you. Unexpectedly, as soon as I got here, I was stopped by the sentry." Speaking of this, he turned his head and looked around, a little puzzled Said: "Where is Lieutenant Koshkin? If he is here, I will not be stopped by sentries."

"Lieutenant Koshkin took people to inspect the outpost." Sokov explained to Yakov: "Although the German positions are being hit by our artillery fire, they will not fire at us, but if There are German scouts lurking nearby, and when they find that our defenses are weak, they may launch a sneak attack or something. Koshkin is going to check if there are any Germans lurking nearby."

"So that's the case." Yakov nodded and said, "No wonder I didn't see him. I thought you left him at the headquarters."

The two were talking, when the sound of cannon outside suddenly stopped. Yakov walked quickly to the lookout, looked at the German positions billowing in smoke in the distance, and asked casually, "Misha, the shelling has stopped, are our troops going to attack soon?"

"Not yet." Sokov shook his head and said, "This is just the first round of shelling. The real attack will not be launched until the second round of shelling is over."

"What is the first round and the second round?" Yakov asked confusedly: "When will the artillery preparations before the attack be divided into two rounds?"

"Yasha, this matter is a bit complicated, let me explain to you slowly." Sokov hurriedly told Konev that after Konev learned that Zhukov's troops were shelling the German positions, he advanced the artillery preparation time of the Second Front Army by one. Hour. Later, I persuaded Shtemenko, and asked Shtemenko to persuade Konev. Only then did I make the wonderful decision to turn the artillery preparation into two rounds.

Yakov originally wanted to complain, but when he saw Shtemenko standing aside, he swallowed back the words and shook his head dumbfounded.

"Alert, air raid siren!" Another shout came from outside the observation post, and then a soldier rushed in with a gun and reported loudly to Sokov: "Comrade commander, air raid siren, there are two Enemy planes are coming our way."

"Enemy plane?" Shtemenko suddenly turned pale with shock, "Where did the enemy plane come from?"

"It's from the enemy's line of defense, Comrade General." The soldier who reported the news, because he was able to give the general a definite answer, had a strange excitement in his tone.

Shtemenko remembered that General Apanashenko, the deputy commander of the Voronezh Front Army, was bombed by German planes and died unfortunately during the forward inspection. Hearing an enemy plane flying over at this moment, he couldn't help but feel a little trembling. He asked Sokov with a sideways face: "Comrade Sokov, do we need to transfer?"

Sokov didn't expect two enemy planes to appear suddenly, and he began to think quickly in his mind whether he should move immediately or stay.

Fortunately, he didn't think about it for a long time before making a decision: "Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff, I think we should continue to stay here. After all, this observation post is half buried underground, and it is difficult for enemy planes to find it from the air." We. If we moved, on the open plains, we would be targeted by enemy aircraft."

"Okay, Comrade Sokov." After listening to Sokov's analysis, Stemenko felt that there was no need to take risks. If the enemy plane is really coming towards you, even if you leave the observation post and hide in Kurishenko's division headquarters, you may not be able to escape the bombing. It is better to simply stay and wait and see: "Then we will stay it's here."

"Don't worry, Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff." Yakov said unexpectedly, "I can assure you that enemy planes pose no threat to you at all!"

Sokov was aroused by Yakov's words: "Yasha, why do you say that?"

"Among the weapons I shipped this time, there are a batch of anti-aircraft machine guns." Yakov explained to Sokov: "It was originally intended to be used for flat shooting, but Colonel Sidolin told me after seeing it. There used to be an anti-aircraft machine gun battalion in the division, but since the anti-aircraft machine guns were lost in the battle, these anti-aircraft machine gunners could only be used as ordinary soldiers."

"Are the anti-aircraft gunners armed?"

"Needless to say, they must have been armed long ago." Yakov said to Sokov in a low voice, "And they are deployed nearby. I don't think you must have noticed?"

"Yeah, I didn't find it." Sokov thought about coming over, and he looked around the environment deliberately, but he didn't see any anti-aircraft positions. Where would Yakov hide this anti-aircraft machine gun battalion? "Yasha, where did you hide them?"

Just when Yakov kept quiet and refused to say anything, Koshkin walked in from the outside. When he saw Yakov here, a look of astonishment flashed across his face, he nodded at him as a greeting, and then reported to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, when I took people on a tour, I found that there is a Concealed an anti-aircraft machine gun unit."

"An anti-aircraft machine gun unit?" Sokov guessed that the anti-aircraft machine gun unit Koshkin found was probably the one Yakov mentioned, so he glanced at him with a smile and asked Koshkin: "What are they doing?" The place, which part is it?"

"The leader is a major." Koshkin replied: "He told me that it was the anti-aircraft machine gun battalion of the 41st Guards Division. Since all the anti-aircraft machine guns in the early battalion were lost in the battle, they have been being used. It was used as infantry. Fortunately, Colonel Yakov sent them 18 Deshka 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns, and the system was restored. Now they are stationed at a distance of more than 300 meters from the observation post. There is an earth slope in the middle, so they cannot be seen from here."

"Yasha," Sokov felt relieved after knowing the location of the anti-aircraft machine gun battalion. It was 300 meters away from the observation post, and he was fully capable of preventing enemy planes from bombing the observation post. However, Sokov was worried that the deployment of the air defense position would not be ideal, and it would be difficult to shoot down the German aircraft, so he asked Yakov, "How do you distribute the 18 Deshka 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns?"

"The 18 Deshka 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns, I arranged them in groups of 6 according to the hexagonal shape of the honeycomb, and then three groups of hexagonal shapes formed a triangle. In this way, no matter which direction the German aircraft came from, they would Can deal with them with the same firepower."

"I have seen the Deshka 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun, and its power is really good." Shtemenko interjected, "It is said that Lyudnikov's troops used this machine gun in the battle to defend the barricade factory. The machine guns fired flat, inflicting heavy casualties on the Germans."

Hearing this, Sokov began to mutter in his heart: "Sky Fortress is now using dual 14.5mm anti-aircraft machine guns, because of its heavy weight and high recoil, so I dare not install too many, so as not to shake the aircraft to pieces. If this Deshka 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun is replaced, one can be installed on each side of the aircraft, so when carrying out a ground attack, it can cover a larger area, and the weight of the machine gun is reduced, and it can carry more ammunition."

"Misha, what are you thinking?" Seeing Sokov suddenly lost in thought, Yakov asked curiously, "I've lost my mind."

"Yasha," Sokov felt that if he wanted to remodel the transport plane, he must get Yakov's help and ask him to get more Deshka anti-aircraft machine guns for him. So he asked the Air Force to transform several transport planes and turn them into aerial fortresses for ground attack. He finally said: "I would like to ask your help to find another batch of Deshka anti-aircraft machine guns. I plan to rebuild the transport aircraft."

After listening to Sokov's narration, Yakov couldn't help being stunned. After a while, he said: "Misha, do you know how dangerous your modification is? The 14.5mm anti-aircraft gun commonly used by our army Even if there are only two machine guns left, if they are installed on a transport plane for shooting, it will seriously affect the life of the fuselage. It is a miracle that these mission-carrying planes did not disintegrate in the air. I suggest that you stop the modification work immediately, And replace the existing 14.5mm anti-aircraft machine guns with Deshka 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine guns to ensure that the life of the aircraft will not be affected."

"Well, I will immediately call the chief of staff and ask him to pass on my thoughts to the air force commander."

Sokov picked up the phone on the table and dialed the army headquarters: "This is Sokov, let Comrade Chief of Staff answer the phone."

Hearing that Sokov was looking for him, Smirnov didn't dare to neglect, and quickly took the microphone from the staff officer: "Comrade commander, what instructions do you have?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov said bluntly without going around in circles, "Immediately inform General Ryazanov that the modification work on the transport aircraft should be temporarily stopped. If the work has been completed, all machine guns installed on the aircraft must be removed." Take it down."

Sokov's order made Smirnov confused: "Comrade commander, why is this? Don't we use aerial fortresses to attack enemies on the ground in the future?"

"Yakov told me just now that installing a 14.5mm anti-aircraft machine gun on an aircraft will seriously affect the life of the aircraft. Some transport planes will disintegrate in the air because they cannot withstand the huge recoil force."

Sokov explained to Smirnov: "Yasha suggested to me that if it is necessary to continue to modify the transport aircraft, it must be replaced with a machine gun with a smaller caliber. completed with cooperation."

"Then what caliber machine gun do you think is more suitable?" Smirnov said on the phone: "If it is 7.62 mm, there are ready-made weapons in the air."

"No, the caliber of 7.62 mm is too small, and it is not powerful enough to attack the ground." Sokov said: "I plan to replace it with a 12.7 mm anti-aircraft machine gun from the Deshka. Although the caliber is slightly smaller, the 14.5 mm machine gun can penetrate target, it can penetrate equally, and the recoil is much less, which has little effect on the life of the aircraft."

"Okay, Comrade Commander." Smirnov said: "I will immediately contact General Ryazanov and ask him to temporarily stop the transformation of the transport plane."

Just when Smirnov was about to put down the phone, Yakov said next to him: "Among the personnel I brought this time, there are weapons technicians. I think they can be sent to assist the Air Force in transforming transport aircraft."

"You heard it all, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov waited for Yakov to finish speaking, and said into the microphone: "Technical personnel who understand technology will arrive at the headquarters soon, and then you will arrange the manpower and send them to the headquarters." General Ryazanov is there to guide the transformation work."