Red Moscow

"I have an idea," Sokov whispered to Vanya while lying in the ditch, "Let Ernst pretend to be the commander of the German army and drive away the enemies staying on the road."

"Will it work?" Vanya asked incredulously.

"Under the current circumstances, we can only give it a try." Thinking that if he stayed here, it would be inconvenient for him to deploy tasks to Ernst when Ernst came later, he whispered to Belkin "Comrade Belkin, you stay here. If the enemy finds our soldiers hiding by the road, they can decisively order the troops to open fire." Then he said to Vanya, "Comrade Captain, come with me!"

Erlian was hidden behind a hill, where the road turned a corner, and the enemies who were resting by the side of the road couldn't see the movement here at all. After Sokov led Vanya to the location of the Second Company, Vasily immediately greeted him and asked Sokov in a low voice: "Comrade Battalion Commander, do you want our company to go up and destroy the enemy?"

Sokov glanced at him, and said: "If I want to destroy the enemy, Captain Vanya's company is enough to complete this task, so why go far and wide to find you."

Knowing that Sokov didn't come here to send his troops into battle, Vasily was a little disappointed. He asked inexplicably: "Comrade Battalion Commander, since you won't let us join the war, is there anything important for you to come here?"

"I came here to ask you to borrow a few fighters." Sokov replied, "I want to use them to great advantage."

"Griza, bring a few people here!" Vasili turned his head and whispered to Griza who was hiding not far away: "Comrade Battalion Commander has a task for you."

Hearing Vasily's call, Grisa immediately led a few soldiers, bent down and ran to Sokov, stopped and said, "Comrade Battalion Commander, I am waiting for your orders, please instruct!"

"Vassily, do you have any captured German uniforms in your company?" Sokov thought that his troops have been doing guerrilla work recently, constantly attacking the enemy's transportation lines. Among the many materials captured, military uniforms are indispensable. When driving towards Kursk this time, a lot of supplies were left in the camp, so he specifically asked Vasily if there were any German uniforms here. If not, he had to find another way.

Fortunately, Vasily's answer did not disappoint Sokov: "Yes, Comrade Battalion Commander. I think you may arrange people to disguise themselves as Germans and go deep into their defense zone to conduct reconnaissance. Therefore, before leaving the camp, you will Specially asked to bring German uniforms."

Hearing Vasily's answer, Sokov immediately asked in surprise: "How many sets are there?"

"But the quantity is not large, only about a dozen sets."

Sokov thought that there were only four or five sets in his heart, but he didn't expect that there were more than a dozen sets, so he quickly told Vasily: "Hurry up and get the military uniform, I will use it soon."

Ernst, who was working with the battalion, guessed that Sokov must have something urgent to find him after receiving the notification from the soldiers, so he rushed over immediately. He trotted up to Sokov, and asked breathlessly, "Major, what's the matter?"

"Corporal Ernst," Sokov said politely to Ernst: "On the road ahead, there is a group of soldiers from the Eastern Battalion. It seems that they plan to rest for a long time. In order for our army to rush to Kuwait as soon as possible Ersk, I need you to disguise yourself as a German commander and drive those enemies away. Understand?"

"Major," Ernst asked immediately after Sokov finished speaking, "Can I ask, how many people are there? Am I going to carry out the mission alone?"

"Don't worry, Corporal Ernst, how could I let you go alone for such a dangerous mission?" Sokov hurriedly explained to Ernst: "Second Lieutenant Grisa will bring a dozen soldiers with you. went together."

There are thirteen sets of military uniforms carried by the Second Company. Except for the uniforms of a captain and a corporal, the rest are uniforms of ordinary soldiers. Ernst, who plays the leading role, naturally wears the captain's uniform; Grisa wears the corporal uniform, and the rest wear the uniform of ordinary soldiers.

After the changeover, a freshly baked German patrol team appeared on the road. But when they went around the hill and appeared in the sight of the Dongfang Battalion soldiers, many soldiers hastily put down their lunch boxes and pointed their guns in the direction where the squad appeared. When they saw clearly that it was a German patrol, they put away their guns and continued to sit down to eat.

Ernst led twelve "German soldiers" wearing German uniforms and carrying submachine guns, and walked along the road towards the enemy's resting place. Grisa, who was walking beside him, saw that the enemy had a machine gun on the top of the bridge, but it was not the MG34 general-purpose machine gun installed by the German army, but a rare Czech light machine gun. The main and deputy machine gun shooters were standing next to the machine guns and chatting. After they glanced at Ernst and the others, they continued chatting on their own.

Seeing a group of patrolling soldiers walking towards him, a sentry on duty immediately greeted him and asked in blunt German, "Stop, what part are you from?"

Ernst ignored him, pulled him aside with his hands, went straight to the front of the crowd, put his hands behind his back, and asked with a straight face, "Who is in charge here?"

As soon as he finished speaking, an officer in the captain's uniform stood up, raised his hand to salute him, and said in broken German: "Mr. Captain, the person in charge here is Joe, the first-class commando team leader of the SS. Nas is in charge!"

Sokov only told that there was an enemy here, and did not say that these were not Germans. So Ernst glanced at the captain after listening to the German with a heavy Russian accent, and asked in surprise, "Are you Russian?"

"Yes, Mr. Captain." The captain hurriedly straightened up and replied, "My name is Lorbin. I used to be in the Russian army, and now I am the battalion commander of the 47th Eastern Battalion."

Ernst knew that in each Eastern battalion, there would be an Eastern soldier monitoring group, all composed of SS soldiers, and their responsibility was to supervise the operations of this unit. The Jonas mentioned by the captain should be the leader of the monitoring team, so he waited for the captain to finish speaking, then looked at the officers and soldiers standing by the fire, and asked coldly, "Who is Jonas?" ?”

An SS soldier squeezed out from the crowd and came to him. After raising his hand to salute, he asked absent-mindedly, "Hello, Mr. Captain, I'm Jonas, the first-level commando squad leader. Do you have any questions?" What's the matter?"

Seeing that the other party was just a soldier of the SS, Ernst asked sharply, "Who told you to light the fire here?"

"Mr. Captain," Jonas quickly explained to Ernst: "After driving for half a day, the soldiers are all hungry, so I asked them to get off the car to rest and eat something along the way."

"Don't you know that guerrillas often come and go in this area?" Ernst deliberately threatened the other party and said, "How dare you stay here, pack up your things and leave immediately."

"Yes, Mr. Captain." Jonas replied in a panic, "We're leaving now." Then he turned to the officers and soldiers of the Eastern Battalion, and shouted in the same broken Russian, "Let's go, let's go now!"

When the officers and soldiers of the Dongfang Battalion heard Jonas' shout, they hurriedly extinguished the bonfire, packed up their things briefly, and waited for the car. Just as Jonas turned around and was about to sit on the bridge, Ernst suddenly asked, "Mr. Commando Captain, where are you going?"

"Go to the Jim area, where a large number of Russian guerrillas were found. We were ordered to annihilate them." After closing the car door, Jonas finally said, "The defenders of Kursk are empty, so we have to move The troops made up of these Russian prisoners of war were dispatched to wipe out the damn guerrillas." After speaking, he raised his hand and patted the driver on the shoulder, "Drive!"

When the enemy's convoy was gone, the commanders and fighters came out of their hiding places one after another. Sokov walked up to Ernst, nodded at him, and said approvingly: "Corporal Ernst, well done, well done."

"Major, I think there is something I need to report to you." Ernst hesitated for a moment, and then said to Sokov: "The first-level commando squad leader of the SS just now accidentally slipped his mouth and said The city of Kursk is empty, and there is no way to mobilize troops to wipe out the guerrillas in the Tim area, so we can only mobilize the Eastern Battalion composed of prisoners of war to make up for it."

Hearing what Ernst said, Sokov couldn't help showing a surprised expression on his face. He turned his head and glanced at the several commanders next to him, and then ordered Vanya: "Comrade Captain, immediately send scouts to the Kursk to conduct reconnaissance and find out the enemy's disposition."

But when Vanya followed Sokov's order and arranged for people to go to Kursk for reconnaissance, the commanders and fighters of the first company and the second company realized that they were marching towards the rear of the German army. They couldn't help feeling nervous. Thinking: Why didn't we retreat, but came to the enemy's rear? If there is a fight, will reinforcements come to support us? Also, if you are injured in battle, can you get medical treatment in time?

Although the soldiers were all thinking about their own calculations, since Sokov had already issued an order, they could only execute it unconditionally.

Compared with the soldiers, the commanders at all levels were much more optimistic. When Sokov first proposed to attack Kursk, they were worried that the enemy's forces were too strong, and attacking by themselves would be purely hitting a stone with a pebble. Now that they learned that the troops in the city of Kursk are weak, everyone's thoughts have changed drastically, and they can't wait to rush into the city immediately and destroy the limited number of defenders.