Red Moscow

After putting down the phone, Chuikov thankfully said to Krylov and Gusev: "Comrade Chief of Staff, Comrade Military Commissar, Mamayev Hill was heavily bombarded by the German army, especially the front position directly in front of the South Hill. The key target of the German bombardment. Fortunately, Sokov didn't obey my order just now, and privately ordered the main force of the 1st Battalion to withdraw from the position and move to the reverse slope of the south hill, thus avoiding heavy casualties."

"Comrade Commander," as soon as Chuikov finished speaking, Gusev said with a straight face: "I think Sokov's wrong approach should be punished and a report should be made within the entire army."

"Punishment?!" Chuikov couldn't help opening his mouth in surprise when he heard Gusev say this: "Comrade Military Commissar, why is this? You know, Sokov took correct measures to avoid heavy casualties of the troops. For We should reward him for his behavior!"

When Chuikov said this, he was still thinking in his heart that maybe Gusev was too excited to say the wrong thing. Unexpectedly, as soon as his words fell, Gusev went on to say: "Although Sokov's actions avoided heavy casualties of the troops, what he did was disobedience on the battlefield. If every commander under us, If we all learn from him, how can we command the troops?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff, give me a cigarette!" Chuikov took out a cigarette from the cigarette case Krylov handed over and lit it. He began to think about what Gusev said. Sokov violated his order. , Privately let the troops withdraw from the front. Although heavy casualties were avoided, it was an act of disobedience on the battlefield.

Cuikov knew very well in his heart that when a large corps fights, military discipline must be strict, otherwise everything will be messed up. Sokov's behavior, although the intention is good, but the nature is also very bad, and must be dealt with, otherwise he will not be able to restrain his subordinates in the future. Thinking of this, he stubbed out the cigarette butt in his hand, gritted his molars and said to Gusev: "Comrade Military Commissar, I will leave this matter to you. But out of the protection of my comrades, I feel that it is better for him." The punishment should not be too severe."

"Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Seeing that Chuikov agreed to his proposal, Gusev replied with a smile, "I will take care of myself."

…………

While Chuikov and the others were discussing how to deal with Sokov in the headquarters, the German bombardment of Mamayev Post continued. The 305mm heavy artillery is very powerful. Once fired, it will be a crater 8 meters deep and 12 meters in diameter. After the explosion, people near the explosion site couldn't even find the scum. Fortunately, the firing speed of this kind of artillery is slow, and only one shell can be fired every four minutes, so that the German army had to use artillery of other calibers to fire at the same time in order to ensure the continuity of firepower.

Sokov stayed in his headquarters and kept receiving calls from the Second Battalion, saying that certain surface fortifications were destroyed by enemy artillery fire; the entrance of a certain tunnel was blown down by enemy artillery fire, and so on.

Hearing this series of bad news, Belkin couldn't help frowning and asked Sokov: "Comrade Brigadier, although the soil layer above our heads is more than ten meters away, if the German heavy artillery bombards it continuously like this, I'm worried. The tunnel will be blown down."

Facing the heavy artillery bombardment by the German army, Sokov felt his heart pounding, but in order to stabilize the morale of the army, he could only bite the bullet and say: "Comrade political commissar, the German army's 305mm heavy artillery should be a rail gun. Its rate of fire is slow. And there will not be too many shells, not enough to destroy our fortifications, please rest assured."

"That's good, that's good." Belkin said with lingering fear: "As long as the enemy's artillery fire can't destroy our tunnel, then they won't be able to rush to Mamayev's post."

"Chief of Staff," Sokov waited for Belkin to finish, and immediately ordered Sidolin: "Let the second battalion withdraw all the commanders and fighters outside into the tunnel. As soon as the enemy's shelling stops, immediately organize the manpower and send the bombers to the tunnel." Dig through the collapsed tunnels, and quickly enter the position to block the enemy rushing towards our position."

However, Sokov did not expect that the cunning German army learned the lesson of the failure of the first attack. This time, taking advantage of the opportunity that the Soviet army was unable to observe during the shelling, the troops were transported to a place only 300 meters away from the forward position. Cover up. As soon as the artillery fire stopped, the attack was launched immediately.

As soon as the shelling stopped, the German troops hiding nearby began to charge before the smoke cleared. At a distance of more than 300 meters, it took only two minutes for the German officers and soldiers to rush into the Soviet forward position. The defenders standing on the ground were either killed or injured by the heavy German artillery bombardment. Before they could climb out of the empty soil, groups of German troops had jumped over the trenches and continued to rush towards the south hill.

The German officers and soldiers in charge of occupying the trenches stood above the incomplete trenches with their submachine guns or rifles, staring at the floating soil in the trenches, and when they saw any movement, they immediately swept over to sweep those who were trying to crawl out of the void. All fighters were killed.

The forward position was quickly occupied by the Germans, and the situation on Nangang was similar. The surface fortifications were all destroyed by artillery fire, and the trenches were also bombed out of shape. The exits leading to these trenches and fortifications also collapsed under German shelling. The second battalion staying in the tunnel realized that the shelling outside had stopped, and immediately organized manpower to clean up the accumulated soil, trying to occupy the outside position in the shortest possible time and prepare to meet the enemy's attack.

Unexpectedly, before they dug the tunnel, the enemy had rushed up the hill, and even rushed directly to the top of the hill. Fortunately, the artillery and artillery observers of the artillery company had already hid in the tunnel and covered the roof in time, otherwise the entire army would definitely be wiped out.

The German army who rushed to the top of the mountain saw the crossing of the Volga River from a distance, and immediately cheered. The trenches of the first battalion built on the reverse slope were discovered by them, but the Germans did not pay any attention to them. They thought that as long as they were condescending and charged, these trenches were not easy to get.

But when the Germans charged, they found they were wrong, and they were very wrong. The defenders hiding in the trenches did not show their faces, but hid in the fortifications and threw grenades. The shrapnel from the grenade explosion flew upwards, and the grenade exploded in pieces, blowing up the soldiers standing on the high ground.

While the Germans were in chaos, the troops in the trenches decisively launched a counter-charge. They first threw a batch of grenades, took advantage of the time of the explosion, stood upright and shot upwards with their guns in their hands. When they saw groups of enemies falling down and rolling down the slope, they jumped out. Out of the trenches, he charged towards the top of the mountain.

The Germans, whose foothold was not stable, never dreamed that the Soviet army would launch a charge at this time, and they were caught off guard. Of the more than 200 German soldiers who rushed to the top of the mountain, no more than 20 escaped after a scuffle, and the rest were either killed or captured. The Soviet army that launched a counterattack did not have more than 30 casualties.

When Sokov heard the battle report reported by Vasily, he was taken aback for a moment, and then asked in an unbelievable tone: "Comrade Captain, did I hear you right? You have wiped out two hundred German soldiers, and your own casualties are still less than 200." More than thirty people?"

"Yes, Comrade Brigadier." Captain Vasili replied in an affirmative tone: "To be precise, twelve soldiers were sacrificed and thirteen were wounded. More than one hundred and fifty enemies were killed, and there were More than thirty people were taken prisoner."

"This is a remarkable victory." After putting down the phone, Sokov said to Sidolin and Belkin: "We must report to the Army Group Command immediately."

"Comrade Brigadier, what you said makes sense." Sidolin didn't expect that the German army would be driven down by the first battalion not long after they occupied the hill. According to Cove's opinion, report the victory to the Army Command: "We need to report this victory to the Army Command."

Usually, things like reporting success to superiors are done by Sidolin, so after he finished speaking, he immediately picked up the phone on the table and asked the communications soldier to help him connect to the group army headquarters. After hearing Krylov's voice from the receiver, Sidolin immediately smiled and said: "Hello, Comrade Chief of Staff, I am Sidolin from the 73rd Infantry Brigade!"

"Hello, Lieutenant Colonel Sidolin!" When Krylov heard that the caller was Sidolin, he couldn't help but glance at Gusev who was drafting the punishment order against Sokov. He asked awkwardly, "What's the matter with you?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff, I report to you." Sidolin didn't notice Krylov's abnormality, and he continued: "A few minutes ago, a German army rushed to the south hill and occupied the surface of our army. position……"

"What, the enemy has occupied your surface position?" Krylov did not wait for Sidolin to finish speaking when he learned that the German army had occupied the surface position of Nangang, he immediately interrupted him: "Then what measures did you take, plan to How to take back the position from the enemy's hands?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sidolin saw that Krylov was so impatient, he said a lot of words before he finished speaking, and quickly explained: "The enemy did occupy the surface position of Nangang not long ago, but they did not After a while, the commanders and fighters of the first battalion resolutely launched a counterattack and regained the position."

"The position has been regained!" Krylov couldn't help secretly heaving a sigh of relief when he learned that the position had been regained, and said with emotion: "Your movements are still quite swift."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, you don't know. If the brigade commander hadn't decisively ordered the first battalion to withdraw to the reverse slope and build defenses there, we would have to pay heavy casualties if we wanted to regain the position." Sidolin said How Kov arranged for the first battalion to establish a reverse-slope position, and how the commanders and fighters of the first battalion decisively launched a counter-charge when the enemy occupied the top of the hill, and took back the position from the enemy. Ten said it again. He finally said: "If the brigade commander hadn't adjusted the deployment in time, I am worried that our army will suffer huge losses under the shelling of the German army today, and at the same time, Nangang may be lost..."

After listening to Sidolin's report, Krylov said: "I see, Lieutenant Colonel Sidolin, I will report to Comrade Commander as soon as possible. Regarding the major victories you have achieved, on behalf of the commander of the group army Congratulations to you."

After putting down the phone, Sidolin said to Gusev, who was writing at his desk, "Comrade Military Commissar, I think whether the decision on the punishment of Lieutenant Colonel Sokov that we discussed can be cancelled."

When Gusev heard what Krylov said, he quickly raised his head and asked in surprise, "Chief of Staff, why did you cancel it?"

Since Chuikov came to the Tsaritsyn Catacomb, he soon suffered from eczema due to the humidity inside. When Krylov answered the phone just now, he was lying shirtless on the camp bed, asking the military doctor to administer medicine to him. Hearing what Krylov said at this moment, he didn't even care about putting on his clothes, so he walked out and asked, "Comrade Chief of Staff, what did the infantry brigade report to you just now, and you actually asked you to take the initiative to cancel the punishment decision?"

Seeing that both Gusev and Chuikov wanted to know what had happened, Krylov explained the situation that Sidolin had just reported to them in detail, and finally said: "Commander, Comrade Military Commissar, I am Considered. If Sokov hadn't disobeyed orders, then the 1st Battalion would have remained in the forward position, allowing the German artillery to ravage them. When the German offensive began, they would have allowed the Germans to occupy their positions because of the heavy casualties.

In this way, the German army could easily occupy the southern hill of Mamayev Gang, and quickly rushed to the ferry of the Volga River, causing huge casualties to the civilians and troops stranded there.

But this worst case was avoided because Sokov changed the defensive deployment in time. And judging from the current situation, it is not easy for the German army to occupy Nangang again. It is precisely because of this that I think the decision to punish Sokov should be cancelled. "

Chuikov waited for Krylov to finish speaking, and said helplessly, "But we have already made a decision, and if we change it, I'm afraid it will be a bit bad..."

Before Chuikov could finish speaking, Gusev had torn up the order that had not yet been drafted. He stood up and said to Chuikov: "Comrade Commander, I agree with the Chief of Staff. In view of the results obtained by Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, We should not impose any form of punishment on him, so as not to affect the morale and morale of the troops."

Seeing that Gusev took the initiative to cancel the punishment on Sokov, Cuikov found it a little inconceivable. Based on his understanding of Gusev, the other party was a very principled person. , What about taking the initiative to cancel the punishment decision made by the head of the army group? Thinking of this, he tentatively asked: "Comrade Military Commissioner, can you tell me the reason for canceling the punishment?"