Red Moscow

"Comrade Commander, I would like to ask." Sokov continued to ask on the phone: "The numbers of the units that broke through the German defenses, and how to get in touch with them."

"The friendly army that broke through the German defense is a tank brigade of the Stalingrad Front Army." Since the superior did not provide more detailed information, Chuikov did not know the number of the unit that broke through the German defense, but he said with a normal expression: "I will tell you the specific troop number before you arrive at your destination."

"Understood, Comrade Commander." Seeing that Chuikov could not tell the numbers of the friendly troops, Sokov did not continue to ask, but replied: "I will immediately arrange the departure and try to set off within half an hour."

As soon as the conversation with Chuikov ended, Sokov ordered Sidolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, immediately issue a combat alert to the 192nd Battalion, we will start in half an hour."

While Sidolin was calling Golia, Sokov came to the door and shouted outside: "Come here!"

Following Sokov's shout, a soldier standing guard at the door came in and asked respectfully, "Comrade Brigadier, what instructions do you have?"

"Go and call your company commander, Lieutenant Seryozha, and Corporal Ernst." Sokov told the other party, "I have something important to find them."

Not long after, Seryozha and Ernst appeared in front of Sokov. Sokov first said to Ernst: "Comrade Corporal, we are leaving soon. How is your training going?"

As early as shortly after entering Mamayev Post, Sokov considered that after the start of the Stalingrad Defense War, he would definitely send his subordinates to pretend to be Germans to carry out reconnaissance and sabotage missions. becomes extremely important. Sokov recruited more than 20 fighters with language talents and some basic German skills to learn German from Ernst. To go deep behind enemy lines this time, personnel who understand German are indispensable, so Sokov specially called Ernst over to ask, in order to find out how many people with German skills can cope with this operation deep behind enemy lines.

Ernst was silent for a moment, and then said: "Comrade Brigadier, although most people can use German fluently for daily communication, they all have different accents. If you are interrogating prisoners, there is no problem; if you are behind enemy lines To carry out the task, as long as you open your mouth, you will be seen through."

"Corporal Ernst," Sokov didn't want to hear Ernst's diplomatic vocabulary, so he interrupted him: "Just tell me, if we want to go to the enemy's rear to carry out missions, how many people can we send?" Use it?"

"Five!" Ernst stretched out a palm and said, "Not only are they proficient in oral English, but they can also understand simple German documents. If you want to perform special tasks behind enemy lines, they are the best candidates."

Knowing that there were five soldiers who could not only speak German fluently, but could even read simple German documents, Sokov couldn't help being overjoyed, and hurriedly urged Ernst: "Comrade Corporal, gather these five soldiers immediately, I'm going to lead the team to the enemy's rear to carry out the mission, and let them go with me." Just as Ernst turned to leave, Sokov felt that it would not be a bad thing if there were more German-speaking people in the army, since the others He can also speak German, so he simply brought all of them, "And those fighters who are proficient in oral English, also call them over."

When Seryozha was called over, he thought that Sokov was going to assign him some important task, but after he came, he didn't pay attention to him at all, but kept talking to Ernst. After finally waiting for Ernst to leave, Seryozha immediately asked, "Misha, what's the matter with you calling me over in such a hurry?"

Hearing Seryozha calling him by his nickname, Sokov knew in his heart that he had just snubbed his old friend, and the other party was very dissatisfied with him, so he smiled and said, "Seryozha, I called you over here." , there is a task to assign to you."

"What mission?" Sergey Sha was also an insider about the fact that the troops were going deep into the enemy's rear and going north to join forces with the friendly troops who had broken through the enemy's defenses. When he heard that there was a mission assigned to him, the expression on his face suddenly became richer: "It is also for letting Shall we go to the enemy's rear?"

"You send a squad of soldiers to go with the troops." In order to ensure the safety of those soldiers who can speak German, Sokov decided to transfer people from the guard company to protect them. "Their task is to protect those soldiers who understand German. Understand?"

"Is there only one squad to be transferred?" Xie Liaosha was somewhat depressed when he learned that the guard company only transferred one squad to participate in this reunion operation: "Can't we transfer some more people? If necessary, I can personally lead Team."

"Lieutenant Seryozha, I understand your feelings very well." Could it be that Sokov couldn't guess what Seryozha had in mind? You know, joining forces with friendly forces and breaking the siege of Stalingrad by the German army together is a great achievement. In all fairness, Sokov is also willing to let Seryozha participate in this operation, but considering that the guard company has been dismantled in pieces recently, if too many people are deployed, then it is almost possible to consider The organizational system was revoked, so he said to Sergei firmly: "However, the strength of the guard company has been almost allocated. If more people are deployed, who will protect the safety of the brigade headquarters?"

After Sokov finished speaking, he intentionally paused for a moment. Seeing that Sergey was silent, he continued: "Sergesha, there are still many days to make meritorious deeds in the future. I will never forget such a good thing. your."

Hearing Sokov's words, Sergey became happy again, nodded quickly and said, "Misha, I'll go back and recruit some people to protect the translators who are performing tasks."

Half an hour later, Sokov set off with the commanders and fighters of the 192nd Battalion. Five German armored vehicles were full of commanders and fighters disguised as German soldiers. Sokov and Goria were in the second vehicle, and Ernst, who was wearing the uniform of a German captain, sat beside them. Behind the armored vehicle, followed by more than a hundred infantry marching on foot.

After Goriya glanced at the infantry behind, he tentatively asked Sokov: "Comrade Brigadier, is the speed of the armored vehicle too slow? If we march at this speed, we will not be able to reach Austria until tomorrow morning at the earliest." Orlovka region."

"Comrade Captain," Sokov turned his head and glanced at Golia, and said to him, "Don't you think that when armored vehicles and infantry march together, they look more like German reinforcements? In this way, even if we are attacked by German troops along the way, They found that they would not intercept us, and even thought we were part of them."

Goria waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and asked cautiously: "Comrade Brigadier, I wonder which German troops' defense zones we will pass through this time going north?"

"The 100th Jaeger Division of General Verna Sanne was the first to pass by," Sokov had done his homework before departure, so when he heard Goria's question, he immediately replied without hesitation: "The Orlovka we are going to is the area controlled by Erich Magnus's 389th Infantry Division..."

"If we encounter the enemy's interrogation on the road," Goria continued to ask, "how should we answer the enemy?"

"Let's just say we belong to the 295th Infantry Division." Sokov thought that the soldiers of the guard squad sitting in the first car were all wearing the captured uniforms of the 295th Infantry Division of the German Army. It couldn't be more appropriate, so he said confidently: "I believe the enemy will not suspect."

After walking for about three or four kilometers, a German defense line appeared in front of us. There was a checkpoint on the road, and a barbed wire wooden fence was placed in front of the checkpoint, and there was a sandbag fortification on the side of the road. Seeing a troop approaching, the sentry in the checkpoint immediately came out to stop it. After the vehicle stopped, he asked loudly, "Which part are you from and where are you going?"

Before setting off, Sokov asked those soldiers who were proficient in German to wear the uniforms of German officers, which were specially used to deal with the German interrogation. At this moment, when the sentinel at the checkpoint asked for the number of the unit, the fake officer sitting in the first armored vehicle stood up and replied, "We belong to the 295th Infantry Division. We are ordered to go north to reinforce the 389th Infantry Division."

The sentinel heard that they were going north to reinforce the friendly army, and immediately removed the obstacles blocking the road, allowing the troops to pass through the checkpoint smoothly. Goliath sat in the car, turned his head and looked at the checkpoint that was gradually going away, and said to Sokov with lingering fear: "Comrade Brigadier, it is better for you to make our commanders and fighters disguised as Germans, so that we can relax so easily." through this line of defense."

Don't see how the first line of defense passed so easily, but Sokov didn't dare to take it lightly. He said to Golia: "Comrade Captain, this is only the first line of defense we passed. Can the following lines of defense pass?" It is still an unknown to pass so smoothly, we must not be careless."

The troops walked for another hour or so. When Goria was about to make a suggestion to Sokov to stop the troops for a while, the first company commander who stayed on the last armored vehicle asked the radio operator to send a message to Goria. a telegram. After reading the telegram, Goria couldn't help but turn pale with shock. He approached Sokov's ear and whispered, "Comrade Brigadier, something has happened!"

"What happened?!" Hearing what Goria said, Sokov couldn't help but thumped in his heart, and hurriedly asked: "What happened, tell me clearly."

"That's right," Goria turned his head to look at the back of the team, and at the same time said to Sokov in a low voice, "We found the enemy behind us."

"An enemy happened behind us?" Sokov frowned and asked, "How many of them are there, have they seen us through?"

"Comrade Brigadier, so far, the enemy has not seen us through." Seeing that Sokov had misunderstood, Golia quickly explained to him: "There is a platoon of German soldiers who may have regarded our troops as themselves. People, actually marching behind our infantry. Do you think the infantry should be ordered to kill them all?"

"A platoon of soldiers wants to kill them all. This movement is not small." Since Sokov, who is in the enemy's rear and wants to complete the task, naturally does not want to make extra troubles, so he told Golia: "Give back to the rear immediately." The commanders in the army called back, telling them not to act rashly, and let the Germans march with us."

"Let the enemy march with our soldiers?" Goria was taken aback when he heard Sokov say this: "Comrade Brigadier, is it too risky to do this? If the enemy finds out that the soldiers who are marching with them The troops are pretending to be from our army, so our whereabouts will be exposed."

"Comrade Lieutenant," Sokov said to Goria, "It's dark today, and if the Germans don't take a closer look, they won't be able to detect the flaws of our army. But if we get rid of them, once the German soldiers shoot, Then it is possible to alarm the nearby German troops, and instead reveal our whereabouts. Immediately pass on my order and let the troops continue to maintain the current marching formation, regardless of the German troops following behind."

"Okay, Comrade Brigadier." Seeing that Sokov was so stubborn, Goria couldn't persuade him anymore, so he could only nod in agreement, and asked the radio operator to send Sokov's order in the form of a telegram.

After sending the telegram, although Goria didn't say anything, he repeatedly slandered Sokov's decision in his heart. Unexpectedly, he received a new telegram not long after, which made him realize how wise Sokov's decision was.

Twenty minutes after the telegram was sent, the first company commander sent another telegram to Golia. He said in the telegram: At present, the number of German troops marching behind our army has increased to two companies.

After Goria saw this telegram, he couldn't help being frightened into a white sweat. He thought to himself: If according to his own idea, let the infantry behind the armored vehicles destroy the German platoon, maybe by now the new The incoming German army crashed into it. Regardless of the fact that I lead two companies, the German army also has two companies, but one company of the German army has two hundred people, twice as many as myself. He knew very well the combat power of his troops. Even in a one-on-one situation, he might not be able to win, let alone half the number of the opponent. Once a fight broke out, even if there was machine gun fire support from the armored vehicle on his side, he would probably suffer heavy losses.

Thinking of this, he hastily handed the telegram to Sokov, raised his hand to wipe off the cold sweat on his forehead, and said thankfully: "Comrade Brigadier, your decision was wise and you didn't let us destroy that German platoon. Otherwise, we would definitely The German army who arrived later saw the flaw, and in that case, our entire army was in danger of being wiped out."

After reading the telegram, Sokov said lightly: "Comrade Captain, under the current circumstances, don't act rashly. Don't see two companies of German troops following us, but for us, it will increase In order to ensure the safety factor, the enemies along the way will treat us as real Germans, which will allow us to drive to the Orlovka area smoothly."