Red Moscow

After Kopetuo jumped into the trench with his men, he said to Yefim in a reproachful tone: "Comrade soldier, what are you shouting for? Are you worried that the enemy will not find our whereabouts?"

"No, squad leader." Yefim quickly waved his hands and explained to Kopetuo: "We have carefully checked the trenches and found no trace of the enemy. It seems that they have given up here."

"What, the enemy has already abandoned this place?" Ke Peituo thought he had heard it wrong, and asked a special question: "Are you sure?"

"Yes." Yefim nodded vigorously, and replied, "We just discovered a German army headquarters. It's a mess and there's no one there."

In order to find out what was going on, Kopetuo quickly told Yefim: "Hurry up and take me to see it."

After a short time, Kopetuo followed Yefim to a headquarters. From the cigarette butts and chocolate wrappers thrown on the ground, he judged that this was at least a battalion-level command post. Judging from the scattered papers on the ground, the Germans left in a hurry. Although he didn't understand what was going on, he felt that he should report the matter to his superiors immediately.

Belkin received a telegram from Kopetuo from the front and was also surprised to learn that the German army had disappeared without a trace, so he called Sokov and reported the matter to him.

"Damn it, the Germans ran away." As soon as Sokov put down the phone, he said to Sidolin and Ivanov: "They ran really fast."

"What's going on here?" Ivanov did not connect the disappearance of the German army with the Soviet army's concentric attack on the Gumrak area, so he asked strangely: "Why did the enemy retreat for no reason? Woolen cloth?"

"Comrade Deputy Division Commander, have you forgotten that not long ago, the commander told us that the surrounding friendly troops were ordered to carry out a concentric attack on the Gumrak area." Sokov reminded the other party: "The German 24th The disappearance of the armored division may be related to this incident."

"That's right, I think so too." Sidolin promptly supported Sukov's statement. But he was also confused about the whereabouts of the German army: "But where will the German 24th Armored Division withdraw?"

Sokov is not a god, nor is he a roundworm in Paulus' stomach. Naturally, he can't guess where the 24th Armored Division has withdrawn. Hearing this question from Sidolin, he shook his head slightly and said, "However, where did the 24th Panzer Division of the German army withdraw, but I know that they will no longer attack the defense of the Belkin Regiment in a short time. The zone launched a new offensive."

Sidolin and Ivanov were originally worried about whether the Belkin regiment could block the German attack. Now that they heard that the enemy would not launch a new attack in a short time, they couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. In this way, there is no need to consider where to deploy troops to strengthen the defense of the right wing.

After a while, Sidolin asked tentatively: "Comrade commander, since the Germans have already retreated, should the Belgin Regiment be allowed to occupy the positions abandoned by the Germans?"

"No." Sokov shook his head and said, "We don't have that many troops now. If the Belkin Regiment is allowed to occupy the positions abandoned by the enemy, their existing troops will be dispersed. Once the Germans Launch a new attack and they will be in a very dangerous situation."

After Sokov finished speaking, he felt that he should personally explain to Belkin, lest the other party get mad and send troops to occupy the positions abandoned by the Germans. After dialing the phone, he said into the microphone: "Comrade my political commissar, according to our analysis, the 24th Armored Division in front of you should have retreated. Regarding the positions they gave up, my opinion is not to occupy them temporarily. so as not to disperse your forces."

"I understand." Before Sokov called, Belkin was also worrying about whether to occupy the positions abandoned by the Germans. Don't occupy it, all the commanders and fighters are flustered, and feel that it is a pity not to eat this big piece of fat in front of them; but let's send troops to occupy it, once the only troops in the regiment are scattered, the defenses everywhere will be destroyed. Strength will become weak. If the German army launches a counterattack, they can use various tactics to break through their own defenses. Now that Sokov has made his statement, Belkin naturally agreed: "For the time being, we will not send troops to occupy the positions abandoned by the Germans."

Ivanov watched Sokov finish the phone call, and reminded him kindly: "Comrade commander, I think this matter needs to be reported to the commander. Otherwise, he saw such a large area, and you didn't send troops to recover it." , I’m afraid there will be bad associations.”

Although Sokov's position is not low, but after all, he is too young, lacks a lot of life experience, and still has a lot of shortcomings in handling things. Hearing Ivanov's reminder at this moment, he immediately realized that he almost made another big mistake, and quickly asked the communications soldier to connect to the headquarters' phone, preparing to report the matter to Cuikov himself.

Chuikov received a call from Sokov and learned that the 24th Panzer Division of the German army had retreated and was missing. ?”

"No, Comrade Commander." Sokov replied respectfully: "I order the troops to stay in the current position and not take any action."

"What, you let the troops stay in the existing position and take no action?" Cuikov couldn't help being anxious when he heard this: "Since the German army has voluntarily abandoned the position, the first thing you should do is to send Troops to occupy positions and keep as much territory as possible in our hands. Understand?"

"Comrade Commander, please listen to my explanation." Sokov doesn't want to occupy more land, but he has limited troops, so he can only choose to give up appropriately: "If I order the downsizing regiment to enter the position abandoned by the Germans, then They will weaken the overall defense force due to the expansion of the defense area. Once the German army launches a counterattack, the troops of the downsized regiment may be defeated by the enemy one by one. Our position may also be lost."

"Don't you still have three regiments?" Cuikov may have heard that Sokov had no intention of sending troops to occupy those positions, and he was very unhappy: "When necessary, we can let them rush over to support the reduced regiment."

"Comrade Commander, our friendly forces have already cut off the way for the Germans to retreat." Sokov was worried that Chuikov would actually transfer the three frontal defense regiments to the right flank of Mamayev Hill on a whim, and reminded him: " When the enemy is desperate, they will definitely consider returning here, and they will try to regain the lost position. At that time, there may be a bad battle in the Mamayev Hill area. If our army does not have enough troops, I am afraid it will suffer. If you lose, maybe the position you just captured will be lost again."

"It's still you who are thoughtful." After some analysis by Sokov, Chuikov immediately realized that he had thought the problem too simply: "Well, just as you said, the downsizing group sticks to the current position, Hold off for the time being the positions abandoned by the Germans."

After obtaining Chuikov's permission, Sokov finally breathed a sigh of relief. After putting down the phone, he said to Sidolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, our next focus of work should be on the third square in front of the Mamayev Hill. According to my speculation, the German army will attack us again in two days."

"No way." Sidolin was skeptical of Sokov's statement: "The German 71st Infantry Division suffered heavy losses from us. Even if they were to counterattack, I don't think they would have the strength to do so. .”

"Comrade Chief of Staff, don't underestimate the enemy." Seeing that Sidolin underestimated the strength of the German army, Sokov reminded him: "Yes, the 71st Infantry Division was indeed disabled by us. But the German army still has several With the strength of one division, even if they call in another division, do you think we can stop them with our current strength?"

Sidolin thought for a while, then shook his head and said, "I don't think it can be stopped."

Ivanov couldn't help but blush when he heard this. In any case, the other three guard regiments were his old subordinates, but in Sokov's heart, they seemed to be even more dissatisfied with troops like the downsizing regiment. not on. He coughed lightly and said, "Comrade Commander, what do you think we should do to stop the German attack."

"It's still the same sentence, hurry up and repair the fortifications, and build a complete defense system before the German attack begins." Sokov specially emphasized: "Now we have three lines of defense in front of Mamayev Gang. The second line of defense will be our focus."

"Second line of defense?!" Sidolin and Ivanov couldn't help but look at each other when they heard Sokov say that. Neither of them understood what Sokov meant. Sidolin asked curiously: "Mr. , why is it the second line of defense?"

"The enemy has powerful artillery fire. When they attack our division's line of defense, they will definitely carry out intensive shelling, which will cause us huge casualties." Sokov explained to the two: "The location of the second line of defense can be Supported by artillery from the left bank. When necessary, artillery fire can be called to intercept the attacking enemy and relieve the pressure on our defense."

"It makes sense, it makes sense." When Sokov explained this, Ivanov remembered that during the last counterattack, Sokov had taken the initiative to order the troops to stop the attack in time after occupying the second line of defense. To prevent the troops from receiving artillery support from the left bank when attacking the third line of defense, and also suffer from German shells. He took the initiative to say: "I will go to the front in person later and tell the three commanders to focus on strengthening the fortifications of the second line of defense."

"Comrade Commander," Sidolin waited for Ivanov to finish his statement, and asked again: "Do we need to take any action to cooperate with the actions of the friendly forces?"

"Cooperate with the actions of friendly forces?" Hearing Sidolin's question, Sokov was a little dumbfounded: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the peripheral troops are still tens of kilometers away from us. They want to break through the layers of defense of the German army and reach us. It will take a long time here. As for the defenders in the city, their strength is still very weak, and they are limited to small-scale counterattacks, which are of little help to our defense here.

Our current task is to strengthen the line of defense. As long as we can hold our position and wait until the supplies and soldiers on the left bank are continuously transported across the river, we can switch from the current defensive state to the offensive. Do you understand? "

"What about the squad that was originally scheduled to be sent to the Gumrak area?" Sidolin continued to ask, "Are you still going to send it?"

"Of course we will." Sokov nodded and said, "Although we will fight positional warfare against the Germans for a long time to come, we must not stop our sabotage activities behind the enemy's rear. Comrade deputy division commander, you will When I went to the front for inspection, I successfully asked the three regiment leaders to deploy elite personnel to form an action team behind the enemy. If possible, they will be sent to the enemy's rear tonight."

"Don't worry, Comrade Division Commander." Ivanov felt particularly proud when he thought of the possibility of destroying Paulus's Army Group Command with rockets in the upcoming squad: "I will arrange this matter."

"Chief of Staff," Sokov recalled the guerrillas who had acted with Guchakov and the others, and quickly asked Sidolin: "Do we still have contact with the Ignatov brothers' guerrillas? How are they doing recently?" gone?"

"Before the big counter-offensive began, some of the guerrillas who participated in the attack on the station were ordered to transfer and rushed to the Don River to meet the friendly troops going south. Some remained in place and continued to fight guerrillas." Sidolin told Sokov "The partisans of Brother Ignatov will stay and continue to fight the enemy," the report said.

Since the last attack on the German station and the seizure and burning of a large amount of military supplies, the guerrillas in that area have become a thorn in the side of the German army. Paulus sent many troops into the forest to eliminate the guerrillas. If it weren't for the change in the battle situation, Paulus had to withdraw the suppression troops, and I'm afraid the guerrillas would be seriously injured. But even so, several guerrillas suffered considerable losses.

"There is also the third battalion of Captain Andrei," Sidolin reminded Sokov: "From the counterattack until now, we have not issued any combat orders to the battalion. You see, in the next few days, what should we do?" What tasks do you assign them?"

"Their troops are limited. Even if they are ordered to launch a counterattack, I am afraid it will be difficult to achieve any results." After staring at the map for a while, Sokov sighed softly. The German army does not have much strength in the area, even if Andre is ordered to seize the department store, it can be done. But once the department store is occupied by his own troops, after Paulus leaves the Gumrak area in the future, it will be impossible to set up the new headquarters in the department store as in real history. In order to capture Paulus himself alive in the future, Sokov decided that the troops in the city would not take too violent an attack for the time being, so as not to frighten the Germans, so he ordered Sidolin: "Let them maintain the status quo and defend the existing The position is fine, don't attack the enemy lightly."

"Understood." Of course, Sidolin couldn't guess what Sokov really thought. He thought that the other party was worried that the third battalion would seize too many places and not have enough troops for defense, so he nodded and agreed: "I will immediately give Andre The captain called and assigned him the next task."