After receiving Sokov's order, Merkulov left a battalion to hand over defense to friendly forces, he led his troops to head towards the Red Army Village.
When passing through the defense zone of the 71st Division of the Guards, he and the political commissar Sheiko also visited Shivakov in a special way.
Seeing Merkulov suddenly appeared in his command center, Shivakov hurriedly stepped forward to salute and asked in surprise: "Comrade General, why did you come to me?" The reason why Shivakov asked this was because he saw Merkulov appearing in his defense zone and was worried that the other party would not be able to defend the city and evacuate voluntarily.
"Comrade Commander gave me an order to hand over the city's defense to the two divisions of the 21st Army, and then lead the main force of the division to move towards the Red Army village." Merkulov held Sivakov's hand and said gratefully: "Col. If it weren't for your timely rescue, I'm afraid the enemy had already rushed into Donetsk."
Merkulov knew very well that once the Germans rushed into Donetsk, it would not be easy to drive them out. Therefore, we must come to express our gratitude to Sivakov for his helping hand.
"Comrade General, you don't need to thank me." Shivakov said with a smile: "Actually, I was ordered to act."
"Operation is ordered?" Merkulov was stunned when he heard Sivakov say this. He asked tentatively: "Can it be that the commander gave you the order?"
"Yes, comrade General." Shivakov nodded and gave him a positive answer: "He said that your division has no heavy weapons, and it is very difficult to block the German military advisor who has been strengthened by artillery and tanks. Therefore, I ordered me to send a regiment to travel with the tanks and assist you in defeating the enemy attacking the city."
"It was indeed the order issued by the commander." When the city was in danger, the political commissar Sheiko once told him that Sokov would never ignore the situation in Donetsk and would definitely send troops to reinforce at critical moments. At that time, Merkulov did not believe it, but now it seems that Sheiko's judgment is completely correct.
Sivakov said to Merkulov: "Comrade General, if you can have nothing to do, I suggest you arrive at the Cluster Command immediately. Maybe he will assign you new combat missions."
Merkulov felt that Sivakov's words made sense. After a few simple conversations, he hurriedly left the 71st Division headquarters and took a car to the cluster command center located in the Red Army Village.
Sokov received a report from the sentry on duty outside the city. When he learned that Merkulov and Sheiko had entered the city, he curiously said to Vetkov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, this General Merkulov came quite fast. It has been less than two hours since I gave him an order. Could it be that the troops of the 21st Army have arrived so quickly?"
"I don't think it's like it." Vetkov shook his head and expressed his suspicion. "Just judging by my years of work experience, it is impossible for the friendly forces to arrive in Donetsk, General Merkulov led his troops out of Donetsk before he arrived in Donetsk."
"What? General Merkulov took his men out of the city before his friendly forces arrived?" Sokov asked in surprise.
"Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Seeing Sokov's worried look, Vetkov comforted him and said, "Even if they want to leave the city, they will leave one battalion or two companies to continue to serve as defense work in the city. They will only leave there once friendly forces arrive and they hand over the defense."
More than ten minutes later, Merkulov appeared in the headquarters.
Sokov hurriedly came forward and stretched out his hand to the two of them: "Hello, General Merkulov, Colonel Sheiko!"
"Hello, Comrade Commander." The two of them answered respectfully.
"General Merkulov, your division fought well and stubbornly withstood the enemy's attack." Although repelling the enemy attacking Donetsk was the result of multi-faceted cooperation, Sokov still praised it in front of Merkulov.
"Comrade Commander," Melkulov felt embarrassed when he heard Sokov's praise: "Our division was not fighting well. If it weren't for friendly troops to arrive in time, the enemy might have rushed into the city."
"General Merkulov, we cannot care about the gains and losses of a city and a place when we fight. Sometimes in order to better eliminate the enemy, we can give up some positions appropriately to disperse the enemy's troops, so as to achieve the goal of defeating them one by one."
Sokov's words made Merkulov feel a little difficult to accept. In the past, when superiors learned that the enemy attacked his defense zone, they all ordered simply and roughly: "Resolutely defend the position and never retreat at all." But what Sokulov said now is exactly the opposite of his previous superiors, which makes Merkulov at a loss.
Sokov saw Merkulov's doubts and explained to him: "Comrade General, I think you should know that some time ago, the German army lost many positions under the powerful offensive of our two fronts and was forced to transfer to the Dnieper River, right?"
If Merkulov didn't know about such a big thing, he wouldn't have to be the commander. He nodded quickly and replied with certainty: "I know."
"The enemy was originally at a disadvantage in terms of military strength and equipment, but as they gave up a large area of ​​land, the military strength and technical equipment gradually concentrated in one place. In this way, they could form a local advantage and launch a counterattack against our army at the right time." Sokov said: "It was in this way that our army had dispersed its forces after occupying a lot of places, so that they were powerless in the face of the enemy's counterattack."
Merkulov thought about Sokov's statement carefully and it seemed that this was the case. After Sokov finished speaking, he asked, "Comrade Commander, I want to ask, are there any major military operations for you to concentrate all our troops in the Red Army Village?"
The reason why Sokov wanted to transfer Merkulov's division back to the Red Army village was indeed to concentrate all his troops and take a large-scale action against the enemy. Seeing Merkulov guessing his intentions at this moment, he couldn't help but smile and said, "Yes, Comrade General. The German troops are now staying more than 20 kilometers away from the city. Although they did not intend to launch an attack, they firmly restrained us."
"Comrade Commander," asked Merkulov tentatively, "What are you going to do?"
"General Merkulov, come and see." Sokov called Merkulov to the table, pointed to the map spread on the table, and said to him: "Look, the enemy's large forces are concentrated in our northwest direction. I want to take advantage of their opportunity to hold their troops and send a force to detour to their flanks. Taking advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness, give them a thunder strike and completely disrupt their offensive plan."
"Comrade Commander," Merkulov asked awkwardly after hearing this: "I wonder which army do you plan to fear to carry out this glorious and arduous task?"
"My old army has combat experience in this area. I plan to take them to carry out this mission in person." Sokov looked up and said to Merkulov: "The reason I transferred your division over is to let you take over the defense."
When Merkulov learned that Sokov was preparing to let the 41st Guards Division perform this difficult task, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. According to his idea, it would be very difficult for his troops to block the German attack. If he took the initiative to attack the enemy, wouldn't he seek death?
When Vitkov heard that Sokov planned to lead his troops to detour to the enemy's flank, he was shocked and quickly persuaded: "Comrade Commander, you are now the highest commander of the cluster. You cannot leave your post without leaving your post. You can completely let others do this kind of thing."
The reason why Sokov was unwilling to stay in the cluster command is because it was just an empty stance. Except for himself and Vitkov, the rest of the personnel were from the 41st Guard Division. Every time he heard someone call him commander, he always felt panicked. On the contrary, he still liked to hear the commanders and fighters of the 41st Guard Division called him the commander.
"Comrade Chief of Staff, it's enough to have you in charge of the overall situation here." Sokov sighed and said with some regret: "If Colonel Ivanov is still alive, I can give this task to him to complete. But since he has sacrificed, I will never feel at ease in my heart by handing over the Guards Division to someone else's command. I still have to go there myself."
…………
Sokov's action was very fast, and he completed the assembly of the troops that afternoon and prepared to set off when it was dark.
Chief of Staff Cidolin asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, are we really going to sneak attack the German army?"
"Yes." Sokov looked at Cidolin and asked unexpectedly: "Is there anything wrong?"
"After this period of battle, each regiment has reduced its personnel to a certain extent." Sidolin reminded Sokov: "Now there are only more than 12,000 left in the entire division. We want to attack an enemy who is one or two times more than us. Wouldn't we die?"
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov said with a laugh, "War, the amount of troops and equipment is certainly an important reason. But as long as we use our brains and think of more ways, we can still overcome the problem of insufficient troops and equipment."
"If we want to go for a sneak attack, Colonel Bere's tank brigade will definitely not be able to travel with us." Sidorin reminded Sokov again: "In other words, we can only use infantry to deal with the German armored forces."
"We say it's infantry, but it has equipment that other infantry units do not have." Sokov smiled and said to Cidolin: "Don't forget that our rocket launchers are a killer weapon against enemy tanks. The new rockets are even more devastating weapons against dense German infantry. With these weapons, our combat power will definitely not be weaker than an armored division."
After Sidolin waited for Sokov to finish speaking, he stared at him for a long time, and finally nodded and said, "Okay, comrade instructor. Based on my understanding of you, you have always been very accurate in your judgment of things. Since you said that our sneak attack can win, I decided to believe you."
Sokov's idea is very simple. When the troops approach the enemy, they do not launch a strong attack, but use the tactic of zero-knocking candy. They eat a small piece in the east today and destroy a small piece in the west tomorrow. In just a few days, many German troops will become incomplete. At that time, they will concentrate their troops and give them a thunderous blow.
When entering the Red Army Village, Colonel Yershakov once reported to Sokov that they had seized a German warehouse with tens of thousands of German coats. The reason why Sokov had the idea of ​​sneaking attack on the enemy was entirely because of this batch of military coats. Although the entire division could not do one for each person, as long as most people were wearing German coats, they could just pretend to be German troops and approach the enemy with great swagger. While they were not paying attention, they bit them hard like wolves.
After dark, a unit wearing German coats left the Red Army Village in a mighty manner and drove west along the highway. Of course, this unit was not all infantry, with more than 30 trucks and more than a dozen captured German armored vehicles. The trucks were loaded with new rockets, while the armored vehicles were members of Sokov and the division command.
Although Sidolin has been the Chief of Staff of Sokov for a long time, he spent most of his time in the command center and commanding the troops on behalf of Sokov. It was the first time he had participated in combat operations like this. He asked Sokov with some trepidation: "Comrade Commander, will the enemy really not find our whereabouts?"
"If the German army deployed scouts nearby, we would definitely find our troops." Sokov said with a serious expression: "But whenever they see the German coats we were wearing, they would think that we were transferred from somewhere, so we might be attacked very small."
"Comrade Commander, what I am most worried about is that the enemy regards us as their own people, while the guerrillas that we are in the nearby forest regard us as Germans." Cidolin said worriedly: "What should we do if our own people fight with our own people?"
"You don't have to worry about this. After repeated clearance by the enemy, our guerrillas will not be found in this area." Sokov comforted Sidolin: "So you don't have to worry about whether we will have misunderstandings with our own people."
"But what if there is a misunderstanding?" Cidolin asked unyieldingly.
Chapter completed!