As soon as the sky was dawn, Sokov and Belkin came to the roof of the building and looked down at the terrain. They held up their telescopes and looked down from here to see the entire defense zone clearly.
There is a building in the distance, but after the enemy's shelling and bombing, it has long become a ruin. In front of the archives building is an open land, but it is broken by trenches and traffic trenches. The broken German tanks and armored vehicles are all burned black by the fire and stopped in front of the trenches in a mess or cross-stand between the trenches.
Seeing this scene, Sokov put down his telescope and said to Belkin: "Comrade Political Commissar, this building is in the direction of Germany's frontier breakthrough, and we must firmly defend it. Only in this way can the enemy not rush to the barricade factory or the Volga River."
"Since friendly forces can hold their positions under the enemy's fierce attack." Belkin also put down the telescope in his hand, turned his head and assured Sokov: "Then we can definitely defend it."
"It's not okay to block the enemy's attack, just verbally speaking." Sokov said, then raised his telescope again and looked at the defensive position below: "Now, let's see how the fortifications are being built?"
As the telescope lens moved, Sokov saw a new trench that had been formed on the original trench. There was also a fire point every forty or fifty meters, and the fire point was covered with two layers of logs, which was enough to withstand the bombardment of the mortar.
Sokov was very satisfied with such fortifications. He nodded and said to Belkin: "Comrade Political Commissar, our newly built fortifications may be difficult to withstand the repeated bombardment of German artillery fire. Therefore, do not place too many troops on the defensive positions, so as not to suffer heavy losses from the artillery before seeing the enemy."
"I understand, Misha." Belkin nodded and said, "I plan to place only one company of the new battalion on the defensive positions outside the building, and the other two companies are hidden elsewhere. After half of the casualties on the front line, another company will be sent to replace the defense."
Sokov knew that each company of the shrinking regiment had two or three hundred people, even more than a group of friendly troops. It was more than enough to use a company to defend the front line. He pointed to the ruins of the buildings in the distance and said to Belkin: "Comrade Political Commissar, I suggest you arrange several combat teams in that ruin. Each group consists of five people, a sniper, two machine gun shooters and two submachine gunmen. They can rely on the terrain to harass the marching German army..."
When Sokov said this, he suddenly remembered something: Vasirizaitev was sniping enemies everywhere in real history, but because of his appearance, he had commanded his troops to hold the Vasily building, which greatly reduced the number of enemies he had eliminated. Should he send someone to take over his post so that he could be a sniper with peace of mind and freely sniping the enemies he encountered.
"Misha, Misha..." Seeing that Sokov had just said halfway, Belkin suddenly stood there in a daze. He thought something had happened to him, so he quickly grabbed his shoulder and shook it hard a few times, and at the same time approached his ear and shouted his name loudly: "What's wrong with you?"
"Oh, I'm fine." Belkin's shout woke Sokov from his contemplation. He shook his head and said, "I suddenly thought of something, and I can't help but get a little distracted. Let's continue to talk about defense."
He said to Belkin with his hands to the roof where he was standing: "Comrade Political Commissar, have you brought a lot of German mortars this time?" Seeing the other party nodding to show his affirmation, he continued, "The range of 50mm mortars is 500 meters. If you set up a mortar position on the roof, you can use artillery fire to support the defenders outside the building at any time."
"We brought six mortars this time, each with about fifty shells." Belkin said with some annoyance: "If I had known that I could use artillery fire to attack the enemy here, I should have brought more shells."
"It doesn't matter if there are few shells, you can save money. But I see that you carry a lot of machine guns and bullets," Sokov thought to himself: the troops are equipped with MG34 machine guns. I don't know when the German army will officially change the MG42 machine gun. Although the weapon is mouse bullets, it has a good lethality: "You set up machine gun positions on the roof and the fifth floor, so that you can form cross-fire with the fire points in the fortifications outside the building, and eliminate the attacking enemies in large quantities."
After hearing Sokov's order, Belkin quickly walked aside, picked up the phone that had just been set up, and said to the microphone: "Chief of Staff, I am Belkin, immediately order Lieutenant Grissa to go to the roof to report to the division commander and me."
After putting down the phone, Belkin explained to Sokov: "Misha, you know that Lieutenant Grissa is very capable, and I plan to let his company be on the roof."
Sokov smiled faintly and said, "Comrade Political Commissar, you are the leader of the reduction team. You can decide on your own how to deploy and don't ask me for instructions on everything."
Seeing Sokov so reasonable, Belkin smiled at him gratefully and said, "Misha, to be honest, there is a commander who has a much higher position than me, and I am somewhat restrained when commanding the battle. But with your words, I feel much more at ease."
After receiving the notice, Lieutenant Grissa immediately ran to the roof. Seeing Sokov and Berkin were both there, he quickly stood up and reported to the two: "Report to the division commander, regiment commander, Lieutenant Grissa..."
"Okay, okay, there's no need to do this in front of us." Sokov interrupted Grissa without waiting for Grissa to finish and asked straight to the point: "Comrade Lieutenant, how many mortars and machine guns are there in your company?"
Grissa was Sokov's old subordinate. When he heard this question, he knew that his superiors must have some important tasks to him. He quickly replied truthfully: "Report to the division commander, we have six mortars and twelve MG34 machine guns in our company."
After listening to the data reported by Grissa, Sokov turned his head and said to Belkin: "Comrade Political Commissar, since you have figured out their equipment, then you can assign tasks."
Belkin nodded and then said to Grissa: "Comrade Lieutenant, you are responsible for the defense of the fifth floor and the roof. The mortars are placed on the roof, and when necessary, provide artillery support to the defenders outside the building to suppress the chargeable enemies."
"I understand, Comrade Commander."
Seeing that Belkin was assigning tasks to Grissa, Sokov felt that he had no need to stay here again, so he said to him: "Comrade Political Commissar, continue to assign tasks. I will go to the defensive position outside the building to check out and chat with the soldiers."
"Misha!" Berkin quickly called Sokov and reminded him: "The enemy may launch an attack at any time. I think you should stay in the building, at least this will ensure your safety."
Chapter completed!