The German attack was repelled, which was originally a joyful thing, but for Belkin and the troops he commanded, it was another matter. After finally deploying the troops, the commanders and soldiers were ready to fight with the German army. Unexpectedly, before the other party approached the position, they were fleeing in a panic by a gunfire from the rear, and they didn't even have a chance to fire a shot.
When we saw the enemy retreat, the company commanders of each company called Belkin to ask for battle, saying that since the attacking enemy was repelled, should we take the opportunity to launch a counterattack and take back the lost area in the factory from the enemy's hands?
Although Belkin refused such an unrealistic request, he felt that the German offensive was frustrated and it was indeed a good opportunity to counterattack, so he called Sokov: "Misha, the German offensive was defeated by our artillery. Look, should we take some action?"
Sokov and Belkin partnered for a long time, so naturally understood that what the other party said was to take action was definitely not to let the soldiers line up in an orderly formation and charge towards the enemy with guns, but to night attacks. Then he asked, "Comrade Political Commissar, are you planning to use the night to fight back for the enemy?"
"The counterattack is not counted as a matter of a Counterattack," Belkin replied. "I just plan to let the soldiers use the sewers to approach the enemy-occupied area, and then throw a few grenades and so on, so that they can't sleep well at night."
"Your idea is good." Sokov replied with a smile: "Comrade Political Commissar, follow your thoughts and wait until it's dark, let the soldiers use the sewers to approach the enemy's occupied area and throw a few grenades everywhere, so that they can get up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet." After hearing this, Belkin laughed, then put down the phone and assigned tasks to the company commanders of each company.
And Lyudnikov, sitting opposite Sokov, looked at Sokov with a confused look on his face and asked in confusion: "Col. Sokov, what does it mean to let the Germans get up to use the toilet in the middle of the night?"
"Oh, this is a joke between me and the political commissar." Sokov explained to the other party: "It is to send troops to carry out night attacks on the enemy so that they can't sleep well at night."
"So that's the case." After hearing Sokov's words, Lyudnikov nodded slightly, and then asked tentatively: "I want to ask, since you are going to carry out night attacks on the enemy, can you take the opportunity to regain some lost positions?"
"Sorry, comrade Colonel." Sokov saw Lyudnikov looking at him with anticipation, and replied apologetically: "It is indeed not a big problem for us to seize the lost position from the enemy. But after the capture, we must divide our troops to guard. Do you think we have enough troops to defend more positions now?"
Regarding Sokov's question, Lyudnikov was silent for a long time, and finally shook his head and replied with difficulty: "Our troops are only enough to stick to the existing area, and we must divide our troops to guard them. The troops everywhere will become weak and there is a possibility of being defeated by the Germans."
Sokov was surprised to see that Lyudnikov could actually recognize the current situation of the army so clearly. He thought that the other party would be stubborn and had to recover the lost position. He even prepared a series of rhetoric in his mind to convince Lyudnikov. Unexpectedly, the other party did not insist on recovering the position, and the words he had prepared could not be used for.
However, in order to appease the other party, he reorganized the words in his mind and said to Lyudnikov: "Comrade Colonel, after a long attack, the Germans suffered great loss of their troops. Now, although they occupy most of the factories, in order to defend these places, they had to disperse their troops, resulting in the fact that every place was guarded and every place was facing a shortage of troops. And we concentrated all our troops in this narrow area, and could launch attacks on any place of the Germans at any time and achieve ideal results..."
"Col. Sokov," said Lyudnikov, after listening to Sokov patiently, he asked thoughtfully: "If we had the ability to restore our lost positions but did not do so, if our superiors knew, what would they do with us?"
"If we care too much about the gains and losses of a city and land, we will spend all the troops in our hands. When the enemy launches a new attack, where should we mobilize enough troops to defend these places? At that time, these positions that have been seized by countless commanders and fighters will be recaptured by the enemy." Sokov told Lyudnikov in a simple and easy-to-understand way that "people have lost their land, and people have lost their land; people have lost their land, and people have lost their land": "But if we take the initiative to give up some positions and save their troops, after the counterattack begins, we can use these preserved troops to attack the enemy and recapture the lost positions."
"Col. Sokov, I have to say that you are very reasonable." Sokov's words obviously convinced Lyudnikov. After hearing this, he nodded and said, "Although such tactics are very different from those I was familiar with before, it is obvious that the tactics you mentioned are more suitable for the situation in front of you."
"Comrade Commander," the two were talking, and an officer came in from the door, who reported to Lyudnikov: "Two strange tanks came from the south and stopped outside."
"Strange tank?" After listening to the report of his subordinates, Lyudnikov asked strangely: "What a strange method?"
"Comrade Commander, I have never seen such a tank before." The officer replied: "It was just that an artillery was installed on the base of a tank..."
Before the officer finished speaking, Sokov jumped out of his seat. He grabbed the other party's arm and asked curiously: "Where are the strange tanks you said? Take me there quickly." Seeing the officer's face blank, he rushed to the other side, who was also puzzled, and said, "It should be the automatic artillery given to us by Director Peter."
After Ludnikov understood what was going on, he said to the officer: "Didn't you hear Colonel Sokov? Why don't you take him to see the two strange tanks?"
…………
After dark, Captain Paulkosky, the first company commander, and twenty soldiers, entered a sewer in the defensive area. After entering the sewer, they, led by a guide, touched the location of the No. 6 production workshop.
The soldiers who acted as guide came from the Lyudnikov Division. His company had fought in the No. 6 production workshop and was very familiar with the terrain there. When he learned that friendly troops were attacking the enemy occupying No. 6 factory, he recommended himself and took the initiative to act as the guide of the small army.
On the way, he asked Paulkosky curiously: "Comrade Captain, there are at least one hundred Germans in Factory No. 6. You are just a few people. Can you deal with them?"
After hearing the guide's question, Paulkosky replied with a smile: "Comrade Warriors, if we were going to attack them, this little person would probably not be enough to put them in gaps. But now we are just going to attack them, so there will be no problem with them."
Paulkosky originally thought that he could enter Factory No. 6 smoothly along the sewer. Unexpectedly, as he walked, he suddenly found that the sewer in front had collapsed and the road was blocked by falling gravel. They tried to bypass the blocked area, but after walking around several roads, they found that the sewers leading to the factory were also blocked.
When he saw the first sewer being blocked, Paulkosky thought it was shelling or bombing, causing the sewer to collapse. But seeing that all sewers were blocked, he knew in his heart that the German army was afraid that the defenders would use the sewer to attack, so he blew up all sewers leading to the defense zone.
"Comrade Commander," saw that the road was blocked, the soldiers who were operating with Paulkosky were a little anxious, and asked Paulkosky in a low voice: "The road was blocked by the Germans, what should we do next?"
"Comrade Soldier," Paulkosky turned his head and asked the guide: "How far is our location, the defensive position outside the factory?"
The guide did not speak, crawled out of a gap beside him and observed for a while, climbed back and reported to Paulkosky: "Captain, this place is about one hundred meters away from the enemy's position."
"A distance of more than one hundred meters." Hearing the distance mentioned by the guide, Paulkosky began to think. It was obviously unrealistic to drop bombs at the enemy's position from such a long distance. Although the grenades equipped now are customized by the division commander to find the Red October factory, and are lighter than commonly used grenades. It is obviously impossible to throw them a hundred meters away. In order to blow the enemy, you must get closer. Thinking of this, he said to his subordinates: "Comrades, the sewer leading to the enemy's position has been blocked by the enemy. If we want to complete the task, we can only return to the ground and get close to the enemy's position before dropping the bomb."
The difficulty of the task increased, and Paulkosky felt it was necessary to report the situation immediately so that Belkin could grasp the real situation in the factory. He quickly ordered the accompanying radio operator to report to the regiment headquarters and report to Belkin about the blockage of the sewer near the German position.
The telegram soon appeared in Belkin's hands. After reading the telegram, he looked up at the regiment chief of staff, Captain Vanya and asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, except for the sewer blocked in the first company, how are the other two companies doing?"
"Comrade Commander, I have not received any telegrams from the other two companies yet." Wanya replied respectfully: "But according to the report of the first company, the enemy may have been wary of us using the sewers and sneak attacks into their defense zone, which has blown up the sewers near the defense zone to prevent us from using the sewers and entering their defense zone."
"Is there any solution?" asked Belkin.
If it was near Mamayev Hill, Vanya would definitely persuade Belkin to cancel the night attack plan without hesitation. But now they are in the barricade factory. Not only Sokov knows the night attack plan, but even the commander of the friendly army, Lyudnikov, also knows that if the troops cannot enter the enemy's defense zone as they originally planned, they will be ridiculed if they cancel the plan directly.
It was precisely for this reason that after thinking, Vanya replied: "Comrade Commander, I think I should call back the team that carried out the sneak attack mission. Since the sewer is blocked by the enemy, then approach the enemy's position from the ground and according to the original plan, throw the grenade and withdraw it."
"Well, that's it." Belkin nodded and replied: "Call back the team immediately and ask them to launch a sneak attack on the enemy as planned. They must not withdraw without authorization until the task is completed."
Vanya agreed and was about to instruct the radio operator to send a report. But he soon remembered something and asked Belkin tentatively: "Comrade Commander, the enemy situation in the factory has changed. Do you need to report to the division commander?"
"No need. There is no need to tell the division commander such a small matter." Belkin waved his hand at him and said, "Just mention this matter to him when the team we sent has completed the task and reported the results of the battle."
Paulkosky knew that no matter what accident happened, the sneak attack mission assigned to him by the regiment was impossible to cancel. So he took the members of the team to climb out of the sewer without waiting for the regiment headquarters to call back. After leaving the sewer, he called a sergeant and told the other party: "Comrade Sergeant, you bring three soldiers to stay here for the alert mission. Once we retreat, a German catch up, you must be responsible for covering our retreat. Do you understand?"
"I understand, comrade comrade," the sergeant replied quickly, "We will definitely cover your retreat."
Seeing the sergeant leading three soldiers into two nearby craters, set up submachine guns, and aimed at the German positions in the distance. Paulkosky nodded and crawled towards the enemy's positions with the remaining soldiers.
When he was about twenty meters away from the enemy's position, Paulkosky made a gesture to order the soldiers to stop. He listened to the trench not far away and found that it was quiet inside, without any movement. He quickly grabbed a soldier beside him, leaned close to his ear and whispered: "Go to the trench and see what's going on inside, why the enemy didn't move at all."
The soldier agreed gently, and quickly climbed towards the enemy's position with his hands and feet. When he reached the trench, he carefully leaned in and took a look. Seeing that there were no enemies in the trench, he turned over and jumped in, and searched carefully along the trench with a gun.
Chapter completed!