Because the two stations occupied by the guerrillas were stockpiled with massive military supplies, the Germans were afraid of bombing the stations and could only send a few reconnaissance planes to hover over the two stations to monitor the movements of the guerrillas in the station.
Pradonov took several guerrillas and left the 564th km in an armored vehicle and drove east along the railway line. A reconnaissance plane discovered the armored vehicle leaving the station and immediately followed. After seeing clearly that there were only five or six people on the vehicle, he thought the other party was rushing to the east for reconnaissance missions. After all, the German troops coming from the city were advancing towards the station. After following for a while, the pilot felt that it was meaningless and turned around and returned to the station.
Mixiga looked at several reconnaissance planes wandering from the window and said to Tavlin worriedly: "Comrade Sergeant, the enemy reconnaissance planes have been wandering over us. If you move materials to the guerrilla camps according to the orders of your division commanders, wouldn't it be like exposing your target?"
"I remember there seemed to be a few anti-aircraft guns at the station," Taflin thought for a moment and said to Mishiga: "If we could hit two guns in the air, the German reconnaissance planes would probably be away."
Unexpectedly, after he finished speaking, he saw Mixiga's embarrassment and couldn't help asking: "Why, Comrade Mixiga, can't find a few people who can use anti-aircraft guns among the thousands of guerrillas?"
"I think that's the case, comrade Sergeant." Mixiga said with a wry smile: "In the middle of us, there are collective farmhouse workers, workers, accountants, and teachers, but there are no one who has ever been a gunner."
"What should we do?" Tavlin looked at the gray sky and the reconnaissance planes that were wandering in the air, and said worriedly: "If the enemy's reconnaissance planes cannot be driven away, then our actions to carry materials will be discovered by the enemy. If your camp is exposed, you will face crazy revenge from the Germans next."
Mixiga knew that Tavlin was not an alarmist statement. After the Germans regained the lost station, they would definitely retaliate wildly against all the guerrillas participating in the operation. Thinking about the guerrillas that failed to attack the state-owned farm last time, Mixiga fought in a cold battle. Not only was the entire guerrilla army destroyed, but the brutal Germans even inhumanely massacred the villagers of several nearby villages, and even the elderly and children were not spared.
"Or why should we wait until it's dark before transporting supplies?" Mixiga thought for a long time, and finally came up with an idea: "Anyway, the night is long and the day is short, and it will be dark around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. As long as it's dark, the German reconnaissance planes will not see anything, and we can transport supplies on a large scale."
"No, it's only morning, and it's still five or six hours to wait until it's dark." Mixiga's plan was denied by Tifflin: "If you start transporting after it's dark, it may take a whole night. Even if we lay many mines on the roads where the Germans pass, it will not be able to stop them for more than ten hours. If the Germans arrive when we are transporting supplies, I can assure you that the thousands of guerrillas in this station will be defeated by the enemy in less than half an hour."
"What should we do?" Seeing that Tavlin denied the plan without hesitation, Mixiga couldn't help but stamp his feet in a hurry: "Comrade Sergeant, you can't wait until dark to transport supplies, and there are no anti-aircraft gunners. How can we deal with enemy planes in the air? Do you use a submachine gun to shoot the enemy planes down?"
The speaker was unintentional and the listener was intentional. Mixiga's complaint immediately made Tavlin think of an excellent solution: "Comrade Captain, I have a way to deal with the German reconnaissance plane."
"Comrade Sergeant, what's the solution?" Taflin's words made Mixiga feel as if he had grabbed a life-saving straw. He grabbed Taflin's arm and asked excitedly: "Let's say it quickly!"
"Comrade Captain, aren't there a large number of weapons and ammunition in the materials we seized?" Tavlin said with a smile: "According to the orders of the superiors, all the weapons in the hands of guerrillas have been replaced by German-made ones. You can immediately organize air shooting and try to drive the enemy's reconnaissance planes away from the station."
"Although we have all changed into German weapons, the comrades are not skilled enough in using new weapons." Mixiga said hesitantly: "Even if we organize air shooting, we may not necessarily hit the target."
"One or two people shooting in the air may have no effect, but if thousands of people shoot at the same time, the barrage formed over the station will be completely possible to knock down the enemy's plane."
After Taflin finished speaking, Mixiga slapped the table excitedly and said excitedly: "Comrade Sergeant, your method is really great. Anyway, we have seized so many weapons and ammunition and cannot take them all away. Instead of blowing them up or leaving them for the Germans, it is better to use them to deal with the Germans' planes first."
Just as Mishiga was about to walk outside, Tavlin stopped him again: "Comrade Captain, let the team members lie on the ground in an organized manner, select one or several targets to concentrate on fire, so that the enemy plane may be hit by a larger enemy plane."
"Let the team members lie on the ground and shoot in the air?" Tavlin said the method, which was completely beyond Mixiga's understanding. He asked tentatively: "Can this work?"
"Why can't you do it?" Tavlin said confidently: "When the division commander took us to fight the enemy in the Red October factory, he used this kind of fire-raising tactic to shoot down several enemy bombers and fighters. Think about it, since both bombers and fighters can be killed, is there any problem with dealing with such unarmed reconnaissance aircraft in the sky?"
Five minutes later, dense gunfire sounded in the station. A reconnaissance plane that was lowering its height and trying to pass over the station was unfortunately hit by dense bullets. The plane dragged a long black smoke belt, flew crookedly into the distance, and then fell head-on into a forest. After a fire ball with rolling smoke rose, a dull explosion sounded.
Seeing his own shooting, he actually knocked down the enemy's reconnaissance plane. The guerrillas lying on the ground shooting suddenly became excited as if they were injected with chicken blood. They pulled the trigger desperately according to the targets instructed by their respective captains.
Other planes hovering in the air saw that one of their planes was hit by the dense firepower from the ground, and immediately raised the height and climbed up desperately. However, two reconnaissance planes were still concentrated by dense bullets, and the engines were filled with black smoke. The pilot did not dare to stay in the air anymore and flew back staggeringly.
As soon as the enemy's reconnaissance plane flew away, Taflin immediately rushed out of the stationmaster's office and shouted to Mixiga, who was issuing orders: "Comrade Captain, the enemy's plane has been driven away by us. You can organize people to carry supplies as soon as possible."
Mixiga looked into the air with concern, and saw that the enemy's reconnaissance planes had indeed flew away, so she summoned the guerrilla captains and arranged for them to start transporting supplies to their respective camps. For a moment, the trucks and carriages in the station were requisitioned by the guerrillas. As soon as the supplies were filled, they immediately left the station and headed to their own camp.
Taking advantage of the fact that the guerrillas began to transport supplies, Taflin asked the radio operator to send a report to Guchakov, saying that the reconnaissance planes above the station had been driven away and were now transporting supplies to various guerrilla camps.
After receiving the telegram, Guchakov immediately called back and asked: "How far is the German reinforcements from your station?"
"I have sent Pradonov to lay mines along the railway east of the station," Taflin replied, "I estimate that the enemy is at least ten kilometers away from the station."
Guchakov's new call is simple: "Snap time to transport supplies, and be sure to transport more useful supplies to the guerrilla camp for storage."
Don’t see that there are as many as 2,000 guerrillas participating in the war this time. These are just combatants. There are still hundreds of non-combatants including the elderly and children in each guerrilla camp. Seeing their own people transporting a large amount of supplies to the forest to unload the truck, they immediately came out to move the supplies into the camps in the forest one after another.
At noon, the armored vehicle Pratonov was riding back. He reported to Tavlin and Mishiga: "We buried more than 60 landmines eight kilometers east of the station and arranged two minefields. We believe that we can block the enemy for a while."
"Comrade Pratonov, thank you for your hard work." Tavlin held the other party's hand and said apologetically: "I know you have just returned from the mine burying mission. People are very hard and need to rest immediately. But now it is not possible. The enemy may rush into the station at any time. Therefore, we must lay more mines on the road ahead of the enemy, so they cannot move forward."
"When I came back, I looked at the weather." Pratonov told Tavlin: "It will probably start snowing soon. I think in order to speed up the mine burial, some mines do not need to be buried in the ground at all. We just need to wait for the blizzard to spread the landmines in the snow, so that we can blow the enemy upside down."
"Then let's act quickly." Taflin knew that Pratonov's level of fighting guerrilla and mines behind enemy lines was much higher than himself, so he nodded at him and said, "The enemy may rush to the station at any time. Your mission is to complete the laying of the new minefield as soon as possible. Do you understand?"
"I understand, comrade Sergeant." Pradonov replied with a smile: "I will let the enemy step on the mine every time I take a step forward. But I have a condition."
"What conditions?" Taflin thought to himself that if the conditions proposed by Pradonov were not harsh, he would agree to him: "You can say that as long as it is within my ability, I will definitely satisfy your wish."
"Two armored vehicles can only carry 24 people." Pratonov, who had just returned from an armored vehicle, naturally knew how much passenger capacity the armored vehicles were. He introduced to Tavlin: "I will bring twenty people and a sufficient number of mines first and rush to the mine-branch point in the east. After the armored vehicles come back, please use these two vehicles to send us more comrades and mines."
Tavlin originally wanted to reject Pradonov's proposal because of the tight manpower, but then he thought that it would take a lot of manpower to lay a sufficient number of landmines before the enemy arrived at the station. However, for the sake of the overall situation, he decided to satisfy the request for the response.
Taflin nodded and said to Pradonov: "Comrade Pradonov, I agree with all your requests. After the armored vehicles return, I will send you more personnel. Also, this time I will send you a few of our comrades to you, and they will be responsible for dealing with the enemy's engineers. We must not let the enemy pass through your minefield easily."
After Pradonov took the armored vehicle for the second time and set off with the mine-burning team members and landmines, Mixiga walked into the stationmaster's room from outside and said to Tavlin with some regret: "I really didn't expect that we would seize so much supplies in the station. However, due to too many supplies and the location where we store supplies was too scattered, I think even at night, the supplies that could be moved will be very limited."
When Tavlin felt very regretful when he thought of so many supplies, he had to destroy them in the end. He nodded and said helplessly to Mixiga: "There is no way, comrade captain, we can use too few people, so we have to count as much as we can. Anyway, when we evacuate the station, we will set a fire to burn the remaining supplies, and we will never leave any supplies to the Germans..."
Before Tavlin finished speaking, he suddenly heard a cheer from outside the webmaster's room. He couldn't help but be stunned and instinctively asked Mixiga: "Comrade Captain, what happened outside?"
Before Mixiga could answer, a guerrilla suddenly rushed into the outside and shouted excitedly at the two of them: "It's snowing, it's snowing outside."
Tavlin heard the cheers from outside and thought it was because of the arrival of reinforcements, but it was snowing. He asked the team members who came in to report the news expressionlessly: "It's winter now, what's so great about the occasional snow."
"Comrade Sergeant, you can't underestimate this snow." Mixiga looked outside and saw countless snowflakes falling from the air. He said to Tavlin excitedly: "It seems that this is a heavy snow, which will cover up the traffic of our materials. Even if the Germans took back the station, they had no way to figure out where we had moved the materials."
Hearing Mixiga say this, Taflin quickly walked to the door and looked outside. He saw broken snowflakes floating in the sky. Due to the low temperature, the snowflakes would not melt immediately when they fell on the ground, but slowly piled up. Some of the guerrillas who appeared in his vision had a thin layer of snowflakes on their shoulders.
Chapter completed!