Since I didn't know when friendly troops would come to meet, Sokov ordered Sidolin to call the commanders of each regiment to closely monitor the movements on the other side. Once they found a battle in the rear of the German positions, it would mean that friendly troops were coming to meet and they should be prepared to attack immediately.
After all this was arranged, Sidolin answered a call. After putting down the call, he said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, the US military instructor who came to our division two months ago will return to Moscow with the comrades from the Weapons and Equipment Department after dawn. Do you want to meet them?"
When Sadolin mentioned the American instructors, Sokov remembered that these instructors had been teaching everyone to use the bazooka in the division. Now they were leaving, but he had never seen each other before. It was too impolite. Thinking of this, he quickly said to Sadolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, please ask those American instructors to come to the division headquarters."
More than ten minutes later, five soldiers wearing US military uniforms appeared in the division command center. Sidolin had dealt with them and took the initiative to introduce to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, let me introduce you to Lieutenant Reck, the head of the American instructor group; this is Lieutenant Michael; Lieutenant Hunter..."
Whenever Cidolin introduced someone, Sokov shook hands with the other party and said politely in English: "Thank you!" Seeing the young Soviet colonel in front of him, he actually expressed his gratitude to him in English when shaking hands, the US military instructors showed friendly smiles on their faces.
After introducing the two sides, Sidolin whispered to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, Lieutenant Rek speaks well in Russian. Don't you want to talk to him?"
Sokov met these American instructors just out of politeness. He wanted to say a few words casually, but when he heard Cidolin say this, he could only change his mind and prepare to chat with Rick politely.
After greeting everyone to sit down, Sokov looked at Rick and asked, "Lieutenant Rick, how about it? Are you still used to eating and living in Mamayev Hill in the past two months?"
Rick replied with a smile: "Col. I understand what you mean. You are worried that we will not be able to adapt to such an environment. Don't worry, it is not the first time we have been on the battlefield, we can adapt to it even in difficult environments."
"Lt. Rek," Rek's answer made Sokov feel a little more favorable to him: "I want to ask, where have you ever fought before? Is it North Africa?"
According to Sokov's idea, well-trained American officers and soldiers usually experienced on the battlefield in North Africa, so this question was asked. Unexpectedly, Lieutenant Reike shook his head and replied: "My previous combat troops were in the Pacific Ocean, and the enemy we were facing was the Japanese rather than the Germans."
Hearing that the enemy who was fighting against the other side was the Japanese in the past aroused great interest from Sokov. He asked curiously: "Lieutenant, can I ask, when did you start fighting against the Japanese?"
"December 7, 1941." Reck replied with a serious expression.
"December 7, 1941?" After repeating this day, Cidolin said in surprise: "Comrade Commander, isn't this the second day when we launched a large-scale counterattack against the Germans under the city of Moscow?"
"Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff, for us, this is the second day of the start of a large counterattack under Moscow. But for American allies," Sokov said to Rek with a side face, "This is a day for the American people to remember forever. On this day, the Japanese navy attacked the Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, causing huge casualties to the U.S. troops."
After hearing Sokov's words, Rek showed a shocked expression on his face. He asked in surprise: "Col. Did you really not expect that you actually know about the Pearl Harbor incident?"
"I heard others mention it when I was in Moscow," Sokov said. "It is said that President Roosevelt delivered a historic speech the next day, and even the Congress, which has always been prevalent in isolationism, passed a unanimous vote on declaring war on Japan. On the surface, this was a brilliant victory for the Japanese, but from a long-term perspective, it was a disaster for the Japanese. I believe that American allies will completely defeat the Japanese within one or two years."
"Thank you, Colonel!" After hearing Sokov's words, Rek stood up to thank him, and said politely: "I believe that the heroic Soviet military and civilians can ultimately defeat the German invaders."
After the commercial blowout, Sokov changed his questions: "Lt. Reck, I heard that before Japan's planes attacked Pearl Harbor, a nearby radar station discovered a group of UFOs on the sea and reported it to his superiors. You should know that there were still twenty minutes before Japan's air strikes began. If your superiors could pay attention to this report, it might be able to minimize the losses of Pearl Harbor."
"The officer who received the report thought it was a wrong report, so he chose to ignore it and ordered the radar station to be closed." Rick said helplessly: "Actually, it cannot be blamed for him. As far as I know, he received a strange call that day, which seemed to be a prank, which affected his judgment."
"Prank?" Sokov first heard that before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the officer on duty received a prank call, which affected his judgment, so he asked with interest: "Lt. Reck, do you know what the prank call is in?"
"At that time, someone called the officer on duty and said he was a senator and that Japan would dispatch planes to attack Pearl Harbor at 7:50." Reck said slowly: "But the officer knew the senator, so he asked the other party where he called him, but the other party said that he had called on the aircraft carrier Nimitz, and Captain Colonel Jeke was next to him."
"Lt. Lake," Ciderin couldn't help but interrupt and asked, "Is there anything wrong?"
"Lieutenant Colonel, you don't know anything." Reck looked at Cidolin and said with a wry smile: "Although the commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet is Nimitz, there is no aircraft carrier Nimitz in the US Navy at all, let alone the captain of Jeke."
Sokov was also confused when he heard this. As a person from the future, he naturally knew that the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier was to commemorate the deceased Secretary of Navy Operations, the five-star Navy General Nimitz, started construction in June 1968, launched in May 1972, and delivered to the US Navy in May 1975. The ship was first incorporated into the Atlantic Fleet, and its home port was Norfolk on the east coast of the United States. A few years later, it was reorganized into the Pacific Fleet and its base was changed to the Everett Naval Base.
How could anyone know about an aircraft carrier that was built in 1968? It was so incredible that anyone knew about its existence in 1941 and called the duty room of Pearl Harbor on the ship to warn him?
Seeing Sokov's confusion expression, Rek misunderstood what he meant and quickly explained: "It is such a prank call that cannot stand the scrutiny that seriously affected the judgment of the officer on duty, which caused him to have serious misjudgment in the following time, which led to the tragedy of the attack on Pearl Harbor."
After chatting for a while, Rick left with his subordinates. Sidorin looked at his back and asked Sokov curiously: "Comrade Commander, do you think what he said is true? Someone actually called the duty room to warn from an aircraft carrier that did not exist before the attack on Pearl Harbor. This is simply ridiculous."
Sokov was puzzled. If what Rek said was true, does it mean that the aircraft carrier that was built more than 20 years later has also traveled to this era? But as soon as this idea came out, Sokov firmly denied it. The number of carrier-based aircraft carriers of the Nimitz aircraft carrier is as high as 80, and most of them are two-seater, twin-engine supersonic F-14 fighters, used to deal with Japanese Navy aircraft. It is as easy as adults killing babies. Why do you still have to let the Pearl Harbor incident happen?
But Sokov could only think about this matter silently in his heart, but could not tell anyone. Because this kind of thing was really incredible. Once it was told, even an old partner like Cidolin would probably regard himself as a lunatic. Therefore, he decided to use this matter as a permanent secret, buried it deeply in his heart, and would never tell anyone.
"It's getting late, let's go back and rest." Sokov raised his hand and looked at his watch. Seeing that it was already early in the morning, he waved to Sidolin and the others, saying, "It's not too late to come back to work after dawn."
When Sokov walked out of the command center, Anisimov chased after him from behind and asked Sokov in a low voice: "Comrade Commander, I think you seem to have something to do. Are you still thinking about the ghost aircraft carrier?"
"Ghost aircraft carrier?!" Hearing the word Anisimov said, Sokov asked in surprise: "Comrade Political Commissar, why do you call it 'Ghost aircraft carrier'?"
"Think about it, someone can call it on it if an aircraft carrier that does not exist at all." Anisimov said carelessly: "If this is not called a ghost aircraft carrier, what can it be called?"
Sokov didn't want to get entangled with Anisimov in this matter, so he changed the topic in time: "Okay, comrade political commissar, stop talking about ghost aircraft carriers, that's the American business and has nothing to do with us. You must be exhausted these days. Go back and rest quickly. I have important work to hand over to you tomorrow."
Hearing that there was an important task, Anisimov immediately forgot about the "ghost aircraft carrier" and asked anxiously: "Comrade Commander, can you tell me what's going on?"
"I guess before we meet with friendly forces, there will be a large number of German officers and soldiers coming to surrender." Sokov said to Anisimov: "There must be many of them that have concerns, so you are responsible for appeaseing them. Do you understand?"
Chapter completed!