"How is the war outside?" Sokov felt that since the beginning of the war, he had never called a meeting with the battalion commanders, so he thought that he would take advantage of the time today to call everyone over and talk to them about some of his ideas. However,
Before that, he wanted to confirm whether the fighting outside was over, but the meeting could not affect the battalion commanders' command of the operations, so he looked at Sidorin and asked: "I'll call the battalion commanders together for a meeting.
It won’t have any impact, right?”
"No, Comrade Brigade Commander." Sidorin shook his head and said, "The enemy's attack today has ended at this moment. Even if you call the battalion commanders here, it will not have any impact."
Upon hearing Sidorin's reply, Sokov immediately gave him an order: "Comrade Chief of Staff, call the battalion commanders immediately and order them to come to the headquarters immediately. I want to convene an emergency military meeting."
Although the troops were able to repel several German attacks every day, the casualties were also considerable. Sidorin was worried about this matter. He heard that Sokov was going to convene a meeting with the battalion commanders, and guessed that he might have something new.
I didn't dare to neglect the deployment, so I immediately called several battalion commanders and informed them to rush to the headquarters for a meeting immediately.
Only five minutes later, the battalion commanders who received the notification arrived at the headquarters one after another. The four battalion commanders, except Golia, were shocked when they saw Sokov lying on the camp bed, and hurriedly stepped forward to ask what happened.
What's going on? To express concern for everyone, Sokov waved his hands to them and pretended to be relaxed and said: "It's just a small injury, it's not a problem, just lie down for two days and it will be fine."
Seeing that all the battalion commanders had arrived, Sokov said straight to the point: "Comrade battalion commanders, I called you here today because of the need to hold on to Mamayev Heights. Everyone knows that today's battle
It is becoming more and more cruel, and the casualties of our army are also increasing. If this trend continues, Mamayev Heights will be captured by the Germans in half a month at most..."
Before Sokov could finish speaking, Captain Vasily, the commander of the second battalion, couldn't wait to say: "Comrade Brigadier, tell us how to fight next? We all listen to you."
"Comrade Vasily," Seeing that Vasily interrupted Sokov's words without permission, Sidorin glared at him and said displeasedly: "Don't interrupt the brigade commander casually."
After the room returned to calm, Sokov continued: "There are currently more than 3,000 people left in the brigade. It doesn't make much sense to stay in Mamayev Heights. After all, the area here is limited and it is impossible to carry out so many operations at the same time.
The troops can only use refueling tactics to enter the battle one after another. In order to better attack the enemy, I plan to adjust the deployment."
Having said this, Sokov paused for a moment, and then turned his attention to the commander of the third battalion, Andre: "Captain Andre, I plan to send you to lead the troops to the left wing of Mamayev Hill to take in the beaten people there.
The scattered troops will engage in battles with the enemy in the city, thus achieving the purpose of covering our left wing."
"Comrade Brigadier," Andrei said with some embarrassment about Sokov's order: "Most of the city has been turned into ruins under the enemy's bombing and artillery shelling. Establish defenses in such areas.
, I’m afraid it will be difficult to block the enemy.”
"Captain Andre, I sent you to lead the troops to the city, not to fight them in positional battles, but in street battles." Seeing that Andre did not understand his intention, Sokov patiently explained to him.
: "It is much easier to annihilate the enemy in the ruins of a city than in the steppes between the Volga and Don rivers. Although the enemy has a strong force, it is impossible to fight in narrow streets and bombed-out buildings.
Their strength always suffers heavy losses and is in a passive position of being beaten. They often cannot figure out where the bullets come from and where death is waiting for them."
After listening to Sokov's words, Andrei said thoughtfully: "Comrade Brigade Commander, do you mean to let us learn from Sergeant Vasily and occupy one or several buildings in order to
Where is the fire support point to block and destroy the enemies rushing into the city?"
"If a certain unit has the strength of Sergeant Vasily and others, it would be possible to occupy one or several buildings with favorable terrain and block the German army's path forward." Sokov continued after Andrei finished speaking.
: "But I hope you can make full use of every soldier under your command and fight the enemy on every street and in every building. As long as there is still one soldier alive, even if the enemy has occupied the living room, then we
To continue fighting with him in the kitchen or bedroom..."
After Sokov imparted some of his knowledge of street fighting to Andre, he turned to the other battalion commanders and said: "The task of your battalions is to hold on to Mamayev Heights. However, I don't want you to just
Instead of engaging in pure passive defense, we should adopt various means to take the initiative on the battlefield into our own hands."
"Comrade Brigade Commander." Vanya, the commander of the first battalion who has always been the most calm, waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and immediately asked humbly: "I would like to ask, how should we adopt active defense?"
"Comrade commanders," Sokov saw from everyone's eyes that they had the same questions as Vanya, and simply said to everyone: "I think everyone knows that as long as the enemy does not attack,
We stayed in the tunnel with peace of mind. No matter how fierce the fighting on the left and right wings was, it had nothing to do with us. If the enemy attacked, our commanders and soldiers would resist with all their might, never take a step back, and resolutely drive the enemy away from the position.
"
When Sokov said this, he deliberately stopped to observe everyone's expressions. Seeing everyone nodding in agreement with his statement, he continued: "But this can only be regarded as passive defense, while active defense is
When the enemy attacks, we resolutely resist; if the enemy does not attack, we must not be idle and use various means to disrupt their deployment so that they cannot launch an attack on Mamayev Heights according to their original plan."
Everyone quite agreed with what Sokov said, but they were still confused about how to implement it, so Vanya once again asked on behalf of everyone: "Comrade Brigadier, can you explain it in more detail?"
"Captain Vanya, let me give you an example." Sokov stared at Vanya and said: "If the enemy wants to attack Mamayev Heights, their camp will not be too far from us. Wait until the night is quiet.
, can we send a small force to carry out a sneak attack to throw the enemy's camp into chaos and make them restless all night, thus disrupting their attack plan for the next day.
Also, if the enemy wants to attack Mamayev Heights, the amount of ammunition and various military supplies they consume every day is not a small amount. They will definitely need transport convoys to transport supplies to them around the clock. If you send a small force
Troops, go attack the enemy’s convoy, blow up their supply points, and make the enemy’s guns run out of bullets and their stomachs run out of food. Tell me, can they still attack us as frantically as they do now?”
"No." As soon as Sokov finished speaking, several battalion commanders replied in unison.
"Very good." Seeing that everyone understood his intention, Sokov gave the order to the battalion commanders: "After you go back, immediately mobilize elite soldiers and generals to form a small team, go deep into the enemy's rear, and attack their
communication lines, blowing up their supply depots, and raiding their camps at night, making the enemy restless all night. As long as the enemy became exhausted and lost most of their ammunition and material supplies, they attacked Mamayev
Gang's attack will weaken. Do you all understand?"
"Understood, Comrade Brigade Commander." the battalion commanders replied loudly.
"Now that you understand everything, you will assign your own troops to assign tasks." After Sokov signaled everyone to leave, he specifically added: "The third battalion commander stays."
Andrei guessed that Sokov might have something to explain to him. As soon as the other battalion commanders left, he immediately asked: "Comrade battalion commander, do you have any other instructions?"
"That's it, Captain Andrei." Sokov reorganized the vocabulary in his mind, and then said to Andre: "The building that Sergeant Vasily and the others are guarding is extremely important.
The Germans cannot be allowed to occupy it. Therefore, when you lead your troops to move nearby, you must provide them with the help you can."
Sokov's words made Andrei a little confused. He scratched the back of his head and asked: "Comrade Brigadier, how should I help them? Should I send reinforcements to the building? But there are only three units in that building.
, the number of troops it can accommodate is limited, and if too many troops are put in, it will lead to many unnecessary casualties as long as it is bombed or shelled."
"Captain Andre, I'm not asking you to send troops to strengthen the defense of the building. If troops are needed there, I can directly send a platoon or even a company there. Why do I need to order you?" Sokov said: "When the Germans
When you realize how much of a threat the building that Vasily and the others are holding poses to them, you will definitely send out heavy troops to attack them. You can send several combat groups to provide support to Vasily and the others with firepower nearby."
"Combat team?!" Hearing the word Sokov said, Andre hesitated for a moment, and then asked: "Do you mean a combat unit with a certain number of people?"
After Andre reminded him, Sokov thought that this word seemed to have to wait until October to appear. He nodded quickly and said: "Yes, it is a combat unit with a limited number of people. Each combat group should be composed of one person.
A sniper consists of two machine gunners, an anti-tank fighter and several infantrymen, with a number of seven to ten people. The sniper can kill important enemy targets from a long distance; the machine gunner can attack the assembled German troops.
Strafing; and anti-tank fighters used effective anti-tank weapons to destroy German tanks in the city..."
Sokov had mentioned this kind of combat group many times, but this was the first time he proposed it to Andrei so formally. After hearing this, Andrei said with some embarrassment: "Comrade brigade commander, machine gunners and infantrymen...
There is no problem. But there are not many snipers and anti-tank fighters to be found..."
"Captain Andrei, I understand your difficulty." Sokov knew that the third battalion was the unit with the heaviest casualties in the entire brigade, so seeing Andrei in such a dilemma, he said tactfully: "I know about snipers and anti-tank
It's hard to find, but you don't need too many such combat groups, just four or five. They don't have to fight the Germans head-on, but use hit-and-run tactics so that the enemy can't figure us out at all.
location."
After Andrei left, Sokov thought of the infantry brigade composed of sailors, and quickly asked Sidorin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, what is the situation of the 92nd Infantry Brigade?" He was deeply afraid that Sidorin did not know about him.
Which unit he was talking about was specifically emphasized, "It is the infantry brigade composed of sailors from the Baltic Fleet and the North Sea Fleet."
After Sidorin heard Sokov's question, he sighed softly and said: "Comrade Brigadier, since Colonel Tanasolov left the battlefield with the brigade headquarters, the entire brigade has lost its unified unity.
Command. Although the sailors performed extremely tenaciously, they still failed to completely drive the enemy away from the station, and now the entire unit has been dispersed."
Sokov had always wanted to recruit all the sailors under his command. Now that he heard that this heroic unit was defeated due to the escape of the brigade commander, the look on his face became serious: "Commander Chuikov, for
How to deal with the brigade commanders and political commissars who escaped from the battle?"
"They had just escaped to the sandbank when they were captured by Chief of Staff Krylov." Sidorin knew the inside story of the matter better. When Sokov asked about it, he simply said: "Brigadier Commander
Colonel Tanasolov and political commissar Andreev were both sent to a military court, and the troops were placed under the command of Vlasov, director of the Political Department."
"Since the troops have been handed over to the command of Comrade Vlasov, why are they still dispersed by the enemy?" Sokov asked in confusion: "What on earth is going on?"
"Vlasov is an excellent political worker, but not an excellent military commander." Before Sidorin could speak this time, Belgin interjected: "He led the troops in the battle to seize the station.
, was hit by a stray bullet and died gloriously. The remnants of the brigade, commanded by Captain Lemusev, commander of the first battalion, continued to fight the enemy near the station."
"It's a pity, it's such a pity." Sokov did not expect that such a heroic unit would be ruined because of the brigade commander's greed for life and fear of death. He looked at Sidorin and said: "Chief of Staff
Comrade, can you get in touch with Captain Lemusev?"
"Comrade Brigadier, if you want to contact me by phone or telegram, I can't do it." Sidorin looked at Sokov and said, "But if you have something and need to communicate with Captain Lemusev, I
You can send communications troops to find them."
"Immediately send out communications troops to find them and bring them back to Mamayev Heights for rest and recuperation." Sokov waited for Sidorin to finish speaking and immediately said unambiguously: "We cannot let such a unit
The heroic troops disappeared silently into the street fighting in Stalingrad."