"I have an idea," Sokov whispered to Vanya as he lay in the ditch: "Let Ernst pretend to be a German commander and drive away the enemies staying on the road."
"Is it possible?" Vanya asked in a skeptical tone.
"Under the current circumstances, we can only give it a try." Thinking that if he continued to stay here, Ernst would come later and it would be inconvenient for him to deploy tasks to him, so he whispered to Belgin.
: "Comrade Belkin, you stay here. If the enemy discovers our soldiers hiding beside the road, you can decisively order the troops to open fire." Then he said to Vanya, "Comrade Captain, follow me!"
The Second Company was hidden behind a hill. The road turned a corner here. The enemy who was resting on the roadside could not see the movement here at all. After Sokov climbed to the location of the Second Company with Vanya,
Vasily came up to him immediately and asked Sokov in a low voice: "Comrade Battalion Commander, do you want our company to go up and destroy the enemy?"
Sokov glanced at him and said: "If I want to destroy the enemy, Captain Vanya's company is enough to complete the task. Why bother looking for you from afar?"
Knowing that Sokov came here not to let his troops go into battle, Vasily couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. He asked in confusion: "Comrade Battalion Commander, since you won't let us participate in the battle, then why do you come here?"
Something important?"
"I came here to ask you to borrow some soldiers." Sokov replied: "I want to put them to great use."
"Grissa, bring a few people here!" Vasily turned to greet Grissa in a low voice, who was hiding not far away: "Comrade Battalion Commander has a task for you."
Upon hearing Vasily's call, Grisa immediately led several soldiers, bent down and ran in front of Sokov, stopped his body and said: "Comrade Battalion Commander, I am waiting for your orders, please give instructions!"
"Vasily, do you have any captured German uniforms in your company?" Sokov thought that his troops have been doing guerrilla work recently, constantly attacking the enemy's transportation lines. Among the many supplies captured, military uniforms are indispensable. This
When he drove towards Kursk for the first time, a lot of supplies were left in the camp, so he specifically asked Vasily if there were any German uniforms here. If not, he could only find another way.
Fortunately, Vasily's answer did not disappoint Sokov: "Yes, Comrade Battalion Commander. I thought that you might arrange people to disguise themselves as Germans and go deep into their defense areas to conduct reconnaissance, so before leaving the camp,
Someone specially brought German uniforms."
Upon hearing Vasily's answer, Sokov immediately asked in surprise: "How many sets are there?"
"But the quantity is not large, probably only a dozen sets."
Sokov originally thought that there were only four or five sets, but he didn't expect that there were more than a dozen sets. He quickly ordered Vasily: "Hurry up and get the military uniforms, I will put them to use soon."
Ernst, who was moving with the battalion headquarters, after receiving the notification from the soldiers, guessed that Sokov must have something urgent to do with him, so he rushed over immediately. He trotted to Sokov, panting.
Question: "Major, what can I do?"
"Corporal Ernst," Sokov said politely to Ernst: "On the road ahead, there is a group of soldiers from the Eastern Battalion. It seems that they plan to rest for a long time. In order for our army to rush to Kurdistan as soon as possible,
Ersk, I need you to disguise yourself as a German commander and drive those enemies away. Do you understand?"
"Major," Ernst waited for Sokov to finish speaking and immediately asked, "Can I ask how many people there are on the other side? Am I going to perform the mission alone?"
"Don't worry, Corporal Ernst, how could I let you go on such a dangerous mission alone?" Sokov quickly explained to Ernst: "Second Lieutenant Grisa will lead a dozen soldiers with you.
We went together."
The Second Company carried a total of thirteen sets of military uniforms. Except for one set of captain's and one set of corporal's uniforms, the rest were uniforms of ordinary soldiers. Ernst, who played the leading role, naturally wore the captain's uniform; Gerry
Sa wore the uniform of a corporal, and the rest wore the uniforms of ordinary soldiers.
After changing clothes, a freshly prepared German patrol team appeared on the road. But when they rounded the hill and appeared in the sight of the soldiers of the Eastern Battalion, many soldiers hurriedly put down their lunch boxes and put them away.
The guns were pointed in the direction where the team appeared. When they saw clearly that it was a German patrol, they all put away their guns and continued to sit down to eat.
Ernst led twelve "German soldiers" wearing German uniforms and carrying submachine guns, and walked along the road toward the enemy's resting place. Grisa, who was walking beside him, saw the enemy setting up on the top of the bridge.
There was a machine gun, but it was not the MG34 general-purpose machine gun installed by the German army, but a rare Czech light machine gun. The machine gun shooters were standing next to the machine gun and chatting. After they glanced at Ernst and the others, they then turned to themselves.
Continue chatting alone.
Seeing a group of patrols approaching him, a sentry on duty immediately approached him and asked in blunt German: "Stop, which section are you from?"
Ernst ignored him, pulled him aside with his hands, walked straight to the crowd, put his hands behind his back, and asked with a straight face: "Who is in charge here?"
As soon as he finished speaking, an officer in a captain's uniform stood up, raised his hand to salute him, and said in broken German: "Mr. Captain, the person in charge here is the SS First Class Commando Squadron Leader Joe."
Nas is in charge!”
Sokov only told that there was an enemy group here, but did not say that these were not Germans. So after Ernst listened to the captain speak German with a strong Russian accent, he glanced at the captain and asked with some surprise: "You are a Russian."
?”
"Yes, Mr. Captain." The captain straightened up in a hurry and replied: "My name is Luo Erbin. I used to be in the Russian army. I am now the battalion commander of the 47th Eastern Battalion."
Ernst knew that in every Eastern battalion, there would be an Eastern Soldier Supervision Group, all composed of SS soldiers. Their responsibility was to supervise the operations of this unit. The Jonas the captain mentioned should be the supervisor.
The leader of the team, so he waited for the captain to finish speaking, then looked at the officers and soldiers still standing by the fire, and asked coldly: "Who is Jonas?"
An SS soldier squeezed out of the crowd and came to him. After raising his hand in salute, he asked absently: "Hello, Mr. Captain, I am Jonas, the leader of the first-class commando team. What do you have?"
What's the matter?"
Seeing that the other party was just a soldier of the SS, Ernst asked sharply: "Who told you to light a fire here?"
"Mr. Captain," Jonas quickly explained to Ernst: "After driving for a long time, the soldiers were hungry, so I asked them to get off the car to rest and have something to eat."
"Don't you know that guerrillas often appear in this area?" Ernst deliberately threatened the other party and said, "How dare you stay here? Pack your things and leave immediately."
"Yes, Mr. Captain." Jonas replied in a panic: "Let's leave now." Then he turned to the officers and soldiers of the Eastern Battalion and shouted in the same broken Russian, "Let's go, let's go immediately!"
When the officers and soldiers of the Eastern Battalion heard Jonas's shout, they hurriedly extinguished the bonfire, simply packed up their things, and then waited for the bus. Just when Jonas turned around and was about to sit on the driver's seat, Ernst suddenly asked
He said: "Mr. Captain of the first-level commando team, where are you going?"
"Going to the Tim area, a large number of Russian guerrillas were discovered there. We were ordered to annihilate them." After Jonas closed the car door, he finally said, "The garrison in Kursk is empty, so we have to annihilate them."
These troops composed of Russian prisoners of war have been mobilized to wipe out the damn guerrillas." After saying that, he raised his hand and patted the driver on the shoulder, "Drive!"
After the enemy convoy had gone away, the commanders and soldiers came out of their hiding places one after another. Sokov walked up to Ernst, nodded to him, and said approvingly: "Corporal Ernst, well done, well done.
good."
"Major, I think there is something I need to report to you." Ernst hesitated for a moment, and then said to Sokov: "The SS first-class commando leader just now accidentally let it slip.
The city of Kursk is empty and there is no way to mobilize troops to clear out the guerrillas in the Tim area, so we can only mobilize the Eastern Battalion composed of prisoners of war to fill the gap."
Hearing what Ernst said, Sokov couldn't help showing an expression of surprise on his face. He turned his head and glanced at the commanders next to him, and then ordered Vanya: "Comrade Captain, send out reconnaissance personnel immediately.
Go to Kursk to conduct reconnaissance and find out the enemy's deployment."
But when Vanya followed Sokov's order and arranged for men to rush to the direction of Kursk for reconnaissance, the commanders and fighters of the first and second companies realized that they were marching towards the rear of the German army. They couldn't help but feel nervous.
Thinking: Why did we not retreat, but came to the enemy's rear? If a fight broke out, would reinforcements come to support us? Also, if we were injured in the battle, would we be able to receive timely treatment?
Although the soldiers were all making their own little calculations in their minds, since Sokov had given the order, they had no choice but to execute it unconditionally. Even if there was a mountain of swords and a sea of fire ahead, they had no choice but to brave it.
Compared with the soldiers, commanders at all levels are much more optimistic. When Sokov initially proposed to attack Kursk, they were worried that the enemy's troops were too strong and that their own attack would be a mere attack on Kursk. Now they know that Kursk
After the troops in the city were weakened, everyone's thoughts changed drastically. They wanted to rush into the city immediately and eliminate the limited number of defenders.