After the battle, Sokov planned to go to the command post in Beigang to convene commanders for a post-war summary meeting. Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the command post, Vitkov said to him: "Comrade Brigade Commander, you
You're here just in time, the commander just called and asked you to go to his headquarters immediately."
"The commander is so anxious to let me go," Sokov asked Vitkov curiously, thinking that he could get some useful information from the deputy chief of staff of the group army: "Comrade deputy brigade commander, do you know what is going on?"
?"
Unexpectedly, Vitkov shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, spread his hands, and said with a wry smile: "I don't know either. He just ordered me to go to the army headquarters with you."
Seeing that Vitkov wanted to go to the headquarters with him, Sokov guessed that it might be something big and did not dare to stay here longer. He quickly called Goliya and ordered him: "Comrade Captain, order your soldiers to hurry up."
It takes time to collect usable weapons and ammunition, and when the enemy attacks next time, you will have to fight with them with bayonets."
Hearing Goliya's promise, Sokov called Vitkov and walked outside. As soon as he reached the door, he suddenly remembered something: "By the way, Comrade Captain, how many prisoners have you captured?"
"There are about two hundred prisoners, half of whom are wounded." Golia knew that Sokov would not ask about this for no reason, so he quickly asked: "How should we deal with them?"
"Now we are short of supplies and don't have that much medicine to treat the enemy's wounded." Sokov said without hesitation: "Let them go."
"What, let them all go?" Golya was startled by Sokov's words. He asked cautiously: "Comrade Brigade Commander, are we going to let go of the prisoners we finally captured?"
If the German prisoners are captured, Sokov will definitely not want to let them go easily, but he has just witnessed the tenacious fighting spirit of the Romanian army, and he still admires these enemies. Mamayev Hill is not equipped to accommodate prisoners now.
He did not want to shoot them or send them to Siberia, so he decided to let them all go.
Of course, he did not let go of these enemies unconditionally, but ordered Goliath: "Let these prisoners go back and tell their commanders to immediately send people to collect all the corpses in front of the position. I assure them that our
Soldiers will never shoot at soldiers collecting corpses."
On the way to the headquarters, Vitkov said approvingly to Sokov: "Comrade Brigadier, you did the right thing. You should let the Romanians collect all their bodies. Although the weather is getting colder now, it is still a good thing."
Thousands of corpses piled up on a hillside can still easily cause disease."
"Colonel Sokov, I heard that your troops are fighting with the enemy with bayonets?" As soon as he walked into the army headquarters, Chuikov put down his work and came up to him and asked with concern.
"Yes, Comrade Commander." Sokov quickly and respectfully replied: "It was the commanders and soldiers of the 192nd Battalion and the sailors of the Marine Corps Battalion who fought with the attacking enemy with bayonets."
"Colonel Sokov, why do you let the soldiers fight with bayonets?" A political worker sitting in the corner heard Sokov say this and couldn't help but interjected and asked: "Why don't you use bullets and artillery shells to eliminate them?
, wouldn’t that be easier?”
Sokov looked at the political worker who was speaking attentively, and found that it was an unfamiliar face. He stared at the person intently, trying to control his emotions, and asked with steady luck: "I wonder what I should call this commander?"
"This is the deputy director of the political department of the 57th Group Army." When Chuikov introduced the other party's identity to Sokov, he did not know whether it was an oversight or intentionality. He only mentioned the other party's identity but did not mention the other party's name: "He was ordered to lead
The 138th Infantry Division came to supplement ours."
"The 138th Infantry Division?" When he heard this number, Sokov hesitated for a moment, and then asked: "Is it the unit commanded by Colonel Lyudnikov?"
"Yes, it's his troops." Krylov came over and added: "They will strengthen the defense of the barricade factory. The troops that originally stood there have been lost in the battles in the past few days."
"Colonel Sokov," seeing that Sokov and the others seemed to have forgotten him, the deputy director of the political department from the 57th Army became a little anxious: "You haven't answered my question yet, why do you want to let the soldiers and the enemy
How about fighting with bayonets instead of destroying the enemy with shells and bullets?"
"Comrade Deputy Director of the Political Department!" Sokov turned to face the other party and said word by word: "If possible, I would rather have a hundred rounds of artillery shells and ten thousand rounds of bullets in exchange for the life of a soldier. However, because
After a long battle, our brigade's ammunition has been exhausted, so that in the face of the tide of enemies, our soldiers can only bravely rush forward, fight hand-to-hand combat with them, and fight with bayonets." He said with a burst of anger.
If the person who said these words hadn't seen that the other party was a political cadre from a friendly army, his fist would have fallen on the other party's face.
Sokov's attitude frightened the deputy director of the Political Department. He involuntarily stepped back until his back hit the wall, then he stopped and said in a panic: "I'm sorry, Comrade Colonel, I don't know what your situation is.
I ran out of ammunition. I thought you were..."
"What do you think it is?" The person who spoke this time was the military commissar of the group army Gurov. He looked at the political worker with a hint of contempt on his face: "You think Colonel Sokov is trying to show his personal heroism?
Did he just let the soldiers fight with the enemy with bayonets? Let me tell you, not to mention in our 62nd Army, even in the entire Stalingrad Front, there is no second commander who is better at fighting than him. He
He is always good at achieving maximum results at the minimum cost, which is the main reason why he was promoted from corporal to colonel in less than a year."
Although the impolite words of this political worker made Sokov very angry, he also reminded himself. After Gurov finished speaking, he quickly asked Chuikov: "Comrade Commander, in order to repel the enemy
In the attack, we have consumed almost all the ammunition of the army. Do you think you can replenish some for us? Otherwise, hand-to-hand combat like today will happen again, and I will not have so many troops to fight the enemy with bayonets.
.”
Chuikov originally thought that Sokov would want to ask for reinforcements from him. Now he is also worried about the lack of troops. Where can there be extra troops to supplement. At this moment, when he heard that Sokov only asked for ammunition, he was relieved.
Then he said: "Don't worry, Colonel Sokov, other troops seized a large number of weapons and ammunition during the battle. Since these ammunition are German-style weapons, unless our troops change their equipment, they will not be of any use.
, I will ask the Minister of Logistics, Major General Lobov, to arrange for personnel to be sent to Mamayev Heights later."
"Great, Comrade Commander, this is really great." Seeing Chuikov so readily agreed to replenish ammunition for himself, Sokov was overjoyed. He thanked him repeatedly and said: "A person can bear hunger, but if a gun
Without bullets in it, we won't be able to hit the enemy hard."
After Krylov took out a pen and paper, he looked at Sokov and asked: "Colonel Sokov, in the battle that just ended, how many enemies did you destroy and how many weapons and ammunition did you capture?"
Sokov was stunned by Krylov's question. He hesitated for a moment and then replied with some embarrassment: "I'm sorry, Comrade Chief of Staff, I really can't answer your question because I haven't had time yet.
To tally the results of the battle, I came here with Colonel Vitkov."
"What about you, Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff." Seeing that Sokov couldn't answer his question, Krylov turned to Vitkov who was standing aside: "I know that you were staying at Beigang when the battle happened.
In the command post, you can always answer the questions that Colonel Sokov cannot answer, right?"
When Vitkov heard the question from his immediate superior, he quickly replied: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the specific results have not yet been calculated, but according to my estimate, the number of Romanian officers and soldiers killed by our army should be between 1,500 and 1,500."
Between 1,800 and 800; as for the seizures, there were two German Panzer III tanks, which were basically complete and could be used by tank crews; in terms of guns, there were five heavy machine guns and more than 20 light machine guns, as well as thousands
A rifle..."
If anyone had used such vague figures to report to Krylov in the past, he would have been scolded. But today, when he heard the report from his subordinate Vitkov, Krylov always had an expression on his face.
Smile. After recording what the other party said, he said reasonably: "Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff, remember to report the detailed results of the battle when you return later."
After reporting on the situation at Mamayev Heights, Sokov asked Chuikov about the reason for recruiting him here: "Comrade Commander, you said there was an emergency and asked me to rush to the headquarters immediately. I don't know what the superiors are planning to do.
What arduous and glorious task is entrusted to our brigade to complete?"
"It's like this. I just received a report from the front army headquarters. Two to three divisions will gradually enter the city in the near future." Since there were no outsiders in the headquarters, Chuikov said straight to the point: "Wait until the troops arrive.
After that, we will launch a new round of counterattack against the enemy from the direction of Mamayev Heights. I called you here, firstly, to hear your thoughts on this counterattack, and secondly, I hope you can help us formulate a detailed plan.
counterattack plan."
As soon as Chuikov asked him to help formulate a combat plan, Sokov couldn't help but feel a headache. You know, the sky over Stalingrad is now controlled by German aircraft, and the troops have no air support at all when they attack; even if they can get support from the East
The artillery support from the shore is limited, but the range of the artillery fire is limited. Once the troops advance to a certain position, the artillery support will automatically terminate.
Seeing Sokov's delay in speaking, Chuikov asked again: "Colonel Sokov, I know you have known about this counterattack for a long time. Tell me, what do you think?"
What can I say? This kind of ill-prepared counterattack is not only difficult to achieve the desired effect, but also unsustainable. It can only continuously lose precious back strength. These facts, Sokov can only
I was thinking about it in my heart, but I didn't dare to say it casually, otherwise I might get myself killed.
However, seeing Chuikov asking himself again and again, Sokov knew that it would be impossible not to express his position, so he could only cough lightly, clear his throat, and said: "Comrade Commander, I think we need to launch a counterattack in the direction of Mamayev Heights.
First of all, we must get cover from the air force and long-term support from ground artillery fire, so that we can break through the enemy's position. Otherwise, once our attack is frustrated, the counterattack force will be blocked in front of the enemy's position, and the enemies from the north and south will turn around.
Come on, this counterattack will probably end in failure."
"I'm sorry, Colonel Sokov, the air cover you mentioned cannot be provided." Chuikov waited for Sokov to finish and then said bitterly: "Even the artillery we deployed on the east coast can only provide
It can provide you with limited artillery support in the early stages of your attack. Once you move out of the range of the artillery fire, the artillery support will also stop."
Without strong support from the air force and artillery, Sokov could only pin his hopes on the tank troops. He asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, what about the tanks? Can our offensive troops be supported by tanks?"
"Tank, I can find a way to get some of it for you." Chuikov tried to dissuade Sokov this time, but he also raised a new problem for him: "But tank driver, you need to solve it yourself."
It is not a problem for Sokov to solve the problem of tank crews on his own. After all, Colonel Bely is still on Mamayev Ridge. Although many of his tank crews died in the battle some time ago.
, but there is still no big problem for the remaining people to form a powerful tank assault team.
Thinking of this, he asked Chuikov again: "Comrade Commander, I would like to ask how many tanks you can provide us?"
"I can't answer this question now." Chuikov shrugged his shoulders and said: "But Peter, the director of the Red October Factory, will also come over later. You can ask him personally how much he can provide you.
tank."
Knowing that Peter was coming here, Sokov couldn't help but feel guilty. Some time ago, he managed to get more than 40 tanks from Peter, but in less than a month, all these tanks were dead or injured.
If Peter asked him more questions later, he still didn't know how to answer him.
The more worried about something, the more likely it would be. When Sokov was worried about seeing Factory Director Peter and not knowing how to explain the borrowed tanks to him, a staff officer came in and reported to Chuikov: "Comrade Commander, the Red Cross
Director Peter of the Moon Factory is here and is right outside the door now!"