Chapter 626

The bombs dropped by the German planes during the dive landed among the commanders and fighters who were carrying or carrying the ammunition boxes. First, I heard two loud sounds of "boom", and then the earth shaking explosions started one after another. The death explosion of the shells immediately knocked our soldiers down.

In the smoke filled open field, because of the bomb shrapnel falling from the air and the shell shrapnel dying of explosion flying everywhere, even the soldiers pulling the cannon in front of them had to find the crater to hide nearby.

"Hell, these damned German devils, in order not to let us get their guns, they even sent out planes to blow them up." Kirilov, who was standing beside me, said angrily when he saw the scene.

On the open ground filled with smoke, shrapnel and clods flying around, crackling everywhere, and the enemy planes dropping bullets and strafing down in the sky, all of these show that kirilov's judgment is correct. The Germans knew that once their heavy guns fell into the hands of our army, they would cause great damage to them when they launched an attack, so they resolutely relieved themselves and sent planes to bomb.

Although there were only two enemy planes, the soldiers without anti-aircraft weapons had no choice but to take them, resulting in a one-sided massacre. It was not until after dropping the bombs and firing out the bullets of the airborne machine guns that the two enemy planes circled in the air again and then turned around and flew north.

Although the enemy plane left, the explosion in the open ground continued. This was the movement of the shells killed in the explosion. I took this opportunity to call chejerikov and order him to send health workers to rescue the wounded on the battlefield immediately.

I didn't see the scene on the open ground until the sound of the explosion gradually faded and the smoke was dispersed by the river wind. There were bodies all over the place, lying around the smoking craters. The uninjured soldiers got up from the ground and went everywhere to look for survivors. The cannons that were almost moved to our army were blown up and toppled on the open ground. The shell boxes that had been blown to pieces were burning in the East and West.

Seeing this tragic scene, I thought in my heart: if kirilov had just sent the soldiers to run for orders, I would first inform the Sergei rykov on the highland by telephone, would our casualties be much smaller? The guard faithfully carried out kirilov's orders. When the German plane attacked the troops in the open field, he rushed into the smoke of gunfire without hesitation, and then I never saw his shadow again.

Before long, about 70 or 80 officers and men left the hillside fortifications and rushed to the open area to treat their comrades. I saw through the telescope that the political commissar of oberstein was walking at the front of the team, followed by seven or eight health workers with Red Cross Signs on their arms, including two female health workers.

As soon as they got to the open area, the health workers scattered one after another to rescue their comrades in arms who were still lying on the ground groaning in pain. The rest of the soldiers helped the survivors and helped some of the light wounded back to their positions.

Seeing that oberstein was directing the soldiers to search and rescue the wounded, I was relieved, so I picked up the phone again and called chejerikov. When I heard his voice, I said without hesitation: "Lieutenant Commander xijerikov, now the political commissar of oberstein is commanding the soldiers to clean the battlefield and collect the wounded. Don't be idle. Send two companies into the position again and rush to repair the fortifications destroyed by the German artillery. Remember, this will become a rule of the independent division in the future: in combat, we must build fortifications while fighting! As long as there is even a minute, we need to build fortifications! Do you understand? "

"Don't worry, sir. I'll send someone to repair the fortifications destroyed by the German artillery fire at once."

Kirilov, who was standing nearby, listened to my command and asked, "Comrade oshanina, is it appropriate for you to promote this rule in the whole division? You know, even in the interval of fighting, the soldiers keep repairing the fortifications. In this way, they won't get enough rest. In a short time, the soldiers will become exhausted. "

As for kirilov's objection, I said coldly with a stern face: "Comrade political commissar, you have just seen how fierce the artillery preparation before the German attack is. If our troops don't have strong fortifications, they will be completely destroyed by the fire. " Speaking of this, I suddenly thought of another thing. I quickly changed the topic and asked nervously, "by the way, comrade political commissar, I'm always talking about repairing fortifications, and I almost forgot another important thing."

"What's the matter?" Kirilov asked curiously.

"Ammunition. After this period of fighting, the Division has consumed a lot of ammunition, which urgently needs to be replenished. " I said anxiously, "if we run out of ammunition, our soldiers will have to wait for the enemy to rush to the position and fight with them face to face."

Kirilov listened to me, pondered for a while, and replied, "the troops are short of ammunition. I can find the headquarters of the group army to solve it. However, there is another problem involved here. After my observation, the weapons in our division are very miscellaneous, not only the standard weapons of our army, but also the weapons of Germany, Italy, Romania, Hungary and other countries seized. The ammunition of these weapons can not be replenished by the group army, or we can only rely on our own efforts. "

I looked at those officers and men in the distant battlefield, and suddenly thought of a solution. I called Sergey reekov again and gave him a clean order: "Sergeant Sergeant, I remember most of the weapons in your regiment are German equipment, right?"

"Yes, sir," replied chejerikov, "you remember very well that about half of the soldiers used captured German equipment. After today's battle, their ammunition has almost been consumed. You see, can you think of something to add to us? "

"Comrade commander, I'm the division commander of the independent division, not the factory director of the ordnance factory. I can't supply you with German ammunition." Hearing that he still wanted to complain, I quickly interrupted him and gave him an idea: "in today's battle, your regiment killed at least two companies of German soldiers. You immediately organize people to collect weapons and ammunition from these German corpses to supplement the troops. If it's not enough, send someone to the place where they used to park the truck to see if there are any ammunition boxes left. "

"I see. I'll set it up right now." Shejerikov promised to hang up, but I stopped him in time. After hesitating for a moment, I finally clenched my teeth and asked, "how are the casualties of your regiment in today's battle?"

After a moment's silence, shijerikov replied in a low voice, "report, sir, I don't know the casualties of the officers and men who went to pull the cannons. In today's battle, our regiment has suffered a total of 500 casualties, of which 300 have been killed, and more than 100 have been seriously injured, basically losing their combat effectiveness. "

Although I knew that a regiment was hit by the heavy German artillery, and the casualties were absolutely inevitable, I still felt my heart was bleeding when I heard the exact figures given to me by shejerikov. The first regiment, as the main force of the independent division, arrived at the mamayev post, with more than half of the casualties. If this situation continues, the independent division will be able to cancel the formation of the first regiment in a week at most.

"Comrade commander, I still say that we should use every minute to rush to repair the fortifications on the high ground. With strong fortifications, our officers and men were able to survive the heavy German artillery and bombing

When I put down the phone, I thought of the second commander Pugachev again. Since I sent him out to pull artillery, I have never seen him, and I don't know where he was when our troops were bombed by the German army? Thinking of this, I said to Najia, who is in charge of communication: "Comrade Najia, contact the second leader Pugachev immediately and ask where he is?"

Pugachev soon got in touch with him. He was taking a group of officers and men of the second regiment at the foot of the south slope of our highland to hide the guns pulled back by trucks.

When I heard him talking about artillery, I immediately thought of Captain Morozov, the artillery battalion commander. Because most of the artillery was destroyed in the German air raid, he wanted to be the commander of the battalion, and he had to wait until he had a chance. Before I finished my communication, I asked casually, "Comrade Pugachev, I want to ask you, have you seen captain Morozov, the artillery battalion commander?"

"Are you talking about captain Morozov? He's by my side

I had already removed the earphone from my ear, and I was going to throw the transmitter to Naga. Suddenly, I heard that he said that Morozov was beside him. I was so happy that I immediately told him, "Comrade Pugachev, give the earphone and the transmitter to Morozov quickly, I want to talk to him."

Morozov's voice soon came from the earphone: "Hello, sir, this is captain Morozov. Do you have any instructions?"

"I want to ask, how many guns did you just pull back?"

"There are five doors, all of which are hauled back by truck." "The trucks are full of shells, enough for us to use for a period of time," Morozov said

When I heard that the artillery battalion had seized five heavy guns, I was immediately relieved. Although the rest of the guns were destroyed and the soldiers who pulled the guns suffered heavy casualties, it was worth it. As long as we have these five heavy guns, we will have a better chance of winning in the next defensive war. At least we will have a sharp weapon against German tanks.

When kirilov learned that we had added five new heavy guns, he was very excited and said, "great, that's great. In this way, we don't have to worry about any more tanks sent by the German army. " After a few happy turns in the observation post, he suggested to me: "Comrade oshanina, I don't think it's appropriate to place heavy guns at mamayev post, because they may become the targets of German air strikes. I suggest that these guns be transferred to the residential areas. When the highlands are attacked by the German army, the artillery observers can send signals from the highlands to the artillery in the rear to direct them to launch artillery attacks on the enemy. "

Kirilov's opinion coincided with mine, so I nodded hard and said seriously, "Comrade political commissar, your opinion is good, I agree."

Kirilov and I were talking when the radio operator Na Jia suddenly called me nervously: "Comrade division commander, comrade commander of the group army wants to talk to you."

I gave kirilov an unexpected look and whispered in surprise, "Comrade political commissar, what's the matter? Why did commander trakov call me all of a sudden? "

Kirilov shook his head blankly, indicating that he did not know what it was. I picked up the transmitter and said respectfully, "Hello, comrade commander, I'm oshanina. Do you have any new instructions?"“ Well done, Colonel oshanina. I know that in the battle just ended, you severely damaged the German tank battalion, destroyed two artillery battalions, and beat away a infantry regiment. It's really amazing. I will report the results of your division to the headquarters of the front army and ask for credit for you and your subordinates. " Trekov praised me a few words, suddenly changed the topic and said curiously, "oshanina, just now the group army intelligence service interrogated the two German prisoners you sent, and unexpectedly learned something strange."“ Strange thing? " I didn't know what trakov wanted to say. I couldn't help getting nervous and quickly asked, "Comrade commander, I don't know what's strange?"“ The prisoners confessed that their tank battalion was at the foot of the mountain of mamayev hill. The volley of tank guns and the artillery of the heavy artillery battalion in the distance turned the whole highland into a sea of fire. Originally, they would send infantry to capture our high ground after the artillery stopped, but at this time, something unexpected happened: their tanks were shot and set on fire one after another. The captured Lieutenant said: at that time, the artillery observers judged the artillery position of our army on the high ground from the direction of the shells, then turned the muzzle and covered the area with heavy artillery fire. Although they saw the parts of cannon and human body flying into the air on the high ground covered by artillery fire, even a fly could not survive in that case. But in reality, the shells still kept coming and destroyed their tanks one after another. It's really because the shells from the mysterious cannons made them dizzy that the superior commander was forced to give the order to retreat. " Kirilov, who heard my conversation with trakov, looked at me with a smile, then extended his hand to me and said in a friendly way, "Comrade oshanina, give me the earphone and the transmitter, and I'll explain this strange incident to the commander." Listen to him say so, I also didn't speak, just smile to hand things in the past. Kirilov put on his headphones and said aloud to the transmitter, "Hello, Hello, is that trakov? I'm kirilov. I think I can explain to you about the mysterious cannon. " Then he said one by one that if Pluto tyakonov cleverly concealed his cannon in a hollow and aimed at the German tanks for continuous firing. Finally, he specially emphasized: "this cannon, in the battle, completely destroyed 17 German tanks. Comrade trakov, the instructor of the anti tank company last time was awarded the title of "Soviet hero" because he destroyed almost a number of tanks and defended the dock. How do you plan to reward our gunner? " Trekov was silent for a moment, then asked solemnly, "what's the rank of this gunner tyakonov?" Kirilov turned and looked at me when he heard the question from trakov, as if asking for my advice. After thinking about it, I said to him in a low voice, "otherwise, we suggest Comrade commander to promote this gunner to the rank of sergeant." Although I also want to directly promote this successful gunner, I think that the promotion of the group army will arouse tyakonov's sense of honor, so I put forward this proposal on my own. Kirilov has now reached a tacit agreement with me in some ways. He nodded with a smile and replied to trikov: "Comrade commander, comrade oshanina and I suggest that he be promoted from sergeant to Senior Sergeant."“ He was promoted to second lieutenant, "trekov said in an indisputable tone." as for what kind of reward he will get for such a great achievement, I'll talk about it later. Now to promote his rank first is to pay him interest first. "