Chapter 650

After listening to my plan of "replacing soldiers with water", akhromeyev suddenly felt energetic. After staring at the map for half a day, he hit the table excitedly and said to me excitedly: "Comrade division, your plan is really wonderful." Then he pointed to the grassland in front of the mamayev hillock and analyzed it to me, "you see, if the Volga River breaks its dyke, the flood will turn tens of square kilometers or even a larger area in front of the mamayev hillock into a land of glory. In this way, the German 44th, 76th, 71st and 295th divisions, which are located in the north and northwest of the city, will not be able to launch attacks from the north of the city because of the barrier of floods, so that we can free up forces to strengthen the defense in other directions. "

When he finished, he kept looking at the map excitedly, as if he was looking at the effect of the implementation of our plan. After a while, he looked up at me and asked tentatively, "Comrade division commander, do you need to report this plan to the headquarters of the group army immediately?"

With a calm face, I replied, "no, comrade chief of staff. The three of us should know about this plan. We don't have to report it to the group headquarters. "

After hearing this, akhromeyev was surprised and asked, "why, sir? We can't carry out such a plan without reporting it to the headquarters. "

Kirilov waited for him to finish, coughed beside him, and then explained to him, "chief of staff, this is the situation. I agree with the plan put forward by the teacher in principle, but... "

Seeing kirilov's hesitation, akhromeyev was a little anxious: "but what? Comrade political commissar, if you have anything to do, just finish it in one breath. Don't keep playing tricks and make me worried. "

"Comrade political commissar, I'd better explain this to the chief of staff." I'm afraid kirilov has any scruples when he speaks, so I simply explained to ahlomeyev in person: "the reason why this plan can't be implemented is that the dyke of the Volga River is too strong to open a gap without more than ten tons of explosives. Under the present circumstances, do you think we can bury so many explosives on the river bank without knowing it? "

After hearing this, akhromeyev frowned and thought for a while. At last, he sighed helplessly and said with regret, "yes, the German troops are stationed a few kilometers away, and they must have some scouts near our Highlands, so the enemy may know what's happening in front of our positions in time."

After negating the plan of "replacing soldiers with water", I suddenly thought that the German army only deployed four divisions in the north of the city, but they beat our army into a mess. So I asked casually, "Comrade chief of staff, how many troops does a German division have?"

Akhromeyev replied casually: "the full number of German infantry divisions is 17200, more than our two divisions."

All along, I only knew that there were tens of thousands of German infantry divisions, but I didn't expect that there would be so many. I couldn't help exclaiming, "ah, there are so many people."

"Yes, sir." Akhromeyev finished, took out a notebook from his briefcase, turned to one of the pages, pushed it to me, and politely said, "you see, this is the establishment table of the German infantry division."

I took the book over and saw that it said:

"The German infantry division has divisions, reconnaissance battalions, communications battalions, three infantry regiments (3 battalions per regiment), artillery regiments, anti tank battalions, engineering battalions and division logistics teams.

Division headquarters: 158 people, 2 light machine guns, 17 motorcycles and 31 wheeled vehicles.

Reconnaissance battalion: 625 men, 25 light machine guns, 8 heavy machine guns, 3 75mm anti tank guns, 3 20mm air defense guns, 3 50mm mortars, 4 81mm mortars, 2 75mm leig18 light infantry guns, 3 armored vehicles, 45 motorcycles, 30 wheeled vehicles, 3 carriages and 213 horses.

Communication camp: 474 people, 17 light machine guns, 32 motorcycles, 103 wheeled vehicles, 7 carriages and 52 horses.

Artillery Regiment: 2500 people, 32 light machine guns, 36 105 mm howitzers, 4 105 mm howitzers, 8 150 mm howitzers, 40 motorcycles, 105 wheeled howitzers, 229 carriages and 2274 horses.

Anti tank battalion: 550 people, 18 light machine guns, 36 75mm anti tank guns, 45 motorcycles, 114 wheeled.

Engineering Battalion: 843 people, 34 light machine guns, 9 anti tank guns, 20 flame throwers, 44 motorcycles, 87 wheeled vehicles, 19 carriages and 52 horses.

Division logistics team: 2300 people, 30 light machine guns, 8 20 mm air defense guns, 88 motorcycles, 253 wheeled vehicles, 245 carriages and 735 horses.

Three infantry regiments: 3250 each, 123 light machine guns, 36 heavy machine guns, 27 anti tank guns, 12 75 mm anti tank guns, 27 50 mortar guns, 18 81 mm mortars, 6 75 mm leig18 light infantry guns, 2 150 mm sig33 heavy infantry guns, 47 motorcycles, 73 wheeled vehicles, 210 carriages and 683 horses. "

After reading the formation of the German infantry division, I returned the book to akhromeyev and asked, "well, how many people are there in a German company?"

Hearing my question, not only akhromeyev, but also kirilov, who was sitting beside me, looked at me strangely, as if surprised that I didn't understand the German army. Akhromeyev stood up and reported to me, "one German battalion has four companies with 215 men in each company. After our interrogation of the prisoners, due to the long fighting, most of the companies were left with only 70 or 80 people, some even 20 or 30 people. "

I waved my hand to akhromeyev and said with disapproval: "Comrade chief of staff, we must not use the data provided by the prisoners as a reference for us to formulate our operational plans. You know, if they are ordinary soldiers, all they know is the situation of their platoon or company; Even if the prisoner was a lieutenant officer, all he knew was the situation of his battalion. If, according to the prisoner's confession, we think that the German army has been greatly weakened in the battle, and make a battle plan based on it, we may suffer greatly in the battle. "

After listening to my words, both of them fell into meditation. After a while, kirilov said thoughtfully, "no wonder our army's counterattacks have all ended in failure. It seems that the staff members who made the operational plans all made too much reference to the confession of the prisoners, believing that the enemy forces in front of our army were greatly weakened, so it was inevitable to suffer losses. "

With these words, he suddenly changed the topic and talked about the abnormal performance of the German army in front of our division today: "Comrade oshanina, today the German army launched wave after wave of attacks on the 107.5 highland. It was very likely that they would never retreat without winning the highland. However, in our division's position, the situation was calm, and even the enemy's soldiers were not seen. Can you tell me what's going on? "

"The enemy should have done this on purpose. He sent troops to attack highland 107.5 and ignored our positions. Maybe it was to paralyze us and make us think that our positions would not be attacked. Then he boldly dispatched troops from the mamayev post to reinforce the friendly highlands. In this way, they will be able to annihilate the troops we left the fortifications with artillery fire. "

After these words came out, I realized that I had made a mistake. I looked at kirilov for fear that he might have any idea. After all, the two companies he had lost in the fire during the day were sent out by him. I didn't expect that my worry was really unnecessary. Kirilov's face was full of shame.

In order to avoid kirilov's embarrassment, I quickly turned to akhromeyev and said, "Comrade chief of staff, please accompany me to the tunnel of the second regiment later to talk with the soldiers." Speaking of this, I said to kirilov with a smile on purpose, "Comrade political commissar, please stay at the headquarters tonight."

Kirilov quickly said: "no problem. I'll take care of the headquarters. You and the chief of staff can go safely."

After dark, akhromeyev and I, together with several guards, walked along the trench outside to the position of the second regiment. After some distance from the headquarters, akhromeyev looked back at the guards who were following us far away. Then he asked me in a low voice, "Comrade division, what happened to the political commissar today? I think his expression is a little unnatural. "

I snorted softly, then said with a bitter smile: "when the German army stormed the position of the 39th regiment today, the political commissar transferred two companies of the third regiment, intending to detour back to the enemy's side through the open field and hit hard. As a result, as soon as our officers and men entered the open area, the enemy's long-range artillery fire came overwhelming. In a few minutes, just a few minutes, our two companies are all over. "

As we were walking, akhromeyev suddenly stopped, pointed to the front with his hand and said, "Sir, this is a tunnel of the second regiment. Do you want to go in and have a look?"

Seeing that I nodded, he quickly stepped forward and lifted the curtain of the tunnel entrance. The thick dark curtain on the door was suddenly lifted, accompanied by the dazzling light, a soldier with a gun rushed out, at the same time loudly asked: "who? Password

When I saw ahlomeyev standing there with a curtain lifted and a rifle on his chest, I couldn't move. I forced myself to smile and walked up to him. I said to the soldier with the gun: "Comrade soldier, I'm the division commander, Colonel oshanina, and this is the conspiracy commander, Captain ahlomeyev."

The soldier quickly put away his gun, raised his hand and saluted both of us: "I'm sorry, division chief and chief of staff. I thought it was the enemy who touched it."

After akhromeyev and I entered the tunnel, we put down the curtain and said in a bad voice, "Comrade soldier, if the enemy really touches here, you'll be killed."

After I raised my hand to stop the grumbling akhromeyev, I asked the soldier, "Comrade soldier, where is your commander?"

The soldier was stunned and then replied“ Report to the division commander that the commander is not in this tunnel. "

"And who's here?" I asked.

"Captain horushov, commander of the first battalion, and Comrade safchenko, political instructor, are here. But they're not here. "

"Where have they gone?" Asked akhromeyev.

"We've gone to the sentry. As you know, we have a large defense area here, and there are troops everywhere..."

I saw that the soldier was one of those who could talk more. I was afraid that he would not finish talking, so I stopped him in time and told him to say, "OK, comrade soldier, take us to your battalion command post. I'll wait for them there."

The soldier agreed and called a soldier sitting not far away to help him stand guard. Then he took us to the depth of the tunnel.

On the walls on both sides of the tunnel, there is a concave groove every four or five meters. There is a steam lamp on it. No wonder there is so much light here.

We followed behind the soldiers, passed through the tunnels or among the soldiers sitting or lying down, and came to the innermost small room. The soldier stepped forward, lifted up the curtain at the door and politely said to us, "division commander, chief of staff, this is the battalion command post. Go ahead and have a rest. When the battalion commander comes back, I will inform him immediately."

"Thank you, comrade soldier." After thanking the soldiers politely, I went into the command post with akhromeyev, went to the earth table and sat down, patiently waiting for the return of horushov.

We sat for a short time, the curtain was suddenly lifted, from the outside into a soldier without a hat, his hands each carrying a teapot. After putting the teapot on the table in front of us, he said, "Sir, chief of staff, please have tea."

I looked up at the soldier in front of me with a smile and said, "thank you, comrade soldier."

Originally, I thought the soldier would turn around and leave, but he stood in a daze like rooting under his feet, looking up and down at me with good eyes.

Seeing this soldier's almost impolite behavior, I felt a little displeased and was about to say something about him. But he was the first to open his mouth, he stammered: "excuse me, sir, comrade, are you, are you Rita?"

When I heard him call me by my nickname, I couldn't help looking at him in surprise. Since I came to Stalingrad, it seems that no one has ever called me that except Zhukov. I stood up slowly and asked tentatively, "who are you, please?"

Seeing that I didn't blame him, the soldier said excitedly: "don't you know me, sir? I'm Sergei osibovich

I looked at the soldier in front of me. He was about forty years old and had a big head. He was supposed to be a fat man, but he was as skinny as a wood. His military uniform was as empty as hanging on a shelf. My mind is trying to search for this name, but unfortunately, in my memory, there is really no acquaintance with this name. So I shook my head and said apologetically, "sorry, comrade soldier, I really can't remember who you are."

The soldier saw that I didn't recognize him. Although his face was dejected, he still didn't give up to remind me: "think again, we met many years ago."

A few years ago, when he said this, I couldn't help laughing bitterly to myself. My heart said that I didn't come to this world a few years ago. How could I know you. Thinking of this, I raised my hand to coax the soldier out.

Seeing that I still didn't think of it, the soldier sighed and continued: "I can't imagine that you really forgot me. We met at the marriage registry a few years ago. If I remember correctly, it happened that I was on duty that day. An officer came in and said that his name was o'shanin and he wanted to marry a beloved girl. "

As soon as Sergei said that, I immediately thought of him, and I guessed who he was. He was the one who managed to get married for aoxianing and Lida. Because Lida was not old enough at that time, he also persuaded aoxianing to go to the city defense commander, and they successfully kept the marriage procedure.

Knowing the identity of Sergey, I quickly extended my raised hand to him and said in a friendly way, "it's you, comrade Sergey. Please forgive me for not recognizing you in time."

Sergey took my hand in both hands, shook it hard, and said, "Sir, if it wasn't for your wedding with captain o'shanin, which was personally presided over by the city defense commander, I wouldn't have had such a deep influence on you. How time flies! Several years have passed in a flash. I didn't expect that you would be a colonel now. By the way, how's captain o'shanin now? "

When Sergei asked oshanin, I immediately said in embarrassment: "he was seriously injured in the Moscow defense and was sent to the rear hospital. Since then, we have completely lost touch. " Seeing the skinny staff of the former marriage registry in front of me, I asked curiously, "by the way, comrade Sergey, how did you get into this situation. If I remember correctly, you used to be a fat man

Sergey let go of my hand, and there was a look of pain on his face. "Well, it's hard to say."

"Please sit down. After all, we are old acquaintances." I asked him to sit down and comforted him, saying, "anyway, we have nothing to do now. Please tell us about your experience."

After Sergey sat down, he took the teapot I handed him. After thanking him, he began to talk about his personal experience: "I joined the army the second week after the outbreak of the war. But in July, when my unit was surrounded by the German army, we became prisoners of war. Later, I and more than 20000 captured comrades in arms were sent by the Germans to the Soviet prison camp in Vitebsk, Belarus. "

"What happened in the prison camp that made you what you are now?"