Chapter 660

As soon as akhromeyev's report was finished, Najia, the operator sitting nearby, stood up and handed me the earphone and the transmitter in her hand. At the same time, she said, "Comrade division commander, the chief of staff of the group army is on the line. He wants to speak to you."

I took off the earphone I was wearing, gave it to razumeyeva, and came to Najia's side in a few steps. After I put on the earphone, I said to the transmitter, "this is colonel o'shanina. Hello, general Krylov."

"I'm not good!" In the earphone, Krylov's angry voice came: "just now, the intelligence service intercepted the enemy's telegram saying that they had captured the mamayev post. I want to ask if this is true? Why didn't you report it in time? "

"Chief of staff, please listen to my explanation..." I tried to defend myself.

"I don't want to hear your explanation." Krailov did not wait for me to finish, so he interrupted me without hesitation and continued to question: "you just need to tell me if the position of mamayev post is occupied by the German army. Yes, or no? "

It's really hard for me to answer krailov's question. He said that he was occupied, but the southern highland where the division headquarters is located is still in our hands; It's not occupied. At the moment, the north slope is full of German soldiers, and even some of them come down the south slope and are approaching our highlands.

Krailov was impatient to hear that I didn't reply. "Hey, why don't you talk?"

I murmured, "the enemy is now occupying the surface position of the northern highland."

"What surface position is not a surface position?" Krailov said angrily, "it is the order of the Supreme Commander himself to let you stick to the mamayev post. If you can't hold on, what's waiting for you is not to go to the military court, but to directly enforce battlefield discipline. Think about the fate of the brigade commander and political commissar of the 92nd brigade. " Speaking of this, he suddenly slowed down his tone and said, "Comrade oshanina, not only the commander and the military commissar, but also I don't want any accident to happen to you. Therefore, as your leader, I do not issue orders to you, but suggest to you that, while the German foothold is not stable, we should immediately organize troops to carry out counterattack and take back the lost positions from the enemy's hands. "

Because krailov suddenly mentioned the fate of the commander and political commissar of the 92nd brigade, I was scared to death. After all, I saw the fate of them with my own eyes. Next, when I listened to him, I just felt that my throat was dry and my sweat couldn't stop coming out. I could only nod repeatedly and couldn't speak at all.

After krailov hung up, kirilov and akhromeyev, who had heard our conversation clearly, surrounded and asked with concern: "division commander, since the chief of staff of the group army has become angry, should we immediately organize our troops to carry out counter attack and take back the surface positions of the northern highlands?"

As I listened to akhromeyev and kirilov, I thought about how to deal with them. It is very difficult to counter attack the enemy face to face immediately after thinking about it. Not to mention that the enemy can use our fortifications for defense, the overwhelming artillery fire is enough to wipe out most of our attacking troops. At this time, the counterattack obviously did not achieve the desired effect, but increased the casualties of the troops in vain.

Before I could say what I thought, the phone on the wooden table rang. Akhromeyev rushed over and picked up the receiver. After listening for a while, he said solemnly, "I know." Then he hung up. Seeing that he put down the phone, I quickly asked, "Comrade chief of staff, who is calling?"

"It's major Pugachev, the second commander. He said that the first German attack had been repulsed, and now the enemy has retreated to the valley between the two highlands..."

Without waiting for him to finish, kirilov rudely interrupted what he said behind him and asked discontentedly, "why don't the second regiment take the opportunity to fight back and wipe out this enemy?"

Seeing that the political commissar was angry, akhromeyev quickly introduced to him: "after the enemy occupied the northern highland, they put a lot of machine guns on the top of the slope, and the position of the second regiment on the hillside was suppressed by their firepower. As soon as the enemy retreated, our officers and men had just jumped out of the trench when they were strafed by the enemy's machine guns and sacrificed a lot of comrades. "

"What is the enemy doing when he retreats into the valley, adjusting his formation and preparing to attack again?" I was thinking about what akhromeyev had just said, so when he finished explaining to kirilov, he brought the topic back.

"As you know, there are many bomb shelters and craters formed by artillery bombardment in the ravines. The enemy uses these terrain to hide. We have no way to take them." At this point, he suddenly remembered what he had just said, and then added, "by the way, major Pugachev also reported that the enemy had mounted a horn on the opposite high ground and was shouting to our commanders and fighters in an attempt to shake our morale."

After hearing this, kirilov laughed angrily and said with disdain, "do these Communist aggressors think that just by shouting a few words with their trumpets, our military will be shaken, and some cowards who are afraid of life and death will raise their white flags to surrender to them? It's naive of them

When I heard akhromeyev say that the German army was shouting to our army, I couldn't help but be stunned. I said that these Germans actually knew how to carry out military attacks and political offensives at the same time. When I think of the composition of the members of the independent division, I am worried that the enemy's propaganda offensive will seriously shake my morale.

Thinking of this, I quickly told akhromeyev: "the enemy suddenly gave us such a move. We can't take it lightly. Chief of staff, call major Pugachev immediately and ask him to pay more attention to the reaction of the soldiers to avoid accidents. "

When akhromeyev was on the phone, I saw razumeyeva raise her earphone and transmitter to me. Then I remembered that the conversation with shejerikov was not over. I quickly walked over, took the earphone in her hand, put it on, and tried to reach for the transmitter, shouting: "Hello, Hello, commander shejerikov, are you still there?"

The earphone soon heard the voice of chejerikov: "Sir, I'm still here."

If we want to recover the surface position of the northern highland, we can't do without the support of the first regiment and the third regiment, which are now in the tunnel. So I asked frankly, "tell me, how many people are left in the two regiments? Are the tunnels in our hands? "

"Mr. report, there are still 231 people left in the first regiment and 894 people left in the third regiment. At present, all the tunnels on the high ground are still under our control. "

Although the casualties of the 1st and 3rd regiments in the battle were expected to be considerable, when I really heard the specific number of casualties, after listening to the report of Xie jerikov, my heart still could not help but thump. I stopped for a moment. After my mood became more stable, I continued to ask him, "Comrade commander, I plan to send the second regiment to fight back against the northern highlands after dark. At that time, you should rush out of the tunnel and cooperate with the second regiment to take back the position. Is there any difficulty? "

When he heard that the counterattack would be carried out after dark, he could not help but said excitedly: "Sir, please rest assured, although German troops are found near several main exits. However, there are still many exits that have been blocked by collapsed soil due to shelling and bombing and have not been found by the enemy. When the second regiment begins to fight back, we can secretly dig these exits, enter the position quietly, and wipe out all the enemies in the position. "

"Well, let the soldiers have a rest. I'll contact you before dark."

When all three of us returned to the table, akhromeyev first reported to me that he had called Pugachev, and then he took the initiative to put forward his own suggestions to me: "division commander, political commissar, the enemy has put so many machine guns on the opposite highland, even with the cooperation of one regiment and three regiments, the second regiment, who is in charge of frontal attack, will pay heavy casualties. Therefore, I propose that before the attack, artillery should be used to bombard the artillery on the high ground to destroy the enemy's firepower support points as much as possible, and then the attack should be launched. "

"Chief of staff, I think your worries are superfluous. Our officers and men are not afraid of sacrifice. Even without the support of artillery, they will certainly be able to break through the enemy's defense and recover the high ground with the cooperation of friendly forces. " Kirilov may have seen our division's recent success, so he took it for granted that the second regiment's counterattack would also be completed with low casualties. He also specially emphasized: "there are not many heavy howitzers we have captured. If they are used up, they will become scrap iron."

Seeing that his proposal was rejected by the political commissar, akhromeyev's face became stiff. I waited for both of them to stop talking before I said slowly, "I'll talk about my opinion. In the current situation, as the chief of staff said, the enemy has laid a lot of machine guns on the opposite highland. If our troops carry out a strong attack, they are bound to suffer heavy casualties. Therefore, the necessary firepower support is still necessary. " Seeing that kirilov seemed to want to cut in, I raised my hand to stop him and continued: "Comrade political commissar, please listen to me. When I talk about firepower support, I don't mean to pull up those home guard howitzers and bombard the enemy occupied positions. First of all, we don't have so many shells; Secondly, if the enemy finds that there are heavy guns in our positions, then we will bear more pressure in the next battle. So my plan is like this: the first battalion of the second regiment will take up a frontal attack. Before the attack, we will launch our killer weapon - the thunderbolt. That guy will be able to deal with the enemy's fortifications and use the cannon well. The second battalion went around from the east side near the Volga River, where were the destroyed oil tanks and a water tower. The enemy should have no defensive force. I don't believe that under such circumstances, the German army can continue to hold the positions captured in the daytime. "

After I said that, seeing the expression on the two faces became relaxed. Kirilov also flattered me and said, "a teacher is a teacher. He is more comprehensive than us. If I had been in charge, nine times out of ten, I would have ordered the troops to rush up at all costs, and even if they had run out of troops, they would have to take back the high ground for me. "

After hearing kirilov's words, I just gave a wry smile and didn't speak. His playing method was very common in the current Soviet army. Most of the commanders did not consider any tactics at all. They only knew how to fight hard and use the sea of people tactics to fight with the enemy's well-equipped elite troops. This can be confirmed by the bodies of soldiers and workers that we saw all over the mountains on our way to mamayev post.

Then the three of us made a detailed study on how to deploy our defense after the troops recovered their positions. When we finished all this, I raised my hand to look at my watch and found that it had been an hour. I immediately ordered akhromeyev: "chief of staff, call the second Chief of staff and ask how his troops are doing."

Akhromeyev nodded, then picked up the phone on the table and called Pugachev. At first, his expression was very relaxed, but the more he said, the more serious his expression was, and he kept shouting at the microphone: "what do you say, say it again!"

At the beginning, I thought that the signal of the telephone was bad, but from the expression on ahlomeyev's face, I had an unknown notice in my heart. Could it be that the second regiment was angry with Pugachev except for something? Thinking of this, he asked akhromeyev frankly, "chief of staff, what's the matter?"

Akhromeyev, who was holding the microphone, didn't answer me immediately when he heard what I said. Instead, he said to the microphone: "Comrade major, you'd better report to Comrade division in person." Then he handed me the microphone.

I took the microphone and asked Pugachev mistily, "Hello, major Pugachev, this is Mr. o'shanina. Tell me, what's the matter? "

"That's true, sir." When Pugachev heard that it was my voice, he quickly and respectfully reported to me, "the enemy is suppressing our regiment's position on the hillside with firepower, so that our troops can't attack, but they don't attack either. They just shout at our soldiers with the trumpet on the opposite hillside, saying that they can completely capture Stalingrad in one or two days, Let's lay down our arms and surrender to them, so as to ensure our personal safety. "

"Fart, can you believe the Krauts?" I yelled at Pugachev and then asked, "how are the soldiers feeling?"

After listening to my question, Pugachev was silent. After a while, he was embarrassed to say: "Sir, the situation is a bit bad."

"Why not?" His words made my heart rise to my throat. My heart said that the commanders and fighters of the second regiment would not listen to the enemy's shouting for a while, and then they wanted to turn around, right? Although this idea flashed through my mind, I still gritted my teeth to avoid shaking the morale of the army.

"I went to the Third Battalion just now and found that many soldiers were saying strange things, saying that the enemy had planes on board and tanks and cannons under them. But we didn't have the right to control the air. We didn't even have a few cannons. We had to stay in the fortifications all day long to be bombed. Instead of waiting to die like this, we had better surrender to the Germans as soon as possible."

When he said that, I suddenly became anonymous and hit the table with a fierce blow. I asked angrily, "major Pugachev, tell me, who is it? Who said all this shit? "

Pugachev murmured: "Sir, you also know that our regiment has added more than 1000 recruits last month. You know better than me where these recruits come from. Most of them have no aversion to the Germans, so after listening to the German propaganda, some complaints are inevitable. "

"Comrade major," I couldn't wait for him to finish. At the same time, I ordered him, "I order you to immediately send someone to arrest these grumbling soldiers and find a place to arrest them." This is an extraordinary period. If the commanders and fighters of the division are really allowed to complain casually, it is likely to cause the morale of the army to shake. I have to take special measures to prevent it.

I didn't expect that after my order was given, Pugachev didn't readily agree. Instead, he explained to me: "Sir, there are hundreds of grumbling soldiers. Can't you let me arrest them all? What's more, if we catch so many people in battle, I'm afraid it will shake the morale of the army. "

When I was about to speak, I suddenly felt that my hand was loosened, and kirilov grabbed the microphone in my ear. He heard my orders clearly, so he said sternly to Pugachev: "Comrade major, don't you know that the orders of the superior are not allowed to be discussed? Since the teacher has given you an order, you should carry it out. As for the consequences of this order, you should consider it. Go ahead and carry it out immediately

When he heard kirilov's harsh tone, Pugachev did not dare to be stubborn any more, so he had to obediently promise: "I understand, comrade political commissar, I will go to implement it immediately."

Hearing that Pugachev agreed to carry out the order, I reached out to kirilov and said to him in a low voice, "commissar, give me the phone. I'll talk to the major again and explain to him why I gave the order."

Kirilov nodded and handed over the microphone. As soon as I put the receiver close to my ear, before I could speak, I heard a flustered voice: "Comrade commander, comrade commander, something's wrong!"

Then I heard Pugachev ask impatiently, "what are you shouting about? Don't you see that I'm calling the division headquarters? Come on, what's the matter? "

"Report to the commander, a class of soldiers left their weapons, climbed out of the trench and ran down the hill."

I ran down the mountain without weapons. What are these soldiers going to do? Before I could understand it, I heard Pugachev ask the soldiers who came to report the news in surprise: "they don't want to die. They dare to attack the enemy without guns?"

The soldier said with a cry: "commander, don't you understand? Instead of charging at the enemy, they dropped their weapons, climbed out of the trench and ran to the foot of the hill, ready to surrender to the Germans there. They're defecting, they're defecting! "