Chapter 753

When they came to me, without waiting for him to speak, I asked, "Comrade captain, has the third regiment begun to rescue the wounded?" Seeing that he nodded in affirmation, I continued to ask, because I thought of the tragic scene I saw, so my voice was very heavy and severe, "do you know what's going on? Who left so many wounded people there and let them live and die?"

Basmanov shrugged his shoulders and answered helplessly: "it's all clear, sir. I have inquired about the wounded. They are all from the field hospital of the group army. Last night, the hospital informed them that they would be sent to the East Bank of the Volga River. Starting this morning, 470 of their more seriously injured were transferred from the hospital to the open area, waiting for the troops to take them across the river. I didn't expect to stay there for several hours. Not only did I not see anyone to meet me, but also I was bombarded and bombed by the enemy. The wounded didn't want to wait for death, so they had to find a way to leave there. According to our preliminary statistics, at least one-third of the wounded died. "

When I was grieving for the tragic fate of the wounded, basmanov suddenly changed the topic: "by the way, sir, I came to you on the order of the political commissar."

"Political commissar looking for me?" When I left the independent division, I had transferred the command of the division to kirilov and bantailiev. They could decide all the affairs of the division. What else could they come to me for? At the moment, I was not in the mood to play a guessing game with basmanov, so I directly asked him the answer: "what can the commissar do for me?"

Hearing this, basmanov suddenly became alert, looked left and right, then came close to me and said to me in a low voice: "Comrade division commander, there are two generals in the headquarters."

"Two generals?" Seeing basmanov's mysterious appearance, I knew that he was not an ordinary man. I also asked in a low voice, "do you know who the two generals in the headquarters are?"

"According to the political commissar, it's general Yeliao Menko, commander of the front army, and his deputy lieutenant general Popov." Hearing these two names from basmanov's mouth, I was overjoyed. I really had no place to find. It didn't take me any time. I had been wandering around the wharf and the river. I didn't expect that they had gone to my division headquarters first. Thinking of this, I said to busmanov: "come on, comrade captain, come back to the headquarters with me."

After a short walk, I suddenly felt something was wrong. According to gurov, after sending the telegram, yelimenko left with people, and trekov sent me to meet him. Even if I wanted to inform him, I couldn't inform him. How could they go directly to the headquarters of the independent division without warning?

I went back to the headquarters with these questions. As soon as I entered the door, I saw the familiar figure sitting at the table. I quickly stepped up and nodded to kirilov, who was greeting me. Then I went straight to the man and stood at attention. After a salute, I said respectfully, "hello, comrade commander of the front army. Major general o'shanina, the commander of the independent division, reports to you. Welcome to the headquarters of the independent division. "

Yelomienko stood up with his hand on the table, held out his hand to me with a smile, and said politely, "Comrade oshanina, we and general Popov are going to the headquarters of trakov, passing by you, so we're here to have a rest."

Seeing that yelimenko didn't know anything, I quickly said, "Comrade commander, I went to the wharf to meet you on the order of group army commander trekov and military commissar gulov. I've been looking on the dock for a long time, but I didn't expect that you'd arrived first. "

"Oh, trekov and gurov asked you to meet us?" "In addition to welcoming us, what other tasks have they arranged for you?" yelimenko asked unexpectedly

"They asked me to give you a detailed account of the results of these two days." With that, I took out the stack of war reports from my briefcase. While I was hesitating whether to report to him immediately, he had already raised his hand and took the war reports from my hand. After a quick look at a few pages, he turned around and told the general standing beside him who had never said a word: "Comrade Popov, please contact them immediately, and ask major general roluev, the commander of the 37th division of Jinwei, to rush to the headquarters of the independent division immediately."

"Yes." General Popov agreed briefly, then came to razumeyeva's side, bowed his head and said a few words to her. Soon, razumeyeva began to use the transmitter to call the headquarters of the group army.

In the process of waiting for the arrival of rolujaf, yeliomenko threw the stack of war papers on the table and said angrily: "out of trust, we gave the arduous and glorious task of sticking to the tractor factory to the 37th division of Jinwei. But in the end, ruolu failed to live up to this trust and gave up the tractor factory to the enemy. He's committing a crime. He's committing a crime. " The more he spoke, the more angry he was, and the more angry he was, the more he patted the table.

Due to the lack of communication in the near future, kirilov knew that the fighting in the factory area was fierce, but no one told them about the specific situation of the war. Therefore, when they saw yelomienko angry, they could only look at each other. I know more about the fighting in the factory area these two days than anyone else. Seeing that Yeliao Menko is so angry, I understand that he must have some misunderstanding. I quickly stepped forward and politely said, "Comrade commander of the front army, I've been staying in the headquarters of the group army these two days. I know a lot about the fighting in the factory area. I think you may have some misunderstanding about the 37th division of the guards, Can I tell you something about the division's performance in combat? "

Yelomienko looked me in the eye for a long time. Finally, he nodded reluctantly and said, "well, let's hear it. I want to know what's going on. You know, the communication with the 62nd army is not smooth recently, so we can't get the latest situation in time. "

Since yelimenko was willing to give me the opportunity to introduce the fighting experience of these two days, I naturally could not waste such reality. After organizing some words in my mind, I began to tell him: "Comrade commander, on October 14, the Germans assembled three infantry divisions and two tank divisions on the four kilometer front and launched an attack on the factory area. The powerful air force and artillery fire preparation started at dawn is the prelude to this attack. Behind the ears, the enemy's bombing and artillery fire continued until night fell. The number of enemy planes dispatched reached 3000 in one day. When the enemy shelled and bombed, the explosion was deafening, and the air was shaking with the roar. Everything is scorched, dust is flying, smoke is rolling, five meters away, nothing can be seen clearly

Although I only looked through the war report handed to me by trakov, I remembered most of the above. When yelimenko heard me retelling the contents of the war report, his expression was unusually calm. He even asked kirilov to sit down and listen to my report with him.

"At eight o'clock in the morning, the German army launched an attack. Their main assault directions were tractor factories and "barricade" factories. The areas defended by the 37th, 95th, 308 infantry divisions and the 84th tank brigade of the close guard infantry were heavily attacked by them. Among them, the 37th close guard division under the command of general rolujaf, although exhausted in the brutal battle, but in the narrow area in front of the division's defensive position, the enemy put in a full infantry division and dozens of tanks.

After the terrible aerial bombardment and gunfire, all life on the ground of our army seemed to have been destroyed by the enemy. When the enemy thought they could go through the collapsed buildings and occupy the positions of our army in the blazing and lifeless land, they found that they had miscalculated. As soon as they charged, every inch of land and every stone in front of them immediately regained their vitality. The defenders of Stalingrad skillfully used natural and artificial bunkers and tenaciously held the occupied positions.

The battle for the tractor factory is extremely fierce. Almost every house, every floor, and even every stairway has to fight fiercely‘ Some isolated buildings and streets between the barricade factory and the tractor factory workers' new village have changed hands several times. The commanders and fighters of the 37th division of the guards, the 95th division of the infantry and other units of the group army concealed themselves in the ruins of trenches, buildings or collapsed houses, and attacked the enemy with grenades, flasks and various weapons. Mortar teams and anti tank guns fire directly at enemy tanks.

However, the power gap between the enemy and us is too great. After more than four hours of cruel fighting, the enemy broke through the defense of the 37th division of the guards, defeated the left wing of the 112th infantry division, and went out to the stadium of Stalingrad tractor factory. At 16 p.m., the units of the 112th infantry division, the 37th guard division and the right wing units of the 308th infantry division were surrounded by enemy tanks. The commanders and fighters had to continue to fight in the encirclement, and the command posts of the regiments remained in place to command the troops. The battle went on very cruelly. The headquarters of division commander General rolujaf was hit by a bomb. He and the members of division headquarters were buried in the collapsed shelter. It was commander trakov who sent security forces to rescue him and sent him to the headquarters of the group army. Before that, the command of the 37th division was taken over by the chief of staff of the group army, who directly directed several regiments of the division through radio phones.

In the evening, the situation got worse. The 389th and 94th Infantry Divisions, the 100th Hunter division and the 14th and 24th tank divisions attacked the factory. There are 250-300 tanks in all. Before each attack, there was a heavy artillery preparation and intensive air bombardment. At the end of the powerful artillery and aviation operations, the tank echelons and follow-up infantry quickly charged to our army.

On October 15, fierce fighting continued in the tractor factory area and the northern part of the front line of our group army. The enemy put their 305th infantry division into battle again, and attempted to attack South and north along the Volga River, making a detour back to the main rear of our army and annihilating all our troops. The German artillery and air force constantly suppressed our defense positions, and sent out fighters to block the airport on the East Bank of Volga River to prevent our air force from taking off, so as to ensure that the air control power on the battlefield was in their hands.

At the time when the enemy attacked fiercely, the 37th division of Jinwei was shouldering the heavy burden of the main fighting force. Some of its independent units and some of its troops had been fighting in the tractor factory workers' new village and the section of minusinskaya street. The 95th infantry division and the 84th tank brigade are also engaged in arduous fighting. The rest of the group army are also fighting with the enemy's small units in different areas.... "

When yeliaomenko heard this, he raised his hand to interrupt me and said in a discontented tone: "Comrade oshanina, you have been nagging for a long time. You can't just say how tenacious the 37th division of the guards was under the crazy attack of the enemy. But does it work? No matter how brave their commanders and fighters are, they will not change the fact that the enemy occupied the tractor factory, will they

It is true that the tractor factory was once lost. Since yelielmenko said so, I had to nod my head with a bitter smile and say, "yes, comrade commander of the front army, under the strong offensive of the enemy, the garrison in the factory area lost all their lives, and the German army swarmed in and almost occupied the whole factory area." Yelomienko sneered and said with disdain: "although general ruolujaf had a tenacious resistance in the early stage of commanding troops, in the end, they still failed to defend this crucial tractor factory. With this alone, it would not be too much to send him to a military court. " When I heard him say this, I suddenly felt that something was wrong. The lost tractor factory had been recaptured by the shejerikov regiment, which had been cooperated by the 84th brigade of tanks, in the counterattack last night. Didn't yelomienko know about it, or he would not be angry for losing the defensive area of the tractor factory? Thinking of this, I asked cautiously, "Comrade commander of the front army, don't you know that the tractor factory has been recaptured by us?"“ What, the tractor factory has been recaptured? " It wasn't yelomienko who spoke this time, but general Popov, who was expressionless and didn't speak all the time, asked me excitedly: "Comrade oshanina, who did you listen to about this matter? Are you not mistaken?" Popov's words further confirmed my conjecture. It seems that they didn't get our latest war report at all, so I quickly explained: "general Popov, because the troops participating in the counter offensive are a regiment under my independent division. Under the cover of the 84th tank brigade, the regiment has successfully recaptured the tractor factory after a night of fierce fighting. At the same time, in the course of counterattack, the tank brigade also attacked the German tank division's camp and destroyed nearly 100 tanks and armored vehicles. "“ Comrade Popov, "yelomienko asked his deputy solemnly," why do I not know such important information? " After being asked about Popov's eyes and tongue tied for half a day, he hesitated and said, "Comrade commander, perhaps because of poor communication, this important information was not reported to the headquarters of the front army in time."