Chapter 856

After only one round of rocket fire on the east bank, howitzers and cannons continued to bombard the factory area of "Red October". The huge explosion broke through the silent winter night. With the shrill sound of countless shells cutting through the air, the German army was completely covered by the gunfire, and the shells poured down in the north side of the factory like a rainstorm.

Looking out from the telescope, we can see that after each shell landed, a deep pit within ten meters was formed in the center of the explosion point. If it happened that the German troops in this center were blown to pieces, and many German officers and soldiers who were lucky to be far away from the explosion point did not escape the flying shrapnel and fell to the ground in pieces. The whole camp has been reduced to a living hell. The German soldiers who have never been hit by such heavy artillery do not even know what to do. They can only run around like headless flies. Tanks and cars are constantly destroyed by the roaring shells, overturned by the air waves, and even the ammunition stacked around them is detonated by the shells, causing chain explosions, It caused more casualties to the German soldiers who ran around.

When the artillery bombardment was most intense, I suddenly felt that someone was patting me on the shoulder behind me. I quickly put down my telescope and looked back. Behind me stood shijerikov. When he saw me looking back, he quickly yelled at me. However, I felt that his voice seemed to come from a very distant place. He quickly turned his ear to me, It was clear that he was saying, "Comrade division commander, there is a friendly commander coming outside. He is waiting for you in the opposite room."

A friendly commander? What are they doing in my area? With this question, I followed behind xijerikov to an empty room opposite. There were three commanders with big cornice hats standing near the window. When I came in, they came to me.

Shijerikov closed the door behind me, and the explosion from outside was much quieter. With the help of the moonlight coming through the window, I saw several people standing in front of me. I was surprised and asked, "aren't you Colonel Sokolov, the commander of the 45th division? I don't know what you are doing in our division's defense area so late? "

Sokolov heard me call out his name, quickly stepped forward, raised his hand to salute me, and said: "Comrade General, commander of the 45th infantry division, Colonel Sokolov reports to you, I am ordered to lead the troops to cooperate with the operation of the independent division, waiting for your orders!"

"Oh, oh." At a loss, I looked at the commanders in front of me. I didn't know how to answer Sokolov's report in military language. I felt that they came too suddenly, because no one told me that there would be friendly forces other than artillery to cooperate with us.

Instead of caring about my indifferent attitude, Sokolov introduced to me the political workers standing beside him: "Comrade General, this is my deputy political division commander and regimental political commissar, comrade gramazda."

When gramazda heard Sokolov introducing him to me, he quickly stepped forward, raised his hand, saluted me and said with a smile, "Hello, Comrade General!"

I quickly raised my hand to return a gift to him, and said in a flurried way: "Hello, comrade political commissar at the regiment level."

"Comrade division commander, this commander is captain beliffer, commander of the 6th company of the 178th regiment of the 122mm howitzer artillery." Sokolov pointed to the commander who was standing still and said to me, "his artillery company is specialized in providing artillery cover for our attack."

After Sokolov's introduction, I asked, "Comrade Colonel, may I ask, by whose order are you here?"

When Sokolov heard me say this, he looked surprised: "Comrade General, have you not been informed?"

"What notice?" I asked, puzzled.

"In today's attack, commander trakov intends to wipe out the enemy in the factory area of Red October." Sokolov quickly repeated the order of his superior to me: "he was afraid that you would not have enough troops, so he temporarily decided to transfer our division to cooperate with your attack on the" Red October "factory area."

As the artillery fire on the east bank might stop at any time, I could not care to find out why I had not been informed, so I asked Sokolov straightforwardly, "Comrade Colonel, what are you going to do when you attack later?"

Sokolov turned to his commissar and said with a smile, "Comrade commissar, please give me the map." Gramazda nodded, took a rolled map out of the bag that was slung over his shoulder and handed it to him. Sokolov took the map and looked left and right, then spread it flat on the ground.

To make sure we could see the map on the ground, everyone avoided the side by the window so that we could see the map by the moonlight. However, Rao is so, I still feel a little hard to see the words on the map. Sokolov seemed to find out the problem and immediately told the artillery captain beside him: "Comrade captain, I used your flashlight for a while."

At Sokolov's command, belifel quickly took off his carry on backpack, took out a flashlight from it and turned it on to light us. Seeing that the words on the map became clear in the light, Sokolov squatted on the ground and explained to me the attack route of the 45th Division: "Comrade General, we plan to break through the German peripheral defense line, rush into the factory area, and then rush into the model workshop, classification workshop and mechanic workshop occupied by the German army in three ways. After clearing the enemy inside, we can enter the western part of the factory, So as to complete the encirclement of the enemy. "

My original idea was to send a regiment to the area guarded by the 39th division of the guards after breaking through the German defense line. After meeting them, I would turn around and destroy the German army in the factory. But now with the cooperation of the 45th division, we have a greater grasp of encircling and annihilating the German troops in the Red October factory area.

In order to make Sokolov's troops better cooperate with our division's operations, I pointed to the map and explained my operational intention to him: "Comrade Colonel, I plan to send a battalion of troops to break into the factory area after the artillery preparation is over, and quickly rush to join the 39th division of the guards who are holding their positions in the factory area. Then I turned over and divided the German troops into small pieces. After dawn, under the cover of the aircraft cannons, they ate them bit by bit. However, with your cooperation, we can join forces and attack several workshops occupied by the German army. Remember, try to squeeze the Germans to the east of the factory, where there are no strong fortifications, and we can easily defeat the enemy. "

However, after listening to my thoughts, Sokolov showed a worried expression on his face: "Comrade General, although our artillery has defeated the enemy, they have an advantage in the military strength after all. You only send one battalion to join the 39th division of the guards. Is it too thin?"

I understand why Sokolov is worried about the shortage of our troops. After several wars, many division level units have only a few hundred people. According to his idea, it's good to have 100 people in one battalion. So I laughed disapprovingly and said easily, "don't worry, comrade colonel. The battalion in charge of meeting with the friendly forces is now fully loaded, with a total force of 800. There is still no big problem in breaking through the German positions. "

"Eight hundred?" After I gave this figure, I really surprised Sokolov. Sokolov turned to his political commissar and said, "Comrade political commissar, there are so many people, almost half of our division."

When I heard that the sound of guns outside became sparse, I raised my hand and looked at my watch. Then I asked Sokolov, "Comrade Colonel, where are your troops?"

"Comrade General, please give it to me." Sokolov led me to the window, pointed out and said, "you see, my troops are hidden in the fortifications there, and they can attack immediately at the command."

With the help of the bright moonlight and the explosion of artillery shells in the distance, I saw that in the crisscross trenches, there were shaking helmets, so I nodded with satisfaction: "good. As soon as the shelling stopped, I will order your troops to rush up."

Just then, I vaguely heard a noise outside the door. I turned around and asked the man standing at the door, "Comrade commander, what's going on outside?"

He shook his head blankly, and then said, "Comrade teacher, I'll go out and have a look right away." With that, he turned to open the door and went out.

After a while, he came in with a soldier from the outside. After closing the door, he reported to me, "Comrade division commander, this soldier is from the division headquarters. He said that there is an order from the superior to be handed over to you."

"Show it to me." I said briefly.

I took the order of shejerikov to turn around, and captain belifel next to me lit my flashlight to make sure I could read the words on the paper. The order was issued by trakov, who officially informed me that after the night's artillery preparation, the 45th infantry division of Colonel Sokolov would cooperate with our attack.

After reading this order, I raised my head and asked the messenger, "Comrade soldier, when did the political commissar ask you to send this order to me?"

Hearing my question, the soldier lowered his head and said in shame, "about an hour ago."

"What, more than an hour ago?" When I heard this time, my blood rushed to my head. Fortunately, trekov only informed me that there were friendly forces to cooperate with us. If it was other orders, would it be a mistake soon? So my voice to the soldier was very strict: "it's ten minutes' journey from the division headquarters to here at most, but it took you more than an hour. Aren't you afraid that the order didn't arrive in time and the plane would be delayed?"

"Sir, please listen to my explanation." The soldier was scared out of his wits and explained to me in a hurry: "after I received the task, I was afraid of delaying the work, so I trotted all the way to this side. However, because the road is not familiar, ran in the wrong direction. By the time I found this mistake, I was far away from here... "

"Well, no more." At such a time, when I had no time to listen to his explanation, I told sergeant sharnikov, "Comrade commander, lock him up first, and deal with him after the battle is over." Shejerikov agreed, grabbed the soldier by the arm, ignored his entreaties, and dragged him out.

After about half an hour, Bantai leiev came to tell me that the fire on the East Coast had weakened and shifted to other directions. After listening to bantaileiev's report, I told Sokolov, "Comrade Colonel, order your troops to attack."

Sokolov agreed loudly, then turned to gramazda and said, "go ahead, my Commissar."

When gramazda heard his command, he nodded, then walked quickly to the window, opened the holster, pulled out the gun, and fired into the air. With the sound of his gun, a red flare rose into the air. Seeing the attack signal from the building, the earth shaking cry came out of the window: "go ahead! Wula At the same time came the sound of countless pairs of boots stepping on the snow. When I heard the news from outside, I knew it was the soldiers of the 45th division who started to attack. When Sokolov heard the news outside, he raised his hand to salute me and politely asked, "Comrade General, will you allow me to command my troops?"“ Go, comrade colonel I raised my hand to give him a gift. After Sokolov and the two of them left, the artillery company commander came up to me and said tactfully, "Comrade General, I have a request. The artillery of our company has no vehicle to tow. I need you to send someone to help me pull it."“ No problem. I'll send a company of infantry to help you later I readily agreed to the captain's request. As soon as the artillery captain left, several of them came to me and asked for instructions: "Comrade division commander, the army's attack has begun. Shall we follow up and cooperate with their military attack to launch a political offensive?"“ Yes, come with me. " With these words, I took Yushchenko and gramus, and they left the building, followed the route of the army attack, and headed for the factory area. In front of the trench which existed not long ago before the wall, the strong smoke mixed with the pungent smell of blood. You can see the ground full of broken limbs and flesh, and the blood flowing into a river. In the distant roar of rows of artillery fire, the wounded soldiers who have not yet lost cry and cry. It seems that this place has become a hell on earth. Seeing his compatriots struggling on the edge of life and death, gramus was a little impatient. He came to me and suggested, "Comrade division, you see so many wounded soldiers, we can't watch them die. I would like to ask you to send medical staff to treat them. How much can you save? " I looked at gramus, then nodded and said, "well, comrade captain, I'll leave it to you and lieutenant gretka." Then I said to Beckman, who was standing by, "Captain, follow me to the factory area. Maybe there are still many of your compatriots waiting for you to help. "