Chapter 926

"Already a platoon leader?" Sergeant adir's words made me stunned. I said in my heart that sergeant xiejerikov's action was very sharp. I'm going to promote Adil to platoon leader after today's battle. I didn't expect that you had done it ahead of time. I raised my eyebrows and asked tentatively, "Comrade sergeant, is it lieutenant colonel chejerikov who appointed you?"

Adier shook his head and said with a confused face: "it's not the team leader. He has so many things to worry about. How can he have time to ask me about such trifles as being the platoon leader?" Seeing my puzzled expression on my face, he quickly explained: "our platoon leader died in the battle just now, so the company commander temporarily appointed me as the acting platoon leader." When he said this, he turned to look at the collapsed building behind him, and said in a gloomy tone: "the remains of the platoon leader and the dead comrades in arms are parked in that building."

"How are the casualties in your platoon?" Since he talked about the sacrifice of the platoon leader, I followed his words and asked, "how many people are left now?"

"Report to the commander," adir reported to me in accordance with the regulations, "all the original 56 people, after fierce fighting, sacrificed 11 people, injured 25 people, and all the seriously wounded have been evacuated. At present, there are 37 people who still have fighting capacity in the position."

I had just heard adir's report and was about to speak when I saw several people coming towards us along the trench in the distance, led by a lieutenant and followed by two soldiers with submachine guns. I guess it may be the top commander in this section of the position. He may have got the report from his subordinates, so he came to have a look in person.

Adil looked at me and said nothing, but his eyes turned to one side. He quickly looked over there. After seeing the person clearly, he reported to me, "Comrade commander, it's our company commander, Lieutenant antonic."

As soon as he finished, the lieutenant came to me. Fearing to salute and expose the target, he straightened up and reported to me: "Comrade commander, Lieutenant antonic, commander of the sixth company of shereblenny's battalion, reports to you that our company is holding the position by the Dnieper River. Please give us your instructions!"

I laughed at the lieutenant, and then asked kindly, "Comrade lieutenant, how many people are there in your company? After the battle in the morning, how many people are left now, can you hold the position?"

After hearing my question, Lieutenant antonich straightened his waist and reported to me: "Comrade commander, there are 224 people in the company. 41 people were killed and 65 people were injured in the battle. In addition to the seriously injured people who were evacuated, there are 150 people in the position. At present, we are defending the area from the south to the pontoon, and the front is one kilometer. " At this point, he couldn't help raising his voice. "Our battalion is named after the commander of the battalion, major shereblenny. Every commander and soldier in our battalion cherishes this hard won honor. As long as one of our company's soldiers is alive, the Germans will not try to rush through our position. "

"Very well, comrade lieutenant, you said it very well. You are good After praising antonich, I turned to look at the soldiers standing in a row in the trench and said aloud, "comrades, you are all good." In my praise, each soldier raised his chin high, as if proud of the praise I gave them.

Leaving the front line, I took Yushchenko to a regiment headquarters a few blocks away. Seeing my arrival, xiejerikov was shocked and then asked in a panic: "Comrade commander, how did you come to me? It's too dangerous here. Why don't you go back to the army headquarters? "

I waved my hand, went straight to the table, sat down, looked up and asked him, "Lieutenant sergeant chejerikov, tell me about you here."

He frowned and said, "Comrade commander, although the German forces, under the cover of mortars and machine guns, launched several charges against our defensive positions by the river. But judging from the strength of their attack, it seems that their intention to seize our army's Riverside positions is not firm, and their attack is more like a feint to contain our army's forces. "

"Feint?" I was surprised by this statement made by chejerikov. I asked in surprise, "Comrade commander, why do you say that the enemy's attack is just a feint attack?"

"Well, comrade commander." Shejerikov pushed a map in front of me, pointed to it and explained to me: "after shelling the riverside positions of our regiment and the fourth regiment, the German army launched several waves of attacks. If they seize the time to repair the pontoon while our army's attention is attracted by the infantry coming from the ice, their tanks will soon be able to rush over the pontoon. However, the German army did not adopt this simple and limited attack mode, but used the infantry attack mode of fighting consumption. With the command level of Mannstein, would he make such a low-level mistake? I think he must be brewing a big conspiracy by doing so. "

I am also confused by the words of chejerikov. If Manstein took the initiative to withdraw from zaborosh in order to lead us into the urn, then it was a wrong decision for him to blow up the pontoon. Because even if the floating bridge is still there, can we rush across the bridge with our strength? But now, before the "skeleton division" and "imperial division" arrived at zaborosh, he hastily ordered the troops to launch an attack from the other side of the Dnieper River, and even adopted the most stupid way of infantry attack. Is he not afraid that his elite troops will be exhausted in the attack?

Before I could think of a reason, the telephone on the desk rang. He picked it up, listened to it, handed it to me, and said in a low voice, "Comrade commander, your phone is from the chief of staff."

I took the microphone in his hand and said in a loud voice close to his ear, "Hello, chief of staff? I'm o'shanina. What do you want to report to me? "

"Comrade commander, this is the situation." Wittkov did not beat around the Bush and said frankly, "major akhromeyev called to say that a German infantry division of 336 launched an attack on our garrison from the east of Kuban."

It was said that even Kuban had exchanged fire with the German army. I asked nervously, "chief of staff, what's the situation with Kuban now? Has the enemy's attack been defeated?"

"Yes, comrade commander." Wittkov said in a positive tone: "the position of the German attack is exactly the company under the command of lieutenant colonel kosga. Our commanders and fighters are very stubborn in the face of the fierce attack of the enemy. Col. kosga even acted as a heavy plane gunner himself, killed dozens of enemies, and directed the troops to launch a counter charge against the enemy, killing nearly 200 German soldiers, and blowing up three armored vehicles and a dozen trucks. "

"I see, chief of staff." When I heard that the enemy's attack in Kuban's direction had been repulsed, I felt a little more secure, so I told wittkov: "pay close attention to the German movement in Kuban's direction, and call me as soon as there is any new situation. Do you understand? "

"I see, comrade commander." Vitkov replied briefly.

After I put down the phone and gave a brief explanation to Xie jerikov, I hurried to the division headquarters of bantailiev to learn more about the defense of the 22nd division.

I went into the headquarters and saw a busy scene. The chief of staff, lieutenant commander Elia, was talking loudly on the phone beside the wall, while bantaileiev and political commissar oberstein were facing me, looking at a map hanging on the wall, as if they were studying something.

I went behind them and coughed heavily. When they turned around, they asked, "general bantailiev, commissar oberstein, what are you looking at?"

"Hello, comrade commander." Bantailiev first straightened up and saluted me, and then reported, "we are studying the deployment of the city. We should know that although zaborosh is not very big, once thousands of people of our division are scattered everywhere, the troops in each defensive area are very weak. If the German forces rush into the city, we can't beat them back, let alone destroy them, with our present strength. "

I shrugged my shoulders and said helplessly, "Comrade General, although I want to strengthen your close guard 22nd division, I can't do it. I have a limited number of troops now, and the German army has launched attacks on us from several directions at the same time. Every defensive zone needs a lot of troops, so I planned to supplement your two regiments, Now we can only give one. "

After hearing what I said, bantaileiev and oberstein looked at each other and said, "Comrade commander, don't talk about a regiment, even if you only give us one additional battalion, then we can deal with the Germans for a long time."

"You can't just deal with the Germans." When I said this, I went to the bench beside the table and sat down, and continued, "we have to find a way to eliminate their living power as much as possible. Otherwise, when we break through in a few days, we will play very hard

"Break through?" Bantaileiev and oberstein were startled by this word. After they looked at each other again, oberstein asked: "Comrade commander, our army now has more than 10000 or 20000 people, and its weapons and equipment are not bad. They are fully capable of guarding the city. Why should we consider breaking through?"

I looked at Bantai leiev and saw that he was staring at me and seemed to be waiting for my answer. Then I coughed gently, cleared my throat and said to them, "you may think that with our present strength, even if we can't eliminate the Germans, we can contain them under zaborosh and wait for the main forces of our two front forces to arrive, When they are surrounded, is it another victory of the "battle of Stalingrad"

Seeing that they both nodded their heads at the same time, I knew that they, like harridonov, were optimistic about the current situation, so they specially reminded them, "don't forget that there is a wide Volga river behind us in the defense of Stalingrad, which makes it impossible for the German army to encircle us from the back, and at the same time, it can keep sending troops and soldiers to the front Weapons, ammunition and various materials were continuously transported into the city. But what do we have now? The German army came from all sides. The only place where our army kept in touch with the outside world was Kuban. At this moment, it was about to be attacked fiercely by the German army. Once this access to the outside world is blocked, we will be left alone. How many days of fighting can we sustain with our weapons, ammunition and materials? When we run out of ammunition and food, it will be the end of the whole army. " Because of the mention of being a prisoner in front of kirilov, he turned his face, so in front of them, I carefully avoided the word "prisoner" and replaced it with another word "total annihilation".

After listening to my analysis, their faces became ugly. After a while, bantailiev took the lead in asking: "Comrade commander, our army has several times more troops in Ukraine than the German army. Is it really helpless for us to take advantage of the German army?"“ Yes, comrade commander, "oberstein echoed," our commanders and fighters will be replaced by one German, and we will win in the end. " At this point, his voice suddenly lowered, "do you think things are too pessimistic?"“ Political commissar oberstein said, "although oberstein's words sounded harsh, I still kept restraint and tried to make them understand what the current situation is like." the "skull division" and "imperial division" around us are two German forces with strong fighting capacity, while there are several other similar forces in Ukraine at the moment. With their combat effectiveness, one division can easily defeat one of our armies. The imperial division defeated the Fourth Army of the guard infantry a few days ago, which is a lesson for us. Under such circumstances, it is unrealistic to imagine how to eliminate them. What we have to consider is how to maintain ourselves under the strong German offensive, and find the weak links of the enemy at the right time, so as to highlight the encirclement decisively. Do you understand? " I don't know if they really listened to me, but they all said, "I see." I changed the topic and asked oberstein: "Comrade commissar, have you sent someone to search around to see if there are any materials left by the German army?" As soon as my voice fell, oberstein shook his head like a rattle: "Comrade commander, since our troops entered the city, I sent a lot of search troops to check whether there were missing weapons or urgently needed materials in the original German warehouse." At this point, he shrugged his shoulders and said regretfully, "it's a pity that the German army moved the warehouse very clean and left us nothing."“ Yes, comrade commander. " As soon as oberstein finished, bandeleev also said, "the residents of zaborosh, perhaps before the German army occupied the city, evacuated to the rear. Without the residents, even if we want to find some food, it is impossible. " As we were talking, the sound of guns came from outside. Bantai leiev turned to lieutenant commander Ilya who had been on the phone and asked, "chief of staff, where are the German troops shelling again?" Elijah stood up straight, covered the microphone with his hand, and reported to us, "report to the commander and division commander. According to the report of the observation post, the German Army started shelling the riverside positions of regiment 1 and regiment 4 again, and was about to launch a new attack."