"What, you went to the grassland front?" Yakov was stunned, and then asked tentatively: "Misha, have you made any mistake recently?"
"No," Sokov asked in confusion: "Why did you ask that?"
"If you didn't make a mistake, how could you transfer you to the Grassland Front?" Yakov explained to Sokov: "Although they are all fronts, the Grassland Front is just a reserve force. It's hard to say whether there is a chance to join the war. But once a new battle begins, the superiors will draw troops and equipment from you locally to supplement other combat troops."
"In the Red Army village - Donetsk front line, there will be no large-scale battles in a short period of time." Sokov saw that Yakov's U-coin was informed, and quickly explained to him: "After I learned that my superiors planned to transfer me to other fronts, I finally chose the Grassland Front after repeated thinking."
He might be worried about what Yakov said, adding: "Yasa, don't be a reserve team now, we may play a greater role in the next battle. Just as during the Moscow Defense War, Marshal Zhukov also served as the commander of the reserve front and commanded this force to liberate Yellinga, occupied by the German army."
Yakov did have a lot to say, but when he heard Sokov's words, he swallowed the words to his mouth, and changed his mouth and asked, "Then what can I do to serve you?"
"There are many things you can do for me." Sokov smiled and said, seeing that Yakov was no longer worried about his transfer to the commander of the reserve team, "I hope you can continue to provide us with that new rocket, which is the best weapon to attack the German army."
"It's all right. This new rocket was originally invented by you. It is given priority to your troops, and no one else can find anything." After Yakov recorded Sokov's request in the notebook in front of him, he asked: "What else do you need?"
"The new rocket can be used to give us a step further," Sokov said. "I hope you can find a way to replace us with a batch of tanks, which is the T-34/85 tank we used in the Stalingrad defense battle. You can change as much as you can."
Yakov said helplessly to Sokov's request: "Misha, I will contact the director of the Red October factory as soon as possible to obtain useful data from him. But you have to know that making tanks is not as good as guns and cannons, especially this type of improved tank. It is already a great opportunity to produce twenty or thirty vehicles a month."
"Only twenty or thirty vehicles can be produced?" Sokov couldn't help feeling disappointed when he heard the data reported by Yakov: "This output can only be equipped with a battalion."
"Misha, at the beginning, the output of new tanks would definitely be very low. After all, it will be affected by the production environment and the proficiency of workers." Yakov explained to Sokov: "Our factories that can produce tanks have been damaged by war, and their production capacity is inevitably affected. In addition, many technical workers have gone to the front line, and new factories are half-aged children and women. It is still difficult to get them to reach the production level of young and middle-aged male workers in a short period of time."
"Yasha, I understand what you said." Sokov was very clear about what Yakov said. The skilled workers in the factory either moved to the far rear with the factory equipment and reorganized a new factory for production; they picked up weapons and joined the army or militia, which seriously affected the normal production of the factory. "I just hope you can find a way to increase the production of the factory so that my tank troops can be replaced as soon as possible."
Yakov noticed a strange look in Sokov's tone and asked tentatively: "Misha, you seem to be in a hurry to change the tank troops. Have you heard any news?"
"Yasa, you have been in Moscow and you may not understand many things." Sokov said: "The reason why the Southwest Front was defeated by the German army is because the tanks they equipped were not the opponents of the German tanks. At the same distance, the shells fired by our tanks could not penetrate the armor of the German tanks; and the enemy's shells could be directly destroyed as long as they hit our tanks.
The difference in equipment means that our army needs to make greater sacrifices on the battlefield to achieve the final victory. Yasha, I want you to change our clothes for us as soon as possible, just to minimize the casualties of the commanders and fighters in the next battle."
"I understand what you mean." Yakov continued after a moment of silence: "The difference between our army and the enemy in equipment must be narrowed so that we can achieve greater victory at the lowest price. Many of the battles you command follow this principle."
Seeing that Yakov understood his intentions, Sokov suddenly became much more at ease. He knew very well that with Yakov's friendship with him and his current position, it should be no big problem to give priority to providing supplies for his troops in terms of weapons and equipment.
Just before he was about to hang up the phone, Sokov suddenly remembered that he had heard Lunev mention that Yakov and his friends had developed a new type of transportation, which was just right to take this opportunity to ask: "Yasa, I heard some time ago that you seem to have developed a new type of transportation that can be free from terrain. If it is not involved in confidentiality regulations, can you introduce the situation to me?"
"In fact, there is nothing to keep secret," Yakov sighed softly and said: "It is an air hovercraft, a high-speed ship that uses the principle of surface effect and relies on air above the atmosphere to form air cushions between the hull and the water surface or the ground, so that the hull can sail entirely or partially away from the support surface."
Sokov was disappointed when he heard that it was just a hovercraft. He thought that Yakov had developed a ground-effect aircraft, so that the troops, equipment and various materials could be carried, were the most suitable for combat. But he knew very well that with the current technological level, there was no possibility of creating a ground-effect aircraft. However, in order to understand the performance of this hovercraft, he still asked tentatively: "How is the carrying capacity of the hovercraft?"
"We have tested and found that the hovercraft can only be carried on 20 commanders and fighters and the weapons they carry, or carry no more than five tons of supplies." Yakov introduced to Sokov: "At present, we have completed the tests on swamps and lakes, and the maximum speed can reach 60 knots."
"So when do you plan to conduct land transportation testing?"
"I'm afraid we'll have to wait until the second half of the year," Yakov replied. "After testing, we found that there are still many things that need improvement."
For Sokov, this kind of hovercraft is useless. Its carrying capacity can only be considered as a truck. Although its speed is quite fast, it cannot be equipped with troops on a large scale due to cost issues. How much use can it be achieved if it only relies on one or two hovercraft to transport it?
After thinking through this truth, Sokov did not ask questions about hovercraft again, but instead shifted the topic to weapons and equipment: "Yasa, my army has just replenished a large number of soldiers, and many of them have no weapons yet. Look, can you help us contact the logistics department and give priority to adding a batch of weapons to us?"
"If it's just a light weapon, I think the problem shouldn't be big." Yakov said on the phone: "I'll call you again when things get out of the way."
After Sameko waited for Sokov to put down the phone, he said with envy: "Comrade Commander, I really didn't expect that you are so familiar with the people in the Weapons and Equipment Department. If we can really obtain new tanks, the scale of the tank army can be expanded."
When Sokov heard Sameko say this, he showed an unexpected expression on his face. He asked in surprise: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I don't understand what you mean?"
"Comrade Commander, after I acquire the new tank, I will not immediately hand over the original tank to other troops." Samek said proudly: "In this way, we will continue to use these weapons to equip the troops."
Sokov did not explain his relationship with Yakov to Sameko, but nodded and asked casually: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I would like to ask whether our troops have conducted training subjects for joint intra-arctic artillery combat?"
"Infantry and artillery cooperation?" Sameko may have heard this term for the first time and asked in surprise: "Comrade Commander, have we been using infantry and artillery cooperation? Every time we prepare for the German positions for a long time, the infantry will attack the enemy's positions."
Sokov felt that Sameko might have misunderstood his meaning, so he said to him: "Comrade Chief of Staff, before our army attacked, the artillery fire preparations for bombarding the enemy's positions were actually not very effective. At the beginning of the artillery attack, the enemy's main force retreated to the second line of defense. After our army's artillery fire extended and fired, the enemy returned to the front line position to repair the bombed fortifications, and be prepared to face our army's attack."
As Sokov's deputy, Sameko was still used to the old tactics. After Sokov finished speaking, he immediately added: "Comrade Commander, our army's tactics have always been to prepare artillery fire on the enemy's positions first. After the artillery fire stops or extends the shooting, the infantry will attack. Is there anything wrong with this?"
"Of course, something is wrong, but it's ridiculously wrong." Sokov felt that it would take quite a while to reverse Sameko's old concept. He could only change the other party's concept step by step: "In fact, when our army's artillery fire is about to end, the infantry should launch an attack. After the artillery fire is over, the enemy will not have time to repair the fortifications destroyed by the artillery fire, and our commanders and soldiers have rushed to them to achieve the goal of seizing the enemy's position as soon as possible."
After listening to Sokov's words, Sameko thought for a long time and said suddenly: "Comrade Commander, I understand. The reason why our army's attack failed in the past was entirely because when the artillery fire began to extend the shooting, the infantry did not seize the opportunity to attack in time, but waited for a while before they received the order to attack.
In this way, the best time is delayed.
When our commanders and fighters approached the enemy's position, the enemy had enough time to repair the bombed fortifications and hide in the fortifications and shoot at our commanders and fighters. Let our infantry, who could have taken advantage of the cover of artillery fire, quickly approached the enemy's position, launch a difficult attack in the enemy's rain of bullets."
Seeing that the other party finally understood his intentions, Sokov showed a satisfied smile on his face. He nodded and said, "That's right, Comrade Chief of Staff, if our army is not in good condition when attacking, it will not only waste a large number of shells, but also make many commanders and fighters sacrifice their lives in vain. As commanders, we must avoid this situation, so we must include the training subjects of joint infantry and artillery in our daily training outline."
Starting from the next day, fortification construction in the Kosky area completely stopped, and the women and half-aged children who were recruited to participate in the fortification construction all returned to their homes one after another.
Konev soon found out about this matter. He called Sokov and asked angrily: "Major General Sokov, I have received news that all the fortifications in your defense zone have been stopped, and the women and half-aged children who participated in the construction have returned to their homes. What is going on? Who gave you such rights?"
"Report to the commander of the Front Army," said Sorkov and others slowly after the attack, "The reason I ordered all troops to stop the construction of fortifications was entirely because there was no need to do so. It was a waste of manpower and material resources, and it would delay the normal training of the troops."
"When you came to office yesterday, didn't I tell you that the construction of fortifications in the existing defense zone was the order of the Supreme Command's headquarters?" Although Konev felt that Sokov's words were justified, even if these fortifications were repaired, they would not be likely to be used, and there was no need to waste manpower and material resources to build these fortifications. But since the superiors have issued the order to build fortifications, they must still execute the original order unconditionally before receiving the new order. Out of love for Sokov, he said tactfully: "Major General Sokov, you are blatantly disobeying. If you don't let the troops start building national defense fortifications again as soon as possible, what awaits you may be dismissed or sent to a military court."
Chapter completed!