After Copetus jumped into the trench with his men, he said to Yefeim in a reproachful tone: "Comrade Warrior, what are you yelling? Are you worried that the enemy will not find our whereabouts?"
"No, squad leader." Ye Feim quickly waved his hands and explained to Copeto: "We have carefully checked the trenches and found no shadows of the enemy. It seems that they have given up here."
"What, the enemy has given up here?" Copeto thought he had heard it wrong, so he asked specifically: "Are you sure?"
"Yes." Ye Feim nodded vigorously and replied, "We just discovered a German command center, which was messy inside, and there was no one."
In order to figure out what was going on, Copeto hurriedly instructed Ye Feim: "Take me there and have a look."
With little effort, Copeto followed Ye Feim to a command center. From the cigarette butts and chocolate wrapping paper thrown on the ground, he judged that this was at least a battalion-level command post. Judging from the sporadic paper on the ground, the Germans walked very quickly. Although he didn't understand what was going on, he felt that he should report the matter to his superiors immediately.
Berkin received a telegram from Kopeto from the front. When he learned that the German army had disappeared without a trace, he was also very surprised, so he called Sokov and reported the matter to him.
"It's so hell, the Germans ran away." Sokov said to Sidolin and Ivanov as soon as he dropped the phone: "They ran so fast."
"What the hell is going on?" Ivanov did not associate the disappearance of the German army with the Soviet army's centripetal attack on the Gumlak area, so he asked strangely: "How could the enemy retreat for no reason?"
"Comrade Deputy Division Commander, have you forgotten that not long ago, the commander told us that the friendly troops on the periphery were ordered to carry out a centripetal attack on the Gumlak area." Sokov reminded the other party: "The disappearance of the 24th Armored Division of the German Army may be related to this matter."
"Yes, I think so too." Sidolin supported Sokov's statement in time. But he was also confused about the whereabouts of the German army: "But where will the 24th Armored Division of the German Army retreat?"
Sokov was not a god or a worm in Paulus's belly, so he naturally couldn't guess where the 24th Armored Division had retreated. Hearing this question from Cidolin, he shook his head slightly and said, "But where the 24th Armored Division of the German army was retreating, but I know that in a short period of time, they will no longer launch a new attack on the defensive zone of the Belkin regiment."
Sidolin and Ivanov were originally worried about whether the Belkin regiment could block the German attack. At this moment, I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when I heard that the enemy would not launch new attacks in a short period of time. In this way, there was no need to consider where to draw troops from to strengthen the defense of the right wing.
After a while, Cidolin asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, since the Germans have retreated, should the Belkin regiment be allowed to occupy the positions that the Germans gave up?"
"No," Sokov shook his head and said, "We don't have that many troops in our hands now. If the Belkin regiment is allowed to occupy the enemy's abandonment position, their existing troops will be dispersed. Once the Germans launch a new attack, they will be in a very dangerous situation."
After Sokov finished speaking, he felt that he should explain to Belkin himself, so that the other party would not be irritated for a moment and send troops to occupy the German abandoned position. After dialing the phone, he said to the microphone: "My political commissar, according to our analysis, your frontal 24th Armored Division should have retreated. My opinion on the positions they abandoned is to not occupy for the time being, so as not to disperse your troops."
"I understand." Before Sokov called, Belkin was also worried about whether to occupy the German abandoned position. If not, the commanders and soldiers were all panicked, and it would be a pity that they would not eat the big fat meat in front of them. But if they had to send troops to occupy it, the only troops in the regiment would be dispersed, and the defense forces everywhere would become weak. If the German army launched a counterattack, they could use various defeat tactics to break through the defense of the side. Now that Sokov has made a statement, Belkin naturally agreed with the flow: "No troops will be sent to occupy the German abandoned position for the time being."
After watching Sokov call, Ivanov kindly reminded him: "Comrade Commander, I think this matter needs to be reported to the commander. Otherwise, if he sees such a large area, if you don't send troops to recover it, you may have bad associations."
Although Sokov is not low in his position, he is too young and lacks a lot of life experience and has many shortcomings in handling matters. At this moment, when he heard Ivanov's reminder, he immediately realized that he had almost made a big mistake and quickly asked the communications troop to answer the headquarters' phone number and was about to report the matter to Cui Kov in person.
When Cuikov received a call from Sokov, he was shocked when he learned that the 24th Armored Division of the German Army had retreated and disappeared. He immediately asked: "Col. Sokov, since the German army has retreated, have you taken any action?"
"No, Comrade Commander," Sokov replied respectfully: "I order the troops to stay on the existing positions and not to take any action."
"What, you let the troops stay on the existing positions and do not take any action?" Cui Kefu couldn't help but be anxious when he heard this: "Since the German army voluntarily gave up the positions, the first thing you should do is to send troops to occupy the positions and let as much territory as possible be controlled in the hands of our army. Do you understand?"
"Comrade Commander, please listen to my explanation." Sokov also wanted to occupy more land, but his troops were limited, so he could only choose to give up appropriately: "If I order the reduction regiment to enter the position abandoned by the German army, then their overall defense force will become weak due to the expansion of the defense zone. Once the German army launches a counterattack, the troops of the reduction regiment may defeat the enemy one by one. At that time, no matter whether the position I just occupied is lost, even the position that originally belonged to us may be lost."
"Don't you have three regiments?" Cuikov might have heard that Sokov had no intention of sending troops to occupy those positions at all, and he felt very unhappy: "If necessary, they can come over to support the reduction regiment."
"Comrade Commander, our friendly forces have cut off the German retreat." Sokov was worried that Cuikov would actually transfer the three regiments of frontal defense to the right wing of Mamayevgang, so he reminded him: "When the enemy is desperate, they will definitely consider returning here, and they will try to regain the lost position. At that time, there may be a bad battle in the area of ​​Mamayevgang. If our army does not have enough troops, they may suffer losses, and the position they just seized will be lost again."
"You're still thoughtful." After Sokov's analysis, Cuikov immediately realized that he had thought the problem too simply: "Okay, as you said, the shrinking regiment sticks to its existing positions and will not occupy those positions that were abandoned by the Germans for the time being."
After obtaining the permission of Chokov, Sokov finally breathed a sigh of relief. After putting down the phone, he said to Cydolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, our next work should focus on the three regiments on the front of Mamayev. According to my speculation, in less than two days, the German army will launch another attack on us."
"No." Cidolin was skeptical about Sokov's statement: "The German 71st Infantry Division was beaten to death by us. Even if they were asked to fight back, I probably wouldn't have the power."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, don't underestimate the enemy." Seeing that Cydolin despised the strength of the German army too much, Sokov reminded him: "Yes, the 71st Infantry Division was indeed crippled by us. But the German army also has several other divisions of troops. Even if they transfer another division over, do you think our existing strength can stop them?"
Cidolin thought for a while, then shook his head and said, "I don't think I can stop it."
Ivanov couldn't help but blush when he heard this. No matter what, the other three guard regiments were their old subordinates, but in Sokov's heart, they seemed to be even less than the dissatisfied troops like the shrinking regiment. He coughed softly and said, "Comrade Commander, what do you think we should do to block the German attack."
"As it said, hurry up and repair the fortifications and establish a complete defense system before the German attack begins." Sokov specifically emphasized: "Now we have three lines of defense in front of Mamayev's hill, especially the second line of defense, which will be our defense focus."
"The second line of defense?!" Sidolin and Ivanov couldn't help looking at each other when they heard Sokov say this. Neither understood what Sokov said. Sidolin asked curiously: "Comrade Commander, why is the second line of defense?"
"The enemy has powerful artillery fire. When they attack our division's defense line, they will definitely carry out intensive artillery bombardment, which will cause us huge casualties." Sokov explained to the two: "The location of the second defense line can be supported by artillery soldiers from the left bank. If necessary, the artillery fire can be called to intercept the attacking enemy to relieve our defense pressure."
"It makes sense, it makes sense." Sokov explained this and Ivanov remembered that during the last counterattack, Sokov had taken the initiative to order the troops to stop the attack in time after occupying the second line of defense, in order to avoid the troops not being able to obtain artillery fire support from the left bank when attacking the third line of defense, and being bombed by the Germans. He took the initiative to say: "I will go to the front line in person later and instruct the three regiment commanders to focus on strengthening the fortifications of the second line of defense."
"Comrade Commander," after Sidolin and Ivanov made their statement, he asked again: "Do we need to take any action to cooperate with the actions of friendly forces?"
"Cooperate with the actions of friendly forces?" Sokov was really amused and amazed when he heard about Sidolin's question: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the peripheral troops are still dozens of kilometers away from us. It will take a long time to break through the German defenses. The defenders in the city are still very weak, and they are limited to carrying out some small-scale counterattacks, which is not very helpful to our defense.
Our current task is to consolidate the defense line. As long as we can defend our position, we can only turn from our current defense to the offensive after the left bank’s materials and soldiers are continuously transported across the river. Do you understand?"
"What about the small team originally scheduled to be sent to the Gumlak area?" Cidolin continued to ask, "Are you still sent out?"
"Of course we have to send it." Sokov nodded and said, "Although we have been fighting positions with the German army for a long time next, the sabotage activities in the rear of the enemy should not be stopped. Comrade of the deputy division commander, when you go to the front line to inspect, the three regiment commanders will be able to successfully draw capable personnel to form an enemy's operation team. If possible, they will be sent to the enemy's back tonight."
"Don't worry, comrade Commander." Ivanov felt particularly proud when he thought of the upcoming team that might use rockets to destroy Paulus's Army Command: "I will arrange this."
"Chief of Staff," Sokov remembered the guerrillas that had operated with Guchakov and others, and asked Sidolin again: "Do we still have contact with the Ignatov brothers guerrillas? How are they doing recently?"
"Before the start of the counterattack, some of the guerrillas that were involved in the attack on the station were ordered to move and rushed to the Don River to pick up friendly troops going south. Some of them stayed in place and continued to fight guerrilla battles." Sidorin reported to Sokov: "The guerrillas of the Ignatov brothers stayed and continued to fight with the enemy."
Since the last attack on the German station and the capture and burning of a large amount of military supplies, the guerrillas in that area have become thorns in the German army's side and are thorns. Paulus sent many troops into the forest to clear the guerrillas. If the situation of the war had not changed, Paulus had to withdraw the clearing force, and the guerrillas would have been severely injured. But even so, several guerrillas suffered considerable losses.
"There are also Captain Andre's third battalion," Sidorin reminded Sokov: "We have not issued any combat orders to the battalion since the counterattack. You see, what tasks should we assign to them in the next days?"
"Their troops are limited, and even if they are ordered to launch a counterattack, it will be difficult to achieve any results." Sokov stared at the map for a while and sighed softly. Although he knew very well that the German army did not have much power in the area where the Third Battalion is active, even if Andrei was ordered to seize the department store, it would be possible to do so. But once the department store is occupied by his own troops, Paulus will not be able to set up a new headquarters in the department store like in real history. In order to capture Paulus in the future, Sokov decided that the troops in the city would not take too fierce attacks for the time being, so as not to scare the Germans. He ordered Cydolin: "Just let them maintain the status quo and defend the existing positions, and do not attack the enemy easily."
Chapter completed!