Chapter 1376 Unexpected Tragedy

"Comrade Commander," Lieutenant Colonel Uzakov, the new chief of staff of the division, took a step forward after the division commander had finished speaking, and said with some embarrassment: "There is an artillery regiment in the Guards Division, but now The artillery of the three brigades can barely make up two companies, I wonder if the headquarters can add some artillery to us?"

"Artillery?!" Hearing Lieutenant Colonel Uzakov's request, Sameko was embarrassed: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, don't you know that the artillery currently commanded by the Army Group Command is only two artillery divisions. Is it? And it is still a unit that may be transferred by the superior at any time, where can we replenish artillery for you?"

"Comrade Commander, Comrade Chief of Staff." Chuvashov was reminded of Uzakov's request. After scanning Sokov and Sameko several times, he politely proposed My own request: "The Guards Artillery Regiment only has two mortar companies that are not full. This is too shabby. I beg you, you must find a way to help us replenish some troops."

   Just as Sameko was about to speak, Sokov raised his hand to stop him. Sokov remembered that Antonov himself said that after the establishment of the Guards Division, the superiors would not replenish themselves with soldiers and commanders, and everything had to be supplemented by themselves. Looking at Chuvashov's expectant eyes, Sokov pondered for a moment, and then made a difficult decision.

   "Comrade Colonel," Sokov said to Chuvashov, "I have an artillery unit in my hand, which can be incorporated into the organizational system of your division and given to your command..."

Chuvashov did not expect Sokov to agree to his request so readily. He quickly raised his hand in salute and said gratefully, "Comrade Commander, thank you very much. Don't worry, I will definitely live up to your expectations. In the next battle, we will establish new feats."

When Sameko heard Sokov say that an artillery unit would be incorporated into the 98th Guards Division, he couldn't help but feel a little anxious: "Comrade Commander, in the troops belonging to the group army, except for the First and Second Artillery Divisions, where else is there?" What about other artillery units?"

"Have you forgotten the Women's Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion?" Sokov turned to Sameko and said, "Incorporate them into Chuvashov's Guards Division to temporarily solve the problem that the Guards Division's artillery regiment has no troops. "

Hearing that the artillery that Sokov said he wanted to incorporate into his army was actually the women's anti-aircraft artillery battalion, the muscles on Chuvashov's face twitched violently a few times, and then he said in embarrassment: "Comrade Commander, the artillery we want, What you gave us was the anti-aircraft artillery unit, and it was the women's anti-aircraft artillery battalion. Otherwise, I'd better not give it up..."

Sokov didn't wait for Chuvashov to finish, and said sternly: "Comrade Colonel, you must not look down on women. The characteristic is that women who have been on the battlefield, their performance is no worse than that of male soldiers. The women's antiaircraft artillery battalion The battalion commander, Captain Lida, and the trainer, Captain Ulanova, have all fought side by side with me. I know their capabilities very well. If I hadn’t seen you in the battle to liberate Belgorod, you would have established After all the work, I still won't incorporate them into your army?"

  After speaking, Sokov turned to Sameko and said, "Comrade Chief of Staff, immediately call the Women's Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion and order the battalion commander, Captain Lida, and the instructor, Captain Ulanova, to report to me."

  Ten minutes later, Lida and Ulanova walked into the headquarters.

  Sokov saw Lida's bandaged right arm hanging on his chest, he couldn't help being startled, and hurriedly stepped forward to ask, "Lida, what's going on, how did you get hurt?"

"Report to Comrade Commander," Lida replied with a pale face and forced a smile: "When the enemy planes bombed the headquarters during the day, my air defense positions also became the focus of enemy planes' attacks. In the battle, although we succeeded One enemy plane was shot down, two were damaged, but there were not small casualties. 27 girls were sacrificed, 35 were injured, and two anti-aircraft machine guns and five 37mm twin anti-aircraft guns were blown up .”

  When Lida first spoke, she tried her best to control her emotions, but as she spoke, her eyes turned red, and tears burst out of her eyes.

Seeing Lida crying, Sokov didn't know how to comfort her for a moment, he could only raise his hand and patted her on the shoulder lightly twice, and then said: "Lida, your performance during the daytime air defense operations Very heroic. I will find a way to replenish you with troops and anti-aircraft weapons as soon as possible."

  Lida wiped her tears with her uninjured left hand, and responded with a choked voice.

"Comrade Commander," Ulanova stepped forward and asked tentatively: "Our weapons have suffered a lot in daytime battles. Although we have repaired them ourselves, there are still many that cannot be repaired. Would you like to send someone to help us fix it?"

   "Comrade Captain, don't worry." Sameko said: "I will greet the director of the logistics department and ask them to send special maintenance personnel to help you repair the weapons damaged in the battle."

"Captain Lida, Captain Ulanova." Sokov waited for Sameko to finish speaking, and then began to introduce Chuvashov and others to Lida and the others: "Let me introduce you, this is the new Colonel Chuvashov, commander of the 98th Guards Division, Lieutenant Colonel Dobrushin, deputy commander, and Lieutenant Colonel Uzakov, chief of staff.

  The three division heads, this is Captain Lida, the battalion commander of the Women's Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion, and Captain Ulanova, the instructor. Although they are young, they have rich combat experience. "

After the ceremony was over, Sokov continued to say to Lida and Ulanova: "I called you here today to inform you in person that from now on, your women's anti-aircraft artillery battalion will be formally incorporated into the No. The 239th Artillery Regiment of the 98th Division."

Sokov's words surprised Lida and Ulanova. After they looked at each other, Lida asked Sokov her own question: "Comrade Commander, we are only anti-aircraft artillery, how can we be incorporated into the army?" What about the artillery regiment?"

"Captain Lida, I know it sounds absurd to organize your anti-aircraft artillerymen into the artillery regiment." Sokov shrugged his shoulders, spread his hands, and said helplessly: "But Chuva In the artillery regiment of Colonel Schoff, there are only two mortar companies that are not full of size, which is equivalent to an empty shelf. I can only wrong you to temporarily enrich the troops. After all, you still have a lot of 37mm double-linked anti-aircraft guns. Regardless of whether it can hit the enemy's aircraft or deal with the enemy's firepower, it is also a good weapon."

  After Sokov's explanation, Lida immediately understood Sokov's intentions, and quickly straightened her body and replied, "Understood, Comrade Commander, I will firmly obey your arrangement."

  After Lida finished expressing his position, Sokov turned to Chuvashov and asked with a smile, "Comrade Colonel, you won't object to incorporating Captain Lida's women's anti-aircraft artillery battalion into your army?"

  Before Lida and Ulanova appeared, Chuvashov had been thinking about how to find a way to reject Sokov's arrangement. But when the two female commanders appeared and reported the results of the day, his thoughts took a 180-degree turn. The reason why he rejected the women's anti-aircraft artillery battalion at first was not entirely because the opponent was an air defense force, but more The most important thing is to worry that an army of women will become their own burden on the battlefield.

At this moment, when Sokov asked himself to express his position, he quickly replied: "Comrade Commander, I obey your arrangement!" After speaking, he took the initiative to extend his right hand to Lida, and said with a smile, "Captain Lida, welcome! join in."

  Lida's right hand was injured, and she couldn't use her right hand to shake hands with the other party, so she stretched out her left hand, turned around and grabbed the other party's arm, and shook it gently twice, which was considered a handshake.

Seeing Lida shaking hands with him in such a strange way, Chuvashov realized that he had neglected the other party's injury, and quickly apologized and said: "Comrade Captain, I'm really sorry, I forgot that your right hand was injured." Due to his own fault, he withdrew his right hand, and stretched out his left hand again to hold Lida's left hand.

"Commanders, I have another piece of good news for you." Sokov waited for the two to shake hands, and said with a smile: "To celebrate the fact that Belgorod and Orel on the Northern Front won the Liberation, the Supreme Command decided to fire 120 salutes with 120 guns in Moscow's Red Square at 22:00 tonight to commemorate our great victory."

In real history, the Red Square in Moscow fired a salute at 24:00 on August 5, but due to the appearance of Sokov, the time for the liberation of Orel and Belgorod was a day earlier than before. , Therefore, the time for firing the salute has also been advanced by one day.

  After Chuvashov left with his men, Sameko asked Sokov: "Comrade Commander, what should we do next?"

"The troops of the Voronezh Front and the main force of the Steppe Front will enter Belgorod one after another tomorrow." Sokov said: "We must inform the troops to prepare for the handover of defense. After the defense is handed over to friendly forces, the troops belonging to the group army will Move south, choose a suitable area outside the city to station, and wait for the next order from the superior."

  Sameko hummed, and then asked again: "Comrade Commander, when do you think the superiors will launch an attack on Kharkov?"

"The German army has lost Belgorod, and morale is at a low stage. If the offensive is launched continuously during this time period, the results will be huge." Sokov said to Sameko: "I It is estimated that the superior will give us two days at most before launching a new round of attacks on the enemies entrenched in Kharkov."

"From the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War to the present, we have fought three battles in Kharkov." Upon hearing about Kharkov, Sameko seemed unconfident again: "In addition to this time, we should It’s the fourth time, and I don’t know if it will be successful.”

  Sokov smiled: "Comrade Chief of Staff, why do you always worry about gains and losses? Didn't I tell you that our army's fourth attack on Kharkov will definitely succeed?"

In order to reassure Sameko, Sokov said earnestly: "The failure of the first three battles of Kharkov was affected by various unfavorable factors. But if you look at the current situation, the Germans passed through Stalingrad. In the Battle of Defense and the Battle of Kursk, most of their experienced veterans were consumed in the battle, and the new recruits added to the army diluted the combat effectiveness of the entire army. As for our army, after two years of fighting, Both commanders and soldiers have been tempered in the war, accumulated a lot of valuable combat experience, and their strength has also been strengthened. Under the ebb and flow, we gradually began to gain an advantage. In the following days, our army Instead of simply conducting defensive operations, you can also choose to launch an attack on the enemy at the right location and at the right time according to the actual situation."

Early the next morning, Kryuchenko's 69th Army entered Sokov's defense zone. After receiving a call from Kryuchenko, Sokov ordered his troops to hand over their defense to friendly forces and drove to the south of the city to station .

   At noon, a large number of enemy planes suddenly appeared in the sky, and they carried out air strikes on the troops being transferred.

  As soon as Sokov got the information, he immediately yelled at Sameko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, immediately notify the troops that are being transferred, let them do air defense work, and reduce the loss of troops."

  Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Sameko shook his head with a wry smile and said: "Comrade Commander, it's useless. Now the troops are in the process of transferring, and the radio is basically not turned on. We can't get in touch with them at all."

Hearing what Sameko said, Sokov felt as if all the strength in his body had been drained. He slumped weakly on the seat, staring at the map on the wall not far away, thinking painfully: "If the troops cannot Air defense should be carried out on the ground to avoid the indiscriminate bombing of enemy planes, which will inevitably cause heavy casualties, so that one or two troops will definitely not be able to participate in the next stage of operations."

But after a while, Sokov sat up straight, grabbed the high-frequency phone in front of him, dialed a number, and said to it: "Communication soldier, this is Sokov. Get me the front army immediately." Headquarters, seek General Konev."

  In fact, even if Sokov did not make this call, Konev, who learned that Belgorod was bombed by the German army, had already sent fighter planes to expel the German bomber fleet to reduce the loss of ground troops.

  After the enemy plane was driven away, Sokov finally got in touch with his troops. Fortunately, the division commanders are all experienced. When they saw an enemy plane in the sky and knew that the enemy was about to carry out a retaliatory bombing, they issued an air defense alarm in time. Although the enemy's bombing was fierce, it caused very little damage to the troops.

  Just as Sokov, who had read the reports of the divisions, breathed a sigh of relief, Sameko walked over frowning. He handed the telegram in his hand to Sokov, and said solemnly: "Comrade Commander, please read this telegram from the friendly army."

   Sokov took the telegram and glanced at it, then immediately jumped up from his seat. He shook the telegram in his hand and asked Sameko, "Comrade Chief of Staff, where did this telegram come from?"

"It was sent by the Voronezh Front Army." Sameko said with a wry smile: "General Apanashenko, the deputy commander of the Front Army, died unfortunately because he was bombed by an enemy plane on the way to inspect the troops. This news, I It has been fitted in a special way and is completely authentic."

  (end of this chapter)