Chapter 1439 Fire coverage

Sokov waited for the communication lines in the headquarters to be laid, and immediately called Shechtman, and said straight to the point: "Colonel Shechtman, this is Sokov. I think your subordinate Mikhail Lieutenant Fu is good, and he is going to be transferred to the 73rd Infantry Brigade..."

Knowing that Sokov was going to poach Mikhaiev away, Shechtman was in a hurry, and before Sokov finished speaking, he couldn't wait to say: "Comrade Commander, Captain Mikhaiev is my subordinate, you Before preparing to transfer him, shouldn't you discuss it with me instead of notifying me directly like now."

"Discussion?!" Sokov said with a sneer: "Colonel Shechtman, if you want to transfer an officer from the 762nd regiment to take up a position in another regiment, do you need to discuss with the regiment commander Prochenko? After discussing with the colonel, you can transfer that officer only after obtaining his consent?"

"No, Comrade Commander." Hearing what Sokov said, Shechtman immediately realized that he had fallen into the trap of the other party's words, so he could only bite the bullet and say, "I will tell him my decision directly. He was then ordered to have the officer report to the new unit."

   "Comrade Colonel, you are right." Sokov waited for the other party to finish speaking and said smoothly: "Then after Captain Mikhaiev completes the transfer work, let him report to the new unit."

With a mournful face, Shechtman asked unwillingly: "Comrade Commander, can we really not keep Captain Mikhaiev? You know, after our army liberates Kharkov, I plan to promote him. , Let him be the battalion commander."

  Sokov laughed after hearing this: "Comrade Colonel, don't you think the battalion commander's position is too low? When he goes to the 73rd Infantry Brigade this time, he can not only directly serve as the battalion commander, but also serve as the deputy brigade commander."

  As soon as Sokov said, Shechtman became dumb. For a four-battalion production warfare unit like the infantry brigade, the battalion commander who also serves as the deputy brigade commander is more than one level higher than the battalion commander below his own regiment-level unit. By this time, he had given up completely, and could only say with a wry smile: "Okay, Comrade Commander, I obey your orders. After Captain Mikhaiev has completed the handover of work, I will immediately send him to the Infantry No. 73 brigade reporting."

"He is not the only one who is going to report for duty, Comrade Colonel." Sokov worried that Mikhaiev would go to the new army alone, and the work would be difficult to carry out. He also specially reminded Shechtman: "As long as he Whoever he likes, whether it is an officer or a soldier, he can be brought to the new army."

   "Comrade Commander, you can't do this." Hearing what Sokov said, Shechtman began to complain: "If he wants to take this battalion there, what should I do?"

Shechtman's words were not useless, at least it allowed Sokov to make a concession: "Comrade Colonel, don't worry, I won't let him take the entire battalion away. You can limit the number of people he takes away, such as Say no more than 30 people, this will not affect the existing combat effectiveness of the troops, and when he arrives in the new army, he will be able to carry out his work smoothly."

  After negotiating with Shechtman about the transfer of Mikhaiev, Sokov finally called Guchakov. After all, it is necessary to communicate with the other party in advance for such a big matter as arranging the deputy brigade commander.

  After the call was made, Sokov asked Guchakov: "Comrade Major, has your brigade arrived at the designated location?"

   "Two battalions and artillery companies have reached the north of Jergach, and the other two battalions and machine gun companies are still on the way. They will be led by the deputy brigade commander, Colonel Weisbach, and they will probably arrive at noon tomorrow."

  After listening to Guchakov's report, Sokov immediately realized that he had made a mistake in his busy schedule and made a low-level mistake: the 73rd Infantry Brigade already had a deputy brigade commander, Colonel Weisbach. As a colonel, the other party acted as a major's deputy, and I guess he felt aggrieved enough. Now that he arranges a captain to sit on an equal footing with him, I'm afraid it will make the other party feel resistant.

  Because Sokov was considering how to settle the matter, he did not speak for a long time. When Guchakov heard no sound from the receiver, he thought Sokov had hung up the phone, so he raised his voice and called out twice: "Comrade Commander, Comrade Commander, are you still there?"

   "Yes, I'm still here."

   "Do you have any instructions?"

"Oh, that's right, Major Guchakov." Sokov had already made a decision at this moment. It was obviously inappropriate for Colonel Weissbach to serve as Guchakov's deputy for the principal's time. It will be a matter of time before he is transferred to another army to take on a more important position, and now Mikhaiev is sent there just to play a transitional role. "I plan to send you a deputy brigade commander."

   "Send a deputy brigade commander?" Guchakov asked with some surprise: "Isn't Colonel Weisbach the deputy brigade commander of our brigade now, why send another one?"

Sokov, who had been mentally prepared for a long time, said casually: "It is a bit unfair to Colonel Weisbach to be your deputy. I plan to wait until the end of this battle and let him take on a more important position. Now send The new deputy brigade commander was there just to play a transitional role."

   "So that's the case, I understand." After Guchakov replied, he asked again: "I don't know the name and rank of the new deputy brigade commander?"

   "His name is Mikhaiev, with the rank of captain."

"What, the rank of captain?" Guchakov was startled by Sokov, and he asked cautiously: "Comrade Commander, you know, Weisbach has the rank of colonel, which is higher than mine. Now you Sending an officer with a lower rank than mine to take up the same position as him, I'm afraid it's a bit inappropriate."

"There is nothing wrong with it. I just said that once the battle is over, I will transfer Colonel Weissbach to other units to take on more important positions." Sokov said: "Lieutenant Mikhaiev not only wants to Serve as deputy brigade commander, and also serve as battalion commander."

   "Comrade Commander," Guchakov couldn't help asking when he heard that Sokov had assigned such an important position to Captain Mikhaiev, "You take such good care of him. Does he have any background?"

Since he wanted Mikhaiev to parachute to the infantry brigade, he naturally had to explain the other party's situation to the military officer of the brigade, so Sokov told Guchakov in detail what he knew about Mikhaiev. He read it again, especially the plot of persuading the enemies in the church to surrender, he said it very carefully.

  After listening to Sokov's narration, Guchakov felt more at ease. At least he knew that the one sent by Sokov was not some kind of wine bag and rice bag, but a capable commander. With the assistance of such a commander, it is difficult for one's own troops not to win the battle. He quickly expressed his position to Sokov: "Comrade commander, on behalf of the commanders and fighters of the whole brigade, I warmly welcome the arrival of Captain Mikhaiev."

As soon as the transfer of Mikhaiev was settled here, Sameko came over and said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, just received a telegram from Colonel Chuvashov asking when we can take offensive action? "

Sokov took the telegram in Sameko's hand, quickly browsed through the contents, put it on the table, and said: "Now that we have occupied Jergach, we can communicate with the 98th Guards Division. Echoing each other, even if they are besieged by the enemy after capturing the bridge, we can send a large force to reinforce them in the shortest possible time."

  Sameko obviously guessed that Sokov would say this, he waited for Sokov to finish, and asked quickly: "Then when should they carry out the bridge capture operation?"

Sokov did not immediately answer this question, but asked instead: "How is their current ammunition stockpile?" The threat outside Kharkov will definitely dispatch a large number of troops to carry out uninterrupted counterattacks. If there is not enough ammunition, the 98th Guards Division will not last long in the face of high-intensity German attacks.

"Comrade Commander, you can rest assured about this." Sameko reported to Sokov: "Colonel Yakov's hovercraft unit has been divided into three times and delivered two bases of supplementary ammunition to the 98th Guards Division. Among them are more than 400 new rockets, plus the original ones, there are about 600 rockets."

"Six hundred new rockets are very helpful for them to firmly defend the bridge after they seize the bridge." Sokov looked down at the map on the table, and then said to Sameko: "Comrade Chief of Staff , where is the enemy's artillery position on the Oud River?"

  Sameko walked up to Sokov, looked down at the table, then pointed to a location by the river, and said to Sokov, "It's right here, about three kilometers away from the bridge."

"The distance is three kilometers?" Sokov couldn't help frowning after hearing what Sameko said, "Once the enemy orders artillery to bombard the bridge in order to prevent our army from crossing the river, I don't think it will take long. It can blow up the bridge and lead to the failure of our army's crossing operation."

"Comrade Commander, you are right." Sameko agreed with Sokov's concerns: "If the enemy's counterattack fails to take the bridge back from our hands, they will resort to extreme measures. , destroy the bridge with artillery fire, and then our troops will not be able to cross the Oude River through the bridge."

   "In order to save the bridge, we must destroy the enemy's artillery positions."

"Comrade Commander, the new rockets that the 98th Guards Division now has are enough to turn the enemy's artillery positions into a sea of ​​flames." Sameko tentatively asked Sokov: "Do you need to order Colonel Chuvashov to use them immediately?" Rockets, attacking the enemy's artillery positions?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff, don't scare the snake away." Sokov shook his head and said, "The mission of the 98th Guards Division is to use their false identity as a German army to quietly carry out a sneak attack on the bridge and seize the bridge by surprise. After the bridge, it is not too late to destroy the enemy's artillery positions with rockets."

Then, after discussing the details with Sameko, Sokov told the other party: "Chief of Staff, immediately send a report to Colonel Chuvashov, ordering them to seize the bridge on the Oud River before dawn. Occupy Behind the bridge, use rockets to cover the enemy's artillery positions and eliminate the biggest hidden danger around them."

Chuvashov, who received Sokov's order, immediately called Lieutenant Colonel Granin, commander of the 296th Guards Regiment: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I received a call from the Army Group Command. The bridge over the Oud was captured before. Your regiment set off at once, approached and captured the bridge, pretending to be the enemy, and held it firmly."

Lieutenant Colonel Granin originally thought that the battle to seize the bridge would be extremely fierce, but what he did not expect was that when the troops led by Major Shamrich approached the bridge with two captured German tanks, the German troops guarding the bridge not only did not open fire. , and even illuminated them with searchlights, apparently treating them as troops retreating from the north.

  Such a good opportunity, there is no reason for Shamrich to give up. He commanded the troops to board the bridge, and unexpectedly disarmed the German officers and soldiers on duty.

  A German second lieutenant with a gun on his chest raised his hands and argued loudly: "Gentlemen, you made a mistake, we are our own people."

   "There is no mistake," Shamrih with a translator appeared in front of him and said to him in a contemptuous tone: "We are the Soviet Red Army, but we are just wearing your uniforms."

   In this way, a battalion of Shamrich's soldiers occupied the bridge on the Oud River without bloodshed, and captured more than a hundred German officers and soldiers guarding the bridge.

  When Chuvashov received a telegram from Shamrikh, knowing that the vanguard had occupied the bridge over the Ud River without firing a single shot, he couldn't help being overjoyed. On the one hand, he ordered the radio operator to send a telegram to the Army Group Headquarters to report the good news to Sokov; on the other hand, he personally called and ordered the troops carrying the new rockets to rush to the river to establish a launch position as soon as possible. , ready to attack German artillery positions if necessary.

Sameko received Chuvashov's telegram, immediately woke up Sokov who had just fallen asleep, and excitedly reported to him: "Comrade Commander, Colonel Chuvashov reports that the Shamrikh Battalion has gone well. During the battle for the bridge, the enemy on duty at night took them as his own, so there was no exchange of fire and there were no casualties in the whole battle."

   "Major Shamrih is quite capable," Sokov was particularly pleased with such a result: "It is really not easy to be able to take down the bridge without bloodshed."

   "Comrade Commander, Colonel Chuvashov also said that he has established a rocket launch position by the Ude River, ready to attack the enemy's artillery positions at any time."

"Wait a minute, Comrade Chief of Staff. You can't attack the enemy's artillery positions now." Knowing that Chuvashov was going to attack the German artillery positions now, Sokov quickly stopped him: "The enemy's artillery is sleeping at the moment. Bombarding their artillery positions can at most destroy the artillery they deployed on the positions, but the artillery casualties are very limited.

  In my opinion, it is better to wait until after dawn, when the enemy artillery uses artillery fire to cover the infantry to counterattack, and then use rockets to cover them with firepower. At that time, it will not only destroy the enemy's artillery, but also kill their artillery in large numbers.

  The artillery is destroyed, and the Germans may be able to replenish it in a short time; but if they lose a large number of well-trained artillery, I am afraid that the power of the artillery they use on the battlefield will be greatly reduced for a long time. "

  (end of this chapter)