Chapter 1453

"Comrade General," Chukliko said with a solemn expression, "I have been staying in the 37th Tank Brigade since it was formed. From the first deputy company commander to the current brigade commander, I have already had a good understanding of this unit. Deep feelings. I would rather be demoted by you than stay in the army."

   "Oh, would you rather be demoted and stay in the army?"

"Yes, Comrade General." Chukliko was deeply afraid that his request would be rejected by Sokov, so he offered: "I am very familiar with everything about the tank brigade. If I am allowed to stay, I can assist the new brigade commander. Do a good job."

"Okay." Now that Chukliko has lowered his posture so much, it would seem a little unreasonable for Sokov to refuse others, so he nodded and agreed to the other party's request: "Since you want to stay here so much If you don’t have a unit, then stay and serve as deputy brigade commander.”

Sokov called Major Bunche who was standing on the side, and introduced to Chukliko: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, let me introduce you. This is Major Bunche. From now on, he is the head of the tank brigade." Acting brigade commander, and you will act as his deputy and assume the position of deputy brigade commander."

   Seeing that his immediate boss was actually a major with a lower rank than himself, Chukliko felt a pain in his throat, and he couldn't tell what to do. But if you want to stay in the tank brigade and accept the command of the major, it is already a certainty. In desperation, Chukliko could only raise his hand to salute Major Bunch, and said, "Hello, Comrade Brigadier Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Chukliko, deputy brigade commander, is here to report to you. On behalf of the commanders and fighters of the whole brigade, I welcome you Working with the 37th Tank Brigade."

"What about you, Colonel Atakuz?" Sokov looked at Colonel Atakuz who was standing not far away after handling the matter of the tank brigade and asked, "Are you going to stay as the deputy division commander? Do you want to assist Colonel Weisbach in your work; or should I order you to be sent to the rear for approval by a court-martial?"

"Comrade General," Atakuz heard the two choices given to him by Sukov, and his attitude became tough again: "My troops belong to the 5th Assault Army. If I want to remove my post, I must With the consent of General Tsvetayev, commander of the Army Group, and General Vatutin, commander of the Front Army, it is not something you can withdraw just by saying."

   "Comrade Military Commissar," Sokov waited for the other party to finish speaking, then turned his head and asked Lunev who was sitting next to him: "Have you finished drafting the telegram to Marshal Zhukov?"

   "Yes, Comrade Commander, the drafting has been completed." Lunev naturally understood the reason for Sokov's question, so he nodded: "Do you need to issue it immediately?"

"Is that easy to say, Comrade Military Commissioner, of course it will be issued immediately." Sokov stared at Atakuz and said viciously: "I want to let the colonel see if I am qualified to withdraw his duty."

   Lunev called Samoilov and handed him the drafted telegram: "Comrade Lieutenant, immediately go to the communication room next door and send this telegram to Marshal Zhukov."

  Samoilov promised, and walked out of the room with the telegram. Sokov looked at Atakuz standing in front of him, and ordered the two soldiers who supported him: "You take Colonel Atakuz to the next door first, and decide how to punish him after you receive a call back from Marshal Zhukov. .”

  Seeing that Chukliko also wanted to leave, Sokov stopped him: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you can stay here, maybe there are tasks to be assigned to you later."

  Sokov turned his head and asked Mikhaiev again: "Comrade Captain, have you sent any manpower to carry out reconnaissance in the vicinity?"

"Comrade Commander," Mikhaiev replied quickly when he heard Sokov's question, "shortly after my troops entered here, I sent a reconnaissance team to each of the four directions of the southeast, northwest, and let them find out the surrounding area. Are there any enemies?"

   "Do these reconnaissance teams of yours carry radio stations?" Lunev asked curiously.

"No." Mikhaiev looked at Lunev and replied: "Comrade Military Commissar, the troops under my command are only a battalion-level unit, and there is only one radio station to communicate with the superior. How can it be possible to equip each reconnaissance team with What about the radio station?"

Sokov knew what Mikhaiev was talking about. In his own army, it was already a great thing that radio stations could be deployed in battalion-level units. But if he wanted the scouts sent by the battalion-level commander It is obviously impossible to carry a radio station. Since the reconnaissance team did not have a radio station, Sokov worried that they would not be able to feed back the information in time, so he couldn't help feeling a little anxious.

   "Comrade Captain," Sokov looked at Mikhaiev and asked, "If they discover the enemy situation, how can they come back and report to you?"

   "I have equipped five fighters for each reconnaissance team." Mikhaiev explained to Sokov: "Once they find something, they will send one person back to report, while the others will continue to monitor."

   "If they find the enemy and send someone back to report, how long will it take?"

To Sokov's question, Mikhaiev replied without hesitation: "Comrade commander, I asked them to go forward only five or six kilometers. Such a short distance, even if the enemy is really found, the people sent back by the reconnaissance team In an hour at most, you will be back at the Fesky Kolkhoz."

   "So far, have any reconnaissance teams come back to report?"

   "No, Comrade Commander." Captain Mikhaiev said in a positive tone: "Not yet."

After walking around the room for a few times with his hands behind his back, Sokov felt a little tired, so he sat down next to Lunev, and when he was about to chat with him, a soldier came over with two cups of coffee and put them down. On the table in front of the two of them, he said respectfully: "Comrade Commander, Comrade Military Commissioner, please drink coffee."

   Sokov picked up a cup of coffee, smelling the refreshing aroma of coffee coming out of the cup, and asked casually, "Comrade Captain, where do these coffees come from?"

"Didn't Captain Mikhaiev report to you just now?" Before Mikhaiev could speak, Lunev rushed to say, "He said that in addition to all kinds of alcohol, there were cigarettes among the supplies they seized." And cans, coffee must have been among the seized items. Am I right, Comrade Captain?" His last words were addressed to Mikhaiev.

   "You are right, Comrade Military Commissar." Mikhaiev replied affirmatively: "There is indeed a large amount of coffee among the materials we seized."

   Hearing Mikhaiev mention the seized materials again, Sokov couldn't help asking: "Comrade Captain, are there any weapons and ammunition in the warehouse you occupied besides these military materials?"

   Mikhaiev was silent for a long time, and said: "According to the information we have seized, there are a large number of German military warehouses a few kilometers away, which store weapons and equipment that can be used by two army groups for three months..."

"What, weapons and equipment that can be used by two armies for three months?" Sokov jumped up from his seat directly: "This is unlikely, if there are really so many supplies, the Germans will definitely send heavy troops to guard them." This area, in order to prevent our army from approaching this area. But in the current situation, our army easily occupied the Fesky collective farm, but did not encounter decent resistance from the German army. More importantly, our two troops The commanders and fighters were all drunk, but the Germans didn't send a single soldier to harass her, that is to say, there were no enemies nearby."

"Comrade Commander, after we arrived here, we seized a diary of the quartermaster of the 3rd Armored Division." Mikhaiev explained to Sokov: "After translation, we figured out that the Germans were abandoning this Before setting up a regional warehouse, the troops were notified to transport what they needed.

  The quartermaster's diary wrote: For a long time, whenever there is a transport mission, all units will complain about the shortage of vehicles. But this time it was heard that these military supplies might fall into the hands of the Russians. The unit that received the notification tried to overcome all difficulties and organized a huge transport team to transport the military supplies.

  Because when notifying the various units, they were required to take as much as they could, so they could not leave more supplies for the Russians. Therefore, many troops have mobilized all the means of transportation and transported supplies to their respective defense areas around the clock. Due to the influx of too many vehicles, the road was blocked and even affected the normal movement of combat troops..."

  Sokov waited until Mikhaiev's words came to an end, and immediately interjected and asked, "Did the diary say how much supplies the enemy transported in the past few days?"

"There is no specific data." Mikhaiev shook his head and said: "But according to the content in the diary, there are more than ten division-level transport vehicles that have delivered supplies to the Kenf combat group. I estimate that at least two-thirds The supplies have been transported to the hands of the enemy who are fighting against our army."

   "What about the remaining supplies?" Lunev asked nervously, "Have they been destroyed by the Germans?"

   "No, Comrade Military Commissar." Mikhaiev looked at Lunev and replied: "At least the warehouses in the Fesky collective farm are almost complete."

"Strange," Lunev said in surprise after hearing Mikhaiev's answer, "Why didn't the Germans blow up the warehouse and destroy the materials inside? Don't they fear that these materials will eventually fall into our army?" hand?"

   "Comrade Military Commissar, I think I understand why the Germans don't destroy warehouses and supplies."

   "Comrade Commander," Lunev became excited when he heard Sokov say that he might know the answer: "Please tell me what is going on."

"Comrade Military Commissar, the reason why the enemy didn't blow up the warehouse and destroy the supplies is because they were too confident." Seeing Lunev's eagerness to know the answer, Sokov didn't go around in circles, but said straight to the point : "They thought that the Battle of Kharkov launched by our army this time would be like the previous three times. They all thought that our army's defeat would end in their victory, so they only transferred most of the supplies and did not blow up the warehouse. In order to prevent them from having to spend manpower and material resources to rebuild warehouses and hoard supplies when they come back here."

"That's right, Comrade Commander, the Germans didn't blow up the warehouse and destroy the materials inside because they thought they would come back sooner or later." If they are burned, then when they come back, they will have to spend energy rebuilding warehouses and hoarding a lot of supplies to prepare for the next round of attack."

  While Sokov and Lunev were discussing the German warehouse, Samoilov hurried in from the outside with a telegram in his hand.

  Looking at the telegram in Samoilov's hand, Sokov immediately realized that Zhukov might have called back, and quickly asked, "Is it the call back from Comrade Marshal?"

   "Yes, Comrade Commander. Marshal Zhukov's call back."

   Sokov raised his chin at Samoilov and said, "Read it and listen!"

Samoilov responded, and then began to read the contents of the telegram: "From now on, the 300th Infantry Division will be separated from the 5th Assault Army and incorporated into the 27th Army; the 37th Tank Brigade will be separated from the 7th Tank Army. Incorporated into the 27th Army. The positions of Colonel Atakuz, the former commander of the infantry division, and Lieutenant Colonel Chukliko, the commander of the tank brigade, were arranged by Major General Sokov, the commander of the 27th Army.

   Signature: Zhukov. "

  After listening to the telegram, Sokov said to Mikhaiev: "Comrade Captain, you send someone to the next door to invite Colonel Atakuz over, and let him also listen to the contents of Marshal Zhukov's telegram."

   Chukliko, who was sitting next to him, could not help but secretly rejoice when he heard Sokov's order. Fortunately, he saw that the situation was not good and took the initiative to admit his mistake, so that he could continue to stay in the tank brigade. As for Colonel Atakuz, he was too ignorant of current affairs. Waiting for his end, he must be sent to a military court.

   When Atakuz was brought over, he still had a rebellious expression, but after he heard the full text of Zhukov's telegram, he was immediately dumbfounded.

"Colonel Atakuz," Sokov looked at Atakuz, and repeated the question just now with a cold expression: "Are you going to stay as the deputy division commander and assist Colonel Weissbach in his work; I ordered someone to send you to the rear and go to a military court for approval?"

Atakuz knew his fate was in Sokov's hands at this moment, and he didn't dare to be as domineering as before, but lowered his head and replied honestly: "Comrade General, no, it's Comrade Commander. Comrade Commander, I am willing to stay in the 300th Division and serve as the deputy division commander to assist Colonel Weissbach in doing all the work in the division."

Now that Atakuz has been subdued in public, Sokov, who is just at the time of employing people, will naturally not kill them all, but said to him: "Comrade Colonel, it seems that you have made the right choice. I declare to you now: you Now he is the new deputy commander of the 300th Infantry Division."

  Atakuz said bitterly: "Comrade Commander, don't worry, I will fully cooperate with the new division commander in the days to come."

   So far, the commanders of the two troops stationed in the Fesky collective farm have all become Sokov's people. In this way, the troop that had caused Sokov a headache not long ago has changed from being a dragging teammate to a new boost. In the coming battles, they will also perform more important combat missions.

  (end of this chapter)