Chapter 1529 Landing Field Defense Battle (2)

"Comrade Commander, the situation is as follows." Hearing Sokov's voice, Solomatin realized that he was not the supreme commander here. There was also a commander of the group army in name sitting beside him, and hurriedly asked Sokov reported: "The troops who were ordered to take over the defense of the outposts encountered the withdrawn friendly troops before they reached their destination. After interrogation, they found out that the other troops had handed over their positions to other troops."

   "Other troops?" Sokov couldn't help frowning when he heard this: "Besides this army to take over the defense, Comrade General, have you sent other troops?"

   "No, I didn't send other troops." Solomatin shook his head and said, "According to the report, the troops taking over the friendly defense should be disguised by the German army."

   "What, the defense of the 254th Division was taken over by the disguised German army?" Sokov was shocked, but also tried to confirm the accuracy of the news: "How did they find out that the defense was replaced by the German army in disguise?"

After organizing the vocabulary in his mind, Solomatin reported to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, a staff sergeant of the 254th Division, when he withdrew from the high ground with the troops, he accidentally found the path up the mountain. There are several shoe prints. The stud impressions in the shoe prints are square, not round."

   As a person from later generations, Sokov naturally knows that the military boots used by the German army have square studs on the soles. The battlefield patrol team of the Soviet Army used the shape of the studs on the bottom of the boots to confirm whether the person being inspected was one of his own or the enemy in disguise. Although he didn't know the name of the careful sergeant, he secretly paid attention to it, and planned to meet the sergeant in person after the battle situation stabilized, to see if he was a good man.

   "Comrade General," Sokov confirmed that the troops taking over the defense were disguised by the German army, then looked at Solomatin and asked, "How do you plan to regain the position?"

"Comrade Commander, come and see." Solomatin pointed to the map and said to Sokov: "The outpost that our army is going to take over for defense is five kilometers away from other positions of our army. It will also take more than an hour before we can launch a counterattack against this position. I am worried that the Germans will use this precious time to rebuild a new defense, making our offensive ineffective."

   Sokov still agrees with Solomatin's concerns. The Germans pretended to be their own troops to take over the defense, and they must be deploying their defenses intensively at this moment. If they really waited an hour before launching an attack, they might have perfected their defense system long ago, and the attacking troops they sent would suffer heavy casualties.

  Thinking of this, he called the director of the Army Communications Corps and told him, "Please connect me to the 254th Division Headquarters. I want to speak to the division commander, Colonel Shechtman."

The phone was connected quickly, and Sokov put the microphone to his ear, and asked straight to the point: "Colonel Shechtman? I'm Sokov, I want to ask you, your troops have completed the transfer of defense working already?"

   "Yes, Comrade Commander." Shechtman on the other end of the phone replied simply: "My troops completed the transfer of all defense work two hours ago."

   "Really?" Sokov asked calmly.

"real."

  Hearing this, Sokov slapped the table angrily, and asked sharply, "What about your No. 1 outpost?"

  The outpost occupied by the camouflaged German army is marked on the map as Outpost No. 1. Hearing what Sokov said, Shechtman hurriedly lowered his head to check the map in front of him, and then replied: "Comrade Commander, according to the report of Lieutenant Colonel Ivan of the 764th Regiment, he had reported to No. 1 two hours ago. The outpost has dispatched communications troops to notify the troops standing there of the handover of the defense."

Shechtman knew Sokov well. He felt that if nothing happened, Sokov would not call himself in the middle of the night. After reporting the situation, he asked cautiously: "Comrade commander, is there something wrong?" What's the matter?"

   Sokov sneered and said, "Comrade Colonel, the No. 1 outpost you mentioned has now fallen into the hands of the Germans."

"How is this possible?" Shechtman said in surprise after hearing this: "If there is a battle, the observation post deployed nearby will definitely report to us as soon as possible. So far, I have not received any Report on the battle."

"To seize a position, you don't necessarily have to go through battle." Sokov gritted his molars and said, "If the defenders see that the troops taking over the defense are wearing the uniforms of our army, they may not even need to verify their identities. If so, we will directly hand over the position.”

   Hearing what Sokov said, Shechtman realized the seriousness of the problem. He raised his hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, and asked Sokov tentatively: "Comrade Commander, what should we do?"

   "What can I do, what else can I do?" Sokov said angrily: "Organize forces immediately, take the position back from the enemy's hands, and hand it over to friendly troops."

   "Comrade Commander, I don't know how many troops the enemy is occupying the position?" Although Shechtman was panicking, he still tried his best to control his emotions and asked in a calm tone: "How many troops do we have nearby?"

"According to the report, the German army has more than 200 people, and they occupy a favorable terrain." In order to let Shechtman know what he knew, Sokov said: "And the platoon that your division withdrew, Together with the company taking over the defense, there are about 130 people in total. The closest friendly forces to the position are all five kilometers away, and it will take at least an hour to arrive."

Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Shechtman became more relaxed: "It turns out that there are only more than two hundred Germans, so there is no problem. I will immediately send a nearby company to support, and try to recover before the reinforcements from the friendly army arrive. A position taken by the enemy."

  This time it was Sokov's turn to be confused: "Comrade Colonel, what is going on? Don't you think you have the ability to seize the positions occupied by the enemy in a very short period of time?"

   "Yes, Comrade Commander." Shechtman replied confidently: "I assure you that within an hour, the positions occupied by the enemy will be regained. But I have one condition."

   "What conditions?" Sokov felt a bit like he was in a hurry to go to the doctor. "As long as you can restore the position in a short time, I can agree to any conditions."

   "Comrade Commander, my condition is very simple." Shechtman said: "Before our army regains the position, the nearby troops will be handed over to the person I designate to command, is that okay?"

"Of course." Sokov did not object to the conditions proposed by Shechtman, "The rank of the commander here is..." At this point, he covered the microphone with his hand and asked Solomatin, "Comrade General , what rank is that company commander?"

   "Lieutenant, Comrade Commander, is the rank of lieutenant."

After confirming the military rank of the opposing commander, Sokov released his hand covering the microphone: "Comrade Colonel, the company commander who will take over the defense is a lieutenant. The commander you send only needs to have a higher military rank than him." gone."

Seeing that Sokov agreed to his request, Shechtman secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and he swore: "Comrade Commander, you can start the timer now, and within an hour, I will definitely regain the lost position." .”

  Although Sokov didn't understand who gave Shechtman such confidence, he couldn't pour cold water on the other party, so he could only say, "Okay, then I'll wait for your good news."

  After putting down the phone, Sokov said to Solomatin: "Comrade General, Colonel Shechtman, the commander of the 254th Division, just told me that he can regain the position within an hour as long as he sends a nearby company."

   "Take back the position within an hour?" Solomatin asked with some surprise: "Comrade commander, is this true?"

   "I don't think he would tell a lie about this kind of thing."

   "Then shall we send reinforcements?"

"Of course." Sokov nodded and continued: "Colonel Shechtman has only one company nearby, and with the addition of more than 130 people, the advantage in strength is not obvious. It is absolutely necessary to send troops to support them. of."

Solomatin winked at his chief of staff, signaling him to deploy reinforcements, and then asked Sokov curiously: "Comrade Commander, I am very curious, how does Colonel Shechtman plan to regain the positions occupied by the Germans?" ?”

Hearing this question, Sokov shrugged his shoulders, spread his hands, and said helplessly: "I'm sorry, Comrade General, I don't know what's going on. I think after the battle is over, Colonel Shechtman will tell us the answer."

Since an enemy appeared in the original defense zone of the 254th Division, which proved that the enemy was planning to attack, Sokov called Fomenko again and asked him how the situation was: "General Fomenko, I am sorry to wake you up. Yes. I want to ask, have you found any movement from the Germans in your place?"

   "No, Comrade Commander." Sleepy-eyed Fomenko narrowed his eyes and replied blankly: "I have deployed an observation post at the front, and there is no report in this regard so far."

   "General Fomenko, not long ago, a group of enemies pretended to be our army and took over the No. 1 outpost while the 254th Division was switching defenses with the Mechanized Army."

When Fomenko heard this, he couldn't help being shocked, his drowsiness was scared out of sight, and his whole body became sober: "Comrade Commander, what is going on? How could the outpost of the 254th Division be destroyed? What about the German occupation?"

Although Sokov didn't know what happened at the beginning, but based on his experience, he can still judge seven out of ten: "I think this group of enemies may want to make up and go deep into the hinterland of our army's defense zone to wreak havoc, but the result is terrible. Yang Cuo came to the outpost of the 254th Division, and the defenders who stood firm regarded them as friendly troops to defend. In this way, the outpost of the 254th Division fell into the hands of the Germans."

"So that's what happened." Fomenko waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and said seriously: "I will immediately notify the observation posts and closely observe the surrounding movements to prevent Germans from pretending to be our army and infiltrating into our division. line of defense."

  After calling Fomenko, Sokov called the 73rd Brigade, which entered the landing site after dark. After the phone call, Sokov said to Guchakov who answered the phone: "Comrade Major, how is the situation there, is there anything unusual?"

"No, Comrade Commander." Guchakov replied respectfully, "You know that our brigade entered the defense zone after dark. Since there are no perfect defenses, the mobile posts I sent around So that the enemy can find them in time before they approach us."

"You are doing the right thing, Comrade Major." Sokov praised Guchakov's caution, and he continued: "Now there is an enemy disguised as our army and infiltrated into the former 254th Division's defense zone. And occupied one of the outposts, you also need to be more vigilant to prevent the enemy from repeating their tricks."

"Comrade commander, you can rest assured about this." Guchakov said with a chuckle: "After all, I have been with you for such a long time, and I have learned something. In addition to the mobile sentry sent out, I also have Several patrol teams of 20 people are patrolling around the camp uninterruptedly. Once an organized unit is found approaching, even if they are wearing the uniform of our army, they will send someone to question after they are ready to fight. "

Sokov was somewhat partial to these old subordinates of his own. Hearing what Guchakov said, he said with relief: "Major Guchakov, you have arranged well. I think the Germans will even wear it The uniforms of our army can't even get into your camp smoothly."

Solomatin on the side waited patiently for Sokov to finish the call, and then reported: "Comrade Commander, our reinforcements have been dispatched, and since they are on trucks, I believe they can reach the battlefield within half an hour. Fight alongside your allies."

Don't look at Shechtman's vows just now that his troops can easily take the high ground, but Sokov is always dubious in his heart. Now that Solomatin said that reinforcements have been sent, he feels more at ease. That said, the more troops involved in an attack, the greater the chances of victory.

Seeing Sokov drinking tea with ease, seemingly not worried about the upcoming battle at all, Solomatin asked curiously: "Comrade commander, don't you worry about the upcoming attack at all? "

   Sokov put down the teacup in his hand, looked at Solomatin sitting opposite him, raised his eyebrows slightly, and asked, "Comrade General, do you think there is anything to worry about?"

   "Don't you worry that the attack will not go well, and after dawn, the enemy will use it as the starting point for the attack?"

"Comrade General, you don't worry too much." Sokov shook his head lightly and said with a smile, "I believe in the ability of my subordinates, since he assured me that he can easily regain the positions occupied by the Germans." , then he will definitely be able to do it, I have nothing to worry about."

  Seeing that Sokov trusted his subordinates so much, Solomatin couldn't help feeling secretly: No wonder the troops commanded by Sokov can always win battles and rarely lose. It seems that there is a reason.

   "Comrade Commander," Solomatin promptly changed the subject since he didn't have to worry about the upcoming battle: "Where do you plan to set up the headquarters after the main force of the 53rd Army arrives?"

"I plan to set up the headquarters in the city of Kremenchug." Sokov said to Solomatin: "I believe that your 1st Mechanized Army and my four infantry divisions, as well as a tank brigade, are The landing field on the right bank can be completely defended. Seeing that the enemy cannot seize the landing field, they will definitely return to the left bank from other directions and launch an attack on Klemenchug to achieve the purpose of cutting off our army's retreat. This is why I want to leave the headquarters in the The reason in the city."

  (end of this chapter)