Chapter 1560 Three Big Fires (Part 1)

   It is not a trivial matter to have an arsenal produce shells exclusively for Sokov's troops. Even though Yakov has a high status in the Weapons Department, he still has no right to make such a decision.

  After thinking for a long time, Yakov said to Sokov: "Misha, make an exception to start the arsenal in the eastern suburbs. I have already risked being dismissed. Don't keep giving me problems, can you?"

"Okay." Sokov also felt that Yakov should not be pushed too hard. If it really caused him to be dismissed, it would not be so easy for him to find some equipment for his troops in the future, so he asked instead. : "I need 122 and 152 caliber howitzer shells, how much can you provide us every day?"

  Yakov opened the registration book in front of him, picked up a pen and asked, "How many heavy artillery regiments do you have?"

   "Four heavy artillery regiments, including three 122mm howitzer regiments and one 152mm howitzer regiment."

   "Misha, it seems that the superiors value you very much, and they actually gave you three heavy artillery regiments." Yakov said to Sokov while recording, "It would be nice for some armies to have one heavy artillery regiment."

   Sokov turned his head and glanced at Managarov next to him, and replied with some embarrassment: "Actually, I only have three heavy artillery regiments, and the other heavy artillery regiment is temporarily borrowed from the 53rd Army."

   "Oh, the 53rd Army also lent you a heavy artillery regiment?" Yakov said with some surprise: "Misha, it seems that you are very popular."

"Now we are fighting side by side with the 53rd Army, and we are holding on to Kremenchug together." Sokov briefly introduced the situation, and then asked: "Yasha, you haven't said how many shells you can provide us every day?" ?”

   "Misha, I just calculated it." Yakov paused for a few seconds and said, "It can produce 200 rounds of 122mm caliber shells and 80 rounds of 152mm caliber shells per day."

  After listening to the data reported by Yakov, Sokov couldn't help being a little disappointed: "What, the output of the arsenal is only so small?"

"Misha, you must know that this is just a spare arsenal, and the raw materials stored are limited. Even if we work at full capacity, the shells that can be produced are very limited." Seeing that Sokov was not satisfied with the data he reported, Yakov explained to him Said: "Wait until the production stabilizes, the raw materials will slowly increase, so as to increase the output of shells."

   "So that's it, I understand."

   "Misha, such a small amount of shells are transported by transport plane every day, it must not be displayed." Yakov continued: "You see how long the transportation cycle should be, three days or five days?"

   "Five days is too long, just choose three days."

   "Okay." Yakov wrote down a note in his notebook and said, "I will contact the logistics department as soon as possible and let them arrange a plane to deliver the shells for you."

Seeing Sokov put down the phone, Sameko suddenly remembered something: "Comrade Commander, if the higher-ups really use the transport plane to transport shells for us, can you see if the transport plane can take the seriously wounded on board when it returns?" He said Worried that Sokov would not understand what he meant, he also specially emphasized, "Some wounded are too seriously injured. With our current medical conditions, they cannot be cured. They should be sent to Moscow for better treatment. "

   "I think it's okay." Sokov knew very well in his heart that although he had established an army-level field hospital in the city, he still couldn't provide them with better treatment conditions for some seriously injured wounded. Now that the transportation is not going well, it is very difficult to transport a large number of wounded back to Moscow. Anyway, the transport plane was empty on the return trip, so it is better to let them pick up the seriously wounded by the way: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you should explain this matter to the director and political commissar of the field hospital as soon as possible, and let them arrange the seriously wounded to be transported."

   "Comrade Commander," Lunev interjected, "The Chief of Staff is in charge of the military. Leave this kind of thing to me."

  Sokov thought about it, it should be the most appropriate for Lunev to be in charge of arranging the transfer of the wounded. Even if the pilot of the transport plane is unwilling to transport the wounded, he can use his special status to intimidate the other party: "Okay, Comrade Military Commissioner, this matter will trouble you."

   Lunev said lightly: "This is my job, you don't have to be so polite."

A few people were talking, when the phone on the table rang suddenly, Sameko grabbed the phone casually: "I'm Sameko, where are you?...What, you caught them all?!...Not a single one It would be great to have slipped through the net.  …I will report to my comrade Commander immediately."

   Sokov, who was sitting next to him, did not hear the person on the other end of the phone, but according to his analysis, it should be Samoilov who called to report the situation. As soon as Sameko put down the phone, he immediately asked, "Comrade Chief of Staff, is it Lieutenant Samoilov calling?"

"That's right, Comrade Commander." Sameko said with a smile on his face: "Lieutenant Samoilov reported that their roundup operation has been successful, and 18 people were captured in that house. After interrogation, they were all German soldiers. The spies arranged in the city. At the same time, two radio stations, three flare guns, eight pistols and supporting ammunition were seized.”

  After listening to Sameko's report, Gorokhov, who was sitting at another table, couldn't help asking curiously, "Why are there three flare guns?"

"Comrade Military Commissar," Sokov said, looking at Gorokhov, "the three signal guns fire signal flares in different places, which can point out the direction for enemy planes bombing at night. After seeing the signal flares, the enemy planes can choose three Bomb the middle of the signal flares and destroy important targets of our army."

Knowing that all the spies had been arrested, Lunev said with relief: "Now all the spies in the city have been arrested, so we can start to implement the commander's plan. I will arrange manpower on the way to the hospital later, and take the Residents living in the rubble were moved to a safe place."

And Managarov said with emotion: "General Sokov, I really didn't expect that you just released a bakery owner who was going to be shot, and he helped you find the hidden German spy." He turned his head and sat opposite each other. Gorokhov, Tsarev and others on the side said, "After we occupy the city in the future, we must learn from General Sokov and know how to use the citizens to deal with the enemies lurking in the city."

   Although everyone is elated, Sokov is thinking in his heart: "Have all the enemies in the city really been arrested?"

  Sameko saw Sokov's brows furrowed, and asked with concern, "Comrade Commander, what are you thinking?"

   "Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov looked up at Sameko and asked with a serious expression, "Do you think all the spies lurking in the city have really been caught?"

  Sokov’s words stunned Sameko for a few seconds, and then he said in an uncertain tone: “I think they should all be arrested. After all, Klemenchug is not a big city, and 18 spies is already quite a lot.”

"But what if there are still people who slipped through the net?" Sokov expressed the question in his heart: "In case there are spies who should come to the party, what happened on the way? When I was about to arrive at the place, I found Samoy Love and the others are arresting them, so they hid in time?"

   "However, Samoilov has already said it." Sameko said without confidence: "He interrogated the leading spies, and the other party said that there were only 18 spies in the city, and they were all arrested in the house."

Sokov frowned even tighter. He pointed at Sameko with his hand and told him, "Comrade Chief of Staff, you should immediately contact Lieutenant Samoilov and ask him to separate the 18 spies he has caught." They will be imprisoned and each person will be interrogated individually. Finally, by summarizing the testimony, it will be possible to determine whether the leading spy is lying or not."

While Sameko was on the phone, Derevyanko made another attack: "General Sokov, I think you are too cautious. Even if one or two spies slipped through the net, they would not dare to go out when they are usually out. Carrying weapons or flare guns, so as not to reveal their identities. Now that their old dens are taken by us, even if they want to signal the German planes, I’m afraid they can’t do it.”

"General Derevyanko," Sokov patiently listened to what Derevyanko said, and then expressed his opinion: "If you want to give directions to enemy planes bombing at night, you can do it even without signal flares." .”

Sokov's words aroused Managarov's curiosity, and he couldn't wait to ask: "General Sokov, please tell me quickly, how can you point out the direction of the enemy plane bombing at night without a flare gun? "

Sokov pulled out his pistol and put it on the table, pointed with his hand, and said to everyone: "For example, this is the target that the German bombers will bomb at night." Then, he took three more teacups and put them on three. different positions, and then continued, "It is actually very simple to indicate the target to the bombers at night. I only need to light a fire at each of the three teacup positions, which is equivalent to telling the enemy planes that they are going to bomb. The target is within the triangle formed by these three fires."

He picked up the pistol, put it back on the holster, and continued to say to Derevyanko: "General Derevyanko, I just said that if three signal guns fire signals at the same time, they can give more accurate instructions to the enemy aircraft." The target of the bombing. Now that there is no flare gun, the spy who slipped through the net can still point out the target for the enemy plane by firing at three different points."

   "It makes sense, it makes sense." Managarov nodded again and again after listening, agreeing with Sokov's statement. But he quickly raised a new question: "General Sokov, what can we do to prevent the spies in the city from using the fire to guide the enemy planes to bomb?"

   "I have no choice." Sokov shook his head and said, "If the spies really lit the fire, what we can do is to move it immediately to avoid dying from the bombing of the enemy plane."

  In the following time, everyone's attention was attracted by the German army attacking the landing field. The Germans were determined to win the landing field. They used three divisions to launch a crazy attack in three sectors at the same time. Fortunately, the enemy's artillery suffered huge losses, and the damage to the defenders standing on the ground was greatly weakened.

  In defensive operations, the mechanized army with the most troops but the most rigid tactics was breached by the Germans. Seeing that the situation was not good, Solomatin quickly called the commander of the 219th Tank Brigade, and asked the other party to dispatch a full tank battalion to attack from the flank of the attacking German army, only to barely repel the opponent's attack.

Although the defense areas of the Infantry Brigade and the 254th Division were full of dangers under the strong German offensive, the commanders and fighters who stood firm on these positions cleverly used effective defensive tactics, not only blocking the German offensive, but also minimizing casualties .

After the battle, Derevyanko said to Sokov convincingly: "General Sokov, it seems that your analysis a few days ago is correct. Regardless of the fact that General Solomatin's army has a full army, But in the face of an attack by a German division, they might not be able to hold their ground."

"General Derevyanko," Sokov saw Derevyanko apologizing to himself, and instead of being domineering because of this, he said in a friendly tone: "Although there are various problems in the defense of the mechanized army, in the final analysis , or because they lack defense experience. After the battle to defend the landing site is over, I think they will be able to accumulate a wealth of defense experience, which will be very helpful to them when they perform combat missions in the future."

   As soon as the fighting here came to an end, Samoilov appeared in the headquarters.

   Seeing Samoilov appear, Sokov quickly asked straight to the point: "Comrade Lieutenant, how is the situation?"

When Samoilov heard Sokov's question, he replied with a face of shame: "Comrade Commander, it seems that you can see clearly. After separate interrogations, we got the exact news: the spies in the city were not 18 people, but 20 people. Two of them went out to collect food rations and avoided arrest this time.”

   "Then what are you going to do?"

   "I have already ordered people to search and arrest in the city. I believe it will not take long to catch these two spies who slipped through the net."

  Sokov knew very well that although Klemenchug was not big, finding two people in it was tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack. He waved his hand at Samoilov and said, "Comrade lieutenant, I guess these two spies will take action in the near future. You need to send more patrols to patrol the city day and night."

  Samoilov blushed and replied: "Yes, Comrade Commander, I will send more patrols to patrol the city, trying to catch the spies who slipped through the net as soon as possible."

Considering that the spies can point out the direction of the enemy plane bombing at night by lighting the fire, Sokov specifically told Samoilov: "Comrade Lieutenant, you tell the patrol team. When patrolling at night, pay more attention to smelling the road." Check the nearby buildings to see if there is a smell of gasoline inside."

"The smell of gasoline?" Although Samoilov didn't understand why Sokov mentioned gasoline, he nodded vigorously and said to Sokov: "Don't worry, Comrade Commander. I will take your words, Convey it to every soldier participating in the patrol, so that they can know it well."

  (end of this chapter)