Chapter 263 New Infantry Brigade (1)

   Hearing that there were nearly a thousand rescued comrades, both Andre and Vasily showed expressions of surprise on their faces. Compared with the recruits recruited by their superiors, they preferred this kind of soldiers who were rescued from prisoner-of-war camps, had certain combat experience, and had a deep-rooted hatred for the Germans. Thinking of Sokov's tradition of adding prisoners of war to the army, the two thought about how many people they could get this time.

  Sokov saw what was on the mind of the two, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, comrade company commanders, after this supplement, both of your companies can reach the size of a battalion."

   "Comrade Battalion Commander," Andrei waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and asked impatiently: "Why do you start to replenish troops? You know, our company is responsible for the defense to the east of the city, and our strength is far from enough..."

"Captain Andrei," Sokov interrupted without waiting for Andrei to finish, "not only is your company short of troops, but the other two companies are also short of troops. You know, Your company is only responsible for the defense of the east, while Vanya and Andre's company and company are not only responsible for the defense of the north, west, and south, but also mobilize forces to maintain order in the city. Even if these nearly a thousand soldiers With additional troops, our defensive strength is still far from insufficient. As long as the Germans send one or two battalions to attack Kursk, it will be difficult for us to stop their attack."

"Then what should we do?" Andre originally planned to ask Sokov for reinforcements when he was attacked by the German army, so that the first and second companies could help him, but now it seems that this has become a luxury. So he asked worriedly: "Comrade Battalion Commander, how long will it take for our reinforcements to arrive?"

"We are more than 550 kilometers away from Moscow, and the road has been severely damaged due to frequent bombing." Sokov tapped the map a few times with his fingers, and said with a serious expression: "Even if the reinforcements take By car, it will take two or three days at the fastest to reach Kursk."

"What, it will take two or three days at the earliest?" Hearing what Sokov said, Andrei said bitterly: "Comrade Battalion Commander, signs of German army activities have been found in the east. I estimate that their large troops It will soon come from the east. If our main force has not arrived when the enemy launches an attack, the city may fall again."

"Comrades, our superiors ordered us to resolutely defend Kursk." Sokov, who originally wanted to make a fortune in the German warehouse in Kursk, now began to think seriously about how to defend the city: "I We don’t know how many reinforcements our superiors will send us and when they will arrive, so we must rely on our own strength to hold the city.”

"Kursk is a medium-sized city. To defend this city, we need at least one division." The next speaker was Company Commander Vanya. He had a conversation with Sokov before the meeting and understood Sokov's next step, so he said to the other two company commanders: "In view of the reinforcements sent to us by the superiors, it is difficult to arrive before the enemy launches an attack, so we can only find ways to replenish our own troops. Except for the reinforcements from prisoners of war. In addition to the nearly 1,000 soldiers in the battalion, we can also set up conscription offices in the city to recruit residents to join our troops."

"Comrade battalion commander, I have another question." Andre continued to ask: "The comrades who were rescued from the prisoner-of-war camps were all unarmed; There must still be some. I want to ask, how to deal with their weapons?"

  Sokov couldn't help laughing when he heard Andrei's worry. He turned his head to look at Vasily and said, "Captain Vasily, the German warehouse is occupied by your company. Tell Captain Andre about the situation."

"Captain Andre, have you forgotten?" Vasily thought that there was some great event, which made Andre embarrassed. After he heard what the other party was worried about, he said, "I once said, The supplies are enough to equip two German divisions, including 20 tanks, and hundreds of artillery pieces of various types."

After briefing Andrei on the situation, Vasily said sternly to Sokov: "Comrade Battalion Commander, I have a suggestion. After the troops are replenished, can they restore the original tank platoons and artillery platoons, and use warehouses to Arming them with tanks and artillery seized here. In this way, our strength will be enhanced whether the next battle is defensive or offensive."

   "Captain Vasily, what you said is very reasonable." If Vasily hadn't reminded him, Sokov would have almost forgotten that there were tank platoons and artillery platoons in the battalion before. He walked quickly to the door and shouted outside: "Come here!"

  Following his shout, Seryozha came in from the outside and asked, "Comrade Major, what instructions do you have?"

  Because Sokov had been away from the army for a while, and because he didn't know whether the two platoon leaders were still alive, he tentatively asked: "Seryozha, do you know where the original artillery and tank platoon leaders are?"

  Seryozha waited for him to finish speaking, nodded vigorously, and replied: "Yes, Comrade Battalion Commander, the two of them are now in our guard platoon."

   Knowing that the two platoon leaders were still alive, Sokov couldn't help being overjoyed, and quickly told Sergey Sha: "Call them here quickly, I have something to explain to them."

   Only a few minutes later, two platoon leaders appeared in front of Sokov. After the two raised their hands in salute, they said, "Comrade Battalion Commander, Second Lieutenant Porochenko (Ari Tai) has been ordered to come, please give instructions!"

Sokov looked at the two and said: "Comrades, two platoon leaders, I called you here today because we captured German tanks and artillery when we captured Kursk, so I plan to rebuild the tank platoon and artillery platoon. .”

   "Comrade Battalion Commander," the former artillery platoon commander Porochenko waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and said with some embarrassment: "Even if there are tanks and artillery, it is impossible to rebuild the tank platoon and artillery platoon."

   "Why?" Seeing that Porochenko was pouring cold water on himself, Sokov said with some displeasure: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, tell me your reason."

"Comrade Major, let me report this matter to you." Seeing the helpless expressions on the faces of his two subordinates, Seryozha hurriedly said: "During the last battle to cover the breakout of friendly forces, the tank platoon The loss of the artillery platoon and the artillery platoon was huge, and there were only six people left in the two platoons, and they were all incorporated into the police platoon."

   Out of nearly a hundred fighters in the two platoons, there were only six left. This situation was indeed beyond Sukov's expectation. He frowned and thought for a while, and then said to the two of them: "The first company commander, Captain Vanya, rescued nearly a thousand soldiers from our army from the prisoner-of-war camp in the south of the city. You can choose some soldiers who used to be artillery and tank soldiers. , supplemented with new tank and artillery platoons."

  While Sokov was assigning tasks to the two platoon leaders, he suddenly saw Belkin rushing in from the outside. There was an irrepressible excitement in the expression on his face.

"Comrade Belgin, you're back." Sukov didn't expect Belkin, who was in charge of distributing food to the residents in the warehouse, to come back so soon, and asked with concern: "What about the work of distributing food to the residents?" Is it all over?"

  Belkin said: "The work of distributing food is in charge of the second lieutenant Grisa, the first platoon leader of the second company. I hurried back because I have something important to inform you. Congratulations, Lieutenant Colonel Sokov!"

   "What lieutenant colonel?" Sokov looked at Belgin and asked puzzledly: "What are you kidding?"

Belkin took out a square-folded piece of paper from his satchel, handed it to Sokov, and said: "Comrade Brigadier, not long ago there was a plane from Moscow that landed in the open space near the warehouse. Landing, the pilot sent this order from the base camp. Take a good look for yourself."

  Sokov was eager to see the order Belkin handed to him, and he didn't seem to notice that his title for his position had changed from "battalion commander" to "brigadier commander". But the three company commanders on the side could hear clearly, and all three of them looked at Belkin with astonished eyes, trying to find out what happened.

  The content of the order is very simple: for the convenience of combat, from now on, the original "Istria Battalion" will be reorganized into the "73rd Infantry Brigade". Sokov served as the brigade commander and was promoted to lieutenant colonel; Belgin served as the political commissar of the brigade, and his political rank was promoted from a first-level political instructor to a deputy battalion-level political commissar. There are four battalions under the whole brigade, the appointment of company commanders of each battalion, and the promotion of military ranks below the school level are all decided by Sokov and Belkin.

After reading the order from the base camp, Sokov smiled and said to everyone: "Commanders, from now on, our Istria Battalion will be renamed the 73rd Infantry Brigade, and I will be the brigade commander, Ber Comrade Jin serves as the political commissar of the brigade. Comrade three company commanders, I congratulate you, from now on, you will be battalion commanders with the rank of captain."

Seeing the joyful faces of the three newly promoted battalion commanders, Sokov said to Porochenko and Alitai in front of him: "As for you, from now on, you will serve as the newly formed artillery company commander and tank company commander respectively. job."

Porochenko and Alitai never dreamed that they would be hit by a pie falling from the sky. After the two were in a daze for a while, Porochenko asked stupidly: "Batalion commander, no, brigade commander Comrade, is what you said true?"

"Of course it's true." Sokov nodded, and said in an affirmative tone: "From now on, the two of you will be company commanders, and your military rank will be promoted from the current second lieutenant to lieutenant. You immediately choose the right candidate and enrich your life." Go to the army, maybe we will have a hard battle with the Germans soon, without the support of tanks and artillery, our troops will suffer a lot."

  (end of this chapter)