Chapter 503 Anti-aircraft guns on the roof

   "It's me, Lieutenant Ulanova." Sokov stepped forward to shake hands with Ulanova, and asked curiously, "Are all the comrades from the Women's Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion here?"

  Hearing Sokov's question, Ulanova hesitated for a moment, then nodded, and replied with some difficulty: "Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the living fighters of the Women's Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion are all here."

   After shaking hands with Sokov, Ulanova turned her head to the female soldier standing guard and said, "Oksara, haven't you always wanted to know the commander of Mamayev Post? Now he is right in front of you."

Hearing what Ulanova said, Oksara showed a surprised expression on her face. She looked at Sokov with wide eyes and asked Ulanova in an uncertain tone: "Ah, Comrade Lieutenant, Is this Lieutenant Colonel Sokov you mentioned?"

   "That's right, it's him!"

   "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," Oksala looked at Sokov with admiration and said, "I've heard many stories about you. I never thought I'd meet you here..."

Facing Oksala's enthusiasm, Sokov felt a little at a loss, but Cousteau rescued him in time: "Lieutenant Ulanova, Lieutenant Colonel Sokov is here to assist us in our defense. The troops are stationed in the workshop, and you will have a lot of time to communicate in the future, now you take him to check the air defense position first." He pouted at the deputy factory director who was ignored by everyone, "By the way, the deputy director Comrade Factory Manager also came together.”

Ulanova noticed the deputy factory director standing behind Cousteau and Sokov, stepped forward two steps quickly, raised her hand to salute him, and said, "Comrade deputy factory director, Ulan, the commander of the anti-aircraft artillery battalion. Lieutenant Ranova reports to you that the soldiers are resting, but there are people on duty at each air defense post, please instruct!"

   "I just came here to take a look." The deputy factory manager asked politely: "Comrade Lieutenant, what can I do for you?"

"Comrade deputy factory director," just after the deputy factory director finished speaking, Oksara hurriedly said, "Can you send someone to fill up the big hole in the stairwell? It's inconvenient."

  The deputy factory director cast a puzzled look at Cousteau, "Comrade Cousteau, what is the big hole in the roof that the female soldier mentioned?"

"It's like this, Comrade Deputy Factory Manager." Cousteau quickly explained to the Deputy Factory Manager: "During the bombing of the enemy plane two days ago, after two bombs hit the roof, they penetrated the floor and fell in the workshop. Killed five workers and injured seventeen..."

Before Cousteau could finish speaking, the deputy factory manager waved his hand and said, "Okay, Comrade Cousteau, I have seen the casualties in your workshop in your report, but the roof was blown through twice by the bomb." You didn’t mention the big hole, now take us to have a look.”

   A group of people came to the other side of the roof, where Sokov saw a square stairwell, and there was a huge hole at the door. According to his visual inspection, the diameter was at least two meters. Except for long jumpers, no one could jump over it. No wonder Cousteau took himself up the fire escape.

"Comrade deputy factory director," Cousteau said, pointing to the huge hole, "Look at the size of this hole, in today's situation, the construction workers are either repairing fortifications at the front, or holding weapons Fighting the enemy, where can I find construction workers to repair the roof?"

  After staring at the big hole for a while, the deputy factory manager turned to Cousteau and said, "Comrade Cousteau, I don't think there is a way to fix this big hole without construction workers."

   Cousteau asked in surprise: "How?"

  The deputy director of the factory gestured and said: "You find someone to carry a few long logs up, put them on both sides of the hole, and then lay a layer of planks on top, won't you fill up the hole?"

   "That's right, I never thought of such a simple thing." Cousteau immediately flattered the other party after hearing the deputy factory manager's words: "After all, there are many ways to be a leader."

  Sokov heard Cousteau's flattery from the side, and couldn't help laughing secretly, thinking that this old man is a muscle, thinking about problems and doing things too rigidly, and he doesn't know how to be flexible at all. If I was on the top, I guess it would have been resolved long ago, and it wouldn't have dragged on for so many days, causing everyone to climb up and down the fire escape to go up and down the roof.

   After inspecting the air defense position on the roof, Cousteau asked for their opinions: "Deputy factory director, Lieutenant Colonel Sokov, we have finished reading what we should see, can we go down?"

   Sokov looked up at the sky, and replied: "Deputy factory director, Comrade Cousteau, you go down first, it is almost dawn, I want to check the surrounding terrain before the enemy launches an attack."

After the deputy factory director and Cousteau left, Sokov walked up to Ulanova and asked curiously: "Comrade Ulanova, weren't you equipped with 85mm anti-aircraft guns before? Why did you change them to these guns?" How about a 37mm anti-aircraft gun?"

"That's right, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Ulanova replied respectfully: "After the rest of our people and equipment were withdrawn, the factory arranged for us to set up an air defense position on the roof of the factory building, because the 85mm anti-aircraft artillery It was too heavy to be placed on the roof, so it was handed over to the Dzerzhinsky factory by the superior, and we replaced it with this small-caliber anti-aircraft gun."

After figuring out the reason why the women's anti-aircraft artillery battalion was changed, Sokov felt a little regretful. He planned to take advantage of the terrain here and use the anti-aircraft artillery to attack the German tanks condescendingly. It can also be destroyed at a distance of feet. Now that the 37mm caliber anti-aircraft gun is replaced, the anti-tank power will be greatly reduced.

  Thinking of this, Sokov couldn't help saying softly: "It's a pity, what a pity."

"What a pity?" Ulanova couldn't help asking when she heard Sokov say that, but she guessed what Sokov meant after all, after all, she had stayed in Mamayev Post for a while. Time, knowing that Sokov wanted to use anti-aircraft guns to deal with tanks, he tentatively asked: "You mean to use anti-aircraft guns to fight tanks?"

"That's right," Sokov nodded, and said regretfully, "If the 85mm antiaircraft gun deployed on the roof can use high-explosive armor-piercing projectiles to penetrate 110mm armor at a distance of 1,000 meters. And Because the tank guns don’t have enough elevation to hit the roof, it’s a situation where only you can hit them and they can’t hit you.”

   When Sokov spoke, Ulanova did not interrupt, but just listened quietly. After Sokov finished speaking, she said: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, although we are equipped with 37mm anti-aircraft guns, when using high-explosive armor-piercing projectiles, they can still penetrate 46mm steel plates within a range of 500 meters. "

  After listening to the data reported by Ulanova, Sokov secretly thought in his heart that if he was dealing with an early model of the German Panzer IV, the 37mm anti-aircraft gun should be able to destroy the target at a distance of 500 meters, there should be no problem. But now the German No. 4 tank has been upgraded to the F-type, and the frontal armor has been increased to 50mm. If you want to destroy the German tanks, you can only let them get closer. But in this way, the 37mm anti-aircraft guns would not be able to attack German tanks due to angle problems.

   While Sokov was thinking hard, he suddenly heard Ulanova asking herself: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what are you thinking about?"

   "I was thinking," Sokov blurted out, "Even with high-explosive armor-piercing projectiles, the 37mm anti-aircraft guns cannot destroy enemy tanks at a distance of 500 meters."

  Unexpectedly, after Ulanova listened to Sokov's words, she burst out laughing, which confused Sokov. He asked with some displeasure, "Comrade Ulanova, what's so funny?"

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you are right. If our battalion is deployed on the ground, even with high-explosive armor-piercing shells, it will not be able to penetrate the frontal armor of German tanks at a distance of 500 meters." Ulanova said with a smile: "But, you forgot, we are on the roof."

"I know you are on the roof, but what does this have to do with destroying the enemy's tanks?..." Sokov said here, and immediately realized that he had made a common-sense mistake. Of course, the tanks coming over can only attack the frontal armor. But now the anti-aircraft guns are firing condescendingly on the roof, attacking the weak top of the German tanks, not to mention at a distance of 500 meters, even if it is farther away, the armor plate is only a dozen millimeters thick, and it is still unable to block the high-explosive tanks. Armor-piercing rounds.

Sokov raised his hand and slapped himself on the forehead, and said with some embarrassment: "Yes, Comrade Ulanova, you are right, we are on the roof, attacking the top of the German tank, 37 Millimeter anti-aircraft guns use high-explosive armor-piercing shells and can easily destroy them at a distance of 500 meters."

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel," Ulanova said in high spirits: "Don't look at the small-caliber artillery we use today, but the rate of fire makes up for the lack of power. Fifty or sixty shells can be fired every minute, let alone a few tanks from the German army, even if dozens of tanks come, we can smash them all into scrap iron.”

Although Sokov knew in his heart that with these anti-aircraft guns placed on the roof, it was enough to seal off an area within a radius of one kilometer. Whether it was German tanks or infantry, as long as they entered this area, they would be fired upon. suffered huge losses. But the enemy is not a fool. If they find that the anti-aircraft guns on the roof pose a great threat to them, they will definitely use artillery and air force to bombard and bomb the factory building. Once the roof collapsed, Ulanova and her subordinates did not know how much they would survive.

Sokov thought to himself: It seems that if we want to defend this place, we still cannot do without the new type of rockets. Whether they hit enemy tanks, infantry, or fortifications, they are rare magic weapons. Let Briski send someone back to bring dozens of them.

  (end of this chapter)