Chapter 810 Blowing up the bridge

Chuikov followed Sokov's suggestion, and as soon as he put down the phone, he ordered Krylov directly: "Chief of Staff, call Major General Zolzhiv and Colonel Sokolov who are standing in the Dzerzhinsky factory and order They dispatched troops as soon as possible to blow up the road bridges around the factory so that the enemy's mechanized troops could no longer enter the factory."

When Krylov heard Chuikov's order, he was stunned for a moment, then his eyes lit up, and he said repeatedly: "Comrade commander, this suggestion is really great. As long as the bridge is blown up, the enemy's tanks and assault guns will be destroyed." It is no longer possible to enter the factory area. And those tanks and assault guns that enter the factory area, once the fuel and ammunition are used up, there will be no threat to our army, and only one anti-tank grenade can be reimbursed for them all.” Speaking of this, he paused for a moment, raised his hand and slapped himself on the forehead, and then blamed himself angrily, "Oh, why can't I think of such a simple and good solution."

"Chief of Staff, you are so busy answering the phone every day, how can you have time to sit there and think like Sokov?" Seeing that Krylov blamed himself so much, Chuikov quickly comforted him and said: "Okay, hurry up The two division commanders called and told them to prepare to blow up the bridge."

  The 37th Guards Division, which was originally in charge of guarding the factory, suffered a serious reduction in personnel after a long period of fighting. The whole division, including the wounded, only had more than 1,000 people left. Their defense area was compressed to the south of the factory by the Germans.

During the transfer of division personnel to the new headquarters, they were discovered by German tanks rushing into the factory area. The tanks immediately jumped to the muzzle and fired two shots at the commanders and fighters running in the ruins. The flying shrapnel cut down the Five or six staff officers and communications personnel, even the head of the division commander Joludev, were also injured by the debris from the air wave. Seeing that the division commander was injured, several guards around rushed over immediately, holding Zoludev in a rush with all hands and feet, and quickly escaped from the area bombarded by German tanks.

  As soon as Joludev entered the headquarters, a soldier shouted loudly: "Healer, where is the health worker?"

  Hearing the shouts of the soldiers, a female health worker with gunpowder on her face hurried in with a medical kit on her back, and asked anxiously, "Where is the wounded?"

  The soldier pointed at Zholudev who was sitting at the foot of the wall, and said, "The commander is injured, hurry up and bandage his wound."

  The hygienist quickly walked up to Joludev and said politely: "Comrade commander, your forehead is injured, please take off your hat."

  Zoludev took off the otter cap on his head, endured the pain on his forehead, tried hard to squeeze a smile on his face, and said to the female hygienist, "I'm sorry, Comrade hygienist."

  The hygienist tried to clean the wound for Zoludev with alcohol, applied iodine, and wrapped a bandage around it. After finishing all this, the female health worker took a step back and said to Zoludev: "Okay, Comrade Commander, it's just a skin injury. A piece of skin was wiped off on the forehead by gravel, and it will recover in a few days."

  Knowing that his injury is not serious and he will recover in a few days, Ruoludev felt more at ease. He nodded to the female health worker and said, "Thank you, comrade health worker."

"Comrade Commander," as soon as the health workers left, Chief of Staff Brushko hurried over and reported to Joludev with a serious expression: "I just received a call from the Chief of Staff of the Army Group, and he ordered us to organize our forces immediately and bomb the Off the road bridge across the river outside the factory."

   "What, blowing up the road bridge over the river?" Zollujev couldn't help being stunned after hearing the chief of staff's words. He was stunned for a long time before tentatively asking: "Chief of Staff, are you sure you heard the order correctly?"

"That's right, Comrade Commander." In order to let Zoludev understand that the order he conveyed was correct, Brushko also specially emphasized: "I thought I heard it wrong at the time, and I checked it twice, and it was indeed Order us to blow up the bridges over the river, and this must be done as soon as possible."

  Although the superior did not explain the reason for blowing up the bridge, since the order has been issued, it can only be carried out unconditionally. Zholudev pointed to Brushko with his hand and asked: "Chief of Staff, which of our units is closest to the bridge to the south?"

   "It's the 2nd Battalion and 6th Company of the 114th Guards Regiment," Brushko quickly replied: "The company still has more than 40 commanders and fighters, and they are fully capable of completing this task."

   "Okay," Zoludev nodded, "let them complete this glorious task."

Brushko did not leave immediately after Zoludev gave the order, but asked tentatively: "Comrade commander, there is another road bridge to the west of the factory, but unfortunately it has already fallen into the hands of the Germans." , if we are going to blow up the bridge, I am afraid that the casualties will not be small."

  Zholudev's brain is not slow. After a period of thinking, he suddenly figured out the real purpose of Chuikov's order to blow up, and quickly said to Brushko: "Chief of Staff, come with me!"

  After the two came to the table, Zoludev pointed to the map spread on the table and said to Brushko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I think I understand the reason why the commander issued this order."

   "What reason?" Brushko asked curiously.

"Look, on the river that surrounds the factory, besides the three road bridges, there are more than a dozen pontoon bridges built by workers using empty oil barrels." Zolludev slapped the map twice with his palm: "Whether it is our tanks or the German tanks, they all enter and leave the factory through these three bridges. And those pontoon bridges built with empty oil barrels can only pass people, but cannot pass any heavy equipment. Once we blow up The road bridge means that until the bridge is repaired, German tanks can no longer enter the factory area."

  Brushko waited for Zoludev to finish speaking, and reminded the other party with a wry smile: "However, if the highway bridge is blown up, the enemy's tanks can't get in, but our tanks can't get out either."

"How many tanks do we have?" Zholudev looked at the other side and asked, "As far as I know, there are only five or six tanks left in Colonel Bely's tank brigade, and they are all half buried underground as fixed firepower points. Use. We don’t have any tanks other than them, so blowing up the road bridge outside the factory doesn’t affect us at all.”

  After listening to Zoludev's explanation, Brushko didn't say anything, but immediately called the head of the 114th regiment and assigned him the task of blowing up the bridge.

  Since the south of the city is still within the control of the 37th Guards Division, the order to blow up the bridge was executed very simply. In less than half an hour, Zoludev heard explosions from outside, and soon the head of the 114th regiment called Brushko to report that the road bridge south of the factory had been successfully blown up.

   "Comrade Commander," Brushko asked Joludev for instructions while holding the microphone: "The 114th Guards Regiment has successfully blown up the road bridge on the other side of the factory. Commander, I would like to ask you for your next order!"

   "Tell him," said Zholudev, staring at the map in front of him without raising his head, "lead the whole regiment to approach the highway bridge to the west immediately, and try to blow it up."

  According to Zoljeev’s thinking, since the highway bridge to the south of the factory can be blown up so easily, blowing up the highway bridge to the west is probably not a big problem.

   However, the plan could not keep up with the changes. Only a quarter of an hour later, Brushko received another call from the head of the 114th regiment. However, the other party did not report the news that the bridge had been blown up, but reported with a sad face: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the enemy may have noticed our actions. They have deployed several machine gun fire points near the west highway bridge. Our soldiers After rushing several times, I couldn't rush up."

   "Continue to charge!" Brushko said involuntarily: "Even if you fill it with people, you have to blow up the highway bridge for me as soon as possible!"

"Comrade Chief of Staff," the other party said in embarrassment to Brushko's order: "Our regiment originally only had more than 400 people left. In the attack that ended not long ago, our regiment suffered nearly 100 casualties. If If the fight continues like this, I am afraid that within an hour, our regiment will be able to revoke the establishment."

"Comrade Commander!" Although Brushko also wanted to blow up the road bridge as soon as possible, but if it was at the cost of losing a regiment, he still felt a little worthless in his heart. He could only turn his eyes to Zoludev for help, hoping The other party can make an idea. "Look, what should we do?"

   Ruo Jeff also understood in his heart that as a commander, if he didn't know how to adjust his tactics according to the changes on the battlefield, he might ruin an army. It was precisely because of this consideration that he did not hastily order the commanders and fighters of the 114th Regiment to launch a blind charge, but said to Brushko: "Chief of Staff, let them stop for a while, I think about what to do." How to blow up this pontoon bridge."

"You wait first, and I will notify you after the division commander makes a decision." After putting down the phone, Brushko walked to Zoludev's side and asked him for instructions: "Comrade commander, what can you do? Can it blow up the road bridge and minimize the casualties of the troops?"

   "No," Zholudev shook his head unexpectedly, and said, "I can't think of such a way."

   Knowing that Zoludev couldn't figure out a way, Brushko showed a disappointed expression on his face. But to his surprise, Ruolu Defu continued: "I can't think of a way, but it doesn't mean that others can't."

  Brushko heard this sentence, his eyes lit up immediately, and he asked quickly: "Mr. Comrade, I don't know who you are talking about?"

"Colonel Sokov, Commander of the 41st Guards Division." Zolludev said helplessly, "According to my observations during this period, I found that this man is very good at fighting. Maybe he can come up with a way to get the best of both worlds. The crisis before us. Chief of Staff, immediately send the signal corps to Mamayev Post, I want to speak to Colonel Sokov."

   Rudev was lucky. Sokov didn't run around today, but stayed in his division headquarters honestly. Sokov was surprised when he received the call from Zholudev. After all, the defense zone between the two was a bit far apart, and the other party couldn't explain it to him, but out of politeness, he still asked politely: "Hello, General Zholudev. , do you have anything to do?"

"It's like this, Colonel Sokov." Zoludev felt awkward when he thought of asking a young commander with a lower rank than himself for help, but in order to save the lives of more soldiers, he still bite the bullet Said: "I called you because I have something to ask for your help."

   "Are you asking me for help?" Sokov was taken aback for a moment, and then asked back, "Comrade General, can you tell me what it is?"

"The Army Group Command gave us a strange order to blow up the road bridge outside the factory area..." Ruoludev thought that he had something to ask Sokov, so naturally he would not hide the fact from him, so he gave the command The order was relayed to Sukov and told about the current dilemma faced by his troops. He finally said: "Comrade Colonel, I really have no choice but to call you this time. I wonder if you have any way to resolve our current predicament?"

  Sokov learned that Zholudev called himself, which turned out to be related to the bombing of the highway bridge. If Ludev encountered trouble during the execution of the mission, he, the instigator, was naturally obliged to help. Thinking of this, he said into the microphone: "Comrade General, don't worry, I have a way to blow up the highway bridge."

  Hearing that Sokov really had a way to blow up the highway bridge, Zolludev suddenly became energetic: "Comrade Colonel, hurry up and tell us your good way."

"Since the enemy has set up a firepower point near the bridge, it is obviously unrealistic for the soldiers to rush directly to the bridge. Even if they forcefully rush up, the casualties will be very heavy." Sokov said thoughtfully: " Since we can’t get through on the ground, why don’t we go through the water?”

"Across the water?" Zoludev was taken aback when he heard this, and asked, "Comrade Colonel, do you mean to let the soldiers swim across?" Without waiting for Sokov to answer, he shook his head and said, " No, this is absolutely not possible, the speed of the soldiers in the water will not be too fast, and the enemies on the shore can use them as targets and knock them out one by one."

"You misunderstood me, Comrade General." Sokov had already guessed that Zoludev would understand his proposal in this way, and seeing that he had made such a mistake, he patiently explained to him: "You can put Put the explosive pack into the empty oil barrel and float down the river. However, you must set the length of the fuse in advance to ensure that the gasoline barrel will explode just after it floats to the position of the road bridge, so that it can blow up the enemy-controlled Highway Bridge."

"That's great, Colonel Sokov, your idea is really great." Zholudev never dreamed that Sokov would come up with such a good idea. He applauded repeatedly and said: "I will immediately order the soldiers They blow up bridges this way."

  (end of this chapter)