Chapter 852 Upcoming Meeting

  The three German engineer battalions stationed at the barricade factory launched an attack on the site occupied by the Soviet army from three directions at the same time. Not only the defense zone of the 650th regiment was attacked, but also the defense zones of the 544th and 768th regiments were also attacked.

  The Soviet commanders and fighters who stood firm on the ground found that the German troops attacking today are completely different from the past. Instead of following tanks or assault guns and attacking their own positions in skirmish lines, they approached their positions little by little with the help of bomb craters or ruined walls, using short leap tactics as cover.

  Facing the enemy's attack, the Soviet commanders still adopted the original tactics to deal with it. But soon, they realized that something was wrong. They shot at the enemy, but because the enemy showed up a lot, the bullets fired rarely hit the target. And those machine guns deployed at the firepower point were often destroyed by German assault guns before firing a single bullet.

   Just when the commanders and fighters were at a loss, Lyudnikov called. He told several regiment leaders how to deal with the attack launched by this special German army. At the same time, he also specially told the heads of the regiments to find out the number of the attacking German army.

   After receiving Lyudnikov's call, the regimental leaders immediately arranged the methods to deal with the enemy to the commanders and fighters below. The soldiers immediately adjusted their tactics, instead of blindly shooting at the scattered German troops, they used snipers and mortars to deal with the enemy.

  The German machine gunner set up a machine gun in the crater, aiming at the Soviet position to shoot. As soon as two shots were fired, the machine gunner was headshot by bullets flying from the opposite position. Seeing his companion fall, the deputy shooter quickly took over his position and continued to shoot, but not long after, he was also shot in the head.

  Machine gunners became the priority targets of snipers, and the fate of the artillery observers who indicated the targets for the assault guns was not much better. Once the Soviet army discovered their location, they first blocked their hiding places with machine gun fire; then, snipers killed those observers who appeared; The army would bombard the craters with mortars, blasting the enemies hidden inside to pieces.

  The German engineer battalion commanders staying at their respective command positions saw that their own attack was not effective, and in order to reduce unnecessary casualties, they quickly issued a retreat order. The German soldiers nestled in the crater were being beaten terribly by the Soviet snipers and mortars. When they heard the retreat order from the rear, they quickly and orderly withdrew to the original place. starting position.

   Seeing that the attacking enemy had retreated, each regiment immediately dispatched manpower to check the German corpses, and learned the troop number from the documents they carried. Ten minutes later, Lyudnikov received calls from the heads of the regiments to listen to their reports on him.

After recording the reports of the regiments in his notebook, Lyudnikov raised his head and said to Sokov who was sitting opposite him: "Colonel Sokov, it seems that your estimation is correct. The attack on our position The enemy is indeed an engineer unit. The designations are the 50th Armored Engineer Battalion, the 162nd and 294th Engineer Battalion."

  After listening to Lyudnikov's words, Sokov smiled lightly and said casually: "Comrade Colonel, the enemy dispatched an engineer battalion to attack the factory. Do you know what it means?"

"If according to what you said just now, the engineer battalion is the elite unit of the German army, and the Germans use them here, does it mean that they are bound to win the barricade factory." Lyudnikov said tentatively: "I am right correct?"

"The barricade factory is certainly an important goal, but why not the Dzerzhinsky factory?" Sokov said slowly: "The engineer battalion is one of their most elite units, and it is now engaged in the battle to capture the barricade factory In the middle, it means that their strength and ammunition tend to be exhausted, and they try to completely capture the barricade factory through the battle of the engineer battalion."

"Oh, the enemy's strength and ammunition are running out?" Hearing what Sokov said, Lyudnikov showed a surprised expression on his face: "So, the chances of us holding the barricade factory are greatly reduced." increased."

   "Comrade Colonel, I think the issue you have to consider now is not just how to defend the barricade factory." Sokov waved at Lyudnikov and said, "How to completely destroy the enemy who broke into the factory."

"What, what did you say?" Lyudnikov said in surprise: "Colonel Sokov, do you know what you are talking about? Our existing forces have great difficulty even blocking the enemy's attack. How can we talk about destroying them?" If the person who said this was not the hero Sokov, but someone else, he would have been scolded by Lyudnikov long ago.

"Comrade Colonel, have you forgotten what I said?" Sokov reminded the other party: "As the Volga River freezes, the reinforcements and supplies assembled on the east bank will enter the city on a large scale. There are enough troops to fight the enemy to the death."

   As soon as Sokov finished speaking, the phone in front of him rang. He casually grabbed the microphone and stuck it to his ear, and said hastily, "I'm Colonel Sokov, where are you?"

   "It's me." A familiar voice came from the receiver: "I'm Peter."

"Hello, Comrade Factory Manager." Hearing that it was Peter calling him, Sokov knew very well that the other party must be about the self-propelled artillery, so he asked quickly: "Have you received the message I sent to you?" Have you got the drawings and notes?"

   "Got it, Colonel Sokov." Peter replied, "I called you just to talk to you about this..."

"Comrade factory director, I will briefly explain my shooting ideas to you again." Sokov worried that Peter might not understand his notes, so he explained to him: "The self-propelled artillery you delivered to us is too crude. There is only a circular protective plate around the artillery to protect the occupants, which is obviously not enough. As long as a shell explodes next to the artillery during the battle, it will cause casualties to the occupants.

…According to my design idea, two GAZ-202 engines are placed in parallel to replace the straight-line type of the T-70, and a closed armor plate with a thickness of 10-35 mm is added. The cockpit is placed in the middle of the two engines. The driver drives; the ZIS-3 gun is installed on the superstructure, the entire superstructure is rearward, and the gunner is three people..."

  After introducing his ideas, Sokov tentatively asked Peter: "Comrade factory director, I would like to ask, according to my design plan, how long will it take you to produce a prototype car?"

  Peter stared at the content of his record for a while, and replied: "Comrade Colonel, according to your plan, even if we arrange manpower to work overtime, it will take at least five to seven days to produce a prototype car."

   Hearing that only one prototype could be produced, and it would take five to seven days, Sokov felt very disappointed. But after thinking about it, the current production capacity of the Red October factory is simply not comparable to that before the enemy rushed into the city. The time given by Peter should already be the limit they can achieve.

Thinking of this, Sokov no longer forced others to be difficult, and could only bite the bullet and said: "Okay, comrade factory director, please speed up the comrades in the factory, and make sure to produce the new self-propelled artillery in the shortest possible time. come out."

"Don't worry, Comrade Colonel, we will not let you down." After Peter finished speaking, he suddenly remembered that he had handed over two untested self-propelled artillery to Sokov, and he didn't know whether it was After participating in the battle, he tentatively asked, "Did the two self-propelled artillery pieces I handed over to you go into battle?"

"Not yet, Comrade Factory Manager." As soon as Sokov finished speaking, he heard Peter sigh on the phone, as if regretting that this new weapon could not be put into battle in time, so he quickly added: " But don't worry, I don't think it will be long before the two self-propelled guns can take part in the battle."

  The call with Peter was not over yet, and the phone in front of Lyudnikov rang again. Sokov thought it was the commander below who called to report the situation to Lyudnikov, but he didn't care. Unexpectedly, after listening for a while, Lyudnikov stood up, straightened his body and said respectfully to the microphone: "Hello, Comrade Commander, I am Lyudnikov, what instructions do you have?"

Hearing that it was Chuikov's call, Sokov was not interested in continuing the conversation with Peter. After saying a few words quickly, he hung up the phone and listened to the conversation between Lyudnikov and Chuikov. dialogue.

   "Colonel Lyudnikov," Chuikov asked on the phone: "How is the situation there, is the enemy still attacking you?"

"Yes, Comrade Commander, not long ago, the enemy dispatched three engineer battalions to attack us, but we repelled them all." Lyudnikov said: "We are preparing to deal with the enemy's possible attack. A new round of attack."

"Engineer battalion? The enemy actually put all the engineers into offensive battles. It seems that their strength is seriously insufficient." Unlike Sokov, Cuikov is from later generations. This is the first time he heard that the German army dispatched three soldiers. The engineer battalion launched an attack on the barricade factory, and instinctively thought that the enemy did not have enough troops, so that even the weak engineers went into battle.

From Chuikov's words, Lyudnikov realized that the other party might not have figured out the nature of the three engineer battalions, so he explained: "Comrade commander, the enemy's engineers are not the kind of engineers we know. It is much stronger than the average German army, and the tactics it uses are different from other German troops.” Speaking of this, he paused for a moment, looked at Sokov who was standing aside, and added, “If If Colonel Sokov didn't come up with countermeasures in time, I think the battle is not over yet, and our army's losses will be much greater than they are now."

   "Why, Sokov is with you?" Chuikov was surprised to learn that Sokov was staying in the barricade factory. Although he knew that Sokov personally led the troops into the barricade factory, but after such a long time, he thought that the other party had returned to Mamayev Post. Thinking of Lyudnikov once letting the artillery fire at his headquarters, Chuikov asked quickly out of concern for Sokov, "How is he, is he not injured?"

   "No, Comrade Commander." Lyudnikov shook his head and replied, "Colonel Sokov is fine, no injuries at all."

"It's fine if you're not injured, so I'm relieved." After Cuikov finished speaking, he paused for a moment, and then continued: "Tomorrow evening, the Army Group Headquarters will hold a military meeting. All commanders above the regiment level in the city will To attend. If there is no danger on the road from the barricade factory to the headquarters, you and Sokov will come to the meeting."

   Knowing that a military meeting will be held tomorrow, Lyudnikov looked at Sokov in surprise, and then asked Chuikov cautiously: "Comrade Commander, can you tell me about the content of the meeting?"

   "I'm sorry, Colonel Lyudnikov, I can't satisfy your request at the moment." Chuikov said coldly: "As for the content of the meeting, you will know when you arrive at the headquarters tomorrow."

  Although Chuikov was unwilling to disclose the content of the meeting, Lyudnikov was also a smart person. He realized that what Sokov said to himself would soon be fulfilled. In the days that followed, the issue I had to consider was no longer how to defend the barricade factory, but to work with the new troops to wipe out the enemies occupying the factory area one by one.

As soon as he put down the phone, Lyudnikov excitedly said to Sokov: "Colonel Sokov, good news! Commander Chuikov informed us to attend the military meeting tomorrow night. It seems that your guesses are correct. .”

  Sokov worried that the enemy had infiltrated the rear of the line of defense, and the road from the factory to the army headquarters was not as safe as imagined. He looked at Lyudnikov and said: "Comrade Colonel, I am afraid that there may be stragglers of the enemy on this road to the headquarters. If a large group of us is on the way to a meeting, the Germans There are bound to be casualties. Once a regiment-level commander dies, it will definitely affect the subsequent command operations. In order to avoid this from happening, I think it is necessary to send troops to patrol that area to eliminate the intruders. Enemies behind the lines."

Lyudnikov knew that the road leading to the headquarters was very unsafe. Although the two self-propelled guns were transported from the Red October factory, the road was very peaceful, but that was because Sokov dispatched a platoon of guards to meet them. . Even if there are lurking enemies, seeing such a battle, they must not dare to act rashly. But if he brought a group of commanders to the meeting, those lurking German soldiers would never let go of such an important target easily. Once their subordinates suffered casualties, it would really be worth the candle.

"You're right." Although Lyudnikov knew in his heart that even if he sent a patrol, he might not be able to eliminate the lurking enemies, but it could give him some comfort. Thinking of this, he immediately nodded and said: "I immediately mobilized people and formed two teams of twenty to patrol that area to ensure that the enemies lurking in the rear would not dare to act rashly."

  (end of this chapter)