Chapter 862 Trust

   "Let's hear it!" Sokov said kindly.

Sidolin picked up a pen and paper, drew a rough outline of the Volga River on it, drew a line to connect it, and explained to Sokov: "Comrade commander, we can use a few steel cables to connect the two banks of the Volga River, Then lay logs on the steel cables, and after the cables and logs are frozen, it will be a solid bridge, not to mention the vehicles for transporting materials, even heavy tanks will not be a problem.”

  After listening to Sidolin's proposal, Sokov asked the most critical question: "Chief of Staff, if you do this, how many steel cables and logs will you need?"

Sidolin has been thinking about this plan for more than a day or two. He already has a general framework. Hearing Sokov's question, he immediately replied without hesitation: "I have roughly calculated that to complete such a bridge, at least Twenty thousand meters of steel cables and five thousand logs."

"My God, so many steel cables and logs are needed." Ivanov came out and sang a different tune: "With the current situation in Stalingrad, let alone 20,000 meters of steel cables and 5,000 round logs cannot be produced. Wood, even if it can be taken out, it will take at least two or three days to build such a bridge over the river.

Comrade Chief of Staff, I don’t know if you have considered that we risked such a large cost and took such a long time to build a bridge over the Volga River. It may take less than a day, or even half a day, to be destroyed by enemy planes. blow up. I don't think your plan is feasible. Even if it is reported to the Army Group Command, it may not be approved. "

  Ivanov rejected Sidolin's proposal, but Sokov was secretly thinking about the feasibility of this plan. According to the orders of the superiors, after the start of the major counter-offensive, the other units of the 62nd Army would stick to their existing defensive positions to block and contain the enemy; while the task of their own units was to choose the right time to launch a counter-attack against the Germans.

   To counterattack the enemy, it is not enough to rely on infantry alone, but also needs the support of artillery and tanks. But in my own hands, there are only a few tanks obtained from the factory manager Peter, which are insignificant compared with the German tanks. If you can get tank support from the opposite bank before the counterattack begins, then your results in the counterattack will be even more brilliant.

But when he thought about the materials and time needed to erect such a pontoon bridge, Sokov felt a headache. He worried that even if he submitted the plan, Cuikov and the others might reject it due to factors such as insufficient materials and too long construction time. . Thinking of this, he sighed softly, and said to Sidolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, your plan is very good. But under the current circumstances, it is obviously unrealistic to build such a bridge."

  Seeing the disappointed expression on Sidolin's face, Sokov quickly changed the topic: "By the way, has there been any movement in the front-facing Romanian army these two days?"

   "It's still the same as usual," Sidolin said, shrugging his shoulders. "We bombarded our position for ten minutes every day, and then launched a ground attack. As soon as we counterattacked, we immediately retreated to the starting point of the attack."

"Yeah, it's still the same. Without the supervision of the Germans, their daily offense is just going through the motions." Ivanov added with great interest: "But this is very beneficial to us, we can draw more Use more troops to attack in order to achieve greater results."

Although the frontal Romanian army was defeated by him, Sokov did not take it lightly. He told Sidolin: "Chief of staff, immediately send scouts to scout the deployment of the Romanian army and find out the strength of their defense line." Where is the weak point."

   "Understood." Sidolin nodded and said, "I will immediately arrange the candidates for the scouts."

   After sending Sidolin and Ivanov to rest, Sokov lay on the camp bed in the corner of the headquarters, and he didn’t fall asleep all night, thinking over and over again about Sidolin’s bridge-building plan.

  The next morning, as soon as Sidolin walked into the headquarters from outside, Sokov turned over and sat up, and greeted him: "Chief of Staff, you are here!"

  Sidorin nodded at Sokov, and asked tentatively: "Comrade commander, have you not slept all night?"

"I can't sleep." Sokov got up and walked to the table, picked up the cigarette case and matches on the table, and said to Sidolin: "Chief of Staff, I'm going to go outside to smoke a cigarette. "

  Sokov went along the passage to the top of the slope. Just after he walked out of the cave, he suddenly heard someone shouting loudly from behind a mound: "Stop, password!"

  Password? ! Sokov was dumbfounded at once, thinking that he wanted to take a breath of fresh air on the top of the slope, and smoke a cigarette by the way, how could he know what the password was. Just when he was about to reveal his identity, the other party suddenly exclaimed: "So it's you, Comrade Master."

   As soon as the words fell, a soldier wearing a steel helmet and a white camouflage uniform emerged from behind a mound with a gun. He came in front of Sokov, straightened his body and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Comrade Master, I didn't know it was you..."

"It doesn't matter, you are also responsible." Sokov waved his hand at the other party, and said generously: "Fortunately, you recognized me in time, otherwise you wouldn't hear me answer the password, and you would directly open the door to me." gun?"

   "How is this possible." The soldier blushed and replied, "I won't shoot casually."

Sokov looked around. After a long period of shelling and bombing, the top of the **** had become unrecognizable, and there were pitch-black craters everywhere. He watched for a long time, but he couldn't see what the observation point was He turned to the soldier and asked, "Where is the observation post?"

"You go forward along these craters." The soldier pointed to the not far away, and patiently explained to Sokov: "When you walk about twenty meters, you will see a trench. You just need to walk along the trench toward the Go east and you will see the observation post."

   After thanking the soldiers, Sokov quickly found the observation post in the direction he pointed. The observation post in the observation post, seeing Sokov walking in, quickly raised his hand to salute him, and asked in a panic, "Comrade commander, why are you here?"

"how is the situation?"

   "The enemy's position is very calm, there is no movement at all."

  After listening to the report from the observation post, Sokov turned to face the direction of the ferry, raised his binoculars and looked towards the river. From the lens of the telescope, he found that the river had frozen again, and the two transport ships sailing from the west bank to the east bank were actually frozen by the ice. Seeing this scene, he turned his head and asked the observation post: "How long has the transport ship been frozen on the river?"

   "It was frozen when it was dark yesterday." The observation post heard Sokov's inquiry, and quickly replied: "Today, when it was about to dawn, I saw the sailors on the ship abandon the ship and leave."

  Looking at the two frozen transport ships, Sokov thought to himself: When the sailors of the District Fleet discovered that the waterway was frozen, would they use simple and rude methods to open up the waterway again with gunboats?

   "Comrade Commander," the observation post found that Sokov had been observing the two frozen transport ships, and said cautiously: "Do you think it doesn't make much sense for the sailors to do this?"

  Hearing what the observation post said, Sokov put down the binoculars, turned to look at him, and asked curiously, "Why doesn't it make much sense?"

"The night before yesterday, I was on duty here, and I saw with my own eyes that the sailors used the gunboats as icebreakers." The observation post said to Sokov: "One gunboat sank, and the other two were seriously damaged, so we barely opened a narrow road. The channel, after being used for a day, was frozen again. If you want to continue to use this channel, you can only use the original method and continue to use gunboats to hit the ice..."

  Sokov patiently listened to the observation post's statement, and couldn't help but think of Sidolin's suggestion again. Twenty thousand meters of steel cables may be a problem for other cities in a state of war, but as a large heavy industrial city, Stalingrad should still be able to obtain such a large number of steel cables. As for those logs, you can use the sleepers that can be seen everywhere in the factory area instead.

"Don't worry," Sokov made up his mind, raised his hand and patted the shoulder of the observation post twice, and said to him with a smile: "Sailors don't need to use gunboats as icebreakers anymore, there will be better to solve the problem of material transportation across the shore.”

  Looking at the back of Sokov's departure, the observation post muttered in a low voice: "What's the best way? We can't send two icebreakers from the North Pole to open up a channel here, right?"

As soon as Sokov walked into the command post, he said loudly to Sidolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I have carefully considered your plan last night, and I think it is still completely feasible. Let's discuss the details again and report to the Army Group Headquarters report."

  Sidorin originally had a lot of hope for his plan, but last night Ivanov poured cold water on his head, and seeing that Sokov didn't agree with his plan, he was somewhat disappointed. At this moment, when I heard Sokov bring up the old matter again, hope was rekindled in my heart.

But when he thought of Ivanov's attitude, Sidolin asked worriedly: "Comrade commander, didn't the deputy division commander say last night that given the current situation in Stalingrad, I am afraid that it is impossible to provide so many bridge-building materials. And this This kind of bridge takes a long time, and it may be blown up by German planes as soon as it is built."

   "Comrade Chief of Staff, don't forget that Stalingrad is a heavy industrial city. Even though it is in a state of war, I think there is still a way to get enough steel cables."

   "What about the log?"

"It can be replaced by sleepers." Sokov replied with a smile: "When repairing fortifications in the factory area, a lot of sleepers will be used. If it is really not enough," he said here, pointing to the west with his hand, "Not far from our position, there is a railway around the city. There are quite a lot of sleepers there."

  Hearing that Sokov solved the problem of steel cables and logs in a few words, Sidolin couldn't help smiling. But this expression didn't last long, and he thought of another important question: "The deputy teacher is right about one more thing. It will take at least a day or two to build such a bridge. If we just built it, we will What if you are bombed by an enemy plane?"

"Chief of Staff, you don't have to worry about this." Sokov waved his hands and said confidently: "It is not a few days before the big counteroffensive begins. When our bridge is built, it is estimated that the battlefield air supremacy is already in our hands." At that time, the enemy's planes will be busy engaging with our army's planes, how can they come here to bomb an inconspicuous bridge."

  Sokov's words dispelled Sidolin's worries. He paused for a moment, and then asked tentatively: "Comrade commander, can you report this matter to the headquarters?"

"Isn't your report the same?" Seeing Sidolin voluntarily giving up the opportunity to gain the favor of his superiors, Sokov couldn't help but asked in wonder: "You have a good relationship with the commander. He heard your proposal. will praise you."

   "No, no." Sidolin shook his head vigorously, and resolutely rebuffed: "The person most trusted by Comrade Commander is you. If he hears you propose such a plan, he will definitely adopt it very readily."

  Since Sidolin took the initiative to give up this opportunity, Sokov was not hypocritical, so he asked the communications soldier to connect to the group army headquarters. Hearing Chuikov's voice coming from the receiver, he immediately said: "Comrade Commander, I would like to make a suggestion to you!"

   "Oh, give me some advice?" Chuikov said with a smile, "Then I'll listen carefully, so feel free to mention it."

"It's like this, Comrade Commander, in order to ensure the smooth flow of transportation lines on the Volga River, I think a bridge should be built on the river." Sokov seriously reported the bridge repair plan to Chuikov in detail, and finally said: "Commander Comrade, this is just a suggestion from me, as to whether the bridge should be built, it is up to you to decide."

"Colonel Sokov, your plan is very good." After waiting for Sokov to finish speaking, Chuikov said with satisfaction: "I will immediately report to the headquarters of the Front Army and ask Commander Yeremenko to send an engineering unit to join our army group. together with our engineers and corps to complete the bridge-building work.”

   "Comrade Commander," Sokov asked curiously, "Don't you need to discuss with other army chiefs, and report directly to the Front Army Command?"

   "What, discuss it with other chiefs?" Chuikov was obviously more surprised than Sokov: "Do you still need to discuss the plan you proposed?"

   "..." Sokov couldn't believe that this was what an army commander said. His unreserved trust in himself made him feel a lot of pressure.

"Colonel Sokov, I may discuss the plan proposed by others with other chiefs. But for you," Cuikov's tone was full of trust in Sokov: "Whether the proposed plan is applicable, I still know it.”

  Sokov was completely speechless when he heard this. Although there is no doubt about employing people, Chuikov's unreserved trust in himself made Sokov feel a lot of pressure. His heart became uneasy, he worried that when he commanded the troops to counterattack, he would not be able to obtain the results that satisfied Cuikov, and then he would feel ashamed.

   "By the way, how's the situation there?" Seeing that Sokov didn't speak, Cuikov automatically changed the subject: "Have you started preparing for a counterattack?"

   "Yes, Comrade Commander." Sokov replied: "I have sent scouts to conduct reconnaissance on the defense zone of the Romanian army, looking for their weak points as a breakthrough for our counterattack."

   "Very good, very good!" After Cui Kefu said two things were very good, he said, "Call me anytime if you have any difficulties." After speaking, he hung up the phone directly.

  (end of this chapter)