Chapter 948 The Shocked Bird

  After Operation Ring started, the results of the Soviet army's battles would be distributed to the various army headquarters that night. And Sokov calculated that when Cuikov almost got the battle report, he would make a cheeky call to find out how the battle on the front line was going.

Hearing that the 38th Infantry Division commanded by Colonel Safi Ulin wiped out a field airport of the German army, captured 18 transport planes, and captured all crew members, Sokov couldn't help but wondered about the lack of fuel and The German army with ammunition has basically become a toothless tiger. It seems that I still have a small team operating behind the enemy. I can let them do something.

  Thinking of this, Sokov asked Sidolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, let me ask you, do we have any squads behind the enemy lines?"

"Squad?!" Hearing this question, Sidolin frowned and thought for a while, then shook his head, turned around and asked Ivanov who was talking to Anisimov: "Comrade deputy division commander, do you know that we are Are there any small troops behind the enemy?"

   "Didn't the squad led by Captain Guchakov and Kavin withdraw back a long time ago?" Ivanov said with a blank face, "We are behind enemy lines, so there are no squads still active."

   Just when Sokov was secretly disappointed, he suddenly heard Anisimov say: "The squad may be gone, but the last time the squad attacked, it left several wounded to the guerrillas."

Anisimov's words made Sokov's eyes light up. He quickly picked up the phone in front of him, connected to the guard battalion, and asked the battalion commander Tenev: "Comrade Major, this is Sokov. Captain Guchakov Is it with you?"

  Since the last time Guchakov sent an ultimatum to the German army and came back, Sokov has not let him return to the third battalion for the time being, but has left him in the guard camp so that he can be sent out when there is another mission to persuade the Germans to surrender. Tenev heard Sokov's inquiry, and quickly replied: "Report to Comrade Commander, Captain Guchakov is still there, may I have something to convey to you?"

   "Let him report to the division headquarters immediately, I have something to ask him."

  Hearing that it was the teacher's call, Guchakov dared not neglect, and trotted over quickly. He came in front of Sokov, raised his hand to salute, and asked breathlessly, "Comrade commander, are you looking for me?"

"Yes, Captain Guchakov." Sokov nodded and went straight to the point: "I heard that you left several wounded behind the enemy's rear when you carried out missions last time. Is there such a thing? "

"That's right, Comrade Commander." Guchakov replied affirmatively: "Sergeant Tavlin was wounded in the battle. In order not to affect the actions of the troops, I left him and two other wounded in the guerrilla army. Team."

   "Which guerrilla group is it?" Sokov pulled up the map on the table and stretched it out in front of Guchakov: "Where do they usually operate?"

Guchakov took a closer look at the map, then pointed to a place decisively, and said to Sokov: "Here, Comrade Division Commander. , are often active in this area.”

  Hearing two familiar names, Sokov thought for a while, then remembered the name of the guerrillas, and asked, "Is it the Ignatov brothers' guerrillas?"

   "Exactly."

  Sokov put the map back on the table, and then carefully checked what valuable military targets were there. When he saw Pitomnik Airport, his pupils constricted suddenly. He raised his head and asked Guchakov, "How far is their new location from Pitomnik Airport?"

Before Guchakov could speak, Sidolin asked in surprise: "Comrade commander, you don't want the Ignatov brothers' guerrillas to attack Pitomnik Airport, do you? You know, even if the German army is now They suffered heavy defeats and demoralized, but they had no problem dealing with guerrillas who were poorly equipped or trained."

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sidolin had just finished, Guchakov retorted: "The equipment of the guerrillas of Brother Ignatov is not bad. After the last attack on the German railway station, the guerrillas captured A large number of weapons and ammunition have been replaced, and all their equipment has been replaced with all-German equipment."

   Sokov interrupted and asked Guchakov: "Comrade Captain, you haven't answered me, how far is their new station from the German-occupied Pitomnik Airport?"

   "It's about thirty kilometers away."

   "Can I get in touch with them?"

   "Yes." Guchakov replied: "Among the wounded who stayed with Tavlin was a radio operator who carried a radio with him."

   "Captain, get in touch with them immediately." Sokov stood up and ordered Guchakov: "I have important combat missions to assign to them."

   Guchakov promised, went straight to the radio, gave the radio operator a communication code, and then contacted Sergeant Tavlin who remained in the guerrilla. Sidolin frowned and asked: "Comrade commander, you don't want a guerrilla to attack Pitomnik Airport, do you? You know, this is a large airport controlled by the Germans. I believe the number of garrison troops must be large." Little, let the guerrillas attack, don’t they let them die?”

   "Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov asked with a smile after patiently listening to Sidolin's words, "When did you see me make soldiers make unnecessary sacrifices?"

  Hearing what Sokov said, Sidolin asked inexplicably: "But, you asked Guchakov to contact the Ignatov brothers' guerrillas, didn't you just want them to seize Pitomnik Airport?"

   "I intend to let them move around the airport and snipe at the enemy guarding the airport. I don't want them to occupy the airport. Besides, with their strength, even if they barely occupy the airport, they may not be able to hold it."

   "Comrade Commander," Guchakov, who was standing behind the radio operator, turned his head and shouted at Sokov, "We have established contact with the guerrillas."

  Sokov walked quickly to Guchakov's side, and said to the telegraph operator who was sitting on the stool and turned his head to look at him: "Call back the guerrillas and ask them what kind of transportation they have?"

  The call back came quickly: "Three captured half-track armored personnel carriers, a truck, and a dozen hitched sleds."

  Sokov calculated in his mind that one armored vehicle and personnel carrier can carry 12 people, so three armored vehicles can carry 36 people. It is obviously unrealistic to seize the airport with such a small force, but it should be enough to let them go around the airport to frighten the Germans. So he said to the radio operator: "Tell the other party, immediately take the soldiers in three armored personnel carriers, rush to Pitomnik Airport, and harass the enemy in the airport."

  The call back was very slow this time. After waiting for almost ten minutes, a brief inquiry message came: "Who is the commander who gave the combat order?"

   "Tell them." Sokov proudly said to the radio operator: "It was Colonel Sokov, the commander of the 41st Guards Division, who gave them the order."

   Less than a minute after the telegram was sent, the other party's reply arrived: "Resolutely obey the order. This mission will be commanded by Sergeant Taflin. We will also use sleds to carry more guerrillas and rush to the vicinity of the airport to meet them."

   Seeing that the other party accepted his order so readily, Sokov was very satisfied. He added again: "Because the enemy has lost its air supremacy in the Stalingrad area, and the German army on the ground has also been beaten into a panic by our army, you can attack at any time without worrying about major dangers. At the same time , I would like to remind you that when Staff Sergeant Tavlin leads the troops in action, he must carry a radio so that he can communicate directly with the division headquarters."

When the radio operator was sending the report, Sokov was secretly thinking: If the guerrillas commanded by Tavlin encountered any danger near the airport, he would call Rokossovsky himself and ask him to dispatch The air force went to reinforce.

  ...

   It is only more than 30 kilometers from the guerrilla station to Pitomnik Airport. If the weather is clear and the roads are in good condition, the armored vehicle will only take an hour to drive there.

But it took the team led by Sergeant Tavlin a full two hours to drive the armored vehicle out of the snow-covered forest, and then it took the same amount of time to approach Pitomnik Airport . At this moment, the sky was already bright, and Tavlin couldn't help crying secretly. He was planning to sneak attack the enemy, but who knew that it was already daylight today, and he would be discovered by the enemy's garrison before he approached the airport, and a fierce battle might happen at that time.

  The three armored vehicles were seven or eight hundred meters away from the airport, and they were spotted by the garrison inside the airport. At first, the German soldiers standing on the watchtower thought they were their own people and didn't take it seriously. But as the armored vehicle approached, he saw clearly that the people in the vehicle were basically wearing casual clothes, and there was actually a Russian man wearing a steel helmet on the first armored vehicle, and he immediately shouted in a panic: "Russians, Russians!" People are coming!"

After he yelled twice, there were shouts one after another from below: "The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!" Following the shouts, countless people came from the wooden houses or tents on both sides of the airport runway. run out. What happened next stunned the German sentry standing on the watchtower. These people who ran out not only did not enter the position, but ran in the opposite direction, yelling as they ran.

  The armored vehicle was parked more than 200 meters away from the airport. Tavlin, who was sitting in the first armored vehicle, saw the enemies in the airport in chaos, but did not shoot at himself.

   He strangely raised his binoculars and looked in the direction of the airport. He saw countless German soldiers, who did not enter the defensive position and shot at him, but ran away to the forest further away. Countless German soldiers crowded around some cars that were slowly starting. They pushed forward desperately, trying to climb into the cars. In order to compete for these precious positions, they even fought fiercely. Tavlin even saw some wounded with leg wounds, leaning on crutches or rifles, limping and hopping away towards the distance...

Seeing this scene, not only Monk Zhang Er was puzzled by Taflin, but even the other guerrillas in the car were also dumbfounded. He asked Taflin inexplicably: "Comrade sergeant, what happened to the Germans? Why? See that we don't shoot, but run away with our lives?"

  Although Tavlin couldn't figure out what happened, he still ordered the radio operator to send a telegram to the division headquarters, reporting what happened here to Sokov in a timely manner.

   When Sokov received the telegram, his eyes widened in surprise. It took a while before he told the radio operator: "Call Sergeant Taflin back and tell them to chase the fleeing German soldiers with machine guns and make them more confused."

  Tavlin, who received the order, immediately ordered three armored vehicles to line up, and while slowly advancing towards the airport, he fired machine guns at the fleeing German soldiers. Amidst the sound of intensive shooting, the huddled German soldiers fell down in pieces like felled wheat.

   Seeing the companions around him fall down in pieces under the sound of gunfire, the remaining soldiers became even more confused. Many soldiers who found themselves unable to get on the vehicle immediately fled in all directions, trying to avoid the few machine guns that were firing wildly.

  When there was no longer a standing German soldier on the airport, the guerrillas in the car cheered and shouted with tears in their eyes: "Victory, we have won!"

  Tavlin was also very excited when he saw the piles of German corpses in the airport. But he knew very well in his heart that it was simply impossible to defend the airport with his thirty-odd men's guns. So he ordered the radio operator: "Send a telegram to the division commander and report the situation here to him, saying that we have eliminated at least 300 German soldiers, and there is not a single occupied German in the airport. Ask him to instruct us to go down to the airport." One step at a time."

"Sergeant Tavlin has done a good job." After reading the telegram, Sokov said to Sidolin and Ivanov with a smile: "Our army actually wiped out the army without any casualties." More than three hundred Germans were killed, which is a great victory."

   "Comrade Commander," Ivanov said suspiciously about Taflin's achievements, "don't you think there is something wrong with this battle report?"

   "Is there a problem?" Sokov asked puzzledly: "Comrade deputy division commander, what's the problem?"

"The enemy saw three armored vehicles approaching the airport. Instead of defending, they fled in a panic." Ivanov said cautiously: "I think this situation is too unrealistic. Sergeant Flynn and his armored vehicles would have a hard time approaching the airfield."

"Comrade Deputy Division Commander, you are worrying too much. There is nothing impossible." Sokov explained to Ivanov: "The offensive launched by our army in the past two days has been fierce, and the Germans have panicked. Maybe they saw When Taflin and the others appeared, they thought our army was about to attack the airport, so they had no courage to hold on, so they fled in a panic."

   After Sokov finished speaking, he ordered the radio operator: "Call Sergeant Tavlin back and say that their mission has been completed and they can return to the guerrilla station."

  (end of this chapter)