Red Moscow

  Chapter 664 Isolation and helplessness

  On the morning of October 3rd, just after dawn, the defense lines established by the Soviet Army along the Red October Factory, Silicate Factory, and Barricade Factory were severely shelled by the German Army.

   Chuikov, who was staying in the cliff on the bank of the Volga River, heard the rumbling gunfire from outside, and hurried out of his command post. He stood outside and listened for a while, then walked back to the headquarters with a livid face.

After entering the door, regardless of Krylov's hand still holding the phone, he took off his big-brimmed hat, threw it heavily on the table, and then said: "Chief of Staff, did you hear the sound of the guns outside?" The Germans used at least a thousand artillery pieces to bombard our army’s defensive positions around the Red October Factory, Silicate Factory, and Barricade Factory. It seems that they are planning to attack on a large scale!”

When Krylov heard Chuikov say this, he couldn't help being taken aback. He quickly put down the microphone in his hand and said in amazement: "Where did the Germans get so many artillery? If this is the case, then our defensive positions have The danger of being breached."

  Chuikov walked quickly to the table, leaned over to look at the map spread out on the table, and asked solemnly: "Chief of Staff, what are our defense forces in this area?"

Although Krylov knew in his heart that Chuikov clearly knew which troops were defending each defensive zone, he asked this question just to confirm again, so he quickly replied: "The troops lined up from left to right are Guriyev's 39th Guards Division, Gurdiyev's 308th Guards Division, Gorishny's 95th Guards Division, Smekhotvorov's 193rd Guards Division, Yermordin's 112th Guards Division and Zoho Lujev's 37th Guards Division."

   "We really have a lot of troops." After hearing this, Cuikov said casually, "Since we have a full six divisions in these areas, it shouldn't be a problem to hold these factories."

"Comrade Commander," Krylov said with a serious expression, "These divisions are only in name. In fact, after repeated battles, their troops have been greatly weakened. For example, the 37th Guards and the 37th Guards The remaining units of the 39th Division have only one regiment; and the 308th and 95th Divisions, if they hadn’t been covered by Sokov’s troops yesterday, it is estimated that there will not be too many people who can withdraw.”

"The situation is very serious, Comrade Chief of Staff." After Chuikov finished speaking, he suddenly remembered an important thing: "By the way, where is Comrade Khrushchev? I don't seem to have seen him today. "

"Before dawn, an armored boat came from the other side and picked up Comrade Military Commissioner." Seeing Chuikov's bewildered expression, Krylov quickly added: "You were still resting at that time. , Comrade Military Commissioner said that you have worked too hard, so let me not wake you up."

  Chuikov originally thought that Khrushchev left secretly because the counterattack he personally supervised was unsuccessful, and he had no idea about himself. After listening to Krylov's explanation at this moment, he realized that he was thinking too much. He nodded and said, "It's fine to leave. Judging from the enemy's shelling posture, today's battle must be cruel. Comrade Khrushchev stayed behind." Here, my heart is not at ease."

  Krylov understands Cuikov's worries. A fierce battle is about to break out here. If the head of the front army stays in the headquarters, it will indeed be a matter of uneasiness. He quickly put the matter aside and asked Chuikov for instructions: "Comrade Commander, can we let the artillery deployed on the left bank suppress the German artillery?"

  Chuikov walked back and forth in the headquarters twice with his hands behind his back, stopped, shook his head and said, "No, the enemy's artillery fire is too powerful. If our artillery fires, I'm afraid we will suffer huge losses."

   "Then what should we do?" Krylov said with a look of embarrassment: "Should we just watch the enemy bombard our army's position with impunity?"

   "The artillery is hopeless," Chuikov said thoughtfully, "Let's ask the Air Force for help."

Chuikov's words made Krylov's eyes shine: "Yes, yes, comrade commander, you are right, how could I forget the air force. As long as they are dispatched, they can bomb the German artillery positions. When dealing with enemy artillery In terms of combat, the air force has definitely achieved more results than the artillery.”

   After Krylov finished speaking, he immediately grabbed the telegram in front of him. After hearing the voice, he said into the microphone: "Communication soldier, this is Krylov. Get me to the Air Force Command immediately."

   "Please wait a moment, Comrade Chief of Staff." The signal soldier quickly replied, "I'll connect you to General Khryukin!"

  The phone was connected quickly, and Krylov immediately said impatiently when he heard Kryukin's voice coming from the receiver: "General Krylov? I'm Krylov."

   "Hello, Comrade Chief of Staff." Hearing that the person calling him was Krylov, Khryukin asked politely, "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"That's right, General Hryukin." Krylov hurriedly explained to Krylov in detail that the enemy was bombarding the defensive position on a large scale, and finally said: "If the enemy's bombardment continues, it will definitely In order to cause more casualties to the defenders, I request you to dispatch bombers to bomb the enemy's artillery positions to reduce the casualties of our army."

According to Krylov's idea, General Khryukin, who has several aviation divisions, will immediately agree to send one or two aviation divisions to bomb the enemy's artillery positions after hearing his request. Thereby reducing the damage of the enemy's artillery to the defensive positions of the factory area.

Unexpectedly, after waiting for a long time, Kryukin did not speak for a long time, and Krylov was a little anxious. He thought that the other party had hung up the phone, so he shouted loudly into the microphone: "Hello, hello, General Hryukin!" , are you still there? Hello, hello, are you still there?"

   Soon, Khryukin's impatient voice came from the receiver: "I can hear you, you don't need to be so loud."

Hearing Kryukin's voice, Krylov hurriedly said with a smile: "General Kryukin, you have been silent, I thought you hung up the phone. I want to ask, when will your fighter plane be ready?" Lift off?"

   "I'm sorry, General Krylov." Khryukin said coldly, "I can't help you!"

   "What, helpless?" Krylov was stunned by Krylov's reply, and he asked in a daze: "General Kryukin, please explain to me, what is helpless?"

   "Chief of Staff, give me the phone, and I'll talk to him in person." After taking the phone from Krylov, Chuikov said into the microphone: "Hello, General Kryukin, I'm Chuikov."

   "Hello, General Chuikov." Hearing that Chuikov, who was his equal, was on the phone, Khryukin quickly said in a friendly manner, "Do you have any instructions?"

"That's right, General Khryukin." Chuikov said with some embarrassment: "In the area that is being bombarded by the enemy, since we have only had a short time to build fortifications, there are no decent or strong fortifications. Under the bombardment of artillery fire, it will soon collapse, causing huge casualties to the troops. Therefore, I beg you, send out the air force to bomb the enemy's artillery."

   After listening to Chuikov patiently, Khryukin said apologetically, "General Chuikov, I have just told General Krylov that although I sympathize with your situation, there is nothing I can do to help you."

   "I can't help?!" Chuikov's face turned livid. He suppressed the anger in his heart and asked, "General Khryukin, can you tell me why?"

"General Chuikov!" Khryukin was annoyed when he heard what Chuikov said. In order to avoid any bad associations, he quickly explained: "All our airports are under the close control of enemy planes." Within the monitoring range. As long as an aircraft takes off, it will be attacked by enemy aircraft or ground artillery.”

"You heard it all, Comrade Chief of Staff." After putting down the phone, Chuikov looked at Krylov and said, "Neither our artillery deployed on the left bank nor General Khryukin's air force can provide us with any help. If we want to defend the city, we can only rely on ourselves."

  Seeing that no one can count on them now, Krylov immediately understood what Chuikov was thinking, and said, "I'll call the commanders of the divisions and let them find a way to hold their positions."

"Wait a minute, Comrade Chief of Staff." Chuikov stopped Krylov and said to him: "There are still several thousand troops on Mamayev Post. I think that if necessary, we can use these troops to attack from the enemy's flank. Launch an attack to contain the enemy's strength."

Hearing that Chuikov planned to use Sokov's troops again, the muscles on Krylov's face twitched violently a few times, and he said with some embarrassment: "Comrade Commander, don't you think we have used Sokov too much recently?" ?"

Before Chuikov could speak, he went on without hesitation: "Defend the Red October factory, go out to Orlovka to meet the friendly forces, participate in the frontal counterattack on Mamayev Hill, and send troops to cover the two sides on the right wing." The first division withdrew to the Red October factory. It can be said that every time we assign him a task, he is close to death."

"Chief of Staff, if you don't tell me, I haven't noticed it yet." Cuikov said with a wry smile, "If these tasks were assigned to any unit in the group army, I'm afraid that unit would have lost its organizational structure and would be withdrawn to the rear for reorganization." It has been repaired. But Sokov's troops are still nailed to Mamayev Hill like a nail, preventing the enemy from occupying it."

"You said that I used them too often. That's the truth." Chuikov looked at Krylov and said, "But elites are honed in one tough battle after another. Sokov is a A commander who knows how to fight, dispatches his troops under the current circumstances, which will save us a lot of unnecessary losses."

   While Chuikov and Krylov were discussing Sokov, Sokov was in his headquarters, studying the upcoming battle with Ivanov and others. Pointing to the map, he said to Ivanov and the others: "The enemy's heavy shelling of Mamayev Post proves that they will make big moves in the future. We must take preventive measures as soon as possible."

"Comrade commander, since the defensive position has been relocated to the top of the hillside, although the enemy's shelling is fierce, the damage caused to the position is not great." Sidolin waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and asked with a smile: "Are we Send the troops to the position earlier?"

"Nonsense, it's nonsense." Hearing Sidolin say this, Sokov immediately glared at the much older commander and said, "Even if the enemy's shelling does little damage to the position on the top of the mountain, we Soldiers are also not allowed to enter positions at such a time."

Sokov slapped the map with his hand and said loudly: "Mamayev Hill is the commanding height of Stalingrad. Standing here, you can clearly see the movement within a radius of dozens of kilometers. Pass my order, Even after the enemy's shelling stops, the troops should not rush into the position, just leave a few observation posts for monitoring."

"What, just send a few observation posts?" Ivanov, who had never fought a defensive battle on Mamayev Gang, couldn't help asking in surprise when he heard Sokov say this: "Then if the enemy suddenly rushes over, our How did the troops have time to enter the position?"

"Don't worry, my deputy division commander." Sokov put a hand on Ivanov's shoulder and comforted him, "The enemy is still more than ten kilometers away, and our observation post can find them. When the enemy is still two or three kilometers away from Mamayev Post, we will send troops into the position before it is too late."

  Although everyone is staying in the tunnel, they can still feel the fierce artillery fire outside, and the dust from the roof drifts down from time to time, and they will be blinded by the dust if they are not careful. Ivanov waited for Sokov to finish his speech, thought about it carefully, and finally nodded and said: "Comrade commander, you are right. Although the bombing area on the top of the mountain is not large, the enemy's heavy shelling The shock wave formed will still cause great damage to our soldiers. Then we will wait for the enemy to approach Mamayev Post before sending soldiers into the position."

   "Comrade division commander, you said that the enemy's shelling was so violent, why didn't the artillery on the left bank return fire?" Anisimov, the division political commissar, suddenly interrupted and asked, "Even if you shoot a few shots randomly, you can still suppress some of the enemy's firepower."

"Comrade political commissar, you don't understand." Sidolin, as the chief of staff, naturally guessed the approximate number of artillery used by the enemy from the information he had obtained, and explained: "The enemy's shelling today has at least used tens of thousands of artillery pieces. Thousands of artillery pieces. And how many artillery pieces do we have on the left bank of the Volga River? I’m afraid it’s not even one-third of the enemy’s. Maybe once the artillery is fired, there will be crazy counterattacks. Once these artillery pieces are lost, I’m afraid the next In the coming battle, you will not be able to get artillery support."

"It turns out that's the case." Anisimov is not a fool. Hearing Sidolin's explanation, he immediately understood what was going on. He sighed and said, "We have tunnel fortifications here, and the enemy's artillery fires us. The losses caused are not large. But the defenders in the factory area have only simple fortifications, and they don’t know how many casualties they will suffer in the face of such fierce enemy shelling.”

  (end of this chapter)