Red Moscow

  Chapter 745 Bridging

Since the two bridges leading to the opposite bank in the city were blown up by German planes, Tupichev tried to build the bridge many times, but no matter where he built the bridge, every time before the bridge was built, the enemy planes flew over the sky. In the past, the indiscriminate bombing of the area where the bridge was built not only destroyed the pontoon bridge being erected, but also caused great casualties to the engineers.

   Now, although the superior plans to build an underwater pontoon bridge, Tupichev still has no idea in his heart. He is deeply afraid that he will be bombed by enemy planes during the bridge building process. To be on the safe side, he only proposes that it will take five days. Unexpectedly, Cuikov saw through his little trick and only gave him a two-day deadline.

   Seeing Tupichev's embarrassed expression, Sokov hurried out to help him out: "Comrade Chief of Engineering Corps, where do you think the best place for bridge construction should be?"

   Chuikov, who originally wanted to reprimand Tupichev, heard that Sokov asked a key question, and immediately swallowed the words back to his stomach. He wanted to hear how Tupichev would answer.

"I think that if you want to build an underwater pontoon bridge, the best location should be near the bridge that was bombed." In order to let everyone understand what he meant, Tupichev also specially explained: "The selection of the two bridges at the beginning The sites are all located in areas where the water flow is relatively gentle and the river surface is narrow. If we build a pontoon here, it will not only be convenient and fast, but also allow the ships of the fleet to have special identification marks to avoid the situation where ships crash into the pontoon bridge. .”

"Colonel Tupichev made a lot of sense." After Tupichev finished speaking, Krylov immediately echoed: "If we just find a place to erect a pontoon bridge, those ships that are used for transportation on the Volga River may Because the location of the pontoon bridge could not be found in time, there was a bridge collision accident. If our pontoon bridge was not blown up by enemy planes, but by our own ships, it would be a joke."

"When it comes to building bridges, Colonel Tupichev is the only expert here. He has the final say on where to build bridges." Chuikov emphasized to Tupichev: "But when it is time to build bridges, I will I just said: only two days. The current situation in the city is very unfavorable to our army, if the reinforcements can enter the city one day earlier, the chances of holding the city will be greater."

  After hearing Chuikov's words, Tupichev straightened up quickly and said, "Understood, Comrade Commander, I will definitely erect the underwater pontoon bridge within the stipulated time."

   After a short pause, Tupichev asked Chuikov hesitantly: "Comrade Commander, are you allowed to leave? I want to go back and prepare materials for the bridge."

   "Allowed!" Cuikov nodded and said, "I hope you can act as soon as possible, after all, we don't have much time left. Do you understand?"

   "Understood, Comrade Commander." Tupichev raised his hand to salute Chuikov, then turned and walked out of the headquarters.

  After Tupichev left, Sokov realized that his mission had been completed, so he quickly asked Chuikov, "Comrade Commander, can I leave?"

  Chuikov called Sokov to the headquarters, just to let him come up with a countermeasure, how to cross the Volga River with three full divisions within three days. I thought it would take at least half a day for him to come up with a solution, but in less than an hour, not only did he come up with a countermeasure, but the engineers also began to prepare for the construction of the bridge.

Now that Sokov's purpose of coming here has been achieved, there is no point in keeping him here, so Chuikov waved his hand and said generously: "Okay, Colonel Sokov, your mission has been completed, now You can go back to Mamayev Post."

   Seeing that Chuikov agreed to go back by himself, Sokov quickly raised his hand to salute the several army chiefs in the room, then turned and walked out of the headquarters.

   Seeing Sokov's back disappear from the door, Krylov asked Chuikov: "Comrade Commander, since we have solved the problem assigned to us by our superiors, can we report this matter to the Front Army Command?"

   Regarding Krylov's proposal, Chuikov nodded slightly: "Let me report this to Commander Yeremenko."

When Yelymenko received the call from Chuikov, he thought that the other party asked him for a grace period, and deliberately said jokingly: "Comrade Chuikov, do you think that two days is too short, and you want to ask us to give you a few more days?" ?” Before Cuikov could speak, he continued, “No, this time is set by the headquarters, and I have no right to change it.”

Unexpectedly, as soon as his words fell, Chuikov replied confidently: "Comrade commander, I am not calling you to ask you to give us a few days of grace, but to tell you that we have found a way. All the troops can enter the city in a short time."

Yeremenko was taken aback by Chuikov's words, and he asked in an unbelievable tone: "How is this possible? Knowing that the enemy's planes and artillery fire have blocked the Volga River, the number of ships we can use for transportation is constantly decreasing. How do you It is possible to transport all the troops into the city in such a short time?"

"If we only rely on ferries, we will definitely not be able to transport so many troops into the city in a short period of time. But if we build pontoon bridges, the situation will be different." Cuikov did not wait for Yeremenko to ask, and said: "Colonel Sokov suggested that we build an underwater pontoon bridge on the river so that enemy planes cannot find and destroy it. In this way, we can continuously transport more soldiers and supplies into the city through the pontoon bridge, To ensure that there is enough force to defend the city."

"Comrade Khrushchev," Yeremenko quickly covered the microphone with his hand after hearing Chuikov's detailed introduction of the underwater pontoon, and quickly said to Khrushchev who was sitting opposite: "Xiaomisha has already come up with a A good way is to build an underwater pontoon bridge in the Volga River so that more troops and supplies can be transported into the city. With this pontoon bridge, let alone transporting 30,000 troops in three days, even 50,000 troops will be no problem.”

   "My God, this Misha is simply a genius." Khrushchev's eyes widened, and he said in surprise: "The matter that left us old guys helpless, he actually solved it lightly."

  Chuikov noticed that there was no sound from the receiver, but he didn't hang up, so he raised his voice and asked, "Hey! Hey! Comrade Commander, are you still listening?"

"Yes, I'm listening." Hearing the voice from the receiver, Yeremenko hastily let go of his hand covering the receiver and said, "Comrade Chuikov, the idea of ​​the underwater pontoon bridge is very good. But only by your army group The progress of the engineering troops may be a bit slow, so why don’t I send the engineering troops of the Front Army to support you. You are in charge of the west bank, and our people are in charge of the east bank, which can cut the bridge-building time in half.”

"This is really great, Comrade Commander." Yeremenko offered to send engineers to help build the bridge. To Chuikov, it was a pleasant surprise. He said excitedly: "When the pontoon bridge is built, we can Obtain more supplies of soldiers and supplies, so that the confidence in blocking the enemy's attack will be greater."

  In the evening, as night fell, the enemy planes hovering over the Volga River and bombing all returned to the airport one after another. The engineers hiding on the shore came out of the cliff caves where they were hiding, and carried the prepared rails and sleepers to the river, preparing to build an underwater pontoon bridge.

   When Tupichev came to the river, he saw that his engineers were busy, and turned to ask his subordinates, "Have all the materials for the bridge been prepared?"

   "Don't worry, Comrade Director." The officer quickly replied: "The materials we collected can build a 600-meter pontoon bridge. There will still be a lot of materials left when we meet with the friendly forces in the center of the river."

Tupichev nodded and said to the officer: "Some soldiers continued to carry materials, and the rest went down the river to start building bridges. By the way, don't forget to prepare vodka for the soldiers who go down the river, otherwise they will be killed in the cold river water." Frozen."

  (end of this chapter)