To my question, Sokolov hurriedly replied: "Comrade Deputy Commander, this is the case. Due to the fact that the Germans in the office building had artillery, and the mechanic workshop was surrounded by open land, all within the range of German artillery fire, we could not establish a suitable artillery position for the time being. ”

"It's a joke, since you can't set up an artillery position outside the factory, why can't you set up a position inside the factory?" I pointed to the side of the building facing the office building and said, "You set up the artillery on the window of the building, and if you fire a few shots at the building occupied by the enemy, their so-called strong defenses will immediately crumble." ”

Hearing me say this, Guriev shrugged his shoulders, pointed around, and said helplessly: "Comrade Oshanina, look at the situation in this workshop, there is masonry and rubble everywhere, and the howitzers of the artillery company cannot be dragged in at all, how can artillery positions be established." ”

I looked around me and found that the huge factory had no roof, and the surrounding walls had been damaged by shells and bombs, and in many places the walls had collapsed, leaving only a lone reinforced concrete pillar still standing, and the finger-thick steel bars were exposed. Many of the processing machinery in the factory building was also tightly covered by collapsed masonry or steel beams. The entire workshop was in the brick and stone rubble more than half a person high, and it was difficult to walk empty-handed, let alone pull such a heavy howitzer in.

∮

Seeing me staring at the masonry and rubble on the ground in a daze, Sederikov, who was familiar with my character, quietly walked up to me and whispered: "Comrade division commander. It is almost 200 meters from here to the opposite office building. If there is no artillery support. Our charging commanders and fighters would become targets for German fire on unobstructed open ground. ”

"We must find a way to provide artillery support for our soldiers," I said to myself after listening to Sedjerikov's words, "otherwise we will only become victims of the guns of the Germans, no matter how many people we invest." "But how to provide artillery cover for the infantry is a problem for me. Let the artillery on the east bank bombard the buildings opposite? No, as soon as this idea came to me, I dismissed it, just kidding. We are only 200 meters from the building where the Germans are located, and it would be a joke if the shells flying from the east bank did not hit the enemy, but all fell on our heads.

I walked back and forth in the makeshift command post in the middle of the rubble with my hands behind my back, thinking about how to change the current situation. Just as I was racking my brains and trying to figure out a way, I heard Guriev next to me whispering to Yushchenko: "Hey, I said Comrade Captain, what is this thing on you, it's made of iron plates, right?" "Then I heard the sound of finger-caliber metal plates, which were supposed to be Guryev checking the body armor Yushchenko was wearing.

"Comrade General. This is the body armor that our superiors have issued to us. Yushchenko replied in a low voice: "This kind of clothing can block enemy bullets from a hundred meters away." Originally, it was used to equip assault engineers, because our company was temporarily transferred to Stalingrad. So we got it up first. ”

"What kind of body armor is this, is it a whole or assembled?" Guriev asked questions like a curious baby.

"Comrade General, look at what you said." Yushchenko replied with a smile: "If the clothes were a whole, storage would be a big problem, and it would be a patchwork of several pieces." After being disassembled in normal times, several pieces of body armor can be placed in a box and taken out and put on when the war is fought......"

Yushchenko was the speaker of the tongue, but I was the listener, he was originally chatting with Guriev, but I found inspiration in what he said, since our body armor can be disassembled, then the artillery can also be disassembled. Since the complete cannon could not be pulled into the workshop, the artillery was dismantled and the artilleryman was allowed to carry the parts into the workshop to assemble. Thinking of this, I stopped and said to the people who were waiting anxiously beside me: "I have thought of a way, I can set up an artillery position in the garage. ”

"What's the solution?" Several people asked in unison.

I did not answer immediately, but first ordered Sokolov: "Comrade Colonel, please call the artillery captain of the 178th regiment first, and I will personally explain the task to him." ”

Sokolov agreed, then turned and gave a few orders to one of the commanders behind him. Shortly after the commander took the order to leave, I heard a shout from the workshop: "Captain Belifel, Captain Belifel, where are you?" ”

After a short period of effort, Captain Belifel, led by the commander of the Sokolov division, appeared in front of me. After raising his hand to salute me, he politely asked, "Comrade General, what instructions do you have?" ”

"Comrade Captain, I now order you to immediately disassemble the howitzers of your company and move them into the workshop building piece by piece," I said, pointing to the side wall facing the office building, and continued, "and reassemble them next to the wall, so that you can fire directly at the enemy's fortifications." ”

"Comrade General, I obey your orders." Captain Belifer accepted my order without hesitation, but instead of leaving immediately, he said to me in embarrassment: "But my men are limited, and it will take a lot of time to bring in the disassembled artillery parts." ”

Hearing Belifel complain about the lack of manpower, I couldn't help frowning and asked lightly, "What about the infantry company that Lieutenant Colonel Sedelikov assigned to you?" ”

After glancing at Sederikov, Belifel muttered: "After we captured the mechanic's shop, this infantry company was formed. ”

As soon as my eyes turned to Sederikov, he hurriedly said: "Comrade division commander, you don't need to say it, I will immediately send that infantry company to assist the artillery company." ”

"One company is not enough," I snorted, and said dissatisfiedly, "send one more company." ”

"Yes, Comrade Division Commander." Sedelikov unequivocally repeated my order: "One company is not enough, add another company." I'll arrange it. With that, he turned and left.

"Comrade Deputy Commander, there is strength in numbers," Guriev heard after hearing my order. also took the initiative to express its position. "Our division can also draw a company. to assist the artillerymen in carrying the cannons. Seeing Guryev's statement, Sokolov was not far behind, and immediately ordered his commissar to immediately send a company to cooperate with the artillery to carry the artillery.

There were so many people that it was easy to do things, and after only a few minutes I saw the artillerymen and the infantry sent to assist them, carrying barrels, shields, tires, and other parts, shouting neatly and neatly. Little by little, it moved into the workshop.

At this moment, I vaguely heard someone shouting loudly: "Comrade Deputy Commander, are you here?" Comrade Deputy Commander, Comrade Deputy Commander, are you here? ……”

Not only did I hear the shouting, but also several of the commanders around me, and they all looked at me in unison, as if asking who would come to you at this time. I glanced at Yushchenko, who nodded, and ran briskly up a pile of rubble more than half a man high. After looking around for a moment, he waved his hand into the distance. At the same time shouted loudly: "Hey, Comrade Major, Comrade Deputy Commander is here." ”

When I saw several commanders huddled around a middle-aged man wearing a cap and a long black tweed coat, walking from behind the rubble, I hurriedly greeted him. After walking a few steps, I saw clearly that one of the commanders was Major Gladshev, the commander of the guard battalion of the army group headquarters, and hurriedly greeted him with a smile: "Hello, Major Gladshev, I didn't expect us to meet again so soon." ”

Hearing my voice, Gladshev hurriedly stopped, raised his hand to salute me, and at the same time said politely: "Hello, Comrade Deputy Commander. Then he leaned to the side and introduced to me the middle-aged man in civilian clothes next to him, "Let me introduce you to this Walter from Moscow. Comrade Ulbricht. ……”

"Major, let me speak for myself." Ulbricht didn't wait for Gladshev to finish, then interrupted him, took two steps towards me, took the initiative to extend his hand to me, and said in a friendly voice: "Hello, General Oshanina, I am Ulbrich, and General Chuikov sent me to assist you. ”

"Hello, Comrade Oulbricht." I greeted him, and I wondered to myself what kind of accent he was talking about, and his surname was a bit odd, and he couldn't be the same as the guerrilla leader who defended Sarajevo.

While I was thinking about it, Ulbricht introduced himself to me: "Comrade General, I am the leader of the German Anti-Fascist League and the National Front for 'Free Germany', and I have just arrived here from Moscow with a group of KPD cadres. Our task was to carry out propaganda work on the battlefield against the fascist war of aggression against the deceived German officers and soldiers, calling on them to turn their guns on the anti-people Hitler. ”

Hearing him identify himself, I realized that he turned out to be German, no wonder he had such a strange accent. However, since he had come on a political offensive against the Germans, which coincided with my original arrangement, I sent Captain Beckmann, who was shouting outside, to call in and introduce him to Ulbrich.

After the two stood next to each other and exchanged words in German for a long time, they walked to the wall of the factory together, and began to shout to the German soldiers in the opposite building with a loudspeaker: "...... German officers and soldiers, are you still waiting for Field Marshal Manstein to come to your rescue?! I tell you that he will not come. Just yesterday, a tank division and an infantry division of Kotelnikovo, which had broken through, had been completely annihilated by the fierce offensive of the Red Army.

The reason why your superiors have withheld this information from you is because they fear that if you learn of your situation, you will lose your fighting spirit completely. They want you to live in fantasy all the time, and they defend them to the death and fight to the last bullet. ……”

While Granmazda was shouting at Ulbricht, he kept translating what he was saying for several of us. The more I listened to it, the more I felt that with Ulbricht's shout, perhaps the resistance of the German troops on the opposite side would weaken, and even someone would come out and surrender.

Before Ulbricht's shouting was over, Captain Belifer of the artillery ran over and reported: "Comrade General, all artillery is ready for battle and ready for firing, please instruct!" ”

"Comrade Belifel, please wait a minute." After I had said this to Belifel, I instructed Yushchenko: "Captain Yushchenko, you immediately go and tell Comrade Ulbricht that you should give the Germans in the office building three minutes to think about it, and if they do not surrender by then, we will open fire and destroy their building." ”

After Yushchenko left, I turned to several commanders around me and said, "Comrade commanders. Let's find a place too. Go and see the Germans in the building after hearing the shouts of their own compatriots. There is no initiative to come out and surrender. ”

As soon as my words fell, Sokolov took the initiative to say: "Comrade Deputy Commander, I know that there is a place with a good view, and it is not easy to attract the attention of enemy snipers. ”

Led by Sokolov, we came to a relatively intact window on the side of the wall, which was not easy to attract the attention of snipers due to the mountains of rubble and rubble piled up outside the window, and the fact that it was on the side of the office building. And the view is also very wide, leaning sideways against the wall and looking out of the window, you can clearly see the commanders and fighters hidden behind the rubble or in the trenches.

Despite Ulbricht's shouts, several German soldiers with their hands raised came out of the building opposite, and they walked towards us tremblingly in a row. Seeing that the enemy actually came out of the building and surrendered, Guriev sighed, and then said to Belifel teasingly: "Comrade Captain, it seems that your artillery company is useless. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, a dense burst of gunfire suddenly came from outside, and a machine gun suddenly protruded from a window on the second floor. He opened fire on the German soldiers who were walking towards us. In an instant, the dirt under the soldiers' feet was beaten like a boiling pot. In just a dozen seconds, all these soldiers collapsed in a pool of blood.

Seeing this scene, I immediately became furious, and scolded the enemy who fired in my heart: "If you don't surrender, forget it, you still dare to shoot those who laid down their arms and surrendered to us." So I turned around and ordered Belifel: "Comrade Captain, let the artillery company open fire at once, first blast this window on the second floor, and kill all the Germans inside." ”

"Yes!" Belifel said yes loudly, turned and ran away.

"Colonel Sokolov," and after the artillery company commander had left, I instructed Sokolov, who was standing nearby, "When the shelling begins, order your troops to charge while the enemy is in confusion." Got it? ”

"Understood, Comrade Deputy Commander." Sokolov received the order and turned to leave.

"Comrade Deputy Commander, what about the tasks of our division?" Seeing Sokolov leave, Guriev was a little anxious: "Our commanders and fighters have been holding out in the factory area for several months, and if they are not allowed to participate in this final attack, I think they will have a relationship." ”

Seeing that Guryev was eager to fight, I didn't want to discourage him, so I followed his words: "Well, General Guryev, prepare your fighters, as soon as the attack of Colonel Sokolov's troops is repulsed by the Germans, it will be their turn to rush forward." ”

After Sergelikov took Sokolov and Guryev on their assignments and left, he thought a little anxiously, approached me, and said flatteringly: "Comrade division commander, my regiment has not lost much strength in last night's battle, do you see if we can also participate in this final offensive?" ”

After glancing at him, I said coldly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, do you think that the German troops in the opposite building will be able to withstand the repeated attacks of the two divisions after being shelled by us?" ”

Hearing me say this, Shedelikov knew that it was useless to talk too much, so he obediently closed his mouth and honestly stood beside me, watching the movement outside.

As soon as the three-minute deadline for the Germans arrived, Belifer's artillery battery opened decisive fire.

At such a close distance, I had a long idea of what kind of effect a direct-aim shot would be from such a large-caliber howitzer, so I had great expectations for the next infantry charge.

After a round of firing, several large holes appeared in the solid wall, and the second-floor window where the shot had just been fired was also blown open by the shell. Before the smoke of the explosion cleared, Sokolov's troops leapt from their hiding spots and rushed towards the building in droves with their weapons.

Seeing the charge of our troops, many windows in the building began to fire. The fighters who rushed to the front were constantly knocked down by condescending bullets, but the fighters behind still rushed forward shouting slogans without hesitation.

Seeing that the enemy was overpowering our charging party with fire, Belifel risked accidental damage and fired another round of artillery bombardment, knocking out some of the most powerful points of fire. Seeing that our artillery fire was so fierce, the German troops in the building began to waver, and many guns with white shirts and white sheets stretched out of the windows, and waved them desperately so as not to be hit by our artillery fire again. And our infantry fighters, taking advantage of the weakening of the enemy's firepower, rushed into the well-fortified office building one after another.

"It's amazing, it's amazing!" Seeing more and more white flags sticking out of the windows of the building, and our fighters storming the office buildings occupied by the Germans, Shederikov, who was standing behind me, couldn't help but cheer.

I breathed a sigh of relief, put down my binoculars, turned to Sederikov, and said: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, gather your troops, and after Sokolov and Guryev's troops have captured the building opposite, your regiment will be responsible for carrying out the task of clearing the remaining German troops in the factory area." ”

After Shederikov left, I smiled and said to Yushchenko, who had just returned: "The fascist garrison in the office building is completely finished." (To be continued......)