I returned to the communications room and asked the operator uneasily: "Comrade operator, do you have any news from the friendly scouts?" Did they converge with the troops we sent? ”

The operator shook his head and replied, "Report to the division commander, the battle is still going on, but the enemy's attack on friendly scouts has stopped, and the muzzle of the gun is turning all the way to stop our reinforcements. ”

After listening to the operator's words, I waved my hand and said disapprerovingly: "Then let the German infantry compete with our tanks to see who is more powerful." ”

Basmanov seemed to be still very worried about the situation of the battle over there, and when he heard me say it so easily, he deliberately reminded me: "Comrade division commander, do you think we still need to send reinforcements?" ”

"Reinforcements? What else to reinforce? I was a little puzzled by this statement of Basmanov and asked him rhetorically: "Comrade Captain, do you think that the infantry, without anti-tank weapons, can cope with the two tanks and five armored vehicles that we sent?" ”

Basmanov replied with a smirk: "That's really not going to be able to deal with it." ”

I snorted at him, and was about to teach him a second lesson, when Bandeleev suddenly came up to me and said: "Comrade division commander, I have remembered something that I should immediately transfer back to the city as a reserve regiment and three battalions, and organize them to transfer the baggage from the city to the outside of the city. ”

"Divert the baggage from the city?" I was puzzled and asked, "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, why did you suddenly say that?" ”

Pantai Leev pointed his finger into the air and reminded me with a melancholy expression: "Comrade division commander, we have captured the city of Kongjiao and this high ground. I'm afraid it has already alarmed the Germans. Do you think the Germans suffered such a big loss. Will they give up? Ground forces may not be able to come for a while. But their air force is coming. ”

Bandereev's reminder made me break out in a cold sweat, and he really ignored it if he didn't remind me. The Germans were not stupid, the cities they occupied were recaptured by us, and the heights they occupied were taken by us. The German troops, who were holding off the Don Front in full force, would never tolerate the presence of an enemy unit that would threaten them in their belly. Therefore, whether it is tonight or tomorrow day, they will definitely draw troops from nearby to launch an encirclement and suppression of us. And before. The air force will definitely be dispatched to bomb us first, and as for the baggage in the city, they would rather destroy it than leave it to us. Thinking of this, I immediately ordered Basmanov: "Comrade Captain, you immediately take people to the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Regiment and find Major Terenkov. Let him immediately bring the troops back to the city and transfer the baggage outside the city. Remember, the priority for transfer is weapons and ammunition, followed by food and medicine. As for cotton clothes and quilts and the like, wait until the end. ”

Basmanov hurriedly agreed. Raise your hand and salute and turn away.

When Basmanov left, Bandereev asked me again: "Comrade division commander, the high ground in front has been taken." Which battalion are you going to put in charge? ”

"Which army will hold the high ground?" After repeating Bandereev's question, I shrugged my shoulders and said lightly: "Who else could it be?" Of course, it was the Sherebryanny battalion that had seized the main position, and even after today's battle, the strength of their battalion would be at least 500 people, and it should be enough to hold such a high ground. As for the other two battalions, they were all transferred to participate in the transfer of baggage. Strive to move important supplies out of the city before the German planes arrive. ”

"What about the division headquarters, do you want to stay here?" Bandereev then asked.

"Just stay here," I sensibly dismissed the idea of moving my headquarters back to the city at the thought of the German bombers that would appear at any point, but the reason for staying was not because I was worried about the bombing of enemy planes, but for other justified reasons: "We just stayed here and waited for the friendly scouts to see what they were doing." By the way, Comrade Deputy Division Commander, you don't care about the transfer of baggage in the city, just let Shedelikov and Kosgaa be in charge. ”

I asked Corporal Mikhailov, who had just returned to the observation post, to convey the task of holding the heights of the Sherebryan battalion, and at the same time I ordered him to inform them to rush to my observation post as soon as he saw them.

Mikhailov took a few fighters to convey the mission, and once again I went into the communication room and asked the busy operator: "Comrade operator, how is the situation?" ”

"Report to the division commander," the operator reported with a happy face, "the Germans have been repulsed by us, and the remaining five scouts of the friendly forces have all been rescued, and Corporal Zhukhovetsky is returning with them." ”

Several scouts of the 99th Division, together with Corporal Zhukhovetsky, returned in an armored car, and I met them at the observation post. A lieutenant wearing a steel helmet with his left arm hanging on his chest came to me, raised his hand and saluted, and said politely: "Comrade General, the platoon commander, Lieutenant Travkin, reports to you that the reconnaissance platoon of the 66th Infantry Division of the 99th Army of the Don Front is here to report and listen to your orders!" As he spoke, the five fingers of his right hand were always held together on his forehead and not lowered.

Bantai Leev stepped forward, grabbed his hand raised in his forehead, shook it vigorously, and said enthusiastically: "Hello, Lieutenant Travkin! Let me introduce myself, I am the deputy commander of the independent division, Colonel Bandeleyev. Welcome, welcome you and your battles to our independent division. ”

When Bandereev had finished shaking hands, I also went up to shake hands with Lieutenant Travkin and said in a friendly manner: "Comrade Lieutenant, you are really remarkable, and it is remarkable that you can hold out for so long among an enemy who is more than ten times more than you. ”

Hearing my compliment, Lieutenant Travkin said with some embarrassment: "Comrade General, you have won the award. If it weren't for the timely arrival of the reinforcements you sent, I believe our reconnaissance detachment would have been wiped out by now. ”

I looked behind him, and saw four strange warriors standing neatly in the trench outside the observation post, one of whom was a young woman, whose identity I could guess from her collar, which did not have any rank marking. I walked past Travkin's side. Straight in front of her. Take the initiative to reach out. He smiled and said, "Comrade soldier, if I guess correctly, you should be Private Nastya, the operator." ”

"Yes, Comrade General." Nastya hurriedly saluted me, then reached out and grabbed my hand tightly and shook it.

Seeing that I was greeting the other fighters of the reconnaissance detachment, Travkin hurriedly walked out of the observation post and offered to introduce me to his fighters. This is Private Nastya, the operator of our reconnaissance detachment. ”

Then he pointed to Nastya's left-hand side, a middle-aged man with obvious Central Asian characteristics, and said: "This is Sergeant Bratzlikov, he used to be an excellent hunter and a sniper in our reconnaissance detachment. ”

"Hello, Comrade Sergeant." I let go of Nastya's hand, shook Braslikov's hand, smiled at him, said a brief hello, and moved on to the next fighter. This warrior doesn't just look young. Rather, he was thin and small, and looked about the same size as Chuikov's herald Sidorin. I saw that I kept looking at him. The young warrior looked a little nervous. Seeing the embarrassed state of his subordinates, Travkin hurriedly relieved him of the siege and said: "Comrade General, let me introduce you, this is the soldier Kentakov, our German translator. ”

When Lieutenant Travkin mentioned the German translator, I immediately thought that Warrant Officer Vaskov was going to take female soldiers to hunt down German paratroopers, and he also chose someone who knew German to be the interpreter among the female soldiers. At that time, Mao Sui recommended the female soldier Sonya, and the first German word she taught everyone: Henderhoch, which means to raise your hand.

Thinking of this, when I shook hands with Kentakov, I jokingly said to him, "Hendhoch." ”

Kentakov, who was shaking my hand, retracted his hand in a flash of lightning, raised his hand to his forehead and saluted me, while muttering a long list of German. He spoke quickly and urgently, and although I had learned German for a few days with Grams and the German-speaking commanders and fighters around me, I could not understand what he was saying. I smiled at him and moved on to the next scout.

As soon as my hand was raised, the scout reached out and shook my hand vigorously. Because he shook hands too hard, my hand was squeezed by him. Since the handshake was a friendly gesture, although there was a burst of pain in the palm, I tried to keep a smile on my face, but my brow furrowed involuntarily.

The expression on my face was clearly seen by Travkin, who was standing next to me, and he quickly coughed heavily, as if to remind the fighter who shook my hand. When the soldier heard the cough, he hurriedly let go of my hand, took a step back, and then introduced himself to me: "Comrade General, my name is Sanzek, and I am a demoman in the reconnaissance detachment. ”

I gently rubbed my hand with my left hand, which was pinched by him, and said teasingly: "It turns out that Comrade Sanrek is a demoman, no wonder he has so much strength." My words immediately caused everyone to laugh.

I looked left and right, and saw that in addition to these scouts, there were also Corporal Zhukhovetsky and several soldiers of the guard company standing in the trenches, so I beckoned Zhukhovetsky to come over and ordered him: "Comrade corporal, comrade scouts are tired, except for the lieutenant, you should take the rest to rest." ”

Corporal Zhukhovitsky agreed, beckoning several of the surviving scouts to leave with him. As they passed me, I noticed an interesting phenomenon, the female newspaper operator Nastya actually stretched out a hand and grabbed Corporal Zhukhovetsky's arm. The corporal's body trembled for a moment, then he returned to normal, and with peace of mind, Nastya took his arm and swaggered forward.

"Could it be that this female newspaper operator has taken a fancy to Corporal Zhukhovetsky?" I looked at the backs of the two of them, and muttered to myself, "If the two really fall in love, can I logically leave Nastya behind, so that our division's communication company will have another experienced operator." ”

"Comrade division commander," I was thinking, when Pantai Leev impatiently urged me at the door of the observation post, "what are you still standing there doing, come in and listen to Lieutenant Travkin's report." ”

Due to the cramped space in the observation post, the three of us had to stand and talk. I was the first to open my mouth and once again identify myself: "Lieutenant Travkin, let me introduce myself, I am Major General Oshanina, commander of an independent division under the 62nd Army, and the reason why our troops are here is to coordinate the southward movement of the Don Front. I would like to hear what your reconnaissance detachment has detected. ”

As soon as I finished speaking, Bandereev asked politely: "Comrade Lieutenant, how many people are there in this reconnaissance detachment you lead?" ”

"Report to Comrade Colonel." Although Pantai Leev was very approachable, Travkin straightened up in the face of our two commanders, who were many ranks higher than him, and reported according to the regulations: "The reconnaissance platoon of the 99th Infantry Division, a total of 24 people, after two days of fighting, there are still 5 people left, and the report is complete. ”

"Tell me, Comrade Lieutenant," I heard that his troops had been almost completely lost in just a few days, and I couldn't help but be curious, and asked him about the situation, "are all your casualties today?" Also, how did your reconnaissance detachment get surrounded by the enemy? ”

"We were ordered to go to Gorodishe for reconnaissance, and according to the judgment of the division leadership, our final battle with your division will be fought in this area, so it is necessary to find out the distribution of the enemy's forces. After two days of reconnaissance, we found that the 295th German Infantry Division was stationed in the city, and the division commander was Otto. Major General Kofes. His troops were deployed in the west, north, and south of the city, apparently in a defensive formation to prevent our troops on the Don Front from moving south. ”

When Travkin said this, Bandereev interrupted him: "Comrade lieutenant, we all know this information, and we should know it in more detail than yours, otherwise it would not have been possible for our troops to successfully pass through the enemy's line of defense and appear outside the city. ”

"After we completed the reconnaissance mission, we immediately turned around and headed north, preparing to return to the unit within two days and report what we had detected to our superiors. Fifteen kilometers to the south, we also found two camps of Romanian troops, which, according to reconnaissance, were the 1st Cavalry Division and the 20th Infantry Division. (To be continued......)

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