"It's nonsense, no matter how strong the enemy in front of us is, no matter how many casualties we pay. We must fight this battle as well. Otherwise, the central part of the city and the factory area, which our army group held, would have been completely occupied by the Germans. Without waiting for me to speak, Chuikov interrupted me impatiently, picked up the binoculars on the table, shook his head at me, and said in a commanding tone: "Don't talk nonsense, come with me, go outside and see how the enemy is attacking our lines." ”

I didn't dare to say more, smiled at Gurov and Krylov with an embarrassed face, and honestly followed Chuikov out of the command and down the street along the traffic trench outside. We walked into a half-blown building on the side of the road, and up the stairs to the second floor, where we entered a room full of broken bricks and blackened furniture.

It was apparently a Chuikov observation post, with four people in the room, two crouched in front of the window, observing the situation outside with the artillery sight glasses set up there, and a man who looked like a telegraph sat in a corner of the room with a walkie-talkie in front of him. There was also a soldier with a submachine gun standing next to the operator with his back against the wall, seemingly guarding the operator's safety.

Seeing us enter the door, the soldier leaning against the wall suddenly shouted: "Lizheng! When the rest of the fighters turned or stood up and looked at Chuikov in a salute, he strode up to us and reported according to the regulations: "Comrade commander, observation post No. 11 is on a mission, please instruct!" ”

"Please continue!" After Chuikov said this, he went to the window and asked one of the fighters: "How is the situation outside?" ”

"Report to the Commander!" Due to the sound of explosions coming from time to time outside. So the fighters had to repeatedly raise their voices and report to Chuikov: "The enemy is bombing and shelling the factory area. In particular, the tractor plant line of defense. Enemy dive bombers lined up. Non-stop dive-bombing and strafing of our positions. ”

Hearing that the observation was so strict, I couldn't help but walk to a gap near the window and raise my binoculars to look into the distance. On the outer side of the tractor factory in the distance, there was hardly a complete building in sight, and those buildings had been reduced to piles of masonry and rubble. The bombs dropped by the enemy's dive bombers, and the shells fired by the enemy's artillery, fell on the humble positions of our troops and exploded with a loud sound. The entire defense zone was filled with gunsmoke.

In the middle of the defense area of the tractor factory, there was a river that was not too wide, and the bridges on the river had long been destroyed by enemy artillery fire or bombardment. Not far from the broken bridge, a pontoon bridge across the river was built from discarded oil drums, and the 37th Guards Division used this pontoon bridge to send the troops behind to the front. In the distance, the factory area of the tractor factory is full of ruins, and the tall and sturdy factory building is burning.

The enemy apparently also discovered this pontoon bridge, which was vital for our troops, and several planes took turns diving and dropping bombs in an attempt to destroy the pontoon bridge. Although the first bombs were thrown off, they all fell to the left and right of the bridge and exploded. But soon a shell landed on the bridge impartially, blowing the pontoon off. Walking on the bridge, the commanders and fighters also fell into the water. Although I saw quite a few people after falling into the water. They swam to both sides, but more were not heard from, and the empty oil drums were washed downstream by the river.

Seeing this, the fighter next to Chuikov exclaimed: "Hell, the enemy blew up the pontoon bridge across the Pinch Zhne River, and the connection between our troops in front and the main forces was cut off. ”

Chuikov did not speak, but glanced at the warrior, then picked up the telescope and continued to observe.

Half an hour later, the enemy's shelling and bombardment stopped. I could clearly see dust flying on the horizon to the northwest, followed by a dense patch of black dots. As the black dot drew closer, I could clearly see groups of tanks clearing the way ahead, armoured personnel carriers full of soldiers following closely behind, and a number of three-wheeled motorcycles were rapidly advancing towards our positions.

Seeing that the German army was strong, I put down my binoculars and looked nervously at Chuikov to see how he reacted. If it had been me in command, I would have called the artillery commander Hokalsky at this moment and ordered the artillery to open fire and intercept the advancing German armored units with artillery fire. Unexpectedly, as if Chuikov hadn't seen this, he still stood there motionless with a telescope.

The smoke that filled our position quickly dissipated under the cold wind. But when the enemy's tanks advanced to a distance of only seven or eight hundred meters from the front line, the concealed artillery of the Guards Division opened fire. Clouds of white smoke rose from time to time from the ruins and broken walls, and I was surprised to find that our army had deployed no less than 20 anti-tank guns on the front line.

Immediately after the first round of artillery fire from the Guards Division, several German tanks stopped in place because they were hit by bullets and caught fire, but most of the tanks still advanced rapidly, and from time to time they made a sudden stop and fired two shots at our positions.

"Operator!" Chuikov, who had been silent, suddenly put down his binoculars and gave an order to the operator sitting in the corner: "Immediately get in touch with the artillery commander Khogarsky." ”

The operator said yes and began yelling at the microphone. After a while, he stood up and reported to Chuikov: "Comrade commander, I have made contact with General Khogarsky. ”

Chuikov put the binoculars on the windowsill, walked quickly to the walkie-talkie, grabbed the headphones and put them to his ear, and shouted loudly into the microphone: "Hey, is it Khogarsky?" The shelling and bombardment of the enemy has stopped, and at the moment their mechanized units are storming the positions of the tractor plant. I order you, immediately let the howitzer battalion open fire and conduct interdiction fire. ”

The artillery should have been ready to fire for a long time, just waiting for Chuikov to give the order to open fire. So as soon as he finished giving the order, he walked back to the window and raised his binoculars, when the artillery fire followed.

Shells exploded in the enemy's armored ranks, and from time to time tanks or armored vehicles were hit by shells. I saw that after several armored vehicles were hit by bullets and caught fire, the German soldiers sitting in the cars got out of the smoke-filled cars and ran to the rear with their hands in motion. But in the end, it was only a small number of people, the absolute majority, who were hit by shrapnel flying everywhere and fell to the ground one after another.

In the face of intensive artillery interception by our troops, the German armored forces had to stop the offensive and turn around in place in an attempt to return to the starting position. However, under the blows of our artillery fire, the enemy's retreat was inevitably affected, and the whole battle formation was disorganized.

Seeing the enemy's confusion and retreat, a smile appeared on Chuikov's face, he put down his binoculars again and ordered the operator: "Pick up General Khogarsky for me again." ”

After this call was connected, Chuikov smiled and said to the other party: "Well done, Comrade General." The enemy's armored forces have been thrown into disarray under heavy artillery fire, and they are now trying to get out of range of our artillery and try to return to their starting positions. What, what do you say? Not enough, such a blow is far from enough. I now order you to immediately organize two battalions of rocket artillery 'Katyusha' to fire a salvo: one at the silicon factory, and the other at the open space in front of the stadium, where I have already discovered that a large number of enemies are massing. ”

After only a few minutes, a series of screams were heard outside, and I looked up as the rockets with long flame tails cut through the sky and faded into the two directions that Chuikov had just pointed out, and then there was a terrible rumble. The dust that had been shaken off the ceiling was almost all over everyone.

While dusting the dust off his shoulders, Chuikov said with a smile: "I really didn't expect that two rocket artillery battalions firing together would have such great power, which is enough for the Germans." With that, he walked over to the operator.

Seeing his move, I couldn't help but wonder in my heart, he had already given orders to Khogarsky twice, and if he gave the order again, where would he be preparing to shell the German army. Unexpectedly, after hearing his words to the newspaper operator, I realized that my judgment had been wrong. I only heard him say to the operator: "Immediately pick me up General Khryukin, commander of the 8th Army of the Air Force." "Only then did I understand that he was not satisfied with the artillery blow to the enemy, and wanted to use our air force units to teach the enemy a hard lesson.

After connecting with Khryugin, Chuikov said to the other party with a smile: "Hey, is it General Khryugin?" I'm Chuikov. The Germans, having concentrated superior forces, were attacking the factory areas defended by our army. Just now our artillery has taught their ground forces a hard lesson, and now I beg you to send a few fighters to patrol the skies over the city and drive those pesky fascist snitches away from our positions. ”

I don't know what Khryugin said, but Chuikov's smile froze on his face. He was silent for a long time before he said to the other party in a deep voice: "I understand, General Kryugin. Break a leg! ”

When he put down the headset and microphone, I hurriedly walked over and asked with concern, "Comrade commander, is something wrong?" General Khryukin said something that makes you so upset. ”

Chuikov looked at me and smiled bitterly and said, "I originally wanted General Khryugin to send a few fighters over the city to try to make those German planes safer. Unexpectedly, General Khryugin bluntly told me that because the enemy's air force had tightly blocked the airfields of the air group, our air force could not take off to the skies over Stalingrad to carry out its mission, so there was nothing to ask me for. (To be continued......)

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