By the time our convoy passed Guò Mamayev Hill and the 107.5 Heights, it was getting dark. I looked out the window of the car at the darkening sky, and then turned my head to discuss with Kirillov: "Comrade commissar, you see, it's already dark, should we first find a place to settle the troops?" ”

Hearing me say this, Kirillov was stunned for a moment, and then asked rhetorically: "Comrade Oshanina, the troops are not entering the city tonight?" ”

I shook my head and replied, "We are not familiar with the situation in the city, and if we rush our troops into the city, it is easy to misunderstand with friendly troops in the darkness of night, causing unnecessary casualties. So I'm going to have my troops assemble at the settlement behind Mamayev Gang first, and you and Bandereev will call a meeting of the regimental and battalion commanders of each regiment to study how to fight tomorrow's battle? ”

Kirillov waited for me to finish and asked curiously: "Comrade Oshanina, aren't you going with us to the settlement?" ”

"I also immediately rushed to the headquarters of the army group and asked the commander to find out what the situation of the Lyudnikov division was, so that I could work out a targeted battle plan for tomorrow."

"For your safety, I think you should bring at least a platoon of fighters." When he heard that I was going to the headquarters of the army group to accept the mission, Kirillov became worried about my safety, so he told me to take more troops with me.

In fact, even if he doesn't say it, I will think about my own safety, victory is already in sight, if I am killed by a bullet flying from somewhere, it will be really wronged.

I came to the headquarters of the army group safe and sound, and as soon as I walked in the door, I was seen by Krylov, who was sitting facing the door, and he turned to the side and said: "Comrade Oshanina is here!" After saying that, he got up and greeted me, and at the same time took the initiative to stretch out his hands to me.

When I shook hands with him. I saw a few more people standing at the table. I fixed my eyes and found out that it was Chuikov, Gurov, or Vasilyev, the director of the political department. After shaking hands with Krylov, I walked over to salute and shake hands with them.

After greeting him, Chuikov inquired about the details of the meeting between our division and the Don Front. Although I have sent telegrams a few times before. I reported this to the army group headquarters, but at this moment, seeing that Chuikov wanted to know the specific situation, I got up from my seat again and reported to them in detail.

When I was reporting, I saw that everyone present looked at ease, and I couldn't help but wonder in my heart: Could it be that Lyudnikov's division had broken the encirclement of the German army. Otherwise, their expressions are so calm?

As soon as my report was over, Gurov turned to Chuikov and said: "Comrade commander, it is no wonder that the German offensive in the city has completely stopped in the past two days, it turns out that the offensive launched by General Rokossovsky has advantageously pinned down the main forces of the German army. So much so that they had to send troops to fill the breaches that had been opened by our army, so they could no longer afford to fight us in the city. ”

"That's fine." Chuikov said in high spirits: "Since the Germans are not capable of attacking us, then let us attack them instead." ”

I was concerned about Captain Karpov, who was serving in the Lyudnikov Division, so as soon as Chuikov finished speaking, I couldn't wait to ask: "Comrade commander, I wonder what is the situation of Colonel Lyudnikov now?" ”

Chuikov glanced up at me, turned his head in the direction where Krylov was, and commanded: "Comrade Chief of Staff. It's up to you to tell Comrade Oshanina about Colonel Lyudnikov. ”

Krylov nodded, stood up and said to me: "Comrade Oshanina, the Lyudnikov division is surrounded by German troops, and the Volga is a kilometer long. A narrow strip of land three hundred meters wide. After the start of the major counteroffensive, we ordered the 95th Infantry Division of Colonel Gorishny, which was only more than 300 meters away from the division, to carry out a counter-attack on the German troops stationed in the middle of the division together with the Lyudnikov Division, so as to break the encirclement and realize the intention of joining the division.

When the battle began, the commanders and fighters of both divisions were very valiant. In particular, quite a few commanders and fighters of the Lyudnikov division, when they ran out of ammunition. Throw down the guns in your hands, hold the grenades and brave the enemy's bullets and march forward bravely. Grenades were used to blow up one after another firing points occupied by the Germans. After the first day of fighting, the two divisions suffered nearly 500 casualties, but advanced less than 100 meters to the center. When we studied the battle reports in the evening, we found that by infantry alone, we could neither annihilate the enemy who had advanced to the area of the 'barricade' factory, nor could we relieve Lyudnikov's division as much as possible. Because we have neither tanks nor reserves.

What are we going to do? How can the Lyudnikov division be rescued?

Just when we were racking our brains and could not come up with a good solution, the commander of the artillery of the army group, Khogarsky, suddenly suggested that at such a time, our artillery on the left bank of the Volga would come in handy, and the artillery fire on the eastern bank could be used to destroy the enemy.

As soon as General Hokalsky proposed his own plan, Lieutenant Colonel Weinrubb, deputy chief of the tank corps, first raised his objection, saying that there were many difficulties in implementing this combat plan: to fire at every stronghold of the enemy with great accuracy, it would take sharpshooters. We had sharpshooters, but it was difficult to correct the shots from the West Bank, because the impact of the drift ice often disrupted wired communications, and wireless communications were too poor and unreliable.

In response to these questions raised by Lieutenant Colonel Weinlub, after repeated research and verification, we finally decided to mark the area occupied by the enemy, from north to south, from the Volga River to the forefront, with a benchmark that could be clearly seen from the east bank. In this way, a large walk-in with a width of about 600-800 meters was formed in which the fascists were encircled. Our artillerymen, clearly seeing this approach from the east bank, were able to bombard enemy firing points without missing a shot.

The pick-up fire was carried out with the help of the school shooters who remained in the West Bank, who observed and accurately pointed out the target and the deviation of the drop and reported the results to the artillery observation posts, which in turn relayed them to the firing positions.

The infantry detachments of Lyudnikov and Gorishny, seeing the devastating bombardment of the enemy by our artillery, quickly moved into a distance where they could throw grenades. Seeing that our troops were rushing forward, the artillerymen pressed the glowing signal. Let the artillery on the east bank stop firing. At this time, infantry detachments, mainly assault squads, launched short charges with grenades, attacked and captured the enemy hiding in the earth firing points and basements. ”

I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief to hear that the situation in Lyudnikov's division was better than I had imagined. Xin said that if their division could be directly supported by artillery fire from the east coast, then it should not be difficult to break through the enemy's encirclement, so why did Chuikov transfer our division back from such a distant place, isn't this a superfluous move?

I am very familiar with Chuikov, according to my past personality. Tono* would ask rhetorically in a somewhat resentful tone: Why did you rush to transfer our division to the city when the situation of the Lyudnikov division had improved? But in the more than one day I spent with Rokossovsky, I learned a lot of skills from him to save my life in troubled times: first, you must have a good relationship with your superiors, so that he will not sprout murderous intentions towards you; The second is to make more achievements and make your superiors feel that you are very important. It's important to make them feel that if they want to kill you, it will be more than worth the loss.

So after Krylov finished speaking, I tried my best to squeeze out a smile on my face, pretended to be respectful and asked: "Comrade commander, do you have any other tasks besides rescuing the Lyudnikov division this time?" ”

Chuikov didn't seem to notice my abnormality, and said with the same expression: "Oshanina. The immediate priority of your division is to open the middle between the Lyudnikov and Gorishny divisions and to destroy or crush the German forces stationed in this area. Got it? ”

As soon as he finished speaking. I immediately replied without hesitation: "Understood, I promise to complete the task!" ”

Gurov looked up at me and said slowly: "Comrade Oshanina, although the distance between the two divisions is only 150 meters at present, because this is a key defensive area of the German army, several attacks launched by the two divisions have not worked. On the contrary, there were quite a few casualties. I'd like to hear your thoughts. ”

As soon as Gurov said this, the command fell silent again. All eyes were on me, waiting for me to come up with a good way to reassure them all.

I thought about it. The decision was to tell them about their considerations: "...... I thought it was inappropriate to use tanks in a city full of ruins and craters, so I only intended to use artillery to provide artillery support to the infantry. ……”

"Wait a minute, Oshanina." Before I could finish speaking, Krylov interjected and interrupted me, saying worriedly: "The reason why our two divisions have been unable to meet for a long time is because they have not been able to seize the area occupied by the Germans. And the buildings in this area are obscured by the buildings by the river, so that our artillery on the east bank cannot destroy them with artillery fire. As far as I know, the number of artillery in the independent division is currently limited, and in the event of street fighting, will the attacking infantry really get the necessary artillery support? You know, those buildings are very sturdy, and they can't be destroyed without artillery. ”

In response to Krylov's concerns, I quickly explained in detail: "Comrade Chief of Staff, please rest assured that I have a new artillery battery with 12 guns from General Rokossovsky. In tomorrow's battle, I will break these pieces into pieces, follow the assault squads, and advance into the city. Once our infantry encounters the suppression of the enemy's fire, then these followers can quickly destroy the enemy's fire. ”

After saying my thoughts, I looked nervously at Chuikov, worried about whether he would approve of me in tomorrow's street fight. You must know that many tactics are deeply ingrained in the Soviet army, and if you change them without authorization, you will bring yourself some unnecessary trouble.

After listening to me, Chuikov stared at me with a frown for a long time, and finally said unhurriedly: "Well, since Comrade Oshanina is so confident, then tomorrow's street battle will be fought according to your ideas." ”

After leaving the headquarters of the army group, I returned to the division headquarters in the settlements under the protection of Yushchenko. As soon as I walked in the door, I saw that there were a lot of people sitting inside. When I entered the door, the commanders who had been sitting stood up in unison, straightening their waists like telephone poles.

I walked briskly to the table, raised my hands and pressed them down, and ordered, "Sit down." After seeing that everyone was seated, I sat down next to Kirillov and asked him in a low voice: "Comrade commissar, are you all here?" ”

"The 2nd Regiment is still in the city of Gorodishe." Kirillov replied in a low voice, adding: "General Rokossovsky has just sent a telegram saying that the troops receiving the defense will not arrive in Gorodishe until noon tomorrow, so let our troops stay for an extra day." ”

"Let's have a meeting!" I nodded, then turned to Akhromeyev and spoke briefly.

Although during the Battle of Stalingrad, the main defensive direction of the independent division was the enemy from the north of Mamayev Gang, we are no strangers to street fighting. Not to mention that when the independent division was formed, its first combat mission was to seize the settlements occupied by the enemy. Even while holding on to the Mamayev Heights, the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Regiments, which were stationed in the settlements, sent small detachments into the city on many occasions together with sniper squads to engage in small-scale urban guerrilla warfare with the German troops in the city, and achieved considerable success. Now it is not a trivial matter to fight such a street fight again.

Akhromeyev had been in the independent division for a long time, so he was also very familiar with some guerrilla tactics and common sense of street fighting in the division, so he was also very familiar with the task of tomorrow's offensive.

As soon as it was dawn the next day, our offensive battle to free the friendly forces began.

Before the start of the offensive, we did not prepare for artillery fire. The 1st Regiment and the 2nd Battalion, which were tasked with the main attack, divided the officers and men of the regiment into pieces, and took advantage of the surrounding terrain to weave through the ruins of the city in squads, and quickly approached the buildings occupied by the Germans.

I stood with my deputy division commander Bantai Leyev in front of a hole in the wall on the second floor of a building, and raised our binoculars to look at the troops who were getting closer and closer to the enemy's building.

Seeing that the enemy's buildings had not moved for a long time, Bandereev couldn't help but point to the dense corpses on the street and kindly reminded me: "Comrade division commander, is there some conspiracy for the enemy to slow down and open fire?" Look at how many commanders and fighters we have sacrificed on this street, four or five hundred. From this, it can be seen that the enemy's defenses in front must be very strong, and I think it is necessary for us to remind Lieutenant Colonel Sederikov to keep the commanders and fighters on their guard. ”

I put down my binoculars, turned to Pantai Reev and said, "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, don't worry. Lieutenant Colonel Sederikov had a lot of experience in street fighting, and the Germans were so fortified that he couldn't stop ......"

As soon as I finished speaking, a dense burst of gunfire suddenly sounded in front of me, and I hurriedly raised my binoculars again to look at the place where the gunshots rang out. I saw that there were Germans on the upper and lower floors of a building and more than a dozen windows, and they were holding guns and firing fiercely at the commanders and fighters of the 2nd Battalion on the street.

More than a dozen soldiers who rushed to the front were unfortunately shot and fell, and the commanders and fighters who followed behind hurriedly hid on the spot, hid behind the ruins, and fired back at the enemy.

Seeing the ferocity of German fire, I couldn't help frowning, and thought to myself: hell, where is Captain Kulishenko's artillery battalion, why didn't he fire yet?

At this moment, a violent explosion occurred in the rear of the German army, and the wall facing us fell like papier-mâché, and the Germans, who had been shooting at the window, rolled down. (To be continued)