Since Pugachev's 2nd Regiment had suffered a painful lesson in the defeat of the troops under German shelling, Pugachev, whom I rebuked, has always had high standards and strict requirements for the construction of fortifications...... As soon as they heard that I had ordered them to build fortifications on the hillside, they immediately replied without hesitation: "Yes, Comrade Division Commander, I will immediately arrange for men to build fortifications on the hillside." ”

I raised my hand and looked at my watch and casually asked, "Captain Pugachev, did you see my jeep?" ”

Since I don't know where the driver is driving the jeep after being ordered to send the engineer ensign, and Pugachev, who came relatively late, doesn't necessarily meet him, so I just ask.

Unexpectedly, Pugachev immediately replied: "See, when our regiment first arrived at the foot of the mountain, your driver happened to be driving from the direction of the city, and he showed me the road up the mountain. ”

Hearing that the jeep was down the hillside, I hurriedly urged Razumeyeva: "Let's go, Comrade Ensign, come with me." Hopefully, Colonel Dubyansky, they have not gone far. With that, I turned and left, and within two steps of the shelter, I stopped again, lifted the curtain and told Pugachev: "Captain Pugachev, we must hurry up the repair of the fortifications, the Germans will not give us much time to deploy defenses, and I wonder when their offensive will begin." ”

As I walked down the hill, I saw the checkpoint where the jeep was parked, which was also empty at the moment due to the retreat of the 35th Guards Division and the headquarters of the group army, and the barricade that had blocked the middle of the road was also moved to the side of the road. The driver didn't get my new order, so he had to smoke a cigarette next to the car alone.

Saw me and Razumeyeva walking down the hillside. He hurriedly threw the cigarette butt on the ground. A few times on tiptoe. Then he trotted towards us. He stood in front of us and asked with a smile on his face: "Comrade division commander, where are you going to go, do you need a car?" ”

I first nodded, and then asked: "I'm going to find Colonel Dubyansky, the commander of the 35th Guards Division, have you seen him on the way here?" ”

The driver frowned and thought for a moment, then shook his head and replied, "I'm sorry." Comrade division commander, I don't know Colonel Dubyansky and haven't met him. However, on the way back, I saw a few jeeps, and maybe the division commander you were looking for was in the car. ”

Although I think that the jeeps that the driver saw on the road may all belong to the group army headquarters, for the time being, if you want to leave the women's communications squad of the Guards Division behind, you can only try your luck. So I shook my head at the driver and said, "Let's go, comrade driver." Take us to chase those jeeps and see which car we are looking for Colonel Dubyansky is in. ”

Due to the fact that the direct units of the Guards Division and Army Group were retreating. The road to the city was full of commanders and fighters on foot, and the drivers had to honk their horns incessantly, and those who were walking on the road gave way to the side of the road when they heard the horns of their cars, making way for our jeeps to pass hard.

Due to the large number of people, our jeep drove for at least ten minutes, but I felt that I had not advanced more than two kilometers. I sat in the car and felt bored, so I pushed open the door and asked loudly at the fighters with anti-tank guns next to me: "Hey, I said, comrades, which part of you are from?" ”

The soldiers on the side of the road turned their heads to look at me, ignored me, and continued to walk silently forward. Seeing that no one answered me, I smiled awkwardly and was about to retract and close the car door, when a political worker walked up to my car door. He saluted me as he walked and asked politely, "Comrade commander, may I ask what part of you are from?" ”

I glanced at the rank on the badge of the political worker and replied: "Comrade political instructor, I am the commander of the independent division, Colonel Oshanina, may I ask which part of you are from?" ”

After hearing that I had identified myself, the political instructor hurriedly replied to me: "Report to Comrade Colonel, we are from the 1O1st Guards Infantry Regiment, and I am Gerasimov, the political instructor of the anti-tank company. ”

"Do you know where your division commander is?"

Gerasimov looked left and right for a moment and asked rhetorically: "Comrade Colonel, I don't know which division commander you are talking about?" The original division commander, General Gorazkov, died in the morning battle, and he was succeeded by the deputy division commander, Colonel Dubyansky. ”

"Looking for Colonel Dubiansky, of course."

Instructor Gerasimov looked around for a moment, then pointed ahead and said affirmatively: "I saw the division commander a few minutes ago, and he should be not far in front now." ”

I looked ahead, saw no jeep, and said with some disappointment, "I didn't see a car in front of me, maybe his car has entered the city." ”

Gerasimov looked at me strangely, and then said in surprise: "No, Colonel Dubyansky is on foot, like us, and is not in a car." ”

When I heard that Colonel Dubyansky was on foot, not in a car, I was overjoyed, and after thanking Gerasimov, I closed the car door and urged the driver in a loud voice: "Comrade driver, drive faster, the Colonel Dubyansky we are looking for is in front." ”

Although the driver agreed quite cheerfully, it was not easy to speed up on a road full of marching troops. The driver honked his horn loudly, and our car was only slightly faster than walking.

But fortunately, I quickly saw Dubyansky in the crowd, and I quickly patted the driver on the shoulder and ordered: "Comrade driver, just park here." ”

Without waiting for the car to stop, I pushed the door open and jumped in, and although the car was slow, the inertia caused me to involuntarily stumble forward and crash directly into a fighter on the side of the road. The soldier I had struck turned around in annoyance, waved his fist to teach me a lesson, and when he saw the rank on my badge, he dropped his fist, muttered a whisper, and walked on.

I saw that Dubyansky was seven or eight meters away in front of me, and hurriedly quickened my pace to squeeze towards him, while shouting loudly: "Colonel Dubyansky." Colonel Dubyansky. ”

Hear me shouting. Colonel Dubyansky and several fighters around him stopped. Stand still. The soldiers who were marching, after seeing that their way was blocked by their division commanders, all went around from both sides. Dubyansky stared at me blankly, without any expression on his face.

I squeezed hard in front of him, breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "Thank God, Comrade Colonel, I have finally caught up with you. ”

Dubyansky looked at me suspiciously, and asked lightly: "Colonel Oshanina." The change of guard of our two divisions has ended, and you deliberately chased after you, is there something wrong? ”

"That's right, Comrade Colonel." I said to him with a big smile: "Didn't you leave a women's communication squad in the ravine behind the high ground?" And my independent division, as you know, is a newly formed unit, and there is a shortage of manpower in all aspects. Now that our division has accepted the task of holding the high ground, if the division's communications company does not have enough manpower, it will not be able to ensure smooth communication between the division headquarters and the forward positions. That's why I'm coming to you specifically this time. I would like to make a request to you to include this communication class in the structure of our division. I don't know what you think? ”

When saying this. I was mentally prepared for Dubiansky's refusal, and if he did not agree, I would go to Chuikov or Gurov and ask them to come out and mediate the matter. Unexpectedly, Dubiansky only thought about it for a moment, and then said with a smile: "Colonel Oshanina, look at what you said, you and I are allies." In order to make sure that you hold the high ground, let alone a women's communication squad, even if you want a battalion from me, I will not hesitate to support you. ”

Hearing that Dubyansky had agreed to leave the women's communications class behind, I was overjoyed, grabbed the colonel's hand and shook it vigorously, and thanked him again and again: "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Colonel Dubyansky." When I let go of his hand, I suddenly remembered that the commander of the communications squad, Corporal Stukalova, still needed a written order, and I said in embarrassment: "But Comrade Colonel, you may have to give me a written order before I can officially take over the women's communications squad." ”

My words made Dubyansky feel very strange, and he asked puzzledly: "Colonel Oshanina, what the hell is going on?" ”

"When I came, the head of the women's communications squad, Corporal Stukalova, said that a written order signed by the commander of the 35th Guards Division himself was necessary so that the regulations would not be violated."

Dubyansky laughed heartily, "I didn't expect a corporal to dare to embarrass the commander of an independent division." Colonel Oshanina, rest assured, I will write you a written order at once. As he spoke, he took out a notebook and a pencil from his briefcase, and after writing half a page in a hurry, he signed his name at the lower right end, tore off the page and handed it to me, and said with a smile: "Okay, Colonel Oshanina, you just need to take this order back and give it to Corporal Stukalova, and then the communications squad will officially be under the command of the independent division." ”

After thanking Dubyansky again, I turned back to the jeep. As soon as she got into the car, Razumeyeva, who was sitting in the car, couldn't wait to ask: "Comrade division commander, how is it, did you get a written order?" ”

I stretched out my finger and flicked the written order in my hand, and said to Razumeyeva proudly: "Of course, as long as I come forward, there is really nothing that cannot be done." ”

Razumeyeva took the written order and read it carefully, smiled excitedly and said: "Comrade division commander, it's really good, with this written order, the women's communication class has naturally become a member of our independent division." In this way, the strength of my communications company can be strengthened. ”

After our jeep returned to the foot of the hill, when I got out of the car, I specifically told the driver: "Comrade driver, find a way to hide the jeep, otherwise if the German plane is discovered, you can only put it outside and let them bomb it as a target." After that, I shook my head at Razumeyeva and said in a dashing manner: "Let's go, Comrade Second Lieutenant, let's go back to the headquarters." ”

As we walked up the southern slope, we saw the fighters of the 2nd Regiment digging fortifications on the slope. Razumeyeva asked curiously: "Comrade division commander, our positions are on the northern slope, why are we digging fortifications on the southern slope?" ”

Pointing to the slope of the hill with only bushes and thorny plants, I said to Razueyeva: "Second Lieutenant Lazueyeva, you see, the whole highland is full of bushes and low plants, there is no woods for the troops to hide, and the pilots of the German reconnaissance planes are not blind to hold so many troops on the high ground. As long as he reports the reconnaissance to the intelligence. An overwhelming number of planes will bomb Mamayev Hill. At that time, no matter how many troops our division had, it would be completely lost under the saturation bombardment of the German army, so we had to find a way to conceal all the troops, so that the enemy would not be seen, and we could also reinforce them in time when the forward forces were tight. ”

Talking. Before we knew it, we were outside the headquarters. I shook my head and looked at the enemy planes in the sky, and suddenly I felt a little uneasy in my heart, and hurriedly took out the order from my briefcase and handed it to Razumeyeva, and at the same time instructed her: "Comrade second lieutenant, you immediately give the order to Corporal Stukalova, and at the same time let the girls hurry up and dig an air-raid shelter nearby to prepare for a possible air raid by the Germans." Razumeyeva agreed, and took the order from my hand. Run into the ravine.

After Razumeyeva left, I raised my telescope and looked at the Volga River to the northeast. I saw a pier by the river next to Mamayev Hills. It was crowded with fleeing civilians and was squeezing towards a steamer that had just approached the shore.

After flying over the pier, the enemy planes descended in altitude and dived down into the crowd gathered at the pier, while they began to strafe and drop bombs. Thousands of civilians were crammed into the narrow docks, and except for those close to the ship, the rest of the crowd had nowhere to hide and nowhere to escape, so they could only stand there and become the target of German aircraft. After the three planes were pulled up one after another, the crowd had already been plowed out of three flesh alleys by dense machine-gun bullets.

When the enemy circled in the air and was about to dive again, the anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine gun positions on the pier opened fire one after another, and our air defense fighters were ready to use intensive fire to knock down all three incoming enemy planes.

However, in ground-to-air combat, the side defending on the ground is always at a disadvantage. Due to the fact that the anti-aircraft artillery positions and the anti-aircraft machine gun positions were fighting separately, after pouring countless ammunition, the enemy planes were not damaged at all, and several anti-aircraft positions of our army were destroyed one after another. Shells on an anti-aircraft artillery position destroyed by a bomb exploded, and the flying shrapnel slashed many nearby civilians.

Seeing that the dock had become a hell on earth under the bombing of enemy planes, my heart tightened, and my throat seemed to be blocked by something bitter.

However, the sacrifice of the air defense position bought precious time for civilians to take refuge. The steamer on the dock did not wait for it to be full of passengers, and then sailed away from the dock in a panic and headed for the east shore in the face of strafing and bombardment from the enemy. Civilians who were not able to board the ship also took refuge in disappointment to the bomb shelters, craters and bunkers where they had been hiding.

After dropping their bombs and running out of bullets, the three enemy planes circled over the pier for another two days before heading off into the distance. When the people at the dock saw the enemy plane flying away, they came out of their hiding places one after another, looking for their dead and wounded relatives and friends, and for a while, the dock fell into chaos again.

"Comrade division commander, what's going on on the dock?" Razumeeva didn't know when she walked back to me and asked curiously.

"Look at it, Comrade Ensign." I huffed and slipped the binoculars into her hand and said through gritted teeth: "Remember well the heinous crimes committed by the fascist bandits against our motherland and people, and sooner or later, we will make them pay for their bloody debts." ”

Within two minutes of Razumeeva raising her binoculars and looking at them, three more enemy planes appeared in the sky, still skimming over the heights and heading towards the pier to the northeast. These damned Germans, before we could finish treating the dead and wounded civilians, their second wave of planes came again. The three new planes, like the enemy planes just now, relentlessly bombed and strafed the crowd moving on the pier as soon as they reached the wounds on the pier.

However, this time our air defense units had already prepared, and they fired non-stop, and finally achieved results, when an enemy plane was cut off one of its wings by shrapnel from an anti-aircraft shell, and rolled and planted itself towards the Volga River. Soon a white umbrella flower bloomed in the air, and it seemed that the pilot had jumped in time.

Seeing the downed German plane, I couldn't help but shake my fist hard in excitement. The remaining two planes, after their colleagues were shot down, did not dare to dive unscrupulously, and could only hover in the air for a while, and then turned around and flew away.

I saw the enemy planes in the distance, and thought to myself that in order to bomb the civilians on the dock, the German planes had already made two sorties in a row, and they would not come a third time. Just thought of this. The roar of airplane motors was heard again in the sky. Then a few black dots came into view. See this scene. I almost slapped myself in the mouth, secretly scolding myself for being a crow's mouth, just thinking that the enemy planes were coming, but I didn't expect them to come.

Seeing that the enemy planes were getting closer and closer to the high ground, and that Razumeeva and I were still standing still, I could clearly see that there were six planes in the air this time, and I didn't know how many casualties would be caused to the civilians on the dock.

Just thinking about it, the plane that flew over Mamayev did not fly in the direction of the pier. Rather, it swooped down on us. At this moment, I was surprised to see that this wave of enemy planes was not heading for the dock at all, but was coming to bomb the Mamayev Heights. I hurriedly opened my throat and shouted at the commanders and fighters who were busy on the hillside: "Air raid siren, air raid siren, hide quickly!" ”

But my command was drowned out by the loud explosion of the bomb, and then I was jerked to the ground by a man. I lay on the ground, listening to the explosions one after another, feeling the ground trembling slightly, and I couldn't help but panic. This German air raid came too suddenly. Their planes flew over the land twice, turning a blind eye to the busy commanders and fighters who were all over the mountains and valleys. Instead, they went to attack the dock on the Volga River, which made our commanders and fighters unconsciously relax their vigilance, thinking that the target of the German air raid was only the dock, not the Mamayev post. Therefore, when the enemy planes attacked, the commanders and fighters were still busy on the hillside, and they did not think of concealment at all, and after the bombing was over, our first and second regiments did not know how many casualties they would suffer.

I tentatively looked up to see what was going on nearby, but the black smoke obscured my vision, and I couldn't see any further, not even what happened to the nearby warriors digging fortifications.

The bombing and strafing of the heights by enemy planes lasted ten minutes, but for me it was as long as ten days. After the enemy plane had finished dropping the bombs and the on-board machine gun bullets, and the fan wings swaggered away, the man who was pressing on me stood up and stretched out his hand to pull me up from the ground. I looked up and saw that it was Second Lieutenant Razumeyeva who had just overwhelmed me, and her face was now black and white with the smoke of gunpowder, and I nodded at her hurriedly, turned around and ran towards the headquarters, I wanted to find out the losses in this air raid.

By the time I opened the curtain and rushed into the headquarters, Pugachev and another soldier who were standing inside had turned into natives, and the explosion of the bomb shook the dirt off the roof, leaving them all over the place. I grabbed the phone on my desk and shook the handle twice, trying to call, but there was no sound in it.

Pugachev shook his head and said regretfully: "Comrade division commander, after the start of the air raid, the phone could not be reached, maybe the line was blown up." ”

I asked urgently, "Did you send someone to check the line?" ”

Pugachev shook his head again and replied: "No, the communications soldiers who came with us were all called away by Second Lieutenant Razumeyeva, and I don't know where they are now. ”

When I heard Razumeyeva's name, I remembered the female soldiers I met outside the tent of the women's communications squad, and hurriedly said: "I know, they are all in tents in the ravine, so I will ask Razumeeva to inform them to go and check the line and restore the communication of the division headquarters and the front line." ”

Speaking of this, I suddenly thought of what I wanted to know the most at the moment, and hurriedly asked: "What were the casualties of your regiment in the air raid just now?" ”

Pugachev said with a sad face: "I don't think it's small, the German air raid came so suddenly, and the troops were not prepared at all in advance. Moreover, the absolute majority of the commanders and fighters were building fortifications on the hillside, and they were the best targets, and I estimate that the casualties of the whole regiment would be at least one-third. ”

"Comrade division commander, comrade division commander." Before I could speak, Razumeyeva suddenly ran outside crying, grabbed my arm and went outside, crying as she went: "It's over, it's all over, my women's communication class is over." ”

Confused, I was led to the top of the hill by Razumeyeva, and looked in the direction of her finger into the ravine, and saw that there were two army green tents, only a few large pits, which contained burning fragments of tent cloth and parts of broken communication equipment, and in the smoke-filled craters beside them, there were many bloody stumps and severed arms.

Seeing this scene, I fully understood in my heart that my women's communication class was over. This damned German, as soon as I arrived at the Mamayev Heights, he gave me a dismount, and I swore that I would not be a man if I did not avenge this revenge. Thinking of this, I only felt sweet in my throat, and a mouthful of blood spurted out. (To be continued......)

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