I stretched out my hand and shook his hand, and said kindly: "Comrade stationmaster, you are an important post here, but why didn't your superiors equip you with a guard unit?" You know, if we had been a little late, you would have been served by the Germans. ”

Hearing me say this, Shaloviev blushed and said curtly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, in fact, the superiors used to equip us with a platoon of infantry, but later I discussed with the technical assistant comrade and believed that the maintenance station was located in the rear of our army, and safety could be guaranteed. Rather than leaving a platoon of fighters to do nothing here every day, they were sent to a more important place, and in this way, the infantry of that platoon was transferred after only two days. ”

When the young technical assistant Martnović shook hands with me, he also took the initiative to explain: "Actually, our place is very hidden, and the enemy usually does not find out. Today's battle was a pure accident. ”

After shaking hands with the two of them, I casually asked: "Which factory in Stalingrad were you originally in?" ”

Unexpectedly, after listening to my question, the two looked at each other and smiled, and the stationmaster proudly replied to me: "We are both from the tractor factory in Stalingrad. Before the war, a quarter of the country's tractors were produced by our factory. After the outbreak of the war, our production line was converted to the production of tanks for our troops. Speaking of which, he also pointed to the T-34 tank without tracks in the middle of the scrap metal and said to me: "See? That tank was also produced by our factory. ”

Looking at the few workers standing next to the tank, I couldn't help but laugh dumbly, and then said to the two of them teasingly: "Comrade stationmaster and technical assistant." Your workers aren't very good at shooting. I was just on a hillside in the distance. The tank was seen firing at the enemy without stopping. But it seems that not a few shells hit the target. ”

The station Shaloviev once again blushed with shame, and hurriedly defended himself to me: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, do you know that our workers have not undergone special shooting training, and the people who shot in the tank just now were two repairmen who repaired tank engines, and they were able to shoot shells out of the chambers, which is already very remarkable. ”

That's when Oleg came to me. "Comrade division commander, the prisoners have already been interrogated, and they say that they came here in order to search for a tank that had attacked their camp last night, following the tracks on the ground," reported in a low voice. ”

"Tank, what tank?" Oleg's words make me feel inexplicable, could it be that the enemy broke into the repair depot of our army by mistake in order to find a bad luck of our army's tank?

"Did the Germans say they were looking for a tank?" Technical assistant Martnovich interjected and asked, and when he saw Oleg nodding in confirmation, he slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "Oh my God." I finally understand how the enemy found this place. Then he shouted to the workers standing next to the tank: "Lyonka, come here." ”

With his shouts. A bearded worker came to us from the tank. Seeing our commanders standing with his leaders, I couldn't help but look a little flustered. Seeing his helpless appearance, Marzhenovich became angry, stepped forward and slapped him on the back of the head, and said angrily: "Lyonka, tell the commanders what you experienced last night." ”

Ryonka scratched the back of his head, smiled sheepishly, and then began to tell us the story of what happened last night: "Last night I rode my motorcycle to the Reynolds area, and everyone knows that there was a battle there yesterday, and there will definitely be broken tanks on the battlefield. I was lucky enough to find a tank of our army. With that, he pouted at the T-34, "Well, that's it." ”

"Go on, Comrade Lyonka." Perhaps afraid that he would take the topic away, the stationmaster couldn't help but urge him.

"I parked the motorcycle, opened the top hatch and drilled the tank, and when I looked around, the tank commander was lying next to the artillery, covered in blood, and the driver was not lightly injured. I was repairing the tank, but I wasn't a hygienist, and I didn't have a first-aid kit with me, so I had to let them endure for the time being, and then drive the tank back to the health camp when I was done.

I was troubleshooting when I suddenly heard a movement outside. I looked outside and it turned out to be a tractor driven by the Germans, which was tied to our tank with a steel cable and pulled up to their position. I wanted to teach the Germans a lesson, but the turret got stuck, the machine guns ran out of ammunition, and the tank crews ran out of grenades.

What should we do at this time? Should you stay in the tank and be taken prisoner after being towed to the German positions by a tractor, or will you rush out and fight the enemy bravely and kill them with a dagger? But after consideration, I felt that neither option was advisable, and that we had to find a way to get out of danger, so I begged a few tank crews not to act rashly and wait patiently for me to fix the tank.

While I was repairing a tank, one of the less wounded tankmen used a flashlight to illuminate me. I tried to keep my composure, but the hand holding the wrench kept shaking. Add to this the fact that our tanks were dragged by German tractors and bumped badly on rough roads, making repairs even more difficult.

I thought to myself, it's over, if we don't fix it again, we'll really become prisoners of the Germans. So I took a deep breath and tried my best to say to myself: Lyonka, it's okay, there is not a single German devil here, there is your own tractor towing this tank outside, and what you have to fix is just a few ordinary little problems on the tank. Thinking about it like this, I regained my former peace. After a while, the tank was actually repaired.

The driver, who had been badly wounded, took his place, started the tank, and rushed towards the enemy's tractor, knocking it into a pile of scrap metal. Then he rushed into the enemy's position, crushing back and forth, and leveling the enemy's trenches. When I saw this scene, I couldn't tell how happy it was. ”

"And how did the tank become like this?" I also looked at Tank Nunu like a repairman and asked, "It looks like you ran a mine on the way back." ”

"I'll explain that." Technical assistant Martnovich said with some embarrassment: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel. You know that, too. When people are in a state of tension for a long time, it is inevitable that they will be dizzy and nervous. At that time, when I saw this tank coming towards our repair station, because it was already midnight, the workers on duty did not see that it was our tank, so they rushed up with a bundle of grenades and blew it up.

The sound of the explosion woke us up from our sleep, and everyone rushed out of the shed and rushed to the site of the explosion. See what's going on. When the flashlight light was shining, we realized that the workers on duty had made a big mistake and blew up their tank as if it were a German tank.

After Leonka came to his senses, he helped several wounded tankmen to climb out of the tanks. The tank commander wiped the blood on his face and scolded viciously: Are you crazy and even blow up your own tanks. Since you blew it up, you're responsible for fixing it.

After sending the wounded away, we dragged the tank with a tractor into the repair station for repairs. Unexpectedly, we were just halfway through the repair work when the sudden appearance of the enemy launched an attack on us. "Speaking of which. He gave us a grateful look and continued, "It's a good thing you arrived in time. Otherwise the repair station is really dangerous. ”

"What are the intentions of the enemy to drag our tanks back to their positions?" For the first time, I had heard that the enemy would drag damaged tanks to their positions, so I humbly consulted these professionals.

"Quite simply, the enemy is here to study our tanks." As soon as these technical topics were mentioned, Martnovich immediately became articulate: "When the enemy drags back the damaged tanks of our army, he carefully disassembles the tanks and studies every part of them, every part of it. They will study its mechanical properties, study its material, processing methods, etc., and they will want to know what advantages our tank has in terms of craftsmanship. ”

"Are our tanks more advanced than theirs?" I asked a question that wasn't too layman's.

Martnovich nodded vigorously and replied: "The welding technology of the Germans, which is greatly inferior to ours, simply cannot be compared with our KB and Type 34. In addition, the steel used in their tanks is of low grade, and the alloys contained in them are pitiful. So when we haul back the broken enemy tanks, instead of repairing them, we dismantle them, put them back in the furnace, and smelt their steel in the same furnace as ours. ”

I looked around, looked at the wreckage of tanks and armored vehicles around me, and then pointed my finger and asked Martnovich: "Comrade Technical Assistant, I see that the wreckage of these tanks has no hope of repair, so it can only be sent back to the furnace?" ”

Martnovich nodded vigorously and said affirmatively: "Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the wreckage of the tanks you see is almost all the old tanks of our army. When they were destroyed, the steel plates on the body were all shattered, and the outer skin could be peeled off like a husk, while the internal parts were all melted and sintered into pieces. Sometimes we were in the tank and found corpses, which had to be cleaned up by our workers and carried out of the tank and buried.

However, these scrapped old tanks are not useless, as far as I know, some repair stations provide these old tanks to the forward troops, allowing them to storm the enemy's positions and level the enemy's trenches with tracks. ”

Listening to a whole bunch of professional questions from Martnovic, I finally turned to what I was really interested in: "Did you have a lot of casualties in your repair station in the battle just now?" ”

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, please come with me." The head station, Shaloveyev, made a gesture of please to me and led me to the middle of the scrap metal pile. As he walked, he introduced to me: "Our work site is a simple shed, built with steel pipes and covered with a tarpaulin. There are two machines in it, because most of our parts are machined on lathes. ”

Walking to the shed, where the tarpaulin had been torn to shreds by shrapnel and only bare pipe fittings remained, I saw the bodies of five workers in the open space outside, their faces carefully covered with clothes by other workers. For me, who was accustomed to seeing life and death, the sight of a few sacrificed workers did not cause me any emotional fluctuations, but Shaloviev became excited, he kept wiping away the tears that came out of his eyes with his hands, and said in a choked voice: "These five workers. They are the best turners I have ever had. ”

"How did they get sacrificed?" This time it was Major Oleg, who was following me, who was questioning.

"When the enemy attacks. We are machining axle pins for tank tracks with lathes. Enemy shells kept flying. It exploded next to the lathe, and one lathe man fell, the second continued, and the third lathe was on standby. In this way, a dozen small track axle pins cost our pit shop five excellent lathes. ”

I didn't ask him why he didn't stop working at the time of the shelling, because something that would seem completely inconceivable to later generations. How logical it is in this day and age. After a moment of silence, I asked in a low voice, "Are there any other casualties?" ”

"Yes," Sharoviev continued, "when the enemy swooped down on our pit stop, the workers dropped their tools, grabbed their guns and grenades, ran to the individual bunkers outside, and opened fire on the enemy with small arms. You know, we didn't have any combat experience at all, we just fought the Germans wholeheartedly like work. But the cunning fascists rushed up before they rushed up. Mortar fire was incessant, and our casualties were heavy. There were more than two dozen workers, and they died heroically. ”

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, please give me a trip to the workshop, I have something to show you." Technical assistant Martnović sent me a sincere invitation.

I followed him into the shed, bypassing the lathe, which was stained with the blood of the martyrs, to a workbench. The workbench is made of six steel pipes supporting a huge steel plate, which at first glance is used by fitters to process small parts. Around the steel plates, which are two meters long and one meter wide and one inch thick, seven or eight vises of various sizes are fixed. In front of one of the vises, a fitter is filing a small part on the jaws with a file.

Martnović pointed to the table and said to me: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, please look. ”

I looked in the direction of his finger, and saw that the surface of the iron plate was densely covered with grooves, and it looked like people's names were written all over it. If I looked closely, it was really full of people's names, and I counted them carefully, and there were 47 names. Although I didn't reach out to touch it, I knew from the heat faintly coming from the steel plate that these names had not been engraved for a long time, so I turned my head and asked Martnovich: "Comrade Technical Assistant, how did these names be engraved on the steel plate?" ”

Martnovic pointed back and said, "That's it." ”

I turned my head to look at it, and I was immediately startled, not far away, on a trolley, there was actually a bottle of oxygen and a bottle of acetylene placed side by side, you must know that in the safety regulations of the Celestial Empire, the safety distance between these two things is ten meters, not side by side. Fortunately, it was not hit by shrapnel from the Germans, otherwise the shed would have been razed to the ground.

I secretly moved my body to the side, and then asked Martnovic: "Comrade Technical Assistant, whose name is engraved on your steel plate with a gas welding gun?" ”

"Who else could it be?" The fitter, who was busy with his work, took over the conversation and said, "Of course, the names of all the people in our pits." But not to mention, the technical assistant's gas welding skills are really good, he burned very carefully, each letter was burned very clearly and deeply, but the steel plate was not burned through at all. When the fitter said this, he tapped a line with the file in his hand and said: "Comrade commander, look, he also engraved 'Sacrifice for the Soviet Fatherland,' and the date behind it is written tomorrow." He firmly believed that we would be able to fight the enemy here for a day and a night. ”

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I think Comrade Technical Assistant has done the right thing." Perhaps afraid that I would blame Martnović, the station chief Shaloviev wasted no time in speaking out for him, "You know, he engraved our names on the steel plates, and even if we all die, we will not be unknown." This proof is the most reliable and can not be erased. Even if the investigators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs came to see it in the future, they would suddenly realize that the workers of the repair station had given their lives for the Motherland, and had not been captured or disappeared by the enemy. ”

"Comrade Shalovyev, Comrade Martnovich, your workers at the pit are all good. I will report what happened here to my superiors and ask them to send a guard to ensure the safety of your maintenance station. ”

Hearing me say this, neither the stationmaster nor the technical assistant raised any objections, because today's bloody facts have taught them that in this kind of heavy workshop, the necessary security forces are indispensable. Since they are subordinate to the headquarters of the front army, I personally have no right to send troops to guard them, and I can only report this situation to the group army and report it to them, and the final decision on whether to send troops is still in the hands of the commander of the front army.

Although there were less than twenty men left in the pit, they were clearly aware of the dull and cumbersome procedure, and after I had said this, they did not ask for me to stay with the troops to help them guard them for the time being.

Originally, I wanted to turn around and leave directly, but Lieutenant Morozov, who had just arrived, said something in my ear: "Comrade division commander, are we going to leave like this?" Is it just to throw our fellow workers to the Germans, who may appear at any moment? ”

After hearing Morozov's words, I changed my mind and stayed for the time being, asking my subordinates to help the workers of these pits strengthen their defenses.

The level of shooting of the workers was obvious to all, and it was a waste of bullets to let them shoot at the enemy, so I did not leave them the captured German weapons. Instead, they asked Oleg, Pugachev, and Morozov to bring their men to remove all the captured mines from the car and help the workers lay out minefields near the pit station.

With the help of three commanders, the soldiers removed all the mines from the car and, together with the workers, planted a large number of mines that could be controlled and detonated on the road to the maintenance station. In order to make these mines explode more powerful than bombs, the workers put screws, iron nails, and fragments of tank armor on top of the mines, and there are a lot of scrap copper and rotten iron here.

In addition, the fighters connected the individual bunkers outside, turning them into a trench around the pit. Then Martnović took matters into his own hands and welded several pieces of armor steel to the trolleys so that everyone could hide behind the carts and shoot or throw grenades at the Germans.

By the time this was done, it was already dark. I refused Shalovyev's offer and led the fighters back to where they had stopped, preparing to rush to the garrison of the Guards Division and join the troops led by Major Sederikov.

As I passed by the truck towing the cannons, I stopped, called Morozov to my side, slapped the barrel twice with my hand, and told him: "Comrade Lieutenant, you must protect the cannons of your company." In these battles, they eliminated a lot of German devils and made great contributions. When the war is over in the future, maybe these cannons will enter our military museum and become meritorious cannons for future generations to admire. ”

Hearing me say this, Morozov's eyes lit up suddenly, and he hurriedly replied loudly: "Please rest assured, division commander, I will definitely take good care of these cannons, even if they are damaged in battle, I will find someone to repair them." ”

When our convoy arrived at the station of the Guards Division, not to mention Shederikov, Gaidar, and even Chuikov, who was here, was in a hurry. Although Chuikov set off later than us, he took a different road and did not encounter such a thing as a pit stop, so he rushed to the station of the Guards Division before us.

Seeing that we were late, Chuikov, in front of Lyudnikov and Titov, criticized me mercilessly: "Comrade Oshanina, explain to me, what the hell is going on? Why did it take you a full six hours to get from the defense area of the 29th Division to the station of the Guards Division? ”

Since we didn't have the means to communicate, we lost contact with our superiors for six hours, which was very bad. Perhaps the thought of me defecting with my troops even flashed through Chuikov's mind. At this moment, seeing that Chuikov was about to get angry, I did not dare to hide it, and honestly told Chuikov clearly and articulate the matter of encountering the enemy attacking the maintenance station on the road, and I sent troops to destroy the enemy and help the workers of the maintenance station to strengthen the fortifications.

After listening to this, Chuikov simply said: "I know." Then he urged me to immediately lead my troops back to the station of the independent division. (To be continued......)