Early in the morning, I was awakened by the sudden sound of battle sirens and the intense fire of anti-aircraft machine guns. I rolled over and jumped out of bed, grabbed the submachine gun that was placed next to the bed, and rushed out of the house where I was living barefoot in my underwear. Rushing outside, I nervously looked at the sky to determine which direction I should run.

Although the anti-aircraft machine guns on the air defense positions were clattering incessantly, there was no scene in the air of the enemy planes flying like locusts as I had imagined. After careful observation for a long time, I realized that there was only one enemy reconnaissance plane, which was hovering over the village where the headquarters was located.

Seeing the false alarm, I went back to the house and got dressed, and while getting dressed, I scolded in my heart the stupid guys in the anti-aircraft machine gun company, just a reconnaissance plane, is it worth it for you to use so many anti-aircraft machine guns to shoot? With this style of play, it won't be long before enemy fighters and bombers are flying over in an overwhelming manner.

After putting on his clothes and boots, he came out with his submachine gun back in his hand, and found that our anti-aircraft machine guns had stopped firing, and the enemy's reconnaissance plane was nowhere to be found. As I walked towards the anti-aircraft position, I looked up at the sky from time to time with concern, fearing that an enemy bomber would suddenly dive down from a high altitude.

When I walked to the anti-aircraft machine gun position of the female soldiers, I found the company commander, Lieutenant Stenin, standing here, angrily admonishing several female soldiers: "...... Comrades female soldiers, you are not the air defense soldiers you are only today, don't you even recognize the enemy's bombers and unarmed reconnaissance planes? The enemy may not have noticed us at all, and you have opened fire without asking for instructions, exposing the target. If you invite a large number of enemy planes to bomb the headquarters of the army group. Can you afford it? ”

On the way here. I guessed that the anti-aircraft machine guns were shooting at the enemy's reconnaissance planes, and it was very likely that the female soldiers did it. I wanted to criticize them properly, but when I saw that they were being criticized, I changed my mind and stopped and stood next to the air defense position. Quietly watched as Stephen criticized them.

My arrival was soon discovered by the female soldiers, and the eyes of several people involuntarily looked at me. Stepin, who was lecturing, found that the female soldiers did not listen to him, but looked to the side, and quickly turned his head to look, and saw that I was standing behind him, so he quickly turned around and saluted, and said in a little panic: "Comrade Colonel in the report, I am criticizing the female soldiers. ”

"Why should they criticize them, have they done something wrong?" I've heard Stepnin criticize them. But still knowingly asked.

Styning didn't know that I was teasing him, and hurriedly reported to me with a serious expression: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel. I would like to report to you on today's fighting. In the early morning, an enemy reconnaissance plane flew over us, and the female soldiers, perhaps too nervous, did not even have time to confirm the enemy's aircraft type, hurriedly raised the battle alarm, and opened fire on the enemy planes in the air without authorization. Nearby air defense positions, after receiving the alarm, also fired into the air one after another. As a result of the aimless fighting, not only did they not knock down the enemy's planes, but they also exposed the position of our air defense positions. ”

I couldn't help but want to laugh when I looked at the lieutenant's serious appearance, but I still tried my best to control my emotions and continued to ask: "Comrade lieutenant, what are the results of the anti-aircraft machine gun company?" Did you knock down the enemy's planes? ”

Shaking his head vigorously, Stepin replied: "After five minutes of firing, the enemy planes were scared away by our dense machine-gun fire, but our ammunition consumption was large, and on average one magazine per gun emplacement. And the female soldiers," he said, glancing at the five girls who were standing upright, "perhaps because they were so nervous, they used three full magazines. ”

Three magazines, this number still surprises me secretly, one magazine is 150 rounds, three magazines are 450 rounds, these girls are really wasteful. With this kind of random fighting, it won't be long before the ammunition for this anti-aircraft machine-gun position near the headquarters will run out.

Seeing that I was listening to him silently, without making any comments, Stephenin added: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I am afraid that they will invite the German planes to bomb them if they do so much. ”

Hearing Stephen say this, I can't be silent anymore, but in front of the female soldiers, I still have to save some face for them: "Lieutenant Stepin, it's war time, are you a veteran afraid of enemy bombs?" I suggest to you, in the future, when you encounter such a situation, the first thing you should do is to praise these girls, after all, after discovering the enemy plane, they did not flee in a hurry, but bravely hit the enemy plane with machine guns. ”

Seeing that I was so protective of the female soldiers, Stenin had no choice but to reluctantly agree: "Understood, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I will definitely follow your instructions." After a pause, he asked a little hesitantly, "Comrade commander, are you allowed me to leave?" I need to inspect other air defense positions. ”

I waved my hand and motioned for him to leave. He had barely taken two steps when I suddenly remembered something and stopped him. Stephen stopped and asked in surprise: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, do you have any other instructions?" ”

"Do you know how to shoot with fire?" Although I have proposed this concept before, I don't know if Steinin knows the way, so I have this question.

"Gather fire?!" Stephen looked at me blankly, then shook his head.

It seemed that he did not understand the meaning of this term, so I patiently introduced to him: "In anti-aircraft operations, anti-aircraft machine guns or anti-aircraft guns hit fire, and within the effective range of fire, fire is carried out at the same time at a group or a target. It can increase the density of firepower and provide the probability of hitting the target ......"

After I finished talking about what I knew, I noticed that Stephen was actually standing there in a daze, with a look of disbelief on his face. I walked up to him, raised my hand and waved a few times in front of his eyes, while shouting: "Hey, comrade lieutenant, what's wrong with you?" What are you doing? ”

Only then did Stephen come back to his senses, gave me a thumbs up, and said in a loud voice: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you are really amazing, you can come up with such a wonderful solution. You can rest assured. I'm going to set it up. Let every fighter master this style of play. Guaranteed to let the enemy's planes have no return. ”

After Stephenin had gone away, I re-entered the anti-aircraft position of the female soldiers. Seeing me coming back, Vera hurriedly raised her hand to salute me, and took the initiative to admit her mistake: "I'm sorry, Leda, we were wrong." ”

In front of Stepin just now, I was afraid of hurting the self-esteem of the female soldiers, so I deliberately defended them. Now it's just a few of us here. There are some heavy things that need to be said, so that they don't make similar mistakes again. I snorted and criticized them dissatisfiedly: "Vera, although you have only been an anti-aircraft machine gunner for a short time, but you were an anti-aircraft gunner before, can't you even distinguish between the enemy's reconnaissance planes and fighters and bombers?" Today's strike has exposed the target, and the enemy bombers may have been summoned. ”

Hearing my criticism, Vera blushed and lowered her head without saying a word. Then. Suddenly, another voice sounded next to him: "I'm sorry, Leda. This has nothing to do with Vera, it's all my fault. It was I who was so nervous when I spotted the enemy planes that I raised the battle alarm, and when everyone rushed to the gun position, I was the first to shoot. ”

I turned my head to see that it was Garka who was speaking. I did not politely criticize her and said: "Galka, remember, the next is not an example. On the battlefield, perhaps it is your small negligence or lack of calm that may cause the death of your comrades. Do you understand? ”

"Understood, Leda." Garka replied in a low voice with his head down.

"What about you? Do you understand? I asked, looking back at the other four girls.

"Understood." The four answered me neatly.

Seeing that the female soldiers had understood what I meant, I did not stay any longer, so I hurried back to the headquarters.

As soon as I walked into the headquarters, I received two telegrams from the staff officers. One was sent by Colonel Kolobtin, commander of the 29th Division, who reported that the engineer regiment sent by the army group had reached the heights of 158 and 165 respectively, and was using explosives to dig tunnels. The other was sent by the commander of the 229th Division, Colonel Sazhen, reporting that the enemy situation in front of their positions had changed.

After reading these two telegrams, I did not dare to slack off, so I hurriedly walked up to Shumilov, who was talking to Chuikov, and handed over the two telegrams to him. After reading the telegram, Shumilov casually handed it to Chuikov, looked up and asked me: "Comrade Oshanina, what do you think of these two telegrams?" ”

Hearing Shumilov's question, Chuikov, who was reading the telegram, couldn't help but look up at me. I hurriedly replied: "Report to Comrade Commander, there is something strange about what is reported in Colonel Sazhen's telegram. ”

At this time, Chuikov also finished reading the contents of the telegram, he put the telegram on the table, rushed in front of Shumilov and asked: "Tell me, what's strange?" ”

I picked up Colonel Sazhen's telegram and read it: "...... During the day, the enemy trucks were used to transport troops into positions, and the sound of enemy personnel carriers could still be heard at night. When I had finished reading it, I put the newspaper on the table and said, "Strange is strange here." The two commanders probably remember last night's telegram from Colonel Kolobtin, who said that the enemy had taken the troops away by truck, and that the movement continued into the evening. Later, after reconnaissance, it was discovered that it was a trick of the enemy, who had carried away a small number of soldiers during the day, but quietly brought in more soldiers to replenish the position at night. The opposite was reflected in Colonel Sazhen's telegram, the same ruse of the enemy to paralyze us, by deliberately transporting troops to positions during the day and quietly diverting large numbers of forces in other directions during the night. They want us to misjudge that they will attack from the Reynoch area, and they will draw troops from other areas to strengthen it, so that they can find a weak position to break through our defenses. ”

Perhaps it was my accurate speculation last night that made Shumilov feel a sense of trust in me, and he nodded and said to Chuikov: "Comrade Chuikov, I think Oshanina's analysis is very reasonable, what do you think?" ”

Chuikov's fingers were constantly tapping on the table, but when he heard Shumilov ask, he quickly stopped his small movements and replied: "Comrade commander, I have the same opinion as you, and I also think that Oshanina's analysis is accurate. But what can we do to confirm our suspicions? ”

Shumilov tilted his chin at me and said, "It's up to Oshanina to answer this question." ”

Since the commander trusted me so much, I couldn't hide my secrets, so I hurriedly said what I thought in my heart: "Comrade two commanders, I think so. Since the enemy is playing the trick of fake increase and real transfer in front of us, then we should make good use of this opportunity to teach them a lesson. ”

"What's the lesson?" Chuikov asked curiously.

"You can ask Colonel Sazhin to send a small force. The company was constantly harassing the enemy's positions. If the enemy really has more troops. They will take the opportunity to launch a counterattack; If the number of troops is really reduced. They will obediently nest in the trenches, not daring to leave their positions casually. ”

"Well, that's a good idea, you can try it." Shumilov first agreed, turned to Chuikov and said: "Comrade Chuikov, it's up to you to make this call to Colonel Sazhin." ”

When Chuikov called Colonel Sazhin to assign tasks, I couldn't help but sigh to myself, this period of time. When Chuikov and Shumilov drew up their operational plans, they almost always consulted me, and in many cases they took me as the main leader. I don't know if they are looking at Zhukov's face for the special attention they have given me, or are they taking the opportunity to cultivate my command ability?

Before Chuikov could finish the call, another staff officer came in from outside and reported to me: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, a group of prisoners have come from outside, and they are soldiers from the 70th Guards Division. ”

I whispered a report to Shumilov about the prisoners, and hurried out of the command with the staff officer.

Walk to the edge of the village. From afar, I saw hundreds of embarrassed German prisoners approaching us. In the ranks of the captives. Except for a small number of people who are in good health, the rest are wounded. Some of them had bandages on their heads and arms, some of them had wounds on their feet, and they limped with a thick branch as a cane. Warriors with bayonet rifles walked majestically around the captive ranks, and when they saw anyone walking slowly or trying to leave the ranks, they would raise their bayonets and shout loudly.

"What are these prisoners doing when they are brought to the headquarters of the army group?" I turned to the staff officer next to me.

The staff officer replied: "We need to interrogate the prisoners to understand the distribution of the enemy's forces and the next step of the operation." ”

Just as the captives were approaching the entrance of the village, four enemy planes suddenly appeared in the sky, and after circling in the sky for a while, they swooped down and fired bombs at the village behind me. Bombs whistled and landed on the open spaces of the village and around the houses, sending out earth-shattering explosions.

As soon as the German prisoners saw their own planes dropping bombs and strafing, they shouted, and the whole team was disorganized. Some of them held their heads tightly with their hands and fell directly to the ground; Some knelt directly on the ground, looking up at the sky, and kept drawing crosses in their hands; Others ignore it and run away from it.

The escorting warriors shouted at the fleeing captives, but the more they shouted, the faster they ran. In this case, the escorting fighters did not hesitate to shoot at the fleeing captives.

Almost a third of the captives escaped, almost all of them unharmed. Under the intensive fire of the soldiers, some of the captives only ran a few meters away, and saw the people around them being pierced by bullets, and their bodies fell to the ground in response, and blood droplets splashed in the air.

Seeing that these soldiers from the 70th Guards Division could cope with the prisoners, I quickly turned to the staff officer and said, "You will quickly go to the headquarters and cover the commander's withdrawal to a safe place." ”

"Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, where are you going?" After accepting my assignment, the staff officer couldn't help but ask more.

"I went to the anti-aircraft machine gun company to get the enemy planes away from the village as soon as possible, otherwise we would suffer heavy casualties." With that, I pulled my legs and ran towards Vera's air defense position.

By the time I reached Vera's gun position, their anti-aircraft machine guns were firing heavily.

Seeing that the bullets they fired must not pose a threat to the enemy's planes, I rushed forward and pulled Galkara, who was sitting in the aimer's position, down and sat myself in the aimer's seat. I quickly shook the handle and through the gun mirror, quickly locked onto the target.

"Leda, ammo reloaded." I heard someone shouting to me from the side.

I nodded calmly, looked through the gun mirror, firmly locked on to a bomber that was diving, and then slammed the gun knob, the machine gun trembled, and fired a dense bullet into the air, and the enemy plane that was diving in our direction suddenly pulled out a long black smoke behind the tail.

"Hit! Hit! When the female soldiers around me saw this, they immediately cheered.

Then, there was a loud bang in the air, and the enemy plane I hit exploded and disintegrated in the air, turning into pieces and scattering them. And our gun emplacements were also discovered by the remaining enemy planes, and after circling in the air, two planes swooped down viciously towards us.

"Danger, lie down!" I yelled at the girls, and when I was done, I jumped out of my seat, pulled my legs, and ran outside.

As soon as I ran a few steps, I heard the scream of a bomb falling from a high altitude behind me, and I quickly jumped forward, holding my head in my hands, and lay on the ground.

A loud "boom" sounded behind me, and then some mess and dirt crackled down on me, especially a stone on the steel helmet, which made my eyes black and I almost fainted.

When I stood up, I turned and looked back. The original anti-aircraft position has been turned into a crater with green smoke, and the anti-aircraft machine guns in the pit have turned into a pile of scrap metal, and several female soldiers are lying in the vicinity of the pit, motionless. (To be continued......)