Burning Moscow

76 Bloody Battle Station (3)

I looked Pavlov up and down without saying a word, to see if he was a traverser like me. Maybe it’s been too long, and I feel embarrassed to see Pavlov, his face flushed, rubbing his hands uneasily, stammering and asking me: “Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you… Why do you always look at me?”

Hearing what he said, I realized my gaffe, and quickly settled, coughed, and said, “What the **** is the Great Famine in Ukraine you said? Come and listen.” I said so, yes. I want to know if the history he knows matches what I remember.

“From 1932 to 1933, the entire Soviet Union launched the collective farm movement, encouraging farmers to join the farm on a voluntary basis. However, the collectivization movement developed far faster than the government planned, so that there was not enough. The machines were provided to the farms, and there were not enough accountants and management personnel. It was hopeless and inefficient, coupled with the indiscriminate slaughter of livestock instigated by rich farmers, and two years of drought, which resulted in a food shortage in 1932. …….”

Upon hearing this, I let out an “Oh”, thinking that he was talking about the famine in the 1930s, which is not the same as what I knew. In this case, he is also an ordinary person, not a traverser at all, and traversing this kind of thing is inherently unavoidable, not a coincidence, there is no chance to reach other time and space. But I interrupted him curiously, and asked: “The great famine you mentioned is related to this nationwide food famine, right?”

“Yes.” He answered me affirmatively, and then went on to say: “There are a large number of kulaks in Ukraine, and the collectivization of farms is low. Most of the food produced is hoarded by the kulaks, causing the farms to supply the cities. There is very little food in China. Due to the nationwide food shortage and rich peasants hoarding food, the residents of the city cannot buy food, so people starve to death. This situation was only one or two small cities, and then gradually increased. The urban sprawl inevitably spread to the entire Ukraine in the end.”

“Are there many people who died in the Great Famine?” I asked with concern.

“Because the government promptly carried out a campaign to cleanse the saboteurs in collective farms, organized grain collection teams to go to the countryside, collected excess grain from rich peasants, and immediately implemented a strict national rationing system, the country has overcome the difficulties. But that is. In this way, there are still about 100,000 to 150,000 people who starve to death in the Great Famine.”

“Oh.” I thought that the number of deaths that could be equated with the Great Famine would have to be in the millions. How could I know that it was only a mere hundreds of thousands. It seems that the work efficiency of the Soviet government is still quite high. People were rescued from the famine. I suddenly remembered another thing, and then asked: “Is it because the grain requisition team collected the surplus, which caused the dissatisfaction of the rich peasants with society, and the old lady named Ayuna ran to ventilate the Germans. Report?”

“Exactly correct, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel.” Pavlov nodded and said in a positive tone: “Maybe this Ayuna is a rich peasant who came from Ukraine and has been hiding in secret in this village. Now I see Germany. When the people came over, they couldn’t wait to take refuge in them and became the lackeys of the fascist bandits.”

“Report!” Lu Jin’s voice came from outside as he was talking.

“Come in!” I called out the door.

Lu Jin stood up and saluted me when he came in, and then respectfully reported: “Comrade Commander, the number of casualties has been counted.”

“How about the casualties of our army?” I was very concerned about the casualties of my subordinates in the small-scale battle just now, so I couldn’t wait to ask.

“Our army sacrificed 38 people and wounded 25 people. The absolute majority of the casualties occurred during the attack on the hut.”

In the battle of the scale just now, more than 60 people were injured or killed. I couldn’t help frowning, and then asked, “What about the Germans?”

“In this battle, our soldiers acted very bravely. They killed 31 German devils and captured 17 submachine guns, 10 rifles, and 1 pistol…”

“Okay!” I interrupted Lu Jin impatiently, saying that more than 200 people had beaten a dozen others, and there were still so many casualties. If the opponent is not more than a dozen people, but hundreds of people, it is estimated that the entire army will be wiped out by us. Then he turned his head and said to Pavlov who was sitting aside: “Comrade Instructor, please go and call all the company commanders here. I have something to say to everyone.”

“Yes!” Pavlov stood up and saluted me, and went out.

Five minutes later, the room was filled with low-ranking commanders. The reason why we say low rank means that these people are all sergeant, sergeant and other ranks; although their ranks are very low, they all serve as company commanders or deputy company commanders in this temporarily formed team. Position. For example, Lukin’s friend Isayev, although he was only a sergeant, served as the commander of an artillery company.

I stood in the middle of the house and said, “Today we had a battle with the Germans in the village. Please talk about your thoughts with the commanders present.”

“Comrade Commander, let me say a few words.” A short sergeant with freckles stood up and said that he was short, but for other people, he was still much taller than me. Seeing me nodding in agreement, he went on to say: “In the battle, the soldiers acted bravely, so even a German devil could not escape from us.”

“Yes, it is because our soldiers acted very bravely that none of the fascist bandits could escape.” As soon as his voice fell, someone next to him immediately agreed. When one spoke, the emotions of other people were immediately aroused. Everyone was talking in a rush, to the effect that no matter what kind of enemy, when we meet our brave warriors, they will be destroyed without exception. The end.

“Enough!” When I interrupted the group, maybe my voice overwhelmed everyone, frightening them, and the room suddenly became silent. I glanced at the dignified atmosphere around me, and a wave of anger emerged in my heart, and I cursed mercilessly: “I want you to sum up the experience and lessons you should learn in today’s battle, not to let you Come here to talk nonsense!”

“Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, can I say a few words?” It was Sergeant Isayev, the artillery company commander, and I nodded, indicating that he had something to say directly.

He stood up and cleared his throat, and said loudly: “In today’s battle, although many German devils have been eliminated, I should also see that the casualties of our army are not small, even far greater than the enemy… …” At this point, he paused and looked at me, fearing that I would suddenly become angry after hearing what he said.

Unexpectedly, someone saw the problem in this battle. I wanted to hear if he could come up with something new, so I smiled at him and said: “If you are in charge of this battle, what will you do? do?”

“If I command this battle, before it starts, I will send a few soldiers to scout to make sure there are no Germans in the house. Judging from the size of the house, it can only hide 20 or so people at best. Judging from the current technical equipment of our army, today’s crowded tactics are not needed at all. It only needs to prepare for a round of artillery fire before attacking, blasting the enemy out of the house, and launching an infantry charge when they are unable to form an army. , They can be wiped out in one fell swoop, and at the same time, this style of play can effectively reduce the casualties of our army.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of interesting.” Although what he said was simple, it was more in line with my thoughts. I nodded again and made a concluding statement: “Ishayev is right. It is not just enough courage to fight. We also need to use our brains. Soldiers’ lives are precious, so when we are commanders, we must not blindly rush and fight when we are commanding operations. Instead, we must know how to use strategies and tactics reasonably to reduce the number of battles. Unnecessary casualties…”

At this point, I saw everyone around me looking at me strangely, as if they were looking at an alien monster. I looked at the two of Festov and Pavlov sitting next to me with a puzzled look, and asked, “Did I say something wrong?”

“That’s not the case, Comrade Commander.” Festov stood up and explained: “What you said is very different from what we learned in the military academy. For example, according to the regulations, when attacking enemy positions , The soldiers should rush forward with their guns in a skirmish formation, while the commander should be at the forefront of the entire team.”

“I understand.” I sighed and explained to them patiently: “A lot of the knowledge you have learned is out of date in the current situation. For example, if you still line up to attack according to the regulations, maybe It only takes a few enemies to wipe out all our offensive forces. The ultimate goal of the offensive is to defeat the enemy. In order to achieve this goal, we can take all necessary means. Let me tell you that I am in Warlock. The battle fought in the outskirts of Ramsk. At that time, the German army occupied the position of the 948th brigade. The commander of the group army, General Rokosovsky, was furious. The position was regained. I happened to be there at the time and took the initiative to accept this counterattack task. Before the attack, I asked the commander comrade to order the artillery of the group army to shell the enemy’s position for 20 minutes….”

Having said that, I paused for a while, seeing everyone listening with gusto, and then went on: “When the shelling lasted for fifteen minutes, I ordered the troops to attack….”

“Ah?!” Someone called out a fuss, and immediately attracted a bunch of contemptuous eyes. He quickly covered his mouth with his hand to avoid making any more noises and offending the public. I told them truthfully the situation at the time. Although it was simple, I still amazed everyone. Especially when we talked about the recovery of the position, our army only suffered 20 casualties, but when we wiped out nearly 200 people in the German army, they He opened his mouth wide in surprise, a pair of disbelief what he heard. It’s no wonder that on the battlefield, one or two German battalions often wiped out one Soviet division. So they heard that when our forces are roughly equal, as the offensive side, we can achieve victory at a very small price. This is simply incredible.

Pavlov said a little surprised: “Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you are really amazing, you can achieve such a great result.”

“Comrade instructor, Lieutenant Colonel Oshanina has achieved more than these,” Sabochuk, who had been sitting next to him without speaking, stood up and began to sing praises for me: “She served in our Fifth Army some time ago. Special commissioner, but after the commander was wounded and retired from the battle, she led us in a large-scale counterattack in the Porokino area, severely hitting the fascist bandits.”

Hearing what Sapochuk said, everyone looked at me with reverence, which made me a little embarrassed. I laughed and said, “I called everyone to come to a meeting to summarize today’s battle, so that everyone can learn something useful. For example, we now have a lot of artillery, so there is no need for the soldiers. Holding a bayonet, braving the enemy’s intensive firepower to charge; instead, we shelled the enemy’s position before attacking, and after causing heavy casualties to the enemy, we attack again, which can reduce our casualties.”

Pavlov slapped his face and said, “Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you said so well, why didn’t we think of fighting like this before?” Hearing what he said, I just smiled and didn’t speak. You have to know This style of play is not my creation, but I learned from posts on military forums in later generations.

I lowered my head and asked Festov: “How many people do we still have?”

Felstorf frowned for a moment, then raised his head and replied: “There are more than 60 casualties who went out today, and there are currently nearly 700 people in the army.”

“Seven hundred people?!” This number shocked me again, isn’t it four hundred people during the day? There were dozens of casualties Shouldn’t there be only more than 300 people left now? I asked curiously: “Where do so many people come from?”

“I met a group on the way to the arsenal, and another group on the way back. We saw that they were all fighters with combat experience, so we put them all into the team.”

“How many weapons did you find?” I asked this question of the most concern. After all, we still have a long way to go to return to the Volokramsk area where the 316th Division was stationed.

“Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, you can’t believe it. There are so many things in that arsenal. Not only did we get rifles, submachine guns, machine guns, mortars, and even a few 45mm artillery pieces, as well as a large number of troops urgently needed. The ammunition. The weapons and ammunition we brought back can be equipped with two regiments.”

“How did you get so many weapons and ammunition?” I thought to myself that the two regiments have a lot of equipment. Even if you have seven or eight hundred people, each of you can carry two guns and a box of ammunition. how much.

Unexpectedly, his answer was beyond my expectation, “We also found dozens of sledges in the warehouse. Except for the parts carried by the soldiers, the remaining weapons and ammunition were all pulled back with sledges. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find them When it comes to horses or dogs, you can only use people to pull the sled.”

I was talking to Pavlov, and Lukin’s voice came from the door: “Comrade Commander, can you come out? There is a committee member of the Village Soviet here. She wants to talk to you about something. ”

I agreed, then I patted Pavlov’s shoulder affectionately, and said, “You continue to organize the discussion!” After that, I turned around and walked outside the door.