"That's right, Deputy Commander of the Front Army." Sokov replied truthfully: "In order to ensure the effect of air-to-ground coordination, it is completely necessary to talk directly to the pilot."

"Well," Golikov said, not making things difficult for him, but nodded and agreed to his request: "I will report this to the commander and let him inform the Air Force and establish a direct connection with your troops."

After explaining some precautions, Golikov raised his hand and looked at the watch, and said to everyone: "Comrades, it's getting late, you all go back and rest, otherwise you will be out of energy tomorrow."

Sokov quickly called Selyosha in and told him: "Shelyosha, take the deputy commander of the front army to rest."

After receiving the order, Selyosha came to Golikov and said respectfully: "Please come with me, comrade, deputy commander of the Front Army, I will take you to rest."

…………

After Sokov was awakened by the staff on duty from his sleep, he raised his hand and looked at his watch. The hour hand was just pointing at six o'clock, and there was still an hour before the artillery fire preparation before the start of the large counterattack. He sat up from the camp bed, looked at the staff on duty in front of him, and asked unhappily: "Comrade Staff, you called me up so early, is there anything wrong?"

"Comrade Commander," the staff member said with a straight body, "The observation post at the top of the hill is foggy outside?"

"It's foggy?" Sokov was shocked, and he stood up suddenly, grabbed the staff's arm, and asked nervously: "How much visibility is there?"

"According to the observation post," the staff officer replied: "When the fog first started, the visibility was more than 30 meters, and now we can only barely see five or six meters away."

"Damn, if it really fogs, it will have an adverse impact on today's major counterattack." After Sokov finished speaking, he immediately ordered the staff: "Immediately notify the Chief of Staff and the Deputy Division Commander to come to the command center."

"Does the deputy commander of the front army need to notify?" the staff officer on duty asked tentatively.

"No, no, no." Sokov called Golikov when he thought of the fog outside. It seemed a bit inappropriate, so he waved his hand to deny the staff's proposal: "Let the deputy commander sleep a little longer."

Sidolin and others were sleeping with their clothes. When they heard Sokov's greeting, they rushed over. As soon as he entered the door, they couldn't wait to ask: "Comrade Commander, you're so anxious to call us over. Is something wrong?"

When Sokov heard his question, he guessed that when the staff informed him to come to the division command, he did not tell him what had happened. He explained to him: "The observation post above us said that there was heavy fog outside."

"What, there is heavy fog outside?" As soon as he heard what Sokov said, Cidolin couldn't help frowning: "Comrade Commander, it's not a good thing to fog in the early morning of winter."

"That's right," Sokov nodded, "if the fog does not dissipate, the artillery preparations before the front army's attack will have to be postponed indefinitely until the fog completely dissipates."

When Ivanov and Anisimov came in from outside, they happened to hear the conversation between Sokov and Cydolin. Ivanov said in surprise: "What, it's foggy outside? This is too bad."

Even Anisimov, a political worker who is not familiar with the military, knew the adverse effects of heavy fog on the battle. He asked tentatively: "Since such a big fog is coming, will the original attack time be postponed?"

"This is for sure, Comrade of the Political Commissar." Cidolin frowned and answered his question: "The visibility of foggy days is low. Even if our artillery fires, we cannot see the effect of the shelling. Therefore, I think today's attack will definitely be postponed until the fog has completely dissipated."

"If our army's attack is delayed and the enemy's attack continues, can the troops in the city defend their positions?" Anisimov learned about the battle situation on the first day and couldn't help but worry: "Yesterday our army and the enemy launched a tug-of-war in many areas. If the large counterattack cannot be launched on time, I am worried that these areas may fall into the hands of the enemy."

"Comrade Political Commissar, you are too worried." Although the sudden heavy fog made Sokov feel very uneasy, in order not to hurt everyone's confidence, he still said with a tough bullet: "In such weather, our army cannot attack, and the enemy cannot carry out offensive operations. What you are worried about will not happen."

Everyone sat in the command center discussing the impact of the foggy day on offense and defense. Time passed by minute by minute, and no one noticed that Golikov, who should have appeared long ago, had not seen anyone yet.

Fortunately, Anisimov was more careful and found that Golikov was not present, so he asked curiously: "By the way, why didn't you see the deputy commander of the front army?"

"He should be still sleeping," Sokov said casually: "When the staff on duty reported to me just now, I asked not to wake up the deputy commander of the front army and let him sleep for a while."

The commanders present were basically sleep-deficient, so they understood Sokov's order very well. After a while, Anisimov asked again: "Don't we need to tell the deputy commander of the front army about the foggy outside?"

"Comrade Political Commissar, I don't think it's necessary." Cidolin interrupted and said, "He should have known the news."

As soon as Cidolin said, everyone was stunned. Sokov was the first to break the silence: "Chief of Staff, what's going on?"

"Last night, the Deputy Commander of the Front sent someone to find me, and I brought a telephone line to his room that could directly contact the Front Command." Cidolin replied: "I ordered Lieutenant Maxim to lead a telephone line to him."

Sokov was very unhappy when he heard Cidolin say this. He said unhappily: "Chief of Staff, why didn't you report such an important matter to me? You know, I am the commander of this division."

"I'm sorry, comrade of the division." Sidolin may have realized that his approach was a bit inappropriate, so he quickly apologized to Sokov and said, "I saw that you were already asleep at that time. In order to avoid disturbing your rest, I did not wake you up. I wanted to tell you today, but I had not had time to tell you this..."

"Okay, okay." Sokov knew that Sidolin had his own difficulties, so he did not go into it. He raised his hand to interrupt his words and asked back, "Chief of Staff, tell me, does the Deputy Commander of the Front Army know about the fog outside at this moment?"

"If he had contacted the Front Command, he would definitely know about this." After Sidolin said that, he stood up and walked towards the position where the communication equipment was placed. He leaned over and asked a communication soldier a few words in a low voice, then turned around and walked back to the table and reported to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, I have asked. A few minutes ago, after the Deputy Commander of the Front Commander had passed with the headquarters, he should have known about the situation outside."

"The fog in winter is the most annoying thing." Anisimov curled his lips and said, "If you are lucky, you might be able to disperse at 90 o'clock. If you are unlucky, you might be foggy all day. By then, the large counterattack that our army originally scheduled to carry out today will have to be postponed until tomorrow or later."

"Hello, comrades in command!" Just as everyone was worried about what Anisimov said, Golikov's voice suddenly came from the door: "What are you discussing?" Seeing Golikov come in, everyone in the room immediately stood up and raised their hands to salute Golikov.

Sokov waited for Golikov to come to him and reported to him: "Comrade, the deputy commander of the Front Army, you must have known that there was heavy fog outside, which may have an adverse impact on our army's military operations today."

"Yes, I just spoke to Commander Yelyemko," Golikov said in a affirmative tone: "He told me that the fog outside was too heavy and today's attack time might be delayed."

"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army," As soon as Golikov finished speaking, Anisimov said: "If our army's attack cannot be carried out on time and the enemy continues to launch an offensive in the city, will it cause the situation to worsen?"

"You're thinking too much, Comrade of the Political Commissar," said Golikov, taking out a piece of square paper from his pocket and handing it to Cidolin on the side, and saying to him: "This is the German telegram we just intercepted, Comrade Chief of Staff, please read it to everyone."

Sidolin took the paper from Golikov's hand, expanded it and quickly browsed the contents on it. After looking at a few lines, a surprise expression appeared on his face. Ivanov, who was beside him, saw Sidolin's expression, and urged him impatiently, "Comrade Chief of Staff, stop dribbling, hurry up and think about what is written on it."

Cidolin coughed softly, cleared his throat, and began to read: "This is a telegram sent to Paulus from Baron von Weix, a German Army B Group: In view of the situation on the front of the Romanian 3rd Army, we have forced us to take firm measures to quickly free up our troops to cover the flanks of the 6th Army and to ensure the safety of the railways in the Lehaya and Chil River. For this purpose, I order:

1. Immediately stop all offensive operations in Stalingrad, except for the actions of each reconnaissance team. The intelligence of these teams is essential for organizational defense.

2. The 6th Army immediately extracts two motorized corpses and one infantry division from its organization, and draws out one auxiliary motorized corps as much as possible, and attaches these troops to the 14th Tank Army Command; in addition, draws out as many anti-tanks as possible and gathers these groups in the left wing of your unit in order to carry out assaults to the northwest or westward."

When Cidolin finished his intercepted message, Golikov said, "Comrades Commander, you all heard it. Because the Romanian 3rd Army suffered a heavy blow from our army in the Don River Basin yesterday, the German commander was worried about the fate of this unit and sent such a message. As long as the enemy stops the large-scale attack in the city, even if our army's large-scale counterattack has to be postponed due to the weather, the situation will not become worse."

After listening to the telegram from Sidolinen and what Golikov said, Sokov and Ivanov both breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the enemy stopped attacking in the city, the situation would develop towards the favorable side of the Soviet army.

Although he knew that the enemy would not launch a large-scale attack in the city again, Anisimov was still a little worried. He asked again: "I want to ask, how long will our attack be delayed?"

Regarding Anisimov's question, Golikov thought for a while and replied: "Comrade Commander just told me that the preparations for artillery fire that were originally scheduled to start at 7 o'clock will be postponed to 8 o'clock. If the fog does not dissipate by then, it will be postponed to 9 o'clock. And so on until the fog completely dissipates."

"But what if the fog never dissipates today?" Anisimov continued to ask, "Will today's attack be cancelled?"

"I think this is the case, Comrade of the Political Commissar." Golikov nodded and said helplessly: "After all, in thick fog, our artillery has no idea whether the shells they fire have hit the target. In order to avoid wasting precious shells, we must wait until the fog has dissipated before we can prepare for artillery fire."

After Golikov finished speaking, the room fell into silence again. In order to ease the atmosphere, Sidorin said haha: "The attack launched by the Southwest Front and the Don Front yesterday was too far away from us, so we could neither hear the sound of gunfire nor the smoke rising from the battle. If today's battle can be started, we can hear the sound of rumbling gunfire and the smoke rising from the battlefield where we are."

"You are right, Comrade Chief of Staff." Ivanov agreed with Sidolin's statement: "Even if we can't hear the sound of cannons or smoke from gunpowder, the commanders and soldiers of the Third Battalion who were standing in the central urban area and residential area can see and hear."

After hearing Ivanov mention Captain Andre's third battalion, Sidorin turned to look at Sokov and asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, we have not informed the commanders and soldiers of the third battalion of the fight. Do you think you need to call the third battalion headquarters and tell them this good news?"

"Why, you actually have a battalion of defenders in the central and residential areas of the city?" Golikov showed a surprised expression on his face when he heard what Cidolin said: "Has they never been eliminated in the continuous attack of the enemy?"

Regarding the question raised by Golikov, Sokov nodded and explained: "The battalion has nearly a thousand troops. Because of the tactics they adopted, they are not fighting positions with the enemy, but using buildings, ruins and sewers to deal with the enemy. Therefore, in the past two months of battle, they have not only not been eliminated by the enemy, but their strength has become stronger."
Chapter completed!