Chapter 561: distribute
This request was simply agreed.
Because this was originally in line with the original intention of the Soviet Army to establish a "punishment battalion". On the other hand, the battle in Stalingrad has also entered an extraordinary period of shortage of soldiers. Being able to use these deserters can be regarded as solving a problem for the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The 82nd Infantry stayed in port for two days.
In two days, more than 200 deserters were taken in... Most of the deserters were soldiers, and a few were workers.
The reason why workers are defined as "deserters" is because some workers are not allowed to leave Stalingrad, such as metallurgical factories and tractor factories.
Major Mikhailvich originally did not want to accept these workers, but the officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs raised a question: "Why not? Are you worried that they will not be able to fight?"
"Of course!" Major Mikhailevich replied: "They can't even pull the bolt!"
This is an exaggeration. In fact, workers are doing military training in their spare time, and it is impossible for them to fail to pull the bolt.
"But what's the difference?" The officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs asked back: "What you need is a 'punishment battalion', isn't it?"
Major Mikhailvich couldn't help being speechless. Of course he didn't dare to answer that there was an arrogant deputy commander in the regiment who thought he could suppress these "deserters" and lead them into normal battles.
So in the end, none of them were left behind, 215 people, the size of a reinforced company, and the company commander was of course Sokolov.
"I have to remind you, Shulka!" Mikhailvich handed the list in front of Shulka, and said: "We may not have time to train them at all, and you know why!"
Shulka nodded.
Of course he knew the reason. The battle in Stalingrad was tight, and the 82nd Infantry Regiment only returned to the second line to rest for a few days, and would soon be sent to the battlefield again.
That is to say, the "deserter company" will go to the front line with the troops without receiving any training.
"What kind of performance can we expect from them?" Major Mikhailvich said: "That is a company composed of deserters!"
"Comrade Mikhailvich!" Shulka replied: "It was the same with the 82nd Infantry Regiment not long ago!"
Major Mikhailvich was at a loss for words for a moment.
After a moment of silence, Major Mikhailvich asked: "Comrade Shulka, I just want to know why you believe they won't run away again!"
"Dignity, Comrade Mikhailvich!" Shulka replied: "Dignity!"
"Dignity?"
"Yes, dignity!" Shulka nodded: "This is the only thing I can give them, but I believe this is what they need most!"
Shulka did exactly that.
The company of Sokolov was incorporated into the first battalion of Valery by Shulka and became the fifth company of the battalion.
During this period, Valery also protested this.
"Comrade Captain!" Valery said, "I thought they should be added to each unit separately!"
"Tell me your reasons!" said Shulka.
"Then we can better use and supervise them!" Valery replied: "If we compile them together and send them equipment, they are likely to..."
Valerie didn't continue talking about the next words.
But Shulka knew what Valery meant, and he was worried that it would be difficult to control if it was not broken up.
"Don't worry, Comrade Valery!" Shulka said: "It doesn't need any control or supervision, you just need to assign them normal combat tasks!"
"But…"
"No, but, Valery! This is an order!" Shulka emphasized his tone: "At the same time, I emphasize again, as the battalion commander, you should assign combat tasks 'normally', just like other troops, understand?"
"Yes, Comrade Captain!" Valery stood up helplessly and agreed.
One headache is the supply problem.
Supply is divided into two aspects, one is equipment and the other is food.
The food problem is mainly that the normal ration of food for "deserters" is halved.
According to the above statement, these "deserters" are going to be sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder anyway, so what difference does it make if they are full or hungry?
What's more, it is a waste to give these traitors so much food, and it is right to leave precious food to the heroes fighting on the front line.
So, Sokolov was originally allocated only half a piece of bread a day, which could only ensure that they would not starve to death within a few days.
Shuerka used the principle of equal distribution to solve this problem, and asked other soldiers of the 82nd Infantry Regiment to tear a small piece of bread from their own rations to make a bucket, and then sent it to Sokolov Company.
"What is this?" Sokolov looked at the bread pieces and asked Shulka suspiciously.
"I promised you that I will treat you as ordinary soldiers!" Shulka replied: "At least in my army, if this is the case, you should get the same food as everyone else!"
"You don't need to do this, Comrade Shulka!" Sokolov replied: "I believe you..."
Shulka laughed: "If you even have less food than others, then why can you trust me?"
Sokolov was silent for a while, then nodded heavily and took the bucket of broken bread.
"I see, Comrade Shulka!" Sokolov said: "We are an ordinary army, so we deserve it!"
"Yes!" Shulka patted Sokolov on the shoulder.
There is no way to solve the problem of equipment. A normal infantry company should be equipped with machine guns, mortars, submachine guns and other weapons, but the superiors can only allocate one rifle to the "deserters", and there are only two bullets. Holds 10 bullets.
On the one hand, the "punishment battalion" is often just cannon fodder. They only need to rush forward against the enemy's artillery fire and bullets, step on mines or lay barbed wire with corpses, so they don't need too much ammunition.
On the other hand, they are worried that the "deserters" will rebel.
Shuerka's method is to give each of them an ammunition base according to the normal amount of ammunition, plus 4 additional grenades.
As for heavy equipment such as machine guns...
"You should go to the battlefield to equip yourself!" Shulka said: "Is there a problem with getting it from the enemy or a dead comrade?"
"No, no problem, Comrade Shulka!" Sokolov replied.
He knows that equipment cannot be distributed equally like bread, because the fifth company's military quality can't keep up.
Therefore, this kind of deliberate distribution that damages the combat effectiveness of the entire army is abnormal.
(end of this chapter)