Of course, the "absolute" stated by Major Mikhailvich did not hold water, because ten minutes later Major Mikhailvich went to the Ministry of Internal Affairs...... He went to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to request that at least the 82nd Infantry Regiment "maintain order" in the port, and that the deserters be handed over to the 82nd Infantry Regiment.

This request was simply granted.

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 also entered an extraordinary period of shortage of soldiers, and the use of these deserters could be regarded as a solution to the problem for the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The 82nd Infantry Regiment remained in the port for two days.

In two days, more than 200 deserters were housed...... The deserters were mostly military men, a few were workers.

Workers are defined as "deserters" because there are certain workers who are not allowed to leave Stalingrad, such as metallurgical factories and tractor factories.

Major Mikhailvich did not want to accept these workers, but the officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs asked: "Why not?" Are you worried that they will not be able to fight? ”

"Of course!" Major Mikhailvich replied: "They can't even pull the bolt!" ”

This is an exaggeration, but in fact the workers are engaged in military training in their spare time, and it is impossible to have a situation where they cannot pull the bolt of the gun.

"But what's the difference?" The officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs asked rhetorically: "All you need is a 'correctional battalion', don't you?" ”

Major Mikhailvich was speechless, and of course he did not dare to answer that there was an arrogant deputy commander in the regiment who thought that he could suppress these "deserters" and lead them into normal battles.

So in the end, none of them fell, 215 people, the size of a reinforced company, and the company commander was, of course, Sokolov.

"I have to warn you, Shulka!" When Mikhailvich handed the list to Shulka, he said: "We probably don't have time to train them at all, you know why!" ”

Shulka nodded.

Of course, he knew why, the fighting at Stalingrad was tight, and the 82nd Infantry Regiment only returned to the second line to rest for a few days, and soon it would soon be sent to the battlefield again.

That is, that "company of deserters" will follow the troops to the front line without any training.

"What can we expect from them?" Major Mikhailvich said: "That's a company of deserters!" ”

"Comrade Mikhailvich!" Shulka replied: "Not so long ago, the 82nd Infantry Regiment was the same!" ”

Major Mikhailvich was speechless for a moment.

After a moment of silence, Major Mikhailvich asked: "Comrade Shulka, I just want to know why you believe that they will not 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 it is also what they need the most!" ”

That's exactly what Shulka did.

Sokolov's company was incorporated into Valery's 1st battalion by Shulka, which became the fifth company of the battalion.

During this time, Valery also protested against this.

"Comrade Captain!" Valery said: "I thought they should be separated and replenished into the various units!" ”

"Tell me your reasons!" Shulka said.

"Then we can make better use of them and monitor them!" Valery replied: "If they were put together and given equipment, they would probably ......"

Valery didn't go on any further.

But Shulka knew what Valery meant, and he feared that it would be difficult to control if he didn't break it up.

"Don't worry, Comrade Valery!" Shulka said: "It doesn't need any control and supervision, you just need to assign them combat missions normally!" ”

"But ......"

"No, Valery! That's an order! Shulka accentuated: "At the same time, I emphasize once again that you, as a battalion commander, should be assigned combat missions 'normally', just like other troops, understand?" ”

"Yes, Comrade Captain!" Valery reluctantly stepped forward.

One headache is the issue of resupply.

The supply was divided into two aspects, one was to equip the other with food.

The main problem of food is the "deserter" food halved according to the normal ration.

According to the above, these "deserters" are all going to be sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder anyway, so what does it make if they are full or hungry?

What's more, giving these traitors so much food is a complete waste, and it is right to leave precious food for the heroes who are fighting on the front line.

As a result, Sokolov was supposed to be allocated only half a loaf of bread a day, which only ensured that they would not starve to death for a few days.

Shulka solved the problem on the principle of equal distribution, having the other fighters of the 82nd Infantry Regiment tear small pieces of bread from their own rations and make a bucket and send them to the Sokolov Company.

"What is this?" Sokolov looked at the bread cubes and asked Shulka suspiciously.

"I promised you that I would treat you like ordinary soldiers!" Shulka replied, "At least in my troops, in that case, you should be fed the same as everyone else!" ”

"You don't need to do this, Comrade Shulka!" Sokolov replied: "I believe you ......"

Shulka laughed: "If you don't even have less food than others, then what else can you trust me?" ”

Sokolov was silent, then nodded heavily and took the bucket of crumbled bread.

"I see, Comrade Shulka!" Sokolov said: "We are an ordinary army, so this is what we deserve!" ”

"Yes!" Shulka patted Sokolov on the shoulder.

A normal infantry company should be equipped with machine guns, mortars, submachine guns and other weapons, but the only thing that the superior can assign to the "deserter" is a rifle, and there are only two magazines of 10 rounds.

On the one hand, this is because the "punishment battalions" are often just cannon fodder, they only need to rush forward against enemy fire and bullets, step on mines or lay barbed wire with corpses, so they don't need much ammunition.

On the other hand, there is a fear that the "deserters" will rebel.

Shulka's practice was to give each of them an ammunition base at the normal amount of ammunition, plus four grenades.

As for heavy equipment such as machine guns......

"You should equip yourselves on the battlefield!" Shulka said: "Is there a problem with getting it from the enemy or from a dead comrade? ”

"No, there is no problem, Comrade Shulka!" Sokolov replied.

He knew that equipment could not be distributed evenly like bread, because the military quality of the fifth company could not keep up.

Therefore, this kind of deliberate distribution, which is detrimental to the combat effectiveness of the whole army, is abnormal.