After the adjustment, the women's antiaircraft artillery company still maintains the original three-three structure. The company had three platoons, each with three squads, one of which was a male squad.

When Kirianova and Orlova returned for lunch at noon, they unanimously praised the men for their hard work, and quickly learned how to use anti-aircraft guns, and by the time they left, many of them were already able to operate anti-aircraft guns decently.

After lunch, I asked the two of us to inform all the female warriors to stay in the tent and rest in the afternoon. After explaining my arrangements, I put on my military coat and went to the air defense position alone to see with my own eyes how the training results of the male soldiers were.

The female soldiers went back to their tents for lunch like Kirianova and the others, and only the male fighters who were training hard were left in the air defense positions.

Lieutenant Ugad, who was sitting on an empty ammunition box next to the gun emplacement, smoked, saw me coming, hurriedly threw away the cigarette butt, stood up and shouted the command: "All of them, stand upright!" ”

With his loud command, the men stopped their training, jumped off their guns, and after standing firm on the ice, they stood in place and saluted us.

Ugad walked in front of him, saluted and reported: "Comrade Major! The deputy commander of the women's anti-aircraft artillery company, Lieutenant Ugad, reports to you that the male soldiers are undergoing training, please instruct! As he spoke, there was a hint of embarrassment on his face.

I understood why he had such an expression, and if he changed the male commander to serve as a deputy in the female soldier unit, he would inevitably have this complicated psychology, so I couldn't help but smile and return the salute, and asked with concern: "Have the male soldiers had lunch?" ”

Ugad looked at the male soldiers who were standing up straight, and replied, "Not yet, I plan to wait for the female soldiers to come back and then let them go to lunch." ”

"Let's arrange for the fighters to take turns for lunch." I instructed Ugad, "It is too cold, so I told the female soldiers to rest in their tents in the afternoon, and they would not show up without the battle alarm." Let the warriors go now, don't go hungry. ”

"Yes." Ugad agreed, and then began to give orders to his men: "Listen to my orders, stand upright. Everyone took turns to have lunch, and now the fighters in the first row went first, and the rest of the fighters continued to train. ”

When the fighters of the platoon left in neat sections, Ugad asked: "Comrade Major, is the training still going on?" ”

"Of course, it goes without saying." I quickly replied, "Please continue." ”

With Lieutenant Ugad's command, the male soldiers were again engaged in intense training.

After watching the training of the male soldiers for a while, I turned around and was about to leave, but I saw Ensign Yelena coming. I walked over to her and asked with some surprise, "Second Lieutenant Yelena, what are you doing in the gun emplacement?" ”

Yelena seemed to have been carefully dressed up and put on lipstick, and when she heard me ask, she looked a little embarrassed, and asked embarrassedly: "I'm afraid that the male soldiers are not familiar with the technical equipment, so I came here to see if there is anything I need help with." ”

Help?! Looking at her eyebrows, I said in my heart, you lied to me as a child, and you actually used such a far-fetched reason to perfunctory me. Turning his head to look at the men, he saw Lieutenant Ugad looking at us, his eyes lit up, and as soon as he saw me notice him, he immediately turned his head to the side.

I muttered in my heart, the speed of development of this female ensign and male lieutenant is too fast, I have only known each other for a long time, and I actually looked at the mung beans in the eyes.

"Oh, I see." I deliberately said in an official tone: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, you go and instruct them." Seeing that the corners of her mouth turned up slightly, she hurriedly added: "It's cold outside, go back to the tent early when you're done." ”

In the next two days, the results of the men's training were tested in actual combat. In the next few air raids by German aircraft, one enemy aircraft was shot down and one enemy plane was damaged.

Just as I was rejoicing at this result, Orlova poured cold water on me, saying that now the female and male soldiers in the company are in a fight, except for training and fighting, they just stay in the tent to chat, sing or recite poems, and if this continues, it is easy to have an accident.

Kirianova has been staying in the tent most of the time recently because of her injury, and she doesn't understand a lot of things, and when she heard Orlova say this, she asked in disbelief: "Really?" Comrade instructor, are you sure there is no mistake? ”

"You can't go wrong!" Orlova replied in an affirmative tone: "This is what I have seen with my own eyes, especially Second Lieutenant Yelena and Lieutenant Ugad, even in the artillery position, in front of the soldiers, dare to talk to me and me, and do not shy away from suspicion at all, if this development continues, something big will happen sooner or later." ”

I very much agree with Orlova's statement, a group of strong-blooded male and female soldiers are mixed all day long, and they are indeed prone to accidents, so it is necessary to get vaccinated in advance. So he said to Kirianova: "Gather the company of female soldiers at once, and I will give you a speech." ”

Five minutes later, the team was assembled.

I led Kirianova, Orlova, and Ugad to the front of the neatly lined line, and the warriors straightened up and saluted us.

I stood at the front of the line, coughed and said, "Comrades soldiers, there are a few things to announce when we gather you today. We put on our military uniforms and came from Leningrad to this ice transport line, to defend this lifeline under our feet, not to come here to talk about love. Saying this, I glared fiercely at Yelena in the queue. When she saw me glaring at her, she couldn't help blushing and bowing her head slightly. I went on to say, "You are still young, and you have a long time to come, and there is time to fall in love. What you have to do now is to use all the energy you have spent on training and fighting. Did you hear me clearly? ”

"Hear me clearly!" The queue rang out with the sound of an answer.

"The voice is too low for me to hear clearly."

"Hear me clearly!" This time, the answer was neat and the voice was exceptionally loud.

"Okay," I was satisfied with the answer, so I continued, "Now that everyone understands what I mean, I'll assign you a new task." ”

"New mission?" There was a small commotion in the queue, and everyone looked left and right, muttering quietly.

"Stand upright!" Kirianova shouted the command loudly.

At the sound of her command, the cacophony of voices in the ranks immediately died down, and the warriors stood straight again.

"Please take a break!" I raised my voice and said: "From today onwards, the women's antiaircraft artillery company will add a new training subject: using antiaircraft guns to shoot tanks. Alright, everyone is in place, disbanded! ”

"Comrade Major," said Lieutenant Ugad as soon as the team was disbanded, and reminded me in a low voice, "we are anti-aircraft artillery, and our main task is to be responsible for air defense. ”

I frowned and said in a dissatisfied tone: "When the anti-tank force is insufficient, anti-aircraft artillery can also be used to fight tanks." "The reason why he was dissatisfied with him was not because he interjected, but because in the encounter with the German patrol some time ago, it was the anti-aircraft machine gun that was fired flat, which decided the outcome of the battle. And as a participant at that time, he didn't know how to draw inferences, anti-aircraft machine guns can hit armored vehicles, anti-aircraft guns can't hit tanks?

"But the ammunition used in anti-aircraft guns is not suitable for tanks, so special armor-piercing shells are needed."

"Comrade Lieutenant," I said in an accentuated tone, "according to the regulations, the orders of the higher authorities are not allowed to be discussed, so you should immediately carry them out according to my arrangement." ”

"Yes!" Ugad reluctantly agreed, raised his hand in salute, and turned to leave.