Just then, a communications officer came running over with a message: "Telegraph from Armored Cluster Command."
Randolph took the telegraph, glanced at it, and handed it to the chief of staff.
The chief of staff read it out: "The siege task of Bogdanovka has now been transferred to the infantry units of the Sixth Army Group. Our cluster will carry out repairs here for one day before advancing. Your unit should strive to capture Loktov by dawn tomorrow.
"We believe there are at most two brigades of infantry troops there."
After the chief of staff finished reading, Major General Randolph asked, "The shell fragments we found yesterday, they were 203mm, weren't they?"
"Yes, General."
"Two brigades of infantry with 203? That's artillery from an Army Group!"
The staff officers remained silent.
After pondering for a while, Major General Randolph said: "Did the artillery observers see many mines detonated by the big guns?"
"Very few."
