The battalions are asking for fire.

The action of the novel "Battalions Ask for Fire" by Yuri Bondarev (1924 - 2020) unfolds in Ukraine in 1943. Two battalions of the 85th Rifle Regiment are tasked with crossing the Dnieper River, establishing a bridgehead near the village of Novomykhailivka for the subsequent advance of the division. The battalions were given orders: after fortifying the bridgehead and engaging in combat, they were to signal the division with "requesting fire," after which all divisional artillery was to strike the enemy. However, during the offensive, the army commander orders the divisional artillery to be redirected to another direction, while instructing the battalions to "hold on to the death with their own firepower." In vain did the battalions, engaging in an unequal battle deep in German territory, ask for fire! Was the command that doomed people to certain death a mistake or a military maneuver bringing closer the great victory? For older high school students.