Chapter 298

I followed the lieutenant, and not far away, came up to a tall, thin faced officer, whose open collar showed that he was a colonel.

The lieutenant stopped and stood at attention to salute the tall colonel. I also stopped to imitate the appearance of a lieutenant and saluted the colonel. After the ceremony, I raised my leg and tried to move on, but the lieutenant stopped me.

"Comrade major," the lieutenant pointed to the Colonel standing in front of us and said to me, "I'd like to introduce you to your new superior. This is colonel Lavrov, the director of operations. Please report to him."

I had to salute the Colonel again and report my name and rank.

"So you are major oshanina, who has just been transferred to the group army. Welcome After looking me up and down, he reached out to me. While shaking hands with me vigorously, he said: "when the combat division was established, I once proposed to the commander that there was no experienced staff. It's really great that you can come to work in the combat division."

The lieutenant saw that Colonel Lavrov and I had already known each other, saluted us and turned to leave.

Lavrov released my hand, shook his head and said, "Comrade major, come with me!" Then turn around and show me the way.

As I was about to reach the exit, I saw two stairs on the right side of the corridor. The upward stairs had been blocked by collapsed bricks. Lavrov walked straight into the downward stairs. It turned out that the combat office was underground. I thought so and followed him.

The layout of the ground floor is similar to that of the upstairs. There are rooms on both sides of the long corridor. Because the door is closed and there is no sign on the door, I can't know where the functional department is located.

The combat department is in a big room on the right side of the corridor. There are seven or eight staff officers in it. Judging from their ranks, they are either captains or lieutenants, and there are no school officers. Seeing that there is no one with a higher rank than me, I feel relieved. It seems that only Colonel Lavrov can manage me.

The staff are busy with their own work, some are answering the phone, while listening to the phone, writing down something in the book with a pen; Some of them work on the map and constantly mark the situation of the enemy and ourselves on the map according to the information provided by other staff officers. Maybe I was so busy that Colonel Lavrov and I went into the room for half a day without anyone to greet us.

Lavrov looked at his watch, then raised his voice and said, "comrades of staff, let's stop our work first. I have something to announce to you

The staff then found that there were two more people in the room. They stopped their work and stood up and looked at Lavrov. Seeing this scene, I thought that the vigilance of these staff officers was too poor. If it was not me and Colonel Lavrov, but the German assault team, they would surely be killed by the regiment.

Lavrov pointed to me and said, "this is major oshanina, who is new to our group army. From today on, she will work in our combat department. I hope you can support her more."

I straightened up to salute the staff in the room and said, "Hello, comrades! I'm major o'shanina. Please help me in the future. "

"Hello, comrade major!" Several staff officers saluted me one after another.

"Well, we all know each other. Let's continue to work." At Lavrov's command, the staff went on with their work. The captain came up to me and said, "at the end of the corridor is the dormitory. The beds on the left side of the entrance belong to the female communication soldiers. They are always on duty all night and seldom go back to rest. You can choose a berth and go back to have a good sleep when the combat office is busy."

Lavrov took me to a corner of the room, pointed to an empty table and said, "you'll work here in the future." Then he took a pile of files and piled them in front of me. He said, "these are all war reports. You should be familiar with them first."

I can't help but feel dizzy when I see the hill like folder in front of me. I know my own business best in my heart. I'm not the material to be an adviser and give advice to my superiors. After a few days in the office, I have to show off. So all along, I have been trying to avoid being a staff officer in the headquarters. Unexpectedly, I became a staff officer in the combat department.

Seeing that everyone is busy, I can't stay around doing nothing. I can only open the top folder and look at the contents.

In the combat department, except for Colonel Lavrov, I was the highest ranking officer, and the rest of the staff couldn't manage me, so everyone ignored me automatically. Every day, they are still busy answering the phone or doing homework on the map, or sorting out the latest war reports they received and sending them to feijiuningsky. And I have nothing to do but look at those hill like documents.

Through these documents, I have a general understanding of the current fighting progress of the warhoff front army.

As we all know, the formation of the volhoff front army is to cooperate with the breakout action of the Leningrad front army in order to smash the German northern army group and rescue Leningrad from the siege.

In order to achieve the purpose of this campaign, according to the operational intention of the supreme command, the warhoff front army, with its troops in the center of the front line, broke through the German defense on the West Bank of the warhoff River, annihilated the enemy's rear area on the West Bank, and developed the attack with the main force along the direction of qiudovo liuban. Then it made a further assault to the northwest, cooperated with the 54th group army of Leningrad's front army which attacked from east to west, isolated and eliminated the German group army which went out to Lake Ladoga. At the same time, the left wing forces of the volhoff front army, together with the 11th group army of the northwest front army, attacked in the direction of old Rusa, DeNO and solze, and then cut off the enemy's retreat from the direction of Novgorod and Luga. Once this was achieved, the German northern army group that besieged Leningrad could be smashed.

Although I can understand the map now, it is still very difficult to find out the place names mentioned in the circular. Fortunately, with the help of an enthusiastic captain, I was able to understand the operational intention of the headquarters according to the map.

The idea is good, but it's not so easy to realize. Because in the area of attack, the German army deployed more than ten divisions belonging to general Linderman's 18th army. Faced with such a hard bone, what the Soviet Army lacked was a pair of good teeth. From December 17, 1941, the 4th and 52nd army of the Volkhov front army turned to attack. However, due to the shortage of troops and the lack of proper rest, the attack had little effect. After a great sacrifice, he only won three small landing sites on the West Bank of the volhof river. Due to the heavy bombardment and powerful artillery firepower of the German planes, the Soviet Army's attempts to further expand the landing site failed.

Seeing that the progress of the Soviet army was not good at the beginning of the attack, general sumeletskov, commander of the front army, wanted to stop the attack and gather strength so as to make a decisive assault after the arrival of the new group army. However, the supreme command, which was eager to break the siege of Leningrad, repeatedly demanded that meleletskov launch the attack without stopping, Urge to start as soon as possible with all forces to break through the warhof River campaign. However, by the end of December, the 26th and 59th army groups, which were originally assigned to the warhoff front army, had not been deployed.

By January 7, 1942, the day when the supreme command was due to attack, the front army of warhoff was still not ready. As one of the new forces, the 59th group army has only five undermanned divisions in place, and three new divisions are on the way. At this time, the 26th group army has been reorganized into the assault 2nd group army, which is specialized in breaking through the enemy's defense. Only half of the army, which will play an important role in the upcoming campaign, has entered the attack starting position. In addition, due to the unfavourable logistics organization, the lack of vehicles and the long distance, the speed of transportation and forward delivery of ammunition, materials and technical equipment, grain and fodder is very slow. Although the preparatory work before the launch of the campaign has not yet been completed, the starting time of the campaign issued by the base camp can not be changed. As a result, meletskov was forced to order some of the troops of the front army of volhoff to turn to attack.

In three consecutive days of fighting, although the soldiers of the front army showed extraordinary bravery and tenacity, in front of the fierce German firepower, the attacking troops were repeatedly pressed back to their starting positions.

According to intelligence, before that, due to the continuous attacks of the 4th and 52nd army groups, the German northern army group headquarters and the 18th army group headquarters, which were defending here, had already paid more attention and vigilance to the Soviet troops on the East Bank of the volhoff River, and had transferred new troops to this direction and strengthened their defense, So the German resistance was prepared and strengthened day by day. In view of this situation, the military committee of the front army of warholf thinks that it is necessary to suspend the attack and regroup forces. Fortunately, the headquarters in Moscow also saw this, so when meletzkov reported directly to Stalin, Stalin allowed the time to be postponed for another three days, that is, to launch another attack on January 13.

On January 13, after a short period of artillery preparation, the first echelon of the four groups of warhoff front army turned to attack. For the first three days, the troops of the front army spent repeated attacks on the German first defensive zone. Except for crossing the volhof River in some areas and seizing several settlements along the bank, the offensive troops did not advance in depth. Starting from the 15th, the 2nd group army was attacked, and the 52nd group army put the 2nd echelon into combat. The attack of the volhoff front army finally improved, the German first defense zone was broken through, and the troops advanced 5 to 10 kilometers. However, the further the advance, the fiercer the German resistance, and the greater the loss of the Soviet army. Almost every kilometer, a regimental unit was disabled or disappeared from the organizational system.

After several raids, the second group army finally broke through the enemy's defense in spaska, apolis and miasnoypol. Taking advantage of this favorable opportunity, general meletskov decided to transfer all the forces of the front army to the above-mentioned areas, and thus to attack liuban.

The headquarters of the volhoff front army redeployed the 52nd, 59th and assault 2nd army units, focusing on the direction of spaska apolis and miasnoibol. The second group army was in the middle of the attack and carried out the attack on the front 15 kilometers wide. On its right is the 59th group army, which forms another assault group with its left wing forces to assist in the assault of the 2nd group army. The 52nd group army is on the left, and its task is to develop this breakthrough after the breakthrough of the above two groups.

The breakthrough of volhoff's front army started smoothly. After the breakthrough of miasnoyipol, the headquarters of the front army put the newly formed 13th cavalry army into the breakthrough, and ordered the assault 2nd group army to follow the cavalry army into the breakthrough; They also ordered the 59th and 52nd group armies to expand their breakthrough points to both sides with one part each. Within five days, the cavalry troops and the troops of the second group army, who entered the breach, penetrated 40 kilometers and cut off the railway from Leningrad to Novgorod.

However, when the Soviet Army turned to liuban in the northeast, it met the fierce resistance of the German army who was waiting for work. In the battle, it not only consumed a lot of technical equipment and ammunition, but also forced the Soviet army to move back from the West. Under the climatic conditions at that time, the implementation of large-scale detour in the snow covered wasteland and forest swamp areas not only exhausted the troops, but also lengthened the transportation lines of the supply troops, and often interrupted the supply of ammunition and fodder. What is more serious is that the German forces on both sides of the breach are desperately trying to close it again and cut off the transport line for the Soviet army to survive and fight in the enemy occupied area. Therefore, the success of the liuban campaign depends to a large extent on whether the breakthrough can be maintained and whether various material support can be provided to the front forces in time through the breakthrough.

By the beginning of March, the second group army and other units had gone into the enemy occupied area alone, 70-75 kilometers deep, and advanced to the honggorka area, 15 kilometers west of liuban. At this time, the 54th group army of Leningrad's front army, under the command of general fejiuninsky, the 310 division of major general zamirovsky and the Navy brigade composed of the Baltic Fleet attacked liuban from the north of kirib, and only 30 kilometers away from the second group army was it blocked by the solid fortifications and powerful forces of the German army. Seeing that the German army in liuban was facing the great threat of being surrounded and annihilated, trohiller, who took over Leibu as the commander of the northern group army, quickly transferred three infantry divisions from Leningrad and kirich directions to attack honggorka from the East and west directions, and surrounded the Soviet troops in honggorka. Under such circumstances, the troops of the front army of warholf could not move forward any more, so they had to turn around and break through the encirclement. After several days of hard fighting, the task of seizing liuban was obviously unable to be completed. Almost at the same time, the 54th army's attack on liuban was also stopped by the German army and forced to turn to defense. After withdrawing from honggorka, the troops of the second group army had no power to attack liuban any more, so they had to stand by in a large forest and swamp area between the chudovo Novgorod railway and the Leningrad Novgorod railway. What's the next step of the assault on the 2nd group army? At that time, the military committee of the front army put forward three plans for the headquarters to decide. First, request the base camp to strengthen the front army, even if only one group army, so as to break through the area occupied by the second group army and then attack liuban before the beginning of the muddy season in spring; Second, withdraw the second shock group army to the south of the chudovo Novgorod railway to ensure the safety of the group army and the landing site on the West Bank of the volhof river; The last plan is to let the group army stick to the occupied area and build up its strength after the muddy season. After repeated discussions, the Supreme Command chose the first plan, because Stalin believed that the advantage of this plan was that it could have a direct impact on the improvement of Lenin's situation. If the new impact could succeed, the blockade of Leningrad could be lifted. Stalin ordered the headquarters of the volhoff front army to set up an assault group composed of five infantry divisions, one cavalry division and four infantry brigades. After strengthening with tanks, artillery and air force, the assault was carried out again in the direction of liuban. At the same time, the 59th army, which guards the right flank of the breach between spaskaya politi and miasnoyipol, is ordered to attack the northwest direction of chudovo. In order to strengthen the command of the army, Stalin sent his trusted general, lieutenant general Vlasov, to be the deputy commander of the army and the commander of the second shock group army. He hoped that Vlasov could command the army to inflict heavy damage on the German army in the liuban area, so as to achieve the goal of extricating Leningrad. After reading these thick materials, I have a better understanding of the current situation of the enemy and ourselves. However, the more I know about it, the more I feel uneasy. Although there are two Soviet front armies in Leningrad, according to the analysis of various data, it is an unfinished task to break through the German encirclement in a short time.