Chapter 432

A telephone beside me rang. Because it was so close, I picked up the phone and said politely, "Hello! This is the 62nd army command. "

The other side was silent for a moment, and then came a familiar voice: "are you major oshanina?"

When I heard that the other party called me major, I was stunned. I thought that this person should be someone I knew, because he only heard my voice and said my name correctly. I answered somewhat unexpectedly, "yes, comrade commander, I'm o'shanina. Who is calling, please

"I'm vasilevsky. I have something urgent to ask for general kolpakchi. Is he in the headquarters?"

It turned out that the caller was general vasilevsky, chief of the general staff. He and I met at the headquarters of meletskov long before the start of the battle of sinavino. No wonder he could accurately name me. I quickly straightened up and said respectfully, "Hello, chief of general staff. The commander of the group army is in the headquarters at the moment. Please wait a moment. I'll ask him to answer the phone

After that, I covered the receiver and called kolpakchi, who was talking to shamikov: "Comrade commander, your phone."

Korpakchi stopped talking with shamikov, walked up to me, took the phone, and habitually asked, "Comrade commander, who's calling?"

I quickly lowered my voice and said, "the call is from the chief of general staff."

"Chief of staff?" Korpakchi raised his eyebrows and asked uncertainly, "it's a call from vasilevsky."

"Yes, comrade commander. It's general vasilevsky, chief of the general staff

Maybe I was surprised that I was so familiar with the name and rank of the chief of general staff. Before putting the microphone to my ear, kolpakchi looked at me strangely. Then he said to the microphone with a smile: "Hello! Dear Alexander Mikhailovich Commanders of such age as vasilevsky and general korpakchi were close comrades in arms, so they used to use their father's name and their real name“ I just learned this morning that you are going to work in the front army of Stalingrad. I didn't expect you to arrive so soon. "

"It's a tough situation, general korpakchi." He did not expect that vasilevsky would be polite to him, so he said frankly: "the Supreme Commander himself asked me to tell you that the enemy's purpose of taking Stalingrad as the target of attack is not only to seize the rich food, fuel and other industrial resources in the region, but also to have their sinister political purpose. After conquering the city named after the supreme commander, they tried to use their propaganda tools to exaggerate the image of our country's failure, and publicize such myths as "the Soviet Union is vulnerable and will soon be occupied" and "the German army is invincible", so as to serve as cannon fodder for their war for a long time, Now, the soldiers of Germany and its servant countries, who are gradually tired of war, are emboldened to let this evil war continue

It was not easy to wait until vasilevsky fell behind in his speech. Kolpacki interrupted and said, "Comrade chief of general staff, the troops assigned to us from the base camp have not entered the designated position. We do not have enough strength to fight back against the enemy."

"I know that, comrade kolpakchi." Vasilevsky said politely: "no one has talked about that the German will suddenly choose Stalingrad as a new attack target. The supreme command has incorporated almost all the troops in the reserve forces of the base camp into Stalingrad's front army, and it will take time to deploy these new regiments to the designated areas. As you know, the transportation of troops, especially heavy equipment, can only be completed by railway. At present, many troops have just finished boarding, and it will take them a few days to reach the designated assembly area. "

Korpakchi understood that vasilevsky did not make this call to talk about the past with him. There must be some important tasks assigned to him, so he did not beat around the Bush and asked directly: "Comrade chief of general staff, are you calling at this time? Do you have any tasks to assign to the 62nd Army?"

"Yes, for us now, time is precious. If this period of time is delayed or missed, the fierce enemy may break through our line of defense, cross the Don River and build a firm position on the right bank of the river. At that time, it will not be so easy for us to drive the enemy away from our positions. "

"Comrade chief of the general staff, I would like to ask, I don't know what kind of troops the headquarters of the front army can supply to our group army?"

"At present, the base camp has no reserves available in this area, except for the tank 1st and 4th Army which are not yet ready. After my discussion with general gordov, I think the only thing we can do now is to use these two tank armies that are being formed. However, I just got in touch with the commanders of the two army groups and learned that it will take at least two days and nights for the tank 4th Army Group to arrive at the location of you and trakov. However, the current situation on the front line does not allow us to wait so long. I decided to let the first group army of tanks rush to the Koska River defense line overnight. Tomorrow morning, your group army will cooperate with the tank troops to carry out anti assault. But... "At this point, vasilevsky stopped and seemed to be hesitant about something.

"But what? Chief of the general staff, what are you worried about? "“ I am worried about whether the bridge on the Koska River can bear the weight of heavy tanks and let the tank army pass safely. I suggest that you immediately let the engineers and Zhouqiao battalion set up a floating bridge on the river so that the tank troops can pass through After hearing what vasilevsky said, kolpakchi laughed and said, "chief of general staff, please rest assured that I have already ordered Zhouqiao battalion to build three floating bridges on the river, and ordered them to have at least one heavy technical equipment that can pass tanks. At present, the floating bridge has been erected, so there is no problem for the first group army of tanks to cross the Koska river safely." Vasilevsky was stunned for a moment, and then he laughed happily: "general korpakchi, it seems that you are quite prescient. You actually built a floating bridge on the river ahead of time. It seems that tomorrow's counterattack will not be easy without victory. In that case, I wish you good luck in advance. Remember, when the commander of the 1st group army of tanks comes to you, give me a call If kolpakchi didn't talk about the floating bridge to vasilevsky, I would have forgotten hearing him give orders to Zhouqiao battalion, but I don't think he had any foresight to build a passable bridge for a tank army that is still under construction on the river. I guess that the reason why he wanted to build a floating bridge may be to provide an escape route for the group army when the war situation is unfavorable. After seeing korpakchi's phone call, gurov, with a happy look on his face, immediately asked, "Comrade commander, what did the chief of general staff say on the phone?" "Comrades of the military commissar, it's good news. Comrade vasilevsky told me that he would immediately send the newly formed 1st tank group army to strengthen us, and that he planned to carry out anti assault against the German army in the defensive zone of our group army tomorrow. " After hearing this, gurov clapped the table excitedly and said in a loud voice, "great, with the support of the tank group army, we will surely be able to make those invincible Germans run away in a panic." At this point, he turned his head and looked at shamikov standing beside him, and said, "Comrade captain, what are you still doing here? Call several division commanders immediately and ask them to rush to the headquarters immediately for a meeting." After two steps, shamikov stopped and asked, "comrades of the military commissar, I don't know which division commander to inform?" Kolpakchi thought for a moment and said, "Colonel farnasiyev of the 33rd division, major general walshin of the 147th division, major general Novikov of the 181st division, Colonel koida of the 184th division, and lieutenant commander tarantsov of the 192nd division. Just call these five commanders first and ask them to put down their work and come to the headquarters for a meeting immediately. "