Chapter 962

After learning the general situation of Alexandria from swilling, I asked wittkov, "Comrade chief of staff, what's the situation here? Has the German army ever launched an attack?"

"Report to the commander," vetkov respectfully reported, "the enemy only sent out small troops to attack the front of our army. As long as our troops fire back and strike back, they will immediately withdraw their starting point. "

"How are the enemy forces deployed near kilovgrad?" For his answer, he did not say yes or no, but then asked, "is it equipped with tanks and artillery?"

I asked wittkov this question at once. It took a long time for him to reply, "Comrade commander, since the 22nd division of the guards has been building fortifications in the city and has not been able to send reconnaissance troops in time, we are not very clear about the German situation near the city."

"General bantailiev's troops can't send out scouts. Can't our army directly send out scouts?" I was not satisfied with wittkov's answer, so I immediately told him: "call captain travkin immediately, and let him immediately arrange for reconnaissance. We must make clear the enemy's forces and deployment, so that we can make the next combat plan. Do you understand? "

"I understand." Vetkov agreed steadily. Then he went to the table, picked up the phone, dialed a number, and said to the phone, "Hello, reconnaissance camp? I'm chief of staff, Colonel witkov. Is your deputy battalion commander, Captain travkin in? Let him come to the army headquarters immediately. The commander has a task to give him. "

When witkov put down the phone and came over, I said to him with all my heart and soul: "Comrade chief of staff, we are now behind the enemy. We need to fight not only offensive but also defensive. In the course of city defense, we should not only defend for the sake of defense, but also take active defense and counterattack against the enemy at the right time. If we can't figure out the enemy's deployment of forces and weapons, how can we fight back? "

"Comrade commander, I'm wrong." After listening to my criticism, wittkov immediately admitted his mistake to me and said, "in the future, when the troops arrive in a new area, I will immediately arrange people to carry out reconnaissance and find out the enemy's reality."

"That's right, comrade chief of staff." As soon as I finished praising him and wanted to say a few more words, I saw that trav Jinxing hurried into the headquarters, left vetkov behind and went to the deputy commander of the reconnaissance battalion: "Captain, you're here."

"Comrades commander," hearing my voice, travkin quickly straightened up and reported to me, "Captain travkin has been ordered to come and wait for your orders, please give me instructions!"

"Captain, I'll ask you." Instead of giving him a direct assignment, I asked, "how many people are there in the reconnaissance battalion?"

"There are 195, including commanders."

"195 people, the number is a little less." Although the figures given by travkin are far lower than what I expected, I don't mean to blame him at all. After all, in recent battles, the guard battalion and the reconnaissance battalion in the army have been used as ordinary troops for many times, so it's inevitable that casualties will be reduced. But with nearly 200 people, it's not difficult to fulfill my orders, I then said, "I want you to send scouts immediately to scout the German defense areas around the city and quickly report back the latest situation."

My order surprised travkin. When I finished, he asked carefully, "Comrade commander, will you send a reconnaissance team now? You know, as soon as you leave the city, there will be a vast plain outside. Every move we make will fall into the eyes of the Germans. "

My intention was to get them to set out immediately to spy on the enemy. Hearing this, he knew that he was a little too hasty, so he sighed and said to him, "in that case, you should organize the reconnaissance units first, and then send them in batches after dark."

"Does the reconnaissance unit carry communication equipment?" After I gave the order, travkin quickly asked.

I gave him a strange look and asked, "Comrade captain, this is obvious. You used to carry communication equipment with you every time you went out on reconnaissance missions? In this way, we can report any important enemy information to us immediately through the radio, so as to avoid the situation of delaying the fighters. "

"We lost a lot of communication equipment in the early stage. At present, there are only three walkie talkies left in the whole battalion." Travkin said with some embarrassment: "in order to carry out reconnaissance in several directions in the shortest time, I have to send at least six reconnaissance teams. That is to say, half of the units will have no communication equipment. In that case, if they detect the situation, they will have to send someone back to report it... "

"All right, comrade captain." I didn't wait for travkin to finish, so I raised my hand to interrupt his later words and made a special explanation on his worry: "we have a batch of communication equipment in the seized materials in kafbas. You can go directly to major Pugachev later and say that I told him to provide all the materials you need."

"Yes Travkin agreed and left happily.

I went back to the table and said to kirilov and Vitkov, "comrades commander, although we have to fight a defensive war in kirovgrad and Alexandria, it does not affect us to fight another offensive war at the right time."

As soon as I said that, kirilov asked excitedly, "Rita, do you have another good idea?"

"It's not a good idea. It's just my personal idea. I don't want the enemy to encircle and annihilate us so easily. Let's see, "I asked you to come around and pointed to the map and said to them," from the current situation, it is certain that our two front forces on the other side of the Dnieper River are attacking fiercely and the enemy is hard to resist. Only then will they rush to transfer our troops to the other side for reinforcement. In this way, our army can take advantage of this rare opportunity to continue to harass the enemy's rear and even point to Kiev. "

"What, Kiev?" Wittkov was surprised when I said this. He kindly reminded me: "Comrade commander, as early as when our strength was far stronger than it is now, I suggested to you that we should push forward to Kiev after the troops occupied kilovgrad and Alexandria. But this proposal was rejected by you. Why did you take the initiative to put forward this plan today?"

"Comrade chief of staff, the situation on the battlefield has changed. As commanders, we should adjust our original deployment of forces according to the changes in the situation." In order to convince him, I went on to further explain: "from the report of Lieutenant Colonel swilling, we can find a fact that the enemy's main force has crossed the Dnieper River to the north, but it has reinforced the friendly forces on the other side, leaving only a small number of troops to monitor us. That is to say, with the northward transfer of troops, many big cities occupied by the German army will face the situation of insufficient troops. In this way, even if we tackle the difficulties, it won't be too difficult. "

"Comrade commander, I think we should be cautious in this matter." Wittkov also became more cautious at the moment. He reminded me again: "since we didn't carry out reconnaissance on the enemy's location, we still don't know the real situation of the enemy. So I suggest that, for the sake of safety, we should continue to hold our ground and take a rest as soon as possible. After March, Try again to attack the enemy's big cities

"Time does not wait, comrade chief of staff." When I think of the German troops transferred from Romania, I have a headache. The troops there have not gone through many wars, and their equipment and morale must be excellent. It is absolutely a safe bet to fight with a tired division like ours. Based on this consideration, I ordered them to seize the time to carry out reconnaissance and find out the enemy's deployment and equipment, so that we can make corresponding adjustments in time“ We don't know when the enemy's troops in Romania will come down to the city. We can't compete with such a new force, so we must leave the existing defensive area and turn to a new target before they arrive. "

"Comrade commander." Suddenly behind me came the voice of Pugachev.

When I heard the cry, I stood up straight, turned around, looked at Pugachev standing at the door and asked, "Comrade major, has captain travkin come to you to collect the supplies? Give them all. They will give whatever they want. This is my own order. "

Unexpectedly, Pugachev shook his head like a rattle and replied, "no, comrade commander. Captain travkin, I've sent someone to accompany them to the warehouse to collect the supplies they need

"What is that?" Since it's not about travkin and their material collection, and Pugachev doesn't have any telegrams or newspapers in his hand, I really can't understand his intention for a moment.

Seeing that I was still speechless, Pugachev quickly stepped forward two steps and said to me in a low and mysterious voice: "Comrade commander, don't come, Colonel ray."

"Oh, here comes the Colonel!" Hearing that bielei had come to my headquarters, I was overjoyed and asked, "where is he?"

Pugachev looked in the direction of the door and replied, "it's at the door."

After listening to Pugachev's reply, kirilov immediately excitedly told him, "quick, quick! Major, hurry up and bring in Colonel berey

Pugachev agreed, walked quickly to the door, and cried out, "Hello, two comrades of the soldiers, bring your colonel in quickly."

As soon as his voice dropped, I saw two male health workers with stretchers at the door. The man lying on the stretcher was carrying a long military coat. Although he was facing us, I could easily recognize him from his figure as the commander of the tank brigade, Colonel berey.

When the stretcher was placed on two benches, I took the lead to come over and asked the captain lying on the stretcher, "don't ray, don't ray!"

As I called, Colonel berey slowly turned over and opened his eyes. But when I saw that we were standing in front of him, I put my elbow on the stretcher and tried to sit up. The soldier next to him came forward to help and helped him sit up.

Bielei raised his hand to salute us and said in a feeble voice, "Hello, comrade commander! Hello, comrade political commissar! I don't know. Do you have any instructions for me to come here? "

I quickly stepped forward, leaned down, took Colonel berey's cold hand, and asked with concern, "Comrade Colonel, how is your injury? Are you better?" Bielei looked up at me and said slowly, "don't worry, comrade commander, you can't die yet. I'm waiting for you to replenish my tank brigade and take part in new battles. " Seeing that berey's injury was not alleviated, but aggravated, I looked up at the two health workers standing around him and asked angrily, "what's the matter? Why is the Colonel's injury not getting better, but aggravating? Say, why don't you talk? Who can explain to me what's going on? " When the two health workers bowed their heads because of shame, berey patted me twice on the back of my hand. When he saw my attention returning to him, he tried to squeeze a smile on his face and said to me, "Comrade commander, you blame them wrong. During the period of the health workers, they took good care of me. However, due to the limited medical conditions, several shrapnel on my body could not be removed, resulting in the purulent wound, which aggravated the injury. " Don't ray say so, suddenly let me think of that inexplicably dead general Ike. He turned to kirilov and said, "Comrade political commissar, there is one more thing that I have not understood. I want to ask what is going on."“ Excuse me, Rita Kirilov said politely with a smile on his face“ How on earth did Theodore Ike die? " I asked, looking at kirilov“ Well, comrade commander. " Before kirilov could speak, vetkov said, "Ike came to the city in a truck with our wounded. Because when unloading, two health workers in charge of lifting Ike had not had time to lift him out of the car, they received other orders and went to other places. It was a whole day and night before they remembered that Ike was still in the car. When they arrived, they found that Ike was frozen to death on the covered truck. That's what happened. I've ordered these two soldiers to be locked up. If my comrades in the army commander think that my punishment is too light, then I can extend their confinement. "“ No, chief of staff. It's not necessary to deal with our soldiers. We'll let those two out later. " After I had finished speaking to Vitkov, I leaned down and said to berey, "I'm sorry, Colonel. I didn't know you were so seriously injured that you were carried here from the health camp."“ Comrade commander, I understand. If you don't have anything important, you will never disturb me At this point, with the help of two health workers, he sat up straight and said to me with firm expression: "as long as I can do it, I will live up to your trust."