Chapter 970

The German reaction was faster than I thought. Less than two hours after our army occupied smira, thirty-six German bombers flew over the city and began their indiscriminate bombing.

Countless bombs and incendiary bombs fell from the sky and exploded in smira city. When the enemy plane bombed, it was blowing a strong wind. For a moment, the fire took advantage of the powerful wind to help the fire. Fire dragons devoured houses and streets, and hundreds of buildings collapsed in the bombing. Smoke and fire covered the sky, the whole smira into a sea of fire.

When all this happened, our army and I were two or three kilometers away from the city. When I saw this scene through the telescope, in order to avoid more losses, I ordered the troops to stop and hide in a nearby forest. At the same time, she ordered the temporarily seconded razumeyeva to call the garrison in the city with a telephone.

In the makeshift tent, razumeyeva, wearing earphones, kept shouting at the transmitter for the radio station of the 22nd division. I stood behind her, anxiously looking forward to the reply from Bantai leiev. But I didn't hear anything except razumeyeva's voice.

Seeing that I couldn't get in touch with the city, the air in the tent solidified. Not only was I depressed, but kirilov and wittkov were serious. We all felt great pressure.

Kirilov came up to me and asked in a low voice, "Rita, we can't get in touch with the city. What should we do?"

Instead of answering his question immediately, I beckoned to Vitkov to come to me. After he came, I said, "Comrade chief of staff, under the current circumstances, the three of us will study and work out an emergency plan, and send special personnel to send the order to the city."

"Comrade commander, I agree with you." Wittkov replied without hesitation: "if we don't get in touch with the troops in the city, they will lose unified command and fall into chaos."

Wittkov's words are very reasonable. Now there are three separate infantry divisions, artillery regiments and tank brigades in the city, but I have not appointed a commander to command the troops. Although Romanov has the title of deputy commander, because he has not been in our army for a long time, the commanders and fighters are not familiar with him. It is still a question whether they can obey his orders. Another suitable person is Bantai leiev, the commander of the 22nd division of the guards. In addition to his division, the other two divisions have a large number of commanders who know him. If he is in charge of unified command, the effect may be much better than Romanov.

In order not to affect razumeyeva's call, the three of us came to a corner of the tent, stood and began to discuss. First of all, I said, "political commissar, chief of staff, I think so. In order to prevent the three divisions in the city from fighting on their own, I decided to appoint a commander to take charge of the unified command. Do you have any comments? "

Kirilov and witkov shook their heads neatly. Then wittkov asked, "Comrade commander, who do you think is suitable for this position?" After asking this question, he continued without waiting for me to answer, "although general Romanov is the deputy commander, there are few commanders who know him. Maybe the following commanders will not pay for his orders. If not, we'd better appoint general bantailiev. After all, he has been here since the formation of the 79th infantry army. He is familiar with many commanders of various divisions. We should implement the orders unconditionally. "

When I heard wittkov's opinion, I nodded with satisfaction, and then said, "with unified command, the next thing to do is two things: first, if no enemy ground forces are found near the city, then it is necessary to make a gap for the enemy to leave, evacuate the main forces as soon as possible, and do not stay in the city to be bombed; Second, in this round of bombing, the casualties of the residents in the city must not be small. As soon as the bombing stops, the remaining troops in the city should take active actions to save and rescue the wounded at the same time. "

As soon as my voice dropped, kirilov continued: "yes, listening to the explosion of bombs coming from the direction of the city, and looking at the smoke and fire over the city, I seem to hear the dying wounded, women and children crying miserably and calling for help. As a result of the German bombing, the shadow of disaster and death shrouded every family in smira

While kirilov expressed his feelings, wittkov had finished writing the order to the army. He went to the tent door, yelled at the outside, then took a step back, waiting for the outside people to come in. From the outside came Pugachev, who straightened up and stood in front of Vitkov, waiting for his order.

Wittkov handed the written order to him, and said: "major, this is the order to appoint general bandeleev as the temporary commander-in-chief of smira city. You should copy this order and send more correspondents to the city to convey the order."

"I understand," Pugachev replied simply, and then asked, "Comrade chief of staff, do you have any other orders to convey?"

Wittkov looked at me and said, "this matter should be explained to you by the commander himself."

When I saw Pugachev standing still, I went to him and said, "major, tell general bantailiev that after the German air raid, as long as no large-scale German ground forces are found around the city, we should evacuate the main forces out of the city as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary losses in the bombing. In addition, after the air raid, the army in the city should mobilize all the citizens who have been set up to lead them to put out the fire, protect the factory and its valuable equipment from damage, rescue valuable materials from the fire, evacuate the children and the wounded from the city and find suitable places to hide. "

"To make sure that the order goes on, you have to send at least ten signalmen to the city. Give my orders to every messenger. As long as one person can see bantaileiev, he can pass on my orders. " After I finished, I waved to Pugachev: "time is running out, go and carry out the order quickly."

"When the house leaks, it rains at night, and when the boat is late, it blows." before contacting smira, another operator in the tent gives an emergency telegram to wittkov. After witkov read it, he was shocked. Seeing the expression on his face, I couldn't help clapping, but still asked calmly: "chief of staff, what's the matter?"

"It's a telegram from major Godunov." As he handed me the telegram, wittkov reported: "they were attacked by German forces from the new Ukrainian Ka area. Besides tanks and artillery, the enemy also sent out planes to bomb their fortifications. The village of drofia has been razed to the ground in the bombing. " When he said that, his tone was low. "The major also said that Comrade Katerina, vice member of the village Soviet, died in the air raid in order to rescue the wounded."

I read the contents of the telegram at a glance and saw that it was completely consistent with wittkov's story. I crumpled the telegram into a ball and threw it on the ground. I said angrily, "damn the Germans, I think they are ready to attack. The reason why they didn't do it was because Ike was still in our hands, so they didn't dare to act rashly. Now that we have replaced Ike's body, we can do it without fear. "

"Need to send commander gedar's fourth regiment to reinforce major Godunov?" Vetkov asked cautiously, looking down at the ball of paper I had thrown on the ground.

After thinking about it, I shook my head and said, "the fourth regiment is also a light regiment, and there are no heavy weapons. To let them immediately reinforce Godunov with strong fortifications is to let them die. Well, order the troops remaining in Alexandria and the fourth regiment of gedar to abandon the city immediately and move quickly to smira. "

"Comrade commander," wittkov's face changed greatly when he heard my order. He reminded me nervously, "in this way, major Godunov, they are abandoned."

"Comrade chief of staff," I said, staring at wittkov, "under the present circumstances, there must be troops to contain the attacking enemy and cover the other two regiments to join us here. Next, there will be a series of fierce battles. Only by concentrating all our troops can we form a strong fist and strike hard at the weak points of the enemy. "

"Rita, since you are going to let major gordonov's troops stay to fight, I think you should talk to major gordonov in person." after hearing what I said to Vitkov, kirilov came to me and said meaningfully, "let them understand the current difficulties faced by our army and the significance of this fight."

"The commissar is right," wittkov said immediately after kirilov finished his speech. "If we don't explain the significance of this blocking war to major Godunov, once his men find that the garrison in the city is retreating, it will cause panic and shake the morale of the army."

As for what they said, I think it's very reasonable. After nodding, I went behind razumeyeva and patted her on the shoulder. Razumeyeva stopped calling, turned around and saw that it was me. She quickly stood up and asked in her hoarse voice: "Comrade commander, what instructions do you have?"

"It's hard work, lieutenant." After that, I ordered her, "call Godunov immediately and say I have something to talk to him."

"Comrade commander," vetkov came up to me and asked again, "how long should we let major Godunov's troops hold out in the fortifications outside the village of drofia?"

"Stick to it until dark." from my heart, Godunov's troops are not weak. I don't want to be wiped out by the German army, so I set a deadline for them: "as long as it's dark, major Godunov can take his troops out of the battle."

"How many people are left in major Godunov's place, can they hold out until dark?" Kirilov asked anxiously.

Kirilov's words really awakened the dreamer. I just thought of the fortification outside the village of drofia, but I forgot that gordonov's command was limited. Thinking of this, I patted myself on the forehead and said to wittkov, "Comrade chief of staff, in the retreat telegram sent to lieutenant colonel Gaidar, I added a sentence, leaving a company to strengthen our army field outside the village of drofia."

"Yes Wittkov agreed, and sent the message to another operator. After contacting major Godunov, in order not to divulge the secret, I did not say the place name and his name. I asked directly, "Hello, major, how many people are still under your command?"“ Report to the commander, I still have 173 fighters and 46 women comrades. In addition, the artillery company has two anti tank guns and 20 officers and men left. " When gordonov listened to my question, he immediately understood my intention. During the report, he deliberately concealed the number and position of the troops. After reporting the number of his current troops to me, he asked, "do you have any instructions?"“ It's like this, major I didn't hide the crisis that we are facing now. I said to him honestly, "all the troops will move to where we are now. That is to say, you will soon become an isolated army. Next, you should firmly resist the enemy and strive for precious time for the transfer of large forces. "“ Don't worry, commander. "Before I finished the meaning of this attack, Godunov began to show his determination to me:" I promise you that as long as we have positions, as long as there is one person, we will never let the enemy pass through our defense line. "“ Very well, comrade major. " For Godunov's statement, I am very satisfied. In order to reassure him, I specially added: "I let Gaidar draw a company and add it to you. You just need to hold on until it's dark today, and you can immediately withdraw and move to our position. I'll send troops to meet you then. " At the end of the conversation with gordonov, I took the transmitter away from my mouth and asked wittkov, who had just sent the telegram: "Comrade chief of staff, have you made it clear in the telegram that the fourth regiment should leave behind a company to strengthen major gordonov?"“ Yes, comrade commander. " Wittkov replied positively: "I sent the telegram according to your order. I have ordered major gedar to leave a strong fighting force and go to the village of drofia to strengthen major Godunov."“ Do you hear me? Comrade major. " When I got the exact news, I said to the transmitter, "reinforce your troops. It won't be long before they arrive. Good luck to you