Chapter 971

As soon as I finished my conversation with Godunov, I heard the sound of footsteps outside. The sentries on duty outside the tent were asking questions loudly, but it was Pugachev who had just left. Then the curtain of our tent was lifted and Pugachev ran in from the outside with a happy face.

"Commander, comrade commander." Pugachev stood in front of me, gasping for breath. He seemed too excited. It took him a long time to report to me: "Comrade commander, just as I sent out the signalmen, I met the messenger sent by general bantaileiev, saying that our main forces had basically withdrawn from smira before the German bombing started, Hidden in the forest in the West and north of the city. "

On hearing Pugachev's report, I first widened my eyes and looked unbelievable. Then I showed the same ecstasy as Pugachev. I turned to kirilov and Vitkov and said, "commissar, chief of staff, do you hear me? Before the bombing, general bandeleev led the troops to withdraw from the city safely. "

"Now that the troops have safely withdrawn from the city," vetkov said, with no surprise on his face. Instead, he asked with a puzzled look on his face, "but why can't our radio station contact them all the time?"

"Comrade major," when I heard wittkov's question, I suddenly felt that something was wrong. I quickly asked Pugachev in a loud voice, "major, where is the man sent by general bandeleev? Come in, please. Come in, please Although I still don't know why the radio station couldn't contact the 22nd division of Jinwei, I heard that the main force of our army had successfully withdrawn to the outside of the city. Just now, my uneasiness suddenly disappeared, leaving only excitement and excitement.

An officer in a steel helmet and snow camouflage suit, under the guidance of Pugachev, went into the tent. I'm familiar with the people who came here. They are Lieutenant Glen, the deputy battalion commander of the second battalion of the first regiment. They have dealt with each other several times. Bantai leiev sent him here, presumably to let me understand that the information reported by the comer is true.

As soon as captain Glenn entered the tent, he raised his hand and saluted me. He said, "report to the commander, commander of the division. General bantaileiev asked me to report to you that in order to avoid German retaliation, the 22nd division of our close guard, after successfully seizing smira, except for leaving a few troops as guards, the main force was before the enemy's bombing, He successfully retreated to the forest in the suburbs to hide

After that, Captain Glenn took out a document from his satchel and handed it to me respectfully. At the same time, he said, "Comrade commander, this is the report from Mr. bantaileiev." I took the document and looked at the handwriting on it. It's Bantai leyev's handwriting. That's right. I read bantaileiev's report carefully again and then decided to make sure that what Glen said was completely true. Seeing the other party's tired face, I knew that he must have suffered a lot in order to find our whereabouts, so I politely asked him to have a rest first.

I handed the report of Bantai leiev to Vitkov. After reading it, he handed it to kirilov again, but he still said in a puzzled way: "Comrade commander, although there is a report of general Bantai leiev here, I still don't quite understand: first, why can the 22nd division of Bantai leiev's close guard successfully withdraw outside the city before the enemy's air attack? 2、 Where are the 308th division under the command of general Romanov and the 171 division of andeliuschenko, and why are they still unable to contact each other? "

The two problems mentioned by wittkov are exactly what I have been thinking about. If it is true that the 22nd Division has successfully withdrawn to the outskirts, why can't we get in touch with their radio station? Seeing such a question, we can only come to the conclusion when we see bantailiev.

But this is obviously not the time to delve into these problems. I turned to razumeyeva, who was sitting by the telephone, and said, "Lieutenant, the call to the 22nd division of the guards will not continue. You can change the communication channel of the 171st division or the 308th division to see if you can get in touch with them. "

Razumeyeva promised, after adjusting the frequency, began to call up the other two division radio stations. This time, we're obviously lucky. We didn't make a few calls, but there was a response from the earphone.

Hearing the news from the other side, razumeyeva immediately called me excitedly: "commander, comrade commander, I have contacted the radio station of the 308th division."

I took the earphone from her hand, put it on, and yelled at the transmitter, "I'm o'shanina. Ask your commander to answer the phone."

Soon, the voice of Romanov came from the earphone: "it's me, Romanov."

When I heard Romanov's voice, it didn't look like I was defeated. The stone hanging in my heart fell to the ground. I then asked, "where are you now?"

"Report to the commander," Romanov immediately replied, "I'm in hudoli with andriuchenko."

"Hudoli." While talking to him, I grabbed the map and carefully searched for the location he said. But when I saw the place name he said, I couldn't help exclaiming, "Damn, comrade deputy commander, what are you doing in the suburbs of chelkarther?" From the map, the town of hudoli that he said happened to be a small town connected with cherkaser.

"Well, comrade commander." Romanov truthfully reported: "after seizing smira, we found a small group of enemies fleeing towards the northeast of the city. From the direction, they should have fled to cherkaser. In order not to let the enemy find out our army's movement too early, I sent a troop to pursue it. Our pursuers exchanged fire with cherkaser's defenders near the town of hudoli. Because the weather was too dark and the German firepower was too fierce, the commander of the team asked me for help. I was afraid that the German forces in the city would be strong and that if there were too few reinforcements, I would suffer a loss. So I called Comrade andreushenko and asked him to come to hudoli with me. "

"What's the situation now?" I heard that they were exchanging fire with the garrison in the city. I asked with concern, "have you found out how many troops the enemy has in the city?"

"According to the interrogation of the prisoners, the enemy probably had a battalion of garrison in the city." Romanov reported: "at the beginning, the German Army thought we were just small troops, so we were caught off guard. When we occupied half of the city, the German army finally recovered and realized that it was not a small army that launched the attack. At present, they are relying on buildings to fight with our army house by house. "

When I heard Romanov's report, I had a sense of time and space disorder, as if I was back to the time of the battle of Stalingrad. Thinking of the tragic death and injury of the residents in the whole campaign, I could not help worrying about the innocent people in the city and asked nervously, "are there any residents in the city?"

"Yes, comrade commander." Romanov gave me a positive answer, saying: "half an hour ago, the German army carried out a counterattack against the area occupied by our army. They let the captured residents walk in front of the counterattack team, followed by about two platoons of German soldiers

"What happened?" I asked anxiously.

When Romanov heard my question, he said lightly: "the enemy's counterattack was repulsed by us, and the residents who were held were rescued."

Although he said this matter in a very relaxed tone, I guess the casualties of those residents must be not small, but now is not the time to pursue these matters, so I did not continue to ask, but changed the topic and asked: "general Romanov, how long do you think it will take before you can completely occupy cherkaser?"

After a moment's silence, Romanov replied: "at present, the enemy relies on solid buildings and has temporarily built many firepower points. Our officers and men are not familiar with the terrain and suffer a lot of casualties in street fighting."

"I'm not familiar with the terrain. I can find the residents in the city to be your guide." When I heard that the troops suffered heavy casualties in the street battle, I couldn't help being anonymous. You know, our troops, however, were drawn from the city garrison of Stalingrad. Their field combat ability may not be strong, but when it comes to street fighting, they can definitely be German teachers. But now we are fighting such a small city, but we have paid huge casualties. What's the matter? Because I said impatiently: "also, when the troops attack in the street, don't charge in a dense formation. That will become the target of German shooting and cause unnecessary casualties."

"Yes, comrade commander." Romanov replied respectfully: "when it comes to street fighting, Colonel andreushenko's level is much higher than mine. But when my division's attack was frustrated because of the increase in casualties, it was the commanders and fighters of the friendly forces who pushed up in time and defeated the enemy troops

After I finished my call with Romanov, I just wanted to report the situation of the other two divisions to kirilov and Vitkov. Vitkov handed me several telegrams and said solemnly, "Comrade commander, our situation is not optimistic. As soon as Alexandria's troops withdrew from the city, they were attacked by German planes, killing more than 100 people. And the fourth regiment is not peaceful on the way to our place. A pro German Ukrainian guerrilla not only laid mines on their march, but also hid on both sides of the road and fired cold shots at our March, which has resulted in seven deaths and 19 injuries to the gadar regiment. "

I smashed my fist on the table, then said: "these damned bastards, one day I will wipe them out completely." After that, I asked wittkov, "what's the situation with gordonov?"

"I haven't heard from the major yet," wittkov said tentatively. "But no news, sometimes it means good news. Maybe there's no fighting at all."

I walked out of the tent and looked at the city in front of me. Then I said to kirilov, who followed me out of the tent, "Comrade political commissar, the enemy's air raid is over. Should we go to the city and take part in the rescue?"

Before kirilov made a statement, wittkov, who finally came out of the tent, heard what I had just said and quickly stopped: "Comrade commander, you can't go to the city like this. It will be dangerous. The enemy's bombing of the city has just ended. Who knows if they will come back?". If you come into the city, you will be bombarded by enemy planes again, what can you do? "

I pointed to the tent behind me and said, "are we going to set up our headquarters here to direct the war?"

Wittkov took a look at the tent, and then replied, "Comrade commander, even if the conditions here are poor, the safety factor is higher than that in the city, so I think you should still stay here to command the battle." As we were talking, kirilov suddenly pointed to the distance and said, "look, there are three jeeps coming in front. Which commander should have come to the army headquarters to report." None of us spoke. We just stood in the distance and looked at the jeep. When the jeep arrived more than 20 meters away from us, it stopped in turn. Then, a lot of commanders came down from the car. When they came towards us, I recognized Bantai leiev in the crowd at a glance. I nudged kirilov beside me and said, "it's general bandeleev." With that, I went straight ahead. When I came to Bantai leiev, I grabbed his hand and shook it vigorously without waiting for him to raise his hand. At the same time, I said, "Comrade General, you have worked hard." Then kirilov and wittkov came up one after another to greet bantaileiev. When the four of us returned to the tent, kirilov, an old friend of Bantai leiev, sat down and asked with concern, "old man, when we saw enemy planes bombing the city on the road, the commander was worried about you. After setting up the temporary headquarters here, because she couldn't get in touch with you all the time, she specially arranged ten signalmen to go to the city to find you, let you act as the commander in chief of the garrison in the city, and ordered you to lead the troops to withdraw from the city temporarily at the right time and hide in a safe place in the suburbs. However, I didn't expect that. Later, I found out that our worries were unnecessary. You took precautions and led the troops out of the city. "“ Tell me, Comrade General. " Wittkov asked curiously when kirilov finished“ How did you think about it at that time? Why could you withdraw the main forces from the city before the enemy plane bombed? Are you a prophet? " After listening to them, bantailiev stood up and first expressed his gratitude to me for my concern for him. Then he began to explain to us the reason why he let the troops leave the city: "in fact, I am not a prophet at all, but I think that two days ago, shortly after the 308th division occupied the city, it was attacked by the German army, resulting in heavy casualties of the troops, and even the commander of the division, general gurdyev, died. So after destroying the garrison in the city, I ordered the troops to withdraw to the forest in the suburbs for the time being, and at the same time, I also moved many residents of the city to a safe area. "