Chapter 990

The German ground forces were not close to Kiev, so the first to retaliate was their air force. Although our Air Force stationed at Beijiao airport launched an attack in time, it started a fight with the enemy aircraft in the air. Although they have shot down seven, wounded two, and lost five of them, and successfully drove away the enemy planes, there are still a lot of bombs falling in the city, of which more than ten bombs fell near the headquarters and exploded, and the gray smoke shrouded the broad streets.

Because there are our fighters fighting with the enemy planes in the air, rebalko and I did not move to the basement, but remained in the original headquarters. According to the latest information received, the troops entering the city were transferred to the areas that needed to be defended.

By noon, the 12th tank army and the 321st infantry division had all arrived in Kiev and were assigned to the new defensive zone. The 15th army, however, had not fully restored its command system because of the sacrifice of its commander. For the sake of safety, rebalko left them on the left bank of the Dnieper River, firmly guarding the cities occupied by our army and protecting the newly opened traffic lines.

We were having lunch with Vitkov, who had just arrived at the headquarters, when the telephone rang on the desk. Major Pugachev came over and picked up the microphone. After listening to it, he covered the microphone and reported to me, "Comrade commander, the officer on duty at the airport reported that a transport plane from Moscow had landed at the airport. When it came, two fighters were escorting it."

When I heard Pugachev's report, my first reaction was: is there a big man coming? He quickly stood up and asked nervously, "is there any commander sent by the superior?"

Pugachev shook his head and replied, "it's not a big man. It's a liaison officer sent by the marshal. He said there are important orders to give you." After the report, he immediately asked, "do you want me to send someone to the airport for an order?"

If I think about sending someone to the airport, it will take at least an hour. I guess this order should be very important, otherwise Zhukov would not send a telegram to us, but send a liaison officer to send a message. With this in mind, I shook my head and said to Pugachev, "major, let the airport send people to get that liaison officer here."

"Yes!" Pugachev agreed, released his hand covering the microphone, and said to the other party, "the commander has an order to send someone to escort the liaison officer to the headquarters. Remember, make sure the liaison officer is safe. "

Watching Pugachev finish the call, kirilov said curiously: "the marshal doesn't even send a telegram, but specially sends a liaison officer to send orders. What kind of command would it be? "

After waiting for kirilov to finish, rebalko said in a puzzled way: "Comrade Marshal just sent us a telegram this morning. If there is anything important, he should say it together. Why do we send liaison officers to give us orders at such a time? "

Instead of speaking, I turned to Vitkov to listen to him. With his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand, wittkov said thoughtfully, "maybe the marshal, seeing that we have successfully captured Kiev, thinks that we can continue to expand our achievements, so he has set us new targets for attack?"

I think everyone expressed their own views and could not help saying: "we have just won Kiev. The first task now is to consolidate our existing defense line and prevent possible German counterattack. It is reasonable to say that our superiors will not add new tasks to us at such a time. "

After hearing what I said, rebalko waved his hand and said, "it's absolutely possible. After all, we have just finished the battle of Kiev. It's absolutely necessary to launch a new battle while the enemy hasn't recovered."

In my mind, the concept of a campaign is to fight for a month or two with hundreds of thousands of troops. But we only fought a few battles with the German army in a small area. Is this also a battle? With this question in mind, I asked tentatively, "general rebalko, is the battle we just ended a battle?"

Rebalko nodded his head vigorously and said with certainty: "yes, although we did not invest a lot of troops this time and the scale of the battle was not large, the successful capture of Kiev is a great victory. Such a battle is not a battle. What kind of battle can be regarded as a battle? "

Although there is a certain difference between what rebalko said and my understanding, I didn't ask any more, but nodded my head to show that I understood. Then, in time, I turned off the topic: "general rebarko, you see that major general grebov's 27th division of the close guard infantry is still stationed in bruvalli. Do you need to transfer them to strengthen Kiev's defense?"

After staring at the map for a while, rebalko shook his head and said, "Comrade commander, I don't think it's necessary. If major general grebov's troops were in bruvalli, they could help us fight the German offensive from the East. If they are transferred to Kiev, then our strategic depth will be gone. The enemy can rush under the city of Kiev, or even rush into the city to fight with us in the street. Then we will be in a passive position. "

Wittkov promptly supported rebalko's view. Seeing that they had the same opinion, I also looked at the map for a while. I felt that once Manstein's troops got rid of the contact of Voronezh's front army, they could launch an attack on Kiev from the East, and bruvalli, who was held by the 27th guard division, would become Kiev's eastern barrier. So instead of sticking to my own opinion, I said with approval, "Comrade General, you are right. We must leave enough troops in bruvalli to resist the attack from the East. In that case, let the 22nd division of the guards stay in bruvalli

Then, we studied how to deploy troops in the occupied area, so that the liaison officer who arrived from the airport went into the headquarters, and I didn't find out in time.

Pugachev came up to me and reminded me in a low voice, "Comrade commander, the liaison officer is here."

At that time, I was looking at the defense area divided by rebalko for the 79th division of the guards. When I heard Pugachev's words, I didn't respond to them. Instead, I asked casually, "liaison officer, what liaison officer?" As soon as the words came out, I suddenly thought of the liaison officer sent by Zhukov. I quickly raised my head and asked him, "where is the liaison officer?"

Pugachev pursed his lips to the side, and I looked in the direction he directed. I saw a major of medium build standing quietly at the other end of the conference table.

"Come here, comrade major." I said politely to the major opposite.

The major came up to me with neat steps, raised his hand, saluted and reported to me, "Hello, general oshanina. I'm the liaison officer sent by Marshal Zhukov. I've been ordered to give you a secret letter. " With that, he took out a sealed envelope from his briefcase and handed it to me.

I took the envelope, pulled out the letterhead and read it. After reading it, I couldn't help thinking: "what's the matter? Why did Zhukov let me go back to Moscow immediately? Doesn't he know that we have just liberated Kiev, and there are still many things to do next? How can I leave my troops and go back to Moscow at such a time? "

When kirilov saw that I had finished reading the order, he kept silent and asked with concern, "Rita, I don't know what kind of order the marshal gave you?"

Thinking that the secret message was not necessary for them to keep secret, I handed the letter to him and said to rebalko and Vitkov: "the marshal ordered me to hand over the command of the troops to general rebalko immediately, and then the liaison officer who came with the secret message returned to Moscow together."

My words surprised everyone. Pugachev was not far from the liaison officer. I heard him ask him in a low voice, "major, do you know why you want to call the commander back to Moscow?"

The liaison officer shrugged his shoulders and said helplessly, "I'm sorry, comrade major. I'm only ordered to send a letter to Comrade General. As for what's written in the letter, I don't know."

After kirilov finished reading the letter, rebalko immediately took it over and looked at it carefully. After reading it, he said solemnly: "Comrade oshanina, in this letter, Marshal Zhukov only asked you to hand over the command of the army to me, but he did not explain the reason why you were recalled to Moscow. I think that this order was given by the Supreme Commander himself, and the marshal just conveyed it. "

For rebalko's analysis, I think it is very reasonable. If Zhukov wants to call me back to Moscow, he just needs to send a telegram instead of sending someone to send me a letter in person. Thinking of this, I asked the liaison officer, "Comrade major, am I the only one to go back to Moscow?"

After listening to my question, the liaison officer first looked at the people who focused on him, and then replied, "you are the only commander recalled to Moscow, but you can take several security guards back with you, such as captain Yushchenko."

When I heard that the liaison officer mentioned Yushchenko's name, even the title of his rank, was still the original rank of captain, I knew better that the person who gave the order might really be a higher level person than Zhukov.

"Major, when can we start?" I asked the major.

The liaison officer replied without expression: "Comrade General, I am ordered to escort you back to Moscow after you have gone through the procedure of transferring command."

After listening to the liaison officer's words, I turned my head and said to rebarko standing beside me, "Pavel semunovic, we don't have time to pay too much attention to the situation. Since several commanders of the campaign cluster are here, let's take over the command of the army."

Then I picked up a red and blue pencil on the table and wrote in a corner of the map, "hand over the command of the battle of Dnieper." Then I wrote the date on the back, signed my name, and pushed the map to rebalko.

Without saying a word, rebalko took my pencil and skillfully wrote in the other corner of the map, "Pavel semunovic rebalko takes over command of the battle of the Dnieper."

Seeing that rebalko had signed, I looked at my watch and then said to kirilov and Vitkov, "political commissar, chief of staff, from now on, you will be under the command of general rebalko."

As soon as I had finished, kirilov came forward, took my hand, shook it vigorously, and said with concern, "Rita, have a good trip. I hope we can see you again soon."

"See you later, comrade commander." As soon as kirilov released my hand, wittkov immediately extended it to me.

"And me, comrade commander." Pugachev said not to be outdone“ Please take good care of yourself. We're looking forward to your coming back soon and continuing to instruct us to teach the Germans a lesson. "

After shaking hands with several commanders, I went to shake hands with the staff officers and signalmen sitting next to me one by one. After all this, I waved my head to the liaison officer and said, "come on, comrade major." Yushchenko and I were in a jeep that didn't stop until we reached the hatch of the transport plane in the middle of the airport. But when I got off the bus, the driver turned around and said, "Comrade commander, I wish you a pleasant journey and hope to see you return to the army as soon as possible." I nodded to the driver with a smile, turned and walked to the front of the plane, and went up the gangway. After flying in the air for more than an hour, the plane landed in a military airport south of Moscow. Before the plane landed, I looked out of the porthole at the boundless forest, turned to the liaison officer and asked in a loud voice, "major, this airport seems very remote."“ Yes, Comrade General. " Because of the noise in the cabin, the liaison officer had to shout at the top of his voice: "in order to avoid enemy planes bombing our airport, we have built many such temporary airports in the forest."“ When the plane lands, will someone come to pick us up? " Feeling the landing gear of the plane down, I asked aloud. The liaison officer shook his head and replied, "no one answers, Comrade General. The order I received was to take you out of Kiev and send you directly to Marshal Zhukov's headquarters. " With little effort, our plane landed steadily at the airstrip. The liaison officer took me to a car parked near the runway, opened the door and invited me to get on. I looked back at Yushchenko, who was following me, and several guards, and asked the liaison officer, "what do they do?" The liaison officer looked back and replied, "please rest assured that there will be a car to take them to the city later. Please get on the bus. I think the marshal is in a hurry. " Hearing what the liaison officer said, I stopped checking, nodded and sat in the back of the car. After closing the door, the liaison officer went from the back of the car to the other end, opened the door, sat in the co driver's seat, and told the driver: "drive!"