Chapter 1083

As for the alarm I sounded, vasilevsky thought it very well. He nodded, and then began to record it with pen and paper. At the same time, he said to himself: "first defense, then counterattack. This idea is good. It coincides with the idea of Marshal Zhukov and me."

After he finished writing, he put his pen on the table, raised his head and asked me, "Rita, what do you think will be the final result if our army breaks out a fierce battle with the German army in the Kursk bulge?"

Naturally, I know the meaning of the battle of Kursk better than anyone else. However, when I heard vasilevsky's question, I didn't answer immediately, but pretended to be meditating. After a while, I replied, "Comrade marshal, the end of the campaign is undoubtedly the final victory of our army. After the loss of a large number of soldiers and weapons, the German army's plan to regain the strategic initiative and attack Moscow again will be completely smashed. I estimate that the German army will not be able to launch a strategic attack, but will have to adopt a passive defensive strategy until they are completely defeated. And because of this victory, the morale of all our officers and men will be high, and they will officially begin a large-scale and comprehensive attack to recover their territory. "

After my words, vasilevsky and shumilov looked at each other and said to me with a smile, "Rita, I didn't expect you to be so optimistic about the future of this campaign."

When vasilevsky said this, I laughed without saying anything, but I said in my heart: the Soviet army won the final victory after only 50 days of the Kursk battle in history. Now the Soviet troops are equipped with tanks that surpass this era. If they can't defeat the German troops and shorten the battle process, it's really incredible.

Vasilevsky stopped for a while and asked shumilov and me, "I said, two comrades of the group army commanders, have you found anything unusual recently?"

Abnormal situation? Vasilevsky's words made me deep in thought. I tried to think about whether anything special had happened recently, otherwise vasilevsky would not suddenly ask. Unfortunately, after thinking about it for a long time, I didn't come up with a reason. Finally, I could only honestly shake my head and reply, "sorry, comrade marshal of the Soviet Union, I really didn't notice anything special happening recently."

Seeing that he could not get the answer from us, vasilevsky turned his eyes to shumilov and waited for his answer. I saw that shumilov, who had been thinking hard just now, suddenly stretched out his tight brow and put a smile on his face. He carefully said: "Comrade vasilevsky, if I am not mistaken, the number of German Air Force movements has decreased significantly recently. In the past, their planes often bombed the defensive positions we were building, or used machine guns to strafe transport convoys, causing dozens or even hundreds of casualties to us every time, but when our planes arrived, they had already run away. As soon as our plane left, they came out again. I don't know what's going on these days. It's hard to see enemy planes all day. "

When shumilov said that, I think it's true. In the past, when I went to inspect the defensive positions, I encountered enemy air strikes many times. On one occasion, the roof of my car even suffered a row of holes from the enemy planes. If we had not happened to hide in the nearby air raid shelter, I would have been dead.

I was thinking about it when I heard vassilevsky ask me, "Rita, what's the situation there? Have you been attacked by enemy planes recently?"

"No, comrade marshal of the Soviet Union, I seldom see enemy planes in my defense area recently." After I answered vassilevsky's question, I couldn't help asking the question in my heart: "what's the matter?"

"What else is going on, of course, is the result of our air force's initiative." Vasilevsky said with a smile: "it is precisely because our air force has achieved brilliant results and eliminated a large number of German fighters that the number of enemy planes entering the Kursk region has been greatly reduced."

"Dear Alexander mikhailavic, tell us what's going on." Vasilevsky's words not only aroused my great interest, but also excited shumilov. He couldn't wait to ask, "how many German planes have our air force wiped out?"

Before vasilevsky opened his mouth, there was a soft knock on the door. Then the door was pushed open from the outside. The female Lieutenant's figure swayed at the door and disappeared. I was asking what happened to shumilov when I saw the female Lieutenant come in with a tray and a smile.

She came to the table, put a cup of tea in front of vasilevsky, put a cup of tea at the table close to me and shumilov, and then began to put well prepared refreshments. After she finished all this, shumilov waved to her and said, "Comrade lieutenant, you go out first. No one is allowed to come in without my command."

The second lieutenant agreed and left shumilov's office with a tray. Looking at his subordinates closing the door, shumilov urged vasilevsky: "OK, comrade vasilevsky, there are only three of us left. You can safely say that."

"As you all know, in the battle of Kharkov two months ago, Manstein was able to turn defeat into victory when his troops were at a disadvantage because our army's newly recovered battlefield airport could not be put into use, and the planes supporting the ground forces had to take off from far away, so the German Army took the initiative in the battlefield, We lost the victory that we could have won Before narrating the brilliant achievements of the air force, vasilevsky first briefly reviewed the reasons why our army could not get air support in the early Kharkov campaign. Then he went back to the point and began to introduce the achievements of the air force to us.

"After the May Day parade, a fierce air battle broke out between our air force and the German air force. While the enemy planes bombed and blocked our defense areas and transportation lines, our air force was not idle. They launched large-scale air strikes on the German army's headquarters, communication hubs and warehouses, and mainly destroyed the German army's main railway lines and public routes, causing problems in their logistics supplies.

Comrade Novikov, commander of the air force, worked out the air attack plan with his subordinates according to the order of the headquarters. The purpose of the campaign is to make a surprise attack on the German airfields and annihilate the main German air forces deployed in the regions of Bryansk, Orel and Kharkov, so that our army can firmly grasp the air supremacy of the battlefield. According to the plan, our army will gather the first, second, third, 15th, 16th and 17th air force groups to carry out raids on 26 German airports on the front line. "

The battle of Kursk in my memory is basically a tank battle between the Soviet Union and Germany. No one has ever mentioned the performance of the air forces of the two sides in this battle. What vasilevsky said today immediately aroused my interest. Holding a teacup, I kept my eyes on vasilevsky and listened to him quietly.

"... our air strikes were carried out from May 6 to 8. At 5:30 a.m. on the 6th, our army dispatched 112 bombers, 156 fighters and 166 fighters to make a surprise attack on 17 German airports on the 1200 km long front.

As the target of our first round attack was the German Field Airport, there was no underground oil depot, ammunition depot facilities, and there was no aircraft hangar. The mountain of ammunition and fuel are separately placed near the runway and apron of the airport to facilitate the refueling of aircraft.

Our pilots found that the airport was full of airplanes, and there were mountains of ammunition and gasoline barrels nearby, so they dived from high altitude and dropped the bombs they carried. As the bombs fell one after another between the ammunition and gasoline barrels and exploded, the whole airport became a sea of fire. The burning gasoline barrel turned into a burning bomb, which was blown around by the explosion and smashed the plane on the airport. In the end, all the planes were wrecked, the ancillary buildings of the airport were razed in the fire and explosion, and the airport was full of charred German bodies.

Some airports that were not hit by air strikes were alerted and fighter planes were sent to intercept our fleet. The enemy and us were equally matched. In the following fierce air battle, 21 aircraft were lost respectively, while 194 aircraft were destroyed on the ground.

At 15:00 p.m. that day, our army made persistent efforts and launched a second air raid, sending 372 planes to air raid 20 German airports. This time, the German army, which suffered losses, was ready for defense. In addition to the antiaircraft guns and machine guns in the airport, there were many fighters patrolling in the air.

My brave pilot bravely broke through the defense network composed of German fighters and ground air defense firepower, made a surprise attack on the designated target, and destroyed 134 enemy planes parked at the airport. In the air battle, our army shot down 24 German fighters and lost 46 of them.

In the early morning of the 7th, our army launched its third air raid, with 405 planes dispatched and raided 22 German airports which are still in use. After a fierce air battle, 29 enemy planes were shot down, 48 of them lost, and 93 of them were destroyed at the airport.

Facing the intensive raiding tactics of our army, the German army was forced to transfer a large number of planes to the rear. The bombers left near the front line also carried out emergency evacuation and camouflage, and transferred more fighters to deal with our bombers.

On the 8th, 181 planes were dispatched in our fourth air raid. Due to the full preparation of the German army, the bombing of the airport did not achieve any results. In the air battle, our army shot down six German fighters while losing eight.

Seeing that the raid tactics continue, they will not achieve much success. After receiving the report from general Novikov, Marshal Zhukov and I decisively ordered to temporarily stop the air raid on the German airfield.

In this campaign launched by the air force, our army dispatched 1392 aircraft, destroyed 372 aircraft on the German airfield and injured 51. In the air battle, our army shot down 67 German planes and injured 10. The German army lost 501 aircraft in total, while our army lost 122 aircraft successively. "

After waiting for vasilevsky to finish, shumilov took up his glass and began to drink water: "Comrade General Staff, I knew General Novikov during the battle of Stalingrad. After Paulus's troops were encircled by our army, as long as the weather improved, he sent out aviation troops to cover the fast Corps attacking on the ground, eliminate the German ground troops and technical equipment, carry out air reconnaissance, assault the enemy airport, and transport materials for the troops of the 62nd regiment of trakov. It can be said that it is precisely because of their heroic performance that we can achieve the final victory of encircling and annihilating Paulus. "

The heroic performance of the air force commanders and fighters made me feel bright in front of my eyes. However, what I am concerned about at present is not the air supremacy on the battlefield, but the equipment of the troops. With the existing equipment, it is very difficult to block the German attack. So when both of them finished, I tentatively asked vasilevsky, "Comrade marshal of the Soviet Union, I want to ask you something. I don't know whether to ask or not?"

Vasilevsky waved his hand with a smile and said amiably, "Rita, please let me know if you have anything. You and I are so familiar. Do you still use such politeness in speaking? " I put the teacup on the table, stood up, straightened up, put my fingers close to the seams of my trousers, and said solemnly, "Comrade chief of general staff, I want to ask when the superior can change the clothes for our group army?" After that, I saw vasilevsky raise his clear eyebrows slightly, look at me puzzledly, and then turn his eyes to shumilov“ Chief of the general staff, "shumilov saw vasilevsky looking at himself, and quickly stood up from his chair. Like me, he addressed each other with his position:" I think it may not be only Rita's group army, but also Voronezh's front army. All the troops have not been changed. For example, my group army was supposed to complete the change of all the guard divisions on May 10, but today it is on the 20th, and there is no sign of new equipment. " Vasilevsky shrunk his smile, got up from his seat and walked back and forth in the office. After a while, he stopped, looked at us and asked sternly, "do you know the monthly output of the new rifles and tanks that will be replaced for the army?" When we heard the question of vasilevsky, shumilov and I looked at each other, and we both saw the loss and confusion in each other's eyes. After we shook our heads and said we didn't know, shumilov murmured, "Comrade chief of the general staff, these production data are absolutely confidential, and we can't understand them at our level." Vasilevsky gave a wry smile and then said, "well, two comrades of group army commanders, I will not keep this secret from you. In the first 20 days of May, the production of Kalashnikov rifles was 70000; The output of the new tanks is 170. " At this point, he could not help shaking his head and said to himself, "although the number of Kalashnikov rifles produced seems to be quite large, according to the judgment of the supreme command, Kursk will be attacked by the German army from the state of Orel, so the new equipment produced should be given priority to the troops of rokosovsky. Do you know the strength of the central front army? "“ How much? " Shumilov asked casually“ "700000," said vasilevsky, opening the palm of his left hand and holding out two fingers of his right hand, with an exaggerated expression: "there are 700000 people. According to the plan of the general headquarters, only after the new equipment has been equipped can it be turned to the troops in other secondary areas. At the current rate, you will not be able to start the formal change until November at the earliest. " Vasilevsky's words made me speechless. "November, November," my temple suddenly jumped and thought, "if I really want to wait until that time to change clothes, it's meaningless. You know, my defense area will be attacked by the German army in early July. Can't I change the established history, In order to block the German attack, can only use countless lives to fill it