Chapter 1105

The reconnaissance team led by travkin gets information back every day. According to their information, the German army is assembling a large number of troops in the area of Belgorod Kharkov, among which the 19th tank division and the 332nd infantry division, which have just been stationed in Belgorod, are conducting battle mobilization.

The information that the German troops were engaged in combat mobilization was received around 10 pm on June 30. After reading the information, I ordered rasmishin, director of intelligence, to report the information to the headquarters of the front army by telegram.

I don't know why. After the intelligence was reported to the headquarters of the front army, it was like a bullock entering the sea, and there was no more movement. When I saw Danilov and kirilov yawning in the middle of the night, I took the initiative to say, "deputy commander, military commissar and artillery commander, you are all tired. Go and have a rest first."

When the sleepy Danilov heard me say this, he quickly waved his hand: "Comrade commander, let's have a rest after the reply from the headquarters of the front army comes back."

I raised my hand and looked at my watch. I saw that it was one o'clock in the morning on July 1. Since I didn't receive a reply from my superior at this time, there would be no reply to us before dawn. So I solemnly said to them again: "deputy commander, military commissar, you two go to have a rest first. I'll stay on duty here. As soon as the superior's reply comes, I'll send someone to inform you immediately. "

Kirilov and Danilov, who understood my character and didn't insist on what I said, stood up and nodded. They pulled Danilov, who wanted to say something more, and left the headquarters. Bowski saluted me and walked out after them.

Bizikov watched kirilov and Danilov leave, and said to me with concern: "Rita, I don't think the superior will give us any reply before dawn. You'd better take a rest and I'll stay."

"No, no," I waved my hand and refused his kindness. Ever since I received the intelligence from travkin, I was not at ease, because it was less than 100 hours before the outbreak of the Kursk battle. In order not to be caught off guard by the German army, I immediately reported it to the headquarters of the front army, I just hope that they can work out contingency measures according to the intelligence of the German army. Unexpectedly, a few hours later, vatukin didn't give me a reply. Even if I was asked to go to sleep, I couldn't sleep at all“ I'll stay here and wait for the news. If I'm tired, I'll sleep on the table for a while. "

I sat at my desk, looking at the map spread out in front of me, and carefully considered the possible defense loopholes in my defense area. After watching for a long time, we found that the place where the mine should be buried was mined; The key defense areas rely on the hillside to build a perfect defense system, including tunnels; In the plain between the first and second lines of defense, which is convenient for German tank troops to attack, in addition to minefields and anti tank fire points, a large number of "oshanina trenches" named after me have been excavated.

Although there are many fortifications in the defense area, and important defense areas are heavily guarded, I still have no confidence in the face of the German thunderbolt. For a moment, I was even thinking about how to concentrate all my forces and stay in the third line of defense when the first and second lines of defense were lost.

I stare at the map until six o'clock in the morning, sleepy also unconsciously up, is lying on the table ready to sleep for a while. At this moment, the telephone on the desk rang suddenly. In my heart, I was excited: "is it watujing who called?"

As soon as I raised my head, bzikov rushed to the table and grabbed the phone. After listening for a while, he put down the phone and reported to me, "Rita, the commander of the 89th division of Jinwei reported that Marshal Zhukov's motorcade is coming towards our headquarters. It will be here in about ten minutes."

I nodded, turned around and said to akhromeyev in the room, "major, immediately inform the deputy commander, the military commissar and the artillery commander to meet the marshal with me. In addition, call each division commander again, and order them to rush to the headquarters immediately, waiting for Marshal Zhukov's interview. "

While akhromeyev was on the phone, I simply cleaned up the table, put all kinds of information on the table aside, straightened my military cap, then waved my head at bezikov and said, "come on, chief of staff, come with me to meet marshal."

Walking out of the building where the headquarters is located, the head of security Yushchenko and the deputy head of security bukov have been waiting there for a long time. Seeing me and bezikov coming out, Yushchenko ran up to me and asked me whether to pick them up by car or on foot.

I waved my hand and said, "the streets in the city are narrow. It's not easy for cars to turn. You'd better walk. But since you are in the city, you don't need to go to so many people. You two take a class with me

Danilov, kirilov, and povsky had rushed out of the building before the guard's line-up was over. Danilov came to my side, wearing a belt around his waist, and said nervously: "how come Marshal Zhukov came here just as he said, and didn't say hello to us in advance, so that we didn't prepare at all."

Seeing that all the people who should have come have come, I don't talk nonsense. I left the headquarters with you and walked out of the city with neat steps along the street. Several patrols along the way saw us coming and let us to the side of the road one after another, and raised their hands to salute us.

We came to the entrance to the north of the city. After a while, we saw a convoy of two jeeps and three armored vehicles coming towards us. I rushed to the commanders and fighters behind me and said in a loud voice: "attention, Marshal's motorcade is coming. Line up immediately."

After that, I stood on the side of the road. Then Danilov, kirilov, povsky, bezikov and others stood on my left side. Yushchenko, bukov and the soldiers of the guard class stood behind us.

When the first Jeep passed us, it just slowed down but didn't stop. Just as I was guessing if Zhukov was on the armored car in the back, the second Jeep stopped in front of me. A lieutenant commander in the co driver's seat circled from the front of the car to the rear door on the left side, opened the door and stood upright.

Seeing Zhukov getting out of the car, I immediately met him, raised my hand and said politely, "Hello, marshal, welcome to the sixth group army of Jinwei to inspect the work. Commander o'shanina is at your command, please give me directions

There was a smile on Zhukov's face. He took my hand and said with a smile, "Rita, we meet again!" Then he shook hands with Danilov, kirilov, povsky and bezikov. Finally, he waved his big hand and said, "OK, let's go to your headquarters."

We walked back to the headquarters and came to my headquarters. Zhukov looked around after entering the door. The commander who followed him in immediately nodded and said something in bzikov's ear.

After listening, bzikov immediately waved to akhromeyev, rasmishin and others who were still in the room and left the room with them. When Zhukov saw that there were only me, Danilov, kirilov and povsky left in the room, he spoke slowly and said, "Rita, last night I received a call from general vatukin saying that your scouts found that the German army was gathering in Belgorod and there were signs of attacking our army. When I got the news, I came all night to find out what was going on

When Zhukov said this, I understood why he appeared in my defense area early in the morning. It turned out that after getting the information I reported, he was not sure. Instead, he specifically came to verify the situation. I hastened to reply, "marshal, judging from the situation we have at present, it is possible that the German army has assembled a large number of troops and is ready to launch an attack on the defense area of our group army." With that, I stepped forward two steps, picked up the stack of information on the table, took out a few pieces that I thought were important, and handed them to him.

Zhukov took the information I handed him and looked down carefully. After a while, he looked up and asked me, "Rita, in your judgment, when and in what direction will the German army attack us?"

Although I have a better understanding of this period of history, I can't give the answer directly. I can only put forward a tone of analysis based on intelligence and say: "marshal, I think the German army will adopt a north-south pincer attack to attack us in order to encircle and annihilate our troops in the Kursk salient. As for the attack time, I think it may be between July 2 and 8. "

After listening to my analysis, Zhukov put the information in his hand on the table, stood up and walked back and forth in the room. I stood in the same place and didn't move, but my eyes moved with his movement. I knew that he was thinking about everything I said, so I closed my mouth wisely, so as not to affect his thinking.

After walking around the house for more than ten times, he suddenly stopped, turned around and quickly came to me. Looking at me, he asked in a puzzled way, "Rita, according to the information we collected recently, the German attack on Kursk may indeed have started from July 2 to 8. But how do you know the date of the German attack

"Comrade marshal, please allow me to answer this question to you." Danilov, who was standing nearby, also stepped forward two steps, came to my side and stood side by side with me, and said respectfully to Zhukov. Seeing that the other side nodded his permission, he continued, "after receiving information from the reconnaissance unit every day, comrade commander will make repeated deduction on the map to speculate on the possible attack route and the force used by the German army, etc. Therefore, I think it is entirely possible for her to analyze the approximate date of the German attack. "

When Zhukov heard Danilov say this, he turned around with a frown, clenched one hand into a fist, pounded the palm of the other hand repeatedly, and seemed to be thinking again.

After a while, Zhukov stopped his action and walked quickly to the table. He looked down at the map on it. After a while, he waved to us and said, "come here, all of you."

When he saw that we were all around the table, he pointed to the map and said to us, "you know, our troops have not recovered from the defeat in the battle of Kharkov. If the German army really takes the initiative to attack us, it is exactly what we want. You see, after our efforts in recent months, the number of artillery regiments exceeded that of infantry for the first time, and the number of artillery regiments exceeded that of infantry by as much as one and a half times. The places where the most heavy artillery was deployed were the directions in which the German army was most likely to attack.

Take the 13th group army of rokosovsky as an example. They are responsible for covering the most threatened section of the oreol Kursk railway line. There are about 140 artillery and mortars on each kilometer of the front, which is much more than the German artillery that can be concentrated for attack. At the same time, the central front army and Voronezh front army supplied more than 9000 guns and mortars, and a total of 92 artillery regiments were reinforced from the reserve forces of the supreme command. More than 6000 anti tank guns were deployed along more important directions, and nearly 400000 mines and explosive charges were laid. In order to strengthen the front-line leadership, the Supreme Commander himself issued an order yesterday that my headquarters be stationed in Kursk to coordinate the coordinated operations of the central front army, the Bryansk front army and the Western Front Army, while vasilevsky is responsible for guiding the Voronezh front army... "To me, many of what Zhukov said are top secret. I immediately understood why he had just asked his subordinates to drive out all the commanders who were not of enough rank from this room in order to prevent the possibility of leakage. When Zhukov finished all this, he raised his head and asked me, "Rita, now our army is ready for all the fighting. Only when the German army launches an attack, we can hit them head-on. Do you understand what I said? " Although I don't know why Zhukov asked this question, I honestly replied, "I understand, comrade marshal."“ The sixth group army of your close guard is the closest to the German line of defense in Voronezh's army. Once it is attacked by the German army, "he said When Zhukov asked here, he stopped for a moment, then tentatively asked, "can your troops stop them?" Zhukov's words reminded me of the deduction on the map a few hours ago. He shook his head and answered truthfully, "Comrade marshal, although I want to answer you firmly that we can block the German attack. However, according to the current situation of the enemy and ourselves, I can only answer you with regret: sorry, I can't stop it. At least before our counter offensive begins, the first and second lines of defense may be broken through. "