Chapter 1112

Although no artillery effect was observed, it did not affect me to immerse myself in my imagination. I sat at the table with my eyes closed, as if I were playing a movie in my mind, showing the scenes of German artillery bombardment scene by scene: a film of shells across the sky, accurately hit the just assembled German troops. In the smoke and dust caused by the dense shells, thousands of shrapnel from countless explosion points interweave into a layer of death net. The cut limbs, the cut flesh and blood mixed with the burst blood splashed everywhere, crowding the assembly ground of countless officers and soldiers, and were instantly cleared out of a piece of open space. Even the mighty Tiger tank was overturned or disintegrated and burned like a toy in the earth shaking explosion.

Maybe my expression was too relaxed, even kirilov asked a little uneasily: "Rita, do you really think our artillery can cause great damage to the German army?"

"Yes, my military commissar comrade." I opened my eyes and said with a smile to kirilov, who was worried: "the German army in the process of assembly will surely suffer a lot when it is bombarded by our artillery. If they want to regroup and attack us, they will be at least a few hours behind the original time. In a word, our shelling has completely disrupted the German offensive plan. " The reason why I'm so sure is that I came from the film about the battle of Kursk that I saw later.

After hearing this, kirilov sighed and said, "it's a pity that we just delayed the German attack. If only our shelling could cancel the enemy's attack from their operational plan."

I raised my hand and looked at my watch. Seeing that the shelling had been going on for 30 minutes, I stood up, picked up the phone on the desk, and asked the signalman to connect me with the division headquarters of the 51st division of Jinwei.

When I heard tawalter killazer's voice coming out of the receiver, I asked him with a smile, "Comrade General, how are you? Can you see the German opposite you?"

Unexpectedly, tavartkilaze said cautiously after a period of silence: "Comrade commander, I only saw smoke billowing in the direction of Prokhorovka in the observation post. We can't know what kind of casualties he caused to the enemy for the time being."

I know what he said is the truth. Since the reconnaissance unit of travkin withdrew a few days ago, it has never sent any reconnaissance troops to the enemy's occupied area, so I had to say: "continue to observe and report to me in time."

Then I dialed the headquarters of the 52nd division of the guards and asked the man who answered the phone, "Captain, what's the situation there? Can you see the area where the shelling happened?"

"I can't see the specific situation clearly, I can only see the smoke rolling. I think the German casualties must be not small." After answering my question, niekrasov tentatively asked, "Comrade commander, do you want me to send someone to scout?"

I think it's almost three o'clock, and it's beginning to light up gradually. At this time, it's not conducive to concealment to send someone to scout. It's equivalent to letting the Scout die in vain. So without thinking, I rejected his proposal: "no, comrade colonel. After this bombardment, it will take the German army at least a few hours to organize a new attack. You should use this time to prepare for the war. "

After calling the two division commanders, I looked at Danilov and kirilov with worried faces and comforted them with a smile, saying: "deputy commander, military commissar, how are you worried? Don't you know how many artillery we have? You know, if so many guns fire at the same time, the main force of the German army will be crippled. Even if they can reorganize the attack, the strength of the attack will be much lower than we expected. "

After the end of the Kursk battle, I learned from Zhukov that our artillery firepower preparation started too early this time. At that time, most of the German officers and soldiers were still lying in the shelter, deep ditch or shelter, and the armored forces were still hidden in the standby area. If our shelling is delayed for another 20 minutes or half an hour, the effect will be better. In addition, before the shelling, we did not accurately identify the German concentration sites before the attack, so most of the shelling was area coverage, rather than the specific target of the position, which virtually prevented the German from more casualties.

After understanding this situation, I could not help feeling that the plot in the film was really unreliable. The results of this pre emptive bombardment must have been exaggerated by the Soviet Union as the shooting party. If the German army really suffered such serious losses before the attack, it would be absolutely impossible to launch a comprehensive attack on the central front army and Voronezh front army in just two or three hours, and break through multiple defensive zones of the two front armies in the shortest time.

At three o'clock sharp, the shelling of the German army stopped, and the outside world became quiet.

Bezikov listened to the movement outside for a moment, then tentatively said: "the shelling seems to have stopped?"

"Yes, it's stopped." Danilov continued.

Listening to them, I also concentrated on listening to the movement outside. Except for the sound of the staff of the headquarters walking around outside and the sound of telegrams in the next telecommunication room, the deep explosion was not heard. Listening to the movement outside, I sat up straight and said to some of you, "yes, our shelling of the German army is over. Now I can't hear any movement outside, and I don't know the effect."

With these words, before they could make a statement, I said to povsky, "Comrade Colonel, give orders to your artillery soldiers immediately, and let them seize these precious hours and retreat to their original defensive zone immediately. Remember, after returning to defense, we should be ready to fight as soon as possible, and be ready to meet the German armored forces that have broken through our defense line. "

What I said stunned bofsky for a moment, but he didn't ask much. He nodded and went to the telephone to give orders to his subordinates.

After another ten minutes or so, vatukin called my headquarters. As soon as he opened his mouth, he directly asked, "Hello, comrade oshanina, can you see anything from the German army?"

I hastily replied, "there is no news, comrade commander. The whole front is as silent as death. I think the German army is adjusting its deployment after our shelling. It may take a few hours to launch an attack. "

"How do you know how many hours it will take for the German army to launch a new attack?" he asked

"Comrade commander," although I know the exact time of the German attack on the central front army and Voronezh front army in my heart, I will not directly tell him so that he will not doubt it. Instead, I say in an analytical tone: "the number of German troops preparing to attack us must be very large. In the shelling just ended, their organizational system was disrupted by us, If we want to reorganize a new round of attack, we must first gather up the troops. Because of this, I concluded that the German attack should be in a few hours

After listening to my explanation, vatukin was silent for a long time, and then hesitated to say, "oshanina, I want to hear a word of truth from you. Do you think our shelling really caused casualties to the Germans?"

"Sorry, comrade commander, I don't think I understand you." I was confused by vatukin's thoughtless words, so I asked in a puzzled way: "can't we fire thousands of guns at the same time, and still not inflict heavy damage on the German troops being assembled?"

"Not that, not that." Hearing my question, watujing quickly explained: "although shelling is necessary, what I am worried about is that our artillery did not hit any effective target at all. Maybe most of the shells fell in the open space." As soon as he said that, he probably realized that he had said something he shouldn't have said, so he immediately stopped and then told me, "Comrade o'shanina, pay attention to observation, and report to me in time if you have any information."

At the end of the call with watujing, I didn't care to talk to Danilov and them, so I dialed tawalter killazer and asked anxiously, "Comrade General, the shelling has been over for such a long time. Do you have any news there?"

"Report to Comrade commander." Tavartkiraze politely replied, "there is nothing moving in the front except the smoke in the distance. I even suspect that the German troops preparing to attack have been completely destroyed by our artillery fire. "

"Comrade General, don't be too optimistic." From his voice, I recognized that he underestimated the enemy too much, and quickly reminded him: "if the German army were really so easy to be destroyed by us, they would have been driven out of the border by us. Continue to be vigilant and report to me as soon as possible. "

There is no movement here in tavartkiraze, and there is still no movement on the side of Nekrasov. It seems that the German army is gathering. We can even use these few hours to further strengthen the existing fortifications.

I put down the phone and stood at the table, thinking with my eyes closed, to see if there was anything missing, so as to make up for it. After thinking about it for a long time, I felt that in order to deal with the swarming German armored forces, besides the anti tank weapons of infantry, it also needed the cooperation of tank forces. Thinking of this, I called Colonel berey again.

I heard his voice coming out of the headphones and said politely, "Hello, don't worry, Colonel ray."

"Comrade commander, do you have any instructions?" After finishing the official sentence, berey suddenly changed the topic and asked, "if the German army attacks, where should our tank army be?"

"How many troops have you deployed behind the first line of defense?" I asked carefully.

"Comrade commander," said berey, "according to your order, our tanks are all concentrated in the prohorovka area, and there are only two tank battalions behind the first line of defense."

I was overjoyed to hear that there were two tank battalions behind the first line of defense. Although they only have about 50 tanks, if they are equipped with the new type of t-5455 tanks, then even if they annihilate an Armored Regiment of the German army, there is no problem at all. So I immediately ordered bielei: "Comrade Colonel, according to the trend analysis of the German army during this period, position 4 will become their main attack direction. I order you to immediately transfer a tank battalion to the rear of position 4. If you are attacked by the German armored forces, don't hit hard, just sneak attack from the side

"I see." In response to this command, Colonel berey, who was familiar with me, replied without hesitation: "I will send the battalion of the 82nd tank brigade immediately. I believe their performance in the battle will not disappoint you."

When he put down the phone again this time, Danilov finally found a chance to interrupt. He said to me quickly, "Comrade commander, I have a proposal."“ Go ahead, comrade deputy commander. " I said politely“ I suggest that the engineering units of the group army should be sent to the front immediately. " Danilov did not wait for me to ask why, but directly said the answer: "in order to slow down the German assault speed, engineers should lay mines where the German might pass." After listening to Danilov's proposal, I couldn't help nodding. It occurred to me that today's troops are equipped with new tanks, 40 rocket launchers, Kalashnikov rifles and other new weapons, and they actually ignore the role of mines in combat. Aware of this oversight, I immediately told bzikov: "chief of staff, have you heard what the deputy commander said? Immediately give an order to the engineering units of the group army, and let them rush to the defense areas of the 51st and 52nd divisions of the guards to carry out the special task of emergency mine laying. " The order was issued soon, and the engineering troops were assembled within an hour, and they rode 30 trucks to the first line of defense. Almost when the engineer commander called back to report to us that he had successfully arrived at the first line of defense and was laying mines behind the line of defense, tavartkilaze also called. When I took the phone from bzikov's hand, I heard tavartkilaze's confused voice: "no, comrade commander, the German army is attacking!" I raised my hand and looked at my watch. The clock had already pointed to the position of six. It seems that the German army launched the attack on Kursk from the South on time, just like in history. I spread out my notebook on my desk, picked up my pencil, and prepared for the record. Then I asked, "tell me, comrade general, what's the scale of the German offensive?"“ According to the report of position one, the German army sent out hundreds of tanks to cover the infantry and launched an attack on our position. " Tavartkilaze was probably worried and spoke very fast: "at the front of the attack line were German Tiger tanks. They were in a group of ten to fifteen. They opened the way in front of us and bombarded our defensive positions with tank guns. Then there appeared German tanks No. 3 and No. 4, which also rushed to our position quickly. Behind them were armored vehicles full of German soldiers. "