The night of July 7 is not a peaceful one.
I had just helped Romanov to prove his innocence when I heard the rumble of explosion and the sound of anti-aircraft guns covered by it.
My eyes turned to the door. I just wanted to send someone out to see what happened outside. Yushchenko had rushed in panic and yelled at me: "Comrade commander, air raid warning, we are being attacked by the German air."
"Let's go!" Almost at the end of Yushchenko's voice, bzikov and akhromeyev rushed up and grabbed one of my arms. Before I recovered, they forced me out. I heard kirilov still behind me saying loudly, "you take Rita to safety quickly."
The whole city was shrouded in smoke and fire. In the earth shaking explosion, the tiles of the building opposite the headquarters fell on the sidewalk and knocked down several passing commanders and fighters. Before I gave an order, bzikov and I rushed to a temporary air raid shelter nearby.
When we were five or six meters away from the air raid shelter, a bomb landed not far behind us. The three of us fell to the ground in the blast, which made me feel as if my internal organs had moved. I felt lazy when I was lying on the ground. I didn't want to move at all. I even didn't want to do the simple action of climbing up.
Bzikov got up first. He asked me in a nervous voice: "Comrade commander, are you ok?"
As soon as I opened my mouth, the pain in my heart made me even speak in a different tone: "I'm ok!"
"And you, major akhromeyev." Bezikov grabbed my arm and tried to lift me up, but he didn't lift me up. He had to ask akhromeyev again, "isn't it hurt?"
"I'm fine, chief of staff." When I saw akhromeyev get up from the ground, he raised his hand to wipe the blood from his nose, but he still grasped my other arm cooperatively and helped bezikov lift me up from the ground.
They dragged me into the dark shelter, put me in a relatively safe place, then sat down and began to gasp. Bezikov asked akhromeyev with concern: "major, are you ok? I just saw your nose bleed."
Akhromeyev shook his head and said calmly, "it's OK, comrade chief of staff. I didn't get hurt. I just fell down and knocked my nose on the ground
After resting with my back against the wall for a while, I felt better. Then I asked, "chief of staff, what's going on? Where did the German plane come from? " I asked this with a sense of anger, because in the south of the city, we have a self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery regiment. Even if we get on 20 or 30 planes, they can deal with it easily.
Bezikov shook his head and said in embarrassment, "sorry, comrade commander, I don't know."
I looked out from the mouth of the cave and saw that in the dark street, exploding pillars of fire soared into the air. The raging fire made the air hot. The spicy and choking smoke was blown along the street and poured into the cave. We could not open our eyes, but also coughed violently.
Kirilov and Danilov, who are still in the headquarters, quickly raised their hands, patted akhromeyev on the shoulder and said to me in a loud voice, "major, the deputy commander and the military commissar are still in the headquarters. Go and see if they come out?"
Akhromeyev promised to rush out, but was stopped by bezikov. He looked at me with tearful eyes. After a severe cough, he said to me in a loud voice, "Comrade commander, it's too dangerous outside now. It's dangerous for the major to go out."
"But I don't trust their safety, deputy commander." I said aloud.
Bezikov moved his body towards me a little, put it in my ear and said in a loud voice, "don't worry, major Yushchenko will save them. In the opposite direction to us, there are still several air raid shelters. "
"Hell, when were these air raid shelters dug? Why don't I know?" If it had not been for the sudden bombing, I would not have found so many air raid shelters in the city.
"Comrade commander, this air raid shelter has been excavated by the military commissar since the appearance of the small German troops. But you were rarely in the headquarters at that time, so you didn't know about it. " Bezikov said with emotion: "fortunately we dug air raid shelter, otherwise we don't know how many people will be sacrificed in vain."
"What about our antiaircraft artillery regiment?" I can't help but think of the antiaircraft artillery regiment equipped with a large number of self-propelled antiaircraft guns. I can't help asking, "where are they?"
Just as I was talking, the enemy planes in the sky dived one by one and dropped their bombs into the city. Many buildings collapsed in the explosion, and the smoke and dust rose all over the sky, blocking our vision. I vaguely saw that the building where I was was was hit by the bomb, and my heart suddenly sank like a sinkhole. Although I didn't say anything in my mouth, I knew in my heart that if there were still people in the building who didn't run out, I was afraid that they would lose their lives.
At this time, the outside suddenly rang out the sound of dense anti-aircraft gun fire, those who are diving around the plane, not burst out one after another black clouds. An unlucky plane was hit by debris, one side of the wing was blown to pieces, overturned in the air and fell down, a head on the ground explosion, suddenly turned into a group of flames. The rest of the planes were frightened and quickly changed from diving to pulling, trying to escape from this dangerous area as soon as possible.
When akhromeyev saw this scene, he awoke and exclaimed, "it's our self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery regiment. As long as there are them, few enemy planes that come to carry out the bombing mission can fly back."
The development of the next thing is really like what akhromeyev said. The German Air Force seemed to be particularly afraid of the antiaircraft artillery regiment. After they raised their altitude, they threw down their bombs and headed south. But now that they are here, our antiaircraft artillery regiment will definitely not let them escape easily, so they will catch up and continue to beat them with intensive firepower. I saw with my own eyes that at least five enemy planes were hit. They either exploded in the air or fell from the air with long smoke tails.
When the bombing ended, the whole city became a sea of fire. Obviously, I couldn't stay here any longer, so I had to move out of the city with the bzikov tanks.
In a tent in the forest, I saw kirilov and Danilov whose faces were blackened by smoke. Seeing that both of them survived, I couldn't help coming forward and giving them a hug. Then I asked kirilov curiously, "Comrade military commissar, how did you escape?"
Kirilov said with a bitter smile: "after they left with you, Yushchenko and a group of soldiers dragged me and the deputy commander to the air raid shelter outside. No, as soon as the bombing was over, he saw that the city was full of fire and no one could stay, so he took us to the forest outside the city. "
I saw Yushchenko standing next to him, went over, put his hands on his shoulders, patted him gently, and said in a friendly way, "Comrade major, you're good. You've done a good job!"
Yushchenko stood up to attention and said in a loud voice, "serve the motherland of the Soviet Union!"
"Are there any casualties?" When I think of the bombing scene I just saw in the air raid shelter, my heart is palpitating. Now I see people I know standing in tents, and I am in the mood to ask about the casualties in the city.
Yushchenko's face darkened and he murmured, "the guard camp has killed 75 people and injured 27. The building where the headquarters is located was directly hit by German bombs. The signalmen who did not have time to withdraw sacrificed about 30 people. Major bukov is commanding the personnel to search and rescue the survivors in the ruins. "
When I heard that hundreds of people were killed in the guard camp, my heart felt like someone had pulled me hard. I asked Danilov, "Comrade deputy commander, do you know where the enemy plane came from?"
Danilov shook his head and said blankly, "the enemy plane appeared so suddenly that our air defense sentry had no time to give an alarm, and the enemy plane began to bomb the city."
Just then, outside the tent came the voice of travkin calling for a report. I promised casually, "come in, Captain travkin!"
As soon as the curtain was lifted, four people came in from the outside, making the narrow tent more crowded. Naturally, the leader was the reconnaissance battalion commander, Captain travkin. Behind him was a soldier in a pilot's uniform, and behind him were two soldiers with submachine guns.
I looked at travkin and the three men behind him and asked curiously, "Captain, can you explain to me what's going on?" Then I pointed to the man in the pilot's uniform and asked, "who is he?"
"Report to commander, this is the German pilot we captured." "After I saw his plane shot down, a pilot jumped out of the parachute and rushed over with the soldiers," travkin reported to me. This guy is quite stubborn. He hid behind the wreckage of the plane and shot at us. We didn't capture him until he ran out of bullets. "
"Comrade captain, when you caught the pilot," I gave the German pilot a fierce look, and then asked travkin, "are there any casualties in the commanders and fighters?"
Travkin nodded and replied, "yes, comrade commander. One was sacrificed and two were injured. "
"Ask him," I said in disgust, looking at the proud German pilot who was still holding his head up after he was captured, "how did they get around our air defense posts and into the sky of the city?"
With a promise, travkin turned and began to murmur at the German pilot. The German pilot snorted and answered with impatience.
"He said that they knew that our self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery regiment was deployed in the south of the city, so they came to bomb this time. The order they received was to fly to the northwest first, and then turn around and bomb our city to the South after flying over our city," he said
"The Germans are very cunning." After listening to travkin's translation, Danilov waved his hand and asked them to take the prisoners away. Then he said with emotion, "our observation posts are generally set in the south, so even if we find the enemy aircraft, we will not be alert enough if we see that their flight direction is not ours."
"We need to learn this lesson," kirilov continued. "In the future, when air defense sentries are deployed, they should not be deployed only on the side facing the enemy, but in all directions. In this way, no matter which direction the enemy comes from, our air defense sentries can give timely warning and let us make necessary preparations in advance. " When they were talking about it, I suddenly remembered a period of history. It was at the end of the Kursk war that the deputy commander of the front army, general apanashchenko, suffered the German air attack in his headquarters and died heroically. I didn't expect that I almost made the same mistake today. Now, apanashchenko is still living well. If watujing is allowed to restrict his action and prevent him from coming to the front, it is estimated that the tragedy will not happen again. When I was thinking wildly, bzikov interrupted my meditation. He said with a sad face: "Comrade commander, almost all our communication equipment was destroyed in the bombing just now. That is to say, we can't get in touch with the headquarters of the front army or the troops below now." Bezikov's words surprised me in a cold sweat. I didn't expect that this sudden German bombing not only destroyed our city, but also made us lose contact with the outside world. I knew in my heart that if we could not resume contact with the outside world as soon as possible, the forces of the sixth group army would lose their unified command and fall into a chaotic situation of fighting on their own. At that time, they might be defeated by the German forces. Thinking of this, I asked Yushchenko in a loud voice: "major, when you were saving people from the ruins of the headquarters, did you have the director of communications lophov and the director of intelligence lasmishin?"“ No, comrade commander. " Yushchenko was deeply afraid that I could not understand what he said, and specially stressed: "at least in the body we found, there were no two of them. I think maybe they all managed to move when the explosion happened. " When I heard that they had not been found, I felt a little more secure. Then I told Yushchenko, "major, you should immediately arrange people to look around the city to see if you can find their whereabouts." With that, I gave him a gentle push, "go!" After Yushchenko left, I told akhromeyev, "major, I'll give you a task now. I'll take people to the nearby troops immediately and get some communication equipment from them first, so that we can resume our communication with the outside world as soon as possible."