Chapter 1176

A few minutes before the shelling began, vatukin called me again and asked anxiously, "Comrade oshanina, how are you getting ready there?"

"Report to the general," although I am very busy at the moment, I still try to keep calm and report to him in a smooth tone when I hear vatukin's voice: "in a few minutes, our shelling of the German positions will begin. At present, all the attacking forces are in place. After the artillery is ready, they will launch a comprehensive counterattack. "

After a moment's silence, vatukin asked hesitantly, "Comrade oshanina, how sure are you about this counterattack? Can we drive the enemy back to the south of Yakovlev? "

I thought about it and said, "I'm 50 percent sure."

"What, only 50% sure?" When watujing heard what I said, he couldn't help exclaiming. After a short silence, he tentatively asked me, "o'shanina, if you want to increase the success rate, do I need to do something for you?"

"Yes, senior general." Although we have a great advantage in artillery and tanks at present, I am still worried that a large number of casualties will be caused to the troops due to the bombing of German planes during the attack. Originally, I was hesitating whether I should ask watujing to send air force support. Now that he offered to help me, I said, "if possible, I hope you can send out strong fighters and bombers to cooperate with our counterattack."

This request of mine immediately embarrassed watujing. I even thought he hung up when I heard there was no movement from him“ Comrade general, are you still there? " I asked tentatively, and at the same time I said to myself that if he didn't reply, it would indicate that he had hung up.

"I'm still here," said watujing in a voice. After another moment of silence, he continued, "o'shanina, I don't know if I can provide you with air support. You know, today our army launched a counter offensive in the direction of oriole, and all the assault forces were concentrated in that direction. In addition to the air force, several artillery regiments of the front army were temporarily transferred to that direction. "

Vatukin's words cooled my heart. Without the cover of the air force, our attack on the whole line is likely to suffer heavy casualties under the joint attack of the German air force and artillery. Even if the troops barely advance to Yakovlev, they will lose the ability to continue to attack because of the heavy casualties.

"O'shanina, why don't you talk?" Watujing may have heard that there was no voice here. He asked with concern: "are you unhappy because there is no air force support?"

"Yes, Comrade General." I said with a little disappointment: "without the cover of the air force, if our army is bombed by the German air force in the course of attacking Yakovlev, then the tank troops participating in the counterattack will pay a great price."

Perhaps it was to hear that the tank troops would pay more casualties that watujing hesitated. After a long time, he said, "OK, o'shanina, in order to ensure the success of your counterattack, I'll send a squadron of assault planes to patrol over the battlefield later. If I find the enemy's planes, I will resolutely drive them away."

As soon as I put down the phone, I heard bzikov ask me: "Comrade commander, it's time to start shelling?"

I turned my eyes to povsky, who was standing in front of a telephone. He was holding the microphone in his hand and looking at me anxiously, waiting for my final order. I nodded at him and said faintly, "let's go!"

Povsky immediately roared at the microphone: "the commander orders to fire at the area occupied by the enemy!"

When you stay in the headquarters, you can neither see the effect of shelling nor hear the earth shaking sound of shells landing on the enemy positions. I moved a bench and sat in front of the map hanging on the wall, staring at the red and blue arrows on it. My mind was quietly filling up the battle scene.

With our artillery shells falling on the enemy's positions in batches, the explosions have become one after another. The impact points of the shells are one after another, and the sound of the explosions is as close as one. We can't tell the impact point clearly. The panic German soldiers are just like a bunch of ants blown away, and the waves of the explosions are everywhere. In the smoke and dust, thousands of shells burst out, interwoven into a layer of airtight net, harvesting a fresh life. In the rising black smoke, the torn pieces of military uniform, like grass mustard, were scattered on the ground, mixed with the broken limbs, and then collapsed into the sky.

The shelling stopped and the battlefield suddenly fell into silence.

Then, a red signal missile flew into the sky, representing the beginning of the attack.

The first to break the silence of the battlefield was the rumble of hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles that formed the assault formation. Then, under the leadership of commanders at all levels, thousands of officers and men who had been crowding together in the trenches and traffic trenches left the position, straightened up with weapons, yelled slogans and rushed forward

"Comrade commander, comrade commander!" I was imagining the scene of counterattack, but I felt that someone was gently sending my shoulder. I turned to see that it was bezikov. To interrupt my daydream chief of staff, my heart is particularly uncomfortable, so when I speak with a trace of dissatisfaction: "what's the matter, chief of staff?"

Bezikov handed me a piece of paper in his hand, and said: "Comrade commander, a telegram from Colonel Chernoff of the 90th division of the guards. His troops have successfully broken through the German position in the October state farm, and the division is now engaged in fierce fighting with the German troops to the east of oboyan."

I received the telegram. After reading it, I nodded and asked, "do you have any reports from other divisions?"

"Not yet." After answering this question, bezikov might have seen the disappointed expression on my face and said to me in a hurry: "Comrade commander, maybe the other three divisions are advancing too fast, so they don't care to contact us."

"I hope so." Although I know that he comforted me a lot, I still followed his meaning and said, "maybe they will report the progress of the battle to us after they have established a solid support point."

As soon as the voice fell, akhromeyev ran to me with a telegram and said excitedly, "Comrade commander, the telegram of the tank army has arrived. A few minutes ago, they just defeated the 19th German tank division and destroyed more than 40 tanks of the other side. They are now in pursuit. "

"What, the 19th German tank division?" After listening to akhromeyev's report, I didn't have any response, but bezikov grabbed the telegram from him and scanned it carefully.

"What's the matter?" bezikov's reaction puzzled me. I asked akhromeyev, "Comrade major, is the 19th tank division very powerful?"

"Yes, comrade commander." Akhromeyev replied positively: "this tank division has defeated several of our infantry divisions. Because their combat effectiveness is so strong that some people have said that if we do not have more than several times the number of tanks of the enemy, we will not be able to win. "

When I saw that bezikov had finished reading his telegram, I took it out of his hand and said with disapproval: "no matter how powerful the German tank division is, it's not the same now. It's defeated by general Guttman's tank army. I think maybe by nightfall, this unit will be removed from the German establishment. "

From this time on, the war reports from the front came back in an endless stream. Akhromeyev had no time to send me a telegram in person. Instead, he and several staff officers marked the situation of the enemy and ourselves on the battlefield on the map.

Looking at the red arrow on the map pushing down little by little, I was overjoyed. At the same time, I seemed to see the cruelest side of the battlefield: Our Army's commanders and fighters bravely charged forward in the face of the enemy's bullets and gunfire. On the road of charge, there are layers of soldiers who have been killed or injured. Everyone was rushing forward. No one cared about the wounded soldiers. They had to wait for death on the battlefield, or they were rescued by the health workers who happened to come.

When I heard that bezikov had reported to me that major general tavartkilaze's 51st division of guards had also decisively launched from position 1 to meet the fleeing German army. Suddenly I saw thousands of brave commanders and fighters fighting against thousands of German troops who had lost their organizational system. It was a battle without suspense, a one-sided massacre. In recent days, the commanders and fighters who have been oppressed to the extreme by the German attack bravely killed the enemy. They did not accept surrender at all. They did not need to shoot. They could kill the enemy soldiers who had been driven to the extreme with bayonets. They had to wash their grievances with the blood and life of the enemy. And behind the enemy, the main force that followed had been covered up from the front and encircled from both sides

Just as the good news came one by one, vatukin's phone call came again. As soon as he got on the phone, he said, "o'shanina, what's the situation there? Have you broken through the German defense?"

"Report to the general." Holding a thick stack of war reports, I said in a relaxed tone: "it's going very well. The 90th division of the guards has recovered the October state farm in the east of oboyan, and now it's developing to the depth of the enemy. General Gutman's tank army defeated the 19th German tank division... "

"Wait a minute, comrade oshanina." When I was just talking about this, I was suddenly interrupted by vatukin. He was surprised and asked, "what did you just say? The 19th German tank division was defeated

"Yes, Comrade General." When I heard him ask the same question, I couldn't help muttering in my heart. What is the holy place of the 19th tank division? It makes everyone pay so much attention to it“ General Gutman's tank army has destroyed more than 40 tanks of the division and is now pursuing them. "

After I finished this sentence, I heard watujing gasp for a long time, and then said in a high browed tone, "the 19th tank division is our old enemy. In the battle of Kharkov, we defeated several divisions and captured tens of thousands of us. Today, we finally get revenge." After pausing for a moment, he said solemnly, "Comrade oshanina, please tell the officers and men of the tank army that I, vatukin, thank them. The officers and men of the Voronezh front army thank them. They have washed away the shame of our failure."

"Comrade General, do you have any instructions?" When I saw that bezikov also came with a stack of telegrams and knew that there were new war reports, I had no interest in continuing to talk with vatukin, so I said in a hurry, "if not, I will continue to command the battle."

Maybe it was the news of victory that made watujing happy. He didn't care about the impoliteness in my tone of speaking to him. He said in a reasonable way, "well, comrade oshanina, go and continue to command the battle. Don't forget to report to me as soon as you have any latest good news."“ Chief of staff, what's the good news? " I put down the phone and asked bezikov with a smile“ Comrade commander, I don't think that's good news. " After bezikov handed me a stack of telegrams, he said: "although the troops continue to advance south, the resistance they encounter is not strong. But this report from general Kravchenko is not very good. The enemy sent out more than 50 tanks to attack his position. Because the new tank does not have supporting shells, it can only rely on the anti tank guns on the position to block, and the casualties are not small. " After reading the telegram, I put it on the table and asked, "where is captain shamrih's tank battalion?"“ They are entangled by the enemy and can not return to support general Kravchenko for the time being. " Bizikov asked anxiously, "Comrade commander, what should we do? Will the tank troops be drawn from general Guttman for support? "“ No, comrade chief of staff. " Without waiting for me to speak, Danilov said, "general Gutman's tank army is pursuing the 19th German tank division. If we turn around to support general Kravchenko in this way, once we let the enemy slow down, our attacking troops will suffer heavy losses."“ Yes, chief of staff. " I immediately supported Danilov's statement“ We have to believe that general Kravchenko, with his existing strength, is not a big problem to block the German tank troops. As for general Guttman's tank troops, they are now in the critical stage of assault. Once they withdraw from the battle, our counterattack will be in danger of being wasted. "“ Good news, comrade commander. " While we were still discussing whether to send troops to reinforce Kravchenko, akhromeyev came over and excitedly reported to me: "the 375TH infantry division and the 51st guard division have successfully joined forces in Yakovlev area!"