Chapter 1195

Danilov became uneasy as the rumble of guns came into the headquarters from the outside. After walking back and forth in the room, he finally stopped and asked anxiously, "Comrade commander, do you think our troops can successfully take bergerold?"

I know that the Soviet attack on Belgorod was not smooth at first. The 168th and 198th infantry divisions of the German army, as well as a part of the 6th armored division, which held fast in the city, defeated several Soviet attacks by virtue of their solid defense system. The situation on the battlefield will develop in favor of our army only after the seventh group army of shumilov's guards joins the battle.

After a while of deliberate silence, I shrugged my shoulders, opened my arms, pretended to be helpless, and said, "Comrade deputy commander, although I also hope our troops can capture bergerord at one stroke, judging from the information available at present, this possibility is very small. The enemy has built a solid defense system on the outskirts of the city. If we take these positions alone, our army will pay a heavy price. If general shumilov's troops want to launch an attack from the east of the city, they still need to cross the North donetz River under the enemy's fire. The situation is not optimistic! "

Danilov was very surprised when he heard my answer. He asked in surprise, "do you mean that our attack on Belgorod will end in failure?"

I shook my head and said, "no, in the face of our strong offensive, if the German army wants to defend the city, it must deploy troops to strengthen its defense. But now, where else can Manstein transfer troops to strengthen the defense of Belgorod? From Kharkov?! This is unrealistic, because the next target of our army's attack is where the existing German defense forces are not enough. How can these limited defenders be transferred? The only place where the troops can be transferred is the tomarovka defense line, because this is the junction of Manstein and the German central army group. In order to prevent their intentions from being exposed to our army, they will certainly transfer troops from here to reinforce the Belgorod garrison. "

As for my analysis, Danilov still had some doubts: "so, to cut off the traffic from tomalovka to Belgorod is to prevent German reinforcements from entering the city?"

"Yes, that's it." I've been commanding the battle for a day in tomarovka, and I know the situation there very well, so it's easy to explain to him: "although our group army has put in four divisions, the first and the fifth group armies of the close guard tanks have all put in the battle, it's really not easy to eat the German troops deployed in the junction. Our close guard 32nd army, mechanized 3rd army and German army fought one day and one night, but only pushed three to five kilometers on the German defensive position. "

After listening to these words, Danilov became more and more uneasy. He picked up the phone, grasped the handle on the phone, shook it a few times, and then said in a hurry, "I'm Danilov. Get close to general rodymtsev, commander of the 13th division of the Wei army." Soon I heard him ask in a loud voice, "Comrade General, are your troops in designated positions?"

After listening for a while, he put down the phone and said to me, "general rojmtsev reported that his 41st guard regiment had set up minefields on the road and built Fortifications on both sides of the road."

When I heard Danilov talking about the minefield, I cried out that it was not good. I remember in later history books that the German army dug a ten kilometer anti tank trench outside the city in order to defend Belgorod, and laid 50000 mines at the same time. Although we didn't have the support of tanks in this attack, we didn't have to consider the impact of tank trenches on us, but the tens of thousands of mines were not vegetarian, and there was no problem for the thousands of people who killed us.

Thinking of this, I quickly asked Danilov, "Comrade deputy commander, are our offensive forces equipped with engineers?"

Danilov obviously misunderstood me. He shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, comrade commander. As we are not the main attack force, all the shock engineers sent by the front army have been assigned to the 53rd and 69th army."

As soon as he said assault engineer, I immediately thought of this kind of arms wearing steel armor, holding submachine guns, looking like the magnetic storm infantry in the game. I used to wear steel armor for a period of time. Although it can play a certain role in bulletproof, it's just too heavy. I feel tired after walking for a while. I waved my hand to him and said, "Comrade deputy commander, it's not the kind of engineer you said, but the 20 engineers specialized in mine clearance."

"Demining?" Danilov asked in surprise, "can't our heavy shelling destroy all the German minefields?"

"It's possible to destroy most of them, but it's impossible to destroy all of them." It's very unpleasant to think that our troops may be overwhelmed by German mines: "so it's still up to engineers to open up a way for our infantry in the enemy's minefield."

I said and grabbed the phone to get through to the headquarters of Xie Liujin. When I heard his voice coming out of the earphone, I immediately asked nervously, "Comrade Colonel, are you equipped with engineers in your offensive forces?"

"Equipped with engineers?" When Xie Liujin heard my question, he was stunned. Then he asked, "Comrade commander, from our attack starting position to the city of Belgorod, there are plains in the middle. There is no need for engineers to set up floating bridges."

Just now, Danilov understood the Engineer I said as a shock Engineer in steel armor; Now Xie Liujin regards them as the engineers of Zhouqiao battalion who specially set up the floating bridge. I suppressed my anger and said, "Comrade Colonel, please listen to me carefully. The Engineer I am talking about is neither a shock Engineer for street fighting, nor an engineer for erecting a floating bridge, but an engineer specialized in mine clearance. Do you understand me? "

"But, but, comrade commander." When Xie Liujin heard me say this, he was a little flustered. "The attack will start soon. Where can I go to find engineers?"

"I don't care about that." I didn't want to talk to him, so I directly ordered: "whether you borrow from other troops or you go to mine with an engineer shovel, you should find a way to open up a safe passage for the attacking troops."

"Yes, comrade commander." Xie Liujin said helplessly: "I will arrange engineers to send mines on the charging road."

When I put down the phone, I said angrily, "what's the matter with these division commanders? Don't they understand that they should send engineers to open up a passage in the middle of the enemy's minefield before they attack?"

"Comrade commander, please don't be angry. I don't blame the following teachers for this. If you want to blame me, blame me. " When Danilov saw that I was angry, he quickly took the responsibility to himself: "it's because I didn't think about it carefully. I thought that I would carry out an hour or two of shelling before shelling. In minefields, there are usually few mines left after the shelling. Therefore, I did not arrange for the divisions to send engineers to clear mines. "

When I saw Danilov take the responsibility to himself, I couldn't blame him any more. I just sighed and said helplessly: "Comrade deputy commander, you may not know that although our army has made full preparations for each attack, there are very few shells that fall into the minefield and explode. So that after the shelling, when our troops charge, there will be a large number of casualties in the German minefield. If there are tanks in the front of the assault, I will not say anything, because the tank track can clear a lot of mines. But now we are all involved in the attack of infantry, the flesh and blood of the soldiers can not block the flying shrapnel

"What should we do, what should we do?" Danilov was so anxious that he began to circle the room again. "There are engineering battalions in the headquarters of the group army, but the water far away can't save the fire near. By the time they arrive, our army's attack has begun."

"I can't help it. Now the dead horse is the living horse doctor." I picked up the phone and called bezikov, who was staying at the headquarters“ Chief of staff, I order you to immediately send the Engineering Battalion of the group army to the position of the 89th division of the guards and help them clear the mines on the offensive road. "

Bezikov probably seldom heard me speak to him in such a stern tone, so he answered without hesitation, "I understand, comrade commander. I immediately ordered them to go to the sherekin division and open up a passage for the troops in the minefield."

"Very good, chief of staff." Although bezikov had promised to send out the engineering troops immediately, I still told him not to worry: "move fast. The attack of the division Xie Liujin will begin soon."

Although I gave the order in time and bzikov quickly dispatched the engineering troops, when the trucks of the engineering troops arrived at the sheriujin division, the leading regiment of the division had launched an attack. As the minefields and barbed wire on the offensive road were not cleaned up, the troops paid a third of the cost of casualties when passing through the above areas. In addition, the 53rd and 69th group armies were frustrated in their attacks. They barely approached the vanguard regiment outside the city of Belgorod and had to retreat.

When I heard about the casualties reported by Xie Liujin, I was so angry that I hit the table with a fist. However, I tried my best to keep calm and asked, "Colonel, have you sent engineers to clear the mine?"

"Not yet, comrade commander." Xie Liujin replied sheepishly.

"What, no engineers." My anger, which I had tried hard to suppress, rose again. I immediately asked fiercely to the microphone, "Comrade Colonel, do you plan to let the troops launch a second attack because there will be a large number of casualties in the minefield?"

"No, comrade commander. It's not what you think. " Xie Liujin said in a panic: "I had sent engineers to clear the barbed wire and mine. But because the German army blocked the minefield with firepower, the engineers sent out retreated again after more than a dozen casualties. "

"Even so, you have to find a way!" Although I heard that the German army blocked the minefield with firepower, so that the engineers could not get close to the minefield, I still said to him in the tone of hating iron but not steel: "we can't wait for our soldiers to clear the minefield with flesh and blood after the second attack?"

"Please rest assured, comrade commander." Xie Liujin's voice suddenly became loud, showing a strong look“ We have come up with a better way to carry out remote demining. "

"Remote mine clearance?" Hearing this strange term, I sneered and said, "are you going to use artillery to clear the mine?"

As soon as the words fell, I was stunned. He said in his heart: Yes, why do I only want to use engineers to mine, but not artillery to mine? Every division has a mortar company. It only needs to blast the mortar at the minefield for a while. It can not only detonate the mines, but also blow down the wooden piles with wire. In this way, it will open up a way for the infantry to charge?

I didn't speak because I was thinking about things. At the other end of the phone, Xie Liujin did not speak. After a long time, he stammered: "the commander and comrade, unexpectedly, you... You have already thought of this method!" When I heard that his idea coincided with mine, the stone hanging in my heart was temporarily released, and my heart said: Fortunately, this Colonel Xie Liujin's brain is not too stupid and flexible. Knowing that under the blockade of German firepower, the use of engineers for mine clearance would not only cause heavy casualties, but also fail to achieve ideal results, so they switched to artillery for mine clearance. I just wanted to praise him, but suddenly there was a lot of gunfire and the explosion of tank shells. Danilov ran to the door and asked, "what's the matter?" Listening to the sound of gunfire and explosion, I was not far away from here. Knowing that something must have happened, I said briefly to the microphone, "well, comrade Colonel, I'll clear the mine in the way you said. Good luck to you As soon as I put off the phone, I rushed to the door and listened to the conversation between Danilov and an officer who came to inform me: "what's the matter? We have a heavy tank at the entrance of the village. How can we let the Germans touch into the village?" The officer said with a sad face: "this German army came out of nowhere. Maybe it lost its way, so it bumped into the village by mistake. As a result, it was found by the tank soldiers at the entrance of the village, so the battle took place. Comrades commander, it's too dangerous here. You'd better move first? "“ Transfer, where to transfer? " After listening to the officer's words, I can't help frowning. Now that the enemy outside is not clear, I rush out rashly. Isn't that death. I yelled out to the outside, "major busmanov!" Even called twice, but did not see basmanov's figure. Just as I was about to lose my temper, the officer carefully explained to me, "Comrade commander, the major has gone to meet the enemy with his troops. He ordered me to report to you."