Chapter 1199

Instead of listening to askarepov teach his men street fighting skills, I took kirilov out of the division headquarters and planned to go to the 90th guard division. Not far from the building, kirilov suddenly stopped, turned to me and said, "Rita, are we going to Colonel Chernoff's division headquarters like this?"

"Yes." Although I don't understand why kirilov asked this question, I answered truthfully: "general shumilov's troops are attacking the east of the city. I plan to let the 90th division of the guards attack from the rear of the German army to coordinate the friendly forces so that they can attack the city as soon as possible."

"Can you wait a moment, Rita?" Kirilov pleaded with me: "I want to see the street that Colonel askarepov said."

His request made me hesitate for a moment, but soon I readily agreed to his request. After all, there is no need to conflict with him on such a small matter. I turned around and asked the officer who was guiding us, "where is the observation post nearby?"

The officer pointed to a half collapsed building not far away and said, "Comrade commander, there is an observation post on the second floor. You can clearly see the street you said."

Under the leadership of the officers, we arrived at the observation post smoothly. The three officers and men inside saw us enter the door, quickly raised their hands to salute, and gave us a side position, so that we could observe the situation outside from the window.

I stood at the window, looking at the road between our and German positions with a blank face. Although the distance is only two or three hundred meters, it is like a natural moat in front of us. There's bodies all over the floor. I can't help but feel like a knife in my heart.

Looking at the officers and men hiding behind various bunkers, I urged kirilov: "Comrade military commissar, can you leave now? We need to get to Colonel Chernoff's division as soon as possible, or it will be too late. "

"All right, Rita." After watching the battlefield, kirilov turned pale. Hearing what I said, he immediately replied without hesitation, "let's go now."

We followed the street controlled by our army to the radio station building occupied by the 272th regiment of guards. Kirilov looked up at the red flag flying in the wind on the roof. He could not help but burst into tears. His voice trembled and said, "Rita, since we captured Kiev last time, I haven't seen our flag flying over the city occupied by the German army for a long time."

I waited for him to finish, then said with a smile: "Comrade military commissar, although it is of extremely important political significance to occupy Belgorod today, it is only a medium-sized city after all. You can express your feelings when we liberate big cities like Kharkov, Kiev and Minsk."

Kirilov's face flushed slightly. Then he turned away and said, "come on, Rita, let's go to the division headquarters. Colonel Chernoff is waiting for us."

Chernoff didn't know we would come, and naturally he wouldn't wait for us. But I followed kirilov's words and said, "yes, yes, the Colonel must be in a hurry. We'll see him now."

Chernoff was set up in a conference room on the second floor. The officer on duty at the entrance of the radio station politely led us to the door. Then he said respectfully, "commander, military commissar, division commander is in there. Please come in!"

When kirilov and I walked in, we saw a group of commanders around the table. No one noticed us. I called them out loud: "Hello, comrades, commanders!"

Hearing my voice, all the people stood up and faced me, politely responded: "Hello, comrade commander."

I went to the table, sat down in an empty chair, pulled the map on the table in front of me, and then asked, "what are you studying, Colonel Chernoff?"

Chernoff quickly replied, "Comrade report commander, we are studying the next attack direction."

"Comrade Colonel, what are you going to do next?" Before I give Chernoff a task, I want to hear how he thinks, "tell me your plan."

"Well, comrade commander." Chernoff pointed to the map and said to me, "our 272th regiment is deployed in a few blocks centered on the radio station, connected to the 77th division of the guards in the West. The 271st regiment is on the north side of the radio building, and it is in the same area as Colonel sherekin's close guard regiment 270. And our close guard 273rd regiment is to the south of the whole division. I'm going to let them attack South and cut off the retreat of the German army. "

"Why cut off the retreat of the German army, comrade Colonel?" I waited for him to finish, just asked lightly.

Chernoff may have dreamt that I would suddenly ask such a question, and he was stunned. After a while, he murmured, "Comrade commander, I think we can cut off the German retreat to Kharkov by attacking south along the street. That way, our troops will have a chance to wipe out all the German troops in the city. "

"Your troops may have been eaten by the German army before you cut off the retreat." I said impolitely, "there may still be more than 5000 people left in your division, and a regiment will have thousands of people if it's full of money and money, plus those logistics personnel. Do you think it will be successful to attack an enemy several times more than you with such a force?"

My words made Chernoff speechless. He turned to look at his subordinates, and then nervously asked, "Comrade commander, what shall we do?"

"At present, the task of your division is to consolidate the defensive line of the 272th regiment of the guards and defend here at all costs." I pointed to the map and began to assign tasks to Chernoff: "at the same time, transfer the 273rd regiment to attack the east of the city."

"Attack east of the city?" Chernoff's chief of staff was puzzled and said, "Comrade commander, it's the attack area of the seventh group army of the guards. If we go to attack there, will there be a conflict with the friendly forces because of crossing the border?"

I gave the division chief of staff a vicious look, and I really wanted to kick him. But I still managed to control my mood and said in a smooth tone: "I let you attack eastward to help the troops of the seventh group army enter the city. If you think about it, as long as they enter the city, the comparison of our and enemy forces in the city will develop in the direction beneficial to our army. As for the cross-border problem you are worried about, don't worry about it at all. After the friendly troops enter the city, you can go back to the original defense area. "

Chernoff's brain is not too stupid at all. When I say this, it suddenly dawns on him. He patted the table hard and said excitedly, "Comrade commander, I understand. I understand everything. You asked us to attack the east of the city, just to make sure that the enemy there could not look at each other head and tail, so that the friendly forces could break through the German defense as soon as possible and rush into the city to join us. As long as there are more troops in the city, the initiative in the battlefield will be in our hands. "

I waited for him to finish, nodded, and then said faintly, "Comrade Colonel, since you have understood my fighting intention, don't you hurry to arrange it?"

"Yes, comrade commander." Chernoff agreed, turned and called for a lieutenant commander, and began to assign a task to him: "lieutenant commander, in addition to leaving two companies on guard, the rest of your troops immediately turned to the east to help the friendly troops break through the German defensive positions."

"Yes The Commander agreed, turned and walked out of the headquarters quickly.

When there were only me, kirilov, bernoff and his chief of staff left in the headquarters, I asked curiously, "Comrade Colonel, where is your political commissar?"

"He went down to the army." When Chernoff finished, seeing my blank face, he quickly explained: "every time there is a big battle, the political commissar will go to the grass-roots units to do political agitation work. He said it is very helpful to boost the morale and improve the combat effectiveness of the troops. "

"Yes, comrade Colonel, it is." Kirilov went on to say: "the political personnel have contributed a lot to our victory in the defense of Stalingrad. Without them, it would be hard to say what the final outcome of the campaign would have been like if they hadn't been in the army all the time, doing political agitation to the commanders and fighters and inspiring their confidence in victory. "

"By the way, comrade colonel." When Chernoff and kirilov were talking, I suddenly thought of a thing. As soon as they finished talking, they immediately asked, "have you found any residents of the city in the area occupied by your division?"

After listening to my question, Chernoff first shook his head, then nodded a moment later, frowned and said, "Comrade commander, I am aware of your question. In the more than ten streets we occupied, only no more than 50 local residents were found, and the rest of them were unknown. "

"Have you ever interrogated German prisoners?" Kirilov also asked curiously, "have they confessed that they have taken the residents of the city to any place?"

"We have captured several SS prisoners," Chernoff said, word for word. "According to their confession, the SS leader Himmler has issued a new order to implement the scorched earth policy against us. They were ordered to take everything and destroy everything. As early as July 29, the Germans began to move the residents of Belgorod, and destroyed all the factories and civil facilities in the city, destroying almost all the buildings. "

When I heard Chernoff say this, I was shocked. I didn't expect that the Germans had just lost the battle in Kursk and started to use this scorched earth strategy to deal with our army. Did they also feel that the situation was over, so they began to use this extreme method. I began to pray in my heart that the 273rd regiment would act more quickly and take the 7th group army into the city as soon as possible, so that we could drive the Germans out of the city soon.

It's only 40 minutes since the head of the 273rd regiment left and he called us. But for me, it's as long as a century. On the phone, the lieutenant commander excitedly reported to Chernoff that "Comrade division commander, the 15th and 36th divisions of the seventh group army of the guards have successfully rushed into the city and are developing southward."

After reporting this information to me, Chernoff covered the microphone and asked, "Comrade commander, what shall we do next?"

"Ask the commander," I asked thoughtfully, "did the friendly forces send troops to take over his defense?"

Chernoff released his hand covering the microphone and said in a loud voice, "Comrade commander, did the friendly troops enter your defense area?"

"No, the friendly troops did not enter our defense area, and then they turned south to attack the German defense positions." Perhaps the gunfire over there was so loud that the commander had to report aloud, "Comrade division commander, what's the next task of our regiment?"“ Let them stay where they are This time, without waiting for Chernoff to ask me again, I gave the order first“ Make sure that the gap torn by the friendly forces will not be blocked by the German forces again. " My order was immediately conveyed by Chernoff truthfully. The fighting continued for more than four hours, and the sound of guns outside finally became sparse. Kirilov listened attentively for a while and said curiously, "why is the sound of guns getting weaker and weaker? Are the German troops in the city almost wiped out?" After listening to his conjecture, I said with a smile: "Comrade military commissar, the situation may be as you guessed. As the main force of our army enters the city, we are gradually annihilating the tenacious enemy, so I think the battle will be over soon. " As soon as I finished my words, an officer came out in a hurry. After raising his hand to salute us, he reported, "report commander, there is a general coming out. He said that he is general shumilov, commander of the seventh group army of the guards."“ Is general shumilov here? " When I heard the news, I jumped up from my seat and quickly walked out of the door, intending to meet my old superior in person. Who knows, just walked to the door, then saw the dusty shumilov came in from the outside. As soon as he saw me, a smile appeared on his face. After he reached out and shook my hand, he said triumphantly, "Comrade oshanina, as soon as I heard from the 273rd regiment leader that you were here, I immediately rushed over." He inadvertently looked up, saw kirilov, and then held out his hand to him with a smile, "Hello, comrade kirilov, I didn't expect that we would meet here."“ There is nothing unexpected, general shumilov Kirilov also replied with a smile: "I was Rita's military Commissioner, so it's no surprise that I was in the same place as her. Well, have all the troops gone to town? "“ Yes, they're all in. " Shumilov said with relief: "after the 15th and 36th divisions of Jinwei rushed into the city, the 78th and 81st divisions of Jinwei also entered the city one after another, and are launching a fierce attack on the German army in the south of the city. I believe that it won't be long before we can wipe out or drive away the enemy who is in the south of the city. " The German troops who stayed in the south of the city received Manstein's order to withdraw. Except for leaving a few troops to cover, the rest of the large troops withdrew from bergorod orderly and went to Kharkov. With the withdrawal of the main German forces, the battle in the south of Belgorod continued for more than an hour and ended with a complete victory for our army. Shumilov and I sent a joint telegram to the headquarters of the front army, reporting the good news to Zhukov and vatujing.