Chapter 1217

According to the operational plan, we will bombard the German positions in the forest area at 4 p.m.

As time goes by, I sit in the headquarters waiting for the artillery to fire. I feel like an ant on a hot pot. I keep looking at the time and wonder why it's so slow.

Managarov, on the other hand, seemed more relaxed. He and chisgakov sat opposite me, chatting and laughing. From time to time, they pulled the map in front of them and talked in a low voice about where the troops under his command had won and what kind of victory they had won.

Kirilov and bezikov were not idle. He and his friend's chief of staff and akhromeyev surrounded the huge map on the wall, carefully studying the direction of the army's next move.

Looking at more than half an hour before the shelling, I felt really bored, so I got up and went to the map. He pretended to ask bzikov: "Comrade chief of staff, I think you have been studying the place. Do you have any new discoveries?"

"Comrade commander, please allow me to report to you." Before bzikov could answer my question, the chief of staff of the 53rd army next to him said, "I found a loophole in your plan."

"Loopholes in the plan?" After repeating his words, I asked curiously, "Comrade chief of staff, can you tell me more about it?"

"Comrade commander, please have a look." He pointed to the south of Kharkov with a stick and said, "this is the railway and highway from Kharkov to melefa and krasnograd. If we don't cut it off, the German army will be able to move in the ammunition and supplies needed by the city, and transport out the important materials in the city and their sick and wounded people

After listening to the chief of staff, bzikov looked at me and asked, "Comrade commander, what should we do?"

I carefully looked at the location of the railway and highway, and then said: "from the current situation, to cut off the traffic between the enemy and the outside world, we still need to repulse the garrison in the forest and cross the UD river."

"Yes, comrade oshanina." As soon as I finished, managarov, who didn't know when to come to me, continued: "I suggest asking the front army to send out air force to carry out air strikes on this traffic line, making it more difficult for the enemy to get in touch with the outside world."

After listening to managarov's suggestion, I stared at the map for a while. Although we have reached the west of Kharkov, we still don't know about the German defense in this area. That is to say, if we want to cut off the enemy's rear traffic lines, we can't do it in a day or two. Air raid on the German traffic lines may be the best way at present.

Thinking of this, I nodded and said to managarov, "Comrade General, you are right about this proposal. Later, when the offensive begins, send a telegram to general konev, asking him to send air force to attack the enemy's positions. "

"All right." Managarov clearly understood that the reason why I asked him to negotiate with the air force was that this was the area in charge of the grassland front army. If I went to konev directly, it might lead to conflicts. So he readily agreed, "I'll call commander konev later."

Just as he was talking, suddenly there came the sound of guns. After listening, bzikov said with pride, "our artillery are beginning to teach the Germans a lesson."

I quickly walked to the phone and asked the messenger to connect me to berey. When I heard bielei's voice coming from the earphone, I immediately asked, "Comrade General, how many tanks have entered the starting position?"

"Comrade commander, less than one third." General berey said with some embarrassment: "because the road leading here is not easy to walk, so the remaining tanks are still marching on the road. As for when they will arrive, it is not easy to say."

"Can we get there before the end of the artillery preparation?" In such a tough battle, if there is not enough tanks to help, it is very difficult to successfully occupy the German position. So I heard that the tank troops can not arrive at the designated position on time. I can't help but worry: "if there are not enough tanks before the attack, then our infantry will pay huge casualties."

Don't thunder listen to me some anxious, had to say helplessly: "commander comrade, I do my best.". I will urge the troops behind to speed up their march and try to get there before the attack. "

Seeing that I put down the phone with an unhappy face, managarov quickly comforted me and said, "don't worry, comrade oshanina. Even without tanks, our soldiers can defeat the Germans."

When I heard this, I couldn't help laughing bitterly. My heart said: without tanks, I can only take people to fill in. Two or three thousand people may die, but they can't take the enemy's position. However, these words can be thought about in mind, but can not be said. In order not to disappoint him, I said with a smile: "you are right, general managarov. Even without tanks, our brave soldiers can defeat the damned Germans."

Managarov raised his hand and looked at his watch. Then he said to me, "Comrade oshanina, there's nothing wrong now. I'll call general konev first and ask him to send air force to air raid the German traffic line."

"Go, go!" Although I knew that the air raid at this time was of little use to the elimination of German troops in the forest, it was better than nothing, so I urged him to call quickly.

When managarov went to make a phone call, I pulled chisjakov to the map, pointed to the traffic line that was about to be attacked, and said to him, "Comrade deputy commander, look at this traffic line. It's very difficult to completely cut it off only by relying on the air raid. Maybe in the end, we have to send out ground troops."

After looking at the map for a while, chisjakov turned to me and asked, "Comrade commander, I don't know which army you plan to send to complete this important task?"

Although I want to send troops to cut off the enemy's traffic lines, it's really difficult for me to send any troops. Just when I was in a dilemma, the chief of staff of the 53rd army said, "Comrade commander, I have a proposal that the task of cutting off traffic lines can be done by the 84th, 116th and 299th infantry divisions."

Since the chief of staff discovered the problem of cutting off the traffic line, he must have thought it over before he put it to me. So when he finished, I simply asked, "how many troops are there in these three divisions?"

My question silenced the chief of staff. I saw his head down, his lips open and close quickly and silently, and I thought he was calculating the number of soldiers in these units. After two or three minutes, he finally stopped, looked up at me and said, "report to Comrade commander, although these three divisions have been seriously reduced in the early fighting, so far there are still nearly ten thousand troops in total."

"Nearly ten thousand people?" I was stunned when I heard what he said about the data. I only know that when the 53rd group army attacked Kharkov from the north, there were heavy casualties. Unexpectedly, the casualties were close to two-thirds.

While I was hesitating, managarov, who had finished the call, came back and said to me cheerfully, "Comrade commander, general konev agreed. He said that from tomorrow, he would send the air force to bomb the German lines of communication."

When I heard that the air force would be out tomorrow, I immediately felt relieved: "that's great. In this way, the German army will soon have to withdraw from the city because of the depletion of ammunition and materials. "

"By the way, what were you talking about?" Managarov asked curiously as he saw a group of us gathered around the map and seemed to be discussing something.

"Well, general managarov." "We are discussing which army will be responsible for cutting off the German traffic line after breaking through the German forest line," chisgakov explained to him

After hearing this, managarov turned his eyes to me and said nervously, "Comrade oshanina, give this task to our group army. Although my troops suffered heavy casualties in the early stage, they will certainly be able to complete your task well. "

As soon as his words were finished, the commanders around him sent out a burst of laughter, which confused him. He looked at me mistily and asked blankly, "what are you laughing at?"

I coughed gently and tried to say to him in a calm voice, "well, general managarov, your chief of staff has just proposed that the 84th, 116th and 299th infantry divisions of your army should complete this task."

When managarov heard what I said, he immediately said excitedly, "yes, the combat effectiveness of these three divisions is relatively strong in our group army. With them, there should be no problem in cutting off the enemy's traffic lines."

"Well, since you say the same, the task of cutting off the enemy's traffic lines is left to these three divisions." Seeing that managarov was eager to let his troops perform in front of me, he did it without hesitation. "After we broke through the German forest defense line, we immediately sent out these three divisions, quickly inserted them to the south of Kharkov and cut off the enemy's transportation line."

As soon as I finished speaking, I heard the communication director ROP Hoff call me: "Comrade commander, there is a call for you. It's from the commander of the front army."

When I heard lophov's words, I instinctively looked at managarov beside me and said that I might be looking for him. Who knows that lophoff called again: "commander, it's general vatukin."

When lophov said that, I realized that the caller was not konev, but vatujing. I quickly walked over and took the earphone from his hand. Then he said respectfully, "Hello, senior general!"

When vatukin heard my voice, he immediately asked with a smile, "Comrade oshanina, do you have any new actions after recovering jergach? I seem to hear the rumbling of guns?"

"Yes, senior general." I truthfully reported the ongoing offensive to him, and finally added: "my plan is to break through the German forest defense zone and divide the troops into two routes: one is mainly the sixth group army of guards, directly crossing the UD River and attacking Kharkov; On the other side, the three infantry divisions of general managarov went south to cut off the German lines of communication

"Well, that's a good plan." After listening to me, vatukin said with admiration: "as long as the German army is cut off from the rear, they will not last long in Kharkov. If they do not retreat, they will not be able to escape being annihilated by us. "

With these words, he stopped for a moment and said, "by the way, general konev just called me and said that general managarov asked him to send air force to bomb the German lines of communication. O'shanina, do you think this is effective? " After thinking about this question of vatukin, I replied, "Comrade General, bombing German lines of communication will not help if too few planes are dispatched. But if our air force can bombard the German lines of communication in large formations in many batches, I think we can paralyze their transportation in a short time. "“ Large formation, multi batch? " After repeating what I said, vatujing asked in a puzzled way, "o'shanina, can you be more specific? I'm confused by you. "“ Comrade general, the so-called large formation means that hundreds of bombers are dispatched at one time; Many batches, that is, the first batch of planes flew away just after the bombing, and the second batch of planes came back to continue bombing. " I indoctrinated vatukin with my own military theory that "under such intensive saturation bombing, the German lines of communication will certainly be paralyzed. In this way, the German army in Kharkov was not supplied with soldiers, ammunition and supplies. Before long, the isolated German army will, like Paulus, obediently lay down its arms and surrender to us. " The beautiful picture I described made watujing's heart beat. After a moment's silence, he said to me, "oshanina, this bombing method you said is good. I'll discuss it with Marshal Zhukov later. If he agrees, the air force of our front army will join forces with konev's air force to carry out saturation bombing on German lines of communication. " As soon as I put down the phone, bzikov came to me and reported, "Comrade commander, the army has launched an attack on the forest area. But unfortunately, we have a limited number of tanks. As a result, the infantry division may suffer a lot of casualties. "