Chapter 1224

"Damn Krauts, I can't spare you!" Seeing his own soldiers fall under the German butcher's knife, sivakov roared angrily, "I will kill you all!"

Although I hate teeth itching, but still try to keep calm. When sivakov was quiet, I said to him, "Comrade commander, remember, this is the German SS 8th cavalry division. Tell the soldiers that all officers and men who seize the division on the battlefield will be shot on the spot, and we will never accept their surrender! "

Sivakov, who was still furious, gradually calmed down after hearing my order. After he raised his hand to salute me, he picked up the phone on the desk with his trembling hand and asked the signalman to connect with the headquarters of the 299th division to find the division commander. After the phone call, he said in a slightly trembling voice: "Comrade division commander, the commander has just issued an order that all officers and men of the eighth SS cavalry division who are captured will be shot on the spot. We will never accept their surrender! Remember to convey this order to all the commanders and fighters of your division immediately

Because the German cavalry came so fast, I didn't have time to give the order that the commanders and fighters in the bridgehead should go to rescue the wounded. At this time, they saw the enemy's cavalry rushing forward, and immediately fired with intensive firepower, knocking many cavalry down from their horses. Seeing that the German cavalry could not take advantage of it, they made a detour in front of our position and returned.

Seeing the cavalry go away, more than a dozen soldiers immediately ran out of the trench to check the cavalry who had fallen. Some of the cavalry fell off their horses, but they were only injured and were escorted by our soldiers towards the trench. When I saw this, I could not help frowning slightly. My heart said, has my command not been conveyed yet?

At this moment, another commander like man ran out of the trench. He raised his hand to stop the soldiers who were escorting the prisoners back. After a few words, the soldiers released their prisoners and allowed them to stand in the same place with their own ability. Then he ran to one side, took the weapons in his hands and started a fire at them. The prisoners, who were hit by the bullet, trembled a few times like an electric shock and then fell on the ground.

From the failure of the first attack, I realized that the German army was very skilled in the application of artillery. If our army launched an attack only by infantry without the cover of tanks and artillery, it would cost huge casualties. Thinking of this, I once again ordered sivakov: "Comrade commander, today's attack will be suspended. Let the commander of the 299th division call and ask them to draw barbed wire and lay minefields in front of the trench, so that they will not be attacked by the Germans at night."

When I returned from the observation post to the army headquarters in sivakov, I was surprised to find bere, povsky and Nekrasov sitting here. Seeing me enter the room, the three quickly stood up from their seats and raised their hands to salute me.

After I returned a gift, I asked bielei curiously, "general bielei, how many of you are here?"

On hearing my question, berey replied solemnly: "Comrade commander, I know that the German position on the opposite side is not easy to fight, so I came to see for myself. I didn't expect to come here and see that the German army actually opened a breakthrough for our army and carried out indiscriminate firepower coverage. It's really cruel. "

After waiting for bere to finish, povsky said, "Comrade commander, according to my observation, although the German army was hit by us continuously, most of their heavy weapons have survived. As soon as they see that their soldiers can't resist our attack, they will carry out indiscriminate shelling. Today, this situation is not only encountered by our army, but also by the 69th army when it attacked Belgorod. "

"Is there any way to deal with them?" I also have a headache for the German artillery, because I don't know when he will give you such a surprise, which will completely upset our attack plan.

When the telephone rang, sivakov picked it up and handed it to me immediately. At the same time, he whispered, "it's from the commander of the front army."

I had a headache when I heard the call from vatukin. I knew that he wanted to know if we had started attacking the German positions on the south bank. I took the microphone, stuck it to my ear and said, "Hello, general!"

"Comrade oshanina, have you launched an attack on the German periphery?" Vatukin did not beat around the Bush and asked him directly what he was interested in.

"We just launched an attack." Anyway, the ugly daughter-in-law will see her father-in-law sooner or later. Even if I don't report the failure of the attack, he will soon know. So I just went out and truthfully reported: "once I tore a few holes in the enemy's defense line, but..." speaking of this, I can't help thinking of the tragedy at that time, and then I can't help but stop.

After listening to my half report, watujing stopped and said impatiently, "since he once tore a hole in the enemy's defense line, why don't he continue to attack. Maybe if you attack again, the Germans will collapse because they can't support it. "

"Comrade General, this is the situation." I patiently explained to him, "we launched an impact on the German position with the strength of a regiment. When our brave officers and men tore many holes in the enemy's line of defense, trying to continue to expand the results, the enemy's artillery suddenly carried out indiscriminate shelling on the breakthrough. Our offensive troops were completely lost in the shelling, and all of them, except for more than 20 wounded people, died bravely. On the way back to the position, the wounded were chased and killed by the German cavalry

"German cavalry?" Watugen hesitated for a moment, and then tentatively asked me, "Comrade oshanina, is he the eighth cavalry division of the German SS?"

"I think so, senior general." I replied vaguely, "I haven't heard of any German cavalry other than this one."

"I see," said watujing, after finding out what was going on, "Comrade oshanina, you may not have heard of this cavalry before. They used to carry out the task of eliminating the guerrillas in the swamp area of Pripyat. They owe us a lot of blood feuds. Sooner or later, we will ask them for their blood." Then he turned the subject around and asked, "when are you going to attack again?"

"I plan to attack the enemy's position tomorrow after the tanks cross the river." Deeply afraid that my plan would be rejected by watujing, I sped up and said, "with the cover of tanks, infantry can not only reduce casualties in attack, but also greatly increase the probability of breaking through enemy positions."

I know that in front of the senior commanders like watujing, it is not important to reduce the casualties of the troops. Therefore, I especially emphasize that with the cooperation of tanks, we can successfully break through the enemy's line of defense. Maybe it was the last sentence that moved him. He said, "well, let's wait until the tanks pass the pontoon tomorrow, and then attack the enemy. By the way, I forgot to tell you one more thing. In order to support the battle for the liberation of Kharkov, today the southwest front army and the southern front army launched an attack in the zimiyev area to contain the German forces. It is because Manstein can no longer send reinforcements to the Kharkov area. "

When I heard the name of zmiev, I immediately thought of the campaign currently being carried out by the southwest front army and the southern front army, that is, the "battle of dunbas" carried out at the same time as Kharkov. Although the reputation of this campaign is far less than that of the battle of Kursk, and even that of the ongoing Kharkov offensive, the results are not small. After the recovery of Donbas, Ukraine's important coal and metallurgical areas returned to the hands of the Soviet Union.

Since there will be no more attacks on the Germans today, I did not stay at the headquarters of sivakov, but returned to the headquarters of the group army under the protection of major basmanov.

The first thing I did when I got back to the headquarters was to call all the people together and repeat the failure of the 299th division's attack. Finally, I asked, "what do you think of the next attack?"

When he heard my question, chisjakov looked around for a moment. Seeing that no one spoke, he said, "Comrade commander, one failure is nothing. We should continue to attack the enemy's positions."

"Comrade deputy commander, if our troops break through the enemy's line again and are covered by the enemy's firepower, what shall we do?" "If this happens more than once, the morale of the troops will be destroyed," he retorted. The next time we launch an attack, our officers and men will become cautious for fear of being bombarded by the enemy. "

"Can we say that our officers and men will not attack the enemy because they are afraid of being bombarded by the enemy?" Hearing bzikov's retort, chisjakov said unconvinced: "what's the logic?"

General volgeng, managarov's chief of staff, stood up from his seat and said cautiously, "we should extend the time for artillery preparation before the attack and destroy the enemy's positions and artillery as much as possible, so that the casualties of the troops can be greatly reduced during the attack."

When I heard volgeng's opinion, I thought it was very reasonable. But when I think about it carefully, it is not right. The German army knew the Soviet artillery style very well. At the beginning of the artillery preparation before each attack, the German army hid behind the defense line and returned to the position after the artillery attack, causing heavy damage to the attacking Soviet army. If the German artillery is well concealed, even if we are well prepared before the attack, it is still useless.

What to do? What to do? When I think of this problem, I feel very confused. Do I really need to use people to fill it in? Just when I had a headache, I heard akhromeyev's voice: "comrades, I have a suggestion. I don't know whether to say it or not."

"If you have any suggestions, just say it." Bezikov rolled his eyes at him and said discontentedly, "no one will blame you even if you are wrong."

"Well, comrade commander." Akhromeyev went to the map, pointed to the west of Kharkov with his explanation stick and said, "if we still use today's attack position to attack the enemy's position, we will certainly be killed by the enemy's artillery fire. Therefore, I suggest that after crossing the UD River, the troops should attack the German army from three to four points at the same time, with the division as the unit. "

"Comrades in charge of operations," the silent managarov finally opened his mouth at this time. He looked at the map and asked, "if we are divided into several areas to launch attacks at the same time, how can we prepare for artillery fire? As far as our existing artillery regiments are concerned, they can't take care of so many places at the same time. "

"Comrade General," said akhromeyev politely in response to managarov's query, "we don't need to prepare for the attack tomorrow. Just under the guidance of tanks, attack the enemy's defensive positions. " When he saw that managarov seemed to want to ask something else, he quickly added, "according to the information I have, the German artillery has been fighting for several times, and there are few shells left. In addition, today another ammunition train has been bombed by us, and the roads and railways have been cut off by the 252nd division. The German army will soon fall into the embarrassing situation of no ammunition and no supplies. So I dare to speculate that in tomorrow's attack, the German army will not use intensive artillery to bombard our army again. "

"Yes, what major ahlomeyev said is very reasonable." Seeing that managarov still wanted to refute, I quickly spoke for ahlomeyev, "judging from today's artillery density, the German army has consumed at least four or five hundred shells, and it is estimated that the remaining shells of each gun are not enough for a base." Then I sprang up from my seat and said decisively, "I've decided to adopt the major's proposal. After the floating bridge was erected tomorrow, the troops crossing the river, taking the division as the unit, launched a fierce attack on the German peripheral positions from several directions at the same time. Before noon, we must rush to the city of Kharkov. "“ What, rush to Kharkov at noon? " Managarov was a little surprised and asked, "Comrade commander, did I hear you right? You know, our group army has been attacking for a week in a row in the north of Kharkov, but it has only advanced five kilometers, and it is still ten kilometers away from the city. "“ Comrade general, you heard me right. " Bezikov said to him with a smile, "I believe Comrade commander. She said that if our troops can rush to Kharkov at noon tomorrow, they will certainly rush to the city of Kharkov. It depends on which army is lucky to be the first to rush into the city. "