Chapter 1226

Due to the scattered position of German artillery, bofsky's artillery troops failed to completely suppress them in the early stage of artillery attack. Sporadic shells fell on the UD River and exploded, causing great casualties to the officers and soldiers of Zhouqiao battalion who were erecting a floating bridge.

When the formation of night bombers appeared over Kharkov, with the help of German flares, they began to bombard the enemy's exposed artillery positions. The enemy's artillery fire became sparse and soon stopped completely.

Without the interference of German artillery fire, the officers and men of Zhouqiao camp quickened the speed of bridge construction. At dawn, akhromeyev's men called and excitedly reported to me, "Comrade commander, Zhouqiao camp has built four bridges on the UD River, all of which can pass through tankes."

"Very good, comrade major. What a beautiful job." I was overjoyed to hear that four floating bridges were built on the river to pass tanks. "Please convey my respect to the officers and men of Zhouqiao battalion."

Putting down the phone, I said to chisgakov and managarov sitting at the table, "two general comrades, now that four floating bridges have been set up on the UD River, we can divide our forces into four routes and attack the German peripheral positions at the same time."

When bzikov heard this, he quickly opened the book in front of him and asked, "Comrade commander, what should be the order of attack?"

After I looked down at the positions of the divisions marked on the map in front of me, I began to dictate: "according to the positions of the divisions, the order of attack is as follows: first, the 67th division of the guards and the 116th division of the infantry, under the command of major general baksov; The second is the 375TH, 299th and 84th infantry divisions, under the command of major general govorunanko; The third way is the 71st and 90th divisions of the guards, under the command of major general Chernoff; The fourth route is the 52nd and 89th divisions of Jinwei, under the command of major general Xie Liujin. Every offensive unit will be covered by 20 tanks... "

After recording my orders, bezikov said with a little regret: "unfortunately, there are too few tanks. With such a distribution, the number of tanks available to all troops is even less."

I also know that the number of tanks is a little less, but if the superior doesn't give me additional tank troops, I can't turn into a tank, so I have no choice but to continue to command him: "chief of staff, general sivakov will be the commander-in-chief of the former enemy, and immediately convey my order. At the same time, tell him that all the troops will start to cross the river at 8 am. "

Within half an hour of the order, sivakov called. When I heard his voice, I thought he wanted to ask some questions about the attack. Unexpectedly, he said anxiously on the phone: "Comrade commander, the German army sent out infantry and tanks to charge the position of the 375TH division."

My heart sank when I heard that the German army had sent out tanks. My heart said that he was so anxious to call me. Was it because the German army had broken through the position? He asked in a hurry, "has the position of the govorunan division been broken through by the German army?"

When sivakov heard this, he was stunned for a moment and then replied, "not yet, but I'm afraid they can't hold the position. If we lose this bridgehead, it will affect the morale of our army. "

Sivakov's worry really made me laugh and cry. As soon as he finished, I immediately told him, "let bofsky's artillery carry out blocking fire, and we must use artillery fire to destroy German tanks in front of our army."

After putting down the phone, I continued to discuss with them about the next action: "once the troops break through the German peripheral defense line, we will move the headquarters forward. All units of the sixth group army of the close guard are also attached to the headquarters. As for the defense here, "I stopped for a moment and looked at managarov," and handed it over to the coming 48th infantry. "

After listening to my arrangement, managarov only nodded faintly to show that he knew. However, his chief of staff, vorgeng, asked anxiously, "Comrade commander, please forgive me for being frank. Will the scattered use of troops in this way lead to insufficient offensive strength?"

"If we use our forces in a decentralized way, we will certainly see a great reduction in our strength." I saw that volgeng opened his mouth and seemed to want to say something. He quickly raised his hand to stop him, and then said, "but the terrain in the west of Kharkov is special, with more swamps and forests, which is not conducive to the expansion of the army. Because of the narrow front of the German defense position, even if we concentrate all the troops together, only a few troops can fight with them. Now that we adopt the four-way attack strategy, the German army has to disperse its limited forces. In this way, the strength of each defensive zone will be weak, and our chances of breaking through the position will be greatly improved. "

"So it is." Volgeng nodded and said with satisfaction, "I understand that this tactic of multiple attacks and multiple breakthroughs can make the German army defenseless."

Before eight o'clock, watujing called. He asked anxiously, "o'shanina, when can you start attacking?"

"Report to the general that our attack will officially begin at eight o'clock." I was worried that he would criticize my choice of attack time for being too late, so I took the initiative to explain: "the mobilization of troops takes time, so I didn't choose the attack time for five or six."

Fortunately, watujing didn't blame me. Instead, he told me, "I have good news for you. In order to cooperate with your attack, the grassland front army will use the 57th and 69th group armies and the seventh group army of guards to continue to launch a fierce attack on the north and east of Kharkov, so as to prevent the German army from mobilizing troops to resist your breakthrough. "

"Great, that's great." Vatukin's words were a reassurance to me. Originally, I was worried that when the attack was most fierce, the German army would send troops from the north to reinforce, and then the war would fall into a stalemate. Now, if the grassland front army wants to launch an attack at the same time, it can effectively contain the main force of the German army and make our breakthrough battle from the west of Kharkov easier“ With the cooperation of friendly forces, I believe our troops will certainly achieve good results in the next offensive. "

"Good luck then. If you have any news, please report it to me in time."

I raised my hand and looked at my watch. Seeing that it was only a few minutes before eight o'clock, I picked up the phone and asked sivakov, "Comrade commander, what's the situation? Are there any German tanks in front of the 375TH division? "

"Yes, comrade commander." Sivakov replied in a relaxed tone, "but only some of the destroyed tanks."

"Well done, comrade commander! The soldiers are good. Please convey my thanks to them. " Having said that, I habitually raised my hand to look at my watch again and said, "time is almost up. Let the troops attack."

"Yes Sivakov replied loudly“ I'll order the troops to attack at once

Hearing the order I gave, managarov beside me breathed a long sigh of relief, and then said with some worry: "finally we are going to attack the Germans. Whether we can break through the German defense depends on today."

"Don't worry, Comrade General." I said confidently: "now there are three groups of grassland front forces attacking vigorously in the north and east to contain the main force of the German army. But here we use the tactics of attacking at many places and breaking through at many points. The limited German forces can't stop us at all. "

After listening to me, managarov raised his eyebrows and asked, "Comrade commander, how many days do you think we can rush to the city of Kharkov?"

When I heard him ask this question, I couldn't help laughing: "Comrade General, you look down on the combat effectiveness of our troops? We should know that although the German army is very powerful, after being hit by us for several times, not only the soldiers lost a lot, but also their morale became low. If we are against such enemies, it will take us a few days to rush under Kharkov, isn't it too incompetent? "

"You mean tomorrow at the latest, we can rush to the bottom of Kharkov's city?" Managarov asked tentatively, "am I right, comrade commander?"

I have a premonition that some troops will be able to rush into the city today, but at the moment I can only say vaguely: "I think it's not a big problem to rush into Kharkov's city today with the strength of the troops. Well, the answer will come out soon, so we don't have to guess here. "

I said it lightly, but I understood in my heart that the German defense forces in the west of the city, in addition to the 168th and 198th infantry divisions and the 3rd tank division of the 11th army, also included the imperial division and the 8th SS cavalry division. Although we have an advantage in military strength, it is still very difficult for us to eliminate so many enemies.

When the attack started, what sivakov had reported threw cold water on me. Although the German artillery suffered heavy losses in the shelling and bombing last night, they used tanks, assault guns, heavy tank destroyers, as well as a large number of anti tank guns, anti-aircraft guns and 105mm self-propelled howitzers to form a tight and hot fire net barrier in front of our tank troops.

After losing half of the tanks and hundreds of commanders and fighters, baksov's first troops wedged into the German defensive position. However, due to the German's tenacious resistance, they were unable to move forward.

The attacks launched by the second and third route troops were also repulsed by the close defense of the German army. After heavy casualties, the officers and men of several divisions had to retreat back to the offensive starting position.

As for the two divisions under major general seleucin's command, they are now storming the German positions from the southwest of Kharkov. After the German troops were broken through in some areas, they organized troops to launch a crazy counterattack against them under the cover of tanks, but they were successfully repulsed by sherekin.

After seeing a lot of war reports, everyone's eyes were attracted to Xie Liujin's troops. After reading the war report about the fourth Route Army several times, chisgakov said to me thoughtfully, "Comrade commander, from the war report I have received, I think that the 89th division of general Xie Liujin may be the first to break through the German position."

"I agree with Comrade deputy commander." As soon as his words were finished, bzikov went on to say: "last time when we attacked Belgorod, this division was the first one to rush into the city. I believe they will also have a good performance this time..."

"Comrade commander, telegram, telegram!" Before bezikov finished speaking, lophov rushed to the table with a telegram and said breathlessly: "good news, the 89th division of general seleucin's guards has successfully broken through the German peripheral defense and has rushed into the city of Harkov."

Hearing such good news, I snatched the telegram from lophov's hand, looked at it carefully twice, and after confirming that it was correct, I jammed the telegram into one of my hands, picked up the phone from the desk and dialed berey's headquarters. As soon as the phone rang, I asked in a hurry, "Hello, general BIE Lei, how many tanks are there in your hand?"“ There are 28 more, just one tank battalion. " After answering my question, berey asked curiously, "Comrade commander, where are you going to use these tanks?"“ Comrade general, please listen to me Thinking of finally breaking through Kharkov's city defense, if we don't strengthen sherekin's troops immediately, they may be hit by the German counterattack, so the first thing I think of is to let berey put all the remaining tanks into battle“ At present, major general seleucin's troops have broken through the German peripheral defense from the southwest of Kharkov and rushed into the city. I order you to personally lead these 28 tanks to reinforce him, and make sure they have a firm foothold in the city, understand? "“ I see, comrade commander. " After he found out what was going on, berey immediately assured me, "I will lead the troops to set out immediately. As long as we are here, we will never let the Germans drive our troops out of the city." Tank, tank, after I put down the phone, I thought happily, if only I could have more tanks. Not to mention general slotmistrov's Fifth Army of close guard tanks, even with the support of Kravchenko's Fifth Army of close guard tanks, I can quickly expand my achievements in Kharkov. Thinking of this, I went to the high-frequency phone and dialed the headquarters of the front army. The person who answered the phone said, "Hello, I'm o'shanina. Please help me find the commander of the front army, general watujing. I have something important to report to him."“ I am vatukin. " Maybe I was so excited that the person who connected the phone was watu Kyoto. He asked cautiously, "what can I do for you?"“ That's right, Comrade General. " Although I tried to control my emotions, my voice became hoarse because of excitement: "our 89th guard Division has rushed into the city and is now in fierce fighting."“ It's great. It's just great. " After pondering for a moment, vatukin said, "if I remember correctly, this division was the first one to rush into the city in the last attack on Belgorod, wasn't it?"