I know that the imperial division is stationed in the west of Kharkov, and the Germans are not stupid. When they see our troops rushing into the city, they will surely send the most elite troops to attack and drive our troops out of the city in the shortest time, so as to restore the broken line as soon as possible. Thinking about this, my heart beat faster. I nervously said to Xie Liujin, "Hello, Mr. Xie Liujin, I sent you reinforcements, so no matter how fierce the enemy's attack is, you must resist it for me!"
"Don't worry, comrade commander. As long as we have one more person, we will never let the Germans drive us out of the city," he cried
Seeing that Xie Liujin was so confident, I felt a little more secure. Finally, I told him, "if you need any support, please call me at any time!"
I put down the phone and thought about it. I still felt uneasy. So I picked up the phone and called povsky: "Hello, comrade artillery commander, please send some artillery observers to liubojing area immediately to guide the direction of the artillery shooting."
"To liubojing?" When povsky heard my somewhat puzzling order, he asked: "Comrade commander, isn't it occupied by the German?"
"Comrade General, your news is out of date." In order to make povsky pay attention to this matter, I specially stressed: "at present, the troops of the 89th division of the guards have occupied Liu Bojing. The German army is not willing to let us break through their positions. They are organizing troops to fight back. "
"I see, comrade commander." Povsky's reaction was also very fast. I just said that Liu Bojing was occupied by our army, and he immediately understood what was going on. He quickly replied, "I immediately sent the most capable artillery observer to Liu Bojing to guide our artillery shooting direction."
Although I sent a lot of tanks, artillery and infantry to liubojing, my heart was always like 15 buckets of water. Seeing my situation, chisjakov took the initiative to put forward to me: "Comrade commander, I think you are still worried about liubojing area. Well, I'll go there myself to coordinate the command of several divisions, so as to gain a firm foothold and expand the results quickly. "
Without waiting for my promise, the phone on the desk rang. I thought it was the next teacher who called me to complain. After putting the receiver to my ear, I asked aloud, "Hey, where are you?"
Perhaps my tone is too heavy, the other party Leng for a while, and then said: "Comrade o'xia Nina, who makes you angry, how so angry?"
I immediately recognized that the speaker was konev, commander of the grassland front army. I immediately apologized to him and said, "sorry, comrade commander of the front army, I thought..."
"I thought it was your men. I have some bad news for you, right?" Said konev with a smile.
Seeing that konev guessed my state of mind, I laughed with embarrassment, then looked at managarov beside me, and then tentatively asked, "Comrade General, are you calling to find general managarov?"
"No, I'm not looking for him, I'm looking for you." Konev always spoke straight: "I heard that your troops have rushed into the city from the west of Kharkov. Is that true?"
"Yes, Comrade General." As soon as he finished, I immediately replied, "at present, two divisions have broken through the German peripheral positions in the southwest of Kharkov, rushed into the city and occupied the liubojing area. At present, the German army is launching a crazy counterattack against the area, and the enemy and us have launched a fierce battle. "
"I heard vatukin say that your troops have rushed into the city. I thought he was joking with me." Konev said to me in a serious tone: "Comrade oshanina, I will immediately order the 57th and 69th group armies to strengthen their attacks on the enemy from the north and the seventh group army of the guards from the East, so as to ensure that the enemy can not withdraw a single soldier from these two directions and take part in the counterattack in liubojing area, so as to reduce your pressure."
"Thank you, thank you, Comrade General." Konev's words reassured me that as long as the attack on the north and East was more fierce, the German army would not easily transfer troops from these two directions. "I believe that with your support, we will soon be able to gain a firm foothold in Kharkov city."
After I put down the phone this time, I made up my mind to go to Kharkov city to command the troops. It's not that I can't trust chisgakov, but because I didn't see my own troops beat back the German attack, and I couldn't feel at ease. So I looked at chisgakov and said to him, "Comrade deputy commander, after consideration, I think it is more appropriate for you to stay in the headquarters. I'll go to Liu Bojing myself. "
"What, are you going to liubojing?" When the people in the room heard what I said, they were silent. First of all, kirilov broke the silence. He rushed to me, grabbed my arm, and said sternly, "no, it's absolutely not. You're the highest commander here. How can you risk yourself in the city?"
"Yes, comrades of the military commissar are right." "The front is too dangerous. As the commander of the group army, you have no right to risk your own life," chisjakov said
After their words, managarov, bezikov and other commanders of the 53rd army all told me that the city was too dangerous for me to leave my post and take risks in such a dangerous place.
After everyone calmed down, I waved to them and said, "Comrade commander, thank you for your concern for me, but I still have to go to liubojing in person." Seeing everyone's blank face, I added: "at present, in addition to the 52nd and 89th divisions of the guards, there are also a large number of tanks and artillery units, as well as the newly reinforced 77th division of the guards and the motorized regiment. It is very difficult for so many numbered troops to exert their combat effectiveness to the greatest extent without a unified command. Only after I go, can we make better use of these troops, hold fast to liubojing area, and take the opportunity to expand our occupied area. "
Kirilov is the person who knows me best. He knows that once I make up my mind, no one can change my decision unless I change my mind. So after a sigh, he said to me, "well, Rita, since you've made up your mind, I won't stop you any more. But when you go, you must bring more guards, at least we can feel a little relieved. "
After listening, I nodded, and then said to chisjakov and managarov, "two generals, when I didn't know the headquarters, you were responsible for everything here. As soon as the rest of the third route troops can break through the German line of defense, they will immediately put the reserves into battle and try to rush into the city as soon as possible. "
"Comrade commander, you can rest assured." Chisgakov said to me solemnly, "I will pay attention to the battlefield at any time. Once the German peripheral positions are broken through, I will quickly put the reserves into battle and tear the gap wider so that our troops can rush into the city quickly."
Seeing that chisgakov had understood my intention, I nodded with satisfaction and took basmanov and a guard company to liubojing in a truck.
On the way to liubojing, when our motorcade passed the marching infantry line, busmanov, who was sitting next to me, turned his head and said excitedly, "Comrade commander, do you see that our large army has at least several thousand people. It's all going in the same direction with us. "
"There's no need to say that, comrade major." I can't help feeling when I look at the infantry line that I can't see from the outside. If our air force hadn't firmly grasped the air supremacy of the battlefield, I wouldn't dare to let the troops march on such a large scale in broad daylight. "We've not only surpassed the enemy in strength, but also in weapons and equipment."
"Comrade commander, I have a question." Basmanov looked out again and asked cautiously, "can we take Kharkov this time?"
"What's the matter with you, comrade major?" I turned to basmanov, who raised this absurd question, and said with some dissatisfaction, "don't you see that our troops have occupied liubojing? Besides, there are so many tanks, artillery and infantry divisions with high morale. There is no doubt that we have won the final victory. "
When the motorcade passed through the broken German position, the smoke had already dissipated, the open fire on the bare and burnt logs in the fortification had been extinguished, and there was an occasional crackle of smoke. The air was filled with a strange smell of smoke, scorched earth and blood. Looking at the bodies everywhere, I can imagine how fierce the fighting here was a few hours ago.
Soon after our convoy passed the position, it was stopped by soldiers at the front checkpoint. A second lieutenant politely told me, "Comrade commander, the road ahead has been completely destroyed by the artillery fire, the vehicles are temporarily impassable, and the engineers are busy repairing it. You can stay here and wait, or you can walk through it
I went out to look ahead and saw a group of engineers filling a crater not far away. They first throw nearby bricks and stones into the pit, and then fill it with earth. I calculated in my mind that it would take at least half an hour or more to fill a pit according to the speed of engineers. And in front of the eye, there are big craters like this everywhere. By the time the engineers had filled all the pits, it would have been dark. Thinking of this, I pushed the door open and got out of the car. I said to busmanov, who was sitting in the front co driver's seat, "major, let the soldiers of the guard company get out of the car. Let's walk to general sherekin's headquarters."
Basmanov pointed to the front and said curiously, "Comrade commander, don't you wait for the engineers to fill up the pit before you go?"
"No," I said, shaking my head, "at the engineer's current speed, it's a miracle to fill all the pits before dark. And we don't have that much time to wait for them to finish it. "
"I see, comrade commander." Basmanov said and jumped out of the car. After walking a few steps towards the truck behind him, he opened his voice and yelled, "guard company, listen to my command, all of you get out of the car!"
Although it was only four or five hundred meters from the parking place to the headquarters of sheriujin, the road was not very quiet. It was not that German artillery shells flew over and exploded in the ruins on both sides of the street. The bricks, stones and pieces of furniture inside were thrown everywhere, and several soldiers of the guard company were injured.
Under the guidance of the guards, I came to the headquarters of Xie Liujin. As soon as I entered the gate, the three division commanders, Xie Liujin, Nekrasov and askarepov, who had been informed, and major general berei, the tank commander, stood in a neat line in front of me, raised their hands to salute me, and said in unison: "Hello, comrade commander!" I didn't care to be polite to them, so I went straight to the conference table with a big map on it, and asked in the same voice, "what's the situation here?" As the temporary commander appointed by me, Xie Liujin immediately stepped forward and reported to me, "Comrade commander, the Germans launched two attacks on us, but we beat them back." When I heard his brief report like a telegram, I frowned slightly, and then said in a slightly discontented tone, "Mr. Xie Liujin, please report in detail."“ Under the cover of more than 20 tanks, the German attacked our position. As our rocket launchers had consumed all the ammunition when they attacked the German peripheral positions in front, we had to let the tank units assigned to us rush up to meet the German tanks. However, the performance of the enemy's tanks is better than ours. After losing 20 tanks, we only destroyed 10 German tanks, but we beat back their attack. " When Xie Liujin reported here, he stopped for a moment. After looking at major general berei behind him, he continued: "after more than ten minutes, the Germans sent new tanks to cover their infantry and charged towards the positions we occupied. We should know that our tanks have been completely lost in the attack in front of the enemy. Just then, fortunately, general berey's tank troops arrived in time. After a fierce battle, all the enemy's tanks were destroyed by us, and all the infantry following the tanks were destroyed by our army. " After listening to Xie Liujin's report, I nodded and asked casually, "Comrade division commander, when can our troops continue to attack the enemy?"“ What, attack? " He was surprised to hear that. He gave a quick wink at berey, who was standing behind him, and then stood upright and motionless. Seeing his look, bielei stepped forward and reported to me: "Comrade commander, there are 50 or 60 tanks on both sides of the enemy and us. They were destroyed in the square in front of us and blocked all the roads. If these obstacles are not removed, neither we nor the enemy can launch a new attack."