I strode into the headquarters and saw chisgakov and a group of commanders around the table looking at the map. In order to attract their attention, I raised my voice and asked, "Comrade deputy commander, what's the situation? When will our troops meet with general trakov's troops?"
After my words, he saw that chisgakov turned round and his face was very blue. After staring at me for a while, he shook his head and said helplessly: "the situation is very bad. Comrade commander, almost all of our troops and general trakov's troops are still in their original positions and have not moved."
Chisjakov's words filled my heart with a sense of uncertainty. I quickly walked to the table and glanced at the commanders who were staying in the room. I found that not only several division commanders of the 23rd army of the guards were there, but also Kravchenko, berey, povsky and others were here. I turned my eyes to chisgakov again and asked harshly, "Comrade deputy commander, please tell me what happened here?"
"Comrade commander, please allow me to report to you!" Next to him, Kravchenko stepped forward, straightened up and said in a pleading voice, "I'll tell you what happened!"
"Well, comrade general," I said, sitting in a chair at the table and looking up at Kravchenko, "it's up to you to introduce the current situation."
Kravchenko said: "although general trakov launched a fierce attack on the enemy's defense line during the day, they achieved great success. But in the battle, whether it's the artillery preparation before the attack or the bombing of the enemy's positions, they didn't wait to destroy the enemy's artillery. As a result, when our troops began to gather in the east of the city, they were attacked by German artillery, and the casualties were very large. "
"What, in the process of assembly, the troops were attacked by German artillery?" Hearing this amazing news, I immediately jumped up from my seat and asked in amazement, "how are the casualties of each division?"
"The 51st and 52nd divisions of the guards suffered a total of more than 1000 casualties, while general Kravchenko's tank army also lost 15 tanks in the enemy's artillery attack." "We may not be able to attack the enemy by tomorrow morning," chisjakov told me with a blank face
"Comrade deputy commander," I heard chisgakov say, but asked coldly, "when will our troops complete their assembly and launch an attack on the enemy's defensive positions?"
"Comrade commander, as I have just said, our troops suffered heavy casualties in the enemy's artillery attack and must be recuperated." Thinking that I didn't understand what he said, chisgakov repeated what he had just said: "I don't think the troops will be able to attack the enemy's defensive positions until tomorrow morning."
"Comrade deputy commander," seeing that he still insisted on launching another attack tomorrow, I couldn't help raising my voice again: "didn't you hear me clearly? I asked, "when will our troops complete their assembly and attack the enemy's defensive positions?"
The answer was silence. Not only did chisjakov not speak, but all the commanders in the room did not speak. Seeing this, I pointed to povsky, who was not far away, and asked, "Comrade artillery commander, where is our close guard rocket camp?"
"They are all deployed in the east of the city." Povsky took a look at chisgakov, and then said cautiously, "we are ready to fight. We are ready to fight at any time."
Povsky's reaction was in my eyes. I guessed in my heart that he might advocate continuing to attack, but his proposal was denied by chisjakov. That's why I hesitated after hearing my question.
Since chisgakov repeatedly stressed that the troops could not launch an attack until tomorrow, I decided to take back the command from him and personally command the troops to launch an attack on the enemy's defensive positions. I turned my eyes to tavartkiraze and asked in an emphatic tone, "Comrade commander, can you tell me how many troops your army has in the east of the city?"
"The 51st and 52nd guard divisions and a regiment of the 375TH infantry division are all in that direction." Tavartkilaze cautiously replied, "I believe our commanders and fighters will rush to the enemy's position without hesitation as long as you give us your order."
"Comrade commander, if only you had this kind of consciousness." Ignoring chisgakov, I said to taraze, "gather the troops immediately, and we will attack the enemy's defensive positions in half an hour. Fortunately, it's getting dark now, and the enemy's air force can't go out. "
After tavartkilaze left, I told povsky: "Comrade artillery commander, you should immediately organize a close guard rocket camp to fire at the enemy's exposed artillery positions first, and then bombard the enemy's defensive positions after you mute the enemy's artillery. Do you understand? "
"I see, comrade commander." Povsky agreed, then turned and walked out of the headquarters.
When I came to Kravchenko, before I had a good deal to say, he said, "Comrade commander, please don't worry. I'll go and gather the remaining tanks now. As soon as our shelling is over, I'll guide the troops to launch a comprehensive attack on the enemy's defensive positions."
Seeing that Kravchenko understood my intention, I nodded with a smile, and then said, "Comrade General, it's not too late. You should go back to the army to arrange now." With these words, I said to berey, who was standing beside me and didn't say a word, "and you, general berey, also go with your commander to prepare for the attack."
When there were only me and chisgakov left in the headquarters, I came up to him. When I was about to speak, he nodded and said, "Comrade commander, maybe I'm too old to be careful. You are right. Although we were attacked by German artillery when we were assembling, we should not postpone the time of assembling again until tomorrow morning. "
When I saw that chisjakov could think so, I felt a lot more at ease. I went back to the table and sat down. Then I looked up and asked, "is there any news from general trakov?"
"Yes." He took a piece of paper from the table and handed it to me. At the same time, he said, "Comrade commander, please have a look. This is a telegram from general trakov not long ago."
I took the telegram and glanced at it first. I found that the message was not short. I was calm and read it carefully. It read: "after a short period of artillery preparation, the group army launched another attack, cleared all the defences of dorgenikoye village, and went out to the western edge of the forest to the south of the village. According to the order of the commander of the front army, lucianov's mechanized army launched an attack on the enemy's defensive position in a dense battle formation.
When our tanks crossed the Highlands south of dorgenikoye village, they immediately fell into the enemy's tank fire network lying in the ground and hidden in the bush. The enemy's anti tank hand used direct aim to fire, and our tank was hit by bullet and caught fire. I saw for the first time how the enemy used anti tank torpedoes against our tanks, which were launched from the trenches and guided by wires. The explosion of the torpedo tore the tank into several large pieces of steel, flying more than ten or twenty meters.
Before our artillery launched a powerful fire attack on the enemy's tanks and trenches, we could only watch our tanks being destroyed one by one by the German army with a heavy heart. "
After reading this telegram, my heart became heavy. I didn't expect that the German defense was so tenacious. With hundreds of tanks, they were unable to get a way out of the German defense. Can we conquer the German defensive position with dozens of tanks?
At this moment, I suddenly felt that I had just wronged chisgakov. He didn't postpone the attack because he was timid, but wanted to make the preparations better before the war. Thinking of this, I said to him apologetically, "I'm sorry, comrade deputy commander, I just wronged you. I thought... "
Before I finished, chisgakov interrupted me with a smile: "you thought I was frightened by the strength of the German army, so I delayed the attack. Is that what you think? "
"Yes, comrade deputy commander," I admitted with some embarrassment, "that's what I think."
"It's a small matter. Don't worry about it." After that, chisjakov began to persuade me: "Comrade commander, the situation in the east of the city is very complicated. I suggest that you do not go there for the time being before our troops launch an attack."
I know he is for my safety, but in order to show his brave and fearless image in front of the Ministry, I stubbornly said: "Comrade deputy commander, since I am the commander of the group army, I should stay with my soldiers. When the soldiers know their commander and watch their every move behind them, it will certainly boost their morale. "
Although I verbally said that I would go to the front observation post and see with my own eyes how the soldiers charged the enemy's positions. But when I arrived at the frontier observation post where tavartkilaze was, the commanders and fighters of the 51st and 52nd divisions of the guards, under the guidance of our tanks, rushed to the enemy's position.
As it was getting late, we couldn't see the specific situation clearly. You can only see the fire in the distance, and the crowd shaking in the fire. Compared with my nervousness, tavartkilaze seemed calm. He even said with a smile, "Comrade commander, look, our troops are rushing up. It's really wonderful. Our troops will be able to kill the enemy. "
After looking at it for a while, I put down my telescope, turned to tavartkilaze and asked, "Comrade commander, can you contact General trakov here?"
"Yes, comrade commander." Tavartkilaze took me to a telephone and said to me, "this telephone can communicate with general trakov wirelessly, but maybe the signal is not very good."
Hearing what he said, I thought to myself, even if the signal is bad, it's better than the telegraph. So he told the soldier sitting in front of the telephone: "the operator, immediately contact General trakov, commander of the eighth group army of the guards, and say I have something urgent to look for him."
After a few minutes, I put on my headphones and started talking to trekov. As tawalter killazer said, the signal is not very good, and the sound of electric current is constantly coming from the earphone. When I speak to trakov, I have to open my voice and shout, "Hello, general trakov, this is oshanina."
"Hello, Rita. Nice to hear from you." Trekov also said in a loud voice: "listen to my observation report, there are firelights and explosions in the west of the enemy's defensive position. Should you attack from the west of the enemy?"“ Yes, Comrade General. " I was deeply afraid of trikov. If they did not move, then the enemy could put the focus of defense in my direction and hastened to say, "my two close guard divisions, under the cover of tanks, are launching a fierce attack on the enemy's positions. Please attack at the same time to contain the enemy's forces so that they can not withdraw their forces for reinforcement. "“ Don't worry, Rita Trekov said confidently: "as soon as I received intelligence, I was ready to attack. I plan to let the close guard mechanized tanks of the first army rush in front of our group army to open the way for infantry. "“ I hope we can meet before dawn. " I couldn't bear to yell like this, so I quickly said, "general trakov, I wish you good luck!"“ I'll see you when we meet, Rita "Good luck to you, too," he said politely After I finished talking with trakov, tavartkiraze asked cautiously, "Comrade commander, do you really think we can join general trakov's troops before dawn?"“ It should be possible, comrade commander. " According to the history that I understand, after the Soviet army failed to attack in one place, it would not attack in the same area in the next few hours. The German army had mastered the law of the Soviet Army's attack, so it usually shifted its defense focus to other places after repelling the Soviet Army's attack. This time, according to this rule, I judged that after repelling the attack of trakov's troops and carrying out a rapid artillery attack on us, they would think that we were unable to launch another attack. That's why they gave a categorical order to let the troops attack again, so that the Germans could be caught off guard“ Everything will be clear after dawn. " The fierce fighting lasted all night, and it was not until dawn that the sound of guns outside became sparse. A radio operator suddenly cried to me excitedly, "Comrade commander, Lieutenant Colonel Lu Jin, head of the 309th regiment, wants to speak to you." I put on my headphones and said loudly to the transmitter, "Hello, commander Lukin? I'm o'shanina. How's the situation ahead? "“ Report to commander, "Lu Jin reported to me in an excited voice," our regiment, after a night of fierce fighting, has cut through the three lines of defense of the German army and joined up with the tank unit of the mechanized first army of the close guard who came from the opposite side! "