Chapter 1256

In the vast twilight, our armored car passed through deserted fields and small woods. On both sides of the road, in addition to large and small craters, we could see burned villages and trees whose treetops were cut off by shrapnel. Except for the troops we are marching on, there is no sign of a civilian at all.

Seeing this, Kravchenko asked curiously, "strange, how come all the villages along the way have been burned down and no one in the village can see them?"

"It's no use saying that, comrade commander." I looked out from the lookout, then said with a wry smile, "the villages outside must have been burned by the Germans, and the villagers have also been looted by them. Manstein's hand is very poisonous. He left us a piece of deserted scorched earth. He just wanted us to rely on Moscow or Kursk instead of getting supplies from these places. We have millions of people in the front army, and the huge amount of materials we need is enough to crush the logistics forces, so that they can gain the time to deploy their defense. "

When I said this, clavchenko said with deep understanding: "I understand that the reason why the headquarters of the front army ordered us to cross the Dnieper River in the shortest possible time may be to prevent the German army from building solid Fortifications on the other side of the river. If we really let them build the fortifications, we are bound to pay a great sacrifice if we want to cross over. "

I looked out again and saw that it was a strange place, so I asked casually, "Comrade commander, where are we now?"

Kravchenko, hearing my question, looked out through the lookout. I guess from his tight brow that he should not know where it is. A moment later, I heard him ask the driver, "Hey, comrade driver, where are we?"

"Report, comrades commander," the driver of the armored car turned his head and said aloud, "we are now in horol, fifteen kilometers from rouble."

"Give me the map." After hearing the driver's position, I quickly reached out to Kravchenko, "I'll see where horol is."

When Kravchenko spread the map in front of me, he was afraid that I didn't know where horol was, and he pointed out: "Comrade commander, you see, it's right here, southwest of rouble." Then his finger moved to the left along the line on the map. "If we keep going west, about 30 kilometers ahead, we can reach zolotonosha, which is only two or three kilometers away from cherkaser."

Kravchenko's words moved my heart, and then I told him: "Comrade commander, order the troops to change the direction of March and move towards zolotonosha."

Kravchenko was puzzled by my order. He asked blankly, "why, comrade commander, are we not going to rouble?"

"Send a telegram to the deputy commander to send a division into the ruble, while the rest of the troops move immediately towards zolotonosha." In order to keep him from being confused, I specially explained to him: "Comrade commander, you have a look. Zolotonosha is in a good geographical position, just between cherkaser and kaniv. Do you see that the Dnieper River, which used to be wide, becomes narrow and turbulent here. I don't think the German army has time to build fortifications in this area, so we need to cross the river as soon as possible and build a landing site on the other side

Listening to what I said, Kravchenko knew that it was useless to oppose. He had no choice but to agree. He ordered the signalmen to inform the troops to change the direction of March and move towards zolotonosha. In addition, a telegram was sent to chisgakov informing them of my decision.

An hour later, our team arrived at zolotonoza. In the city, as we saw along the way, all the residents disappeared, factories and stations were destroyed, and all the buildings were burned. Kravchenko ordered the head of the motorized regiment to set up the command post in the city. Then our armored car, surrounded by seven or eight motorcycles, passed through the city and drove towards the river.

After driving along the rough road for more than ten minutes, the armored car finally stopped. The pilot turned to us and said, "commander, commander, we are by the river."

After we got off the armored car, the soldiers who followed us jumped off the motorcycles one after another and set up a circular defense line around us. I looked left and right, and saw a hill not far away. I patted Kravchenko on the shoulder and said to him, "Comrade commander, let's go there. We should see the enemy's position more clearly there. "

Standing on the earth bag, I raised my telescope and looked across the bank. The cliff on the West Bank of the Dnieper River is like a high wall blocking my view. After my repeated observation, it has no slope at all. Except for climbers who can climb up with tools, ordinary soldiers can only climb up with ladders. From the river to the cliff, there is a distance of about forty or fifty meters. There are rows of wooden piles with barbed wire in the middle. It is obvious that it is the minefield arranged by the German.

I put down my telescope, pointed to the cliffs and minefields on the other side, and said to Kravchenko, "Comrade commander, do you see that? The cliff on the other side is 30 meters high. If the enemy sets up several firepower points on it, they can attack our river crossing troops from a commanding height. "

Kravchenko looked at the cliffs and minefields on the other side, then frowned and said: "from the current situation, it seems that there is no German guard on the opposite side, but the current here is too fast. I'm afraid that the army can't reach the other side without crossing equipment." If I didn't want to cross the river, I never cared about whether there were any crossing equipment in the army. At the moment, when Kravchenko said that, his heart suddenly thumped. He said that if we can't go to the other side of the river as soon as possible and wait for the enemy to react and build a defense on the other side, our crossing operation will become more difficult than it is now. Thinking of this, I ordered Kravchenko: "Comrade commander, immediately organize the soldiers to cut down trees, make rafts and cross the river overnight." For my command, Kravchenko's face showed a embarrassed expression: "Comrade commander, it's too late. Can we wait until tomorrow morning before we act?". We should know that the river is fast and the vision at night is not good, which is prone to accidents. " Then he pointed to the other side and added, "look again, there are so many minefields on the opposite side. If there is no engineer to clear the mine, our soldiers can only squat by the river and can't move on."“ Comrade commander, "I said with some dissatisfaction," the Germans have no idea that our troops have reached the Dnieper River. It's a good time for us to cross the river. If we wait until tomorrow, when the Germans find us and set up mortars and machine guns on the cliff on the other side to block the river, how much sacrifice will we have to pay to cross the river that we could have crossed smoothly? " Kravchenko, who had been taught a few words by me, nodded after a moment of silence, and then said, "Comrade commander, you are right. Although crossing the river at night is very dangerous, it is safer than crossing the river under the enemy's shelling and machine gun fire. " After that, he turned around and told the messenger standing behind him with the radio on his back: "Comrade telegraph operator, send a message to the head of the motorized regiment immediately, and ask him to send two battalions to gather by the river with tree cutting tools." When the operator squatted aside to send the message, Kravchenko said to me in a low voice: "Comrade commander, we have too few people. It's still a little difficult to make a raft that can cross the river in a short time. Do you think we should ask the deputy commander to send a guard division to cooperate with our river crossing operation“ Comrade commander, your proposal is good. Let's do as you say! Let them transfer the 67th division of the guards first. " When I said this, I thought about it and added, "I remember that there seemed to be a lot of canoes in their division. They were asked to send all these river crossing equipment to the river."“ I see, "Kravchenko agreed excitedly, and ran to give the operator a new order. When Kravchenko came back from the radio operator, he said to me with concern: "Comrade commander, it's cold outside. The ordered troops will have to wait a long time to get here. Let's go back to the car." Although I was more than 400 meters away from the other side, I was still worried about being killed by German snipers. Although I wanted to go back to the armored car for a long time, I saw that Kravchenko had just been seriously looking at the opposite terrain, so I didn't want to mention it. Now that he mentioned it on his own initiative, I promised to go back to the armored car with him and wait for the arrival of the river crossing troops.