Chapter 1257

The officers and men of the motorized regiment came quickly and arrived by the river half an hour after receiving the notice. After listening to Kravchenko's order, the deputy head of the team led the troops into the woods and began to cut down trees to prepare rafts for crossing the river.

Hearing the sound of felling in the direction of the grove, Kravchenko asked with some worry: "Comrade commander, our existing forces are limited. Even if the commanders and fighters do their best to cut down, it is estimated that they will have to wait until daybreak to make rafts that can transport the two battalions to the other side."

"No, comrade commander." When I heard him say this, I immediately waved my hand and refuted his statement: "we are now competing with the Germans for time. If they find that we are about to cross the river here and have deployed defensive forces on the opposite cliff, we will not be so easy to cross the other bank again."

"However, comrade commander, it takes a lot of time to cut down trees. In addition, the trees that have been cut down have to be made into rafts. It takes time." Kravchenko said with a worried face: "I think the troops can't cross the river until after dawn at the fastest."

Kravchenko's understanding ability makes me feel speechless, I can't help but look up and sigh. After a moment's silence, I said to him, "Comrade commander, when all the troops can cross the river on the raft, it is estimated that the enemy has already set up fire points on the opposite cliff. Then, like hitting a moving target, we will wipe out our river crossing troops little by little in the river. So now we have to speed up our troops and cross the river before the Germans react. Even if we only cross one class, as long as they can occupy the opposite cliff, our next crossing operation will be much smoother. "

"Only one class in the past, will the number be too small?" Kravchenko asked foolishly, "if there are enemies, they will be destroyed soon."

When I heard him say that, I wish I could kick him. I don't know how he became the commander of the tank army. He was so slow. I mean at least one class of soldiers should be sent to seize the position, but not only one class. I said in a bad voice: "Comrade commander, the troops sent to seize the highlands on the other side can serve as both a guard and a cover. If they find that the enemy appears, they can immediately carry out on-the-spot blocking. It only takes more than ten minutes, and our successor troops will arrive. "

When I said this, Kravchenko nodded and said reluctantly, "well, I'll tell the deputy head of the team later that after making two or three rafts, I'll cross some of the troops across the river to seize the opposite highland and cover the river crossing operation of the subsequent troops."

After more than an hour, just when I was in a hurry, the deputy commander in charge of commanding the troops to cut down trees came and excitedly reported to us: "commander, commander, we have made ten rafts. Do we need to go into the water immediately?"

When I heard his report, I felt ecstatic, but on the surface I asked calmly, "Comrade deputy head, how many people can you ride on a raft?"

After thinking for a moment, the deputy commander replied, "Comrade report commander, a raft can take six people."

There are six people on one raft and 60 people on ten rafts. There should be no problem for so many people to hold on for half an hour to an hour even if the enemy attacks. Thinking of this, I immediately told the Deputy Commander: "Comrade deputy commander, let your people carry the raft to the river first."

The deputy commander took out a flashlight from his briefcase. After pressing it on, he turned around and swayed in the direction of the woods. After the light of a shaking flashlight came from the direction of the woods, he nodded with satisfaction, put out the flashlight, turned back to me and said, "Comrade commander, the raft will be delivered soon."

A few minutes later, a sound of orderly bugles came with the sound of rapid footsteps. I looked in the direction of the sound and saw a group of commanders and fighters running towards us with rafts. I asked the deputy commander, "are the troops ready to cross the river?"

"Ready!" The deputy commander replied respectfully, "we can ferry 50 people at a time by five soldiers and their weapons on each raft."

"Wait, comrade deputy chief." I interrupted the excited deputy commander and asked curiously, "didn't you just report that six people can ride on each raft? How did you become five people after a while? "

"Well, comrade commander. Listen to my explanation, "said the deputy commander, seeing that I was not happy on my face," when I said that each raft can carry six people, I mean when they are empty handed. Now they need to carry the weapons they carry to cross the river, so the number of people on the raft will be reduced. "

I wanted to see the troops crossing the river with my own eyes, so I followed the rafters to the river. After the deputy head of the regiment has chosen the place to launch the raft, I specially told him: "Comrade deputy head, tell the officers and men who want to cross the river that when they get to the river, they must not be reluctant to paddle and cross the river as soon as possible. On the other side, after carefully crossing the enemy's minefield, he quickly occupied the cliff and established defensive positions on it. "

"Yes, comrade commander," the deputy commander replied solemnly, "I will convey your order to the commander crossing the river, so that he can set up a defensive position on the cliff as soon as he reaches the other bank."

Then with the order of the deputy commander, the soldiers carried the raft down to the knee deep river. With the command of the deputy commander, we put the raft in the water. But the amazing scene happened. Instead of floating on the surface as I expected, the raft sank directly to the bottom.

"What the hell is going on?" This scene is not only seen by me, but also by Kravchenko, the deputy commander and all the commanders and fighters standing around. Without waiting for me to speak, Kravchenko grabbed the collar of the deputy commander and asked aloud, "what's the matter? Why did the raft sink?"

The deputy commander was flustered, shook his head like a rattle, and said repeatedly, "Comrade commander, I don't know. Maybe this kind of wood is not suitable for rafting, or the raft is too small, so it sank as soon as it was launched

Although I didn't know why the raft sank, I knew that it was not the time to investigate the responsibility, so I told the deputy commander, "OK, comrade deputy commander, first pick up the raft and try again to make it bigger."

Just as the deputy commander was directing the soldiers to pick up the rafts, the roar of the car motor came from the distance. In the bright moonlight, I can see clearly that there is a long motorcade coming. Seeing the sudden appearance of the motorcade, chisgakov immediately asked with vigilance, "Comrade commander, who is coming, and will it be the German troops preparing to withdraw to cherkaser?"

"No, comrade commander." Although the team is still a few kilometers away, I can basically conclude that it is not the German army, but our team. "If the German army has such a large team, I don't think they will march at night."

After a few minutes, a jeep came quickly and stopped more than ten meters away. As soon as the car stopped, someone pushed the door open and jumped out. Then he asked aloud, "where is the commander?"

I recognized the voice of major general baksov, commander of the 67th division of the guards, and quickly replied with a smile, "I'm here, Comrade General. Your 67th division of the guards has arrived?"

Barksov quickly walked up to me. Instead of saluting, he straightened up and said, "Comrade commander, the 67th division of the guard infantry has arrived at your command. Please give us instructions!"

I pointed to the cliff on the other side of the river and said, "major general baksov, do you see the cliff on the other side? The task I gave your division is to cross the river as quickly as possible, build solid defensive operations on it, and cover the main force of the Group Army crossing the river. Is there a problem? "

Baksov raised the telescope around his neck, looked at the opposite bank for a long time, then turned to me and said, "don't worry, comrade commander, my troops can occupy the opposite cliff in half an hour at most, and build the fortifications."

Although barksov agreed very readily, I was not sure. I pointed to the posts of the barbed wire and said, "do you see the barbed wire? If I'm not mistaken, it's the German minefield. Among the first group of river crossing troops, there must be engineering troops to open up channels in minefields. Do you understand? "

"I see, comrade commander." "In the first group of river crossing troops, I will arrange an engineering platoon. They should be able to open up roads in minefields in the shortest time," baksov said confidently

While we were talking, the deputy commander was commanding a group of soldiers, carrying the dripping raft, and passed us in a mess. I took a look at the raft that sank into the water and asked baksov anxiously, "Sir, do you have enough equipment to cross the river?"

"Don't worry, comrade commander." The deputy commander's embarrassment was also seen by baksov, so he understood what I said very well. "We have more than 70 kayaks in our division, and we can take eight soldiers at a time. It will only take five or six hours at most to cross the whole division to the other side of the river. "

"Since that is the case, sir, let's move quickly." I heard that there were so many river crossing equipment in the 67th division of Jinwei, and my heart finally fell to the ground. I hastened to say, "you should seize the opposite cliff and build fortifications on it before the Germans find us."

The next crossing was very smooth. At baksov's command, dozens of canoes parked on the banks of the Dnieper River moved at the same time. As the oarsmen paddled desperately, the canoe advanced rapidly on the dark river. Seeing this scene, baksov said to me with a proud expression: "Comrade commander, have you seen it? At this speed, five minutes at most, our first echelon will be able to cross the river. "

As there was no German resistance on the other side, our first river crossing troops soon landed. After disembarking from the ship, the first to rush forward were the engineers sent by barksov, who were responsible for opening up channels for the follow-up troops in the minefield. The troops remaining on the shore also continue to be on guard. The machine gunners even set up one machine gun position after another. Even if the German army carries out a counter attack, it is estimated that it will be defeated by our intensive fire.

Before the ship returned to our side of the shore, the troops on standby on the other side of the river had already launched a battle formation, bent down along the passage opened by the engineers, and quickly rushed towards the cliff ahead. And the machine gunners still stay in place, continue to maintain a state of alert.

I vaguely saw in the telescope that several agile soldiers climbed up the cliff, and then dropped ropes one by one from above, so that the commanders and fighters who stayed at the bottom of the cliff could climb up along the ropes. After a little while, with more and more figures at the top of the cliff, Captain baksov turned to me with a sigh of relief and said, "Comrade commander, at least one company has reached the top of the cliff. I believe they will soon be able to build a good defensive position to cover our main force and cross the river leisurely."