Chapter 1272

After the battle, I went back to the headquarters and saw that bezikov had counted out the results of all the troops participating in the battle. When I was carefully checking the data with the war report, chisjakov said to me with a smile: "Comrade commander, I didn't expect that the four divisions we participated in today's war have achieved good results. Among them, the 52nd division of Jinwei was the most brilliant. It killed and captured 2000 German soldiers each. Commander Lukin's 375TH infantry division did not capture a single prisoner, but they had nearly 3000 people, including the enemy they destroyed during the attack. The two divisions of the 22nd army of the guards killed more than 400 enemies and captured more than 700 prisoners. The 339th division of the German army has been crippled by us. In the next battle, they can be ignored... "

I quickly read the data in the war report and saw that he and kisjakov said there was no income, but I was not satisfied with the result. I threw the war report on the table, shrunk my mouth and said, "Comrade deputy commander, from the war report, we have indeed wiped out a large number of German forces. But I don't know if you have noticed that there are no middle or senior officers among the captured or killed enemies, and the highest rank is just a lieutenant commander. I want to ask, where are the commanders of the enemy's divisions and regiments? As long as the command system still exists, the division that we defeated can be rebuilt in the shortest time. "

What I said made the whole headquarters silent.

After a while, bzikov said, "Comrade commander, although we have not been able to eliminate the enemy's division and regiment level command organs in this battle, they have lost thousands of soldiers after all. Judging from the current situation, Manstein can not supply so many soldiers for them in a short time, so I think we have won the battle today. "

After bidzikov finished speaking, I pushed the war report in front of him. At the same time, I told him, "chief of staff, report our achievements to the headquarters of the front army immediately."

"Yes Bezikov agreed, picked up the war report on the table and prepared to publish it to the headquarters of the front army. But they didn't take two steps before I stopped them. I then said, "chief of staff, please call Colonel zejerikov again by the way and order him to capture more middle and senior German officers in the battle of seizing smira."

"I see," said bezikov, nodding at me. "I'll pass on what you mean to Colonel chejerikov."

As soon as bizikov left, chisjakov told me, "Comrade commander, engineers from the headquarters of the front army are rushing to repair the river crossing bridge in kaniv. It is estimated that it will be completed in two or three days at most."

"That's great. If the bridge across the river is repaired, our troops will be able to keep coming from the other side of the river. " After I finished these two sentences, I thought about it a little, and then went on to say, "the original pontoon should not be demolished for the time being. If there are two more bridges, the speed of crossing the river can also be greatly accelerated."

At the end of the call, bzikov went back to the table and reported to me, "Comrade commander, the telegram to the headquarters of the front army has been sent, and I have also called Colonel chejerikov."

I recognized something in his words, so I asked, "what did the Colonel say when he got your call?"

When I finished, bzikov began to repeat what xiejerikov said: "the colonel said that all the troops had entered the offensive position, and he planned to launch an attack on the city at 8 p.m. According to what they have, he is sure to take smira by noon tomorrow

"Smira is small, but after all, there are more than 1000 German troops stationed." He frowned and said, "don't mention the 51st division of the guards. Even if we add two more divisions, we don't remember that we can win the city in more than ten hours."

"Don't worry, comrade deputy commander." Hearing chisjakov's suspicion, I immediately spoke up and supported my old subordinates: "I know Colonel xijerikov very well. He is a very down-to-earth commander with rich combat experience. He said that if he can win smira before noon tomorrow, I believe he can do it."

The attack on smira started at eight o'clock in the evening. I got a phone call from sheijerikov saying that his troops, under the cover of tanks, were attacking the city.

Thinking of shejerikov, they were not covered by artillery before the attack, I was worried that if the German army had solid fortifications, the attacking troops would pay heavy casualties. Therefore, I asked with concern, "Colonel, can you successfully break through the enemy's defensive positions without artillery cover?"

"Don't worry, comrade commander." Shejerikov said confidently: "according to our prior reconnaissance, the German army has no solid fortifications in smira city. Besides, we have tank cover. I believe it will not be long before our troops can rush into the city."

Although xiejerikov said so confidently, I was still a little uneasy. So after I finished the call with him, I called povsky and told him, "artillery commander, please send an artillery regiment to smira area immediately, and be ready to provide artillery support for our siege troops when necessary."

While we were waiting for the battle to pass, chisjakov suddenly said to me, "Comrade commander, I think we should make a request to the headquarters of the front army for them to supplement our troops. You know, in today's battle, the total casualties of the 375TH infantry division are about 4000, of which the 1243rd regiment has more than 2500 casualties. "

"Well, I'll call general vatukin and see what he means." With that, I picked up the phone on the desk and called watujing. After hearing each other's voice, I immediately said, "Hello, senior general. When I call you at this time, I have something important to discuss with you. "

"Comrade oshanina, if you have anything, just let me know." Because of the constant victories in recent years, watujing also seemed very happy. He said carelessly, "as long as I can do something, I will help you immediately."

"In today's battle, although we have won a great victory, the casualties of our troops are not small. More than half of the casualties of the 375TH infantry division are in urgent need of replenishment." Because I think that Moskalenko's 40th army once crossed the Dnieper River today, the casualties of the army must not be small. If I don't rush to ask watujing about the replenishment of troops, then the front army will replenish the recruits to the 40th army, "so I hope that the division can be replenished in these two days."

"Two days is a bit too tight." After hearing my request, vatujing said with some embarrassment, "besides, our front army has been fighting for several times, and the casualties of all the troops are not small. They all need to be supplemented, so we have to take our time." At this point, he stopped for a moment, and then said to me as if determined, "don't worry, I will supply you with no less than 5000 recruits in a week."

Originally, I was still thinking that when watujing saw a series of achievements made by our group army, he might directly announce that he would add 10000 people to us as soon as he was happy. Who knows, he only gave 5000 people, and there will be a week to give them. There are too many variables. When I was disappointed, I had no choice but to say, "well, senior general, since you say so, I will wait patiently for you to supplement our troops."

I put down the phone and said to them with a sad face: "comrades of the commanders, the casualties of division Lukin today are obvious to all. I wanted the headquarters of the front army to supply us with more soldiers as soon as possible, and then I would put them all in the 375TH infantry division. However, general watujing said that there are too many troops that need to be replenished recently. It will be at least a week before they can replenish us. "

"What should we do then?" After hearing this, bezikov also said with a sad face: "after today's battle, although we have achieved a lot, the 375TH Infantry Division has almost lost its combat effectiveness because of the heavy casualties."

Just when our group were at a loss, a voice calling for a report came from the door“ Come in Berzikov turned and yelled out.

With his shouts, a commander came in from the door. I looked up and saw that it was captain travkin who had been sent out on a reconnaissance mission. I nodded at him, and then politely asked, "Comrade captain, you're back!"

"Yes, comrade commander." "I'm back from the reconnaissance mission," answered travkin

"Have you detected anything useful?" As we can receive all kinds of information from him at any time through the radio station, I only ask this out of politeness.

To my surprise, as soon as I spoke, travkin nodded and replied, "yes, comrade commander, we have detected an important piece of information. Because the radio station fell into the river when crossing the river, it can no longer contact the headquarters, so I can only come back to report to you in person. "

"What's the important situation?" Hearing what travkin said, it immediately aroused the interest of all of us. Chisjakov urged, "Comrade captain, tell me!"

Travkin walked into the table, looked down at the map on the table for a while, then looked at me and said, "Comrade commander, when we were scouting southwest of smira, we unexpectedly found a prisoner's camp."

"What, prison camp?" When I heard the words he said, I almost jumped up from my seat. As long as we can liberate the prison camp, we can get the supplement from the soldiers. I asked, "where is it?"

Travkin pointed to a place in the lower left corner of smira and said, "Comrade commander, there's a large prison camp right here in spola. According to our inquiry of the residents nearby and the interrogation of the captured prisoners, we know that there are more than 4000 officers and men of our army in the POW camp. They were captured in the battle of Kharkov at the beginning of the year, belonging to the southwest front army and Voronezh front army respectively. "

"Great, that's great." When chisjakov heard this, he was overjoyed. He said to me excitedly, "Comrade commander, as long as we take this prison camp, we can incorporate the rescued commanders and fighters into the army."

"Wait a minute, comrade deputy commander." Kirilov opened his mouth and poured cold water on chisgakov: "although there are more than 4000 people in this prison camp, even if we occupy here and rescue all people, we can't immediately incorporate them into the army."

"Why?" Asked chisgakov, puzzled“ They must have suffered a lot of inhuman treatment, hunger and disease in the prison camp in recent months, which has greatly weakened their combat effectiveness. This is one aspect. " Kirilov carefully said: "more importantly, according to the order of the superior, the rescued prisoners of war must go through the examination of the superior, in case there are German spies lurking in them." After listening to kirilov's words, he was disillusioned. He fell into his seat and murmured, "what can we do? We can't just give up these soldiers with combat experience." When I saw the silence in the room again, I rushed out to liven up the atmosphere. First of all, I said to kirilov, "Comrade military commissar, what you have said is very reasonable, but this is a special period, so the censorship of the commanders and fighters need not be so strict. Moreover, they were able to stay in the enemy's prison camp for the first half of the year, but they did not give in. That long proved that they were qualified soldiers. It would be an insult to them if they were censored again under such circumstances. " Seeing kirilov nodding, I turned to chisgakov and said, "don't worry, deputy commander. After we have captured the POW camp, we can integrate the strong soldiers into our army. " Then I asked travkin, "Captain, I remember you just said, you met local people on the way?"“ Yes, comrade commander. " Travkin gave me a positive reply: "our people entered the city of spola in disguise and found that although the city was small, it had another 70000 residents. Some of them are local residents, and some of them are German soldiers who moved from across the Dnieper River. "“ Well, I see. " Seeing that, I had a more complete plan in my heart, so I waved to him and said, "Captain, you've worked hard all the way. Go back and have a rest first. I'll send for you if there's anything When I finished, and raised my hand to salute, trafkin turned and strode out of the headquarters.