Chapter 1282

On hearing my order, chisgakov immediately frowned. He said with some worry: "Comrade commander, you should know that there are no decent fortifications in the defense area of the 375TH infantry division. Even if we rush to repair them overnight, I am also worried that the fortifications built in a hurry will not be able to resist the German attack?"

"Comrade deputy commander, you are too worried." In response to chisgakov's groundless thought, I comforted him and said: "although our scouts found that the enemy had gathered in the uman area, it would be four or five days before they moved. By then, maybe the 53rd army will have taken Alexandria

Chisgakov looked at the map and said, "if general managarov's troops can really take over the city, even if the German troops attack from the flank, it may not be easy to defeat them."

After he finished, I said bitterly: "Comrade deputy commander, although I don't know how many troops the 53rd army has replenished in more than one month, I can guess that after the capture of Alexandria, the army will certainly be unable to continue to attack because of heavy casualties. If the German army at this time, suddenly launched a counterattack against them, with their strength can stop it

When I had finished these two sentences, I fixed my eyes on chisgakov to see his reaction. Unexpectedly, he stared at the map for a long time, then threw the question to bzikov: "chief of staff, what do you think?"

"In my opinion, after the liberation of Alexandria, the 53rd army will continue to attack kilovgrad. Because of the heavy casualties in the battle, their remaining forces in the city must be very limited. They really can't resist the German counterattack. " After finishing his analysis, bezikov turned to look at me and said, "Comrade commander, since we find that the German army is gathering, we can take the initiative and attack uman decisively while their gathering is still going on, so as to completely smash their counter attack plot."

"But now we don't have the strength and technical equipment to attack." As for bezikov's proposal, I immediately and unambiguously rejected it: "we used three close guard divisions to attack korostev secretly, and the rest of the troops can be used for defense. If they are used for attack, it's too far away."

Although my opinion was rejected by me, bzikov still said reluctantly, "maybe we can take a chance. Maybe the Germans didn't expect that we would give them such a sneak attack all of a sudden?"

As for bezikov's insistence, I didn't argue with him. Instead, I pushed the map in front of him and pointed to uman's position with a pencil: "chief of staff, uman is a big city. The German army originally has a lot of troops here. If we add a" skeleton division ", even if we are lucky, we will defeat the" skeleton division "tank troops, It's just like hitting a stone with an egg to attack a fortified position with our existing strength. "

After my words, the whole headquarters fell into silence. With the exception of kirilov, everyone's eyes were fixed on the map on the table, trying to think about how to deal with the German troops in uman.

"Comrades, can I make a suggestion?" Akhromeyev, who has never had a voice in such a meeting, suddenly asked timidly.

It was the first time that akhromeyev broke in at such a meeting, so I said with tolerance, "please speak up, comrade major, and let us discuss your ideas."

With my permission, akhromeyev pointed to the map and said to us, "comrades, I think the situation may be more serious than we thought. Although only the German "skeleton division" has been assembled in the uman area, I am afraid that they will quietly transfer the surplus troops from other directions in order to achieve the goal of local dominance. "

"Well, it's reasonable," I thought, when I heard akhromeyev say so, it's really possible, so I urged him, "major, please go on."

"If the enemy's forces in uman, in addition to the original Garrison and" skeleton division ", are not too big a threat to us. But if they secretly transfer other troops into uman, the situation will be particularly serious for us. " Akhromeyev said nervously: "so, I suggest that besides the 375TH infantry division to strengthen the defense, the German army should not rush to us along the road. At the same time, we should also order the defenders in spola and smira to rush to repair the fortifications to avoid being caught off guard when they are attacked by the German army. "

After akhromeyev finished speaking, my eyes were fixed on the map, and my mind was desperately recalling the history of the Kiev campaign, but after thinking for a long time, I didn't come up with a reason. Later, he comforted himself, saying that perhaps the campaign was not carried out in a short time and the fighting was not fierce enough. Therefore, in the history books of the Soviet Union, this historical knowledge was only taken by one stroke.

Although I can't remember the specific plot of the Kiev campaign, for the sake of safety, I still agreed with akhromeyev's opinion: "major, you will call general seleucin and lieutenant colonel Lukin later, and ask them to temporarily stop training these days and concentrate on repairing the fortifications."

After akhromeyev communicated my order by telephone, sherekin called soon. He complained in the microphone: "Comrade commander, originally we were not sent to take part in the attack, so the mood of the whole division's commanders and fighters was strong enough. Now you tell the troops to build fortifications in the existing defensive positions, and the emotions of the commanders and fighters are even more grumbling... "

"Enough, Comrade Xie Liujin." Without waiting for Xie Liujin to finish speaking, I interrupted him in a loud voice and said discontentedly, "it's not up to your soldiers to say whether it's attack or defense; For yourself, it's not up to you. I has the final say, I want to know that the commander of the group army is me, not you. Do you understand?

"I see," Xie Liujin replied feebly, "since that's the case, I'll try my best to do ideological work for the commanders and fighters so that they can settle down."

Xie Liujin's phone just hung up, and Lieutenant Colonel Lu Jin's phone also came. He complained about the same thing on the phone, so unfortunately he was scolded by me, and then he went to the army to build the fortifications honestly.

The troops who went to attack korostwev were not found by the Germans all the way due to their hidden whereabouts. On the evening of the 18th, I received a telegram from Colonel babahin, commander of the 71st division of Jinwei. He wrote in the telegram: "our army has reached a distance of only five kilometers from korostwev. Does it need to send people to carry out reconnaissance?"

"Is that true, comrade Colonel?" Although I heard a piece of good news, my heart was not happy at all, because babahin did not dare to make decisions without authorization when he was commanding the battle more than 100 kilometers away from me. He even had to ask me for instructions when sending scouts to detect the enemy's movements, which made me very dissatisfied with him.

I said to akhromeyev, "major, call back Colonel babashin. Let him immediately send his men to spy on korostwev. If the German forces are limited, then immediately launch a comprehensive attack and strive to control the transportation line between Kiev and Zhitomir in the shortest time. Do you understand? "

"I see," akhromeyev replied decisively, "I'm going to send a telegram to him to urge him to send someone for reconnaissance as soon as possible."

"Come on, major." I waved to akhromeyev and urged him to send him a message as soon as possible, so that he could make the right adjustment according to the enemy's situation. Do you understand? "

"I see." Akhromeyev replied briefly, "I'll go and send a telegram to Colonel babahin to convey your message to him."

After receiving the telegram, Colonel babashin immediately sent several reconnaissance teams to investigate the defense situation of korostev. When he found out that there was only one German battalion in the city, he didn't even have time to ask for my instructions, so he decisively gave the order to the troops to attack.

Facing the fierce attack of our army, the German army who stuck to the city of korostvev was caught off guard by us. After two hours of fierce fighting, the 71st division of the guards rushed into the city and divided the garrison into two separate areas.

Our attack naturally alarmed the enemy in the Zhitomir region. A infantry regiment of the enemy, under the cover of the tank battalion, rushed to korostwev in an attempt to cooperate with the city's garrison and wipe out the 71st division of our guards. But at this time, the troops of shejerikov arrived. Seeing that the situation was dangerous, the 51st division of the guards had no time to rest, so it immediately put into battle and launched an attack from the flank of the reinforcements.

However, after the reinforcements from Zhitomir were repulsed, they stuck to the remnant of the German army in korostwevri. When they saw that the reinforcements had been repulsed, their morale was in turmoil. At this time, the troops of the 71st division of the guards increased the intensity of the attack and ate the besieged garrison bit by bit.

At 1:00 a.m. on the 10th, the gunfire in korostwev city became sparse. Seeing that there was no hope of breaking through, some German officers and soldiers laid down their weapons and surrendered to our army.

When I received a telegram from the front line reporting to me that korostvev was in our hands, I could not help but breathe a sigh of relief, and then ordered akhromeyev: "major, call back the two division commanders babashim and shejerikov, and let them build fortifications all night in the direction of facing Zhitomir and Kiev, so as to prevent possible German counterattack."

When akhromeyev sent the report, chisjakov, who knew the war report, asked excitedly: "Comrade commander, I didn't expect that our plan of sneak attack was really successful." After a short pause, he asked cautiously, "do you need to report to the front command immediately?"

"Don't you need to say that, comrade deputy commander!" In recent days, although the attack from the south of Kiev has never stopped, the friendly forces have not made any progress at all, except for losing their troops in front of the German fortifications. For this matter, watujing was very anxious. He would be angry with others if he was dissatisfied. Now that we have achieved such results, we should immediately report to him and make him happy“ Such good news, of course, should be reported to general vatukin. "

With that, I picked up the high-frequency phone that had just been installed on the desk and called vatukin. After hearing the voice of watujing, I immediately said respectfully, "Hello, senior general."

"Oh, it's o'shanina!" There was a lazy voice from the receiver: "you call me at this time. Is there anything important?"“ Yes, senior general, I do have something important to report to you. " In accordance with the regulations, I said, "I have the honor to report to you that the 51st and 71st divisions of our group army, after several hours of fierce fighting, have successfully occupied korostev and destroyed the garrison in the city. At present, the commanders and fighters of the two divisions are building the necessary fortifications facing the direction of Zhitomir and Kiev respectively, so as to prevent the possible German counterattack. "“ What? " After listening to my report, vatukin was stunned for a long time, and then asked in surprise: "o'shanina, if I hear you right, have your sneak attack troops successfully captured korostev and successfully cut off the traffic line between Kiev and Zhitomir?"“ Yes, Comrade General. " I repeat what I have just said, adding: "the 77th division and the 21st tank brigade of the guards are still on their way to korostwev. As soon as they arrive, the troops who stick to the city will have confidence to completely cut off the links between Kiev and Zhitomir." As long as we hear the news of victory, everyone will be in a good mood, and vatujing is no exception. It turned out that he was still worried about the defeat of the army in attacking Kiev. At the moment, he was happy to hear me say that korostev had won. His voice, a little trembling with excitement, came out of the receiver: "good job, o'shanina, you are so good! Please express my gratitude to the commanders and fighters for their bravery and tenacity in the battle, which makes the deadlock near Kiev possible to be broken. I want to report this good news to Marshal Zhukov immediately Hearing the blind sound coming from the receiver, I couldn't help laughing, shaking my head, and then put down the receiver. After restraining the smile on my face, I asked bzikov, "chief of staff, is there any news from uman today?"“ Yes, comrade commander. " Bezikov got up and picked up some papers on the table by the wall, then came back and said to me, "two hours ago, we got a call from captain travkin saying that the German army in uman city had a new number. As their final reconnaissance result has not come yet, I have not reported it to you for the time being! "