Chapter 1286

The German forces from uman moved quickly and launched an attack on the flank of the 53rd group army, which was besieging kilovgrad at about two o'clock in the afternoon. In order to quickly break through the fortifications hastily built by the 53rd army, the German army sent out bombers to carry out heavy bombing.

Chisgakov and I were standing outside the headquarters, listening to the roar from the South and looking at the gray smoke that we could see clearly without a telescope. Chisgakov asked me anxiously, "Comrade commander, the German offensive is very fierce. If we play like this, the 53rd army will be defeated in an hour or two at most. "

I turned my head and looked at chisgakov standing next to him. He didn't speak. In my heart, I scolded managarov. He didn't pay attention to the information I provided him. He deserved that his troops were defeated by the German army. However, if you think about these things in your mind, if you say them, you will cause great trouble. I coughed gently and said insincerely, "don't worry, comrade deputy commander. General konev's main force almost crossed the Dnieper River. I believe he will immediately send troops to support the 53rd army when he sees danger."

"The 90th division of our close guard, if we attack at this time, will certainly be able to repel the enemy." Chisgakov didn't catch what I said. He said to himself, "although our troops may pay a lot of casualties, they can buy time for the 53rd army to build positions."

I snorted softly. As soon as I wanted to express my opinion, I saw akhromeyev running out of the headquarters in a hurry. Looking at him, I thought there was something urgent. I quickly swallowed what I wanted to say. Then I asked akhromeyev, "major, what's the matter?"

Akhromeyev came to me and said hastily, "Comrade commander, the chief of staff asked me to inform you that the headquarters of the front army has called. It's the commander himself. He wants to speak to you in person."

"I see. I'll go right away." I followed akhromeyev for a few steps towards the headquarters, then stopped, turned to look at chisjakov, and said somewhat impolitely, "Comrade deputy commander, I remind you that you are the deputy commander of the sixth group army, not the deputy commander of the 53rd group army." With that, I didn't pay any attention to chisgakov, who was standing in a daze, and walked into the headquarters without looking back.

I took the microphone from bezikov's hand, and immediately I heard vatukin's voice coming out: "Comrade oshanina, the German army really launched an attack on the 53rd army. In addition to tank raids, a large number of bombers were used to bombard their positions. Under such circumstances, what actions can your group army take to prevent the 53rd group army from being defeated? "

"There must be ways, senior general. As long as we attack from the flank of the German army now, we can stop them from attacking the 53rd army. However, "in order to prevent vatukin from impulsively giving us the order of counterattack and putting my group army into a hopeless situation, I told him what I thought:" at present, only the 11th armored division of the German army is attacking the position of the 53rd group army, and there are the 16th Armored Infantry Division and the skeleton division behind. If I put my troops into battle now, the battle will be stuck. When the German successors arrive, our group army will also face the fate of being defeated. "

After listening to my statement, watukin asked with dissatisfaction, "Comrade oshanina, if I didn't understand it wrong, you don't plan to send troops to the 53rd group army to clear the siege?"

"Comrade General, it's not that I don't send troops to support the friendly forces, but that it's not time to send troops."

"Tell me, when is the best time to send troops?"

"I think we should at least wait for the German successor troops to join in the battle and be weakened to a certain extent before putting them into the battle." I was deeply afraid that vatukin would deny his proposal and hastily added: "by that time, our group army will launch an attack from the rear side of the German army and we can easily defeat them. Now, if you rush into battle, there is little chance of winning. Even if we barely win, it will be a tragic victory. It is estimated that our army has lost the ability to continue fighting. "

After I had said this, I held my breath and waited anxiously for watujing's reply. Vatukin was silent for a long time, and then said slowly, "Comrade oshanina, I can't do this. I need to ask Marshal Zhukov for instructions." Then he hung up.

Bzikov saw me put down the phone without expression and asked, "what does commander watujing say? Do you want us to attack now?"

I looked at bezikov, shook my head, and then replied, "the general said that he can't be the master. He needs to ask Marshal Zhukov for instructions and then reply to me."

"Rita," kirilov stood up from his position, walked up to me, and asked with concern, "what do you think Marshal will say to commander vatukin?"

Instead of answering his question immediately, I sat down at the table, tapping my fingers gently on the table, thinking about how Zhukov would reply to vatukin. Although he agreed with the possibility of my proposal, he did not rule out sacrificing our group army for the sake of the overall situation.

"Rita, Rita." Seeing that I was not speaking, kirilov called me twice again. Seeing that I looked at me blankly, he said a little displeased, "what are you thinking? I called you for a long time, and you didn't answer me. "

I gave kirilov an apologetic smile and said, "Comrade military commissar, I'm thinking about how Marshal Zhukov will use our troops."

What I said immediately aroused everyone's interest. Chisjakov, who just came in from the outside, did not blame me for what I had just said to him. Instead, he asked curiously, "Comrade commander, tell me how Comrade Marshal will use our army."

I laughed apologetically at chisgakov, and then said to everyone, "I think there are two situations: first, I agree to my proposal that we should hold our ground for a while, and when the German offensive momentum weakens, we should order us to attack from the rear and side of the German army and inflict heavy damage on them; The second is to order us to immediately counter attack the German forces, to confine them to this area, and to give the enemy a false impression that the attack on Kiev from the South will continue. In order to consolidate the rear, we have to counter attack them. "

After hearing what I said, chisgakov looked at me for a long time, then said blankly, "Comrade commander, please forgive me, I didn't understand you. Why should we let the Germans think that our army will continue to attack from the south of Kiev? Haven't we been attacking the south of Kiev all the time? "

"Our attack from the south of Kiev has been going on for a week. Although the 27th and 40th army groups, which are the main attack forces, have made great sacrifices, little progress has been made. " In telling the contents from the history books, in order to avoid arousing their suspicion, I deliberately pretended that I was based on intelligence analysis. "If I didn't make a mistake in analysis, Marshal Zhukov might transfer the main attack forces from the south of Kiev to the north. In order to prevent the enemy from noticing such a move, some deceptive actions must be carried out. For example, one of the means is to let our group army carry out a counterattack against the German army. When the German forces see our counterattack, they will think that we have to take risks in order to cover the rear of the attacking troops. In this way, they will take it lightly and ignore our action of quietly mobilizing troops. "

After my explanation, the room fell into silence again. After a long time, bezikov broke the silence in the room: "Comrade commander, if the second situation really happens, do you think the organizational structure of our group army will remain intact after the end of the battle?"

"Chief of staff, if we really want to be bait, to hold the main force of the German army, and want to maintain the integrity of the organizational system, it is possible." I said helplessly: "according to my estimation, the casualties of the whole army group should be at least more than half."

"What, more than half?" Hearing this, chisjakov jumped up from his seat and said in surprise, "if we lose more than half of our staff, it means that the whole army has lost its fighting capacity. In this way, we will not be able to take part in any fighting for at least three months. "

Not only chisgakov was worried, but kirilov also said helplessly: "if Marshal Zhukov wants us to attack the German army immediately, there's no way. We have to leave it to fate."

A few of us sat around the table, staring at the phone on the table, waiting for a call from our superiors. After waiting for a while, the phone on the desk suddenly rang. We looked at each other and wanted each other to answer the phone. Finally, bezikov stood up and picked up the receiver. After listening for a moment, he raised his voice and said, "Comrade division commander, before receiving orders from the higher authorities, you should stay in the defensive position honestly and never act rashly."

After he put down the phone, he laughed at us, and then said: "the phone call is from commander Chernoff of the 90th division of the guards. He can clearly see the German tanks from the observation post, guiding the infantry to attack the defensive positions of the 53rd army. He wanted to ask, "when can they attack?"

If before I made an analysis, it was estimated that chisjakov would definitely suggest that I send the 90th close guard division to attack, but now he looked at bezikov and said in a low voice, "if you attack the armored division with infantry, isn't that death?"

As soon as he had finished, the telephone on the desk rang again. Bizikov grabbed the earphone and stuck it to his ear. He asked impatiently, "what's the matter, sir?" Ah?! Hello, marshal! Just a moment, please. I'll put her on the phone right away

Bezikov handed me the receiver and told me, "it's Marshal Zhukov's phone!"

"Hello, comrade marshal." I politely asked in front of the microphone, "I'm o'shanina. What instructions do you have?"

"Rita, you're playing a lot in the south." Zhukov said lightly.

"Yes, comrade marshal, the defensive positions of the 53rd group army are being attacked by the German army."

After listening to my reply, Zhukov asked impolitely, "how do you think about it? Do you still let your troops stand still and watch the friendly army be defeated by the German army?"

I guess Zhukov must have called me because vatukin reported my proposal to him. I don't know what he's going to do next, so I don't know how to answer for a moment“ Rita, why don't you talk? " Zhukov saw that I didn't reply to him. He couldn't help raising his voice: "are you deaf?"“ "Marshal," I quickly replied, "I think that under the present circumstances, my troops should hold still for the time being. When the German offensive momentum weakens, we will surprise ourselves to launch a counterattack. If we attack rashly now, it will not only be difficult to repel the German attack, on the contrary, it will attract them to our defense area, which will have a negative impact on your next plan. " When Zhukov heard me say this, he could not help but be happy: "tell me, what will German attack your defense area affect my plan? If you can convince me, I'll agree with you to hold on. If you don't, attack me all the way to the flank of the German army. "“ Marshal, I know that according to your thinking, if you want to win Kiev, launching an attack from the north is the best course of action. But for various reasons, the attack on Kiev is still in the south. " In order not to let my troops become the bait to attract the German army, I tried hard to persuade Zhukov: "although our army launched one fierce attack after another from the south of Kiev these days, it did not achieve the desired effect. I dare to speculate that you may quietly transfer the offensive troops from the south to the north. In order to prevent the Germans from discovering your intention, you may cheat the enemy and make them think that our main attack direction is still south of Kiev. " Zhukov did not deny my conjecture, but he continued to ask, "even if I have such an idea, what does it have to do with whether you are fighting back against the German army?"“ It's very simple, because we've deployed half of our troops to occupy korostwev. If we really attract the attention of the German army, I'm afraid that our existing forces will not be able to stop their fierce attack. Once they break into our sector, they will find that the number of troops attacking Kiev from the South has decreased. In this case, your intention to transfer troops to the north will be discovered by the German army. In the next attack on Kiev, there will be many unknowable variables... "Zhukov patiently listened to my words. After a while of silence, he finally said," well, Rita, I think your reason has convinced me, so you will stay still for the time being, Wait for the right time to fight back against the German army. "