Chapter 1294

While we were having lunch, the cavalry division commander hurried into the headquarters and reported to me, "Comrade commander, my Cavalry Division has passed all of the medals on the chest of the division commander. He nuzzled his mouth and asked curiously," Comrade General, please excuse me for asking, where did you get your medal? "

The cavalry division commander looked down at the medal on his chest. Then he looked up at chisgakov and replied with a proud face: "Comrade deputy commander, I got this medal in the battle of haraha river. At the beginning of the campaign, I was still a battalion commander. During the seven days of fighting, I led a cavalry battalion with insufficient personnel, and fought back more than 30 squadron level charges of the Japanese pirates. On the counterattack, I led the cavalry battalion to defeat an infantry brigade of the Japanese pirates. At the end of the campaign, comrade Zhukov personally awarded me the medal. "

After listening to the glorious history of the cavalry division commander, I nodded with satisfaction. Although the cavalry division is newly established, as long as the division commander is a commander who has fought and has rich combat experience, it is enough.

"Wonderful, comrade general, you are wonderful." After a few words of appreciation, chisgakov turned to kirilov and asked, "Comrade military commissar, can you take out your wine and let's honor this hero of the halaha river?"

Kirilov because of neurasthenia, sleep at night is not good, usually rely on drinking wine to help sleep. However, in order to prevent accidents, he usually does not drink. At this moment, hearing what chisjakov said, he immediately got up and went to the wall and took out a stainless steel wine pot from his briefcase hanging on the wall.

Kirilov came over with a wine jug, poured wine into the teacups of all the people except me in turn, and then took the lead in raising the cup. After sweeping everyone with his eyes, he said aloud, "we wish Comrade General a great victory and a new meritorious service this time."

"Win a grand victory and build a new meritorious service." Everyone echoed loudly.

After seeing off the cavalry division commander, in order to understand the attack of the main forces of the front army in the north of Kiev, I specially called watujing to inquire about it. I didn't expect that watujing was very busy. The messenger who answered the phone just said, "sorry, comrade commander is directing the battle. If there is nothing important, please call back later!" With that, he hung up the phone involuntarily.

When I put down the phone, bzikov saw my dissatisfied face and asked, "Comrade commander, what's the matter? I didn't get through?"

I gave a wry smile and said, "the signalman said that the senior general is commanding the battle and that there is nothing important. Let me not disturb him."

"What?" Don't zikov listen to me, immediately anxious: "which signalman said that? I'll call the chief of staff of the front army and ask him to teach this impolite guy a lesson. " Then he would reach for the phone.

I quickly raised my hand to stop him, and asked, "chief of staff, how is the paving of the 225th regiment of the guards going?"

When he heard my question, bzikov immediately forgot to trouble the signalman. He reported to me: "Lieutenant Colonel yershov just called a few minutes ago and said that his regiment had finished laying 15 kilometers of road. He asked me to tell you that they will be able to finish the task within the time limit

"What about the tanks?" I then asked, "have the tanks of those two brigades arrived?"

"No," bezikov said with some regret, "according to the report of the pontoon garrison, so far, no signs of tank troops have been seen. Now I'm worried that the German army will lose so fast that they won't even have a chance to fight. "

"Don't worry, chief of staff. The battle to liberate Kiev will not end so soon. If the Germans are not willing to lose, they will resist frantically. Without four or five days, our army will not be able to occupy the city. "

With that, I walked quickly to akhromeyev, who was sitting by the wall, and said to him in a loud voice, "major, send a telegram to general tavartkiraze and ask him how things are going there?"

Akhromeyev stood up, picked up a telegram from the table and handed it to me. At the same time, he said: "Comrade commander, general tavartkiraze has just sent a telegram saying that the enemy in Kiev has not moved at all except the German army in the direction of Zhitomir. It is estimated that he has been restrained by the attack of our main force."

Chisgakov heard akhromeyev's words, came over, took the telegram from my hand, read it carefully, and then said to me excitedly, "Comrade commander, this is good news. As long as the German forces in Kiev do not attack, we only need to set up some guard forces in the east of korostwev and concentrate the main force in the west to fight against the enemy from Zhitomir. "

"Although the German forces in the direction of Kiev are unable to attack korostwev because they are too busy to do so, we should not take it lightly." Staring at the big map on the wall, I said, "if we only leave a small number of troops to monitor and guard the direction of Kiev, once the German army retreats to the West on a large scale and we rush to deploy our troops for defense, it will cause chaos."

"But, comrade commander..." chisjakov said uneasily, but as soon as he spoke, I raised my hand and interrupted him. I looked at him and said, "I expect that the cavalry division will arrive at korostwev by noon tomorrow, so that general tavartkilaze will have enough troops in his hand to make a reasonable deployment."

As we were talking, the telephone on the table in the middle of the room rang. I quickly walked over and picked up the phone. I heard vatukin's voice: "Hello, is that oshanina? Did you call me just now? "

"Yes, Comrade General." I respectfully replied, "I just called you, but the messenger who answered the phone said you were commanding the battle, so I didn't disturb you."

Vatujing heard what I was saying and was afraid that I was in any mood. He said a good word for the messenger: "yes, comrade oshanina, I did tell the messenger that when I was busy, it was not an important phone call, so don't take it in. Don't worry about it!"

I didn't get entangled in this matter. I took the opportunity to ask, "senior general, can I ask, how are we progressing?"

On hearing my question, vatukin said in a good mood: "it's going very well. General rebalko's tank group army, covering the 47th group army, has broken through the German army's three lines of defense in a row and has reached a place five kilometers away from the northern suburb of the city. I think as long as there is no accident, we can rush into the northern suburbs before noon tomorrow. "

"Then, does the friendly attack in the south of the city need to continue?" As soon as he finished, I immediately said, "to be exact, do they need to continue to contain the German forces in the south of the city?"

"That's for sure." Vatujing's tone suddenly became serious: "if we stop attacking the south of the city at this time, then the enemy can calmly deploy troops to strengthen the north line of defense."

I couldn't bear to think of the heavy casualties and fruitless attack in the south of the city, so I said, "Comrade General, can I make a suggestion?"

Vatukin said magnanimously, "o'shanina, say it. If you have any ideas, just say it."

"At present, the 27th and 40th army groups deployed in the south of Kiev have suffered heavy casualties. If they continue to attack like this, many troops may be wiped out." In order not to let the friendly commanders and fighters die in vain, I risked offending vatukin and said boldly: "in fact, to contain the German army, it is not necessary to launch attacks on the enemy's positions again and again. We just need to put our troops where the enemy can see them. Even if we don't take any military action, it can also have a deterrent effect on the German army and make them dare not act rashly. "

After a long silence, vatukin said slowly, "Comrade oshanina, the strategy of attacking Kiev from the south to contain the German forces was formulated by Marshal Zhukov and reported to the Supreme Commander for approval. I don't have the right to ask the troops in the south to stop attacking. I have to ask Marshal Zhukov about this. "

When watujing was about to hang up the phone, he suddenly thought of another thing and quickly added: "by the way, I almost forgot to tell you one more thing. From now on, the two newly equipped tank brigades will be officially put under the command of the Fifth Army of close guard tanks."

Speaking of the tank army, I immediately thought that Kravchenko was wounded in the battle two days ago, so I couldn't command the army at all, so I quickly reported this to vatujing: "Comrade General, general Kravchenko, commander of the Fifth Army of the close guard tank, was wounded. I don't know who will take his place?"

"The Fifth Army of close guard tanks is your army. You can decide who will take over the post of commander by yourself." After pausing for a moment, watujing said, "by the way, I remember that major general belei, the commander of the 33rd army of tanks, is now the deputy commander of the 5th army of guard tanks. He can take over the post of commander."

As soon as I put down the phone, I immediately told akhromeyev: "major, call general bere immediately and let him report to the headquarters!"

When akhromeyev called, I turned to ask bzikov, "chief of staff, what's the situation in the southeast of smira? Is there any news from the enemy?"

"No, after the German army stopped attacking, some retreated to Alexandria and some returned to kilovgrad." "In the short term, it is impossible for the enemy to launch a new attack on smira or cherkaser," bezikov replied clearly

Major general bielei arrived at the headquarters more than ten minutes later. I went forward to hold his hand and said in a friendly way, "Comrade General, you have worked hard. If it wasn't for the two tank brigades under your command, which have dealt a severe blow to the German offensive forces these days, they might have broken through smira's direction. "

Although he didn't know why I said that, he replied according to the regulations: "serve the Soviet motherland!"

"I can see that you have done a good job." Kirilov stood up and held out his hand to bere. "Your tank brigade has made a great contribution to our ability to defend smira."

"Comrade General, how many active tanks are left in the tank brigade?" I think that in a short period of time, the German army may not be able to launch an attack from our southeast direction, and the tank brigade has no meaning to stay here. It's better to send them to korostwev to take up the task of cutting off the traffic line between Kiev and Zhitomir. But before that, I want to know what the current strength of the tank brigade is.

Berey frowned and thought about it, then replied, "Comrade commander, after a long battle, the tank brigade has lost a lot of tanks. At present, there are only 80 tanks in the two brigades, all of which are T-34."