Chapter 1304

The two teachers came to the headquarters. After a brief greeting, on behalf of chisjakov and me, bzikov asked: "comrades, the task of your two divisions is not only to defend this base, but also to participate in the attack against Zhitomir as the main force of the group army."

Then, bezikov explained to them in detail the tasks under the two different states of defense and attack. After that, he habitually asked, "do you have any questions?"

"If the existing forces are used to defend, it's totally enough." "But if we want to attack the enemy's defensive positions, we need a lot of artillery support, otherwise it will be difficult to tear up the German defensive positions," Chernoff, commander of the 90th division of the guards, said first

"Comrade General, it's not like your style." When kirilov heard Chernoff say this, he couldn't help interrupting and saying, "when did you learn to complain in front of your superiors?"

Chernoff looked at kirilov with a bitter smile and said, "Comrade military commissar, it's not me who is complaining, it's the situation that we will definitely encounter in offensive operations. After a series of attacks from us, the German army changed its defensive tactics and made our attack more difficult. If we don't have enough artillery support, it will be very difficult for us to eliminate their effective forces and successfully break through the defense line. "

"The German changed their defensive tactics?" Chernoff's words aroused great interest of chisjakov. He asked curiously, "Comrade General, tell us what you know. We can also make necessary adjustments to the next offensive tactics according to the defensive characteristics of the German army. "

Chernoff took out his notepad and pencil from his official bag and politely said to us, "I'll draw a diagram for you now."

When Chernoff put the opened notepad on the table and began to draw a sketch on the blank page with a pencil, our leaders of the group army all put their heads together. Akhromeyev and major general baksov, commander of the 67th division of the guards, could not squeeze in, so they had to stand behind and stand on tiptoe to look inside.

Chernoff first drew two trenches on the paper, and then connected them with several lines. Then he looked up and said to us, "comrades, please see. The enemy's defensive positions are generally composed of two trenches with a distance of two or three hundred meters, which are connected by traffic trenches. When they are attacked by our artillery, their main force will temporarily retreat to the second trench to avoid our artillery. When our artillery fire extends or stops, the enemy will quickly enter the first trench along the traffic trench to intercept the attacking troops.

At the same time, the enemy will start to build new fortifications four or five kilometers behind the first line of defense. Even if we break through their line of defense and attack the second line of defense, they will use tank troops to counterattack, so as to consume our attacking troops. "

After Chernoff finished speaking, bezikov first expressed his opinion: "general Chernoff is right. According to my observation, since the later period of the battle of Kursk, the German army has been using this kind of defensive tactics, which made our army suffer a lot of unnecessary casualties during the attack. Moreover, when the enemy is shelled, they all retreat directly to the second trench, so that they can dig a lot less anti artillery holes and reduce the amount of work for building positions. It seems that we need to make a good study of how to crack the enemy's defensive means. "

"We should also consider minefields and anti tank trenches in front of positions." "Our artillery can get rid of the enemy's minefield, but there is no effective way to get the anti tank trench," chisjakov added

While a few people were discussing with each other, I was frowning and thinking about how to solve these difficult problems in attack. It is very simple to solve the problem that the German army retreated from the first trench to the second trench when it was shelled by our army. As long as we pretend to let our artillery carry out extended firing to make the German army think that the danger has been relieved, and return to the first trench from the second trench, when we are ready to stop our army's attack, our artillery fire unexpectedly returns to the first trench and covers the first trench again. In this way, we can kill a lot of the enemy's effective forces.

"Comrades commander," chisjakov saw that I was just staring at the sketch in my notepad and kept silent. He could not help asking strangely, "what are you thinking? Why don't you speak?"

"I've come up with a way to inflict heavy damage on the enemy with artillery fire." I said to him with a wry smile, "but I can't think of any good way to let our tanks pass through the anti tank trench in front of the enemy's position."

"What, have you come up with a way to deal a heavy blow to the enemy?" When I said that, chisjakov's face immediately showed a surprised expression. He repeatedly asked, "Comrade commander, tell me quickly, what are you going to do to deal with this special defense style of the German army?"

When I finished my thoughts, bzikov couldn't help clapping his hands. He said excitedly, "that's great. That's a great way. The Germans have long mastered our way of attack, thinking that as soon as the artillery stopped or extended, the infantry would attack under the cover of tanks. This time, we will make use of their habitual thinking to teach them a good lesson, and let the intensive artillery fire blast the bandits who have just returned to the first trench

"But what about the anti tank trench in front of the position?" Chisgakov was obviously not as optimistic as bizikov. He immediately pointed out the problems we faced: "if the tanks can't pass through the anti tank trench, what should we do if we encounter the counterattack of the enemy's tanks when we seize the German outpost and attack new targets? You know, in the open plains, the enemy's tanks can easily defeat our infantry without tank cover. "

After what chisjakov said, everyone fell into meditation again.

After a while, bezikov said again, "we can send engineers to fill the German anti tank trench when we are suppressing the enemy."

"No, no," kirilov said excitedly. "Once the enemy finds out that our engineers are burying anti tank trenches, even if they are being attacked by our army's artillery, they will still organize forces to suppress them. I'm afraid that our engineers will make a great sacrifice in this way. "

Although bezikov's proposal was rejected by kirilov, it provided me with an idea. After careful consideration, I said to several people, "comrades commander, I have come up with a way to make our tanks pass through the anti tank trench smoothly."

My words stunned a few people, and they all had incredible expressions on their faces. Imagine a group of people racking their brains to think hard, but also did not come up with any way. After only a few minutes' consideration, I announced to them that I had found a solution to the problem. If it were me, I would have the same reaction as them.

Looking at everyone's dubious appearance, I quickly said“ If the engineers can use explosives to collapse the anti tank trench in several places and open up a passage for the tanks to pass, then our tanks can pass through the anti tank trench smoothly and provide the necessary support for the charging infantry. "

"But, comrade commander," bezikov said, looking at kirilov first and then looking at me, "Comrade military commissar has just said that once the enemy finds out that our engineers are burying anti tank trenches, even if they are being suppressed by our army's artillery fire, they will forcibly organize firepower to inflict heavy casualties on our engineers."

After bezikov's words, several people around nodded at the same time, and then Qi Qi focused on me, waiting for me to say the following.

I asked them with a smile: "the distance between the enemy's trench and the anti tank trench is usually about 100 meters. When our guns covered the first German trench, on the side of the anti tank trench near our army, should it be a safe area? "

Don't zikov think about it, and then replied: "yes, even if occasionally a shell missed, it would not cause too much damage to the troops staying near the anti tank trench."

"Since our artillery will not cause damage to the troops near the anti tank trench, then our opportunity will come." I pointed to the sketch in my notebook and said, "when our artillery shelled the first German trench, the engineers quickly approached the anti tank trench and began to dig individual bunkers. After completing the individual bunker, continue to dig forward until the anti tank trench is dug, and the explosives are embedded. As soon as the time comes, it will detonate immediately, opening up a way for the tank to move forward. "

After listening to this, chisgakov thought about it, and then reminded me, "Comrade commander, it takes a long time from digging individual bunkers to burying explosives in anti tank trenches. Can the Germans give us such a long time?"

"Don't worry about that." I said with confidence: "perhaps before the engineers began to bury explosives, our artillery fire has extended forward, and the Germans hiding in the second trench have gradually returned to the first line of defense..."

"Will our engineers soon be in danger?" Before I finished, bezikov said in surprise, "the enemy only needs to shoot our engineers with machine guns. We will all pay a great sacrifice."

"Chief of staff, you are too worried." I went on to say: "when the enemy returns to the first trench, our artillery will surprise the Germans and teach them a lesson. At the same time, we should cover our engineers for geotechnical work. "

After listening to my detailed narration, it suddenly dawned on you that chisgakov immediately ordered akhromeyev to write down what I said and convey it to the engineers at an appropriate time.

While akhromeyev was writing hard, chisjakov asked me, "Comrade commander, when do you think we should launch our attack on Zhitomir?"

"As the German army may move northward from uman at any time and launch an attack from the southwest of Kiev, our troops will stay in place for the time being to defend. When will the attack on Zhitomir be launched? " After a while of serious thinking, I finally said: "at least we will wait until the situation in the southwest of Kiev is stable. It will take about three or four days. Well, today is November 7. In the evening of November 11, the 67th and 90th divisions of the guards moved to korostwev and launched a formal attack on Zhitomir in the early morning of November 12. "

The reason why I chose the attack time to be five days later is not only to prevent the German troops from uman from attacking from our side rear, but also to transfer the artillery troops far away from cherkaser. On the rugged road, it will take at least three days for such artillery to be transferred to korostev. Seeing that the time of the attack had been officially fixed, chisgakov sent the two division commanders back to their respective units to ensure the security of the current defense area and prepare for the attack on Zhitomir. Uman's German armored forces arrived in fastif early the next morning and launched a fierce attack on boyalka, a small city southwest of Kiev. The officers and men of the 38th army stationed in the city launched a tenacious resistance against the fierce German army. When boyalka was in full swing, I made a special phone call to watujing to ask if I needed to send troops to the war. When I finished speaking, vatujing immediately rejected my offer: "Comrade oshanina, there are still many troops in Kiev, and you are not available for the time being. You'd better stick to korostwev and the base, and be vigilant to prevent the German army of Zhitomir from sneaking attacks on you. " Since vatukin didn't need my troops to support the 38th army, I was happy. After I put down the phone, I asked akhromeyev to inform the following divisions and let his mother hurry up to prepare for the attack. Seeing that I did not mention the reinforcement of the friendly forces, chisgakov urged the troops below to make preparations. He was surprised and asked, "Comrade commander, do we just watch the German attack on the friendly forces and turn a blind eye to it?" After hearing this, I shrugged my shoulders and said, "Comrade deputy commander, when I saw that boyalka's garrison was attacked by the German army, I was also worried. I wanted to send troops to harass the rear of the German army and disrupt their offensive deployment. But I can't help it. The senior general said that Kiev has enough troops and we don't need to take part in the fighting. So we should concentrate on preparing for the attack on Zhitomir now. As long as the city is liberated, the German forces of fastiev will become isolated. In the end, they can only give up the counter attack against Kiev and return to uman obediently. "