On the evening of November 11, our attack on Zhitomir was about to begin, and the divisions were gradually entering their designated positions. In order to ensure the victory of the offensive, I asked bzikov to inform the officers at or above the regiment level of the divisions participating in the war and the commanders of the units cooperating in the war to rush to korostev immediately to attend the pre war military meeting.
As soon as the jeep that chisjakov and bezikov took arrived in the southern suburb of korostev, I saw two jeeps parked on the roadside in front of me, and several commanders and fighters stood upright on the roadside. After a closer look, one of them was the guard tavartkilaze. He took a look and then replied, "Comrade deputy commander, this is major chukliko, the new head of the 309th regiment of the 51st division of the guard. The former commander, Lieutenant Colonel Lukin, is now the division commander of the 375TH infantry division
After I found out the identity of the other party, I felt good for him because of Lu Jin, and said with a smile: "Comrade major, please rest assured that we have left special troops to the southwest of the other party. They don't want to sneak from behind us when we attack Zhitomir. If they want to come, then our troops will mercilessly smash their wishful thinking. "
"Commanders, comrades," after major chukliko sat down, chisgakov stood up, his hands on the edge of the table, leaning forward slightly, and said, "tomorrow's battle is the time for us to pay back the blood debts of the bandits, and the time for us to punish the enemy for the suffering of the people of Ukraine. In order to make this coming attack, can achieve the final victory, we make all preparations. Now the main force of the German army is being held in other directions by our friendly forces. They are no longer able to send troops to reinforce the garrison of Zhitomir. Comrades, that is to say, we are bound to win the final victory in tomorrow's battle.
Fight, comrades! Fight to the death with the enemy who occupied Zhitomir
"Wula As soon as chisjakov's speech was over, there was a tsunami like cry in the auditorium, as if the roof were going to be pulled off.
When peace was restored in the auditorium, I stood up and said to the commander at the meeting below, "comrades, it's over. Let's go back to our troops and deploy tomorrow's attack."
After all the commanders left, I took a look at tavartkilaze, bofski and bere, and then asked, "three general comrades, I don't know where your headquarters will be before the battle starts?"
"My artillery headquarters is in the forest to the south of the city, because our artillery position is in that position." The first person who answered me was major general povsky, the artillery commander. "At the same time, we also sent a large number of artillery observers to the front line to guide the artillery direction."
"The army headquarters of the tank army is located in the forest to the north of the city," major general berey said immediately after bovsky said, "there are two tank brigades and a cavalry division deployed there. According to the plan, if the attack is not smooth, the tank brigade and cavalry division as the reserve will immediately fight."
"My headquarters is only 500 meters away from the forward position, where we can clearly see the situation on the battlefield." Tavartkilaze looked at me and asked, "Comrade commander, would you like to go there and see with your own eyes how our commanders and fighters stormed into Zhitomir?"
"Yes, comrade general, that's what I mean." After responding politely to tavartkilaze, I turned to chisjakov and bezikov and said, "deputy commander, chief of staff, I'll go to general tavartkilaze's headquarters alone. You'd better go back to the headquarters of the group army to coordinate the overall situation."
"I understand." When chisjakov heard me say this, his face was disappointed, but he simply replied, "I'll go back to the headquarters of the group army with the chief of staff."
At seven o'clock in the morning on November 12, more than 150 cannons hidden in the forest in the south of korostwev opened fire at the same time, and the German defense position was enveloped in flames and smoke in an instant.
After an hour of shelling, the battlefield suddenly became quiet. At this time, a red signal bomb rose in the sky, which was the signal of attack. As dozens of tanks took the lead to cross the trench and quickly rushed towards the enemy's position, thousands of officers and men hiding in the trench, shouting with weapons, rushed up behind the tanks.
A few days ago, we specially studied how to deal with the German anti tank trench, but now it seems to be unnecessary. I saw a lot of tanks with logs tied to their bodies, so I knew that general bere must have a good way to fight against the tanks.
After a while, our tanks stopped at the anti tank trench one after another, using artillery fire and vehicle mounted machine guns to suppress the fire on the German position, while some infantry climbed onto the car body, unloaded the logs tied to it, and put them on the trench. In a short time, I saw seven or eight tanks driving slowly from the simple wooden bridge.
With the support of tanks, the infantry quickly approached the German position. After a short period of intense docking, our officers and men rushed into the trench one after another. Seeing this, tavartkilaze said excitedly, "Comrade commander, have you seen it? Our soldiers have entered the first line of defense of the German army and are expanding their achievements. "
After looking through the telescope for a while, I turned around and told him, "Comrade General, immediately order the second echelon to be ready for battle and ready to fight at any time!" Hearing my order, tavartkilaze was stunned for a moment, and then asked, "Comrade commander, the offensive battle has just started, and the progress of the first echelon is very smooth. Is it necessary to put the second echelon into the battle so early?"“ Don't you see that the enemy is in chaos? " I pointed to the smoke filled battlefield in front of me and said, "we just want to take advantage of the enemy's confusion and ineffective command to defeat them decisively. Otherwise, once we wait for them to slow down, we will have to pay a higher price if we want to eliminate them. "“ I see With that, tavartkilaze told the staff next to him: "call the commanders of the 51st and 71st divisions of the guards and ask them to move forward and be ready to attack at any time." The troops of the first echelon made extraordinary progress. In less than an hour, except for the small troops that were cleaning the battlefield and eliminating the remnant enemy, the main force had rushed into the city along the open breach. Seeing this situation, I nodded to Tara kiraz and said, "Comrade General, time is almost up. Order the second echelon to attack!" After the troops of the second echelon rushed into the city one after another, tawalter killazer picked up the phone and contacted the commanders of the 67th and 90th divisions of the guards who first rushed into the city. I heard him ask in a loud voice, "major general Chernoff, the second echelon of troops have rushed into the city behind you. What's the situation there?"“ Report to the commander I leaned over and heard Chernoff's voice on the phone: "my troops have now turned to the south of the city and are competing with the German troops on the street."“ What's the situation of the 67th division of Jinwei? " "I can't get in touch with them right now," tavartkiraze asked in a raised voice“ I saw the troops of the 67th division of the guards rushing straight down the main street towards the center of the city "I think they're going to be the first to put the red flag on the church in the center of the city," Chernoff replied After putting down the phone, tavartkilaze reported to me optimistically: "Comrade commander, at present, the 67th and 90th divisions of the guards are developing towards the city center and the south of the city respectively, and the progress is very smooth. I believe that when the second echelon enters the city, it will soon destroy the German resistance and liberate the city. " Vatukin was also very concerned about our attack on Zhitomir. He specially called me and asked me, "Comrade oshanina, did your attack go well?"“ Yes, Comrade General. " Seeing the smooth progress of the troops, I am happy to report that "at present, our two echelons and four close guard divisions have rushed into the city and are engaged in street fighting with the German army."“ Because of your initiative to launch an attack on Zhitomir, the German army, which forced the 38th army to retreat step by step, has now stopped its operation and seems to be standing by. " "I'm afraid they will launch a surprise attack from your rear. You have to be more vigilant," vatukin kindly reminded me“ Don't worry, Comrade General. " I said confidently, "I have stationed the 77th division of the guards and a tank brigade to the east of the city. They are enough to crush any German attack." Seeing that I was so confident, watujing stopped talking nonsense and just said, "good luck to you!" And then I hung up. The German Air Force tried to bomb our attacking forces, but our fighters were driven away from the city. Seeing that there was no threat from enemy planes in the air, our commanders and fighters became more and more brave, and the whole war situation continued to develop in the direction beneficial to us. At 1:00 a.m. on the 13th, tavartkilaze received a call from major general Chernoff from the city and excitedly reported to me: "Comrade commander, the remaining German troops have been driven away from the city by us and are retreating south to the area of venica. Let's just say that our troops have conquered Zhitomir and successfully liberated this suffering city. "