Chapter 1329

Early the next morning, our expected German attack arrived on schedule.

Perhaps the Germans wanted to take Zhitomir at one go. When they used powerful artillery fire to bombard the defensive positions of the 67th division of the guards, they also sent out more than 40 bombers to bombard the city.

After reading tavartkilaze's war report from Zhitomir, chisgakov muttered: "the Germans really paid a lot of money in order to capture Zhitomir."

After listening to this, I laughed a little, and then said, "Comrade deputy commander, you are right. Judging from today's posture, the German army will never give up until it wins Zhitomir."

Bezikov looked at the map spread out in front of him and echoed me: "it seems that Manstein is not willing to accept their defeat in Kiev, so now he has concentrated all the forces they can and launched a counter offensive against Kiev. The capture of Zhitomir in the first place could give the German army another starting point of attack besides fativ. Once they have completed their occupation of Zhitomir, they will form a confrontation with the German forces of fativ, and they can get timely support no matter which direction is attacked. "

After waiting for bezikov to finish, chisjakov looked up and said, "Comrade commander, we all know the importance of Zhitomir. What I want to say now is whether we should change our original plan, instead of resisting in the city for a few days and then withdrawing from the city, we should turn it into a solid fortress and contain the main forces of the German army here. After our main forces arrive, we will fight a Stalingrad style siege and annihilation for the enemy here? "

I began to think seriously about this proposal made by chisgakov. Although the city size and population of Zhitomir can not be compared with Stalingrad, because the residents of the city were moved to other places by the Germans, we did not have too much scruples when we were engaged in street fighting. The only pity is that there are too few stone buildings in the city to establish a perfect defense system.

Before I made a final decision, akhromeyev came up to me with a piece of paper and asked for instructions: "Comrade commander, general tavartkiraze called to say that the enemy's bombing had caused many casualties to the troops in the city. He asked if we could send our air force out to drive the enemy planes out of the city

After listening to akhromeyev's words, chisgakov snorted heavily, and then said discontentedly, "does tavartkiraze think we are the headquarters of the front army? You can mobilize the air force at will to drive out the enemy planes over the city. "

Bezikov looked at me first and saw me staring at the map without expression. Then he cautiously said to chisjakov, "Comrade deputy commander, I think we should report to commander vatukin immediately and ask him to contact the air force to cover the sky over Zhitomir."

Under such circumstances, I can't keep silent any more. So I put aside the idea of whether or not to turn Zhitomir into a second Stalingrad, and told bzikov, "chief of staff, now you call the headquarters of the front army immediately to report that Zhitomir is being bombed by more than 40 enemy planes, and ask them to join the air force to provide the necessary air cover for our garrison."

After bezikov left, I picked up the phone from my desk and dialed the artillery headquarters. Then povsky, who answered the phone, said, "Comrade General, if today tomir is being bombed by the enemy, the troops in the city have suffered a lot. I now order you to immediately put the two self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery battalions deployed in the city into battle."

"Comrade commander," said povsky mildly after hearing my order, "self propelled antiaircraft gun is our secret weapon. If we fire under such circumstances, it will soon be lost."

"Comrade General," seeing that povsky was a little bit evasive, my heart suddenly became anonymous: "self propelled anti-aircraft guns are originally used for air defense, and they are not used when cities are bombed. When do you plan to use them? I order you to let the antiaircraft artillery battalion fire immediately and drive the enemy's aircraft away from the sky of the city. "

Seeing that I hung up the phone angrily, chisjakov asked curiously and cautiously, "Comrade commander, didn't you ask the chief of staff to call the headquarters of the front army and ask them to send out the air force to expel the enemy planes over Zhitomir? How can the self-propelled antiaircraft artillery regiment risk firing? "

From the tone of his voice, I can hear that he is questioning my order, which seems to be adding to the story. After all, from the end of the Kharkov campaign to now, the new antiaircraft guns have been shut down for special reasons. The rest of these self-propelled antiaircraft guns are losing one and the other. Therefore, they are less and less used in air defense operations.

I took a look at chisgakov, and then said solemnly, "Comrade deputy commander, even if the head of the front army agrees to send out the air force, it will take at least half an hour or even an hour for our fighters to arrive at the battlefield. And the longer the city is bombed, the greater the impact on the morale of the troops. Therefore, we should drive the obnoxious enemy planes out of the sky over Zhitomir in the shortest time. "

The German offensive is threatening. If we discuss everything as before, it will easily lead to a mistake. So I has the final say that I must be decisive and I will make the final victory in the campaign.

Two anti-aircraft artillery battalions stationed in Zhitomir fired in the face of intensive German bombing. It has to be said that equipment beyond this era can sometimes not achieve unexpected results. Although more than 20 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns were lost by the anti-aircraft artillery battalion after the fierce battle, the enemy did not get along well. Fifteen enemy planes were shot down and seven others were injured. The remaining enemy planes saw the fierce anti-aircraft fire on the ground, threw their bombs at random and turned their heads away from the battlefield.

After the German artillery and bombing stopped, the infantry, under the guidance of tanks, rushed to the defensive position of the 67th division. And all of this, tavartkiraze reported to the headquarters by phone.

After listening to the report reported by bezikov, chisgakov could not help frowning, as if to all of us and to himself, and said: "I did not expect that the enemy's artillery fire was so fierce that even the snow in front of the position was melted by the high temperature generated by the explosion. Would the commanders and fighters who stayed in the trenches suffer heavy casualties?"

"Don't worry, comrade deputy commander. I believe the casualties of the troops will not be too great. " After he finished, I said faintly: "last night when I presided over the meeting in Zhitomir, I told the division commanders that when the enemy was in the artillery position, except for leaving a small number of observation posts, the rest were withdrawn to the second line position, and then the first line position was resumed after the enemy's artillery attack. If we do so, we can greatly reduce the casualties of our troops when they are bombarded by the enemy. "

After hearing this, chisjakov asked incredulously: "Comrade commander, this method sounds very good, but I don't know how it works in actual combat?"

"It's not easy to understand the effect." Then I told bzikov: "chief of staff, call general tavartkiraze and ask about the casualties of the 67th division of the guards."

Bezikov agreed, then picked up the phone from the desk and called tavartkiraze. After the two ended their conversation, bizikov raised his head and said with a smile: "two commanders, according to general tavartkilaze's report, although the enemy's artillery fire was fierce just now, because general baksov strictly followed the defensive tactics you formulated last night, only seven people were killed and more than ten people were injured in the shelling."

"What, in such a heavy shelling by the enemy, only 20 or so people were killed?" After listening to bzikov's report, chisjakov was shocked. Then he looked at me and said, "my God, comrade commander, this is incredible. If the chief of staff didn't verify it personally, I would think it's impossible. "

"Comrade deputy commander, as long as we use tactics rationally in defensive operations, we can greatly reduce unnecessary casualties in our troops." After I said these words, I told bzikov: "chief of staff, the Germans will launch a large-scale attack on us next. You should pay close attention to the news of Zhitomir."

"I understand." Bezikov promised: "I always pay attention to the war in the direction of Zhitomir."

From the end of the shelling to noon, the German army launched three successive regimental attacks, but all of them were repulsed by the brave guards without exception. When we heard that another German attack had been smashed by us, we were all relieved. It was just in time for lunch. Biezikov called the cooks and asked them to deliver lunch immediately.

While everyone was eating lunch, I unexpectedly saw razumeyeva come in. I could not help but raised my eyebrows and asked, "Captain razumeyeva, what's the matter with you?"

"Comrade commander," razumeyeva came to me and said respectfully, "I just received a telegram from the 77th division of the guards saying that there was a change in the German army in the direction of Steve."

"What's the matter?" As I spoke, I reached for the telegram in razumeyeva's hand. The telegram was sent by askarepov, the commander of the 77th division of the guards. He said that the German army was building fortifications five kilometers east of korostvev and seemed to be ready to cut off the traffic line between Kiev and Zhitomir.

When we heard that there was a change in the German army near korostwev, although we didn't know the contents of the telegram for the time being, all the people who were eating stopped and focused on me, waiting for my final decision.

I put the telegram in front of chisgakov, then stood up, walked back and forth in the room, thinking about how to deal with this dangerous German plan.

After reading the telegram, chisjakov handed it to bzikov beside him and asked me in a flurried way, "Comrade commander, what should we do? By doing so, the German army obviously wants to cut off the communication between us here and Kiev, cut off our ammunition supply, and make us unable to stick to it in Zhitomir. "

Kirilov took the telegram from bzikov, looked at it, and then said to himself, "if the German army really cuts off the communication line between Kiev and Zhitomir, then our ammunition supply can only be completed through the direction of cherkaser."

"But, comrade military Commissar." Listening to kirilov's words, bezikov said with a wry smile, "although we have two divisions near cherkaser, they are not full. The 225 regiment of the 52nd division of the close guard still shoulders the defense task of the base."

"Then let the 225th Regiment (yershov regiment) be returned!" As soon as bzikov's voice came to an end, I said in unison with chisgakov. When we heard each other talking, we immediately stopped, looked at each other with a smile, and then continued to say at the same time, "let them take charge of the safety of the transportation line." Chisgakov and I had surprisingly identical views on the protection of the transport line, which surprised the commanders here. They all looked at each other and couldn't help smiling. Bzikov got up from his seat and said to me, "Comrade commander, I'll call lieutenant commander yershov right now to make him ready to lead the troops back to cherkaser." After bezikov went to one side to make a phone call, I also sat back in my position. When I was preparing to continue eating, I unexpectedly found that razumeyeva was still standing in the same place. Can't help asking curiously: "Comrade captain, what else can I do for you?"“ Comrade commander, there is also a telegram indicating that it is "top secret." Razumeyeva handed me another telegram in her hand and said carefully, "I want to ask you if you need to call back immediately?" When I heard that it was a top secret telegram, I couldn't help frowning, because the telegrams that can be related to top secret are usually from the headquarters of the front army. However, we now have a telephone line with the headquarters of the front army. We communicate everything by telephone and seldom use telegrams. When I saw the contents of the telegram clearly, I handed it to kirilov at any time and said to him, "Comrade military commissar, I've been busy directing the battle recently. I don't have time to deal with this matter for the time being. I'll leave it to you. You can decide for yourself how to call them back. You don't have to ask me for instructions. " When he first heard the word "top secret", he couldn't wait to find out what it was. When I mentioned travkin, he immediately understood what the telegram was about. He took a sip of tea from his cup, pretended to be casual, and asked casually, "have they got someone to pick up?" Although his words were a bit unintelligible, a few of us who knew about it understood that he was asking travkin if they had received the German photographer. As there are several staff members who are not authorized to keep secret and razumeyeva who has just returned to the team, I didn't make it clear. I just nodded slightly to show that his guess was correct.