Chapter 1348

As the main forces of the front army launched attacks to the East and north of farstev, which restrained the main forces of the German army, the situation gradually became clear in the afternoon. The three divisions of our department have broken through the German peripheral positions in the west of the city and launched a street battle with the German army.

When I learned that the troops of Sheikh Liujin had rushed into the city and were fighting a fierce battle with the German army, I directly told akhromeyev: "major, call general babajanian and ask him to lead the mechanized 20th brigade of the guards into the city to replace general Sheikh Liujin who is fighting a lane battle with the German army."

Ahlomeyev raised his hand, touched his bandaged head, and carefully reminded me, "Comrade commander, general babajanian, they are too far away from the city. Do you want to transfer the cavalry division stationed in the peripheral positions first?"

I shook my head and immediately denied akhromeyev's proposal: "cavalry can't play any role in street fighting. On the contrary, because the target is too big, it will become the target of the enemy's attack. It is for this reason that I did not send them to participate in street fighting. Now, the commanders and fighters under general babajanijan are eager to fight and have high morale. Let them take over from Mr. Xie Liujin and take part in the street fighting in the city. I believe the commanders and fighters will be able to break out extraordinary combat effectiveness. "

Seeing that my words were solid, akhromeyev didn't say anything more. He immediately went to the telephone that could reach babajanian's headquarters to convey my orders.

When akhromeyev came back from the phone call, I asked him, "major, when can we talk directly to the frontier?" Although I have kept in touch with the front-line troops by telegram since the beginning of the battle, the speed of the telegram is slow and some things are not clear, which makes me unable to understand the situation in front in time and accurately. Although I can get information from sherekin through the telephone, there is a risk of being eavesdropped by the German army. So the first thing I do when I go back to the headquarters is to let the signalmen set up a telephone line connecting me and the frontier.

"Not yet, comrade commander." After answering my question, akhromeyev saw the disappointment on my face and quickly added: "although we can't communicate directly with the frontier for the time being, we have connected with the headquarters. Do you need to communicate with the deputy commander or the military commissar?"

I was overjoyed to hear that I could talk to the headquarters. I immediately told akhromeyev, "major, please connect me to the headquarters. I want to talk to the deputy commander immediately."

The phone was soon connected, and I heard chisgakov's voice coming from the earphone, so I asked, "Comrade deputy commander, what's the situation over there in Zhitomir?"

Although I have kept in touch with the headquarters, they will send telegrams to me every other hour to report information about Zhitomir. However, the situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly. One hour is enough for a lot of things to happen. Therefore, as soon as I get through to the headquarters, the first thing I ask is about Zhitomir.

"Comrades commander," replied chisgakov politely, "it is possible that the German army was aware of the news that fativ was about to fall. Ten minutes ago, it suddenly launched a large-scale shelling on the western periphery of Zhitomir."

"What's the situation now?" I know that the German army's sudden attack on Zhitomir is a sign of their eagerness to jump over the wall. They want to contain our forces and relieve the pressure of the fastiev garrison by attacking. Although I am not interested in their tactics of "encircling Wei and rescuing Zhao", I am worried that the defenders in the peripheral positions will suffer heavy casualties under the enemy's shelling. So I asked, "how are the casualties of the troops?"

"Don't worry, comrade commander." As if nothing had happened, chisgakov said: "our peripheral positions have now built a lot of anti artillery holes. When they are attacked by the enemy, the commanders and fighters can avoid the artillery there. Although our troops will inevitably suffer a certain amount of casualties in such heavy artillery bombardment by the enemy, they are also within the acceptable range. "

"I see." I heard that the enemy was only shelling our army, so I didn't worry any more. I believed that general tavartkilaze, who was in charge of Zhitomir, was fully capable of dealing with the Germans, so he said lightly, "call me in time if you have anything."

"Just a moment, comrade commander." Just as I was about to hang up, chisgakov suddenly yelled, and then asked cautiously, "I don't know what's going on with fastiev?"

When I heard this question from chisgakov, I couldn't help looking at akhromeyev in surprise and saying in my heart, didn't he inform chisgakov about our army's attack on fastyv? However, thinking that chisgakov was still waiting for my reply, he quickly replied, "our troops have occupied all the German positions outside the city, and now the troops rushing into the city are engaged in street fighting with the enemy."

As soon as I put down the phone, berey asked me, "Comrade commander, what about our tank troops? Will they follow the infantry into the city, or will they stay outside the city as reserves

Although tanks play a little role in street fighting, they can't do without them. The troops who rush into the city are generally short of heavy weapons. It is far from enough to clear the German fortifications in the city with only a few rocket launchers. Therefore, after thinking for a moment, I said, "general bere, deploy some tanks to cooperate with the infantry to destroy the enemy fortifications, so that they can quickly develop towards the center of the city, Try to join forces with friendly forces as soon as possible. "

"I see, comrade commander." As soon as I finished, bielei immediately replied, "I'll arrange it right now."

As soon as berey left, I specially told akhromeyev, "major, you should inform me as soon as there is a battle report forwarded by the friendly forces." With that, I raised my hand and looked at my watch. "There's nothing wrong now. I'll go to sleep for a while and wake me up in an hour."

At first, I felt so sleepy that I could hardly open my eyes, but when I was lying in the camp bed in the corner blocked by canvas, my mind became very clear. I pondered silently in my heart how long the German army could last in fastif, and which city would be the first to attack after our army captured this city?

Although I closed my eyes, I kept thinking in my head until akhromeyev came to call me. I never fell asleep. I sat up from the March bed, pulled the canvas beside the bed, and asked akhromeyev, "major, what can I do for you?"

"Comrade commander, we have just received the information on the war." Akhromeyev came up to me, handed me a telegram, and then briefly introduced: "our forces of the first group of guards and the third group of guard tanks have successfully occupied most of the city of fastif. According to the interrogation of German prisoners and battlefield reconnaissance, the enemy's imperial armored division, 213th guard division and 25th armored division have withdrawn from the city and are retreating to the southwest. "

I received the telegram. Instead of reading it immediately, I continued to ask, "do you know the enemy number in the city?"

After hearing this question, akhromeyev quickly replied: "it has been made clear that it is part of the 75th infantry division of the German army that keeps in contact with the 20th mechanized brigade of our guards. The other 82nd and 198th infantry divisions are engaged in fierce fighting with friendly forces. "

I took the telegram to the table and looked down at the map on the table, trying to find out the difference between the enemy and ourselves on the battlefield as soon as possible. At this moment, berey came up to me and said in a low voice, "Comrade commander, the German army has gradually withdrawn from fativ. Should we take some action?"

"Take action?" When I heard him say this, I immediately looked up at him and asked in surprise, "what action will you take?"

"Comrade commander, look here." "We are now less than ten kilometers away from the German retreat route. Do you think we should send troops to attack them?" said berey, pointing to the southwest of fastif. If the enemy has more troops than us, we will withdraw after a while; If the enemy's forces are weaker than ours and their combat effectiveness is not strong, then our troops can annihilate them. "

"General berey, where should we use our troops to carry out the attack you said?" I looked at him and asked briefly.

"Colonel villadley's tank 100th brigade, and the cavalry division." "The mobility of these two forces is very strong. I think it is most appropriate for them to carry out this attack mission," said berey without thinking

"Yes, general berey, you have a point." Cavalry divisions are not very useful in siege or lane warfare, but when used for surprise attack, they can just play their strengths. In addition, Vera delle, they annihilated a German tank unit in the morning, and their own casualties were not large, so the commanders and fighters were eager to fight. Sending these two troops to attack the German troops on the way of retreat, I felt that I had a high chance of winning. So I said frankly, "just do as you said. I'm going to arrange two troops to attack the enemy on the way of retreat."

"Comrades commander," seeing that I had just made an important decision, akhromeyev, as my assistant, reminded me immediately, "whether it is necessary to inform general sherekin about the withdrawal of the cavalry division from the outer position of fativ, so as not to make bad guesses when they see the sudden withdrawal of the cavalry division."

"Major akhromeyev, you are right to remind me." Bielei turned to me and said, "Comrade commander, when you give an order to the cavalry division, it is necessary to inform division commander Xie Liujin, so that they all have a clear idea. After all, the positions vacated by the Cavalry Division also need someone to defend."

I nodded, and then told ahlomeyev: "major, you immediately inform general babajanian and the cavalry division commander, so that they can mobilize their troops as soon as possible and rush to the southwest of fativ to attack the retreating German troops."

Shortly after a series of orders were issued, the observation post we set up again on the hillside called and said that some armored vehicles were coming towards us. It seemed that some big people had come.

When I heard the report from the observation post, I could not help frowning. I thought, is it the commander of the friendly army? It is thought that the units that are fighting fiercely with the German army in the city are the first group army and the third tank group army. The commander of the tank group army is general rebalko I know, but I don't know who the commander of the guard group army is. I turned and asked ahlomeyev, "major, do you know who the commander of the first group army of the guards is?"

"Report to Comrade commander." Akhromeyev straightened up and replied, "the commander of the first group army of the guards is general glicko."

Admiral glicko? After hearing the name, I was trying to search for the information about the commander in my mind, but I heard berey say: "Comrade commander, general glicko and I have been in the first cavalry of Marshal bujonny. He is a commander with great fighting spirit. Before the war, he used to work in the general staff. After the outbreak of the battle, he voluntarily applied to be transferred to the southwest front army as the commander of the 34th division of the independent cavalry, and was promoted to the commander of the 5th cavalry because of his outstanding achievements. Since 42 years ago, he has served as commander of the 12th group army, the 47th group army, the 18th group army, and the 56th group army. Not long ago, he was just transferred to commander of the first group army of Jinwei. " Although Brey's brief introduction is very short, I also have a general understanding of glicko, who should also be a commander with rich combat experience. Otherwise, the superior would not have let him go to so many units successively to take the post of commander, and would not have given him the command of the most effective first group of guards“ General bere, I think it might be general glicko I guessed that it might be glicko, so I said to berey, "since you and he are old comrades in arms, you can meet him on my behalf."“ Don't worry, comrade commander. " When berey heard that I asked him to be the representative to welcome the coming general glicko, he immediately said with a smile, "I will get the commander of the friendly army here as soon as possible." After bierre left, povsky, who was almost ignored by all of us, suddenly said, "Comrade commander, what do you think of general glicko coming to us at this time?" Povsky's words stunned me. I was silent for a moment, and then said carefully, "maybe it's to discuss with us how to carry out cooperative operations?" I didn't expect that after listening, povsky shook his head and said, "I don't think it's possible. If we want to discuss cooperative operations, this should be something we should do before the battle starts. It's not as meaningless as running to discuss after half the battle. Moreover, as the commander of the group army, he should stay in the headquarters and command the troops to eliminate the remaining enemies in the city of fastif instead of running around blindly. I don't think it's him, it's other important people. "“ Other important people? " After listening to what povsky said, I suddenly said to myself in a confused way: "who would that be?"