Bovishchenko looked like an acute man. Before the stool was hot, he couldn't wait to ask me, "Comrade General, I heard that there is a large military airport to the north of Smolensk. I want to ask, is the airport seriously damaged by the Germans? If it's going to be an emergency repair, how long will it take? "
After listening to bovishchenko's question, I turned to akhromeyev standing beside me and said with a smile, "major, I think it's most appropriate for you to answer the Colonel's question."
After receiving my instructions, akhromeyev quickly took two steps forward, stood at the conference table, faced bovishchenko and bliss, and said: "although the German troops carried out great damage to Smolensk City, bombed all factories, hospitals and schools, and set fire to most of the buildings in the city during the evacuation, but for the airport, They didn't do any damage. Not only did the runway not be destroyed, but also the large hangar, underground oil tanks, ammunition depots, and even the pilot's dormitory remained intact. Your plane can make a transition at any time. "
I looked at akhromeyev, who was talking to bovishchenko, and thought to myself: rokosovsky once said that his chief of staff, general malining, was the best staff officer. In my case, akhromeyev is undoubtedly such a person. If he is not young, junior and junior in rank, maybe I would suggest to the higher authorities that he be appointed as the chief of staff of the group army. Perhaps it was because of the ease of use that kirilov suggested to me several times that he should be the commander of the next army, but I strongly refused.
After listening to akhromeyev's introduction, bovishenko and bliss looked at each other, got up and reported to me, "Comrade General, later commander bliss and I will personally go to the airport to check. If the situation is really like what the major said, then our two flight regiments can make a transition tomorrow."
As soon as bovishchenko finished, commander bliss stood up and asked me respectfully, "Comrade General, will you allow us to leave? We want to go to the airport now and arrange the transfer as soon as possible. "
Although I know that there will be no combat mission in a month or two, it doesn't matter when the two regiments enter the airport in the north of the city. But seeing that the two flight commanders were so urgent, I couldn't say anything more. I just nodded and said, "well, in that case, you can get to the airport as soon as possible." With that, I told akhromeyev, "let major Yushchenko send a guard company to escort the two commanders to the airport."
After the two commanders from the air force left, chisjakov suddenly said thoughtfully, "Comrade commander, since the air force will be able to enter the airport in the north of the city in the near future to provide us with the necessary air cover. Then we should talk about infantry and tank soldiers next
"Go ahead, comrade deputy commander." I guess he might put forward some constructive personal opinions, so he took out his pen and paper and prepared for the record.
"Last year, the assault rifles and new tanks equipped with the army showed their great strength in combat." Seeing the power of these two weapons, chisjakov said: "when the new weapons are in place, we should change the clothes for the veterans as soon as possible, and seize the time for adaptation training."
"What should we do with the replaced weapons?" Kirilov interjected: "you know, in addition to the mosinlagan rifle, there are quite a lot of bobosha submachine guns. We have to figure out what to do with these old weapons."
"Chief of staff, aren't we going to recruit soon?" Looking at kirilov, chisgakov said: "among the new recruits who have been added to the army, there will never be more than half of them with weapons. We just give them these weapons to use."
When it comes to new equipment, bietzekovton is excited. As soon as the dialogue between chisjakov and kirilov is over, he is a little complacent and says, "if all our troops are equipped with new assault rifles and all the tanks of the tank army are new tanks, then the next battle will be much easier. As long as the artillery and the plane blow up, then our infantry attack the enemy's position under the cover of tanks. I don't believe how long the enemy can support us in the face of such a powerful offensive. "
I could not help frowning when I heard what bzikov said. As soon as he finished speaking, I immediately criticized him impolitely and said, "Comrade chief of staff, your idea is very important!"
Bezikov, who was elated, was immediately dumbfounded when I said that to him. He looked at me blankly. After a long time, he murmured, "Comrade commander, I don't understand what you mean?"
I looked at him and said with no expression: "Comrade chief of staff, I remind you not to think that our army has changed from attack to defense in China, and our group army has won many battles, so we think that the Germans are vulnerable and underestimate the enemy's strength by mistake. Such a serious thought of belittling the enemy will directly lead our commanders and fighters to suffer unnecessary and great losses in subsequent campaigns. " At this point, I turned to kirilov and said, "Comrade military commissar, I hope you can communicate with the political commissars of the divisions, and let them pay more attention to the signs of underestimating the enemy in the army. Through various forms of propaganda, we should give the commanders and fighters a wake-up call, let them have a clear understanding of the current situation, and urge the underestimation of the enemy within the scope of the group army. "
Kirilov kept nodding as he wrote down what I had said: "Rita, you have a point. To be honest, not to mention the commanders and fighters below, even I was a little complacent after the army won a series of victories one after another. Your reminder is very timely. I will pass on your words to the political workers at all levels. "
After kirilov finished recording, he raised his head and said to me, "Rita, when brusoek and I went to the hospital to visit the wounded, he once mentioned to me that winter has come, but the houses in the city have been almost destroyed. We should build some simple houses as soon as possible to accommodate the residents living in the ruins. And we have to find a way to restore the power supply and water supply in the city, and solve the heating problems... "
When I heard kirilov's crackling words, I felt a headache. None of these urgent problems is worrying. I waited for him to finish, nodded and shamelessly said: "Comrade military commissar, we used to have division of labor. I has the final say in military affairs. And the life has the final say. The construction of simple houses, the restoration of power supply and water supply should be regarded as a matter of life, and you are solely responsible for it. "
After I finished, kirilov looked at me, shook his head, and said helplessly: "Rita, I find that you are more and more able to shirk responsibility now. You always put things on me and let me take full responsibility."
As soon as his words were finished, they caused a good laugh.
After everyone calmed down, I said another important thing: "comrades, apart from solving the accommodation problem of the residents in the city, repairing the roads and railways damaged by the German army is an urgent matter. Today's roads are totally useless and have lost the significance of marking them on the map. If there is no road or railway, our speed of getting supplies will be greatly reduced. Our primary task now is to repair the whole line. " Speaking of this, I pause for a moment, and then say in embarrassment, "according to my estimation, it will take at least a month to repair the road from here to Moscow. But this is only a preliminary repair. Once the spring thaw comes, we have to carry out a new repair again. "
"I thought that when the troops were transferred to Smolensk, the most important thing was to train new soldiers. The rest of the time was to rest and let the exhausted officers and men have a good rest. Who knows, it's not like that now. In addition to the daily training of the army, it is also necessary to help the residents build simple houses, clean up the ruins and resume the production of the factory. In addition, we have to repair the road traffic completely destroyed by the German army. Our responsibility is not easy. "
"You are quite right, chief of staff. The city has been destroyed so much by the Germans. " As soon as bzikov's words were finished, kirilov went on: "now that we have liberated this city, we should try our best to build it well. Many things, such as cleaning up the ruins and helping residents rebuild their homes, if we don't do them, there will always be others to do them. If we take the initiative to shoulder this responsibility, we can lighten the burden on our superiors. Do you think so? "
After listening to kirilov's words, bzikov could only smile bitterly and nod his head: "yes, comrade military commissar, that's exactly what happened. It seems that in order to give orders to the division leaders, in addition to daily training, the troops should also take part in voluntary labor, clean up the ruins in the city and help the residents rebuild their homes. "
"Comrade military commissar," I wrote down what kirilov had just said in my notebook, and then asked, "I want to ask how many wounded people were evacuated by our group army in several successive battles?"
Hearing my question, kirilov quickly turned it to the front of his notebook. After a simple calculation, he raised his head and reported to me, "from the battle of Kursk to now, the number of wounded people evacuated by our group army is 39000."
The figures reported by kirilov surprised me, because the wounded are usually heavily wounded, and the lightly wounded stay in the field hospital, so that they can return to the army in time after recovery. In this way, the commanders and fighters of the group army have changed as a whole, and the intensity of the war can be seen from this.
"How many wounded people will be able to return in a short time?" Although my superiors are going to supply me with tens of thousands of soldiers, I still think there are fewer people. If the wounded can recover and return to the team, it would be better.
"About seven thousand people!" Kirilov once again after a simple calculation, said to me: "these are about to return to the wounded, basically injured in the battle of Kursk. Those injured in cherkaser and Zhitomir will not be able to recover and leave the hospital until around February next year. "
In order not to let the fat and water flow to other people's fields, I specially told kirilov: "Comrade military commissar, I suggest that you immediately send a team to make statistics on the treatment of the evacuated wounded. As soon as they are discharged from hospital, they will be mobilized to return to their homes and try not to let other troops pry them away. We need to know that these veterans have rich combat experience, and they are rare combat backbones in any army. "
"Don't worry." Kirilov wrote down the things I told him in his notebook and assured me, "as soon as the meeting is over, I will set up a team like this to go to the rear to learn about the recovery of the wounded of our army and try my best to let the wounded soldiers return to the battlefield as soon as possible."
When I said it, I closed my notebook and asked, "does anyone have anything else to say? If not, we will break up“ Comrade commander, I want to say a few words. " Seeing that I was going to announce the end of the meeting, akhromeyev, who was standing beside me, quickly raised his hand and asked to speak“ Go ahead, major With that, I opened my notebook again, ready to record his speech“ Just now, two air force commanders have said that their regiment will be transferred tomorrow. " Akhromeyev stepped forward, came to the table, faced me and said, "I want to ask, which army is responsible for the security of the airport?"“ Oh, major akhromeyev, I almost forgot about the security of the airport. " Hearing what ahlomeyev said, bezikov raised his hand and patted his forehead and said with regret: "if there are so many planes parked at the airport, if there is not enough guard force, as long as there are German spies sneaking into the airport and throwing two hand grenades at the planes we parked on the apron, it will be enough to cause heavy losses to our air force."“ Comrade commander, "chisjakov turned to look at me and asked slowly," have you thought about it? Which army is going to be responsible for the security of the airport? "“ In my opinion, let major general Xie Liujin's 89th guard regiment be responsible for the security of the airport. " When I said that, I looked up at akhromeyev and said to him, "major, go and call general sherekin and ask him to send two battalions to take charge of the security of the airport." Seeing akhromeyev's promise and turning to make a phone call, I closed my notebook again, stood up and announced to everyone, "since we have finished discussing all the things that should be discussed. Let's break up! All of us are very tired these few months. We will go back and have a rest. "