Chapter 1376

Although our troops, with the support of the air force, have inflicted heavy losses on the enemy who attacked zhylobin, I know in my heart that not to mention the 89th division of sherekin's guards, even with the 51st division of sherekov's guards and the tank battalion, they are not the opponents of the German divisions who are rushing towards the city.

But fortunately, the enemy's artillery positions were destroyed by us, and the infantry and armored forces were also severely damaged. Until dark, they did not try to attack again.

As soon as it was dark, I called sherekin and sherekov to the headquarters to sum up today's battle with them.

The first one who came to the headquarters was Xie jerikov. As soon as he saw me, he cried and said, "Comrade commander, I remember you said before that our division's combat effectiveness is among the best in the whole group army."

When I recall it, I feel as if I once said that the combat effectiveness of the 51st division of the guards is very strong in the whole group army. So I nodded and said, "yes, Colonel shejerikov, I said that once."

"In that case, why don't our division take part in today's battle?" "You know, when our officers and men saw the friendly troops in the west of the city fighting with the enemy, they were very red eyed. They kept calling me to ask when the troops would attack," he said wrongly

When I found out that it was this thing that shijerikov was going to tell me, I immediately restrained my smile and said to him, "Colonel, although we seem to have the advantage in today's battle, the actual situation is not what you see. Only the German vanguard was repulsed by us, and there were several divisions behind them, including two armored divisions. Can you stop us if we attack the whole line and encounter the German armored forces? "

Hearing my question, he shook his head without thinking and replied in an old-fashioned way: "Comrade commander, although my division is equipped with a lot of anti tank weapons, it is not so easy to destroy the enemy."

"Now that you understand that, you can understand what I'll explain to you next." When I saw that shijerikov understood what I meant, I went on to say, "although in today's battle, we have won. But at the same time, I also found a problem. Under the cover of the air force, the progress of the troops was very rapid; However, as the fighters withdrew from the battle, our combat effectiveness was greatly reduced, and even seizing the temporary positions of the German army became constrained. Moreover, there are several German divisions who are working day and night to catch up with Sabine. If you rush to attack the whole line, you will be in danger of being surrounded by the German forces. "

My explanation made sjerykov understand my pains. As soon as I finished, he immediately said, "Comrade commander, I understand. When I get back to the army, I will explain it to the commanders and fighters below."

Just then, sheriujin and shamrih came to the headquarters together. When I saw that all the people had arrived, I announced the meeting. On behalf of me, akhromeyev made some comments on the performance of the 89th division of the guards on today's battlefield. Finally, he criticized Xie Liujin and said, "general Xie Liujin, in today's battle, we could have achieved greater results because you were indecisive and did not join the reserve team in time. As a result, our troops could not leave the battlefield before the fighters left, To wipe out more of the German forces. "

For akhromeyev's criticism, sheriujin blushed and accepted. After reviewing to me, he asked tentatively, "Comrade commander, I want to ask, can we still get the support of the air force in tomorrow's battle?"

"This..." when I heard his question, I could not help hesitating. Although my superior assigned me two flying regiments, I could not use them without restraint. "This depends on the situation on the battlefield. If the German army does not carry out artillery attack of this scale today, I think there may not be air force for the time being."

Xie Liujin's face showed a disappointed expression, it seems that he also wants to copy today's air to ground combat, so that the troops under the cover of the aircraft, into the depth of the German offensive line. "It's a pity," he murmured. "I wanted the air force to cooperate with us in counterattack."

"Comrade Xie Liujin." Seeing his silent face, I immediately reminded him, "don't forget, the task I gave your division is to hold the position in the suburbs for three days, so as to gain precious time for the assembly of the main force of our group army. As soon as our troops arrive, we can carry out a comprehensive counterattack. "

Hearing what I said, Xie Liujin cheered up again and said to me, "don't worry, comrade commander, our division will firmly hold the defensive position in the west of the city in these three days, and will never let the Germans move forward."

Just then, razumeyeva came out of the communication room, saluted me and handed me a telegram. Just as I looked down at the telegram, she saluted again, turned and walked back to the communication room.

As soon as he saw me, he put down the telegram and asked curiously, "Comrade commander, what does the telegram say? Is our main force coming soon?"

As for his guess, I nodded, then said with a smile: "general chisjakov called and said that the troops of the 52nd division of the guards had been on the train and were coming all night. At the same time, the 375TH Infantry Division also took trucks and drove along the road to zhylobin. If there is no accident, our troops in zhelopin will be increased to four divisions by noon tomorrow at the most. "

"Great, that's great." After taking a look at each other, he said excitedly, "in this way, our strength will be greatly enhanced. We have enough troops not only to hold fast to zhylobin, but also to carry out counter offensive against the enemy. "

I am also a little excited to think that my army will be increased to four divisions tomorrow. Seeing that it was getting late, I asked a few men to go back to their respective units to prepare for the battle. When they got up to leave, I specially told Xie Liujin: "Comrade Xie Liujin, go back and let the troops rush to repair the fortifications damaged by the German artillery fire and prepare to fight against the more fierce German attack."

All night long.

Early in the day, the enemy began shelling on the defensive position of Xie Liujin.

Standing on the bell tower of the church, I first looked through my telescope at our military field shrouded in smoke, and then at the German artillery position in the distance, and I could not help sighing.

"Comrade commander, what are you sighing for?" Akhromeyev thought that I was worried about the German artillery attack on our army, and even comforted me by saying: "although the German artillery fire is so fierce, because our army's fortifications are particularly reinforced, as long as they do not use concrete sabotage bombs, it is not easy for them to destroy our fortifications."

"Major, I'm not thinking about it." I pointed to the distance and said, "yesterday our air force bombed the German artillery positions. Today they learned a lesson. They spread the artillery in different positions and then concentrated their fire on our positions. In this case, even if I let the air force attack, the results will be very limited. "

"If our artillery is there, we can bombard the scattered German artillery positions." Akhromeyev said with some regret in his voice: "it's a pity that it's too far away to be near thirsty. All our artillery are still far away in Smolensk."

Speaking of artillery, it suddenly occurred to me that at this time, the Soviet Army seemed to have self-propelled artillery. However, the caliber of artillery is not too big. If engineers Florin can launch two self-propelled guns of their time, even a few self-propelled guns of 122mm caliber will be enough for us to meet Buddha and kill God on the battlefield.

Just as I was daydreaming, I suddenly heard someone below asking in a loud voice: "is the commander here?"

Akhromeyev heard someone asking. He went to the stairs and looked down. At the same time, he asked aloud, "who's down there?"

"It's major ahlomeyev." The following person replied, "we are from the special artillery regiment. We are here to report to the commander."

Akhromeyev saw that the visitor knew himself, but he didn't ask me for instructions, so he waved his head down and said in a loud voice, "come up."

After a while, two middle-aged officers appeared in front of me. Looking at the major rank on their shoulders, I was a little puzzled and asked, "two major comrades, I don't seem to have met you. Which part of you are you?"

"Report commander," the younger major on the left said preemptively, "I'm major shuklin, head of the special artillery regiment, and this is my deputy, major beztijko, political commissar of the regiment. We used to be general wachuk's troops, and we fought with you on the right bank of the Dnieper at the beginning of this year. "

"It's you." Although I still didn't remember who they were, on the surface, I pretended to be suddenly enlightened. After shaking hands with them, I asked curiously, "what do you mean by special artillery regiment?"

"Comrade commander." Shuklin and his commissar looked at each other, then said to me with a smile, "Comrade commander, our cannon is parked in the street below. If you are interested, you can go down and have a look."

I raised my telescope and looked at the position in the distance. I found that it was still being shelled by the German army. It seemed that it would not be over for a while. So I agreed to shuklin's invitation and went with him outside the church to see the guns he had brought.

Walking out of the church, I looked at the combat vehicles parked along the street. The first thought that flashed through my mind was: "the appearance of these tanks is so beautiful. The turret is actually square, and the gun barrel is so thick. It is estimated that the Tiger tank was shot thousands of meters away, thinking that it was beaten into scrap iron."

I pointed to the vehicles parked on the side of the road, turned to shuklin and asked, "Comrade major, how are the turrets of your tanks square?"

"Comrade commander," shuklin replied with a smile, "this is not a tank, but a self-propelled gun just developed by the Armament Department."

It was said that it was a newly developed self-propelled gun. I quickly ran over and circled around the new self-propelled gun. After a careful look, I began to ask shuklin what I was interested in: "major, how big is the caliber of this gun?"

"Comrade commander," shuklin came to me and introduced this weapon from the future: "this is a 152mm self-propelled gun newly developed by the ordnance and equipment department, with a range of 24km, a maximum firing rate of 3 rounds per minute and a carrying capacity of 46 rounds."

I looked up and saw the unseen combat vehicles in the street. Then I asked, "major, how many combat vehicles do you have and how many troops do you have?"

"The regiment has two battalions, equipped with 24 self-propelled guns, and more than 210 trucks, observation vehicles, ammunition vehicles, jeeps, three wheeled motorcycles and two wheeled motorcycles, with a total force of 1100."“ There are a lot of people in your regiment. " As I said this, I made a circle around the self-propelled gun again. I found that the turret of the self-propelled gun was large, and it was installed in the rear of the car body. The front was curved, and the commander's command tower was to the left. The 152mm gun barrel is suspended above the car body, with double baffle muzzle brake and smoke cleaner; There are six load-bearing wheels on both sides of the car body, the driving wheel is restrained, the inducer wheel is rear mounted, and there are four belt supporting wheels. The gap between the first and the second, the second and the third loadwheels is large. After careful study, I stood up straight and asked shuklin, "Comrade major, how did your regiment get to zlobin with so many vehicles? We should know that trains are used to transport infantry, and combat vehicles, including tanks and armored vehicles, can only be officially launched after all infantry are transported. "“ Well, comrade commander. " Shuklin respectfully replied: "our regiment did not take the train, but drove along the road. It took us ten hours to get here from Smolensk. " After listening to his story, I nodded with a smile, and then tentatively asked: "Comrade major, you have advanced several hundred kilometers in the night. Do you need me to arrange for you to have a rest for two days first?"“ No, comrade commander. " Shuklin waved his hand to me and said, "although our regiment has just been formed, the commanders and fighters are enthusiastic about fighting. They want to fight immediately." Seeing shuklin's eagerness to fight, I couldn't beat his enthusiasm, so I waved my head at him and said, "major, follow me to the bell tower. I'll discuss with you how to maximize the effectiveness of self-propelled artillery." When I got to the bell tower, I pointed to the German artillery positions scattered in several places, turned around and asked shuklin, "major, do you see that? The enemy's artillery positions are so scattered, are you sure you can get rid of them all? "