Chapter 1386

Batov and I looked at each other, both eyes full of shock. Because in our initial assumption, even if the two divisions of the 11th army did not have the ability to break through the German defense line, there should still be no problem in blocking the German army trying to break through. Unexpectedly, their defense line was broken through by the German army, and many German troops escaped.

Batov got up from his seat, went to a telephone, bowed his head to the operator and said, "contact the liaison officer in the 11th army immediately and ask what happened. How could the German escape easily?"

Batov was trying to contact his subordinates, and I was not idle. I told akhromeyev, "major, go and ask major shuklin, where is his self-propelled artillery regiment?" At this time, it must be too late to send troops to reinforce the 11th group army. I can only consider using artillery to bombard the German army that broke through the encirclement, and I can only calculate how much can be eliminated. And the best person for this mission is shuklin's self-propelled artillery regiment.

Before akhromeyev could get in touch with shuklin, Batov came back in a hurry and said to me with an iron face: "Comrade oshanina, the situation is clear. After a long march, the officers and men of the 11th army were exhausted. The commanders of the two divisions arranged for a regiment to build fortifications, while the rest of them rested in temporary tents. When most of the officers and men were asleep, the German army suddenly launched an attack, caught them by surprise, and easily tore a hole in their simple defense line

When I found out the reason why the German army was able to break through the encirclement successfully, it was not because of how brave the enemy was, but because the commanders of the 11th army underestimated the enemy and did not take necessary preventive measures. I hit the table hard and said with a gnash of teeth, "hell, we could have hit three German divisions here, but the whole plan was disrupted by the 11th army."

After I finished, Batov tentatively said, "Comrade oshanina, our tactics in the daytime are not to encircle three towers and one tower? It only encircles the East, North and south of the city. To the west, there are no soldiers. The enemy can leave the city in a swagger. "

"General Batov, the way we play in the daytime is not the same as it is now." In order to eliminate the doubts in Batov's mind, I specially explained to him: "when we attack from the north, East and south, the Germans will think that we are only doing this to drive them out of the city, so they will stay in the city and stick to it. However, when the troops of the 11th group army moved into the west without our army, the Germans realized the danger. They found that their retreat had been cut off. If they were entangled with us here, they would be in danger of destroying the whole army. Therefore, they would take risky actions to break through from the West where we had not yet built a solid defensive zone. "

My explanation finally made Batov understand what was going on. He tapped the table with his fingers and asked me with a sad face: "Comrade oshanina, judging from the current situation, except for the part of the enemy entangled by our army, the rest of the enemy may escape from the West. What should we do now? "

"It's not so easy to escape." I cold hum a, continue to say: "even if want to run, I also want to let them pay a painful price."

As soon as my voice fell, akhromeyev, who was ordered to contact shuklin, came back to me, pointed to the map on the table and said to me, "Comrade commander, major shuklin's troops have now reached this position. If they are launched here, they can bombard the German troops who are breaking through."

"Great," I saw that shuklin's self-propelled artillery regiment was only five or six kilometers away from the German breakout. At such a distance, it was just right to bombard with artillery fire. I looked up at akhromeyev and said, "major, you immediately convey my order to major shuklin to deploy the troops on the spot, and then block the German breakthrough route with artillery fire."

"Yes, I'll send your order right away." With that, akhromeyev turned and walked to a telephone, ready to convey my order to shuklin.

With the order issued, shukelin ordered the self-propelled artillery regiment to launch on the spot. According to the firing parameters provided by the observation vehicle, the artillery regiment fired in the direction of the enemy's breakthrough. After the German army had broken through the line of defense of the 11th group army, because of the smooth progress, they wishfully thought that the enemy in front of them had been basically solved, and the remaining Soviet troops would collapse when they saw their large troops rush out. But the so-called extreme joy leads to sorrow. Just when they are overjoyed, there comes a long whistling sound in the air. When most of the German troops were still staring up in the air, the shells had fallen from the sky. In an instant, the road west of the city, which was crowded with fleeing German troops, was blasted into a sea of fire by dense shells.

In the smoke and dust, thousands of shells burst out, interwoven into a layer of airtight net, harvesting a fresh life. In the rising smoke, the German soldiers, like torn rags and grass mustard, did not wait to fall from the air, but were mixed with the air waves, and then the broken limbs and fragments were smashed into the sky.

The German division commander, who was still in the city, found that his troops had been shelled by the Soviet army, and immediately yelled at his chief of staff angrily: "let the artillery regiment of the division fire back. We must suppress the Russian artillery fire and cover our troops for a smooth breakthrough."

The order of the German division commander was soon conveyed to the artillery regiment. According to the calculated position, the artillery made a fierce counterattack. But what they never imagined was that shuklin's self-propelled artillery regiment had moved to a new artillery position after completing five rounds of salvo fire, and all the shells fired by the German artillery fell to the open space.

Seeing the constant casualties of his troops in the artillery fire, the German division commander called the artillery commander and said angrily, "Damn, why didn't you suppress the Russian artillery fire? If our breakout fails because of you, I will send you to the military court and hang you all. "

"Sir." The head of the artillery, who was scared out of his wits, quickly replied, "our artillery has been fighting back, but the Russian artillery has never weakened. It seems that after a few rounds of shooting, they moved their positions in time. "

"Nonsense The German division commander didn't know our new self-propelled artillery at all, so he took it for granted that the artillery commander said so in order to shirk his responsibility. He said maliciously: "I'll give you ten minutes to eliminate the Russian artillery. If at the appointed time, my soldiers are still being bombarded by the Russians, then you can end it by yourself. "

When the German division commander was investigating the responsibility, we got the war report from shuklin here. Seeing that our army's artillery had blown up the broken German army, my mood was much better. However, I always remember that the carrying capacity of self-propelled guns is limited. If there are no shells at the critical moment, the Germans will escape.

I called ahlomeyev in front of him and said, "Comrade major, please send a telegram to major shuklin to ask if they have enough shells. Don't run out of ammunition in the middle."

"Don't worry, comrade commander." Akhromeyev saw that I asked about this matter and said to me with a smile: "I have just asked major shuklin. He said that in this operation, they took ammunition trucks with them, and each gun prepared five bases of ammunition, enough for the Germans to drink a pot."

"That's good." I'm relieved to hear that shuklin has been preparing for a rainy day. Thinking that it was the infantry who finally settled the battle, I called sherekin and sherekov respectively, and asked them to immediately lead the troops around the city from the north and quickly move towards the west to block the passage opened by the German army. Of course, in order to have more confidence, I also sent the tank battalion of Sharm RIH.

Seeing that I was deploying troops, Batov tentatively asked, "Comrade oshanina, do you think it is necessary for me to deploy a division from the southern army and reinforce the Western friendly army?"

"No, general Batov." When I heard him say so, I immediately declined his request politely. Because the performance of his troops before dark let me down too much. At this time, we may not be able to help them. If we don't get it right, we have to drag our feet. "I'll transfer two divisions to get there. The troops should be enough."

Batov is also a wise man, and I guess the reason from my answer. But he said quietly, "well, comrade oshanina, since you said no, I won't do anything more. I'm going to order them to step up their attack and contain more German troops so that they can't easily escape from us. "

Just as the troops of the first echelon were bypassing the city from the north, our army was no longer hiding. At the same time, the troops of the north, East and South increased their strength of attack and launched a fierce attack on the second or third line of defense of the German army. And the German army, which stuck to the outer position, was also unwilling to give up an inch of land and launched a fierce battle with our army.

Standing in front of the lookout, I raised my telescope and looked at the battlefield of blood and fire in front of me, thinking: if there were no mistakes in the direction of the 11th group army, I would not need to transfer the two divisions of the first echelon to the west, as long as they were strengthened to the north or East, I could speed up the advance of the army.

When I was thinking about it, I suddenly felt as if someone had entered the headquarters, and the whole room became quiet. I put down my telescope and turned to look behind me. After seeing the comer clearly, I was overjoyed and quickly welcomed him. At the same time, I said excitedly, "deputy commander, chief of staff, what are you doing here?"

The commanders who entered the headquarters were none other than chisjakov and bezikov who stayed in Smolensk. While shaking hands with me, chisjakov replied, "Comrade commander, I know you are in urgent need of troops here, so I bring the 67th and 71st divisions of the guards to support you."

I looked behind them and saw that there were only a few staff officers in the headquarters. I didn't see kirilov's shadow, so I couldn't help asking curiously, "by the way, why didn't I see the military commissar?"

"Originally, we planned to bring the whole army here, but we received orders from our superiors that we must leave troops in Smolensk and wait for the new troops to change their guard." When he shook hands with me, bezikov reported that "so comrades of the military commissar, two captains and the 77th division of the guards all stayed in Smolensk."

I waited for the two men to greet Batov and then asked bzikov, "chief of staff, where are the troops of the other two divisions?"“ It's about seven or eight kilometers away from here, "bzikov replied with a smile." the deputy commander and I were worried that you were in a hurry, so we came by car first. "“ What about the tank army? " When I heard the gunfire coming from outside, it suddenly occurred to me that if there were tank support, the next battle would be much easier. I raised my voice and asked, "where is the Fifth Army of general berey's close guard tank?"“ Because our train transport capacity is limited, the tanks of the tank army are driven along the road. " Chisgakov took over and said, "when they get to zlobin, they need a short rest and maintenance before they can fight again. I don't think they will be able to get here before noon. "“ Deputy commander and chief of staff, since you two are here, let's command the battle together. " After I said this, I looked into the room and said with some embarrassment, "but the room is too limited to accommodate more people and communication equipment." As soon as I finished, bzikov said, "don't worry, comrade commander. Before we came here, we saw a shelter nearby, which is quite spacious. I think we should set up the communication room there."“ Comrade chief of staff, you are fully responsible for this. " Now that bezikov is here, I can be the boss of many things. I will explain my work to him, and then discuss with Batov and chisjakov how to carry out the combat deployment. After listening to my introduction to the battlefield, chisgakov frowned and thought for a while, and then suggested to me, "Comrade commander, although our first echelon is rushing to the west of the city, I think even if they are put into battle, the battle may be stuck at that time. I think it's better to make way for the German army so that they can get out of the city. "