"Not yet!" When akhromeyev heard my voice, he turned around, shook his head and said, "the German army has arranged several blocking positions along the way, and the 51st division of the guards are attacking. It may take some time to break through the enemy's defense. "
"To Colonel shejerikov." Now the two divisions of the 11th group army are in danger under the siege of the German army, but the speed of the 51st division is not ideal, which makes me very anxious. I gave a voice to akhromeyev and said, "to speed up his attack, he must break through the German defense line and join the encircled friendly forces within a quarter of an hour."
"Yes After the expressionless akhromeyev agreed, he bowed his head and told the radio operator to send the order I had just given directly to Colonel chejerikov.
"Comrade oshanina, what shall we do now?" Seeing that the progress of the troops was not smooth, I was very anxious, and bartov next to me was not easy. He frowned and said to me, "if these two divisions are annihilated or severely damaged by the German army, then even if we completely annihilate the enemy in the city, it is equivalent to a defeat."
Just when we were worried that we could not join the encircled troops for the sake of reinforcements, bizikov came over with a happy face. Standing in front of me, he asked me, "Comrade commander, all the troops of the 67th and 71st divisions of the guards have arrived in the west of the city, and the main forces of the 20th and 82nd tank brigades of the guards have arrived at the same time. What to do next? Let them enter the defense area of the 90th guard brigade and attack the German army in the city from the west
When I heard that two more divisions had arrived in the west of the city, I couldn't help looking at Batov and seeing that his face also showed an expression of joy. I just wanted to ask him if he had any good suggestions. Suddenly, I heard chisjakov asking me, "Comrade commander, can I make a suggestion?"
Chisgakov has been my deputy for several months, but I seldom hear any advice from him. When I heard him say this, I immediately reached out and made a gesture of invitation, and then politely said, "please go ahead, comrade deputy commander."
"Two comrades, please look." Chisgakov picked up the red and blue pencils on the table, pointed to the besieged area of the friendly forces and said: "at present, two friendly divisions are surrounded by the German forces, while the two close guard divisions we went to reinforce are approaching them step by step by attacking and advancing. Originally, I was worried that if we continued to fight like this, our reinforcements would have been annihilated before they joined up with the friendly forces. However, as the 67th and 71st divisions of the guards arrived in the west of the city, the situation suddenly became favorable to us. I suggest that the two new guard divisions should detour from the two wings of the German army and cooperate with the guard divisions who are in charge of a frontal attack to completely annihilate this enemy
After chisjakov finished, I didn't make a statement immediately. Instead, I turned to Batov and asked, "general Batov, what do you think of this plan?"
After looking down at the map for a while, Batov raised his head and said to me, "Comrade oshanina, I think the plan proposed by your deputy is good. Think about it. At present, the German army has set up several defensive positions between us and the friendly forces. These positions are not conducive to the development of large forces. We can only put in one battalion at a time. In this case, it is a waste to put too many troops here. "
Seeing that Batov also agreed with the plan, I nodded and ordered bzikov: "chief of staff, send a telegram to the two division commanders of the 67th and 71st divisions of the guards, so that they can immediately divide their forces into two places, detour back to the two wings of the German army, and cooperate with the 51st and 8th 9th divisions of the guards to encircle and annihilate the enemy forces that surrounded the friendly forces."
"Comrade Colonel, please wait a moment." Batov saw that bzikov was going to send the news, and quickly stopped him. Bezikov stopped and looked back at bartov with a blank expression on his face.
I don't understand why Batov stopped bezikov and asked, "general Batov, what can I do for you?"
"Well, comrade oshanina." Batov kindly reminded me: "sending troops to detour back to the two wings of the German army can achieve great results, but at the same time there is a risk of failure. In order to be on the safe side, I suggest that the matter be reported to the headquarters of the front army immediately, and we can take action after getting the permission of the commander. "
"General Batov, the current situation of friendly forces is very dangerous and may not last long." As for Batov's absurd proposal, I immediately refuted it, "if we ask for instructions from the headquarters of the front army and wait for the permission of the superior before we take action, we will lose a lot of time. In my opinion, bezikov immediately sent a telegram to the two division commanders, asking them to lead the troops to attack immediately. As for the commander, I'll send a telegram to him after our troops leave. I'm sure he will understand my difficulties. "
"All right, comrade commander." "After giving orders to the two division commanders, I will send a telegram to the commander of the front army to report our new deployment to his superiors," he said
Not long after the telegram to the headquarters of the front army was sent, rokosovsky called me. He asked me on the phone, "Rita, do you have time for the two divisions to detour from the German flanks?"
"Comrade commander of the front army, it's hard to say. I'm afraid that the encircled troops have been destroyed by the whole army before our troops complete their detour." I know in my heart that the troops that detour from the two wings will not advance too fast if they want to cross the forest and the stream. Even if they are not obstructed by the German army, it will take at least an hour or two to reach their destination. Originally, I was thinking about how to fight for time, but now rokosovsky called me, but let me think of a good way: "in order to fight for time, I ask you to send air force again to provide air support to the besieged friendly forces."
"I'll call the air force group immediately and ask them to send out fighters to bomb the German troops in the forest area." Rokosovsky followed the good advice and immediately agreed to it. But he went on to say, "Rita, after a series of battles, not only the army has consumed a lot of ammunition, but the air force is no exception. They are extremely short of fuel and ammunition. It's their limit to send out twice a day. So your troops should speed up as soon as possible and rescue the besieged troops as soon as possible. "
After I put down the phone, I said to Batov, "general Batov, the commander of the front army, agreed to send out the air force again to bomb the German troops in the forest area, so as to relieve the pressure on our besieged troops and gain precious time for the reinforcements. Now I want to ask you, do you still have the power to use near kalinkovich? "
"There are still two infantry divisions, but they have been greatly weakened after several battles." After introducing the situation of the army, Batov asked, "what do you want to do with this?"
"Now the situation on the battlefield has turned into a mess. Our two army groups are inseparable here and in the forest area." As I said, I pointed out kalinkovich's position with my hand, and continued: "the main force of the German army has been contained by us. If one of the troops makes a feint attack on kalinkovich, it may attract some German troops to come back, which is equivalent to reducing the pressure on the besieged troops in disguise."
As for my proposal, Batov looked at it on the map for a long time, then nodded slowly and said, "OK, I can let my troops have a try, but because of the limited number of troops we can use, I'm not sure whether we can achieve the desired effect." With that, he picked up the phone on the table and called the chief of staff in zhylobin, telling him to let the troops staying near kalinkovich make a feint attack on the enemy.
In order to save the fate of the encircled troops, we have done everything we can. Staring at the map, I said to myself, "I don't know when the encircled troops will be able to resume contact with us, so that we can also understand what the situation is there."
After listening to me, bzikov said with a bitter smile, "Comrade commander, I think their communication system may have been damaged. You think that if the radio station is still in good condition, they will keep sending messages to us for help instead of nothing like this. "
"Yes, comrade Colonel, you have a point." Batov echoed: "since the friendly forces have completely lost contact with us, it proves that there is something wrong with their communication system. Moreover, the liaison officer I sent has never contacted me. I'm afraid that he is already in danger. "
Time passes by in the worries of several of us. Just as we were about to see it, chejerikov sent a telegram, which mentioned the friendly situation we were concerned about.
In order to let everyone know the situation of the friendly forces at the first time, I told akhromeyev, who was holding the telegram, "major, tell us what's in the telegram."
"Yes." Akhromeyev has a good memory. Without looking at the phone in his hand, he began to tell us about the friendly forces: "five minutes ago, the troops of Colonel chejerikov had contacted the guards of the 96th infantry division of the 11th group army. According to the head of the regiment, as soon as the fighting started, their division was cut into several sections by the German armored forces and forced to fight separately. According to rough statistics, the battle damage of the regiment reached two-thirds. Now the 309th regiment of our close guard is continuing to attack, looking for the 96th infantry division and the other two regiments. "
"Comrade major." As soon as akhromeyev finished, Batov immediately asked, "is there any whereabouts of the 260th infantry division?"
Akhromeyev shook his head and replied without expression: "Comrade General, there is no mention of the 260th infantry division in the telegram sent by the 51st division of the guards."
Only at this time did I know the serial numbers of the encircled units of the 11th army, the 96th and 260th infantry divisions. I waved to akhromeyev and said, "OK, major, please report to us if you have any new information."
After akhromeyev left, I frowned and said to Batov, "general Batov, it seems that the situation is more serious than we thought. You see, how long has it been? The number of casualties of the guard regiment of the 96th Infantry Division has exceeded two-thirds. I'm afraid that after this battle, the title of this division should be almost cancelled. "
"That's right." Batov also said with a sad face: "I really didn't expect that the combat effectiveness of the 11th group army would drop so quickly soon after Comrade feijiuningsky was transferred. I thought the maximum number of casualties in the army was half, which was the limit. I didn't expect that they would be crippled by the German army in such a short time. "
After Batov finished his speech, chisjakov also talked about his own view: "perhaps it was the news that the commanders and fighters heard that the troops were going to be withdrawn, which led to the laxity of the morale of the army. In this way, they would behave so badly when they were attacked by the German Army."“ In any case, if the troops are going to be withdrawn, they will be dismissed. " "According to my analysis, the rescued troops, no matter how many people are left, will be scattered and incorporated into other units after the original organizational system is abolished," bezikov said with disapproval The speaker didn't mean it, and the listener meant it. Don't let zikov's casual words brighten my eyes. In any case, these commanders and fighters in the 11th group army have rich combat experience, which is unmatched by the recruits. If I can persuade rokosovsky to incorporate the remaining commanders and fighters of these two divisions into my army, then the combat effectiveness of the army will be improved. After breaking through the German blocking position, the 51st Division continued to advance westward. Before long, shejerikov sent a telegram again, saying that he had contacted another regiment of the 96th infantry division. As for the whereabouts of the division headquarters, there were different opinions. Some soldiers said that as soon as the battle started, the division headquarters was raided by German tank units, and all division commanders had died; It was also said that after being attacked by the German army, the division fought and retreated westward“ Hell, how could that be? " Batov took off his military cap and fell heavily on the table. He said angrily, "the division was taken off by the enemy at the beginning of the battle. No wonder the command of the army was in chaos."“ Don't worry, general Batov Seeing Batov's anger, I quickly comforted him and said, "the story that the division was taken away by the enemy is just a rumor about individual soldiers. It's not true. Moreover, up to now, Col. shejerikov has not said that he has found the remains of the division commander of the division. Perhaps they really retreated to the West and joined the 260th Infantry Division under the attack of the enemy. "“ I hope so. " Batov said. He put the general's cap on his head again. He called a staff officer and said, "staff officer, please send a message to our liaison officer to see if you can get in touch with him. Once contact is restored, ask him to give me a detailed report immediately. "“ I understand With a promise, the staff officer turned and ran out of the headquarters to the communication room of the 65th army next door.