Chapter 1397

Batov waved to the staff officer standing by, and when he came, he whispered a few words in his ear. After the staff officer left, he said to us, "I'll let him know about the fighting situation of the other three divisions."

"General Batov," chisjakov asked, looking at Batov in an uncertain tone, "do you think they can successfully occupy the south of the city?"

Batov was not angry at the mistrust of chisgakov. He said calmly, "general chisgakov, if it had been a few hours ago, I might not have been sure to answer your question. But since I learned new street fighting skills from Comrade o'shanina and told my three teachers, I believe that the progress of the fighting is much smoother than we thought. "

"Yes, yes, general Batov is right." I don't know why chisgakov was always aiming at Batov, and then came out to make a comeback: "now our troops have approached the city center from three directions, the German army may shrink its forces and fight a final battle with us in the city center. In this way, the troops attacking in the south of the city will greatly speed up their advance. "

With these words, thinking of Batov's report, he changed the topic in time: "OK, let's discuss how to attack the enemies of moziri and kalinkovic in the next stage. Remember, our attack was carried out in a short period of time without any logistics supply. "

I found that when I first spoke, bzikov seemed to want to express his opinion, but when he heard my last words, he quietly closed his mouth. I waited for a while and saw that both chisgakov and bezikov kept silent. I understand their performance very well in my heart. After all, if we want to conquer the city guarded by the German army, we can't succeed without the support of aircraft, tanks and artillery, even if we have paid a huge sacrifice. Now we have all three, but because of the influence of logistics supply, it is not very useful.

Seeing that they did not speak for a long time, I had to turn to Batov for help and asked with a smile, "general Batov, after all, your troops have arrived near kalinkovich, and they know more about the situation there than we do. Do you have any useful suggestions for us? "

Batov went to the table, leaned forward slightly, pointed to the map and said to me, "Comrade oshanina, although there is no forest near kalinkovich, there are many rivers that prevent us from using tanks on a large scale. If you want to capture the city, you have to rely on infantry to attack. "

He stopped for a moment, then added: "the German army has established defensive positions on some highlands outside kalinkovich. If you want to capture the city, the first thing you need to do is to remove all the German defensive support points on these highlands. Otherwise, when attacking the city, the attacking troops will be killed by the artillery and machine gun fire in these fortifications, causing great casualties to the troops. "

When I heard Batov's explanation, I couldn't help but feel lucky. Fortunately, I had an extra heart and let Batov introduce me to the situation there. Otherwise, my troops would rush in regardless and launch a siege without saying a word. Maybe they would fight to the end. They would suffer heavy casualties, not to mention that they did not win the city.

The thought that the troops are going to fight in a strange area makes me feel a little weak. In order to ensure that I will live up to rokosovsky's expectations and successfully complete the task he assigned me, I continued to consult Batov with an open mind: "general Batov, you know, it is difficult for us to use tanks on a large scale in the next attack. Because of the influence of logistics, artillery can not help us in the short term. Under such circumstances, how can we seize these commanding heights of the German army and open the way to the city? "

Hearing my question, Batov shrugged his shoulders and said with a bitter smile, "I don't have any good way, but I know the most effective way is to seize these commanding heights one by one."

I know that Batov's method is bound to cause heavy casualties for our army, but I still thank him. At the same time, he thought to himself that from the current situation, to capture kalinkovic, we must first clear the German positions outside. If we want to reduce casualties, we must study an effective way.

Just then, Batov's staff came in. From the joy on his face, I knew that my judgment was correct. The three divisions in the city must be progressing smoothly. Maybe they are close to the downtown area now.

When the staff officer came up to Batov and tried to report to him in a low voice, Batov waved his hand to him and then said in a loud voice, "Comrade staff officer, if you have anything to say, just say it in a loud voice, so that I won't repeat it later."

The staff officer agreed, walked up to us, straightened his back, and reported: "the three division commanders reported that our troops have occupied several streets in the south of the city one after another. The German army has no desire to fight and is retreating towards the city center. Our troops are also rushing up."

"They played very well," said bartov, looking at me with his eyes after he said this with some pride. "Don't you think so, comrade oshanina?"

"Yes, they played well." After I finished, I looked down at the map in front of me and thought that if all the troops were close to the city center, the battle would be over smoothly by this evening at the latest. As soon as the battle is over, I'll be able to move in the direction of kalinkovic.

By 9 a.m., the sound of gunfire from the city was becoming sparse. When he heard the news outside, chisgakov said to me excitedly, "Comrade commander, listen, the news in the city seems to be getting smaller and smaller. It seems that our troops will soon be able to solve the battle."

I nodded gently, and then told bzikov: "chief of staff, contact all the troops in the city immediately to inquire about the progress of the battle."

"Yes Bezikov said yes and went to carry out my orders.

As soon as bezikov left, akhromeyev came over with a telegram and reported to me, "Comrade commander, the 51st, 67th and 71st divisions of the guards, the 82nd and 101st brigades of tanks and the self-propelled artillery regiment have reached the area eight kilometers away from kalinkovich. They are building fortifications here."

"Major, why did our troops stop?" When I heard that the three guards were actually building fortifications, I found it hard to understand, so I asked akhromeyev, "why don't they continue to push towards kalinkovich?"

Before akhromeyev could reply, Batov broke in and said, "Comrade oshanina, I think I can explain this to you."

I don't know why Batov said that, so I turned to him and waited for him to say the answer. He laughed and then said, "the reason why your troops stop advancing is that less than two kilometers ahead are the Highlands where the German army has established its firepower support. If they rush in at this time, they will be the targets of German artillery and machine gun fire. "

After listening to Batov's explanation, I finally understood why they would take the initiative to stop and build fortifications without asking for instructions. It turned out that they intended to use this place as the starting point of the army's attack.

"Comrades commander," at this time, bzikov ran over to me with an excited face and reported, "after fierce fighting, the enemy trapped in the central area of our city, flaunted a white flag at us and began to surrender."

"What, the enemy began to surrender?" Hearing the news, everyone's faces were full of joy. In particular, Batov said excitedly: "I didn't expect that two German divisions were annihilated after only a day or two of fighting with us."

But my mind at the moment was not on the destruction of the German army in the city. I turned to Batov and said, "general Batov, I want to go to kalinkovich immediately. You and my deputy commander will be responsible for the affairs here. After accepting the surrender of the German army in the city, your troops will take over the defense of the city. " After that, I turned to face chisgakov again, "Comrade deputy commander, when the war in the city is over, you can gather the troops as quickly as possible and come to kalinkovich to join us."

Seeing that I was leaving with akhromeyev, Batov asked me in an unbelievable tone: "Comrade oshanina, don't you really wait for the Germans in the city to lay down their arms before you leave?"

"There's no time, general Batov." When I think of the troops deployed outside kalinkovic, I feel very uneasy. If there are many troops, but there is no unified command, it is easy to fall into the situation of fighting separately if war starts. Therefore, I firmly said: "the troops outside kalinkovic are lack of unified command now. If the German army carries out counter assault at this time, it is estimated that it will be difficult for them to beat back the enemy's attack when they fight separately, so I must rush there immediately."

Akhromeyev and I, with a guard company, took jeeps and trucks to the kalinkovich area along the road. As I passed through the forest area, I saw tanks that had been blown up outside the window, trucks that had only frames left, and the bodies of both sides of the road that had not been taken away.

Akhromeyev saw that I had been staring out of the window, trying to distract my attention. He deliberately said to me, "Comrade commander, if you look at these destroyed tanks and trucks outside, the bodies on both sides of the road and all kinds of abandoned weapons and equipment, you can imagine how fierce the fighting was at that time."

"Yes, comrade major, you are right." Thinking that an armored division and an infantry division of the German army almost completely annihilated our 96th and 260th divisions and caused a lot of casualties to the reinforcements, I gritted my teeth with hatred. "Although the German army is losing, their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated. In a one-on-one situation, our troops are not their opponents at all, so we must not underestimate the enemy in the next battle. "

Before I set out, I asked akhromeyev to send a telegram to them, informing them of my going. So when our motorcade approached the new defense area, I saw several commanders in military coats standing on the side of the road. I quickly glanced at them and recognized that they were the division commander, brigade commander and regimental commander I wanted to see.

I asked the driver to stop by the side of the road and shake hands with the people who met me. Then he asked shijerikov, "Comrade Colonel, what's the situation here and how is the fortification going?"“ Comrade commander, this is not a place to talk. Let's talk in another place. " Major general baksov, the commander of the 67th division of the close guard, grabbed in front of chejerikov and politely said to me, "in our newly built headquarters, the fire is burning. Go and get some warm first." Besides me, baksov has the highest rank here. Since he has put forward such a proposal, other commanders can not object to it. They can only agree one after another and say, "yes, comrade commander, general baksov is right. It's too cold outside. Let's go to the headquarters." Since I got off the bus, I felt so cold that I could not wait to find a warm place. Since barksov suggested this, I pretended to think for a moment, and then I said, "well, since everyone says so, let's go to the headquarters. It's really cold here. " My last words caused a lot of laughter from the commanders on the scene. Then they gathered around me and walked towards a semi underground shelter not far away. When we entered the gate, several sentinels on duty stood at the gate and saluted us. Walking into the headquarters, I saw two hot braziers beside the wall, which made the whole room warm. I went to the middle of the room and sat down at a wooden table that was apparently just finished. Then I looked up and asked, "who can tell me what's going on here?" This time, baksov did not speak, but turned his eyes to the next shejerikov. Shejerikov stepped forward, took out a quadruple map from his briefcase, spread it out in front of me, and said, "Comrade commander, according to our reconnaissance, the German army has built a lot of fortifications around kalinkovich. These fortifications are built on commanding heights. If we want to attack kalinkovic, we are bound to be hit by firepower from these commanding heights. " As I had known the general situation from Batov for a long time, I only glanced at the map and asked faintly, "how are you going to launch an attack?"“ First bombard the enemy's high ground with artillery. " "When the shelling is over, we will attack again with infantry and take these highlands from the German hands," he said confidently“ Now, comrade Colonel, the situation has changed. " I looked up at shejerikov and said, "due to the influence of logistics supply, artillery may support your attack in a short time due to the lack of shells. You can only rely on your own strength to take down the enemy's highlands bit by bit. "“ But, comrade commander. " Shejerikov heard me say: "the superior ordered us to take kalinkovic and moziri. If we play like this, I'm afraid it will take quite a long time."“ Yes, the higher authorities want us to take these two cities as soon as possible. " I stood up, scanned all the commanders with my eyes, and then said slowly, "but now we don't have the strength to capture these two cities, so we need to have some small flexibility in executing the superior's attack orders."“ What's the alternative? " Asked chejerikov, puzzled“ As long as we attack every day, we will execute the orders of our superiors. It doesn't matter whether we can capture the commanding heights of the German army. It is not too late to launch a full-scale attack on the German army when our artillery has made up for the shells. " When I finished speaking, I saw that no matter it was chejerikov, barksov or other commanders, they were staring at me without saying a word. I couldn't help but look straight and ask seriously, "didn't you hear my orders?"“ I heard you All the commanders replied in unison.