Early the next morning, an artillery company of the 28th German infantry division, as usual, fired cold artillery at the position of the 90th guard division on time. According to the usual practice, they usually fired two shells first, and after five minutes, they fired a volley at the second time.
However, something unexpected happened today. Just as the German artillery was preparing for the second artillery attack, a long whistling sound came across the sky. There were all artillery soldiers on the scene. How could they not recognize the sound? There were even a few soldiers with sharp ears who recognized that the heavy shells were about to fall.
With a cry, the artillery fell to the ground. The shell of the self-propelled artillery group landed on the artillery position and exploded. In the earth shaking explosion} explosion, the artillery was blown into parts, the artillery were blown to pieces.
The German infantry, who were on guard duty nearby, saw that within a few minutes, the artillery company was destroyed under the attack of our artillery fire, so they reported to the commander immediately. It was said that an artillery company had been destroyed by our artillery fire. The German commander immediately contacted the artillery in the rear and asked them to fire on the artillery position.
Unfortunately, no matter how fast the enemy moves, it is still half a beat slower. When their shells fell in pieces, the self-propelled artillery regiment had already moved to a new position.
Bezikov's eyes narrowed with laughter when he received a call from sivakov from the front. When I heard that the German army was shelling the open space, I had an idea and immediately ordered bezikov: "chief of staff, call major general povsky immediately and order him to concentrate the artillery fire of the two self-propelled artillery regiments to counter the enemy's artillery positions and strive to eliminate as many German artillery as possible."
"Comrade commander," bezikov said hesitantly to my order, "although the self-propelled artillery regiment is equipped with 150 mm heavy artillery, it may not be so easy to completely destroy the German artillery position. Besides, the German army will not wait to die. They may fight back crazily. I'm afraid our artillery regiment will suffer huge losses. "
After thinking about it, I think that what bezikov said is very reasonable. German artillery positions can not be deployed in the same position. When our artillery attacks one of their positions, they will definitely be hit by artillery from other directions, and they are bound to suffer a lot of losses. If it is other artillery, it will also be lost. But the artillery equipped by the self-propelled artillery regiment is the most advanced artillery in this era. It would be a pity if it is lost. Thinking of this, I told bzikov: "give the air force another call and order them to send out immediately to attack the enemy's artillery positions according to the coordinates provided by the artillery forces."
"That's right, that's right." When chisjakov heard what I said, his eyes suddenly brightened. He raised his head and urged bzikov: "chief of staff, the bomber regiment that our superiors have equipped has completed the transition for a week and has not participated in the battle. Now that the German artillery positions have been exposed, let the fighter regiment cover their movements and resolutely destroy the German artillery positions. "
It never occurred to the German army that their shelling had just begun when it was countered by our army's shelling. When they had just locked the positions of our two self-propelled artillery regiments, they were bombed from the air. The German fighter plane took off from the airport to the north of Minsk and tried to drive our bombers out of the air of the artillery position. However, it was hit hard by the French volunteer flying group. After seven of them were shot down, the rest of them fled the battlefield.
After the statistics of the results of the war came out, bzikov could hardly smile. He put the war report in front of me and said with pride, "Comrade commander, what a surprise. Originally, I just wanted to clean up the German artillery who fired cold artillery at our army, but unexpectedly, I got such a big result.... "
Seeing that bzikov started to talk a lot, chisjakov couldn't help interrupting him and asked curiously, "Comrade chief of staff, can you tell us what we have achieved?"
"In this artillery battle, we destroyed 51 German guns of all kinds and shot down seven enemy planes." After reporting the results, bezikov asked me, "Comrade commander, do you need to report the results to the headquarters of the front army immediately?"
I wanted to report to rokosovsky after the sniper troops got the results. But after listening to what bezikov said, chisjakov echoed: "Comrade commander, the chief of staff is right. This is a great victory. We need to report to the headquarters of the front army immediately."
Seeing that chisjakov and bzikov had reached an agreement, I would not be stubborn. So I nodded and said to bzikov, "well, chief of staff, then you will report the results of today's war to the headquarters of the front army."
Just as bezikov promised to turn around and leave, I suddenly remembered something and stopped him immediately: "chief of staff, please wait a moment." When he looked at me in surprise, I asked, "I just forgot to ask. How about our war damage?"
"Four self-propelled guns were destroyed and two were wounded. In the air battle, we had two fighters shot down. " When I heard that two fighter planes of our army were shot down, I couldn't help staring. Just when I wanted to ask in detail, I heard bzikov continue to say, "two parachute jumpers, one pilot was captured by the German army after landing because he landed in the German defense area, and the other pilot landed in our defense area. He has been rescued successfully."
"Chief of staff, when reporting the results of the war, we should also report our war losses." I was deeply afraid that bzikov would report good news but not bad news. I immediately reminded him that "the chief general is concerned not only about the results we have achieved, but also about the war losses of our troops. This will help him make a correct judgment of the enemy's strength."
Bezikov handed the drafted telegram to the operator, told him to send it to the headquarters of the front army immediately, and then returned to us. I looked at him and asked, "chief of staff, any news from sniper company?"
"Captain oshanin's sniper company killed two German snipers who were lurking near our positions last night, but we also lost nine soldiers." Bezikov first reported to me the results of the sniper company in the direction of moziri, and then began to report the situation in the direction of kalinkovich: "the sniper company formed by the 23rd army of the guards has not made any progress for the time being. However, according to the report, one of their three person sniper teams has penetrated into the enemy's rear, and I believe they can achieve good results by tomorrow at the latest. "
After I finished, I frowned and asked, "chief of staff, why are the casualties of the sniper company so serious?" I even doubt whether it's right for me to send snipers to fight against German snipers. Last night, in our first confrontation, we were defeated by a 9-2 casualty ratio.
"According to the subsequent inspection, the two German snipers were found to be lurking near our position for at least a week. Because they haven't fired, our soldiers haven't found them at all. " Listening to my question, bzikov said awkwardly, "it was because we didn't notice the potential enemy that our sniper team was suddenly attacked when they left the position. As a result, after a contest, we killed these two enemies by sacrificing five soldiers."
Although bezikov has reported to me the cause of the heavy casualties, I still called sivakov. I would like to hear his explanation for this. So as soon as I heard his voice, I asked, "general sivakov, I want to ask you why the sniper company sacrificed nine soldiers. The number of casualties exceeds 10% before a troop is put into combat. What's the matter? Can you explain to me? "
When sivakov heard my voice, he might have thought that I would praise him for the results of today's artillery battle. After all, the two artillery regiments fighting with the German artillery were all deployed in his defense area. To achieve such a good result, he was also the commander of the guards. But he didn't expect that I asked about the serious loss of the sniper company.
After a long silence, he sighed and explained to me, "Comrade commander, please listen to me. The two German snipers have been lurking in front of our army for a long time. They may be in order to kill the higher level commander, so they have never fired on the lurking position, so we are paralyzed. As a result, when the sniper company left the defense area yesterday, it was suddenly attacked by them. After some fighting, we finally killed all the enemies after paying the price of nine deaths and three injuries. "
He said that in addition to the nine snipers who died, there were three injured. I couldn't help worrying about oshanin. But if I want to ask oshanin directly, I don't know how to speak, so I can't help being in a dilemma.
Fortunately, sivakov was also clever. Seeing that I suddenly stopped talking, he guessed why I was worried and quickly took the initiative to say, "Comrade commander, don't worry, Captain o'shanin is OK. He also killed a German sniper himself. Now he has personally led three sniper teams to the rear of the German army. "
"I understand," I heard that oshanin is safe, my heart suddenly became relaxed, "sniper company has any new results, report to me in time." Before hanging up the phone, I specially added, "by the way, you have made great contributions to our success in today's artillery battle."
As soon as I put down the phone, rokosovsky called my headquarters. He asked me straightforwardly, "Rita, why do you suddenly think of the artillery battle with the German army?"
When I heard rokosovsky's question, I quickly reported to him the cause of the shelling in detail, and finally said: "I just wanted to teach a lesson to the German artillery who fired cold artillery at us. Unexpectedly, it became a shelling scale above the regiment level. It's beyond my expectation to achieve such a result. "
"Don't say it's out of your expectation, it's out of my expectation as well." Rokosovsky said with a smile: "when I received your report of the results of the war, I felt very strange. I still said in my heart, why did you prepare to launch an attack on the German army, but did not report it to me. It turned out that it was just a shelling operation for the purpose of destroying the cold artillery enemy. By the way, the sniper didn't get any results? "
As for rokosovsky's problem, I thought about it and decided not to report the serious casualties of the sniper company to him. Instead, I said vaguely, "senior general, our sniper team has just been sent out. Maybe it will be as soon as tomorrow before we can get the report back."
"Tomorrow is tomorrow." Perhaps because of the impact of the artillery victory, rokosovsky did not continue to ask, but told me in a relaxed tone: "once there are any results, remember to report to me in time."“ I understand, Comrade General. " After I promised, I repeated his order loudly: "once the sniper gets any results, I will report to you in time." Just as I was about to hang up, I heard rokosovsky say, "by the way, Rita, you will transfer the command to general chisjakov tomorrow, and then come to my headquarters." When I heard that the command would be handed over to chisgakov, I knew that it would not be too short for me to go to the headquarters this time, so I nervously asked, "Comrade General, I don't know if you want me to go to the headquarters of the front army. Is there anything important?"“ While there is no big battle now, I plan to call all the commanders of the group army to learn new tactics. " Rokosovsky didn't seem to be aware of my tense tone. He said as if nothing had happened: "in order to achieve the greatest victory at a minimal cost in the next battle, I think such learning is absolutely necessary." When I knew that I was just going to study in the headquarters of the front army, I felt a lot more at ease. Now I am deeply afraid that when my superiors ask me to hand over my command power, they will transfer me to the rear to engage in local work, or they will let me stay in the headquarters of the front army. I don't want to see these two situations. Put down the phone and I started handing over the work to chisgakov. Chisjakov was stunned at first, and then asked in surprise, "Comrade commander, what's the matter? Why do you want to transfer the command to you? Do you have a new appointment from your superiors? "“ It's not like that, comrade deputy commander. " I waved to chisgakov and said, "you think too much. The chief general asked me to hand over the command to you temporarily because he wanted me to go to the headquarters of the front army to learn new tactics, which will be of great help to our next battle."