When Batov and I walked into rokosovsky headquarters side by side, he was a little surprised that we both arrived at the same time: "how did you two come together? I remember your defense area was far away."
After looking at each other, Batov and I answered in advance, "report general, general Batov and I met on the way, so we have come here together."
After listening to me, rokosovsky turned his eyes to Batov and immediately found that his face was black and white. He couldn't help asking in surprise, "Comrade Batov, what's the matter? Have you just come down from the battlefield?"
"Yes, Comrade General." Batov replied with a wry smile: "I was ambushed by a small German army unit on my way to the headquarters of the front army. During the battle, almost all the guard platoons I took were exhausted, "he said, looking at me with mixed feelings." fortunately, comrade o'shanina passed by and sent troops to destroy the enemy and save me. "
When he heard Batov say this, rokosovsky was shocked. He quickly walked up to Batov, raised his hand, grasped his arms, looked him up and down, and asked with concern, "Comrade Batov, are you not hurt?"
"Don't worry, comrade commander." Batov said to rokosovsky with a smile: "don't look embarrassed when you see me. In fact, I didn't hurt a hair."
Rokosovsky turned to ask malining, who was busy beside him: "chief of staff, are all the people attending the meeting here?"
Hearing rokosovsky's question, malining quickly stood up straight and replied, "there is no general belov, commander of the 61st army. He's one of the furthest commanders, and I think he'll be there in an hour or two at the earliest. "
As for malining's statement, I agree with him very much. Belov's defense area is on our left wing. If he wants to come here for a meeting, he has to go through my defense area first. In this way, it will take at least one or two more hours.
"Chief of staff, you take general Batov to rest. Let your deputy finish the work here." After giving malining an order, rokosovsky stopped me: "Rita, you stay. I have something to tell you."
After malining and Batov left, rokosovsky asked me to sit down at the table and then asked me, "Rita, do you know why I called you to the meeting?"
"It's no use saying that," I pointed to the door where malining had just walked out, and said, "you must have deployed military operations to us, otherwise you would not have called all the group commanders here for a meeting."
"The deployment of the next military operation is only one aspect of it." Rokosovsky pushed a cup of tea for me in front of me and continued: "I also want to take time to teach you some new tactics."
"Yes, new tactics." Rokosovsky said firmly: "with the development of the war situation in our favorable direction, the initiative of the attack is now in our hands. From all kinds of signs, you will be responsible for the operation in one direction one day, so I'm going to tell you about the theory of great depth campaign?"
"The theory of great depth campaign?" When I heard the new term he mentioned, I ignored the past when he mentioned that I had a chance to be my own man. I tried to think in my mind where I had heard the name.
"Why," rokosovsky asked strangely as he saw me frowning and pondering, "have you never heard of such a campaign theory?"
When I heard him say this, I suddenly remembered that I had heard this term in a series. At that time, a female mate wanted to pursue the male protagonist in the military academy, so that they could have a common language when they chatted. Thinking of this, I nodded my head and said, "senior general, I've heard about it before, but I don't know exactly what's going on."
I did not answer him in this way because I was modest, but because I had never received systematic education on the operational command of the army. If I did not understand some historical process, I would not be as good as an ordinary army monitor. Therefore, I respectfully said to rokosovsky: "senior general, can you explain it to me?"
"Well, since you don't know, I'll tell you more about it." Looking at me, rokosovsky guessed that I was a layman to the letter, so he patiently taught me a military theory course: "the theory of great depth campaign, also known as great depth combat, is regarded as the greatest achievement of China's military science in the 1930s and 1940s. On the basis of summing up the experience and lessons of the first World War in the 1930s, this theory was put forward to adapt to the development of weapons and equipment, and is an important guiding ideology for the implementation of offensive campaign.
The great depth campaign is a kind of combat form of the campaign Corps. Its essence is to suppress the whole defensive column of the enemy with lethal weapons at the same time and break through its tactical range in the selected defensive direction. Then, the development of victory echelons, such as tanks, motorized infantry and cavalry, will be put into combat, and airborne troops will be used to carry out aircraft landing, so as to quickly transform tactical victory into campaign victory, so as to achieve the predetermined goal as soon as possible. "
When rokosovsky said the first sentence, I quickly took out a pen and paper from my briefcase and wrote down his military theories in as much detail as possible.
Seeing that I was burying my head in recording, he deliberately slowed down my speaking speed so that I could keep up with him: "the basis of the theory of great depth operations is the breakthrough theory advocated in the early days: our offensive forces are divided into two echelons. The first echelon is mainly composed of infantry. After the firepower preparation of artillery and aviation is completed, we can break through the enemy's line of defense under the coordination of various arms, Expand and consolidate the breakthrough; The second echelon is mainly composed of armored forces and motorized forces. Their main task is to go through the breach opened by the first echelon and continue to develop to the depth of the enemy's defense. "
After recording these words, I stopped my pen and asked rokosovsky: "senior general, I want to talk about my personal opinion. This breakthrough theory is too idealistic. We should know that in actual combat, when our first echelon breaks through the enemy's line of defense, the enemy will often carry out counter attacks on us, In order to achieve the goal of closing the breach. "
"Yes, you are right." After I finished, rokosovsky said with approval: "it seems that your understanding is not bad, and you have discovered the shortcomings of the breakthrough theory. When this theory was launched, it did not consider what kind of countermeasures the opponent would take."
For the praise of rokosovsky, I just smile, and then go on recording the following content: "after the Sufen war, this breakthrough theory is divided into two groups. On the one hand, when our offensive forces have not yet formed a breakthrough in the enemy's line of defense, but have made decisive progress, they should promptly put in the second echelon to assist the first echelon to complete the breakthrough and develop in depth. On the other hand, after the first echelon completes the breakthrough, expands and consolidates the breakthrough, it is necessary for the other faction to put in a complete armored force and develop in depth to the enemy.
Rita, if you were a commander of the front army, which way would you choose? "
I stopped writing again and tried hard to think about the theories mentioned by rokosovsky. Then I replied, "senior general, if I command the army, I think the first tactic works best in actual combat. Commanders should choose when to put the second echelon into combat according to the changes of fighters on the battlefield. This is the key to our victory and the size of the results. "
"Well said." After praising me again, he continued: "because of the sudden outbreak of the war, our army has always been in a state of strategic defense, unable to effectively use breakthrough tactics. But with the change of the war situation, the situation is more and more favorable for us, so the theory of great depth campaign is put on the agenda again.
... since the quality and equipment of our troops have been greatly improved, we have made new additions to the original theory. In the next battle, the tactics we will adopt will be: first, we will use the assault group composed of the combined group army and the tank group army, as well as the air force, to attack the whole tactical depth of the enemy at the same time, so as to destroy the enemy's defense; Second, with the rapid action of fast troops and airborne troops and the assault of aviation forces, tactical victory will be developed into campaign victory. "
Rokosovsky spoke seriously, and I, a student, listened attentively. I didn't realize that time was passing unconsciously. Until malining came up and whispered to rokosovsky: "Comrade commander, general belov is here. Can we start our meeting?" I raised my wrist and looked at my watch. I found that more than an hour had passed.
"Give general belov a rest." Rokosovsky also raised his hand and looked at his watch, adding: "ten minutes later, let all the commanders of the group army come in for a meeting."
"Yes," malining agreed. He turned and walked out of the headquarters. He went to the commanders of the group army waiting outside to pass on rokosovsky's order.
"Rita, we can talk while we have some time." Rokosovsky pushed the map in front of him, pointed it with his hand and said, "if you were the commander of the front army, what kind of military action would you take under the current situation?"
I looked at the map in front of me, then pointed to it and said to rokosovsky, "senior general, if I were to command the front army, I would order all the army groups of the front army to advance northward and threaten Minsk."
"The main force of the front army moved northward to threaten Minsk?" After listening to what I said, rokosovsky said with a smile: "Lida, don't you find that in the north of our defense area, there are forests and swamps? We simply can't use a lot of tanks in this area. Therefore, if we want to capture Minsk, we must bypass this swamp area... "
After listening patiently to rokosovsky's refutation, I carefully reminded him, "Comrade General, do you forget that it's the coldest season now? The swamp is already frozen, and our armored forces can pass through this area. If I have no scruples about my mistakes, the enemy should have no heavy troops in this area. They can't stop us at all. "
Rokosovsky had been listening to my analysis of the situation carelessly. When he heard the back, he couldn't help but widened his eyes, lowered his head and looked at the map in front of him again and again. When I saw his reaction, I quickly stopped talking, so as not to disturb his thinking.
After a long time, he finally looked up at me and said, "Rita, I have to say that your plan is really attractive and has a high success rate. If we use no less than three army groups to advance to Minsk in the north, I think it will be very difficult for the enemy to block our attack. But... "When I heard rokosovsky's praise, I was still complacent. But when I heard him say the word" but ", my heart sank and said that my proposal would be rejected by him“ But... "Rokosovsky went on to say:" as the attention of the supreme command is now focused on the Ukrainian region, priority should be given to the Ukrainian side in terms of military and equipment replenishment. When we replenish enough troops and equipment, the frozen areas will thaw again, and then our tanks and infantry will be trapped in the swamp area. The Germans only need to carry out shelling or bombing, which can cause huge casualties to our shock troops. Do you understand? " Knowing that the attack plan I put forward had to be grounded because the supplies from the superior couldn't be in place in time, I was disappointed. It seems that it's not so easy to change history with my personal ability. At this moment, the commanders of the group army who attended the meeting came in one after another. When they saw Batov and belov coming in one after another, I quickly welcomed them, said hello to them and shook hands one by one. Finally, I sat down with them. Seeing that all the people were coming, malining stood up and glanced over every commander in the room. When the room was quiet, he said, "comrades, since all the people are coming, we will have a meeting. The theme of today's meeting is to discuss the focus of our next work. Judging from the current situation, what we have to do is how to build a good defense in the existing area, so as to prevent the possible German anti assault... "As for what malining said, everyone seems to have known for a long time, who didn't whisper in private, took out his pen and paper, and silently recorded every word he said.