Chapter 1451

From the day after Ivanov left, I stayed in the headquarters of the 22nd army of the guards, urging sivakov to command the troops to cut down trees.

Since I didn't tell sivakov the real purpose of cutting down trees, he complained to me after cutting down trees for a week: "Comrade commander, the trees cut down by our three divisions are enough for all the residents of moziri to burn for a winter."

Considering that we haven't received any new orders from our superiors, the troops will definitely stay here. If these tens of thousands of people are left idle all day, no one can guarantee that they will not disturb the people. I am deeply impressed by the bad deeds of the Soviet army after the occupation of Germany. After hearing sivakov's complaint, I told him to call the commander of the garrison, general beloborodov, and ask him to send someone outside the city to pull timber.

After calling beloborodov, sivakov said to me with a sad face: "Comrade commander, you see, my troops have become loggers. I don't know when the superior will give us the attack task."

"Comrade sivakov, don't worry." Looking at his sad face, I comforted him and said, "we are about to enter the stage of thawing in spring. During this period, due to muddy roads and difficult logistics transportation, it is impossible for us to attack the enemy. I don't think we will launch an attack on the enemy until May or June at the latest. "

"What, until May or June." When I said that it would take so long, sivakov's face showed a look of despair: "the soldiers are a little upset when they hear that the troops of the first front army of Ukraine have won another battle."

I know that sivakov's victory is the cooperation of the first and second front forces of Ukraine to encircle the two German armies in the Korsun shevchenkovsky region. However, because of vatukin's carelessness, he let the German Army stand out from his defense line. Thanks to konev's decisive action, he encircled the German army again.

Konev's action was appreciated by Stalin. In order to reward konev, he not only put the 27th army, which originally belonged to the first front army, under his command, but also made him responsible for the encirclement and annihilation of the encircled German troops.

More than 40000 of the 60000 besieged German officers and men succeeded in highlighting the encirclement. However, the SS "Viking division" in the encirclement suffered heavy losses, with more than 40% of the division's casualties. Even the commander of the 11th army, general Steinmann, who was responsible for the termination of the siege, was killed in the battle.

Although the scale of this campaign could not be compared with those battles with millions of people, it occupied an important position in the whole Patriotic War. The final offensive force of the German army in Ukraine was exhausted, which created favorable conditions for the Soviet army to successfully march into Poland, Romania and the Balkans in the middle of 1944.

"I think you're the one who can't hold your breath." I saw through his little trick at a glance and said to him with a smile, "Comrade sivakov, don't worry. When the battle in Ukraine is almost finished, it's our turn."

"Really?" Sivakov is a typical soldier born for war. As soon as he heard that there was a battle, his eyes lit up with excitement: "when Ukraine is almost ready to fight, is it really our turn to play?"

"That's right, that's right," I nodded hard and said repeatedly, "in two or three months, it's time for us to teach the Germans a lesson. But until then, the work of cutting down trees must continue. "

"And cut down trees?" Hearing what I said, sivakov was almost tearful. He looked at his face and asked blankly, "Comrade commander, can you tell me why we two guards cut down trees every day?"

"It's not the right time to tell you." My conversation with Ivanov that day was only clear to chisyakov and bezikov, even to kirilov. Naturally, I would not explain the truth to a commander of my opponent, but could only say vaguely, "then you will understand the purpose of what I asked you to do."

As soon as I finished, sivakov got a call from the headquarters. After listening for a moment, he handed me the microphone and said solemnly, "Comrade commander, your phone is from the chief of staff."

When bzikov heard my voice, he immediately said, "Comrade commander, can you come back to the headquarters immediately?"

From what I know about bezikov, if he spoke to me in this tone, something must have happened. Thinking of this, I frowned and asked, "chief of staff, what's the matter?"

"It's hard to say on the phone," bzikov said nothing, but urged me: "you'd better come back soon."

I told sivakov about the big event and drove back to the headquarters in a hurry. But when I got out of the car, I saw two t-5455 tanks, two armored cars and more than a dozen covered trucks that I hadn't seen for a long time outside the church.

Full of questions, I quickly walked into the church, and bzikov, who rushed up, asked, "chief of staff, what's the matter with the tanks and armored vehicles outside?"

"Comrade commander, something's wrong." Bezikov brought it up to me again.

"What's the matter?" I asked as I walked towards the conference table. At the same time, I still think that our defense area has not been attacked by the German army these two days. What else can happen? Chisgakov, who was standing at the table, approached me and said in a low voice, "Comrade commander, there's something wrong with general vatukin!" What happened to vatukin? Although I knew that something would happen to him, I felt a little sad when I heard what chisgakov said. I grabbed chisjakov's arm and asked nervously, "Comrade deputy commander, what happened to general vatukin?"“ On the way to the subordinate group army, he was ambushed by the enemy's scattered soldiers, but unfortunately he was shot and injured. " After introducing what happened to vatukin, chisgakov added: "Marshal Zhukov, who had been inspecting the front army, suggested that he send his deputy to do the work, but he insisted on going by himself. As a result, he was ambushed by the enemy in a small village." I have read about watujing's injury in history books for a long time. It's not surprising to know that. But it's a bit of a surprise to me that chisgakov, who is introducing the situation to me, knows so much about it. I asked curiously, "Comrade deputy commander, I don't know where you got this information. Is the source reliable?" Chisgakov nodded hard and then replied, "chief of staff malining called to tell us about the injury of general vatukin. In addition, he asked me to tell you that after handing over the command of the troops to me, we will finish Zhitomir immediately, and Marshal Zhukov wants to see you. "“ Marshal Zhukov wants to see me? " I was very surprised to hear that Zhukov wanted to see me. You know, I'm not a member of the first front army of Ukraine now. What's the meaning of running from Belarus to Zhitomir? In order to understand Zhukov's intention, I asked chisjakov, "did you say anything?"“ No Chisgakov shook his head and replied, "it's just that you're going to gotomir at once. Nothing else." Chisgakov's words reminded me of the tanks, armored vehicles and trucks parked outside the church. It was probably related to my going south this time. So I continued to ask, "are the tanks, armored vehicles and trucks parked outside the church going to escort me to Zhitomir?"“ Yes, comrade commander. " Chisgakov nodded and agreed with my guess: "for your safety, I have transferred two tanks and two armored vehicles from the 2nd tank regiment of the close guard, and a company from the 10th shock engineer brigade to escort you to Zhitomir, so that we can rest assured." I am very satisfied with the arrangement made by chisgakov. With the new type of t-5455 tank, I don't have to worry even if I encounter the German Tiger tank. The combat effectiveness of the commando engineer brigade is no less than that of our guard regiment and other elite units of the group army. With their protection, I'm sure we can go to dzetomir safely. It's evening now. It seems that we can only go all night to get to daytonmill before dawn tomorrow. I raised my hand, looked at my watch, and said to bzikov, "chief of staff, please call major bukov. I'm going to let him accompany me to tomir."