Chapter 1465

When I was commander of the group army in the past, as long as there was a battle, I didn't sleep for two or three days. It was a common practice. But since I became the Acting Deputy Commander of the first front army of Ukraine, I feel as if I have entered the holiday mode. No matter how fierce the war is, I can have time to go back to my room to sleep. Even if I sleep until dawn, no one will disturb me.

Although Zhukov always let me go, he never asked me when I would arrive at the headquarters and when I would leave. But I can't be too lazy. It's a bit too much for me to sleep until I wake up naturally. In March, the dawn is getting earlier and earlier. It's almost bright at four o'clock. I left my room at dawn and went to the headquarters to report.

I thought I had come early enough, but as soon as I entered the headquarters, I saw Zhukov and bogoleubov sitting at the table, gazing at the map in front of me. Bogoleubov was pointing at the map with a red and blue pencil and telling him something.

Hearing my footsteps, they looked up, nodded slightly at me, and then looked at the map in front of them. I was very curious about what they were studying early in the morning, so I hurried to get to know.

After listening for a moment, I could hear Bogoliubov talking about the battle plan of konev's troops: "marshal konev, with the main force of the front army, attacked the general direction of uman from the region of chemeriskye and ollihowitz, and then went out along the direction of belizi and Yasi to the front of the Dniester river; The left wing of the front army acted as an auxiliary assault to the general direction of new Ukraine

When Bogoliubov mentioned konev, I couldn't help thinking that he had been promoted to the rank of Marshal on February 10, but many commanders couldn't change their words and always called him general konev.

"... there will be three combined arms groups and three tank groups operating in the direction of the main Turkistan. They will break through the enemy's defense in the front line of yablonovka olkhowitz and attack in the general direction of uman. Their task is to smash the enemy uman group and occupy radren, gavoron and new Ukrainian areas.

The auxiliary Raiders were general Zadov's fifth group army and general sumilov's seventh group army. The task of these two army groups is to break through the enemy's defense in the 18 km area of shestakovka and mukhortovka, annihilate the enemy in the new Ukrainian region, and guarantee the victory of the main direction of attack. "

At this time, a soldier brought us breakfast. Zhukov quickly finished a piece of bread, took a sip of tea from his cup, and then asked in a relaxed tone, "chief of staff, how about marshal konev's combat plan?"

Long before the beginning of this campaign, I had read this battle plan of konev, let alone Zhukov. At this moment, he suddenly asked Bogoliubov about his personal opinion. It seemed that they were studying friendly tactics in private. Therefore, I kept silent and ate breakfast quietly.

After swallowing the bread in his mouth, Bogoliubov pointed to the map and continued to express his opinion: "Comrade marshal, judging from the fighting situation of the friendly forces in recent days, marshal konev's choice of the main and auxiliary assault directions was completely successful. Of course, due to the crisscross rivers in the main direction, our tanks are difficult to pass, so the enemy's fortifications here are also weak.

The chosen direction of attack enables the front forces to divide the enemy's defenses, expose the enemy's flanks, and encircle the enemy group between the stebunoy settlement and grand visinka, south of zvinigorodka. There are nearly seven divisions in the first echelon and two tank divisions in the second echelon.

There are two echelons of friendly forces in the main attack direction. There are 31 infantry divisions in the main attack direction. In the direction of auxiliary assault, of the 10 divisions of the 5th and 7th group army, 8 divisions are in the first echelon of the group army, while the remaining two divisions are in the second echelon of the two groups army.

Marshal konev adopted this kind of campaign layout because the enemy's defense was not perfect. He tried to crush the enemy's resistance at one stroke, thus giving the enemy psychological influence, because the defeat in the Korsun shevchenkovsky campaign had made the enemy's morale quite low. "

"Yes, you are right. From the current situation, it is true. " After a few words of appreciation, Zhukov turned to me with a smile and said, "Rita, do you remember when you first met Comrade konev?"

"Yes, of course." When Zhukov asked me, I quickly nodded, "it was during the defense war in Moscow. I followed you to the headquarters of the Western Front Army. I just saw that the commander at that time, general konev and marshal voroshlov, were having a fierce quarrel about the war pattern of the army's defense."

"You have a good memory." Zhukov said to me with a smile, "it's been so many years. I didn't expect you to remember the situation at that time."

"Yes, comrade marshal." I hastened to add: "at that time, the Supreme Commander himself appointed you to take over the post of commander of the Western Front Army, but you recommended general konev... No, now it's marshal konev, who will be your deputy to command the troops in the direction of Kalinin."

"He was my deputy for only a day or two and was sent to Kalinin to command the right wing of the front army. While commanding the army far away from the main force and fighting the German attack tenaciously, he fully demonstrated his capable command ability and won the trust of the Supreme Commander himself again. Therefore, as soon as Kalinin's front army was established, he was appointed commander of the front army. " Zhukov said with great emotion: "konev's reputation was established after the start of the Kursk battle. The troops under his command not only smashed the German army's hope of winning the battle at the critical time, but also liberated Kharkov, known as the second capital of Ukraine, in the subsequent campaign counterattack. This is a great achievement." At this point, Zhukov turned his eyes to me, with a smile on his face. "I remember it was your army that planted the red flag on the commanding height of Kharkov."

Listening to Zhukov talking about my proud achievements, I was a little complacent, but I still pretended to be modest and said, "if it wasn't for the positive attack of friendly forces, which restrained a large number of German forces, it would not be so easy for us to rush into the city first."

"What are you talking about?" At this moment, Khrushchev and his deputy, general krinukov, appeared at the headquarters at the same time. As they walked towards us, they asked curiously, "I'm so happy talking!"

Bogoliubov and I quickly stood up and politely said hello to Khrushchev. At the same time, we politely said, "Comrade military commissar, you must not have breakfast. Please come and have some together

After Khrushchev took his seat, he continued to ask the question: "what are you talking about? You are all in high spirits."

"We are talking about the operational plan formulated by konev." Zhukov added: "in the early days of the battlefield, konev's poor performance as commander of the western front army made Comrade Stalin very disappointed with him and even removed him several times. But later, because he had a good command of the grassland front army and won one battle after another, Stalin found out that he was actually a commander who was good at fighting, so he slowly changed his attitude towards him. "

After Zhukov finished, Khrushchev coughed gently, then hesitated and asked, "Comrade Zhukov, did you say that?"

Zhukov was confused by his question: "what's the matter?"

Khrushchev gave him a strong wink: "Oh, that's it!"

I saw the two people frown and wink, and my heart thumped for a while. My heart said, does what they want to say have anything to do with me? Thinking of this, I couldn't help staring at them nervously to see if they had anything to say.

Zhukov, who has always acted decisively, now has an expression of embarrassment on his face. After a long hesitation, he looked at me with a wry smile and said, "Rita, I have bad news for you."

Bad news. Hearing Zhukov's words, I couldn't help but have a cold war. My heart said that except for something, would I have to cancel my post as deputy commander and transfer me to another place“ Marshal, if you have anything, just say it Although I try to speak with a tone of indifference, there is a tremor in my voice.

"Last night, I received a notice from the supreme command that, according to general kurotchkin's recent performance, he is not suitable to continue to serve as commander of the second front army of Belarus." When I heard Zhukov say that, my heart was bright. Was the superior ready to let me take his place? But from Zhukov's expression, it's not very like that. If it's good news, I guess he couldn't wait to let me know last night. Only bad news, he will have been delayed until now, so as not to affect my rest. I kept silent and listened patiently to what Zhukov said: "the Supreme Command intends to appoint general Petrov to take his place."

Petrov, I think the name is very familiar, but I can't remember it in a hurry. When Zhukov saw my blank face, he immediately reminded me, "his full name is Ivan yefmovitch Petrov. During the battle of Stalingrad, under your persuasion, the officer of the" Oriental battalion "who led the army was his subordinate."

When Zhukov reminded me, I immediately remembered who this Petrov was and asked curiously, "Comrade marshal, isn't general Petrov in the Caucasus?"

"Yes, he's still in the Caucasus." Zhukov nodded his head and said: "Comrade Stalin was satisfied with his outstanding achievements in defending Odessa, Sevastopol and the Caucasus, and called him a rare" defensive general. ". So he is going to be appointed commander of the second front army of Belarus in the near future. "

Zhukov's words made my heart sink. My heart said that the superior asked such an excellent commander to take over kurotchkin's post. It seems that my hope of becoming the commander of the front army has become more remote. However, I pretended to be natural and unrestrained and said: "thank you, marshal. Thank you for telling me the news! As a matter of fact, general Petrov's command ability is far superior to mine, and his seniority is also very old. It's true that he will be the commander of the front army. "

Khrushchev, who was sitting beside me, raised his hand and patted me on the shoulder. He comforted me and said, "Rita, although you haven't become the commander of the front army for the time being, it's not a bad thing. It's time to learn how to be an excellent commander with Comrade Zhukov. When you have rich experience in commanding large regiments, I believe there will be higher positions waiting for you

"Comrade Khrushchev is right." As soon as Khrushchev finished, Zhukov went on to say, "although you have made outstanding achievements in the war, you have not received systematic education in the operational command of the army forces, and you have no experience in commanding large regiments. If you are promoted too quickly, it may not be good for you." As for Zhukov's words, I agree with him very much. After the end of the Great Purge of the Soviet Union, the performance of those military commanders who were promoted to important command posts in the early days of the war was obvious to all. The commander of the Western Front Army, Pavlov, and the commander of the southwest front army, kirponos, both lost their lives because of their limited ability. If I am appointed commander of the front army now, without much practical experience, I may be dismissed by my superiors because of my poor performance. I tried to squeeze out a smile and pretended to listen carefully. At the same time, I secretly prayed that the German army would launch an attack earlier. As soon as the successive War Reports arrived, everyone's attention would be distracted, and I could be saved from the current embarrassment. But I don't know what happened today. It's almost six o'clock. The German army may still be sleeping, but the front line of our army is quiet. Just as I was burning with anxiety, I suddenly heard Zhukov say: "however, Rita, the supreme command will never forget the great contributions you made in the liberation of Belgorod, Kharkov and Zhitomir." At this point, he stood up and said to bogoleubov, who was sitting at the table, "chief of staff, announce the order of the supreme command."“ Comrade o'shanina, please stand up. " Bogoliubov stood up and said a word to me. When I got up, I took out a folded piece of paper from my pocket, opened it, and said solemnly, "in view of the bravery and heroism shown by Comrade oshanina in the fight against the Communist aggressors, and the brilliant results achieved. Tejinshenglida mushdakova oshanina is the rank of general.... "