Chapter 1467

"No, comrade marshal." Hearing Zhukov's skeptical voice asking such a question, chernyahovsky quickly replied in a positive tone: "I'm also worried that the prisoners provided false confessions, but after interrogating several prisoners, I got the same answer. After understanding this situation, I think it is necessary to report to you immediately to determine whether we need to modify our original attack plan

After chernyahovsky's words, Zhukov didn't speak. He just held the microphone and frowned. It seemed that he was engaged in a fierce ideological struggle. Everyone present, including me, kept silent so as not to disturb Zhukov's thinking. We should know that in the first two years, the Soviet army was always ready for all attacks, but it was preempted by the German army, which led to the failure of all preparations. This time, he is faced with the same problem. How can Zhukov not be worried.

Seeing Zhukov's delay in speaking, chernyahovsky at the other end of the phone was a little upset. He carefully asked, "are you still there, marshal?"

"I'm still here!" Zhukov said in a voice.

"What shall we do?" Chernyahovsky asked him, "is it to stop the attack and turn around to destroy the German troops who are trying to break through our army?"

"Rita, you told me a few days ago that the German army might break out of our defense area. At that time, I didn't think much of your conjecture, but now your judgment is correct. " Instead of answering the question immediately, Zhukov covered the microphone with his hand, looked at me and asked, "what should we do now?"

I didn't feel flattered when I heard Zhukov asking for my opinions. Based on my understanding of Zhukov, he may have found some countermeasures long ago. The reason why he asked me was just to find a supporter. Therefore, I said in a calm voice: "marshal, it's the thawing season in spring. Our defense area is full of impassable fields and swamps. I believe that the German movement speed will be greatly affected. You can make me smile and say modestly, "Comrade General, I just got this rank a few days ago." After that, I looked at the epaulets of his tank lieutenant general and changed the topic in time: "the next thing your group army is going to attack is the first group army of German tanks. How about it? Do you have the confidence to defeat them?"

"Don't you need to say that?" Katukov replied with a relaxed expression: "our officers and men have been keeping up their energy for such a long time. They have long been envious at the achievements of our brother troops. I believe that if we put them into combat now, we will certainly be able to give full play to the strongest combat effectiveness of our troops. "

I took a look at the map spread out on the table, the dense red arrows on it, and saw that I almost had a phobia, so I only glanced at it, quickly looked away, looked at katukov and asked, "I don't know which army is the leading army?"

"The main attack is the 11th army of general Guttman's close guard tanks," katukov said after saying the number of the leading army. Seeing my blank face, he quickly explained: "they joined our group army after the battle of Kursk."

Thinking that katukov's next enemy is the first German tank army, the key to victory lies in the number of tanks, so I asked, "do we have more tanks?"

Katukov shook his head and said with some regret: "after a long battle, there are still 478 tanks in the whole army. Compared with the German army, there is not much advantage." When he finished this sentence, he stopped for a moment and suddenly asked me, "by the way, I have just received intelligence that the 48th German armored army has broken through from our main attack direction. Is that true?"

"Yes, general katukov, it's true." I nodded my head and gave him a brief account of the German breakthrough. At last, I said lightly, "don't worry, under the attack of our air force, not many German troops can successfully escape our encirclement."

"Oh, what a pity. What a pity." Listen to me, katukov didn't say anything, but his chief of staff said with regret: "we missed a good chance to fight with the 48th German armored force. It seems that we don't have a chance to avenge ourselves."

The military commissar's words confused me. I looked at katukov and asked, "Comrade General, what's the matter? When did your group army and the 48th German armored army form a feud?"

"Last December, we had a tank encounter with the 48th army." Katukov said bitterly, "as a result of the battle, we lost, losing nearly 200 tanks."

"Ah, what a loss?" I didn't know anything about the battle between katukov's troops and the 48th armored army because I had been transferred to the Belarusian front army at that time. At this moment, listening to katukov's words, I immediately ordered why he had less than 500 tanks in a tank group army.

I was silent for a while, then comforted them and said, "don't worry, although you don't have a chance to compete with the 48th Panzer Army, as long as you destroy or maim the German tank 1st group army in the next battle, it's equivalent to revenge with one stone."

...... As the first group army of katukov's tanks entered the battle, the situation on the battlefield became more and more favorable to our army. On the day when the main attack resumed, the German resistance was crushed by our fierce attack. Our army, which broke through the German position, advanced rapidly to the south. Just as general katukov's tank army advanced to the south, the other army groups attacking from the East, northeast and North also advanced triumphantly. That night, I got a call from Zhukov's headquarters. He said happily on the phone: "Rita, please tell general katukov that our army has made great achievements in the main attack direction because his troops have successfully broken through the German defense..." after Zhukov finished praising katukov, I asked carefully: "marshal, I don't know what happened to the German 48th armored army? Have our troops blocked them? " Hearing this question, Zhukov was silent for a long time before he said, "Rita, the German armored forces suffered a heavy loss after being attacked by our air force. At present, the German army has abandoned a large number of technical equipment and broken up into parts to carry out scattered breakouts. I have ordered chernyahovsky and glicko to send reserve teams to eliminate these scattered breakouts. " I didn't expect that balk could make such a decision decisively after his troops were attacked by our air force. I can't help admiring him. Under the current situation, it is almost impossible for German tanks to successfully pass through those muddy fields and swamps under the bombing of our air force. But he actually knew how to get rid of the strong men, and let the troops abandon the technical equipment that was inconvenient to move, and take the way of scattered breakout to get rid of our army. When katukov saw that I put down the phone with a sullen look, he asked me curiously, "Rita, you look so ugly. What's the matter?" I nodded and said with great frustration: "when balk's 48th army broke through, because of the air attack of our army's aviation, it abandoned all its technical equipment and let the troops disperse and break through."“ So that's it. " After listening to this, katukov said to me with disapproval, "Rita, if the German army really adopts the way of breaking through the encirclement, then they will not be far away from the destruction of the whole army."“ Why? " I was very interested in his statement, so I looked at him and asked curiously, "Why are they in danger of destroying the whole army?"“ Isn't that easy? " Katukov analyzed to me: "after the German army abandoned the heavy equipment, it adopted the way of scattered breakthrough. In this way, the combat effectiveness of their troops will be greatly reduced, and our troops can easily eliminate them."“ It's not that easy, general katukov I was not as optimistic as katukov. I shook my head and said to him, "in our defense area, only two divisions have been sent to intercept them. In such a wide area, it is very difficult for a few thousand people to block the enemy who desperately wants to break out of our army's encirclement. " Katukov listened to me, frowned and thought, and finally nodded in agreement: "Rita, you have a point. In order to quickly break through the German defense line, we can say that all the troops deployed in the main attack direction were put into combat, and the rear became relatively empty. It's not easy for balk to seize the gap of our army and take bold and risky actions to break through the encirclement. " Everything is arranged by heaven in the dark. It seems that the 48th armored division should not die. As early as a week ago, I repeatedly reminded Zhukov that it was possible for the German army to use the gap between the two groups in the main attack direction to break through, but he didn't agree at all. Although we tried our best to take remedial measures after the German army broke through the encirclement, if we wanted to encircle and annihilate the enemy who broke through the encirclement, we could not catch them. In any case, in the end, a considerable number of enemies would succeed in breaking through the encirclement.