Chapter 1479

After dark, more and more troops swarmed into the city of chernovitzer and started a fierce street battle with the German army. According to the plan that katukov and I discussed in advance, in order to keep the officers and men attacking chernovitzer full of physical strength, the all-round attack stopped at night. Most of the officers and men took a rest in the occupied area, and only a small number of troops continued to keep in touch with the defenders, which forced the enemy officers and men to fight at night.

The chief of staff, who was directing the staff to set up the new headquarters, came to us and said, "two commanders, this is a good way you think of. Let's use some of our troops to attack continuously, so that the enemies in the city dare not sleep and have to fight with us at night. After daybreak, we will put our troops back into battle after a night's rest. It is estimated that the enemy will be tired and exhausted, and then we will be more confident of winning. "

After listening to the chief of staff, katukov only gave a faint smile, and then asked, "chief of staff, where is general Guttman's headquarters now?"

With most of the troops of the 11th guard tank army entering the city of chernovitzer, not only the division headquarters of the 24th infantry division moved to the city, but also the general headquarters moved to the north of the city. The headquarters vacated by the infantry division became the site of katukov's new headquarters.

The chief of staff spread out a map on the table in front of us, pointed to it and said, "most of the troops of the 11th army of close guard tanks have entered the city. In order to command easily, general Gutman set his headquarters at the north gate."

As soon as the chief of staff finished speaking, I immediately asked, "where are the troops of general dlyomov?" I'm very concerned about their progress at the moment because I'm not impressed by the command of deliomov during the day.

"The 1st guard tank brigade, the 49th tank brigade, and the 20th motorized infantry brigade of babajanian have now rushed into the city from the West." Although the chief of staff felt that my question was very abrupt, he still truthfully reported to me that "general dlyomov sent the mechanized 1st and 3rd brigades to detour along the edge of the city to the south of the city..."

"Wait a minute, chief of staff." Before the chief of staff finished, I raised my hand to interrupt him. Then I turned to katukov and asked him, "general katukov, I don't understand. Why did general dlyomov send troops to detour to the south of the city?"

"Don't you understand?" The chief of staff shrugged his shoulders and said blankly, "general dlyomov may want to go around to the south of the city, block the retreat of the German army and try to annihilate them in the city."

"What do you think, general katukov?" After listening to the chief of staff's analysis, I didn't express any opinions. Instead, I pushed the contradiction to katukov: "don't you think that it's a bit superfluous to do this?"

What I said stunned the chief of staff, while katukov frowned and thought for a moment, then said thoughtfully, "Rita, do you mean to drive the enemy out of the city?"

"Yes, that's what I think." Seeing that katukov understood my intention, I nodded with a smile, and then said: "there are a lot of residents in the city. If the street fight between us and the German army goes on too long, it is bound to cause a lot of civilian casualties, so we have to find a way to drive the enemy out of the city."

When I said this, the chief of staff suddenly realized that he was surprised and said, "Oh, that's what happened. I get it. I get it all. Now that we have surrounded the city, the defenders in the city will fight against us as they see no way out. But if they find that their retreat has not been cut off by us, then they will not fight too hard. "

"Yes, yes, chief of staff, you have guessed a lot." After listening to the chief of staff's words, I said with a smile: "so please immediately send a telegram to general deliomov, ordering him to immediately stop the detour to the south of the city, concentrate the main forces, and eliminate the German army in the west of the city as soon as possible."

As soon as our orders were sent out, Zhukov's phone call came in. He said to katukov, who answered the phone in a hurry, "general katukov, how are you doing?"

"Report to marshal," katukov said cheerfully, "the 11th army of guard tanks is in the north of the city, and the 8th Army of guard mechanization is in the west of the city, all of which are progressing very smoothly."

"When will you take chernovitzer?"

Katukov was very surprised that Zhukov wanted us to capture chernovitzer so urgently. He stammered a little: "marshal, because the German army has a relatively strong defense system in the city, we may not be able to completely liberate the city until tomorrow evening at the earliest."

"What, tomorrow night?" Zhukov was obviously very dissatisfied with katukov's answer. He said slowly: "according to the latest information we have obtained, in order to prevent their defense line from being separated by our army, the German army has transferred some reinforcements from Germany, France, Romania and Yugoslavia, including the second tank army of the SS; The first Hungarian Army has also been transferred to Hungary. "

"Ah, the German army has increased?" This unexpected news made katukov a little confused. He was surprised and asked Zhukov, "Comrade marshal, how much time do we have now?"

Zhukov was silent for a moment, then said gravely, "I suggest that chernovitzer be captured by noon tomorrow, so that you can have enough time to build a strong defense in the south of the city."

At the end of the call with Zhukov, katukov sat at the table, holding his head in his hands, thinking bitterly. And his chief of staff said beside him, "Comrade commander, I think it's better to let all the troops in the city stop recuperation and go into battle, so that they may completely occupy the whole city of chernovitzer within the time set by the marshal."

Katukov was silent about the chief of staff's proposal for a long time before he asked, "Rita, how do you think about it? I want to hear from you

"I agree with the chief of staff that the troops should stop recuperation and let them fight." Before I finished my words, I saw the chief of staff turning around to give an order, so I quickly stopped him and continued: "chief of staff, don't worry. When the commanders and fighters continue to rest and wait until two o'clock in the morning to fight, the German army has become exhausted after a night's fighting. We can quickly defeat them by putting in new forces at this time. "

"It's reasonable. During that period, even if our army did not fight at night, people were the most tired and the least vigilant. If we put in a new force at that time, I believe we can take the enemy by surprise. " After echoing my opinion, katukov then tentatively asked, "in order to make the Germans lose their vigilance, we need to make the news bigger. I don't know what to do at this time?"

I thought to myself that it might not be easy to attract the main force of the German army and put them in a high state of tension if we did not increase the input of troops in the night war. When I was worried, I suddenly heard the chief of staff saying to himself, "chernovitze is an old city in Ukraine. It's full of old buildings. It would be a pity if they were destroyed in the war."

The speaker didn't mean it, and the listener meant it. The chief of staff was whispering, but in my ear, I immediately thought of a good way. I looked at katukov and asked, "general katukov, do you know the tradition of seizing medieval cities?"

"Tradition, what tradition?" Katukov didn't know what I was saying, but he soon understood what I was saying. He immediately widened his eyes and asked tentatively, "Rita, do you mean the tradition of putting the red flag on the municipal building?"

"Yes, general katukov." Seeing that he had guessed what I meant, I nodded and affirmed: "we can order gertman and dlyomov to focus their attack on seizing the city hall in the center of the city."

As for my proposal, katukov thought about it, and finally shook his head and raised his objection: "Rita, no way. If we have enough time to send someone to put the red flag on the top of the municipal building and announce that we have occupied the city, there is nothing wrong with it. But now the higher authorities want us to completely liberate the city before noon tomorrow, and set up defensive positions in the south of the city. "

"General katukov, you misunderstood me." Seeing that katukov missed his point of view, I quickly explained to him, "I asked general Guttman to take the municipal building as the focus of their attack, not just to plant a red flag on the top of the building to declare our sovereignty over the city. This may be right in other cities, but it doesn't apply here. "

After listening to me, katukov became more confused. He frowned and asked me, "I don't understand, Rita, if you don't think this tradition applies to chernovitzer, why do you mention it?"

"If we focus on the municipal buildings, the German forces will concentrate their main force in this area." I waited for him to finish, and slowly expressed my own idea: "in this way, the troops in other areas will become relatively weak, and when we join the new forces, it will be easy to seize these areas."

After katukov found out what was going on, he nodded, and then told the chief of staff around him: "chief of staff, send a message to Guttmann and deliomov immediately, let them first concentrate their forces to attack the city hall in the city center, and disrupt the German defense deployment." Seeing that the chief of staff turned to leave, he added, "such an attack must be completed on the basis of the existing combat forces."

…………

Getman and deliomov, who had been ordered, used the forces of a regiment to attack the municipal building in the center of the city from the north and the west, respectively.

In order to know the attack situation in time, katukov asked the communication director to send someone to lay a telephone line leading to the front, so that he could get the latest battle report from the two commanders in the shortest time.

An hour after the fighting, katukov called Guttman first. He could not take any time to say hello. He asked frankly, "general Gutman, what's the situation? How far is your army from the municipal building?"

"Report, comrade commander," Guttman called out in a loud voice, "the German firepower is too fierce. Although my troops launched two charges, they were defeated by the enemy, and the casualties of the troops are not small."

"Hell, how could that be?" After listening to Guttman's report, katukov asked, "didn't you send tanks to help?"“ I sent out two tanks, which were destroyed by the German anti tank men, and the burned tanks blocked our way forward. " Gertman said wrongly, "my troops were a mile away from the municipal building when they were bombarded by German mortars, which caused great losses to the attacking troops. When we finally got into the 200 meter range, the German concealed fire points opened fire at the same time. At the same time, they sent a small group of troops to carry out counter attack, which made our commanders and fighters unable to stand firm and they were beaten back. " Katukov covered the microphone with his hand, turned to me and asked, "Rita, you have rich experience in street fighting. What can you do?" Attacking municipal buildings will cost huge casualties, which has long been my expectation. After all, the buildings there are not only tall, but also extremely strong. The damage caused by tank fire is limited. Hearing that katukov was consulting me, I quickly reached out to him and said, "general katukov, give me the phone. I'll personally tell general Guttman what tactics to use to capture the municipal building." I took the phone, put it to my ear, and said aloud, "Hello, general Gutman, this is o'shanina!" When Guttman heard my voice, he was still a little stunned for a moment, and then politely said, "Hello, comrade deputy commander of the front army, what instructions do you have?"“ General Gutman, listen to me Because of the urgency of time, I didn't talk nonsense with him. Instead, I said to him straightforwardly: "you can transfer some guns to the street and fire directly at the fire point in the municipal building at the starting point of attack. Do you understand? "“ Use artillery to destroy German firepower at close range? " After repeating what I said, Gutman tentatively asked, "this is the legendary bayonet on the cannon. Do I understand it correctly?"“ Yes, general Gutman I saw that he also knew some tactics I had promoted before, so he further stressed that: "the closer the artillery is to the enemy's firepower point, the greater the results will be achieved. Time is running out. Take action now