Before Zhukov returned to the headquarters, I received an unexpected call. General lelushenko's voice came from the receiver. He couldn't wait to ask, "is the marshal here?"
"General lelushenko, he's not here!" For this former superior, I have always maintained enough politeness: "I am the only one in the headquarters. If you have anything to do, it's the same to me."
"Our army is under fierce attack from the German army," lelushenko said anxiously. "According to the latest intelligence, their tanks have broken through two lines of defense of our department in succession and are rushing to my headquarters."
I pressed the receiver tightly to my ear and heard the sound of explosion. My heart beat faster. I asked nervously, "general lelushenko, which German army is attacking you? How many troops do they have?"
"It should be the Waffen SS of the German army. Maybe they heard that I didn't answer. Lelushenko raised his voice and asked anxiously," Hello! Rita, are you still listening? Hello! Are you still there? "
"Yes, comrade general, I'm still here." Lelushenko's voice made me calm down, thinking that Zhukov might not come back in a short time, so I had to deal with this emergency with a stiff head. But to be on the safe side, before giving the order, I asked, "how many troops can you mobilize there?"
"Only one mechanized brigade and two anti tank artillery companies, as well as a guard battalion." After reporting the number of troops available to me, lelushenko added: "the rest of my troops are scattered over a vast defensive area and cannot reinforce us in a short period of time."
I took a quick look at the map in front of me and found that the defense area of the 1st group army was next to his headquarters, so I said decisively, "Comrade General, gather all your forces immediately and try my best to block the enemy rushing to the headquarters. I will send friendly forces to support you as soon as possible."
After making a phone call with lelushenko, I immediately called the combat department and ordered the officer on duty: "I'm o'shanina. I ordered the relevant personnel to rush to the headquarters immediately. There's important work for them to complete here."
The officer on duty didn't ask me anything, so he said, "I see. Comrade deputy commander, they should all be in position in five minutes."
While waiting for the staff, I dialed the headquarters of the 1st group army of Jinwei, found the commander, general glicko, and said frankly, "Comrade General, general lelushenko has just called me and said that an enemy is rushing to his headquarters. I order you to send troops to reinforce them immediately, and we must eliminate all the enemies in the future."
"I see, comrade deputy commander." Glicko respectfully replied: "I immediately sent the 18th tank army and the 153rd infantry division to reinforce them. I hope general lelushenko can support them."
"Don't worry, general glicko." Hearing that he said in a suspicious tone that lelushenko, I said with some dissatisfaction: "as long as your troops can arrive on time, the Germans will never rush into the headquarters of lelushenko."
Although Lao maozi always had the habit of not being punctual, because I said there was important work, all the combat staff and communication personnel who had gone back to rest arrived at the headquarters within five minutes.
After seeing the staff officers and communication personnel in two rows in front of me, I didn't say any nonsense. Instead, I gave a direct order: "everyone go back to their respective working positions and establish contact with the 1st group army of guards and the 4th group army of tanks. Do you have any latest war reports that you need to report to me immediately? "
"I see!" After a loud promise, all the people ran back to their seats.
Soon a radio operator turned around and reported to me in a loud voice, "Comrade deputy commander, general lelushenko, commander of the fourth group army of tanks, is online. He wants to speak to you."
I walked over quickly, stood next to the new type of telephone, picked up the microphone and stuck it to my ear. I heard the rumble more clearly than I had just heard. My heart could not help but thump, knowing that the German troops were getting closer and closer to the headquarters of lelushenko. Quickly asked with concern: "general lelushenko, what's the situation there?"
"Rita, the German tanks are less than 500 meters away from my headquarters." "I have ordered the chief of staff to take two guard companies and build a defense less than 100 meters away from the headquarters, ready to stop the German tanks coming," he said in a loud voice
"Hold on, Comrade General." It will take at least an hour or more for glicko's troops to arrive. Under the current situation, we can only hope that the troops of glicko can carry the German attack. In order to let him know, I specially explained to him: "general glicko's troops will arrive soon. You must hold on."
"General glicko's forces are coming to support us?" When lelushenko heard the news, he immediately got excited and said in a continuous voice: "great, this is really great! If the friendly forces can arrive in time, we can not only repel the enemy's attack, but also eliminate it. "
Before he had finished speaking, I heard another stranger's anxious voice in the receiver: "Comrade commander, the German tanks are less than 200 meters away from our headquarters. The chief of staff asked me to tell you, please move immediately."
"Where is the chief of staff?" I heard lelushenko yell at the man: "let him firmly block the German tanks. Never let them rush to the headquarters."
"Yes I heard the man's loud reply, and then I heard the sound of footsteps from near to far. It was estimated that he was going out to convey the order of lelushenko.
When lyushenko's voice came out of the receiver again, for his safety's sake, I said euphemistically: "Comrade General, since the German tanks are close to your headquarters, for your safety's sake, you'd better move for the time being!"
"No, comrade deputy commander." For my kindness, lelushenko refused without hesitation: "I am the commander of the group army, and I should stay with my soldiers. How can we leave them and run away because there is danger? "
"What's the matter here?" I was talking to lelushenko when Zhukov and sokolovsky came in from the outside. Seeing the busy scene in the headquarters, they couldn't help asking aloud, "who can tell me what's going on here?"
I handed the microphone in my hand to the telegraph operator, walked quickly to Zhukov, and reported to him, "Comrade marshal, there is an emergency. The second army of the German armed SS suddenly launched a crazy attack on general lelushenko's headquarters."
After listening to my report, Zhukov looked serious, while sokolovsky looked at Zhukov blankly and said, "hell, what do the Germans want to do when they attack at this time?"
Instead of talking to sokolovsky, Zhukov looked at me and asked, "Rita, what measures have you taken since you heard the news?"
"I ordered the 1st group army of the close guard to send the 18th tank army and the 153rd infantry division to reinforce as soon as possible." After I finished my deployment, I was deeply afraid that Zhukov would criticize me for being good at asserting, so I explained, "because you are not in the headquarters, and I can't get in touch with you for the time being, so I made my own decision and gave orders to the troops below."
Zhukov walked back to his seat without expression, looked up at me and said, "Rita, don't forget that you are the deputy commander of the front army. Although you are only the agent, you can take full command of me when I'm not here." At this point, a smile suddenly appeared on his face. "If I were in the headquarters, I would give the same order as you. Well done, you're good! "
Sokolovsky came over and asked Zhukov, "marshal, I don't understand why the German army suddenly launched an attack on the 4th group army of tanks at such a time?"
"Chief of staff, don't you understand?" Zhukov looked at sokolovsky and said faintly, "today's air raid made Hubei feel that their way of breaking through the mountain area is not necessarily successful, so he contacted dessel's troops to launch an attack from the west of the fourth group army of tanks, hoping to open a gap from this, so that their defeated soldiers can smoothly escape from our encirclement."
"So it is." After understanding the intention of the German army, sokolovsky studied the map for a long time, and then said: "marshal, if the German army really intends to open a gap here in the 4th group army of tanks, is it necessary to deploy the main force of the 13th group army at the Northwest Mountain exit?"
"What do you say, Rita?" Zhukov turned his eyes to me and asked, "is it necessary for us to continue in the northwest and keep enough troops?"
Zhukov's question immediately made my forehead sweat. If enough troops are left at the northwest exit, what will the enemy do if they really choose lelushenko as the breakthrough point? If the German army's action tonight is only a feint of attacking the West and the East, if we do not leave enough troops, then the enemy will smoothly break through our defense line, join up with their friends and retreat to the defense area in the north of Ukraine.
Just when I was in a dilemma and didn't know how to answer, the operator suddenly turned around and yelled at us. But he didn't call me this time. Instead, he called Zhukov: "Comrade marshal, I lost contact with the headquarters of the fourth group army of tanks."
"What, lost contact with lelushenko." When Zhukov heard the bad news, he jumped up from his seat, rushed to the operator and asked, "what's the matter? Why did he suddenly lose contact?"
The operator shrugged his shoulders and answered helplessly: "just now, the line between us and them is still unblocked, but I don't know what's going on. Suddenly, the other party doesn't have any signal."
"Is there something wrong with the line?" Although we all considered the worst possibility, sokolovsky, who was the first to speak, said in a euphemistic tone: "maybe there was something wrong with their wiring, so they suddenly lost contact with us."
"It's impossible, comrade chief of staff." Zhukov scoffed at sokolovsky's saying, "lelushenko is also a veteran commander who has experienced many battles. Doesn't he know the truth of keeping the line unblocked during fierce battles?" Then he told the operator, "as soon as you get back in touch, report to me immediately!"
When the three of us walked back to Zhukov's desk, sokolovsky asked cautiously, "marshal, do you really think that we lost contact with lelushenko because of something serious?" Zhukov stared at him for a moment, then nodded and said solemnly, "yes, we suddenly lost contact with lelushenko, which only means that the enemy has rushed to his headquarters and cut off his communication with the rear."“ Ah? " Sokolovsky was startled by Zhukov's analysis. He said in an unbelievable tone: "Comrade marshal, it's impossible. You know, general lelushenko is commanding a tank army. If the German army does not have a hundred tanks, it will not be able to break through his defense line at all. "“ Don't you forget that his tanks lost a lot in this period of fighting. " Zhukov pointed to several positions on the map: "the rest of the tanks are distributed in these positions, far away from the headquarters of lelushenko. It's not easy to gather them at night."“ Marshal, "cried the operator at this moment," I've got in touch with general lelushenko again. "“ Put the call through to me. " With these words, Zhukov picked up the receiver of the phone in front of him, put it in his ear and asked, "Hello, is that lelushenko? I'm Zhukov. " The other side was silent for a moment, and then timidly replied, "no, comrade marshal, I'm the chief of staff of the group army. Comrade commander and his troops are outside commanding the troops to carry out counterattack." After hearing this, Zhukov was surprised, and then said helplessly: "am I more terrible than the German, he would rather charge with troops than talk to me. Well, report to me about your situation Zhukov's words confused me. I gently touched sokolovsky and asked in a low voice, "chief of staff, do you know why Marshal said that?" Sokolovsky grinned silently, and then explained to me in a low voice, "Comrade oshanina, you know, marshal has always been strict in the management of the army, and has always sought perfection and reproach for his subordinates. So although general lelushenko was a brave commander, he was very afraid of Marshal and always tried every means to avoid meeting him. Later, when the marshal knew about it by accident, he made fun of it from time to time. "