Chapter 1539

When the troops of the 18th army of the guards left for shepetovka, I didn't go with them. Instead, I went to konev's headquarters of the front army as the representative of the base camp, and went with him to check the preparation of the troops.

On the third day after arriving at the headquarters of the front army, I accompanied konev to the dubno area for inspection. As soon as we set out, the sky began to rain, and the originally difficult road became more muddy. Fortunately, such a road section is only a few kilometers, and then the jeep drove onto the road paved with cinders. Although it was a bit bumpy, it was able to drive forward at a faster speed.

Sitting next to me, konev said with emotion: "Rita, when you proposed to use carbon slag to pave the road, it not only solved the problem of coal residue treatment for urban residents, but also made our roads work normally even in rainy days or thawing seasons."

To his praise, I just a faint smile, casually said: "Marshal comrade, only when the road is clear, can we ensure the mobility of mechanized troops."

"You have a point." Konev agreed with me: "in the winter campaign, the poor road condition greatly restricted the mobility of our mechanized troops, resulting in the lack of support infantry, paid a lot of unnecessary sacrifices, and also let many enemies escape from our encirclement."

The staff officer sitting in the front row turned to konev and said, "Comrade marshal, in front is the dubno area."

"Oh, is that dubno?" When konev heard this, his face was surprised. When he looked out of the car window, he asked me, "Rita, do you know how our troops fought the German army tenaciously in the early days of the war?"

"I'm sorry, comrade marshal." When I heard him mention dubno, I couldn't help looking silly. To tell you the truth, I really don't know how the Soviet army fought with the enemy here in the early days of the patriotic war. If he asked Brest fortress, I could tell him the story. But at the moment, I can only answer awkwardly, "I'm not sure."

When konev heard my answer, he turned his head and looked at me with puzzled eyes for a while. Then he suddenly raised his hand and patted his forehead, and said with a smile, "Rita, I'm confused. You joined the army only the second month after the outbreak of the war. It's impossible to know what happened in dubno area that year."

Listening to what he said aroused my curiosity. I immediately asked, "Comrade marshal, can you tell me what happened here at that time?"

Konev saw that I was eager to know the battle that had happened in dubno, and it was still a long way to reach the destination of our trip, so he told me what happened in that year with interest: "in the first few days of the war, in addition to the repeated struggle between the fifth group army under the command of general Potapov and the German army in the city of Vladimir wallensky, The rest of the area is losing ground. Just when we thought that we could not stop the German assault, the mechanized Eighth Army under the command of general riabeshev successfully defeated the enemy who rushed to the depth of our defense and successfully recaptured dubno.

After learning the news of the victory, general kilbonos, commander of the southwest front army, gave orders to his troops to counterattack in order to smash the German tank group in the direction of dubno ostrog. According to the order, the 9th and 19th mechanized armies were from the northeast; The 8th and 15th mechanized armies, the 36th and 37th infantry armies and the 5th cavalry army are from the southwest; General Lukin's battle group launched a three-sided assault on the German army group in this area from the East. "

I did not speak, listening quietly to konev's story, to make up for the historical knowledge I did not understand.

"... before the counterattack, rokosovsky reported to the headquarters of the front army that his mechanized 9th army had to retreat to Rovno under the joint attack with German tanks and air forces; The 20th tank division, which had been attacked earlier, also fell into the encirclement of the German army in dubno.

The situation of the 19th mechanized army was also very bad. Under the attack of the German tank group, they were forced to retreat from dubno to Rovno after arduous fighting. "

From what konev said, I could hear what he meant: in the severe situation at that time, because the superior misjudged the situation and adopted offensive tactics regardless of the actual situation, all the troops were used for counter assault. However, in the area where the German fortifications could be blocked, there were no troops to defend. As a result, the counterattack failed, The enemy easily broke through the weak defensive zones and rushed to the depth of the Soviet territory.

Konev finally said: "I estimate that the offensive campaign to liberate the western states of Ukraine and the southeast of Poland will be the focus of our work in the next stage, so we have to do enough preparations..."

When we arrived at our destination, we were met by lieutenant general prokhov of the 13th army headquarters. After shaking hands with him, konev directly asked, "Comrade General, what's the situation here?"

With a shrug and a smile, prokhov replied, "our troops are recovering, but they are ready to fight. They are ready to fight at any time."

"Come on, take us to the front." Konev, after waiting for the other party to finish, said briefly, "I want to see how things are on the enemy's side."

"Please, comrade marshal." Pokhov made a gesture of please, and then took the lead to walk along the front of the war to guide us.

Along the trench covered with camouflage net, we walked for about ten minutes and finally came to the frontier observation post. Hearing our footsteps, several soldiers in the observation center came out quickly, stood on one side of the trench, straightened up and raised their hands to salute us.

Konev nodded at the soldiers, then went into the observation post, picked up the telescope on the lookout mouth, and looked at the opposite German position. I saw that there was a pair of telescopes beside me. I also went over to observe the situation with the telescopes, just like konev.

Opposite is a hillside with an altitude of more than 100 meters. The length of the hillside is about 500 meters or 600 meters. I saw a dense camouflage net in the middle of the mountain. Under the net should be the enemy's defensive positions. Fortifications are built along the undulating mountains, and trenches and firepower points constitute a complete defense system. At the front of the position are circles of barbed wire and various obstacles. If we don't clear these obstacles, the attacking forces will not be able to approach the enemy's position at all.

Konev put down his telescope, turned around and asked pokhov standing behind him, "Comrade General, what's up? Is there any news from the enemy on the other side?"

Pokhov shook his head and replied, "no, comrade marshal, they have been very quiet. Maybe we should send troops to attack at night, so as soon as it gets dark, they will keep lighting up in the sky to prevent our people from approaching their positions at night. "

After listening, konev asked the students like a teacher: "if we want to capture this highland, how do you plan to clear the obstacles in front of the position?"

"Bombard with artillery, comrade marshal." Pokhov pointed to the highland in the distance and said with full assurance: "as for the barbed wire which has not been destroyed by the gunfire in our artillery preparation, we will use the method of blasting to remove it."

"Can't we use tanks?" After listening to pokhov's words, konev did not say yes or no, but raised a new question: "our tanks can easily remove those obstacles."

When konev said this, pokhov's face showed a trace of embarrassment. He murmured: "Comrade marshal, from our point of view, the slope is relatively gentle, but in fact, the slope has exceeded the climbing limit of our army's tanks."

After listening to the answer, konev took a surprise look at pokhov, and then said, "yes, comrade general, it seems that you are quite familiar with the terrain of your defense area."

After observing the terrain of the front, we followed pukhov to his headquarters, a cave on the back of a hillside 500 or 600 meters away from the front trench. After entering the headquarters, pokhov asked anxiously, "Comrade marshal, I don't know when we can launch a new round of attack?"

"Why, can't wait?" With a smile on his face, konev asked, "do you want to drive the Germans out of our country early?"

"Yes, comrade marshal, not only do I think so, but all my commanders and fighters think so." As soon as konev finished his speech, pokhov immediately said in a rush: "at present, the German forces in Ukraine, after our repeated attacks, are shrinking in a few cities in the west of Ukraine, as long as we..."

Before he finished, konev interrupted him and said in a dissatisfied tone, "as long as we launch another offensive campaign, we can drive the enemy out of these areas, right?"

"Yes, comrade marshal." Pokhov nodded his head and replied positively, "that's right."

"Comrade General," konev stood up, circled our simple wooden table, and asked as he walked, "I want to ask, how many troops do you have now?"

In response to konev's question, pokhov shrugged his shoulders again, shrugged his mouth and said, "marshal, you know that although the superior has replenished our army, the number is still too small. At present, the total strength is barely half of that before we launched the campaign of korson shevchenkoski, and the number of tanks, tanks and soldiers lost is not enough The cannons have not been replenished

After waiting for pokhov to finish, konev stopped, restrained his smile, and said to him solemnly, "Comrade General, it's not only your group army, but the whole front army that is short of troops and the lost technical equipment can't be replenished in time. Can you tell me what kind of situation we will encounter if we attack those enemies hiding behind solid fortifications with such troops, which are seriously short of soldiers and technical equipment and whose combat effectiveness is greatly reduced? "

Pokhov did not speak, but listened quietly to konev's rebuke.

"If, under such circumstances, we launch a rash attack on the enemies who occupy the western states of Ukraine. Once the attack is frustrated and the enemy launches a counterattack, what shall we do? " Konev sat down opposite pokhov, his eyes fixed on each other: "what kind of forces will we use to block the enemy's attack? Maybe at the end of the day, we didn't eat the enemy. On the contrary, the enemy annihilated us. Such a bloody lesson has not happened before. "

"Comrade commander, I'm wrong." As soon as konev finished speaking, pokhov said sincerely: "there are a lot of Ukrainians in my army, and they are eager to drive the Germans out of here."“ All right, all right, needless to say. I understand your feelings, but I can't be in a hurry. " Konev didn't blame pokhov, but said magnanimously: "I estimate that even if there is going to be a war, it will take at least another two months. You should grasp the preparation of the troops, so that as soon as the attack order is given, you can immediately fight, understand?"“ I see, comrade marshal. " "I will make use of this time to let the troops rest and recuperate, so as to maintain the best condition in the next stage of the battle," he promised Konev had another chat with pokhov, and then he took me away. As we drove to the next destination, konev suddenly asked me, "Rita, I don't know when you are going to shepetovka?"“ Since general afuning is there, I will not go for the time being. " I waved to him and said helplessly: "although these rescued prisoners of war are veterans with combat experience, they have been in the prison camp for almost three years. Even if they don't need complicated military discipline training, they are unfamiliar with the tactics and various new weapons we use now, It takes a long time to get familiar with it. I think general afuning can do this well. " After listening to me, konev nodded and said with approval, "Rita, you're right. As a representative of the base camp, you have a lot to be responsible for, for example, the coordination between our front forces and friendly forces, the inspection of the army's preparations for war, and so on. Some of the work that can be done by subordinates should be done by them. " After a while, konev suddenly lowered his voice and asked in a voice that only the two of us could hear: "Rita, I want to ask you when we can launch a new offensive campaign."“ "Marshal," I replied in the same tone, "you are not the main attack direction in the next round of offensive campaign, so you will not receive the offensive task until the friendly forces launch the offensive."“ And about what time? " When konev heard me say this, he became more and more dispirited and asked, "can you tell me a closer date?" Although I clearly remember the time when the battle of Belarus and the last battle on Ukrainian territory were launched, under such circumstances, I could not make it clear to him, but could only vaguely say: "Comrade marshal, if such a large-scale offensive campaign is to be launched, the supreme command may have to call a meeting of commanders of all fronts. When you will be informed to go to Moscow for a meeting, it will prove that the attack is about to begin When I finished saying this, I caught a glimpse of the staff officer sitting in the co pilot's seat from the corner of my eye. It seemed that he was listening to us with his ears on his side. Then I raised my voice to him and asked, "staff officer, how long will it take us to reach our destination?"