Chapter 1543

Vasilevsky and his two deputies were standing at the long conference table in the middle of the room. When they saw me saluting him, they immediately welcomed me with a smile. At the same time, they friendly asked, "Rita, when did you come to Moscow?"

In a panic, I reached out and took his hand. I respectfully replied, "I just arrived in Moscow, and then I called the deputy chief of general staff." At this point, my eyes instinctively glanced at Antonov. "He sent a car to pick me up."

"Yes, comrade marshal." Antonov saw vasilevsky let go of my hand, quickly walked by and shook hands with me, at the same time explained: "I'm afraid that Comrade oshanina will rush to the staff headquarters, so she was sent here."

After Antonov and Ivanov left, vasilevsky asked me to sit down in the chair beside the conference table and then asked, "Rita, do you know why we want you to go back to Moscow today?"

As for his question, my heart says that I'm not a worm in your stomach. How can I guess your destination of calling me back to Moscow. So he shook his head and answered truthfully, "I'm sorry, marshal. I don't know."

Vasilevsky sat down in an empty chair next to me and said in a low voice, "I want you to come back to Moscow. That's what the Supreme Commander meant."

His words made my heart flustered. My heart said that Stalin would not be due to the matter of bonejerin. Would you like to settle with me in the future? To tell you the truth, I regret it now. I risked offending Stalin to support him without knowing the strength of the other party. If he can have a good performance in the next battle, it will be a happy ending for everyone; If I don't perform well, I will not only settle the old and new accounts together, but also affect my future.

Seeing that I was silent, vasilevsky took the initiative to explain: "this time you are called back from the front, it is related to the Allied forces opening up a second battlefield."

Second battlefield, when I heard this word, I muttered in my heart: mind my own business! As soon as I finished this complaint in my heart, I couldn't help thinking of a key question and shivering. Then I asked nervously, "Comrade marshal, today is June 5th?"

"Yes, it's June 5th." Vasilevsky said solemnly: "according to the information provided by the allies, they will continue to land and fight in June. The landing conditions were met on two consecutive days, June 5-7 and June 18-20. They finally chose the first day of the first group, June 5, which is today. "

In my impression, the day when the Allies landed in Normandy was June 6, but at this moment, when I heard vasilevsky say so, I asked casually, "did the Allies try to land today?"

"No Vasilevsky shook his head and said, "so far, we have not received any news from the allies. Not long ago, comrade Stalin specially asked about this matter.... "

Before he had finished, the telephone rang in the office. I saw him stand up, go to the table, pick up the receiver and stick it to his ear. After listening for a moment, he suddenly stood at attention and straightened up. I knew that Stalin must have called.

Although too far apart, I could not hear Stalin say anything in the microphone, but seeing that vassilevsky suddenly turned his eyes to me, I knew that the content of their conversation must have something to do with me. After a while, I heard vasilevsky, who was staring at me, say to the microphone, "yes, comrade Stalin, Rita is here. Do you want her to come to your office?"

It may be that vassilevsky's proposal was rejected by Stalin, and his face was embarrassed. He said respectfully to the microphone: "I see, comrade Stalin. I wish you good health

Vasilevsky put down the phone and came to me. When he was two or three steps away from me, he stopped, put his hands behind him, and continued to say to me: "in the meeting of the commander of the front army held a few days ago, in order to synchronize our offensive campaign with the Allied action of opening up the second battlefield, we deliberately chose June 23 as the attack time. The purpose of this is to keep the German army's heavy military groups in two unrelated battlefields, so as to ensure that we can win the final battle. "

At this moment, I have finally found out the real reason why I was recalled to Moscow. When I was sent to the United States, I came into contact with some confidential contents of "Operation Overlord". Stalin may have called me back to Moscow to get a positive answer from me because he wanted to make himself feel at ease.

I looked up at the restless vasilevsky and said to him with a smile, "Comrade marshal, according to my intuition, the second battlefield opened up by the Allied forces is a matter of certainty. A Bolshevik Europe is not in their interests, so they must send troops to fight with us for the interests of European countries. "

"Is that so?" Judging from vassilevsky's expression, I think he agrees with me, but he is still a little worried about gain and loss: "if the Allied forces have not taken action on the next landing day, it will not be until next year?"

Although I remember the Normandy landing very clearly, in front of vasilevsky, I can only continue to be confused: "marshal, I don't think so. What the allies need now is time. If we do not open up the second battlefield in time, our troops will occupy many countries in Europe in the next offensive campaign. As long as their thinking is normal, we will never allow such a clear appearance. "

"Well, Rita, that's all for today." Vasilevsky waved his hand to me and said with some frustration, "Comrade Stalin will meet you in person at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Go back and have a rest first." With that, he went to his desk and rang the bell with his hand.

The closed door was opened, and an officer appeared at the door, standing silently, patiently waiting for vasilevsky to give orders.

Vasilevsky pointed at me and told the officer, "send general oshanina to rest."

The officer didn't speak, just nodded, then turned his eyes on me, waiting for me to respond. I raised my hand and saluted vasilevsky before turning to the officer at the door.

…………

Although vasilevsky said that Stalin would meet me at ten in the morning, I was awakened by a quick knock on the door before eight. I opened the door and saw a famous Lieutenant standing outside. Seeing me at the door, he said without expression, "Comrade General, the chief of general staff asked me to invite you to his office."

"Comrade lieutenant, can you tell me something?"

The lieutenant shook his head and replied, "I'm sorry, Comrade General. I've just been ordered to ask you to see the marshal. As for what happened, I don't know."

"All right, comrade lieutenant, I'll clean up and be right there."

The lieutenant listened to me, raised his hand to salute, came back, turned around and walked away.

After a brief wash, I rushed to vassilevsky's office. As soon as I came in, I saw vasilevsky sitting behind his desk, drinking coffee leisurely. I went forward to salute him and asked curiously, "marshal, you look radiant today. Do you have any good news?"

"Yes, it's good news." Vasilevsky raised his hand to an empty chair beside me and motioned me to sit down. When I sat down, he continued, "we received a recent report from the allies that their troops had launched a landing operation in Normandy."

"The offensive battle to open up the second battlefield has begun?" With these words, I recalled in my mind the time when the Allies stormed the beach. I also raised my hand and looked at my watch. I found that it was just 8:30. In my memory, the earliest beach where the Allies landed was Utah Beach at 6:30; The latest is Juno Beach, at eight o'clock. According to French time two hours later than Moscow time, the Allied vanguard had just set foot on Utah beach.

I saw vasilevsky nodding, gave me a positive answer, and then tentatively asked, "has the Allied forces landed successfully?"

"Not yet, but the Allies really intend to open up a second battlefield along the coast of France this time." Vasilevsky said excitedly: "according to the report of the Allied forces, the firepower preparation for landing operation started at midnight on June 5, and the first batch of about 1000 heavy bombers dropped about 5000 tons to the German communication hub, command center, coastal artillery position and other targets. The second batch of about 1600 medium bombers dropped about 4200 tons of bombs on the German defensive positions at 5:00 on June 6. In these two aerial firepower preparations, 2775 sorties were dispatched, with 9276 tons of bombs dropped, with an average of 96 tons per kilometer on the landing front.

Now their third batch of planes have been launched, almost all of them are fighters. Their main task is to directly cover the landing craft with low altitude strafing to seize the beach. "

When I heard what vasilevsky said, the stone hanging in my heart finally fell to the ground. I thought that my arrival would lead to the deviation of this important historical event. I didn't expect that everything would develop according to the fixed historical track in the end. After taking a deep breath, I carefully asked vasilevsky, "Comrade marshal, I don't know when we can meet Comrade Stalin?"

"No hurry, no hurry." Vasilevsky raised his hand, looked at his watch, and said in a relaxed tone: "Comrade Stalin is informing the comrades of the Politburo about the opening up of the second battlefield by the Allied forces. Let's go after the meeting."

Now that he knew that the Allied forces had taken action, vasilevsky felt reassured and relaxed. He even briefed me on the contents of the military conference attended by the commander of the front army a few days ago, and finally said: "as long as the Allied forces launch attacks on the French coast, a large number of German forces can be contained, They had to fight on both fronts at the same time. It's very good for us, because when we push to Berlin, the Germans simply can't afford to strengthen the area. "

Apart from the topic of the Allied forces opening up the second battlefield, we also talked about a lot of other topics, including the current situation in Ukraine and the morale of the front forces. It was not until Antonov's rush in that we interrupted my conversation.

"Comrade marshal, this is a message from the Allied forces." After handing the folder to vasilevsky, Antonov nodded at me and shook hands politely. After reading the contents of the document in a hurry, vasilevsky put it on his desk. Then he picked up the phone, dialed a number and said to the microphone, "Comrade bosklebshev, is the meeting over?" OK, I see. I'll go right away. " After he put down the phone, he waved his head at me and said with a smile, "come on, Rita, let's go to Comrade Stalin's office now. He's waiting for us there." After taking me two steps, Antonov stopped when he saw that he was still standing in the same place. "Comrade deputy chief of general staff, what are you still doing? Come with me." The three of us came to Stalin's office. Stalin, who was pacing the room, immediately came up and asked vasilevsky, "Comrade vasilevsky, what's the news from the Allied forces?"“ Yes, comrade Stalin. " While handing Stalin the folder under his arm, vasilevsky said with a smile: "according to the report of the Allied forces, their troops have successfully landed on Utah Beach and established a beachhead position." After reading the telegram quickly, Stalin immediately turned and walked to the conference table next to him. Standing at the table, he leaned down to look at the map spread out on it, looking for something on the map with the hand holding the cigarette end. I followed vasilevsky and the two of them to see the map on the table. It turned out that it was a map of France, and the beaches where the Allies were about to land were clearly marked. Seeing Stalin and them all gathered around the map and their three heads were almost squeezed together, I couldn't help laughing. I think Roosevelt is not as nervous as them at the moment. The first one who straightened up was Stalin. He held his pipe in his mouth again and asked slowly, "Comrade vasilevsky, do you think the allies can stand firm on the beach?"“ It's hard to say. " When vasilevsky heard Stalin's question, he quickly straightened up, frowned and replied: "although the Allied forces are progressing smoothly, if they are attacked by German tanks, they may be driven out of the sea."“ I agree with the chief of the general staff. " Antonov also stood up, facing Stalin, said: "although the allies have established a beachhead, because they lack heavy weapons, once they are attacked by the German armored forces, they may lose the beachhead which they won at great sacrifice." Stalin nodded to the two chief and deputy chief of general staff. As he was about to turn around and walk back to his desk to pick up cigarettes, he suddenly saw me standing upright. He could not help but stop and asked me, "Rita, do you have any different opinions on this matter?" I glanced at the two chief of staff next to me from the corner of my eye, and then answered decisively, "yes, comrade Stalin, I can't agree with the views of the two chief of staff!"