Chapter 1554

"It's too much involved for me to make my own decisions." It took only a few seconds for konev to make a decision: "I need to report to Comrade Stalin immediately."

While konev was calling Stalin, I approached lunev and asked in a low voice, "Comrade lunev, what happened to the two German spies who pretended to be journalists? Has it been lurking inside us all the time, or has it been infiltrated with fake documents? "

"The documents they use are real." When lunev finished, he saw a look of surprise on my face and quickly went back and said, "these two men parachuted to the rear of our army two nights ago. They were studying how to get into Rovno. On the way, they met two reporters driving from Moscow. They killed the reporter, robbed the interview car, replaced the photos on the certificate with their own photos, and swaggered into Rovno. "

"Didn't our soldiers examine them carefully when they entered the city?" When sokolovsky heard this, he could not help frowning and asked, "so that they could easily get into the city?"

Lunev turned to look at sokolovsky and said calmly: "Comrade chief of staff, our soldiers not only carefully checked their documents, but also specially called the Political Department of the front army to ask them to check with the Moscow newspaper. Confirm that the other party did send two reporters to us to interview, and then let them into the Rovno

"Comrade chief of staff, in order to find out our deployment, the enemy will certainly try every means to infiltrate the city." Just after the phone call, konev came over from his desk and said to us, "our soldiers are very vigilant. Unfortunately, the enemy is too cunning, so they managed to sneak into the city in the end."

"Comrade marshal." I took a look at the phone on my desk and asked konev curiously, "have you reported the change of attack time to the Supreme Commander?"

"Yes, I have reported to Comrade Stalin about the change of attack time." Konev said helplessly: "but he didn't express any opinions, neither that he could advance, nor that he couldn't. Just a simple sentence: wait! Then he hung up

"What does Comrade Stalin mean by that?" Sokolovsky frowned and asked, "does he have to consult with the rest of the staff headquarters before answering us?"

"At present, vasilevsky is commanding operations in the front army along the Baltic Sea, and there are only Antonov and Ivanov who are not in charge of the staff headquarters." Konev said: "according to my analysis, comrade Stalin would not discuss such an important matter with them."

"Comrade marshal, what should we do now?" Sokolovsky asked helplessly.

Konev shrugged, spread his hands, said with a bitter smile, "what else can we do, we can only wait." Then he raised his hand, looked at his watch, and continued, "it's late. We'll have dinner here and wait for Comrade Stalin's reply."

"Comrade marshal, do you need to prepare the commanders of the group army?" "I'm afraid Comrade Stalin's reply is too late for our troops to prepare," sokolovsky said

As for sokolovsky's proposal, konev walked back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back. After a long time, he replied, "well, in order to give the troops enough time to prepare for the war, chief of staff, you call the commanders of the group army and order them to prepare for all the battles."

"Do you need to tell them why?" Sokolovsky continued.

This problem of sokolovsky baffled konev. Tell the commanders below the truth, if Stalin does not agree with our advance attack, it will make the commanders below have bad ideas; If you don't tell them the truth, I'm afraid they won't pay attention to the order of the headquarters of the front army. After thinking about it for a while, konev looked at me and asked, "Rita, you mentioned the attack ahead of time. What do you think we should do now?"

"I think it's better not to tell the truth to the commanders of various army groups for the time being." When I finished this sentence, I saw that sokolovsky's mouth was open, as if he wanted to say something, and then quickly said: "according to the information we have, the German army may launch an attack on our position tonight or tomorrow morning. In order to crush the German army's attack, all the units have quickly entered our defensive position and made all preparations for counterattack."

"Yes, that's it." As soon as I finished my speech, konev expressed his support. He turned to sokolovsky and said, "Comrade chief of staff, just follow Rita's words and let our troops be ready for all battles before ten o'clock tonight."

In this way, the order to let the troops enter the defensive position and prepare for the counterattack was sent to the troops by telegraph in a few minutes.

After that, sokolovsky breathed a sigh of relief, and then said, "well, the order has been sent to the troops, and now we can have dinner in peace."

…………

At ten o'clock in the evening, sokolovsky put the telegrams from the following army groups in front of konev and said respectfully, "Comrade marshal, all our troops have entered the designated positions."

"Good." Konev glanced at the telegram before, then raised his head to sokolovsky and said, "Comrade chief of staff, there is nothing to do now anyway. You can tell us about the deployment of the offensive campaign and see if there is anything to repair."

Sokolovsky, who had just sat down, stood up again, looked at konev and said, "Comrade marshal, the offensive campaign we plan to launch can be called" the battle of Lvov sandomeri "...."

"Wait a minute, comrade sokolovsky." As soon as sokolovsky spoke, he was interrupted by konev: "we all know about the task of this offensive campaign. Vasili danilovich, you can start directly from the campaign plan we have made! "

Sokolovsky bent slightly, pointed to the map on the table, and continued: "in this attack, we will carry out fierce assault in two directions at the same time: on the right wing, the mechanized cavalry troops under the command of the 3rd group army, the 13th group army, the 1st group army of the tank and lieutenant general baranov will carry out assault in the direction of Russian lava in the luzk region; In the central government, three groups of arms, including the 38th and 60th group armies and the 5th group army of the guards, were combined to form a group army, two tank group armies (and cavalry mechanized troops under the command of lieutenant general Sokolov) and raided the general direction of Lvov from the area of jernopol. In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the offensive campaign, the first group army and the 18th group army of the guards will carry out auxiliary attacks on Stanislav and drogbech on the left wing of the front army. "

Among the people present, only lunev, an outsider, didn't know the specific battle plan. So when he heard this, he couldn't help asking: "Comrade chief of staff, what about our air force group? Can they provide the necessary air cover for our offensive forces? "

"In this campaign, there will be two air force groups providing air support to our offensive forces." Sokolovsky pointed to the map and introduced to lunev: "there are four air forces in the North cluster under the command of the commander of the 8th group army of the air force, which provide air support in the direction of Rava, Russia; And the five air forces in the central cluster under the command of the commander of the second group army of the air force will fight in the direction of Lvov. "

"Great, it's just great." "I don't think the Germans will be able to stop us in the face of such a strong attack," said lunev, beaming with joy. By the way, how many troops have we put into the battle this time, 600000? "

Hearing this question from lunev, konev said with a smile: "Comrade lunev, in this offensive campaign, we will invest 80 infantry divisions, 10 tank troops and mechanized troops, 4 independent tank brigades and mechanized brigades. A total of 1.2 million people, 13900 artillery and mortars, 2200 tanks and self-propelled artillery, and more than 3000 aircraft. "

After lamenting the strength of the front army, lunev suddenly said, "how come Comrade Stalin has not answered up to now? I don't know if he agrees with us to attack ahead of time?"

It turned out that everyone was still smiling. When they heard what lunev said, their faces became serious. My heart is also murmuring, why Stalin did not give us a reply, what is he waiting for?

Just then, the telephone on the desk rang. All of us were attracted by the ringing tone. Konev jumped up from his seat. As soon as the phone rang for the second time, he grabbed the earphone and stuck it to his ear and said respectfully, "I'm konev."

"Hello, marshal konev!" Although the conference table we are sitting at is still a certain distance away from the office table, because the room is extremely quiet, I can clearly hear the voice coming from the earphone, which is boskelebeshev saying: "now please talk to Comrade Stalin."

A moment later, I heard Stalin's familiar voice in the earphone: "Hello, comrade konev. What are you doing now? "

Konev snapped to attention, then replied respectfully, "report Comrade Stalin, we are waiting for your reply."

"What do the members of your command think?" Stalin asked slowly..

Konev took a look at us and then replied decisively, "Comrade Stalin, after our research, we all agree that the only way is to launch an attack ahead of time when the battle plan has been leaked, so as to catch the German troops by surprise before they have finished the adjustment."

"According to the information we have," Stalin said slowly, "at present, the German army has begun to mobilize troops deployed on the Romanian border. It seems that they are strengthening the defense in the direction of Lvov." After he had said this, he was silent, as if waiting for konev to understand his intention.

"I see, comrade Stalin." Konev, an old subordinate of Stalin, understood the intention expressed in his words almost without any time: "our attack will be advanced to 4 a.m. tomorrow. After the bombers leave, we will use artillery to attack the enemy's positions."

"Good," Stalin said shortly after konev finished, "I'm waiting for your good news." Konev walked back to the table, his face filled with joy. He put his hands on the edge of the table, leaned forward slightly, and said to us, "comrades commander, comrade Stalin has agreed that we should attack ahead of time. The attack will start at four o'clock tomorrow morning After we digested the news, he told sokolovsky: "Comrade chief of staff, immediately call general krasovsky, commander of the second group army of the air force, and general kheliukin, commander of the eighth group army of the air force, and order the air force to set out at 3:50 a.m. to bomb the German defensive positions." Hearing konev's order, sokolovsky quickly recorded it in his book. Konev continued: "as soon as four o'clock arrived in the morning, the artillery of the front army was ordered to fire on the marked German positions at the same time. The shelling will last about two hours. It is necessary to destroy those fortifications that have been detected by our army as far as possible and clear the way for the attacking troops. "“ Marshal, "after hearing konev's order, sokolovsky stopped his pen, looked up and said with some embarrassment," because the work of the logistics department is focused on the direction of Belarus, the number of shells added to us is limited. Nowadays, many cannons have only two bases. If we carry out shelling for as long as two hours, then in the next attack, I'm afraid the artillery will not be able to provide the necessary artillery support for the infantry. "“ Comrade chief of staff, "when he heard sokolovsky's question, konev said with disapproval," as long as we can break through the German defense line, even if all the shells are shot, it's no big deal. Even without the support of artillery, our infantry can also get the support of tanks and air force. It should be no problem to break through the German defense line. "“ Well, comrade marshal. " Listen to konev said so, sokolovsky had no choice but to reply: "I will give your order to the artillery." Konev raised his hand, looked at his watch and urged sokolovsky to say, "chief of staff, it's getting late. Immediately give the order of advance attack to the commanders of the group army, so that they can make preparations as soon as possible. When the artillery preparation is finished in the early morning of tomorrow, they will launch an impact on the German position."