Chapter 1564

While konev was giving orders, I was thinking about what happened at present. It seemed that there was a big deviation from the history I knew. In my memory, it was the first front army of Belarus under the command of rokosovsky who successfully captured haium in the battle of Lublin Brest. But now the honor of liberating hewum has been won by katukov. I can't imagine that if history continues to drift further and win the honor of Berlin at that time, it will be replaced by a commander who is not well-known now.

After giving orders to katukov, sokolovsky returned to the conference table and continued to participate in the discussion on the next action strategy of the front army. Konev pointed to the map and said to us with a relaxed expression: "as rebalko's headquarters successfully crossed the peltev river before dark on July 18, they entered into the regions of zeziluf and krasnoye. The first part of the group army arrived in jelevliane, where it joined with the mechanized cavalry group of general baranov and surrounded nearly eight divisions of the German Broder group. Prior to that, the main force of the fourth group army of tanks, which followed the third group army of close guard tanks to enter the breakthrough along the same route, had already entered the region of orishanica. "

When konev said this, he stopped and looked up at sokolovsky opposite, waiting for him to introduce us. Sokolovsky saw konev stay on his body, and quickly said: "Broder group is the 13th army of general Hoffe, with a total force of about 40000. It is composed of the following units: 349th infantry division of rash, 361st infantry division of Lindeman, 454th security division of netvich, 14th SS Galicia infantry division of Freitag and C corps of Lange, It consists of three basic infantry divisions, 183rd, 217th and 339th, with heavy casualties. "

"What, and the SS division of the German army?" Perhaps the name of the SS division was too famous, which made kleinukov a little panicked. He looked at konev and said, "marshal, the combat effectiveness of the SS division of the German army is not weak. Do you think we need to send more reinforcements to the troops besieging broad group?"

Before konev spoke, sokolovsky explained to kleinukov with a smile, "Comrade military commissar, you are too worried. The SS division is made up of Ukrainians from Galicia. Although they are well-equipped, they lack training and have never participated in combat. They are a mob. Langer's legion, like the other so-called legions of the German army, was only one infantry division. The reason why they still keep the names of all divisions in their formation is to deceive our army and make us misjudge their actual strength. "

"No matter what the strength of the German army is, they have restrained too many of our troops in this direction." Konev continued: "in order to improve the battle situation of the front army and concentrate more forces to destroy the German Lvov group, I intend to order two air force groups to dispatch at the same time to cooperate with our ground forces to launch a general attack on the German army. Do you have different opinions? "

"No," I said as soon as konev finished, "I agree with the commander's plan."

"I agree, too!" At the end of my speech, sokolovsky also expressed his support for konev's proposal.

However, kleinukov frowned and said, "marshal, yesterday, the 3rd group army of the close guard tank and the 4th group army of the tank launched an attack on Lvov, but their attack ended in failure."

"Comrade military commissar, these are two different things." Seeing kleinukov's opposition to himself, konev's face showed a slightly displeased look: "yesterday, two tank armies failed to attack Lvov for various reasons. In addition to logistics, the third group army of close guard tanks, which was the main attack force, did not have enough fuel and ammunition, and lacked the cooperation of artillery. The main reason is that rebalko made a mistake in judging the terrain near Lvov. Because he wanted to capture Lvov as soon as possible, he ordered the army to push directly along the krasnoye Lvov road to the city, but he encountered the peat swamp in the northeast of the city, and did not make a far-reaching detour to Lvov, Close to the city, he was involved in a protracted battle for access. "

Speaking of Cao Cao, as soon as konev mentioned rebalko, I heard a rush of footsteps coming from the door. Before I turned to look, I heard a familiar voice: "Hello, marshal, we are here by your order, please give us instructions!"

I looked in the direction of the sound and saw rebalko and the other two generals coming in at great strides from the outside. Seeing rebalko coming, konev quickly got up from his seat, welcomed him with a smile, and said warmly: "Hello, general rebalko, welcome to the headquarters. Hard work all the way

"No hard work, no hard work!" "As soon as we got your order, we flew here. It took us less than an hour," rebalko said with a smile

When konev and rebalko shook hands, I could see clearly the two generals following. One was general lelushenko, commander of the fourth group army of tanks, and the other was general baranov, who was commanding the mechanized cavalry group. I got up from my seat in a hurry and shook hands with several people one by one.

After everyone sat down again, konev looked at rebalko and said, "rebalko, tell me about your situation there."

Seeing konev's name, rebalko nodded, then stood up and said: "on the morning of July 19, the 8th armored division of the 48th armored army began to rescue the 13th army. At noon, it arrived on the road west of kortuv, which was the last line of our army. As it was only four kilometers away from the German troops, I resolutely put in an infantry division and a tank brigade to prevent the enemy from breaking through, so as to prevent the two armies from converging.

Yesterday morning, the German army began to break through the encirclement on the whole line after carrying out artillery preparation. However, as the 8th armored division who came to rescue them was repulsed by our army, the 48th armored army was forced to retreat several kilometers from the main line of defense. The conditions for the German army to rescue the 13th army from the outside have disappeared. Therefore, after a fierce battle, we successfully smashed the German breakthrough. "

"Rita, we can encircle eight German divisions. General afuning's close guard No. 18 has made great contribution. If they had not damaged the German No. 8 armored division in advance, which greatly weakened their strength, I think our defense line might have been broken through and those encircled enemies would have been rescued." After konev said this to me, he turned to rebalko and said, "general rebalko, go on, what kind of action did the German Army take today?"

"Throughout the day, the German army has been attacking constantly, trying to jump out of our encirclement and escape into the forest south of the livov road to join their friends." Rebalko said in a disdainful tone: "but with the tenacious resistance of our commanders and fighters, their attempts were crushed."

"Good job, rebalko." Konev said with appreciation: "the headquarters of the front army plans to launch a final general attack on the besieged broad group tomorrow. As long as we eliminate this enemy, we can concentrate our forces to smash the German army Lvov group. As for the mechanized cavalry group of general baranov, after the completion of the war of annihilation of the Broder group, there is no need to participate in the attack on Lvov. "

Konev stopped for a moment to observe the expression on baranov's face. Seeing the loss of the latter's face, he continued: "you immediately cross the San River to the north of rodemno, withdraw the main force of the group to the west of peremeshi to crosno area, and seize the San river ferry in dubetsk, denouf, warra, Sanok and other places, And establish a positive defense to the east to prevent the German army's Lvov group from retreating to the West. "

"Don't worry," baranov said confidently after listening to the task assigned by konev, "we promise to complete the task and resolutely block the German retreat."

"Marshal," rebarko, who had already sat down, stood up again and said to konev, "I want to talk about logistics. As the logistics did not keep up, our group army stopped attacking the German army the night before yesterday and has been waiting for fuel, ammunition and all kinds of materials from the rear. "

"Don't worry, general rebalko." As for rebalko's worries, konev said with a smile: "due to the excellent performance of the 1st group army of close guard tanks, there are almost no organized German troops in the north of your group army at present, so your supplies can be delivered in time by road and railway."

When all the questions to be discussed were finished, konev looked around and asked habitually, "who has any questions?"

"Comrade marshal, I have a question." All of a sudden, lyushenko, who kept silent, asked, "was Hitler really assassinated?"

Lyushenko's problem can be described as a wave of one stone. Rebalko and baranov, who were ready to get up and leave, sat down again, looked askew at konev, waiting for him to say what he was eager to know.

"Yes, in the information we have, Hitler was murdered from within the German command." Konev said with a deep sigh: "it's a pity that Hitler, the leader of the bandit, narrowly escaped death."

"Can you be more specific?" After listening to konev's story, lelushenko asked reluctantly, "for example, who planned the murder and what was their destination? What's the situation with these officers who participated in the assassination? "

Hearing these questions, konev shook his head like a rattle: "sorry, comrade lelushenko, I have told you all I know. As for who planned the murder, I really don't know. As for the German officers involved in the stabbing, I think they were either executed or sent to the concentration camp. "

When I heard konev talking about yesterday's assassination of Hitler, I almost couldn't help interrupting and saying: I know all the details of this incident. No matter who planned the operation, even who planted the bomb beside Hitler, and the final fate of the officers involved in the incident are clear to me. But when I think about it, I know very well in my heart that I can only keep silent until my superiors tell us more details. Otherwise, when people ask me how I know this matter so well, I can't justify myself.

Seeing that konev could not give more details, the faces of the three group commanders were disappointed,. When they got up to leave, konev specially told them: "Lvov is an important religious center in Ukraine. When attacking the city, we should pay attention to protecting those precious cultural relics and try to preserve the city as completely as possible."

"I see," the three commanders agreed in unison, then raised their hands to salute, turned and left the headquarters.