Chapter 1582

Lei Ruofu quickly turned to face me and raised his hand to salute. At the same time, he clearly said: "Hello, comrade deputy commander of the front army. I'm major general Lei Ruofu, commander of the 28th army of the guards. I'm waiting for your orders and instructions!"

I raised my hand to my forehead and returned a salute. Then I reached out to him and said politely, "Hello, general Ralph!"

Rokosovsky and I went through the procedure and said to one side, "now that you know each other, come here and let the chief of staff introduce the operation to you."

Marinin repeated what he had just said to me to Ralph, and finally asked, "general Ralph, do you have any questions?"

After listening to malining's words, he nodded, then pointed to the map and said solemnly: "Comrade chief of staff, at present, the only troops of our army on the West Bank of the visva River are the 35th division of the close guard stationed in magnusev. There is a German regiment in front of their defensive position. If they are to be transferred to the puwai area, they need to send troops to take over their defense. Otherwise, once the German forces take advantage of the situation, we may lose this landing site.

The 39th division of Colonel marchenko's guards is now stationed to the west of Lublin. It's going to take at least two days for them to get into puwai. "

"Comrade General, tell me about it." When Bulganin heard this, he couldn't help interrupting and asked, "it's only forty or fifty kilometers from here to puwai. Why can't it take two days to get there?"

On hearing the question raised by Bulganin, the muscles on his face twitched, and then he replied without expression: "Comrade military commissar, when the German army retreated to the West Bank of the visva River, all the bridges on the river had been destroyed. In order to prevent our army from building bridges on the river, their artillery bombarded the river continuously. We can only cross the visva River by canoeing... "

When Ralph finished speaking, I finally got to know the situation of the Army: the 79th and 88th divisions of the guards were disabled in the battle and had withdrawn to the rear to recuperate; Of the remaining two divisions, the 35th division with the strongest fighting capacity is in the magnushev area, while the 39th division with the weaker fighting capacity is still near Lublin. Because there is no pontoon on the river, the troops can only cross the river by canoe. In this way, the light troops who are short of heavy weapons and have no ability to attack difficult positions can only carry out some small-scale combat tasks.

Rokosovsky only gave a faint smile to the difficulties mentioned by Ralph, and then said, "general Ralph, your combat mission has been made clear. As for how to complete it, it's up to you to make your own plan."

Just an hour ago, I was proud of being appointed Deputy to rokosovsky, but when I got to know the situation of the army and the tasks to be carried out, I became unhappy.

"Rita," rokosovsky asked me when he saw that I didn't make a statement. He asked me, "are you going to stay in the headquarters of the front army or the 28th army?"

"Marshal," I replied after careful consideration, "I'd better go back to his headquarters with general Ralph, where I can know the situation of the troops in time, so that I can adjust the deployment in time according to the changes of the situation, and ensure the smooth completion of the combat mission."

Rokosovsky came up to me, raised his hand and patted me on the shoulder. He said with approval, "Rita, you are right to do this. The commander and the soldiers can not only understand the situation of the battlefield in time, but also boost the morale."

He turned his head to look at reirov and stressed: "the combat tasks you are carrying out are crucial for us to win over the support of the Polish people and consolidate the defensive operations on the West Bank of the visva river. I hope you will take good care of yourself." With these words, he stepped back two steps, waved at both of us and said, "OK, you go back to the army."

As soon as Ralph and I got back to the army headquarters outside the city, he called the two division commanders to come to the meeting and prepare to assign them combat tasks.

The two division commanders walked into the headquarters at the same time. As soon as they entered the room, I guessed their identities without waiting for leirov to introduce them. The major general in the front was kulagin, the commander of the 35th division of Jinwei, and the one in the back was Colonel marchenko, the commander of the 39th division of Jinwei.

Leiruofu didn't know that I had guessed the bodies of the two teachers, so he politely introduced them to me. The reaction of the two teachers was very cold. Maybe they never dreamed that they would be somewhat conflicted if they wanted to obey a female commander.

However, I didn't care about their attitude. Instead, I took major general Kuragin's hand and said enthusiastically, "Comrade General, you may not know that during the battle of Stalingrad, my superiors appointed me to be the division commander of your division, but I didn't take up my post in the division because of some small situation later."

My words immediately aroused kulagin's curiosity. He looked at me in surprise and asked, "Comrade deputy commander, can I ask why your appointment was cancelled by the superior?"

"General Kuragin, please take a seat. And you, Colonel malchenko, please sit down, too After everyone sat down, I simply explained the reason why I didn't take up the post of division commander: "the change of the head of the front army stranded my original appointment. Major general gorazkov, the former division commander of the 98th infantry division, took up the post of division commander of the 35th guard division Later, general gorazkov died in the battle to defend the mamayev post, and the independent division under my command took over his defense. "

My experience has brought me closer to several commanders, and the atmosphere in the headquarters has become harmonious. When we talk about combat tasks next, we are not so restrained and can speak freely and express our true views.

After introducing the combat tasks to the two subordinates, he said with a straight face: "comrades, our combat tasks are very arduous. The enemy has built solid fortifications in the front of our army. Only by crossing the enemy's line of defense can we reach the enemy's depth and destroy the infamous Kaminsky brigade. How can our army get through the enemy's fortifications? "

After leirov's words, the two division commanders were silent for a long time. In the end, marchenko first spoke: "Comrade commander, our troops in the West Bank lack the heavy weapons needed to attack the fortified forces. Therefore, it is basically impossible for us to forcibly pass through the enemy's line of defense."

"That's right," Kuragin added as soon as malchenko finished, "if we could break through the German defense line, we would have occupied their defense zone and pushed the front line to Warsaw defense line, where we need to fight with the Germans every day, like now, in order to defend the landing fields of magnushev and puwai."

"Then we can send small troops to quietly cross the enemy's lines and go deep into their rear." After the two men finished speaking, reirov carefully put forward his own idea: "as far as I know, the combat effectiveness of the Kaminsky brigade is limited, and our troops can completely defeat them."

"Comrade commander, we can't do this." As soon as we had finished speaking, I immediately broke in and said, "if we only carry out reconnaissance behind the enemy lines and send a small force through the enemy lines, I think it is still advisable. But it would be ridiculous to have a small team to carry out the elimination of the Kaminsky brigade. Even if this unit has no combat effectiveness, it has more than 1700 people after all. It is impossible for us to destroy them with a small team of more than ten or twenty people. "

"What shall we do?" Seeing that I had denied his proposal, Ralph could not help frowning and said anxiously: "this is the first battle of our army after winning the honorary title of" Lublin army ". If we do not perform well, even if the superior leaders do not say anything, I think our commanders and fighters will not be able to raise their heads in front of other troops."

Staring at the map in front of me, I thought quickly: it is not realistic to launch a frontal attack and break through the German solid defense line; Small units were sent to infiltrate, and because of their weak strength, they were unable to eliminate more than 1000 troops of the Kaminsky brigade.

At this moment, I heard marchenko asking Ralph, "Comrade commander, when will our division cross the river to the other side?"

"The long-range German artillery bombarded the river continuously." "If we cross the river in the daytime, once our troops are found by the enemy, they will be the targets of their artillery," he said thoughtfully. Let's wait until dark. "

"The day is long and the night is short. It's seven hours after dark. I think it may be too late to pass the whole division." Malchenko sighed and said, "if only our soldiers could fly over."

"As much as you can do tonight." "The rest of the troops will cross the river tomorrow night," he said helplessly

Marchenko's words gave me a flash of inspiration and gave me some special ideas about how to penetrate into the enemy's rear. But I couldn't remember how to do it, so I asked, "Comrade Colonel, what did you just say?"

"I said there was not enough time for the whole division to cross the river tonight." Marcenzo didn't know why I asked, but he answered truthfully.

"No, not that." I waved to him and said anxiously, "what's your last word?"

When I asked, malchenko frowned and thought about it. Then he said, "I said if only our soldiers could fly with wings."

"Yes, that's right. That's it." As soon as he finished speaking, I patted the table excitedly and announced to them in a startling way: "I think of a way to infiltrate into the rear of the enemy's defensive positions."

As soon as my words came out, there was an incredible expression on their faces. Because all the plans we put forward not long ago have been overturned because they are not feasible. Now I suddenly told them that there was a way to get the troops to the enemy's rear. How could they not be stunned?

After a long time, leiruofu asked: "Comrade deputy commander, is there really a way for our troops to penetrate into the rear of the enemy's defensive positions?"

"That's right," I said with confidence. "Although I can't let the troops of both divisions successfully penetrate into the enemy's rear, one or two battalions are still OK. Even if they are all light troops, I think they should be enough to deal with the low combat effectiveness of the Kaminsky brigade. "

"What should we do?" Kuragin asked on behalf of everyone.

"Three comrades in command, we have just discussed that it is not appropriate for us to make a frontal attack or send a small team to infiltrate, right?" When I said this, I stopped for a moment and saw that all three of them nodded. Then I continued: "the German army has a perfect defense system in the area along the river, which makes it impossible for us to cross the river from the area under their control. Therefore, we only have the last way left, which is to go through the air. "

"Through the air?" After hearing my idea, Ralph said, "Comrade deputy commander, if we parachute behind the enemy, those airborne soldiers will become targets of the enemy in the air."“ Parachuting behind enemy lines at night is a big problem I explained to several people, "my idea is to let transport planes carry our soldiers and land them in the enemy's rear. The advantage of doing so is that it has strong mobility, heavy loading capacity, relatively concentrated personnel, equipment and materials, and our troops can quickly put into combat. "“ It turned out to be an airplane landing. It's not bad. " "In this way, even ordinary soldiers can directly participate in the battle without special training," he said with a smile Unlike reirov's relief, Kuragin said, "but where should we go to find the transport plane? Also, even if we find the transport plane, where should our troops land? You know, the requirement of airborne field is very high in the implementation of airborne operations. "“ General Kuragin, you don't have to worry about the transport aircraft. I will contact the front command directly and ask them to provide us with the aircraft needed to carry our troops. As for the parachute field, "I looked down on the map, then nodded behind the enemy line with my hand:" in the middle of this forest, there is an open area where our transport plane can land. " Since I proposed the plan of landing behind enemy lines and I am the deputy commander of the front army, I am fully responsible for calling rokosovsky and asking him to provide us with transport planes. Rokosovsky was shocked when he heard that I was going to let the troops land in the rear of the German defense line on the phone. He asked sternly, "Rita, you are so naive. The enemy now has a perfect air defense system and can shoot down our transport planes without any self-defense ability. Aren't you letting the soldiers die in vain?"