Chapter 1650

Rokosovsky told me more than once that malining was one of the most capable staff members he met. Now I deeply realize how correct his conclusion is.

Malining pointed to the map and said to me, "Rita, it will take some time for general Batov's troops to gather. If the German troops attack at this time, the two sides may encounter each other on the road. Therefore, I suggest that in order to gain valuable time for the troops of the 65th army, we should send a unit to ambush near nashersk. "

Looking at the mark on the map, I knew that the place malining was referring to was a forest, which was very suitable for the army to hide. I nodded and then asked, "Comrade chief of staff, I don't know which army you are going to send to carry out this glorious task?"

"The 33rd brigade of the close guard motorized infantry of Colonel kleves," malining knew that I was not familiar with this unit, and gave a detailed introduction: "the serial number of this brigade was originally the 57th brigade of the motorized infantry, with three motorized infantry battalions, mortar battalions, artillery battalions and anti-aircraft artillery battalions. Since December 42, it has been fighting in the formation of the third tank army.

Because the officers and men of the whole brigade were brave and tenacious in the battle against the German army, they achieved great results, and had a high degree of organization and discipline, so they won the title of close guard and were renamed the 33rd brigade of motorized infantry of close guard. "

"Where are they now?" I asked as soon as marinin had finished.

"Here it is Malining pointed to a position in the northwest of the landing site of selotsk and said to me: "originally, their task was to capture vizhibica. However, in the battle a few days ago, enemy bombers destroyed their own defense in the area, so other forces liberated the small town.

They are less than 20 kilometers away from nashersk. We can order them to advance five to eight kilometers and choose the right place to ambush. "

Seeing that marinin was so familiar with the troops below, I felt relieved and said to him boldly, "chief of staff, since you are so confident, do as you say. Let Colonel kleves' troops enter the area and prepare to ambush the enemy from nasselsk."

…………

At daybreak, the German forces in the city of nashersk assembled and marched out of the city along the streets. After arriving outside the city, the original mechanized column changed from one road to two roads. On the right side of the road are tanks one after another, and on the left side are trucks full of soldiers.

Just as they were marching towards the landing site of selotsk, more than a dozen bombers of our air force suddenly appeared in the air and dived into tanks, trucks, motorcycles and armored vehicles on the ground, dropping bombs and strafing. All of a sudden, the enemy's line was full of flames and smoke. The German soldiers in the truck jumped out of the car one after another and scattered by the roadside, shooting at the air with various weapons in an attempt to shoot down the bombing fleet.

Without waiting for the enemy's anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns to be in place, our military planes that completed the bombing mission climbed to a safe height one after another, circled in the air and flew to the East Airport.

In just a few minutes of the air raid, the German army was destroyed more than a dozen tanks and armored vehicles, as well as more than 20 trucks, causing more than 200 casualties.

The German army completed the assembly again after our plane flew away. This time, they were worried that they would be attacked by our army, so they changed the marching team into a column again, with tanks as the leader, driving ahead, armored cars and trucks following, and continued to push along the road to the direction of sirotsk landing site.

They advanced seven or eight kilometers. Although they were not attacked by our air force again, they fell into the ambush circle of the 33rd brigade of motorized infantry. At the command of the brigade commander, Colonel kleves, the anti tank guns, cannons and anti-aircraft guns ambushed 500 meters away from both sides of the road opened fire on the tanks in the middle of the road at the same time.

Our artillery destroyed the tanks in front of the German army, blocked their way forward, and then opened fire on the tanks at the end of the line. After the tanks were destroyed, the German tank columns were blocked in the road. In order not to stay on the road and act as targets for our artillery, the tankers turned around one after another, drove out of the road and entered the muddy area in an attempt to eliminate our artillery troops ambushing on the roadside.

Unexpectedly, the infantry soldiers of the motorized brigade were hiding more than 200 meters away from the road. When they saw that the enemy's tanks were slow because of the muddy road, they rushed out of their hiding places one after another and destroyed those large tanks with anti tank grenades and rocket launchers.

German trucks full of infantry were blocked in the rear. But when the German commander learned that the armored forces were ambushed, he immediately ordered the infantry to get off and rush to the ambush position of the motorized brigade along both sides of the road.

After reading the latest war report, I turned to ask kazakov, "Comrade artillery commander, is our breakthrough artillery division in place?"

"Yes, comrade deputy commander." "The artillery has completed the construction of the artillery position five minutes ago, ready to fight," he said, nodding his head

"The German marching column was ambushed by the motorized brigade," I pointed to the map and said to karzakov. "According to the war report, the road is already full of smoke. Our artillery can use this as a reference to bombard the enemy."

"Don't worry," kazakov assured me, "our artillery will teach the enemy a lesson that will never be forgotten." With that, he went to the telephone next to him, ready to give the artillery an order to fire.

"Chief of staff," I turned my eyes to marinin after karzakov left. "Where is general Batov's army?"

"Because of the slow assembly speed of the 65th group army, they have just left the base." Malining said to me with a wry smile, "it will take half an hour at the fastest to get to the fighting area."

After listening to marinin's report, I felt lucky. Fortunately, I arranged for kleves to ambush in advance. Otherwise, before Batov's troops arrived at the designated position, they would encounter with the enemy's troops on the move. Fortunately, kazakov's artillery is about to fight, so we can fight for a little more time. When the enemy is dazzled by our heavy artillery and Batov's troops arrive at the battlefield, they can launch a chase.

With the order of karzakov, the artillery who had been ready to fire immediately aimed at the German army line that rushed to the motorized infantry position and opened fire. Under the concentrated fire aimed by dozens of heavy guns at the same time, even if the impact point is scattered again, the German soldiers covered by shells, even if you hide again, will never escape to pieces. After two rounds of shelling, there was no more moving object in front of the position of the motorized infantry brigade.

After annihilating the German infantry, the artillery turned to the tanks that were still running around. One by one, German tanks were destroyed in the sound of explosions. Some of them were directly lifted off the turret, while others were overturned by the blast. The surviving tankers scrambled out and ran back with their hands and feet. They felt that it was only safe for them to escape to the infantry.

When Batov's troops arrived at the designated position, the German army had begun to run back, so the artillery began to fire. As the road was blocked by the burning remains of German tanks, our tank brigade had to stop for a while, waiting for the engineers to re pave the road on both sides of the road, and the infantry could only chase the fleeing German troops on foot.

Seeing that the situation is developing in the direction I imagined, I can't help but feel relieved. I told Orel: "Comrade General, the enemy has begun to flee. Immediately put your two close guard tank regiments into battle, and let the infantry brigade send one battalion to each of you to detour to both sides of nashersk, so as to cut off the retreat of the German army."

"Rita, is it too small to have a tank regiment and an infantry battalion on each wing of nashersk?" After listening to me, malining kindly reminded me that "if the enemy breaks through madly in these two directions, they can't stop it at all."

"Chief of staff, I understand what you said, but in a hurry, we don't have more troops to carry out this task." I explained to malining, "I just want to give the Germans the illusion that we have troops on all three sides of the city, ready to attack in any direction. If they can't keep it, they can only withdraw from nashersk along the passage we left them. " I knocked on the map with my hand. "If we take nashersk, our army will develop to the northeast and capture winnica, then we will be connected with the puutusk landing site of the second front army."

Malining looked at the map for a while, with a trace of regret, said: "unfortunately, even if we take nashersk, we can't capture chekson in the southeast direction, because there will be artillery fire from Fort modlin in that direction."

"Whether it's chekson or Fort modlin, we'll get it sooner or later." I said confidently, "today's main task is to capture nashersk. As long as we have a firm foothold in this area, we can advance, attack and retreat, and firmly grasp the initiative of the battlefield in our own hands."

It took too long for engineers to lay roads for tanks and artillery. By the time the tank brigade and artillery arrived at nashersk, the close guard division of the 65th group army had broken through the German defense, rushed into the city and started a street fight with the enemy.

The Germans had concentrated all their forces in the south of the city to block the attack of our infantry. When they found that there were two tank troops detouring to the East and west respectively, they had to withdraw a considerable part of their forces to strengthen the defense in that direction, greatly reducing the pressure on the guard division.

Fortunately, Batov was not a mediocre. When he learned that his troops had already rushed into nasselsk, he immediately transferred two infantry divisions to take a truck to rush past as fast as possible to reinforce the guard division who was fighting in the city.

General Popov, commander of the 70th group army, after learning that the 65th group army began to move on a large scale, also called me on his own initiative and was willing to transfer troops to fill the defensive loopholes left by Batov's troops.

There was only one infantry division and two armored regiments of the German army in the city of nashersk. Originally, they were badly damaged by our air force and artillery. When they retreated, they were chased by our infantry. When they retreated to the city, they were only half as old as before. In addition, after the defeat, the soldiers were demoralized and demoralized, They had to fight and retreat, and gradually they were compressed to the north of the city by our army.

As it was getting dark, Batov took the initiative to call me and ask for instructions: "Comrade deputy commander, it's getting late now. The soldiers have been calling all day, and many of them haven't eaten yet. Do you think it's time to stop the fighting and wait until tomorrow morning before continuing to attack? "“ No, general Batov, not at all. " I resolutely refused Batov's request, and said sternly: "the attack must continue, never give the Germans a breathing space. As for those soldiers who have been fighting all day and have no time to eat, you can let the troops take over and let them have time to rest. In a word, the fighting must go on and try to get nashersk down before dawn tomorrow. " Malining, who was standing next to me, said to me carefully after I finished the call: "Rita, we have used several infantry divisions, tank brigades, air force and artillery in today's battle. It's a lot of action. My opinion is that it is necessary to report this matter to the marshal, whether or not nashersk is taken tonight. After all, he is the commander of the front army and has the right to know what happened in the army. "“ All right, chief of staff. " For malining's request, I thought a little, then decisively agreed: "after the phone is connected, I personally report to him." After listening to my report, rokosovsky was silent for a long time before he asked, "Rita, tell me, how did you decide to attack nasselsk?"“ Well, comrade marshal. " I respectfully explained to him, "this idea came to me when I learned that the German army was beginning to gather and prepare to launch an attack on the silotsk landing site. Because I know that since the Germans are preparing for attack, they will not be prepared for defense, so I decided to start first. Soon after they left the city, they used the air force to carry out air raids on them, then ambushed their moving motorcade, and then bombarded the enemy with heavy artillery, so that they were completely in chaos... "" you have very considerate! " After I finished speaking, rokosovsky said with appreciation, "it is precisely because you have accurately grasped the fighter plane that our troops can rush into the city of nashersk so smoothly. Well, since I said that you should be responsible for all the affairs of the front army, you can deal with this matter and you don't have to report it to me any more. But once the city is occupied by our army, I hope you can tell me the good news at the first time. " The fierce fighting lasted for two o'clock in the morning, and the gunfire in the city gradually became sparse. Batov finally called me, and he excitedly reported: "Comrade deputy commander, our red flag has been planted on the roof of the municipal building, and nashersk has been captured by our army!"