Chapter 1673

When our motorcade came to borki village, where the 88th division of Jinwei was located, we suddenly saw a large number of people surrounded by a windmill at the entrance of the village, including our soldiers and local Polish farmers. Seeing this, trakov immediately ordered the driver to stop, and then ordered a staff officer to get out of the car to find out what happened.

The staff officer promised that after getting out of the armored car, he quickly ran to the crowd and went there to inquire about what happened, so that so many people gathered around.

Through the open door of the armored car, I saw that the staff officer ran into the crowd and inquired about several Polish farmers, but they avoided him like a plague. In desperation, the staff officer could only ask the soldiers who were watching.

A few minutes later, the staff officer trotted back to the armored car, stood at the door and reported to trikov, "Comrade commander, a father and son were killed at the door of the mill. The father's chest was broken by bullets, and his son was shot five or six times. "

Trikov and general Pronin, the military Commissioner, looked at each other and saw the anger in each other's eyes. Trekov turned to the staff and asked angrily, "who did it?"

"Who else, German of course!" The staff officer shrugged his shoulders and said helplessly: "it is said that two hours ago, a German army defeated by our army passed through the village, robbed a pile of flour from the mill, loaded it on a sled and prepared to carry it away. As a result, the father and son tightly grasped the flour pocket. So there was a German man carrying a submachine gun and shooting at father and son. "

We got out of the car and were walking towards the mill when we saw a large group of people on the right side of the village. Before I could see who was coming, I saw Polish farmers rushing towards the procession, still cursing loudly. Seeing their reaction, I immediately understood that this was a group of prisoners who were taken by our soldiers. Maybe the culprit who killed the Polish father and son was among them.

According to my idea, these poles will jump on the prisoners and beat the invaders with everything they can find. I'm even ready to dissuade them. But it was strange that the poles stopped just a few steps away from the German prisoners, just standing on the side of the road, waving fists and swearing at the prisoners who passed in front of them.

I can't help shaking my head in disappointment at the actions of the poles. I surmised that they had become obedient people in the five years of German rule; Or did the German massacre in Warsaw scare them? The reason why they did not dare to beat the German prisoners might be that they were afraid of revenge in the future.

We walked around the village and saw only a few battalion commanders of the 88th division of Jinwei. According to their reports, the commander and division commander continued to advance with the troops.

Seeing that it was getting late, I quickly stopped trakov's attempt to move on and said to him, "Comrade General, we have been wandering outside long enough today. Now we should go back to the headquarters of the group army."

After listening to my suggestion, trikov looked at the front where the gunfire was coming. He was unwilling to say, "maybe we can catch up with them if we go a few more kilometers."

"Comrade commander, it's time for us to go back." As soon as his words were finished, military commissar Pronin said solemnly, "maybe there is something important waiting for you to deal with."

Seeing that we tried our best to take risks in front of him, trikov had to submit to our opinions and return to the newly established group army headquarters by car.

When we returned to the headquarters, the new headquarters here had started to work normally, and the tables were full of war reports. I sat down to have a general look, and found that the 8th group army of the guards was very eye-catching in today's battle. As the tank troops entered the open area which was easy to display, our army successfully wedged into the German defensive position and surrounded it.

Major general Vladimirov, chief of staff, and a group of staff members were working on the map with compasses and tripods. The logistics Minister of the group army came in with several subordinates to look for trikov. General pokhaznikov said to trikov, "Comrade commander, as our army advances rapidly to the enemy's defense depth, I propose to immediately set up two logistics columns, each composed of no less than 100 trucks, to deliver fuel and ammunition to the troops in the fierce battle on the front line."

After listening to this, trikov nodded and said, "Comrade logistics minister, you have considered the problem very carefully. Just do as you said. Immediately set up two logistics columns, and you will be in charge of the command."

After dealing with the logistics, Vladimirov also finished the drawing work. He said to trikov, "Comrade commander, you see, our troops have advanced a total of 30 kilometers today. At this speed, it is entirely possible to advance another 40 kilometers tomorrow."

"Comrade chief of staff, it is absolutely necessary to advance another 40 kilometers tomorrow." Trekov pointed to the map and said to us, "you see the German army trying to stand out from our encirclement and retreat from Warsaw to Rava mazowitzka. As long as our troops capture the large road hub of Rava mazowitzka, they can cut off the retreat of the German army and destroy them one by one.

In addition, because our army is advancing too fast, the attack has evolved into separate pursuit. Under such circumstances, we should maintain a high degree of vigilance., Most of the troops and technical equipment will be kept in the second echelon, so that when encountering the enemy's reserves, the troops in the second echelon can be used to continuously strengthen the assault.

Chief of staff, record the order: I order all divisions of the first echelon to set up strong advance teams. The distance between the advance teams should be 20-30 km. Vanguard forces should operate 10-15 kilometers in front of the main column. There is no need for all units to have too many assigned artillery. Artillery should be allowed to work together with the columns of the second echelon, and be ready to go to places where strong firepower is needed. "

After recording the order, the chief of staff handed his notebook to trikov. After writing his name on it, trakov told the chief of staff, "send the telegram immediately."

I looked at the time and saw that it was time to contact Zhukov again, so I asked the communication director to connect me with the headquarters of the front army. It was Zhukov who answered the phone. I immediately gave him a detailed report on the achievements of the 8th group army of the guards and the combat deployment that trakov had just made.

After listening to the report, Zhukov said with satisfaction: "in this new year's offensive, not only the eighth group army of the guards has achieved great results, but the rest of the troops have also played quite well. It took only four days to launch the campaign, but we have already smashed the main force of the 9th German group army, broken through the German defensive positions, and advanced 100-130 kilometers to their depth. From tomorrow, that is, January 2, we will launch an all-round pursuit of the German army. "

I said with a smile: "marshal, if the army can continue to maintain the current offensive momentum, I estimate that by the end of the campaign, we will be able to reach the Oder River and threaten the German mainland."

"Rita, although our troops are going well, we can't take them lightly." Zhukov was worried that I would have the feeling of belittling the enemy. He specially reminded me that "the wounded beast bites people more painful, but we can't think that the enemy is vulnerable just because they are defeated. In that case, we will suffer greatly."

"Don't worry, comrade marshal." Holding the microphone, I glanced at trakov, who was explaining his mission to the army not far away. Then I said, "general trakov is an excellent commander who has experienced many battles. I believe he will never make such a low-level mistake."

Early the next morning, trikov took me, Pronin, group artillery commander pozalski and several staff members to inspect the divisions under the first echelon.

At the ferry of the pilicha River, we met the troops of the 39th division of the guards, who were crossing the river in an orderly way.

Trekov had his division commander, Colonel marchenko, called to the ferry, stood by the frozen river and asked, "Comrade Colonel, when will all your troops cross the river?"

When marchenko heard the question from trakov, he immediately straightened up and reported, "report commander, the 112th and 120th regiments of the guards have completed crossing the river and are building simple Fortifications on the other side. It is the 117th regiment of Jinwei who is crossing the river. " At this point, he nodded to the long convoy waiting to cross the river, adding, "that's the 87th regiment of the guard artillery."

Looking at the slow infantry on the pontoon, trakov frowned: "Comrade Colonel, the river is frozen, but why do you cross the pontoon?"

As for the question raised by trakov, marchenko quickly explained: "Comrade commander, you don't know that when we were crossing the pilicha river yesterday, the ice layers in many areas were blasted by gunfire. You can't see that there is ice on the river again now, but even if people step on it, it will break in some places. So for safety's sake, we can use the pontoon to cross the pilicha river

We were talking when the roar of tanks came from the distance. We looked in the direction of the sound and saw a group of tanks coming out of the village in the north.

Seeing that all our attention was attracted to that direction, malchenko quickly introduced and said, "that's gezhimiongcha village. Except for a few old people, women and children, the rest of the villagers have fled."

Trekov asked strangely, "isn't the tank brigade still more than ten kilometers behind? Where did the tank troops come from?"

When trakov spoke to marchenko, I had a vague sense of foreboding. I immediately asked the staff officer to pass a telescope and look at the tank coming in the distance. At that moment, I was shocked in a cold sweat, because it was not the tanks of our army that were coming towards us, but the armored forces of the German army. The white cross marks on the square headed tanks were particularly obvious. I didn't even have time to put down my telescope, so I yelled: "hell, it's not our tank, it's German tank, send out the battle alarm!"

"Battle alert! Battle alert! " Marchenko immediately issued a battle alert to his men.

With the sound of the alarm, the artillery soldiers on the truck jumped out of the car, pulled the guns in the back of the car, took off the hook one after another, turned the direction, and aimed at the coming German tanks.

"Comrade deputy commander, it's too dangerous here. Let's go to other places first." After my company commander had said this to me, he called two strong soldiers and ran in the opposite direction with me, fearing that something might happen to me in the coming battle“ Don't worry about me, "I ran wildly in the opposite direction by two soldiers, while I kept shouting," let general trakov take him to safety, too. " The guards, who had received my instructions, came forward with trakov and the other two army leaders, running all the way to me. The guard soldiers took us to an empty trench several hundred meters away, and then stopped. Here, we can clearly observe the fighting at the ferry through the telescope. The enemy's tanks were more than 300 meters away from the ferry, and our artillery opened fire. After a volley, half of the German tanks were shot and caught fire, burning in place. The rest of the tanks found that they were blocked by our army, so they quickly fought back and backed towards the village. Seeing that the German tanks retreated, the infantry who had not crossed the river immediately charged against the village under the cover of artillery fire. It seems that the enemy's tanks are seriously short of ammunition and fuel. They stop at the edge of the village and use their tank guns to shoot at our charging infantry. They did not cause too much casualties to our army. After the 117 th regiment of guards occupied the village, the enemy had only two complete tanks left. The rest was destroyed either by artillery or by infantry using grenades or rockets at close range. When we returned to the ferry, Colonel marchenko had finished the interrogation of the captured tank soldiers. According to the prisoners, they belonged to the 25th tank division. After three days of fighting, they lost contact with the higher command. In addition, the ferry of pilicha river near new miasto had been occupied by our army, so they decided to break through the encirclement by other roads. However, they happened to encounter our army crossing the river, and they did not wait to escape the fate of destruction“ Comrade commander, where shall we go next? " Asked Pronin“ Comrades of the military commissar, needless to say, we naturally continue to move forward and go to the front troops to have a look. " Trikov took a map from one of the staff officers, looked at it, and then said, "if you go a few kilometers further, you should be able to meet the troops of the 79th guards division. I want to see what kind of results they have achieved today."