Chapter 1707

On the early morning of February 27, the forces of the 8th group army of the close guard continued to launch an impact towards Berlin. As the German defense has been completely broken through by our army, the resistance we encountered is not tenacious. By noon, the trokov troops had been in belnaux, petershagen, ludsdorf, elkner, ustenhausen and other regions, and had gone out to the ring expressway in Berlin, creating favorable conditions for completely encircling Berlin.

After receiving these inspiring war reports, I immediately called the headquarters of the front army and personally reported this important news to Zhukov: "marshal, our troops have entered the Beltway of Berlin and can rush into the urban area of Berlin at any time."

I thought Zhukov would be overjoyed, but he said faintly, "Rita, I know. I just called katukov and ordered his tank troops to immediately turn around and attack the north and northeast of Berlin. "

I was stunned by his words, although the general staff had given instructions to the tank troops to rush to the north and northeast of Berlin immediately after breaking through the zelauf heights. However, Zhukov seems to ignore this instruction, and still intends to play according to his own way. How did he change his mind after a short time?

With doubts, I asked, "Comrade marshal, don't you intend to carry out this order?"

"Rita, things have changed." Zhukov said in a blunt tone: "the Germans set up a political trap in Berlin. Hitler ordered the enemy who was fighting with our army to never step back even if the British and American troops rushed to their rear. They must fight to the end with blood. In this way, they tried to stir up discord between our country and our allies. The only way to break this trap is for us to occupy Berlin. Therefore, we can only allow the tank forces to advance north and northeast, blocking the road of the allies to the West. "

"I see," I heard from Zhukov's words that at the beginning of the attack on Berlin, we might not be supported by tank forces, and the tank group army of katukov, who is fighting with us, might also be transferred to the north to fight“ Marshal, please rest assured that we can enter Berlin even without the support of tank troops. "

"Wait a minute, Rita. I haven't finished yet." Just as I was about to put down the phone, I heard Zhukov continue to say, "are trakov's troops in the eastern suburbs now?"

Although I don't understand why Zhukov asked this question, because when I just reported to him, I had made it clear to him, but I still truthfully replied, "yes, marshal. At present, the troops of the 8th group army of the guards are fighting fiercely with the recalcitrant German army in the eastern suburb of Berlin!"

"I command you to turn immediately to the south-east and south suburbs of Berlin, so as to encircle Berlin from the South and carry out a general attack." Zhukov might have guessed that I would ask who would take over the vacant lot, so he said in advance, "I will order Kuznetsov's third shock group army to take over the defense."

When I put down the phone and repeated Zhukov's order to trakov, he frowned. He pointed to the map and said to me, "Rita, it's not easy for marshal to carry out this order. You see, many of our troops have wedged into the edge of the city and are engaged in street fighting. As soon as we stop attacking and turn south, the German army, which we have beaten so hard, will have a chance to breathe. If they attack us from behind, many of our troops will be defeated. "

I agree with trakov's concerns. But considering that it was Zhukov's order to transfer the troops to the southeast and southern suburbs, there was no room for bargaining. What we could do was to minimize the casualties of the troops in the process of transferring.

After staring at the map for a while, duhanov, the deputy commander of the group army, took the initiative to put forward his own view: "Marshal Zhukov asked us to detour around Berlin from the southeast and south of Berlin, advance forward, and force the enemy to retreat to the north. The purpose is to make it impossible for the enemy to make a sudden attack on our flank, or make it impossible for the enemy to join the enemy group surrounded in the forest in the southeast of Berlin."

When chief of staff Vladimirov heard this, he couldn't help interrupting: "yes, according to the latest intelligence, there are more than 20000 enemies surrounded by us in the forest area. Can we send troops into the forest to clear up as we did on the East Bank of the Oder River

Seeing that everyone's eyes were focused on me, knowing that they were waiting for me to declare my position, I quickly shook my head and said, "comrades commander, although I had commanded the 35th and 39th guard divisions, I captured a large number of German troops in the forest clearing operation on the East Bank of the Oder River. However, the situation of the encircled German army here is different. They still maintain a relatively complete organizational system. If we rashly send troops to eliminate them, it will certainly cause heavy casualties to the troops. They will also escape to Berlin and increase our resistance to capture the city. "

"I think the task of eliminating the remnants of the German army should be left to other troops." Trekov expressed his support for me, and then began to command Vladimirov: "chief of staff, record my orders, let the Fourth Army of the guard infantry continue to attack in the existing area, and dispatch some troops to attack Berlin from petershagen, nensdorf and seedend directions; The 29th army of the close guard infantry attacked in the direction of kopenik and bukov; The 28th army of the guards attacked in the direction of murtham, old grynik and Rudolf. "

After giving a series of orders, trakov raised his hand and looked at his watch. Then he called the artillery commander pozharski to him and said, "my artillery commander, do you see that we should adjust our artillery position so that they can set the firing position closer to Berlin?"

"No problem," bozars replied, nodding his head. "Our artillery follows the attacking troops every day, pushing the artillery forward. After waiting for three years, we finally have a chance to bombard Berlin directly with artillery fire. I think the artillery commanders and fighters should be impatient. "

With that, he was ready to turn around and leave the headquarters. I quickly stopped him and asked with concern, "general pozalski, is there enough artillery ammunition?"

"Don't worry, Rita." Pozalski replied with a smile: "our shells have never been so rich as they are now. In addition to the ammunition supplied by our superiors, we have also seized a large number of German artillery and shells in the occupied areas. Even if we have shelled for more than half a month in a row, we don't have to worry about no ammunition."

"Half a month's ammunition reserve is enough." I said confidently, "I have a hunch that we can occupy the whole of Berlin in half a month."

For my Bold "prophecy", bozarsky said nothing, just a faint smile, then turned and walked out of the headquarters.

The main force of the 8th group army of the guards is still attacking Berlin in the eastern suburbs. Trekov asked deputy commander dukhanov to lead the troops of the two divisions to advance along the road to the southeast and southern suburbs. Who knows, less than an hour later, he received a call from duhanov.

Dukhanov said anxiously to trikov on the phone: "Comrade commander, something happened. Our troops were blocked on the road and could not move forward."

After hearing duhanov's report, trakov was surprised and asked, "why, have you been blocked by German troops?"

"We were not stopped by the German forces." Duhanov reluctantly replied: "the road is full of German refugees, and our motorcade can't move forward. Comrade commander, as you know, we are not like Germany. We are not executioners. We can't shoot unarmed civilians. "

"Since the motorcade is impassable, let all the soldiers get out of the car." After a moment's reflection on duhanov's difficulties, trakov decisively ordered: "go to the southeast and southern suburbs on foot, and occupy the starting position of the attack as soon as possible. Do you understand?"

"I see," I stood aside and heard duhanov's loud reply on the phone. "I immediately ordered the troops to get out of the car and go to the designated place on foot."

I thought that artillery could not be replaced in the next street battle, so as soon as pozharski came back, I took him and asked, "Comrade General, I want to ask, are the 203 mm heavy howitzers that shelled Poznan Fort last time still in our troops?"

"Yes, Rita, it's still there." Pozalski said to me with a smile: "in addition to this kind of heavy howitzer, I also asked general karzakov, artillery commander of the front army, for a battalion heavy mortar. The caliber of this kind of gun has reached an amazing 305 mm, which is the world's largest field artillery besides train gun and super heavy self-propelled gun. Although it's called mortar, it's actually used as howitzer, which can not only bend, but also direct fire. It can use a variety of ammunition, including concrete armor piercing projectiles. The weight of warheads is basically more than 200 kg. Some shrapnel can reach 286 kg, with a charge equivalent to three or four times that of 203 mm howitzers. Each shell can explode a bomb pit with a radius of 10 meters and a depth of 6 meters, and a range of 10 kilometers. "

When I heard that there were such heavy guns, I was overjoyed. I quickly turned to trekov and said, "general trekov, if our troops had such heavy guns, it would be much more convenient to attack the important German fortifications."

"Yes, I think so too." "I'm going to use this heavy artillery battalion to bombard the Capitol building in Berlin. After our shells have blasted it, we'll send infantry to occupy it and put our flag on the dome of the Capitol building," he said

Although I knew that Hitler's hiding place was not in the parliament building, but in the German chancellery on Wilhelm street, I did not correct trakov. Anyway, it will take us a few days to attack Berlin. When other troops attack the parliament building, we will mobilize heavy troops to attack the prime minister's office. Even if we can't capture Hitler alive, we will destroy him and his party members in that basement.

So I continued to ask pozharsky, "Comrade General, I don't know when the heavy artillery battalion will arrive at the designated position?"

"Don't worry, Rita. The heavy artillery camp is still on its way. It may take two days to get there." Bozarsky saw that my face was disappointed and quickly explained to me: "the weight of the gun is very terrible. Its combat weight is 35000 kg, and the marching weight is 54000 kg. It is disassembled into three parts during transportation. The gun barrel, the upper part of the gun frame and the lower part of the gun frame are also combined gun barrels. Because of the heavy weight of the gun, it takes nearly three hours to go from marching to fighting. "

After knowing the parameters of this heavy mortar, I tentatively asked, "Comrade General, what's the firing rate of this kind of mortar?"“ It's usually four minutes Pozharski explained to me: "because the firing speed is too slow, this kind of artillery can only be used to deal with the German solid fortifications, and can not participate in the pre attack artillery preparation like other artillery." Although it takes only four minutes to fire a shell, I think that Hitler's basement can be destroyed even if it is more solid. So I can't wait for the artillery battalion to arrive early, so we will have a big weapon to kill Hitler. Trakov asked with great interest, "Comrade pozharsky, can I ask how many shells this heavy artillery battalion has?"“ Seventy two shells were fired together with the heavy artillery battalion, which could be used to fire 12 times for each of the six heavy artillery units in the battalion. " "More shells are still in transit, and I estimate that they will reach our new artillery positions in three to five days at most," pozharski replied“ You still have to push them. " "It's the first time we've used such a large caliber gun. There's no ammunition in stock to replenish," he said. Once their ammunition is used up, these heavy guns become scrap. "“ You can rest assured, comrade commander. " "I have discussed with general anjipuko, the head of the Logistics Department of the front army, and asked him to send a special convoy to transport the heavy artillery shells for us, so as to ensure that the artillery can play its due role in the process of seizing Berlin," pozalski assured trikov Trikov looked down at the map in front of him, pointed to the south of Berlin and said to pozharsky, "our main force will gradually turn to the southeast and south suburbs of Berlin. When the heavy artillery battalion arrives, we will deploy them in the south suburbs. From here, we will bombard the parliament building in Berlin with heavy artillery, so as to destroy the German resistance."