Chapter 28: (September 28, 1941)

Chapter 28: (September 28, 1941)

Chapter 28 (September 28, 1941)

“The time has come. Can I give the order to each unit?”

“Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff!”

On September 28, 1941, a Sunday dawn, the Soviet army received the order to attack across the entire front.

Hundreds, thousands of artillery units spewed fire at once.

Ah, how long have I waited for this day?

“Transmit to each unit. Transmit to each unit. This is Farm. This is Farm.”

“Tyltyl and Mytyl have found the blue bird. I repeat. Tyltyl and Mytyl have found the blue bird.”

It’s the autumn offensive!

You damned fascists!

Taste the wrath of the people!

After consulting with Zhukov, I ordered the southern front to minimize the attacks on Sundays.

It was not because of the Germans’ faith or the effect of the Orthodox Church, but to induce complacency.

As if they had made an agreement, the Reds would attack less on Sundays – this experience accumulated and inevitably led to carelessness.

And when the attack started all at once like now, they could only panic.

Cowardly?

This is war.

The Soviet IL-2 attack aircraft took off from Kiev, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy and Kirovograd and bombed the German airfields.

The German pilots woke up from their sweet weekend sleep and heard the air raid siren.

They tried to get on their planes, but the Soviet artillery had already concentrated their fire on the airfields near the front.

The goal of the second half of 1941 offensive was to annihilate the 1st Panzer Group and the 6th Army, which were the main forces of the German southern group.

The German southern group consisted of the 6th Army, 17th Army, 11th Army and Romanian 4th Army and 3rd Corps, as well as the 1st Panzer Group.

With the 1st Panzer Group as its spearhead, the Nazi German army had advanced to near Kiev.

The rest of the field armies, which were infantry units following up, formed a long front from north to south in the order of 6th Army, 11th Army, 17th Army and Romanian 4th Army.

“The short-term operational goal of the autumn offensive is to drive out the 6th Army that protects the soft flank of the 1st Panzer Group that has advanced to Kiev, and to strike their supply routes.”

Vasilevsky, who was in charge of designing the overall operation, calmly explained the operational plan.

It felt like he was orchestrating an orchestra.

“If the 6th Army retreats, will the 1st Panzer Group retreat by abandoning their heavy equipment that can’t move well in the mud, or will they die gloriously by defending their current position? They have to choose one or the other.”

And their retreat route would narrow down gradually.

Once in ten days, Rasputitsa would arrive and turn all the land into mud.

The weather forecast also predicted that autumn rain would start soon.

How about heavy tanks in a situation where even normal cars could hardly move?

The Soviet army was coming up from the south.

The defense line that they had not been able to push back was still showing its solid dignity in the east.

The swampy area of Pripyat in the north became more sticky and muddy during Rasputitsa season and became a natural barrier.

Retreating in this direction was just suicide.

The only thing left was west.

West was the only way for the 1st Panzer Group to maneuver.

But as the 6th Army that had to protect their rear retreated more and more, their maneuver axis would become narrower and narrower...

Encirclement and annihilation, or a great escape.

What would the 1st Panzer Group choose? N0v3lRealm was the platform where this chapter was initially revealed on N0v3l.B1n.

Would they sit and wait for death?

Or would they die fighting? The commander of the 1st Panzer Group, Kleist, was said to be a great general...

Really?

What kind of brilliant move could he make?

Nikolai, who was still a rookie, couldn’t dare to say anything out loud.

‘No one is perfect, right?’

He must have something that he could do better than Semyon, who was a college student.

Semyon was brave, he could tell that in a short time, but he couldn’t admit that because he was too jealous.

He recalled the things he had done at the collective farm.

For example, cutting wheat or making leather from hides or milking cows...

Suddenly he thought of Maria Ivanova’s full breasts.

Not a black and white spotted cow but Maria with blonde hair... Ahem.

Anyway, he probably could drive a tractor better than Semyon!

But that didn’t help him look good in front of women.

Wouldn’t it be better if Semyon read poetry from a poet named Pushkin that he always carried in his chest with style?

Screeeeech!!

A scream-like siren sounded.

It was a sound that never became familiar no matter how many times he heard it, like a monster roaring.

“Stuka! Stuka!”

The squad members scattered and tried to take cover.

But soon our fighter planes attacked Stuka and it was shot down and crashed far away.

“Look at that, we have more than enough artillery and air support right now! Right now we have at least twice as many planes as the fascist invaders in this area, right? Maybe the Tachanka that we have to suppress will be attacked by Sturmovik too.”

Semyon, the political officer, truly admired the Secretary General.

Nikolai, who had suffered from hunger at the collective farm because of the excessive production quotas, couldn’t always agree with him, but lately he wondered if the Secretary General was really an amazing person.

He was influenced by hearing Semyon or Volodya or other senior soldiers express their opinions fervently.

“Comrade Secretary General designed and supervised the production of all these weapons himself. He even manages how many people to put on the planes, what bullets to use on these guns, and so on... How can one person handle all these things in such a huge country?

He is truly astonishing.”

Semyon’s words sounded plausible.

The high-ranking officers also praised him and admired his weapons and troops and support.

He was a good person, the political officer. If he said so, wouldn’t it be true?

Nikolai wondered.

His sister Natasha had died of typhus when she was young because of the lack of food and became weak, but that problem was... The political officer said it was a very tragic tragedy.

The Secretary General would always be sad about it.

He also heard speeches about being vigilant against the Ukrainian kulak rebels and Trotskyists who sabotaged them.

He didn’t really understand it, but Nikolai accepted it.

“Exactly as Comrade Political Officer said! They say Sturmovik already attacked their trenches and destroyed them! Now there are only corpses of filthy fascist pigs in that hole... Haha!”

“That’s good news, Volodya Sergeant. What did I tell you? Right? Haha.”

The company marched through the no-man’s land swept by shelling.

As he walked, he suddenly heard the engine sound that had been faintly heard from afar getting closer, and behind him a platoon of T-60 light tanks came rumbling along.

The tank desantos waved their hands with friendly smiles to the infantrymen who were marching on foot.

“Hey! Comrades!”

Nikolai waved his hand back without thinking much.

“I wonder if our unit doesn’t have those armored vehicles, are they the follow-up units that have already advanced here? Our work will be reduced, right?”

Volodya Sergeant knew a lot of things strangely.

What we had in our unit, how did he know all that?

Nikolai nodded his head vigorously to please Volodya Sergeant.

It wasn’t bad to make him happy anyway.

And he was also happy.

It was always a good thing for a soldier to have less work to do.