Burning Moscow

I thought Rokosovsky would be furious, and at least he would pull out his pistol and shoot a few shots into the sky to vent his anger. After all, seeing so many subordinates lying in front of him with blood and blood, no one would suffer. No more.

　　 Unexpectedly, he calmed down quickly. As a senior commander, it is very necessary to know how to control his emotions on the battlefield. He took a deep breath, and then began to give orders: "Comrade Orel!"

　　 "Here!" The deputy chief of staff standing beside him quickly agreed.

　　 "Can I still get in touch with the troops below?" Rokosovsky asked, frowning.

　　 "Yes, Comrade Commander." Orel replied in an affirmative tone: "Two radio stations have been transferred out, and they can transmit orders to the troops below at any time."

"That's good, you immediately arrange for the manpower to move the headquarters to Novopetrovskiy, which is located on the Volokolamsk-Moscow highway. At the same time,..." He said in a quieter voice, presumably It was an important task assigned to the deputy chief of staff. I walked aside two steps very wittily, and continued to watch the soldiers with indifferent expressions lifting the mutilated bodies of sacrificial commanders out of the rubble.

　　 "Zakharov!" Rokosovsky suddenly yelled again, which surprised me.

　　 "Here!" Another disgraced commander ran from not far away. I took a closer look. It turned out that it was the major general who dismissed President Lin's strategy and tactics during the morning meeting. At this moment, he looked even more embarrassed than the commander.

　　 "Take a look at the joint between the Group Army and the 30th Army with me. I don't think the situation there will be too optimistic."

"Yes!" Although the Major General Zakharov agreed very simply, I accidentally found that the corners of his eyes twitched a few times, and his expression was a bit ugly, as if he had made such an arrangement for Rokosovsky. Some dissatisfaction.

　　 "Let's go!" After Rokosovsky said, he turned and walked towards his tattered car. After walking a few steps, I stopped and turned around to greet me, who was standing there stupidly, and said, "Lida, you also go with me."

　　 "Yes!" I promised, and quickly trot to catch up.

I opened the back door and wanted to invite Rokosovsky to sit in first. I didn’t expect to look inside. I couldn’t help but sucked in an air-condition. All the cushions were beaten up and there was a long wooden board on the seat. , Just barely able to sit on people. But Rokosovsky didn't care at all, got into the car and sat in the back row. I just wanted to pull the front door and sit in the seat of the co-pilot, but he greeted me and said, "Let General Zakharov sit in the front. You go to the back and sit next to me."

　　Although the time I spent with Rokosovsky was not too long, I knew that he must have his intention to arrange the seats in this way, and there may be something else to tell me later. So I gave up my plan to open the front, got into the back door, and sat next to him.

　　 After General Zakharov got into the car, the driver started the car. I looked up at the roof of the car, which was full of bullet holes, large and small. I can imagine what kind of air strike I encountered just now. Because the front windshield was all shattered, as soon as the car started, a biting cold wind came in, making me shiver.

　　 "Do you know?" Rokosovsky said suddenly, "Your former partner, the instructor Krochkov died!"

When I used to partner with Krochkov in the 316th Division, although there were often some disputes, when I suddenly heard the news of his sacrifice, my tears could not stop flowing, and my voice asked with a choked voice: "He is How did you sacrifice?"

"In the morning, when Lobachev's political commissar and members of the staff arrived at the command post of Commander Panfilov, we were catching up with the Germans launching a fierce attack." Rokosovsky said in a painful tone. I recounted: "The anti-tank destroyer group of the 4th company of the 1075 Infantry Regiment led by the instructor of Krochkov, defended against the German tanks near the Duboshekovo station. The impact was supported by powerful artillery fire and bomber airstrikes. After a while, the German tanks rushed towards the position with a group of 15-30 vehicles, accompanied by a dense line of automatic gunners. We saw Krochkov and him in the command post. The 28 soldiers led by them fought tenaciously. They bombarded German tanks with anti-tank artillery. Soon, nearly 10 tanks burned or started to smoke. We could clearly see some Hitler bandits immediately after climbing out of the tanks. Just fell to the ground, and at the same time, the infantry who followed the tanks were crushed on the ground by the firepower of our army. Facing the tenacious defense of Krochkov, the German tanks were divided into two parts, and one part stopped. , They suppressed them with artillery fire; the other part continued to rush forward desperately... After a while, fierce fighting started in front of the trenches. They ran out of anti-tank shells and smashed them with petrol incendiary bottles at the German army. Tanks, or bomb them with cluster grenades. Some soldiers hid in the crater holding cluster grenades, waiting for the German tanks to pull the grenade when they passed by, and die with the enemy tanks. The battle scenes at that time were very tragic. In the end, they were outnumbered and all died heroically ..."

Listening to Rokosovsky’s narrative, a scene from "Defense of Moscow" appeared in my mind: a little soldier in a short fur coat and cotton cap, facing the German tanks that are getting closer and closer. Shocked to the corner of the trench in horror, holding an anti-tank grenade with white smoke in each hand, raising his arms flat, and reaching toward the approaching behemoth. With two loud bangs, the bottom of the tank flared up with fire and smoke, and the body shook up, and then stood motionless on the trenches.

"Our commanders in the command post all heard Krochkov's words before the sacrifice through the phone:'Russia is very big, but there is no way to go back-there is Moscow behind it'..." At this point, Rocco Sofsky stopped, I turned my head and noticed that the muscles on his face were twitching violently. He sucked his nose, wiped his face with a handkerchief, then quickly put it in his pocket, and then continued: " Comrade Lobachev proposed that all this should be reflected to his superiors and Comrade Krochkov should be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union."

　　 "I think not only Comrade Krochkov, the other 28 comrades should also receive the honor they deserve." Hearing this, I couldn't help but interject.

　　 "Well, this proposal is good, I agree." Rokosovsky did not refute my opinion, nodded in agreement.

　　The unit we went to inspect was the 107th Motorized Infantry Division. The command post of the division was located at the junction of our group army and the 30th group army. The command post is very large, and a large wooden table in it is randomly placed with several combat maps. A tall officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel is looking at the map. Many lieutenant-level commanders who look like combat staff are busy coming in and out, and are very busy.

　　 Seeing a few of us walk into the command post, they stopped quickly and stood upright and saluted us. The sudden silence in the room caused the lieutenant colonel to raise his head curiously. When he saw us, he was taken aback for a moment, and then he recognized who was walking in. He quickly stood up straight and pulled the military uniform. Hem, trot two steps in front of Rokosovsky. A military salute was paid and the report said: "Comrade Commander, Lieutenant Colonel XX, Chief of Staff of the 107th Motorized Infantry Division, reported to you that the troops are fighting stubbornly with the Germans." Because he spoke very quickly, I did not hear him clearly. name.

　　 Rokosovsky glanced at him and asked coldly, "Comrade Chief of Staff, where has the commander been?"

The lieutenant colonel lowered his head and said in a painful tone: "The German army launched a fierce attack on the defense area of ​​our division in the morning. The command post was directly hit by a shell, and the division commander died. Because I am now the highest commander of the division, so I replaced the division's commander. command."

"Tell me about the current situation!" Hearing the sacrifice of another subordinate, Rokosovsky's mouth twitched, but he still maintained a calm expression, walked to the observation hole and looked at it with the observation mirror. The war outside.

　　 "Today the German army used about two battalions of troops, under the cover of 15 tanks, launched an offensive against the defensive position of the 30th Army. Two hours of fierce fighting, the German army defeated the defending army and occupied the position."

　　 "What measures did you take?" Rokosovsky asked coldly.

"I ordered the German three regiments to carry out a counter assault on the positions occupied by the Germans. The 30th Army's lost positions have been retaken." The deputy commander pointed to the outside defense line and explained to the commander: "I have gathered a part of the retreat. And redeployed to the original positions so that they can defend together with the soldiers of our division."

　　 "Good job! Good job." Rokosovsky took his attention away from the observation mirror, patted the deputy commander's shoulder approvingly, and then asked with concern: "Are there any difficulties?"

　　 "Our division has lost a lot of personnel during the battle, and needs to be supplemented by the reserve team."

Hearing what the chief of staff of the division said, Rokosovsky pondered for a moment, and then said: "I have ordered the 17th Cavalry Division, the 1st Guards Tank Brigade, the 289th Anti-Tank Brigade, and the 18th and 126th Infantry Divisions to quickly Assemble here, and within two hours, maybe within two hours, the defense force here will be strengthened."

The chief of staff of the division was overjoyed after hearing this, but I secretly frowned and thought: This is a big deal. Rokosovsky's gathering of so many troops in the group army in this direction is bound to weaken other directions. Defense force.

　　 "The Hitler bandits are attacking again!" No one in the command post yelled, and immediately attracted everyone's attention. In addition to Rokosovsky, the division chief, and Zakharov, I also squeezed to the observation hole and raised the telescope to look out.

　　 About three hundred meters away, there is a long trench that traverses east and west. This should be the first line of defense of the 107th Motorized Infantry Division. Farther away, you can clearly see the attacking German army, leading by tanks and armored vehicles, followed by infantrymen, aggressively rushing towards our defense line.

　　 Just as the tank was only tens of meters away from the trench, I suddenly saw a few soldiers jump out of the trench. My first reaction at the time was that they would rush towards the German tanks with explosives packs or holding anti-tank grenades or Molotov cocktails. However, what happened left me stunned. The soldiers actually carried their weapons, bent over and ran in our direction.

　　 "Damn it!" Rokosovsky couldn't help cursing, UU reading www.uukanshu.com immediately asked the chief of staff angrily: "Comrade chief of staff! What's the matter with these cowards?"

The division chief looked at it with a telescope, and then replied: "Comrade Commander, these are not soldiers of our division, they are all from the 30th Army. You know, the 30th Army is newly formed, and they have more recruits... "

"Enough!" Rokosovsky yelled and interrupted his words, and then said in an irrefutable tone: "I order you to stop this desertion behavior immediately and let them all return to the trenches. If you don’t listen to dissuasion, you can immediately implement battlefield discipline. Understand?"

　　 "Understood!" The lieutenant colonel saluted helplessly, drew his pistol and walked out.

　　Although Rokosovsky's attitude is relatively rude, no one expressed objection, including me. Because we all understand that although there are not many warriors panicking, the warriors who are still standing in their positions panic. If this continues, the line of defense will soon collapse. The commanders staying in the command post have all fought, and everyone knows what the consequences will be if the line of defense is lost.

　　 Although Rokosovsky immediately asked the chief of staff of the division to stop him as soon as he saw a fighter escaping, it was still a step too late. Facing the German offensive, and the escape of individual greedy and fearful soldiers, the morale of the troops was greatly affected. I didn't hear any gunshots, only saw more and more soldiers jumping out of the trenches, dragging their guns and running towards us.

　　 "It's over!" There is only one thought in my mind: "Our army's defense line has collapsed!"