Burning Moscow

Early the next morning, an artillery company of the 28th Infantry Division of the German Army, as usual, fired cold artillery at the position of the 90th Guards Division on time. According to past practice, they usually fire two shells first, and after five minutes, they will fire a salvo during the second shelling.

However, an unexpected situation happened today. Just as the German artillery was preparing for the second shelling, a long-sounding whistling sound suddenly crossed the sky. There were all artillery soldiers, why couldn't they hear what it was, and there were even a few soldiers with sharp ears who could hear that the heavy artillery shells were about to fall.

The artillery shouted and fell to the ground. The shells fired by the self-propelled artillery regiment fell on the artillery position and exploded. In the earth-shattering explosion, the artillery was blown into parts, and the artillery was blown to pieces.

The German infantry, who was on guard duty nearby, saw that in just a few minutes, the artillery company was wiped out under the blow of our army's artillery fire, and hurriedly reported to the commander. I heard that an artillery company was wiped out by our army's artillery fire. The German commander immediately contacted the artillery in the rear and asked them to carry out an artillery attack on the position of our artillery.

It's a pity that the enemy's movement is no matter how fast it is, it's still half a beat slow. When their shells fell in patches, the self-propelled artillery regiment had already moved to a new position.

Bezikov received a call from Sivakov from the front, his eyes narrowed with a smile. When I heard that the German army was shelling the open space, I suddenly had an idea and told Bezikov: "The chief of staff, immediately call Major General Povsky and order him to concentrate the artillery fire of the two self-propelled artillery regiments against the enemy’s artillery. Resist the position and strive to eliminate as many German artillery as possible."

"Comrade Commander," Bezikov said hesitantly in response to the order I gave: "Although the self-propelled artillery regiment is equipped with 150mm heavy artillery, it may not be possible to completely destroy the German artillery positions. That's easy. Besides, the Germans will not wait to be killed. They may fight back frantically. I am worried that our artillery regiment will suffer a huge loss."

I thought about it and felt that Bezikov made a lot of sense. The German artillery positions could not be deployed in the same position. When our artillery attacked one of their positions, they would definitely be hit by artillery fire from other directions. It is bound to suffer a lot of losses. If it is the loss of other artillery, the artillery equipped by the self-propelled artillery regiment is the most advanced artillery of this era. It would be a shame to suffer losses. With this in mind, I told Bezikov: "Call the air force again and order them to dispatch immediately and attack the enemy’s artillery positions according to the coordinates provided by the artillery units."

"That's right." When Kistyakov heard me say this, his eyes lighted up and he raised his head to urge Bezikov: "The chief of staff, the bomber regiment that our superiors have equipped us, has completed the transition for a week. Haven't participated in the battle yet. Now that the German artillery positions have been exposed, let the fighter regiment cover them and resolutely destroy the German artillery positions."

The Germans never dreamed that they were countered by our artillery fire just after their shelling began. When they had just locked the location of the two self-propelled artillery regiments of our army, they were bombarded from the air. German fighter planes took off urgently from the airport north of Minsk in an attempt to drive our bombers away from the artillery positions, but they were hit head-on by the French Volunteer Flying Corps. After being shot down seven planes, there was still a grief. Fled the battlefield.

After the results of the battle were counted, Bezikov laughed from ear to ear. He placed the report in front of me and said triumphantly: "Comrade Commander, this is really a surprise. I just wanted to clean up the court. The German artillery of our army, who fired cold artillery, inadvertently achieved such great results..."

Seeing Bezikov's eloquence as soon as he spoke, Kistyakov couldn't help interrupting him and asked curiously: "Comrade Chief of Staff, tell me what we have achieved, right?"

"In this artillery battle, we destroyed 51 German artillery pieces and shot down 7 enemy planes." After reporting the results of the battle, Bezikov asked me for instructions: "Comrade Commander, we need to take the results of this battle immediately. Do you report it to the Front Command?"

I originally wanted to wait for the sniper forces to obtain the results, and then report to Rokosovsky in a unified manner, but after listening to Bezikov’s words, Kistyakov actually agreed and said: "Comrade Commander, Staff Officer The leader is right. This is a great victory, and we need to report it to the Front Command immediately."

Seeing that the opinions of Kistyakov and Bezikov reached an agreement, I was not stubborn, so I nodded and said to Bezikov: "Well, Comrade Chief of Staff, then you will The results obtained are reported to the front army headquarters."

Just as Bezikov agreed and was about to turn around and leave, I suddenly remembered something, and quickly stopped him: "Chief of Staff, please wait." When he looked at me with surprise, I He opened his mouth and asked: "I just forgot to ask, how is our battle damage situation?"

"Four self-propelled artillery was destroyed and two were injured. In the air battle, we had two fighters shot down." I heard that two of our fighters were shot down. I couldn't help but stare. When I wanted to ask more questions, I heard Bezikov continue to say, “Two pilots who jumped out of the sky, one pilot was captured by the Germans after landing because they landed in the German defense zone, and the other pilot fell in our army. Has been successfully rescued in the defense zone."

"The Chief of Staff, when reporting the results of the war, we will also report on our battle damages." I was afraid that Bezikov would report the good or not, and quickly reminded him: "Comrade General is not only concerned about the results of our battles. At the same time, there are battle losses of the troops, which will help him make a correct judgment on the enemy's strength.

Bezikov handed the drafted telegram to the operator, instructed him to send it to the front headquarters immediately, and then returned to us. I looked at him and asked, "Chief of Staff, do you have any news from the Sniper Company?"

"Captain Oshanin's sniper company killed two German snipers lurking near our army's position last night, but we also lost nine soldiers." Bezikov first reported to me Moziri. The results of the sniper company in the direction, and then began to report the situation in the direction of Kalinkovic: "The sniper company formed by the 23rd Guards Corps has not made any progress for the time being. However, according to the report, one of their three snipers The hand team has reached deep behind the enemy, and I believe they will be able to achieve good results by tomorrow at the latest."

After Bezikov finished speaking, I frowned and asked, "Chief of Staff, why are the casualties of the sniper company so serious?" I even wondered whether it was correct to send snipers to counter the German snipers. , In the first confrontation last night, we fell behind with a 9-2 casualty ratio.

"According to the inspection after the incident, the two German snipers were found to have been lurking near our position for at least a week. Since they had never opened fire, our soldiers did not find them at all." Bezikov listened to me Focusing on this matter, he said with a little embarrassment: "It is precisely because we did not notice the lurking enemy that our sniper team was suddenly attacked when leaving the position. After a battle, we sacrificed five fighters. Kill these two enemies."

Although Bezikov reported to me the cause of the heavy casualties, I still called Sivakov. I would like to hear his explanation personally on this matter. So as soon as I heard his voice, I asked unceremoniously: "General Sivakov, I want to ask you why the sniper company sacrificed nine soldiers. One unit has not yet been put into battle, casualties The number is over 10%. What is going on, can you explain to me?"

When Sivakov heard my voice, he might think that I would praise him for the results of today’s artillery battle. After all, the two artillery regiments that engaged in evenly matched artillery battles with the German artillery were deployed to him. Defense zone. To achieve such a good result, he, the commander of the Guards, was also honored, but he didn't expect me to speak and asked about the serious loss of the sniper company.

He was silent for a long time, then sighed and explained to me: "Comrade Commander, please listen to me. The two German snipers have been lurking in front of our army for a long time. Snipe a higher-level commander, so we have never fired a shot in the latent position, so we are paralyzed. As a result, when the sniper company left the defense area yesterday, they were suddenly hit by them. After some battle, we were After paying the price of nine deaths and three injuries, all the enemies were finally killed."

Hearing that in addition to the nine sacrificed snipers, there were three wounded, and I couldn't help worrying about Oshanin. But if I asked O'Xianing directly about the situation, I felt that I didn't know how to speak, and I couldn't help but feel embarrassed.

Fortunately, Sivakov was also more clever. Seeing that I suddenly stopped talking, he guessed why I was worried and quickly said: "Comrade Commander, don't worry, Captain Oshanin is okay, he still personally Killed a German sniper. Now he has personally led three sniper teams and went deep behind the Germans."

"I understand," I heard that Oxianing was safe, and my heart suddenly became relaxed. "If the sniper company has any new results, report to me in time." Before hanging up the phone, I deliberately I added, "By the way, you are indispensable for our success in today's artillery battle."

As soon as I put down the phone on my side, Rokosovsky's call reached my headquarters. He asked me bluntly: "Lida, why did you suddenly remember the artillery battle with the Germans?"

Upon hearing Rokosowski’s question, I quickly reported the cause of the shelling to him in detail, and finally said: "I just wanted to teach the German artillery who had been cold-fired at us. I didn’t expect it. It has become a bombardment scale above the regiment level. It is beyond my expectation to be able to achieve such a result."

"Don't say it was out of your expectation, it was also out of my expectation." Rokosovsky said with a smile: "When I received the results of your report, I thought it was very strange, and I was still saying in my heart, Why did you prepare to attack the German army, but did not report to me. It turned out to be an artillery operation just to eliminate the enemy who fired cold artillery. By the way, the sniper did not achieve any results?"

Regarding Rokosovsky’s question, I thought about it and decided not to report the sniper's serious casualties to him, but rather vaguely said: "Comrade General, our sniper team has just sent. , May have to wait until tomorrow as soon as possible to have the results report back."

"Tomorrow will be tomorrow." Perhaps because of the victory of the artillery battle, Rokosovsky did not continue to ask questions, but told me in a relaxed tone: "As soon as there are any results, remember to report to me in time."

"Understand, Comrade General." After I promised, I repeated his order loudly: "Once the sniper has achieved any results, I will report to you in time."

Just when I was about to hang up, I suddenly heard Rokosovsky say again: "By the way, Lida, tomorrow you will hand over the command to General Kistyakov, and then come to my headquarters. trip."

I heard that I was going to hand over the command to Kistyakov~www.wuxiaspot.com~ I knew that the time to go to the headquarters would not be too short this time, so I asked nervously, "Comrade General, I don’t know if you let me go. Is there anything important for the Front Command?"

"Since there is no major battle right now, I plan to gather all commanders of the group army to learn new tactics." Rokosovsky didn't seem to notice my nervous tone, and said nonchalantly: "In order to In the next battle, to achieve the greatest victory at a very small cost, I think this kind of learning is completely necessary."

When I knew that I was only going to the front army headquarters to study, my heart suddenly became more at ease. I am now deeply afraid that after my superiors ask me to surrender command, they will transfer me to the rear to do local work, or let me stay at the front army headquarters. I don't want to see both of these situations.

Putting down the phone, I started handing over work to Kistyakov. Kistyakov first stunned, and then asked in surprise: "Comrade Commander, what is going on? Why do you want to transfer command to you? Does your superior have a new appointment for you?"

"That's not the case, Comrade Deputy Commander." I waved to Kistyakov and said: "You think too much, Comrade General asked me to temporarily hand over the command to you because he wanted me to be the commander of the front. Let the Ministry learn about new tactics, it will be of great help to our next battle." (To be continued.)