Burning Moscow

When Batov and I walked into the Rokosovsky headquarters side by side, he was a little surprised at the arrival of the two of us at the same time: "Why did you two come together? I remember that your defense zone is still far apart."

After looking at each other, Batov and I replied first: "Report to Comrade General Batov. General Batov and I met on the way, so we came here together."

After Rokosovsky heard what I said, he turned his eyes to Batov, and immediately found that his face was white and black. He couldn't help asking in surprise: "Comrade Batov, what happened? Have you just got off the battlefield?"

"That's it, Comrade General." Batov replied with a wry smile: "I was ambushed by a small German army on the way to the front army headquarters. During the battle, the guard platoon I was carrying was almost completely exhausted. "After this, he turned his head to look at me, and said with mixed feelings, "Fortunately, Comrade Oshanina passed by and sent troops to destroy the enemy and rescued me."

Hearing Batov's words, Rokosovsky couldn't help being taken aback. He walked quickly to Batov, raised his hand and grabbed his arms, looked him up and down, and asked with concern. : "Comrade Batov, are you not injured?"

"Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Batov said to Rokosovsky with a smile: "Don't see me being embarrassed. In fact, I haven't hurt a single hair."

Rokosovsky turned his head and asked Malinin, who was busy next to him, "Chief of Staff, are all the people here for the meeting?"

Hearing Rokosovsky’s question, Malinen hurriedly stood up straight and replied: "There is also General Belov, the commander of the 61st Army, who has not arrived. He is the commander who is the furthest away. We will arrive in an hour or two."

I very much agree with Malinin’s statement. Belov’s defense zone is on our left. To come here for a meeting, he must first pass through my defense zone. This will take at least one or two hours. time.

"Chief of Staff, you take General Batov to rest. Leave the work here to your deputy." After Rokosovsky gave Malinin an order, he stopped me: "Lida, You stay, I have something to tell you."

After Malinin and Batov left, Rokosovsky greeted me to sit down at the table, and then asked me: "Lida, do you know why I called you to the meeting?"

"Does this still need to be said?" I pointed at the door where Malinin and the others had just walked out, and said: "You must deploy military operations to us, otherwise you won't call all the commanders of the group army here. It's a meeting."

"The deployment of the next military operation is only one aspect of it." Rokosovsky pushed a cup of tea poured for me in front of me and continued: "I also want to take time to teach you some new ideas. Tactics."

"Yes, new tactics." Rokosovsky said firmly in a tone: "As the war situation develops in our favourable direction, the initiative of the offensive is now in our hands, judging from the various signs Sooner or later, you will be solely responsible for combat in one direction, so I am going to talk to you about the theory of deep battles?"

"Depth Battle Theory?" When I heard this new term he mentioned, I actually ignored the past when he mentioned that I had the opportunity to be my own, and tried to think in my mind where I heard the name.

"What?" Rokosovsky saw me frowning and wondering, and couldn't help asking strangely, "Have you never heard of this kind of battle theory?"

When I heard him say this, I suddenly remembered that I had heard this term in a series. At that time, a female partner wanted to pursue the male lead who was in the military academy, so she had to learn this military theory specifically for the two of them. Have a common language when chatting. Thinking of this, I hurriedly nodded and said: "Comrade General, I have heard of it before, but I don't know exactly what is going on."

I answered him in this way, not because I am humble, but because I have never been systematically educated in the combat command of the army. If it were not for some historical process, I would not even be as good as an ordinary army squad leader. Therefore, I respectfully said to Rokosovsky: "Comrade General, can you explain it to me?"

"Well, since you don't know, then I will tell you in detail." Rokosovsky looked at me and guessed that I was an out-and-out layman, so he was patient. I took a military theory class: "The theory of the battle in depth, also known as the battle in depth, is regarded as the greatest achievement of our military science in the 1930s and 1940s. This theory is the summary of the First World War by our army in the 1930s. On the basis of experience and lessons, it is an important guiding ideology for the implementation of offensive campaigns to adapt to the development of weapons and equipment.

The deep battle is a form of combat of the battle corps. The essence is to simultaneously suppress the enemy's entire defense column with killing weapons, and break through its tactical area in the selected defense direction. Then it will develop the winning echelon, such as tanks, motorized infantry, and cavalry into combat, and use airborne troops to land by plane, quickly turning tactical victory into battle victory, in order to achieve the predetermined goal as soon as possible. "

When Rokosovsky said the first sentence, I quickly took out a pen and paper from my briefcase and wrote down all the military theories he said in as much detail as possible.

He saw that I was burying my head in the record, and deliberately slowed down so that I could keep up: "...The foundation of the theory of deep combat is the breakthrough theory advocated in the early days: divide our offensive forces into two echelons, the first One echelon is mainly composed of infantry. After the fire preparation of artillery and aviation is completed, they break through the enemy’s defense line under the coordination of various arms to expand and consolidate the breakthrough; the second echelon is mainly composed of armored troops and motorized troops. The task is to pass through the breach opened by the first echelon and continue to develop into the depth of the enemy's defense."

After memorizing these few words, I stopped the pen in my hand and asked Rokosovsky my question: "Comrade General, I want to talk about my personal views. This kind of breakthrough theory is too idealistic. It’s important to know that in actual combat, when our first echelon breaks through the enemy’s line of defense, the enemy will often carry out counter-assaults on us to achieve the goal of closing the breach."

"Yes, you are right." After I finished speaking, Rokosovsky said approvingly: "It seems that your comprehension is not bad, but you have discovered the shortcomings in the breakthrough theory. When the theory was introduced, it did not take into account what countermeasures the opponent would take."

I just smiled at Rokosovsky’s compliment, and then buried my head and continued to record the following content: "After the Soviet-Finnish war, this breakthrough theory was divided into two factions. One faction is waiting for our offensive troops to be there. When the enemy’s line of defense has formed a breakthrough, but decisive progress has been made, it is timely to invest in the second echelon to assist the first echelon to complete the breakthrough, and to develop into the depth of the enemy. The other faction is to complete the breakthrough in the first echelon. , After expanding and consolidating the breakthrough, then put in a complete armored force to develop into the depth of the enemy.

Lida, if you were a commander of the front army, which way would you choose? "

I stopped writing again, thinking hard about these theories mentioned by Rokosovsky, and then replied: "Comrade General, if I command the troops, I think the effect of the first tactic in actual combat Best. The commander should choose when to put the second echelon into battle based on the changes in the battlefield. This is the key to our victory and the size of the battle."

"That's right." After he praised me again, he continued to say: "Due to the sudden nature of the war, our army has been in a strategic defensive state and cannot effectively use breach tactics. However, as the war situation changes, the situation is right. We are getting more and more favorable, so the theory of the Great Depth Battle has been put on the agenda again.

...Because the quality and equipment of our soldiers have been greatly improved, we have made new additions on the basis of the original theory. In the next battle, the tactics we will adopt will be, first, the assault group composed of a combined army and a tank army and aviation forces will simultaneously conduct assaults on the enemy's entire tactical depth in order to destroy the enemy's defenses; second, With the swift and violent actions of the rapid force and the airborne forces and the assault of the aviation forces, the tactical victory was developed into a battle victory. "

Rokosovsky spoke earnestly, and I, a student, listened attentively, unaware that time was passing by unconsciously. Until Malinin walked over to remind Rokosovsky in a low voice: "Comrade Commander, General Belov is here, can our meeting begin?" I raised my wrist and looked at my watch, and found that more than an hour had passed. .

"Let General Belov take a rest for a while." Rokosovsky said as he raised his hand and looked at his watch, adding: "In ten minutes, let all the commanders of the group army come in for the meeting."

"Yes," Malinin agreed, turned and walked out of the command post, sending orders to Rokosovsky to the commanders of the group army waiting outside.

"Lida, while there is still some time, we can talk a few more words." Rokosovsky said, pushing the map in front of him, touching it with his hand, and said: "If you are the commander of the front, Under the current circumstances, what kind of military action will you take?"

I looked at the map in front of me, then pointed to the top and said to Rokosovsky: "Comrade General, if I were to command the front army, I would order the army groups of the front army to advance north and threaten Ming. Sk."

"The main force of the front army moved north to threaten Minsk?" After Rokosovsky heard what I said, he smiled and said, "Lida, don't you find that there are forests and swamps in the north of our defense zone? Is it? We simply cannot use a large number of tanks in this area. Therefore, if we want to capture Minsk, we must bypass this swampy area..."

After listening to Rokosovsky’s rebuttal patiently, I carefully reminded him: "Comrade General, have you forgotten that it is the coldest season now? The swamp is already freezing, and our armored forces can fully recover from this. The area passed. If I didn't worry about making mistakes, the enemy shouldn't have any heavy troops in this area. They couldn't stop our attack at all."

Rokosovs basically listened casually to my analysis of the situation. When he heard the back, he couldn't help but stare at the map in front of him. He lowered his head and looked at the map in front of him over and over again. Seeing his reaction, I quickly stopped talking, lest it would disrupt his thinking.

After a long time, he finally looked up at me and said: "Lida, I have to say, your plan is really attractive and the success rate is also high. If we use no less than three army forces , Advancing to Minsk to the north, I think it is very difficult for the enemy to stop our attack. But..."

I heard Rokosovsky's compliment, and I was still complacent, but when I heard him say the word "but", my heart sank and said that my suggestion would definitely be rejected by him.

"But..." Rokosovsky continued: "Because the Supreme Command’s attention is now focused on the Ukrainian region, whether it is the supplement of soldiers or equipment, priority is given to Ukraine. Wait until we have enough. After soldiers and equipment ~www.wuxiaspot.com~ These frozen areas should melt again, and our tanks and infantry will be trapped in the swamp area. The Germans only need to carry out artillery or bombardment to give us. These assault troops caused huge casualties. Do you understand?"

Knowing that the offensive plan I proposed, because the superiors provided us with supplies that were not in place in time, and had to be stranded, I was a little disappointed in my heart. It seems that it is not so easy to change history with my personal ability.

At this moment, the commanders of the various army groups who participated in the meeting came in one after another. Seeing Batov and Belov walking in one after another, I greeted them and greeted them and shook hands one by one. Sit with them.

Seeing that everyone was coming, Ma Lining stood up and glanced over each of the commanders present. When the room became quiet, he said: "Comrades, since everyone is here, then We have a meeting. The theme of today's meeting is to discuss our next focus of work. From the current situation, what we have to do is how to build a good defense in the existing area to prevent possible German counterattacks... …"

Everyone seemed to know what Ma Lining said. Everyone who didn't whisper privately took out the pen and paper he carried, and silently recorded every word he said. (To be continued.)