Burning Moscow

"This matter is too involved, and I can't just call it the shots." Konev made a decision in just a few seconds: "I need to report to Comrade Stalin immediately."

Taking advantage of Konev's time to call Stalin, I approached Lunev's side and asked in a low voice: "Comrade Lunev, what's the matter with the two German spies who are posing as reporters? They are always lurking. Inside us, is it still mixed in with fake documents?"

"The credentials they used are real." After Lunev finished speaking, he saw a surprised expression on my face, and quickly went back to say: "The two men were parachuted to the rear of our army two nights ago. Researching how to mix in Rivne, they ran into two reporters on the road who were driving from Moscow to interview. The two killed the reporters, robbed the interview car, replaced the photos on the ID with their own photos, and rushed in. Rivne."

"When they entered the city, didn't our soldiers carefully interrogate them?" Sokolovsky heard this and couldn't help frowning and asked: "It just made them get into the city easily. ?"

Lunev turned his head to look at Sokolovsky, and said calmly: "Comrade Chief of Staff, in addition to carefully checking their documents, our soldiers also called the Political Department of the Front Army and asked them to contact Moscow’s The newspaper verified it. It was confirmed that the other party had indeed sent two reporters to interview us before letting them into Rivne."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, in order to clarify our deployment, the enemy will definitely find ways to get into the city." Konev, who had just finished the call, walked over from the desk and said to us: "Our soldiers are very vigilant. It's a pity that the enemy was too cunning, so in the end they successfully got into the city."

"Comrade Marshal." I glanced at the phone on the desk and asked Konev curiously: "Did you report the change of the attack time to the Supreme Commander himself?"

"Yes, I have already reported to Comrade Stalin about the change in the timing of the attack." Konev said helplessly, "but he did not express any opinions, neither said that it could be advanced, nor that it could not be advanced. I just said simply: Wait! Then I hung up the phone."

"What does Comrade Stalin mean by answering this way?" Sokolovsky frowned and asked, "Does he have to discuss with the other people in the staff headquarters before answering us?"

"Vasilevsky is currently commanding operations in the Baltic Sea Front Army. The staff headquarters is only left with Antonov and Ivanov, who is not very in charge." Konev said dearly: "According to my analysis, Comrade Stalin I wouldn’t discuss such an important matter with the two of them."

"Comrade Marshal, what shall we do now?" Sokolovsky asked helplessly.

Konev shrugged, spread his hands, and said with a wry smile: "What else can we do, we can only wait." After that, he raised his hand to look at his watch and continued, "It's late, we I ate dinner here, waiting for Comrade Stalin's reply by the way."

"Comrade Marshal, do you need to prepare the commanders of the various armies?" Sokolovsky asked in an interface: "I am worried that Comrade Stalin's reply will come too late and our troops will not be ready in time."

Regarding Sokolovsky’s proposal, Konev paced back and forth in the room with his back hands, and after a long time he replied, "Well, in order to allow sufficient time for the participating troops to prepare, the Chief of Staff, You call the commanders of the various army groups and order them to prepare for all battles."

"Need to tell them the specific reason?" Sokolovsky asked next.

This question of Sokolovsky stunned Konev. Tell the following commanders the truth, in case Stalin disagrees with our advance attack, it will make the following commanders have bad ideas; don't tell them the truth, and worry that they will not pay attention to this command of the front army command. . After thinking about it for a while, Konev looked at me and asked, "Lida, you mentioned the attack in advance. What do you think we should do now?"

"I think that for the commanders of the various army groups, we should not tell them the truth for the time being." When I finished saying this, I saw Sokolovsky's mouth opened, and he seemed to want to say something, so I hurriedly continued: " In other words, according to the information we have obtained, the German army may launch an attack on our position tonight or tomorrow morning. In order to smash the German offensive, the troops have quickly entered our defensive position and prepared for all counterattacks."

"Yes, just say that." As soon as I finished speaking, Konev expressed his support. He turned to Sokolovsky and said, "Comrade Chief of Staff, just follow Lida's statement to convey down. Be sure to let our troops prepare for all battles before ten o'clock tonight."

In this way, the order for the troops to enter the defensive position and prepare for counterattack was communicated to the troops via telegram in just a few minutes.

After doing this, Sokolovsky breathed a sigh of relief, and then said: "Well, the order has been passed to the troops, and we can now have dinner with peace of mind."

…………

At ten o'clock in the evening, Sokolovsky put the telegrams sent by the following army groups in front of Konev, and respectfully said: "Comrade Marshal, all our troops have entered the designated position."

"Very good." Konev glanced through the telegram in front of him, then raised his head and said to Sokolovsky: "Comrade Chief of Staff, there is nothing going on right now anyway. You can tell us about the offensive campaign. Deploy to see if there is anything that needs to be patched."

Sokolovsky, who had just sat down, stood up again, looked at Konev and said: "Comrade Marshal, the offensive campaign we plan to launch can be called the'Lviv-Sandomy Battle'... "

"Wait a minute, Comrade Sokolovsky." As soon as Sokolovsky spoke without a word, Konev interrupted him: "About the mission of this offensive campaign, those of us present You all know. Vasily Danilovic, you can start directly from the battle plan we made!"

Sokolovsky bent slightly, pointing his finger at the map on the table and continuing: "This attack, we will carry out a fierce assault in two directions at the same time: on the right flank, guard the 3rd Army and the 13th Army. The group army, the 1st Guards Tank Army and the cavalry mechanized group commanded by Lieutenant General Baranov, carried out assaults in the direction of the Russian Lava in the Lutsk region; in the center, it includes the 38th and 60th Group Army and the Guards 3 combined armies of various arms, including the 5th Army, and 2 Tank Army (and the cavalry mechanized group under the command of Lieutenant General Sokolov, carried out assaults from Ternopil to the general direction of Lviv. In order to guarantee the offensive With the smooth implementation of the battle, the 1st Guards Army and the 18th Army will carry out auxiliary attacks on Stanislav and Drogobeck on the left flank of the front army."

Among those present, there is only an outsider named Lunev who does not understand the specific battle deployment, so when he heard this, he couldn't help asking: "Comrade Chief of Staff, what about our Air Force Group? They can help us attack. Troops, do you provide the necessary air cover?"

"In this battle, there will be two air force groups to provide air support for our offensive forces." Sokolovsky pointed to the map and introduced to Lunev: "The commander of the 8th Air Force Army commanded the North The cluster has four aviation corps that provide air support in the direction of Lava, Russia; and the five aviation corps of the central cluster commanded by the commander of the 2nd Army of the Air Force will fight in the direction of Lviv."

"It's great, this is great." Lunev said with beaming brows: "Faced with such a powerful offensive like us, I think the Germans will definitely be unstoppable. By the way, we went into battle this time. How many troops are there, six hundred thousand?"

Hearing Lunev’s question, Konev smiled and said: "Comrade Lunev, in this offensive campaign, we will invest 80 infantry divisions, 10 tank corps and mechanized corps, and 4 independent tank brigades. And mechanized brigade. A total of 1.2 million people, 13,900 artillery and mortars, 2,200 tanks and self-propelled artillery, and more than 3,000 aircraft."

After Lunev expressed his emotions about the current strength of the front army, he suddenly said: "Why Comrade Stalin has not answered until now? I wonder if he agrees with us to attack in advance?"

It turned out that everyone was still smiling. Hearing what Lunev said, his expressions suddenly became serious. I was also muttering in my heart, why did Stalin not reply to us so long, what is he waiting for?

Just then, the phone on the desk rang. All of our attention was attracted by the ringtone. Konev also jumped up from his seat, and when the phone ringed for the second time, he grabbed the earphone and put it to his ear. Said respectfully: "I am Konev."

"Hello, Marshal Konev!" Although the conference table we are sitting on is still a certain distance away from the desk, because the room is very quiet, I can clearly hear the sound from the headphones. It is Posker. Beshev was talking: "Now, please speak with Comrade Stalin."

After a while, I heard Stalin's familiar voice in the headphones: "Hello, Comrade Konev. What are you doing now?"

Konev snapped and stood at attention, and then replied respectfully: "Report to Comrade Stalin, are we waiting for your reply?"

"How did the members of your headquarters think about it?" Stalin asked slowly. .

Konev glanced at us, and then replied decisively: "Comrade Stalin, after our research, everyone agreed that the only way is to launch an offensive in advance when the battle plan has been leaked. The German army has not yet completed its troop adjustments, and they were caught off guard."

"According to the information we have," Stalin said unhurriedly: "At present, the German army has begun to mobilize troops deployed on the Romanian border. It seems that they are strengthening the defense in the direction of Lviv." He finished his sentence. Afterwards, he was silent, as if waiting for Konev to comprehend his intentions.

"I understand, Comrade Stalin." Konev was an old man of Stalin. He almost didn't spend much time, and he immediately understood the intention of his words: "Our attack is advanced to four o'clock tomorrow morning. After the bombers set off, they used artillery to strike at the enemy's positions."

"Very good," Stalin said briefly after Konev finished: "I am waiting for your good news."

Konev walked back to the table with unbearable joy on his face. He put his hands on the edge of the table and leaned forward slightly. He said to us: "Comrades, Comrade Stalin has agreed to initiate an advance. Offense. The offense will begin at four o'clock tomorrow morning."

He waited for us to digest the news, and then told Sokolovsky: "Comrade Chief of Staff, immediately fight General Krasovsky, commander of the 2nd Army of the Air Force, and General Kryukin, commander of the 8th Army of the Air Force. Call, order the Air Force to leave at 3:50 in the morning to bomb the German defensive positions."

Hearing Konev's order, Sokolovsky quickly recorded it in his notebook. Just listen to Konev continue to say: "At four o'clock in the morning, the artillery of the front army was ordered to fire at the marked German positions at the same time. The shelling will last about two hours, and we must destroy as much as possible those that have been detected by our army. Fortifications, clear obstacles for the offensive troops."

"Comrade Marshal," Hearing Konev's order, Sokolovsky stopped the pen in his hand, raised his head and said with some embarrassment: "Because the logistics department focuses on the direction of Belarus~www.wuxiaspot .com~ Therefore, the number of shells to replenish us is limited. Nowadays, many cannons only have two bases. If we carry out shelling for up to two hours, then in the next attack, I am worried that the artillery unit will not be able to provide the necessary infantry. The artillery support."

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Konev said disapprovingly when he heard Sokolovsky's question: "As long as we can break through the German line of defense, even if we burn out all the shells, there is nothing remarkable. Without the support of artillery, our infantry can also be supported by tanks and air forces. It should be no problem to break through the German line of defense."

"Well, Comrade Marshal." Sokolovsky replied helplessly after hearing Konev's words, "I will give this order of yours to the artillery unit."

Konev raised his hand and looked at his watch, and urged Sokolovsky to say: "The Chief of Staff, it is not early, and immediately issue the order to advance the offensive to the commanders of the various army groups, so that they can hurry up and make preparations. After the preparations for the bombardment in the early hours of tomorrow morning are over, they will attack the German positions."

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