Burning Moscow

After Zhukov listened to my report on the phone, he was silent for a while before he said: "This is a good method of warfare, and it is indeed worth promoting in the entire army. Well, let Cuikov write a report later. The materials will be sent to the front army headquarters immediately."

After talking about the new tactics, Zhukov continued: "Lida, your offensive in Poznan was too slow. Now General Katukov’s troops have established a landing field on the west bank of the Oder River, but Without the cooperation of friendly forces, they cannot continue to move forward."

"Where are the 5th Assault Army and the 61st Army?" I have been patronizing the Poznan Fortress with Cuikov for the past two days, and there is no extra energy to pay attention to the progress of the left and right wings.

"They were blocked by the German reserve team while they were advancing, and their progress was very slow." Zhukov said over the phone: "So you need to solve the enemy in Poznan as soon as possible. Then concentrate your main forces and quickly turn to Austria. Dehe advances to strengthen Katukov’s 1st Guard Tank Army."

I looked up at the calendar hanging on the wall and saw that there were still two weeks before the end of the German counterattack against the Ardennes, and the time of our army’s offensive was half a month earlier than in history. At this moment The main force of the German army should be contained in the Ardennes area by the Allies, and temporarily unable to be deployed to support the Eastern Front. Thinking of this, I asked tentatively: "Comrade Marshal, due to the suddenness of our army's offensive, the main force of the German army should still be held in the Ardennes area by the Allies. At this time, the troops are advancing westward and the resistance should be far Less than our expectations, right?"

"Oh, don't mention it." Zhukov said angrily. "I didn't expect the Allied forces to have so many aircraft and artillery, but they seemed vulnerable under the attack of the Germans. So far, their number of deaths has exceeded. Ten thousand people, and hundreds of tanks and anti-tank guns were lost. If it weren't for our army to launch an offensive in advance, they must have been driven to the sea by the Germans."

"Comrade Marshal, although the German counterattack has caused huge losses to the Allies, the recovery ability of the Allies is amazing." Seeing that Zhukov is not optimistic about the Allies, I can only say euphemistically: "But it has severely weakened the Germans. The defensive force on the western front and the mobile force on the eastern front have no reserve force to supplement the troops. Now they not only completely lose the counter-offensive capability, but also difficult to carry out a lasting and effective defense. I don’t want long before our troops can Go smoothly into Berlin."

Zhukov heard me talk about the Allied forces, and could not help mentioning the special force organized by our commanders who understood German. This force of thousands of people was sent to the enemy's rear before our offensive began. It is a pity that the advancement speed of our army far exceeds their penetration speed, so the results they have achieved are very limited.

After we talked about the topics of our respective concerns, Zhukov asked: "Lida, how long will it take for you to completely take down the Poznan Fortress."

"Comrade Marshal, you do not know that the strength and security of the Poznan fortress far exceed our imagination." I cautiously said to Zhukov: "Just destroy the wall outside the German fortress, we will use it. In two days, if you want to capture the core fortress entrenched by the German army, I estimate that not only the troops will have to make a huge sacrifice, but also the time will not be too little."

"You give me a word." Zhukov asked bluntly: "When will I be able to win the fortress soonest?"

"Give me one more week," I stared at the calendar on the wall and assured Zhukov: "We will definitely be able to take down the German core fortress before the 15th of this month."

"Well, since you said that, then I will give you another week." Before putting down the phone, Zhukov also emphasized to me: "Time is equally precious to both the enemy and me. We. The longer the time spent in Poznan, the stronger the enemy’s defenses along the Oder River."

After Cuikov came down from the top of the building, I repeated Zhukov's original words to him, and finally said: "General Cuikov, we only have the last week to capture Poznan. What good do you have?"

Cui Koff sat at the table with one hand resting his chin on the table, while the other hand was gently tapping the tabletop, thinking about how to capture Poznan, which was heavily guarded by the Germans, within the prescribed time. After a long time, he stopped beating on the tabletop, sitting upright and saying to me, "Lida, I think so. It’s not good how long it will take to liberate the city by military attack alone. Prediction. But if we simultaneously carry out a political offensive and persuade the enemy to surrender by shouting, we will surely speed up this process greatly."

Both political offensive and military offensive work together. This approach has always been my advocate. Since Cui Koff took the initiative to mention it at this moment, I naturally have no reason to object. I nodded and said in agreement: "Yes, General Cui Koff, we should adopt this method to disintegrate the German defense and accelerate the liberation of Poznan. speed."

Pronin sitting next to him took the initiative to ask for orders and said: "Two commanders, I am in charge of political work. I will be solely responsible for the Germans' persuasion to surrender. I wonder if you have any comments?"

"I have no opinion," Cui Kefu first expressed his attitude, and then asked me: "Lida, what do you mean?"

Although last time I personally tried to persuade me to surrender, and achieved certain results, hundreds of German officers and soldiers lay down their weapons and surrender to us, but it is not easy to say whether the same effect can be achieved if we go forward again. Now that Pronin took the initiative to ask for it, and Cui Kefu agreed to his request, I naturally said, "I don't have any objections. Let General Pronin take full responsibility for this matter."

The offensive in the fortress area was actually more difficult than I thought. The German army occupied every building and used firepower to block the advancement of our commanders. It took a full day for the troops of the 39th Guards Division to barely occupy a few houses in a street and build fortifications here.

After learning the news, I personally called Marchenko, the commander in charge of the battle in the fortress area, and I said to him: "Comrade Colonel, the German army occupied the buildings on both sides of the street and blocked them with firepower. This is our way forward. At this time, if we continue to attack from the streets, it will inevitably cost our troops huge casualties."

"Then what should we do?" Marchenko asked cautiously.

"Immediately change the tactics and let the soldiers enter the occupied buildings." I said loudly into the microphone: "Blast through the walls and approach the area occupied by the Germans in this way."

"But, Comrade, Deputy Commander of the Front Army," Marchenko said embarrassedly after hearing my order: "Our soldiers found that there are still many residents in the building. If we do this, they will inevitably cause considerable casualties. ."

"Comrade Colonel, the residents of the city are not fools. When they are fighting, they will hide in the basement on the ground floor." I think Marchenko emphasized: "You only blow up the walls above the second floor, so that you can Residents’ casualties have been reduced to a minimum. Do you understand?"

"Understood!" Marchenko's delighted voice came from the receiver.

"Now that you understand, then execute my order quickly."

When I put down the phone, I saw Cui Kefu standing a few steps away from me picking up the phone. He said loudly into the microphone: "...I know that the fortifications of the Gestapo building of the secret police are extremely strong, since our army is attacking. If it doesn’t work, then find a way to blow it up....It’s okay. The people who stayed in the building were die-hard Nazis. They did not regret their deaths. They immediately asked the assault engineer brigade to organize a demolition team and use explosives to destroy the German building... "

Immediately after Trikov’s phone call, Chief of Staff Vladimirov reported a surprising news: “Comrade Commander, the Tank Brigade reported that some of their tanks were inexplicably destroyed by the Germans.”

"It was destroyed inexplicably?" Cui Kefu asked with frowning eyebrows: "Chief of Staff, tell me what the **** is going on, why the more I listen to it, the more confused it becomes?"

"That's it," Vladimirov reported: "Several tanks supporting the infantry charge suddenly stopped on the street and their engines were still roaring, but they neither fired nor fired machine guns. However, the infantry who followed did not find that the tank had a good appearance. It was neither burned nor exploded, and even no injuries were found on the tank's body."

"What the **** is going on," Cui Kefu was so angry that he punched **** the table and asked loudly, "What about the tank soldiers in the tank? Didn't anyone talk? Did they all die in the tank? ?"

"General Cui Koff, I guess these tankers were all sacrificed in the tank." After listening to the description of the chief of staff, I immediately remembered that the German army had been equipped with an anti-tank grenade launcher called "Faust" in the later period. After this weapon hits the tank, it will spray high-temperature liquid metal. The armor of the tank is burned out of a small hole. The liquid metal sprayed into the tank from the small hole will burn to death or burn the tank soldiers in the vehicle.

"It's impossible!" As soon as I finished speaking, Vladimirov hurriedly retorted: "The infantry following the tank didn't hear the sound of the tank being hit and exploding. How could our tanker be? Will it be sacrificed inexplicably?"

I looked at Trikov and asked, "General Trikov, have you heard of'Faust'?"

"Faust?!" Cui Koff frowned slightly, and said a little displeased: "Lida, we are discussing why the tank is inexplicably wrong, and we don't have time to discuss some of Goethe's poems."

Seeing that Cui Koff really didn’t know about the "Faust" anti-tank weapon, I quickly added: "General Cui Koff, what I want to tell you is not the "Faust" written by Goethe, but a new German launch. An anti-tank weapon of the same name."

"Anti-tank weapons?" Cuikov and Vladimirov both looked at me in amazement and asked: "But our infantrymen did not find the tank opening in front of the road. It was hit by German anti-tank weapons?"

"According to the information I have, the German'Faust' anti-tank grenade, after hitting our tank, will spray high-temperature liquid metal, burning the tank's armor into a small hole. From this small hole The liquid metal sprayed in can easily kill our tank soldiers."

"Is this true?" Vladimirov said dubiously. "It's incredible."

After Cuikov heard this, he said to Vladimirov with a solemn expression: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you immediately call the tank brigade and ask them to verify it. Check whether there are burnt holes in the tank body and that Are the crews of the few tanks still alive today?"

After half an hour, Vladimirov received a report from the fortress area. He reported to Cuikov with a ferocious expression: "Comrade Commander, it seems that what the Deputy Commander of the Front Army said is true. We are. The engineer soldiers in China pried open the door of a tank and carried out the corpses of four tank soldiers from inside. Although the doors of the other vehicles have not been opened yet, I think the situation inside should be similar."

"Lida~www.wuxiaspot.com~ do we have any way to deal with the German anti-tank weapons?" After my words were confirmed, Cui Kefu asked me sadly: "In the fortress, if there are no tanks Support, it is very difficult for infantry to destroy the enemy's defense."

"This'Faust' anti-tank grenade can penetrate 140 mm thick armor, but it has a fatal flaw, that is, the range is too short, only 30 meters." I tried to recall what I saw. After passing the data, he said to Cui Kefu: "As long as our tank stays at a position that exceeds the effective range of the'Faust', then the safety of our tank can be ensured."

After hearing my method, Cui Koff immediately made inferences about it: "If you need tank fire to cover the infantry's attack on the enemy's building, stop one hundred meters away from the building, so that the German anti-tank grenades will be useless. As for advancing on the street, as long as there are infantry cover, you can easily eliminate the anti-tank fighters hidden in the ruins on both sides of the street. The chief of staff immediately notified the commander of the tank brigade of the results we just researched. So that no more tanks will be lost in vain."

Pronin, who was in charge of persuading the German army to surrender, called at this time and reported to Cuikov: "Comrade Commander, we found an underground hospital of the German army on the edge of the fortress area. After our repeated persuasion, the doctors, nurses, and The wounded have all surrendered to us. What should we do with them?"