Burning Moscow

An hour later, Rodimtsev and I returned to the headquarters of the group army and reported to them Cuikov and the others about the whole process of the meeting. txt download/

Although I had already reported the meeting process I saw to Cuikov and Gurov through the telephone, but in the headquarters, I once again reported to them and Krylov. After all, it was so historically significant. Good news, everyone wants to hear it twice. After I finished speaking, Rodimtsev recounted the details of the meeting of his troops. He said excitedly: "The Batov Army’s Captain Ushchenko specially came to the meeting after receiving the flag of the meeting. I reported: "Comrade General, the red flag presented to us by your famous Guards soldiers has been accepted. We swear to let the red flag fly forever. Long live the brave commanders of the Red Army, Ullah!"

General Krylov, who was full of enthusiasm, couldn't help but interjected and asked: "General Rodimtsev, how did you answer this friendly captain of the guards?"

After taking a look at Krylov, General Rodimtsev said with a smile on his face: "I said to Captain Ushchenko:'Comrade Captain Ushchenko, please tell your commander. Today is our happiest day. After five months of hard and tenacious fighting, we finally meet up!'"

After the report was over, Krylov walked to the newly hung map on the wall, and pointed at the red and blue arrows on the map that represented the enemy and the enemy with a detailed explanation stick, telling us about the current situation in the city: "Comrades, please see everyone. With our meeting with our friendly forces, the 6th German Army, which is currently trapped in Stalingrad, is running out of ammunition and food, and is hungry and cold. We have successfully divided it into two clusters in the north and the south. According to the confession of the prisoners we captured, nine of their divisions, including the remnants of Paulus’s headquarters, were surrounded in the city center. Commanded by Major General Roshke; while the remnants of the other 12 divisions were Surrounded by the "barricade" factory and tractor factory area, commanded by Army General Strekel.

According to the latest order issued by the Front Army Headquarters, we will begin the final encirclement and annihilation operation of the divided German troops tomorrow, that is, the morning of the 27th. Among them, the troops of the 21st, 57th, and 64th Army were attacking the South Group; the troops of the North Group were the 65th, 66th and our 62nd Army. "

"Comrade Chief of Staff," heard the main direction of our army. I was assigned to the north. In this way, I had completely lost the opportunity to capture Paulus headquarters. Therefore, after Krylov finished speaking, I stood up and couldn’t wait to ask: “If I follow the orders of the front army, my 79th Army must turn around from its current position and take part in the attack on the factory and the barricade. The enemy in the tractor factory area. Then, I would like to ask, after my troops are withdrawn, to which army should the defense of this area be handed over?"

Because I just watched the unparalleled feats I was about to get. I felt very unconvinced in my heart. Therefore, I said this with a rage. Both Trikov and Gurov heard the grievances in my words. After they looked at each other, they shook their heads helplessly. In the end, Gurov persuaded me: "Comrade Oshanina, I know that you The attack speed of the army may be up to five days, or even less, to occupy Paulus’s headquarters. But there is no way, this is an order issued by the front army. You are not in the army a day or two, as one A high-level commander, you should understand the orders of your superiors. No matter how unreasonable, we can't discuss them, we can only execute them unconditionally."

Since we are going to study the next task of the group army, Rodimtsev's level is not enough, so there is no need to stay. After saluting us, he turned and left the headquarters. [800]

Cui Koff may see that my desire to catch Paulus alive was a little depressed, so he took the initiative to turn the topic to other areas: "Oshanina, do you know? There are more enemy troops in the encirclement than we expected." Many. It’s no longer possible to figure out who is responsible for this miscalculation, because at first, the Don Front and Stalingrad Fronts respectively carried out the battle to annihilate the besieged enemy, and the communication between them was not enough, which led us to the conclusion. The strength of the besieged German army was only 80,000 to 85,000. Perhaps, this number refers to the strength of the enemy forces fighting against the Don Front. Now we have found out that after many battles, the remaining enemy forces There are still two hundred thousand troops!" In order to illustrate the reliability of the situation, I also added a special sentence, "This is confirmed by various means of reconnaissance and the confession of enemy prisoners."

I have to say that the topic chosen by Cui Koff is very important, and it immediately attracted my attention. Regarding the number of German troops under siege, I read from the history books of later generations: the three fronts of the Soviet army, and the 5th of the German 6th Army. The 22 divisions of the two armies, Romania, Italy, and part of the Croatian armies, a total of 270,000 troops surrounded Stalingrad in an area of ​​1,500 square kilometers, and the 6th Army had only about 50,000 troops divided outside the encircled circle.

It is precisely because I know the specific number of the besieged German army that I wishfully thought that Rokosovsky and the heads of the army, and even commanders of the group army like Cuikov, knew the specific strength of the besieged German army. Hearing what he said today really shocked me. I didn't expect the error to be so big. Fortunately, the Soviet army used three fronts in the counterattack. If the base camp uses only one front to counterattack, let alone encircling the Germans, it will not even be able to encircle the Germans, and it may even end up being defeated by the Germans.

Then we discussed a series of offensive plans, probably to soothe my emotions. The offensive direction assigned to me by Cuikov was the tractor factory, and the defense and offensive battles in the existing areas were handed over to Major General Glebov of the 21st Army. The 27th Guards Infantry Division.

I went back to my army headquarters and told Vitkov about the latest order of the front army headquarters. He was so angry that he shouted, "Comrade Commander, why is this?! You must know what happened today. During the offensive, the three divisions progressed smoothly. When the offensive stopped in the evening, four more blocks fell into our hands and captured nearly a thousand German soldiers who had no fighting spirit. If we fight like this for two more days, I It can be guaranteed. Our vanguard will be able to appear outside Paulus' headquarters."

Although I knew in my heart that what Vitkov was talking about was the truth. But at this moment, I can only say to him helplessly: "Okay. Comrade Chief of Staff, don't complain. This is a superior order, we can only implement it unconditionally." Then I told him, "Chief of Staff, you give The commanders of the divisions, tank brigades, and artillery regiments called and asked them to come to the meeting immediately."

The commanders under me heard that we were going to hand over the current defense to the 27th Guards Division, and then the whole army turned to the north to attack the enemy entrenched in the tractor factory and dormitory area. Everyone was silent. Although no one expressed an opinion, I saw a deep loss from their faces.

Military orders are like mountains. Even if we have any opinions on the orders of superiors in our hearts, we can't complain, we can only implement them obediently. After handing over the defensive zone to the 27th Guards Division, I fell into a low mood and brought a group of people from the army headquarters to the new headquarters not far from the tractor factory before dawn.

Not long after I arrived at the new headquarters, I received a call from Cui Kefu. He told me that according to the plan drawn up by the Front Army Command and the Political Department, the superior sent us a group of German comrades from the anti-fascist alliance. To strengthen Ulbricht's propaganda power, including the German writers Erich Vannett and Wilhelm Bredley.

When I heard the names of these two German writers. I tried to think about it for a long time, and found that I didn't know anything about these two people. Among the German writers I was familiar with, there were probably only Goethe and Schiller.

After about half an hour, two German writers, accompanied by Lieutenant Klimov, Cuikov, came to my headquarters. After a brief exchange with them, I asked Sergeant Songjik to send them to Ulbricht to report.

Since the troops have just entered the new combat area and are not familiar with the surrounding environment, I ordered the divisions to suspend the offensive, reinforce their positions in situ, and seize the time to rest. At the same time, I made a request to Ulbricht to let his anti-fascist alliance use written and oral propaganda to propagate to the German troops on the opposite side of the defense zone, calling on German officers and soldiers to stop their meaningless resistance and lay down their weapons to surrender to us.

Perhaps it was Ulbricht’s propaganda that had an effect. When Bantai Leyev called me in the afternoon, he said emotionally: "Comrade Commander, this morning, the group of Lieutenant Colonel Sergeikov told me. The enemy advanced at least one kilometer in depth, occupied more than 20 buildings, and captured thousands of German soldiers."

"Comrade Colonel, didn't I let you rest and rehabilitate in place? Why are you still acting without authorization?" I am very dissatisfied with Bantaiyev's act of attacking without asking for instructions, but in order not to discourage his enthusiasm, I Still asked in a calm tone as much as possible: "How about the casualties of the group?"

"Report to Comrade Commander," Pantaiyev's loud voice came from the receiver: "Since the enemy came out from the buildings and fortifications with his hands high and surrendered to our army, Lieutenant Colonel Sederikov sent The troops stepped forward to receive the prisoners and positions. Although a small group of enemies were still resisting, more and more officers and soldiers voluntarily surrendered to us. Often a few soldiers captured hundreds of German soldiers."

Due to the low morale of the German army, our troops resumed the offensive the next day. Since I know that the German army will be overthrown, if the attack is too fierce, it will drive the desperate enemy into a hurry and cause more casualties to our offensive troops. Therefore, the three divisions were ordered to advance side by side, steadily and steadily, to advance the German defense little by little.

History is still developing according to the original trajectory. At noon on January 31, I got the exact news that the 38th Brigade of Motorized Infantry of the 64th Army successfully captured the Paulus Command in the basement of the Central Department Store. , Captured the newly promoted German Marshal Paulus and a group of generals under him.

Soon after I learned that Paulus was captured, I received a call from Rokosovsky. After he heard my voice, he simply said: "Lida, come to my headquarters immediately."

I didn’t know what was the urgent matter for Rokosovsky calling me at this time, so he quickly explained the affairs of the army to Chief of Staff Vitkov, and took Yushchenko and a guard platoon in a hurry. Arrived at the front army headquarters located in the western suburbs of the city.

Under the guidance of a staff officer, I came to Rokosovsky's headquarters. I called the report and went in and found that this room with electric lights was on, except for Rokosovsky and a tall and handsome middle-aged general. The 64th Army Chief of Staff Ruskin I am familiar with is also in the room. However, his rank is no longer a colonel but a major general.

After I raised my hand to salute Rokosovsky. He proactively extended his hand to Raskin next to him, and kindly expressed his sincere congratulations to him: "Chief of Staff Raskin, I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to you. Congratulations to you and your troops for the successful capture. German Marshal Paulus." Although I was smiling when I said this, my heart was bleeding continuously: the captive Paulus, this is a remarkable achievement, but I did not expect to be robbed by this acquaintance in front of me. gone.

After Rokosovsky and I finished shaking hands with Raskin, he took the initiative to introduce me to the general standing next to me: "Lida, let me introduce you to you. This is the Deputy People’s Commissar of National Defense and Artillery Director General Voronov."

Deputy People’s Commissioner for National Defense, isn’t that the Deputy Minister of National Defense? This is a big man. I hurriedly smiled, leaning forward slightly, reaching out to Voronov, and respectfully saying: "Hello, Comrade Deputy People’s Commissar for National Defense, I’m Oshanina, commander of the 79th Infantry Corps. Major General, it’s nice to see you here."

"Hello, Comrade Oshanina." Voronov held my hand tightly and said kindly: "I've heard of your name a long time ago. I didn't expect you to be so young."

After greeting everyone, Rokosovsky greeted me to sit down first. Then he walked to the door and said to someone outside: "Go and bring him here."

After I sat down at the table, I asked Rokosovsky curiously: "Comrade Commander, you asked me to come to the headquarters, do you have any important tasks to give me?" After I asked these words, I just asked. Knowing that he shouldn’t ask, Rokosovsky has always been someone who doesn’t like leapfrog command. What combat missions do he really have? He will first hand it over to Cuikov, and then Cuikov will assign it to me instead of calling the general. I called into his headquarters.

"I asked you to come here because I want you to meet someone." Rokosovsky did not answer my question directly, but said mysteriously: "A person you know."

"Someone I know?!" I was racking my brains to think about which acquaintance Rokosovsky wanted me to see, a few people walked in from outside, I looked up, and the doubts in my heart suddenly became clear. , I saw Paulus, who was tall and thin but well-proportioned, and beside him stood two soldiers and a second lieutenant.

Rokosovsky waved at the two fighters, sent them out, and then said politely to Paulus: "Please do it, Marshal Paulus." The ensign standing next to him immediately translated this sentence. To Paulus, I learned that the second lieutenant who was still in the house turned out to be a German translator.

"Marshal Paulus, although I have been looking forward to meeting with you," Rokosovsky said bluntly without introducing Paulus to the people present, "but I didn't expect it to be in this situation. Meet you.",

Paulus saw me sitting next to Rokosovsky~www.wuxiaspot.com~ smiled and nodded politely at me, then stood up and said to Rokosovsky: "Mr. Admiral, although I am your captive, but please do not force me to answer questions that violate the soldier's oath, because then I will say to you:'No comment!'"

After Rokosovsky listened, he was not angry at all, and instead pushed the tray of cigarettes and cigars on the table towards Paulus. Said politely: "Marshal Paulus, please smoke." After he finished speaking, he picked up a cigarette and held it on his mouth. I quickly picked up the match on the table and lit the cigarette for Rokosovsky. .

Seeing Rokosovsky lit a cigarette, Paulus also picked up a cigarette and sat down. Voronov, who did not smoke, picked up the teapot, walked to Paulus, and asked with a smile: "Mr. Marshal, do you need a cup of hot tea?"

Regarding Voronov's enthusiasm, he readily agreed, and pushed the empty teacup in front of him forward. (To be continued...)

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