Red Moscow

Knowing that the German army was marching southward, Zhukov immediately ordered the troops of the 61st Army to launch a small-scale offensive in the northeast of Igyum, some settlements or villages occupied by the German army. This action of the Soviet army made the German army suspicious.

After learning the news, Manstein immediately ordered the 57th and 48th Armored Corps, which were heading south, to stop their advance in the Igyum area. At the same time, he called General Huot, who commanded the two units: General Special, according to intelligence, the Russians are active in the northeast of Igyum, and you must prevent them from suddenly attacking the left flank of your department."

Holt's troops' attack on Kharkov and Belgorod went smoothly, but when he suddenly received this call from Manstein, Holt was still very depressed. Knowing that his left wing might be attacked by the Russians, he suggested to Manstein: "Your Excellency, Marshal, in order to prevent the Russians from attacking Igyum, I suggest that my troops stay here temporarily. Indeed, we will decide how to mobilize them after the situation becomes clear."

"No, General Holt." Manstein said to Holt in an unquestionable tone: "The three SS divisions under Hausser have just been hit hard by the Russians, and their morale is low. If you don’t rush to reinforce them as soon as possible, I’m afraid they will collapse immediately if they are attacked by the Russians again.”

Holt felt that Manstein's statement was a bit too exaggerated. In any case, how could these three SS divisions, which had crushed tens of thousands of Russian troops, suddenly suffer huge losses? Thinking of this, he quickly asked Manstein: "Your Excellency, Marshal, do you think Hausser lied about the military situation? In fact, he wanted to preserve his own strength, so he asked you to send my troops to fight the Russians head-on?"

"General Holt, the situation you mentioned doesn't exist at all." Manstein said displeasedly: "Besides, even if Hausser and his three division commanders want to hide something, we can still hide such a big matter." Through fixed intelligence channels, we learned the truth of the facts."

"So, the three SS divisions of General Hausser were really defeated by the Russians?" At this time, Holt still had doubts about what Manstein said: "But those damn Russians, How do you do that?"

It was extremely embarrassing for Manstein that his three most elite SS divisions were actually defeated by a Soviet guard division. However, he felt that some important generals under his opponents should tell the truth, lest they be dazzled by the victory: "Ashamed to say, the troops that defeated the three SS divisions under Hausser were the guards commanded by Sokov. 41st Division."

"What, one division defeated three of our divisions? And they are the three most elite divisions?" Holt suddenly went crazy when he heard what Manstein said: "This is simply unbelievable."

"According to my research on Sokov, I found that he is very different from other Russian commanders." Manstein said with emotion: "His tactics are always emerging in endlessly, and we finally came up with a tactic to deal with him. , he can quickly introduce new tactics to make us burn out.

When our three divisions faced one of his divisions this time, to tell you the truth, I think it is only a matter of time before they are wiped out. But what happened next was far beyond my expectations. Instead of annihilating him, our troops suffered heavy losses under his attack. "

Hearing Manstein's praise of Sokov, Huot felt a little sour in his heart. After all, his subordinates had also suffered under Sokov's hands. He tentatively asked: "Is Sokov really so powerful?" ?”

"Yes, quite powerful." Manstein said affirmatively: "I reviewed his battle process on the map today. I found that not only how to do it, may cause heavy losses to the troops. But in fact, simply Cove's troops suffered very little casualties, estimated at two to three thousand casualties."

"What, he only suffered two or three thousand casualties?" Huot couldn't believe his ears: "Our army is in a defensive position, and the casualties have reached more than ten thousand. As the offensive side, his casualties are so high." Little, this is simply unbelievable."

"He is a great commander." Manstein went on to say: "In time, I think that even if he can't compare with Zhukov, he can at least be compared with famous Russian generals like Rokossovsky."

…………

Sokov didn't know that Manstein and Holt were talking about him. He was studying the deployment situation with his subordinates, and he sneezed more than a dozen times for no reason.

Vitkov on the side quickly asked with concern: "Comrade commander, are you feeling unwell? Do you need me to call the military doctor over and check it for you?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff, thank you for your kindness." Sokov politely replied: "I am not sick, maybe I am a little allergic, and I will be fine soon." He pointed to the map and said to Vitkov, "The staff Long, I think the artillery division should be deployed on this issue, so as to provide sufficient artillery cover for the infantry brothers at the front."

"Comrade Commander, we now have a lot of tanks and artillery." After Sokov deployed, Vitkov raised his concerns: "However, there is a shortage of ammunition and fuel."

"What, there is a shortage of ammunition and fuel?" Sokov broke out in a cold sweat when he heard what Witkov said. If this problem is not resolved, his troops will have to sit and wait for the enemy's attack to start. Quickly asked: "Chief of Staff, have you reported this matter to the Front Army Command?"

"It has already been reflected." Vitkov nodded and replied: "According to the original plan, a batch of supplies arrived in Lugansk in the past two days, and then transferred here from Luhansk. But because General Shumilov The 64th Army of the People's Liberation Army was ordered to move westward, so many trains and supplies were temporarily requisitioned by them."

"Damn, what a hell." I learned that my urgently needed trains and supplies had been conscripted by other troops. Sokov was powerless, and quickly ordered the radio operator: "Send a telegram to the Front Army Command and report the situation we are facing to the superior."

The telegram sent by Sokov was soon placed in front of Rokossovsky. After seeing the telegram, he slapped the table hard, and asked Ma Linin: "Chief of Staff, what's going on? Why didn't you report to me, and took away the materials allocated to the combat group without authorization? Don't you know, If they didn't have enough ammunition and fuel, they couldn't have fought the Germans."

"Comrade Commander, the deployment of this batch of materials was directly made by Moscow's logistics troops bypassing us." Seeing that Rokossovsky was angry, Ma Linin quickly explained to him: "I just found out It's not long."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, tell us what we should do?" Rokossovsky said angrily, "The main reason why the Southwest Front Army and the Voronezh Front Army were beaten so embarrassingly by the Germans was because of their logistics. Insufficient supplies. Especially for Popov’s fast group, due to insufficient fuel and ammunition, many tanks were not lost in the battle, but our commanders and fighters blew up the equipment themselves in order to prevent these equipment from falling into the hands of the Germans. Yes. I don’t want to see a similar tragedy happen to Sokov’s combat group.”

Hearing what Rokossovsky said, Malinin stated: "Comrade Commander, we still have some supplies in our logistics warehouse. I think we can send them to Sokov's troops first."

"That's right, Comrade Chief of Staff." Regarding Malinin's arrangement, Rokossovsky nodded with satisfaction, and said: "As long as the troops commanded by Sokov have enough ammunition and fuel, then the There are too many enemies, and he can't make him take half a step back."

"Comrade commander, I very much agree with your statement." Malinin said to Rokossovsky with a smile: "A few days ago, we gathered all the transport planes and sent them a batch of rockets. They used these rockets to kill tens of thousands of Germans, so that the three most elite SS divisions of the German army can only hide in the Barvinkovo ​​area and dare not move easily. I am afraid that if they make a move, It will be attacked by Sokov's forces again."

"It seems that Misha frightened the Germans in the battle a few days ago." Rokossovsky said with a smile: "Maybe one day in the future, when the Germans hear Sokov's name, I am afraid that they will be scared." Retreat without fighting."

"By the way, is there any movement from Zhukov?"

"According to the information I received, Marshal Zhukov ordered the troops of the 61st Army to launch a small-scale counterattack against some settlements and villages occupied by the German army in the northeast of Izyum." Malinin reported to Rokossovsky. : "Their offensive is still very effective. The German army not only sent an armored division to the northeast of Igyum, but also transferred the 57th and 48th Panzer Corps from Kharkov to the south."

Malinin picked up the red and blue pencils on the table, drew a circle on each of the two place names of Barvenkovo ​​and Izyum, and said to Rokossovsky: "But I estimate that the results achieved by the Sokov Ministry The enemy has been greatly deterred, and the enemy's actions will become cautious. They may soon temporarily stop in the two areas of Barvenkovo ​​and Igyum, and redeploy to decide whether to take offensive or defensive actions against our army."

"Misha is really amazing." Looking at the map of the enemy and us on the map, Rokossovsky couldn't help but said with emotion: "You know, he only used one division, they will firmly contain more than one hundred and two hundred thousand enemies in Barvinkovo ​​and Igyum."

"Comrade Commander," Malinin asked cautiously, "do you think that this time the German army's attempt to recapture Kharkov will be completely blocked, and the superior will promote his rank again?"

Rokossovsky thought for a while about Malinin's question, then shook his head and said, "I don't think it's possible, despite his great military exploits, it's a pity he's still too young. The Supreme Commander himself will definitely have to inspect him once or twice. It will take a year for him to be promoted to the military rank."

"That's such a pity." Hearing Rokossovsky's answer, Malinin said disappointedly: "I thought that after this time, the superior would entrust him with important tasks while promoting him to the military rank. He's going to command an army."

"I have already said that he is too young. Although he has a lot of tricks in battle, he lacks experience in commanding large corps." Rokossovsky shook his head and said, "If he is rashly appointed as the commander of the army , I am worried that it will harm him instead.”

"I heard that before the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, he proposed to Chuikov that he would go to the Frunze Military Academy to study as soon as the battle was over. But I don't know what happened later. It's over."

"The main reason is that the situation on the battlefield is very unfavorable to our army. The role he can play by staying on the battlefield is far better than staying in the military academy."

When Rokossovsky said this, he told Malinin: "Chief of Staff, you should immediately send a telegram to Misha and tell him that we will distribute the materials in the front army's inventory to him. If he has any difficulties, just ask us. come out."

After Malinin recorded Rokossovsky's order, he sorted out a telegram and immediately ordered the operator to send it to Sokov.

Sokov, who received the telegram, saw that Rokossovsky planned to use the inventory of the Front Army, and he felt relieved. He said to Witkov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, if the materials allocated by the Front Army Command, If it can be transported to our defense area in time, then no matter how many enemies come, I will be sure to block their attack."

But Vitkov said with some concerns: "Comrade commander, according to the regulations, the materials in the front army's inventory cannot be distributed to the troops without the permission of the Supreme Command. Tell me, Rokosov Could this telegram from General Ski be intended to comfort us?"

"No," Sokov shook his head and said, "I believe that General Rokossovsky will not deceive us on such an important matter. You know, we may be attacked by the German army at any time now , if there is not enough supplies, there is no way to stop the enemy. Once our place is broken by the German army, then there will be no danger within hundreds of kilometers behind us, and the enemy may rush to Stalingrad again in one go. Then the city will face a new battle."

"Okay, Comrade Commander, since you said so, I'm relieved." Vitkov took the telegram from Malinin, stood up and said to Sokov: "I will immediately call some division commanders and send Tell them the news that the supplies are about to arrive, so that they can also feel at ease, so that they don't pester me for things all day long."