Red Moscow

Half an hour later, the division commanders and brigade commanders who received the notification arrived at Sokov's headquarters one after another.

Every time a commander came in, Sameko pointed to the bench by the wall before they could ask any questions: "Please sit down, we will answer your questions when the meeting starts."

When General Polu Boyarov, commander of the 4th Guards Tank Corps, appeared, the commanders sitting on the bench got up one after another and raised their hands to salute him. After returning the salute, Poluboyarov walked straight up to Sokov and asked in a low voice, "Comrade Commander, you are so eager to invite us to a meeting. Do you have any new combat missions?"

Poluboyarov was wounded shortly after the start of the Kharkov campaign when his tank was hit by a mine, so much so that his chief of staff commanded the troops throughout the campaign. I just returned to the army today, and I hurried over when I heard that Sokov held an emergency military meeting.

Hearing Poluboyarov's inquiry, Sokov did not answer immediately, but asked with concern: "Comrade General, have you fully recovered from your injuries?"

"Okay, everything is fine." Poluboyarov waved his right arm and said to Sokov, Lunev, Sameko and others: "This arm was injured at the time. Look, now I can move freely now.”

"Comrade General," Lunev said to Poluboyarov with a smile, "Your injury is just right and you should rest more. I think your chief of staff will be in charge of this battle."

"How can this work?" Poluboyarov exclaimed: "During the Battle of Kharkov, I was injured and unable to command the battle. Now that I have finally been discharged from the hospital, how can I miss this opportunity to make contributions?"

"Comrade General, I think the military commissioner is right, you should rest for a while." Sameko interrupted and said, "You know, the tank you were riding in was hit by a mine, and it wasn't just your arms that were injured, it seems that your abdomen was also injured." shrapnel."

"General Poluboyarov," Sameko's words reminded Sokov that Poluboyarov's injury seemed serious at the time, and the field hospital had concentrated elite soldiers to rescue him, so he added: "Can you show me your discharge certificate?"

Hearing Sokov's question, Poluboyarov's old face blushed, and he murmured, "Comrade Commander, since I've recovered from my injuries, I should naturally be discharged from the hospital. If you want to prove something, you don’t need to look at it.”

Sokov heard the implication from Poluboyarov's words that the general's injuries had not recovered enough to be discharged, so he ran out of the hospital without authorization. If it is an ordinary commander, it is not easy to leave the hospital before the injury is fully recovered. However, as a general, Poluboyarov had no difficulty in leaving the hospital. He mainly said that there was work to be done in the army. Who would dare to stop him in the hospital? Not even the dean and the political commissar of the hospital.

Poluboyarov's twisted expression made Lunev and Sameko understand what was going on. Lunev restrained the smile on his face, and said seriously: "General Poluboyarov, since your injury has not healed, you should continue to recuperate in the hospital, instead of violating the hospital's regulations and leaving the hospital without authorization to return to the army. "

In the group army, the person Poluboyarov feared the most was Lunev. In any case, even if this military commissar from the Ministry of Internal Affairs sat there and said nothing, he could give people a kind of pressure. He replied embarrassingly: "Comrade Military Commissar, my subordinates fought desperately with the Germans on the battlefield, but I, the commander of the army, was lying in the hospital recuperating. I was anxious. I have already missed the liberation haha I don’t want to miss any more battles. Please, let me come back to command the troops sooner.”

Seeing Poluboyarov's sincere attitude, Lunev turned to look at Sokov, and asked with a wry smile: "Comrade Commander, I don't know what your opinion is, should General Poluboyarov go back to command the troops?" ?”

In the battle to liberate Kharkov, although Sokov didn't have much time to use his tank troops. But he also deeply realized that the commanding ability of the chief of staff of the army cannot be compared with Poluboyarov at all. It was difficult for him to execute the orders given to him vigorously. Every time the tank brigade was ordered to attack in a certain direction, it was only after the infantry had completed the breakthrough that the tank troops rushed to the battlefield belatedly.

Based on this consideration, Sokov nodded after thinking for a while and said, "Okay, General Poluboyarov, I agree with you to come back and continue commanding the troops. But I have one condition!"

Poluboyarov couldn't help but smile when he heard that Sokov agreed to return to command the troops. Hearing that Sokov said there was one condition, he immediately patted his chest and said, "Comrade Commander, as long as you agree to my return to the army, let alone one condition, even if it is ten conditions, I will agree to you."

"We will launch an attack on the enemy tomorrow," Sokov felt the need to vaccinate Poluboyarov, lest he run to the front line in a tank at every turn: "I ask you, in this battle Until the end of the mission, you must stay in your own command post, and you are absolutely not allowed to take the tank to the front.”

"Comrade commander, you can rest assured about this." Poluboyarov sat opposite Sokov with his hands covering his abdomen, and replied: "My abdominal injury has not healed. If I want to get into the tank That small space is bound to make the wound burst open, I will not do such a stupid thing."

Several people were chatting, and a staff officer came over and reported to Sameko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, all the commanders who came to the meeting have arrived, can we start the meeting?"

"Comrade Commander," Sameko waited for the staff to finish speaking, and then asked Sokov, who was sitting beside him, "Can we have a meeting?"

"Yes." Sokov nodded and said, "Let's get started."

Sameko agreed, then stood up and said loudly to the commanders sitting on the benches by the wall: "Commanders, move the benches to the middle of the room, we will have a meeting soon. "

Hearing Sameko's greeting, the commanders stood up, hurriedly moved them to the middle of the room, and sat down again.

"Commanders," Sameko said after everyone sat down again: "A few days ago, with the liberation of Kharkov, we launched the Kharkov-Belgorod The battle is over.

As soon as the battle ended, the headquarters issued new instructions to the troops of the Steppe Front, Voronezh Front, and Southwest Front, and assigned new offensive tasks to the three fronts: Vsk attack, fast troops should go out to the Dnieper River and occupy the crossings. The task of the Voronezh Front is to attack Kremenchug. The troops of the Southwest Front should move in the general direction of Barvinkovo ​​and Pavlograd, move forward to the front line of Zaporozhye and Pologi, and cut off the direction of the enemy Donbas Group. West retreat.

Now the task accepted by our army group is to capture the fortress of Meliefa on the south side of Kharkov and on the other side of the Muza River, as well as the railway junction next to it, destroy the German railway transportation system on the left bank of the Dnieper River, and open the way for the friendly forces. The road from Poltava enabled them to advance smoothly to the Dnieper River and carry out the campaign to liberate Left Bank Ukraine from the German invaders. "

Among the commanders present, except for Poluboyarov, they all know that the two infantry divisions and one infantry brigade of the group army, as well as the artillery division and tank brigade, have all reached the periphery of the Meriefa fortress. So when they listened to Sameko's briefing, they all acted calmly.

What everyone else knew, Poluboyarov didn't know. Seeing that everyone was calm, he was full of curiosity, so he couldn't help but interjected and asked, "Comrade Chief of Staff, I would like to ask, when can we report to you?" Merliefa Fortress advancing?"

When Sameko heard this question suddenly, he couldn't help frowning, and when he saw clearly that it was Poluboyarov who asked the question, his brows suddenly relaxed. He knew that the opponent was hospitalized and did not know the military action taken today, so he explained to him: "General Poluboyarov, you just came out of the hospital, and you may not know the current situation. The infantry of our army Units of the 84th and 182nd Divisions, the 73rd Infantry Brigade, the 37th Tank Brigade and the 1st Artillery Division broke through the German defenses on the Muza River during the day and are now stationed outside the fortress of Meriefa.”

"What, our army has already broken through the Muza River?" Poluboyarov asked in surprise: "The embankment on the opposite bank is steep. I wonder if our army has paid a huge sacrifice in the forced crossing?"

"That's not true." Sameko turned his head to look at Sokov, shook his head and replied: "Thanks to the river crossing tactics formulated by Comrade Commander, our army did not pay a big price and successfully crossed the river." Zha River, and set up pontoon bridges on the river for tanks or artillery to pass."

After introducing the situation to Poluboyarov, Sameko said to the commanders present: "Everyone understands the situation. Next, we will assign new combat tasks to the troops that have not yet entered the battle."

"Colonel Chuvashov!"

"Here!" Colonel Chuvashov, commander of the 98th Guards Division whose name was called, stood up, standing out among a group of sitting commanders.

"The task of your division is to accompany the 37th Tank Brigade and the two tank battalions directly under the Group Army to detour to the south of the Merefa Fortress and cut off the southward escape route of the fortress defenders."

"Yes!" Chuvashov agreed loudly, and sat down again.

"254th and 384th Infantry Divisions!"

Hearing Sameko call out the number of his unit, the two division commanders quickly stood up and replied loudly: "Here!"

"The task of your two divisions is to launch an attack from the east of the Melliefa Fortress. The 254th Division should give priority to attacking the railway junction and destroy the German railway transportation..."

Then Sameko assigned Fomenko, Shechtman and Guchakov the offensive task for tomorrow.

After assigning the task, Sameko took a sip of tea from the cup on the table and asked casually, "Is there any question?"

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Colonel Koida, the commander of the 188th Division, stood up and said aggrievedly, "The rest of the troops have assigned combat missions. Why didn't our division receive any missions?"

After Sameko and Sokov exchanged glances, they looked at Koida again, and said with a smile: "Colonel Koida, it is impossible for us to send all the troops into the attack without leaving any reserves, right? If the attack is not going well in any direction and reinforcements are needed, if we don’t have a reserve team in hand, we can only stare blankly.”

"The chief of staff is right," Sokov added next to him: "We have carefully considered your division as the reserve force of the army group. Since the Battle of Kursk, your division has been responsible for combat tasks in important areas. , The combat experience is more abundant than other divisions. You will serve as the reserve team. Once the battle situation is unfavorable to us, you can be put into battle to change the unfavorable situation.”

Sokov's words put gold on the face of the 188th Division. If Keida still can't hear the other side's subtext, he is too unqualified as a division commander. He waited for Sokov to finish speaking, after a little thought, he understood Sokov's true intentions, and quickly stated: "Comrade Commander, please rest assured that our division will definitely serve as a reserve team."

After pacifying Koida, Sokov stood up and said to the commanders present: "Commanders, tomorrow's offensive battle will be different from everyone's understanding. We will not carry out any artillery fire before the offensive. Prepare, because we don't have heavy artillery over 152 mm, it is difficult to destroy the strong fortifications. And every time our army's shelling starts, the enemy will retreat to a safe area along the traffic trenches, but dodge our army's shelling, so that we The army's precious artillery shells fell on undefended areas. As soon as our shelling ended, the enemy returned to their positions and blocked us..."

After Sukov's words came to an end, Terenga, the commander of the First Artillery Division, stood up and said to everyone: "Comrade Commander, although our division has 38 artillery pieces above 122mm, there are only four 152mm artillery pieces. If Using such an artillery configuration to deal with a strong fortress will not be of much use."

Fomenko, who had commanded the fortified battle in the fortress area during the day, stood up and said to the dignified crowd: "comrades commanders, although there is no artillery preparation for the attack, don't worry, we can still take the fortress." He continued, "To tell you the truth, my troops paid a high price for capturing the fort area with dozens of reinforced concrete bunkers during the daytime attack. Facing Houda One or two meters of reinforced concrete, the rockets fired by our soldiers with the bazooka could not penetrate the walls of the bunker. Until later, we found a new method of warfare, which is to directly shoot the rockets into the shooting holes of the bunker, so that we can Destroy the enemy's fortifications with ease."

Sokov, who was thinking about what tactics to employ in the divisions, heard Fomenko's words while fighting in the fortress, and hastily added: "General Fomenko is right, since the enemy's blockhouse walls Thick and solid, then we will shoot rockets through the shooting holes of the bunker. I don't believe that this can't deal with the enemy?

The terrain in the fortress should be similar to what General Fomenko and the others encountered today. If you find the enemy's firepower point, use the bazooka to deal with him first, if you can't destroy it, then ask for artillery support, use the tactic of bayonet on the cannon, and directly use the cannon to blast the enemy's firepower point at close range. "