Red Moscow

At the military meeting, Sokov told his subordinates that there was no artillery preparation before the attack. But the plan couldn't keep up with the changes. Just after dawn, he received a call from Zakharov: "Comrade Sokov, the artillery units dispatched to you by the 7th Guards Army have all reached the Muza River. You Send someone to receive it, it will come in handy when attacking the fortress later."

"The artillery unit of the friendly army has arrived?" Sukov was surprised, and asked quickly: "Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front Army, I would like to ask, how many artillery divisions are provided by the friendly army?"

"There are four artillery divisions, two self-propelled artillery regiments, and six guard rocket artillery battalions." After reporting the specific parameters, Zakharov smiled at Sokov: "How, so many artillery are enough Bar?"

"There are a lot of artillery," Sokov continued to ask, "Are there enough ammunition?"

Zakharov laughed: "Comrade Sokov, do you know what you are talking about? You know, the artillery belonging to the 7th Guards Army is tasked with cooperating with the infantry to capture Poltava, so the superiors equip them Eight radix ammunition. Although this time it was transferred to cooperate with you in the battle, it was only equipped with three radix ammunition, but it should still be possible to destroy the defense of the Melliefa Fortress."

"Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front Army, thank you very much." Sokov was overjoyed to learn that the 7th Guards Army had provided him with so much artillery. The grasp is even greater."

After finishing the call, Sokov put down the phone and asked Sameko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the artillery unit of the 7th Guards Army has reached the bank of the Muza River. Who do you think should receive the troops?"

When Sokov said this, he was secretly thinking that if Sameko didn't want to make a trip, he could only do it himself. But Unexpectedly, Sameko unexpectedly said: "Comrade Commander, since it is an artillery matter, let the Artillery Commander take charge."

Hearing Sameko mention the artillery commander, Sokov remembered that an artillery commander did come last night, but he was busy preparing to attack the fortress, so he asked Samoilov to take him to rest up. If Sameko hadn't mentioned it, he would have forgotten that there was such an artillery commander.

Sokov walked to the door and shouted outside: "Lieutenant Samoilov, come to me!"

Following Sokov's shout, Samoilov appeared in front of him, straightened his back and asked, "Comrade Commander, what instructions do you have?"

"Didn't the superior send us an artillery commander last night?" Sokov said to him, "I asked you to arrange for him to rest."

"Yes, Comrade Commander, there is indeed such a thing."

"Please invite him over, just say that we have something to discuss with him."

When Samoilov went to find the new artillery commander, Sokov asked Sameko curiously: "Comrade Chief of Staff, do you know the situation of this artillery commander?"

"I know a little bit." Sameco nodded and said: "Before the war, this artillery commander participated in the Spanish Civil War as a volunteer army. After returning to China in 1939, he successively served as the commander of the artillery regiment and the artillery director of the infantry division. 1941 In April 1999, he served as the commander of the anti-tank artillery brigade of the Kiev Special Military District.

After the war broke out, he led the brigade to fight tenaciously with the Germans in the Southern Front. Soon, he was promoted to commander of the 5th Artillery Corps. Later, he successively served as the deputy director of the artillery of the 18th Army, the commander of the artillery of the 37th Army and the 56th Army of the Southern and North Caucasus Fronts, and the deputy commander of the North Caucasus Front..."

After listening to Sameko's introduction of the other party's resume, Sokov couldn't help taking a breath, and then asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, what's his name?"

"Mitrofan Ivanovitch Nedelin."

After Sokov repeated the name, he felt very familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had heard it before.

Before Sokov could figure out where he had heard the name, Samoilov walked in with a tall commander with a square face: "Comrade Commander, I have invited General Nedelin Already!"

Sokov looked at the rank of lieutenant general on the opponent's epaulettes, and the corners of his mouth twitched a few times. He was only a major general, but the military commissioner was a lieutenant general, and now there was another lieutenant general. He stretched out his hand to the general and said enthusiastically, "Hi, General Nedelin, nice to meet you."

"Hello, Commander Sokov." General Nedelin said equally politely: "When I heard that I could come to your unit, I was very excited, because I could fight with a general who made the Germans fearful." Fight alongside."

After Sokov introduced Sameko to the other party, he returned to the subject: "General Nedelin, the situation is like this. In order to allow us to capture the fortress of Meliefa more smoothly, the superior specially dispatched the artillery of the 7th Guards Army Come to support, these troops are now on the banks of the Muza River."

Nedelin was also a smart man. Hearing what Sokov said, he immediately understood what the other party meant: "Comrade Commander, are you planning to let me take over this batch of artillery and command them to bombard the German fortress?"

"That's right, that's what it means." After giving the other party an affirmative answer, Sokov asked back, "Is there any question?"

"Yes, Comrade Commander." Now that Sokov had already spoken, Nedelin naturally wanted to talk about the problems he was facing: "First, you need to send a reliable person to assist me to receive the troops. After all, I am new here. Not to mention that the artillery comrades don’t know each other, even the commanders and fighters of the 27th Group Army don’t know each other.”

"No problem, I will send Lieutenant Samoilov to accompany you later." Sokov replied very readily, "He is the person I trust the most. Having said his name, with him accompanying you, you will be able to take over the troops smoothly."

After finishing the first request, Nedelin continued: "Secondly, if the artillerymen want to assist the infantry to attack, they must have a prepared artillery direction. You can't order the artillerymen to fire at the rising sun, right?"

Nedelin's words aroused laughter from Sokov and the others. After laughing, Sokov said to him: "Comrade General, according to our plan, only the First Artillery Division provided artillery support for the attacking infantry, and it adopted close-range artillery tactics, so we did not send artillery observers. To scout for accurate data.”

Nedelin frowned after listening to Sukov's words: "Comrade Commander, I don't understand why there is no artillery preparation before attacking such a fortress?"

"Is artillery preparation useful?" Sokov asked back: "You know, we are facing a strong fortress. If we don't have heavy artillery with a size of 152 mm or more and use condensate bombs, we will not be able to destroy those strong fortifications. Since So, why should we waste precious shells? We might as well let the artillery push the artillery closer to the fortress, so that it can directly destroy the enemy's firepower and open the way for our infantry."

"Comrade Commander, your words have successfully aroused my curiosity." Nedelin waited for Sukov to finish speaking, and then asked curiously: "As far as I know, your troops never attack before the start of the offensive." Instead of artillery preparation, use the new rockets and bazookas provided by the Armament Department to deal with the German fortifications. Am I right?"

"Exactly, Comrade General." Sokov said to Nedelin: "I think the effect of shelling preparations before the attack today is very limited."

"Tell me, why is the effect limited?"

"The Germans are very cunning," Sokov explained to him: "As soon as our army starts shelling, they leave a few personnel as observation posts, and the rest of them retreat along the communication trenches to the second line of defense. It was tantamount to landing on an empty field. As soon as our bombardment ended, the Germans returned along the communication trench and re-entered the defensive position to resist the attack launched by our army."

After listening to Sokov patiently, Nedelin shook his head and said, "Comrade Commander, I do not deny that what you said is true. But I think it is absolutely necessary to prepare for the bombardment before the attack. After all, we Violent shelling can destroy the German fortifications. Even if only part of the fortifications are destroyed, after our army's offensive begins, there will be a considerable number of enemies, and they will not be able to rely on the fortifications to resist..."

Sokov disagreed with Nedelin's statement. He immediately retorted: "Comrade General, I disagree with your statement. You know, even if our artillery fire destroyed part of the German fortifications, they returned In the first line of defense, new fortifications can also be found to resist our army's attack."

The two then argued over whether to use artillery preparation before shelling. Sokov came from later generations, so he naturally knew that the Soviet army's constant shelling was two or three hours of shelling, which was a meaningless waste. Instead of wasting precious shells in these places, it is better to use rockets directly or use bayonet tactics on cannons to shoot at close range, and the results achieved are even greater.

But Nedelin, as an artillery commander, naturally did not agree with Sokov's point of view. On the contrary, he felt that his statement was too absurd, so he refused to give an inch.

The dispute between the two is that the public says the public is right and the woman says that the woman is reasonable, and neither can convince the other.

Sameko was also in a dilemma when he was caught in the middle. Fortunately, Samoilov reminded him: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I think the debate between the commander and the artillery commander will not stop for a while. Why don't you give the cannonball a shot?" The commander of the first division made a phone call and asked him to send some artillery observers to the front to indicate the direction of the artillery attack for the new artillerymen."

"Comrade Lieutenant, what you said is very reasonable." Sameko's proposal to Samoilov was kind, and he immediately picked up the phone, blocked one of his ears with a finger, and gave the command of the First Artillery Division. department call.

After Sameko finished explaining to Colonel Terenga about the arrangement of artillery observers, he saw that the two were still arguing, so he came out to smooth things over: "Comrade commanders, please stop arguing."

The two, who had been arguing for a long time, finally stopped when they heard Sameko say this.

Seeing that the two were no longer arguing, Sameko reported to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, I just called Colonel Terenga, the commander of the First Artillery Division, and asked him to send artillery observers to reconnaissance, and to prepare for the newcomers. Artillery provides accurate firing parameters."

After hearing Sameko's words, Nedelin felt a lot more at ease. No matter what Sokov thought, at least his chief of staff was on his side, and at the same time he helped him contact the artillery observer. In this way, when he directs the artillery to fire, he can have an accurate shooting target.

After Sameko finished his report, he asked Sokov cautiously: "Comrade Commander, are we preparing for artillery fire before the attack?"

Sokov and Nedelin argued for a long time, but they couldn't come up with a reason. Hearing Sameko's question at this moment, he said angrily: "Since General Negelin likes to prepare for artillery fire, let him arrange this later."

At the meeting last night, I told all the commanders who participated in the meeting that there was no artillery preparation before the attack. But now that artillery preparations have been temporarily increased, Sokov feels that he should communicate with everyone in advance, so as not to call later to ask what is going on. Sokov told Sameko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, you immediately contact the troops participating in the battle, and say that before today's offensive starts, there will be a period of artillery preparations, so that they can postpone the original attack time."

"Comrade Artillery Commander," Sokov said to Nedelin while Sameko was calling the division commanders, "are you satisfied now?"

Nedelin said with a chuckle: "Comrade Commander, although you have achieved many victories with your methods before, you might as well try my method this time to see if the effect is better."

After seeing off Nedelin and Samoilov, Sameko said to Sokov with a smile: "Comrade Commander, the new artillery commander seems to be a stubborn person. I think you and him will make a difference in the future." In between, there will be a lot of quarrels."

The speaker was not interested in the listener, and Sameko just casually said that Nedelin was a stubborn person, and Sokov immediately remembered who the other party was. Mitrofan Ivanovich Nedelin, the future Soviet artillery chief, also served as the first commander-in-chief of the Strategic Rocket Army after the war.

It is a pity that he is a tragic figure. On October 24, 1960, Nedelin personally went to observe the rocket launch. As a result, some failures occurred when the rocket was preparing to launch. advice. And ordered the engineers present to inspect the missiles in violation of regulations

During the inspection, he violated the safety regulations again and did not return to the underground cement shelter. Instead, he sat on a stool not far from the rocket and supervised the maintenance work of the staff on site. During the period, the director of the launch site begged him twice to move to a safe place, but he ignored it.

In the end, a tragedy happened. A pipeline broke somewhere, and a dazzling flame emerged from the propeller, turning the scene into a sea of ​​flames. The high temperature of 3,000 degrees Celsius killed Negelin and dozens of general-level rocket experts, technicians, etc. All people were burned to death. People a little further away were burned to the point where only outlines remained, while in Nedering they were burnt to such an extent that not even a single ashes were left, only half of the charred epaulet of the artillery chief and the melted The key to the office safe.