Red Moscow

The second round of shelling by the Soviet army lasted for a full two hours.

Then, the sound of the artillery stopped suddenly, and the whole battlefield suddenly became quiet.

Whether it was the positions of the German army or the Soviet army, there was silence.

Yakov lost his composure, and asked in a low voice, "Misha, the shelling has stopped, why are you still not attacking?"

"Our warriors are waiting."

"Waiting?" Yakov asked puzzledly, "Waiting for what?"

"What else can we wait for?" Shtemenko put down the binoculars in his hand, turned his head and explained to Yakov, "Our commanders are naturally waiting for the signal to attack!"

"A signal to attack?" Yakov stood at the door and looked into the sky, but he didn't find the signal flare. He said somewhat puzzledly, "Why haven't the signal flares been fired yet!"

"Don't worry, Yasha." Seeing that the signal flare hadn't risen in the sky, Sokov was also anxious, because Smirnov was in charge of launching the signal flare, and he couldn't help it even if he wanted to. He pretended to be calm and said: "When the time is up, you will naturally see the signal flare."

Sokov patted his ears lightly with both hands. Although the shelling just now was several kilometers away from him, the sound of the shells still made his ears buzz.

He suddenly heard the melody of "Holy War", and at first he thought it was a hallucination. But he soon discovered that this was not an illusion of sound, but a sound from a nearby loudspeaker, which was "Holy War" sung by the Alexandria Red Flag Song and Dance Troupe.

Just as his blood boiled, three red flares rose into the air, which signaled the start of the attack.

The commanders and fighters of the airborne guards, who had been ready to go, jumped out of their trenches amidst the singing of many loudspeakers, shouting and rushing towards the enemy's position. Those who rushed to the front were the commanders and fighters of the 3rd Guards Airborne Division, and behind them was a regiment of the 4th Guards Airborne Division.

From the beginning of the offensive, Sokov kept watching the advance of the troops with binoculars. In the past, as long as the attack exceeded two kilometers, they usually lined up in skirmish formation, striding forward, and then accelerated when the distance was one kilometer, changing from striding to trotting. When you are still two hundred meters away from the enemy's position, you will change from a trot to a sprint. But today's commanders rushed to the German position in a trotting posture.

After seeing it, Shtemenko said with emotion: "Comrade Sokov, it seems that the commanders and fighters of the Guards Airborne Division are not weak. They trotted through the distance of two kilometers and rushed into the enemy's position."

"It's a pity that there are too many obstacles in front of the enemy's position." Yakov said with emotion when he saw this: "Otherwise, I can let the transport hovercraft carry the commando, and under the cover of the assault hovercraft, charge the enemy's position. With the hovercraft With such a high speed, it will take less than two minutes to rush into the enemy's position, and the enemy may not wake up from the artillery fire by then, and our commando can easily occupy the enemy's position."

Although Sokov once had such an idea in his heart, he knew very well that it is unrealistic to use advanced equipment such as hovercraft to compete for ground positions. Various obstacles in front of the position will give the hovercraft cause great damage. He turned to Yakov and said, "Yasha, I think the hovercraft is suitable for landing operations, but its use in this kind of place will be limited due to the terrain."

Since the attacking troops trotted all the way, the troops were less than one kilometer away from the German position in less than five minutes. In the past, when the Soviet army reached this position, it would be attacked by German mortars, but today it was quiet.

"Comrade Sokov," Shtemenko asked, "Why didn't the Germans move at all? Could it be that they were wiped out by our artillery fire?"

Since today's bombardment was carried out in two parts, the casualties to the German army must have been much greater. But it is impossible to say that they are all wiped out. Sokov smiled lightly and did not speak, because he did not know why the German army was silent.

Until the Soviet army was 150 to 60 meters away from the German position, gunshots rang out from the position, and the MG42 general-purpose machine guns in several civil works fired at the attacking commanders carefully and stormily. The soldier who rushed to the front seemed to have hit a transparent wall, paused on the spot, and then fell directly to the ground. The remaining commanders and fighters quickly lay down on the spot and fired at the machine guns on the ground.

Seeing this situation, Sokov was anxious, but he didn't show it on his face. The ones participating in the attack are the elite troops under his command. If he can't even solve this problem, it means that the commander is incompetent. When it's over, you can consider changing people. Anyway, I have a lot of talents in my hand now, so it shouldn't be a big problem for them to be teachers.

Fortunately, the performance of the paratroopers did not disappoint Sokov. He soon saw the fighters set up several rocket firing positions. In the next moment, seven or eight rocket vehicles with fireworks took off into the air and flew towards the German position one or two hundred meters away. After a series of explosions, all the exposed firepower points were destroyed. The soldiers who were suppressed by the firepower and couldn't lift their heads got up again, and continued to rush towards the German position with their guns in hand.

"Yasha," Sokov put down the binoculars in his hand, turned his head and smiled and said to Yakov, "It seems that your short-term training is very effective. The rockets fired by these soldiers basically hit the target."

"The main reason is that these airborne troops are of high quality and learn things very quickly." Yakov replied, "I just had someone introduce them to the use of new rockets, and it took them less than three hours. He has mastered this weapon proficiently."

Before the airborne troops rushed into the German position, several firepower points appeared, and the commanders and fighters were suppressed again so that they could not use the bomb crater as a cover to avoid the enemy's intensive firepower.

This time, it is no longer the new rockets that are used to deal with the German firepower. After all, they are only fifty or sixty meters away from the position, so it would be a bit wasteful to use them again. A soldier carrying a rocket stood up from the crater, aimed at a point of fire and pulled the trigger. When the rocket dragged the white smoke belt and flew towards the firepower point, the soldiers didn't care to see if they hit the target, so they directly retracted into the crater to avoid being hit by the enemy's bullets.

The rocket bomb exploded in front of the firing hole of the firepower point, and except for kicking up a pile of mud, it did not affect the shooting of the German machine gun at all. Soon, the soldier carrying the rocket launcher leaned out from other craters, aimed at the firing point and pulled the trigger. The rocket fired this time did not miss, and went straight into the shooting hole, causing a big explosion inside.

Then, several soldiers carrying bazookas successively destroyed the firepower points of the German army, and the covering troops continued to rush towards the German army's position.

Seeing the commanders rushing into the German positions, Shtemenko, who was originally nervous, finally breathed a sigh of relief. He put down his binoculars and said to Sokov: "Comrade Sokov, you are using new rockets and rockets like this!" The way I played it made me feel amazed.

You must know that when our army attacked in the past, when encountering fierce enemy firepower, we either adopted a group charge to forcefully break through the enemy's defense line; charge. "

Sokov has always known that the offensive tactics of the Soviet army are rigid. If an attack fails in one place, he never considers changing the direction of attack. Instead, he tries again and again until he breaks through the enemy's defense line. Of course, most of the time their attacks will be defeated by enemies who are waiting for work; even if they win by chance, they will also pay huge casualties.

At this moment, Sokov's subordinates use new rockets and rockets to destroy the firepower points on the German positions, so that the attacking troops can quickly break through the enemy's defense line with few casualties. This will naturally refresh the eyes of Stemenko a feeling of.

"Comrade Deputy Chief of the General Staff," Sokov said to Shtemenko: "I think that if we want to win, we must find ways to use various effective means to reduce the casualties of the troops in battle, and to achieve the maximum at the minimum cost." victory."

Hearing Sokov's words, Shtemenko couldn't help raising his eyebrows, thinking to himself: The slogan of "victory with less bloodshed" was immediately criticized by his superiors as a kind of injustice after the arduous and arduous Finnish campaign ended. Correct, the slogan that leads the army to delusional victory easily. Therefore, since the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, no one has just mentioned the matter of reducing the casualties of troops in combat, so as not to be criticized by their superiors. Unexpectedly, Sokov said this casually today.

"Comrade Sokov," Shtemenko asked calmly, "Why should we reduce the casualties of the troops in the battle?"

Shtemenko's question stunned Sokov. He stared at the other party for a long time before replying in a murmur: "If we don't care about the casualties of our troops when we are fighting, then there may be a situation where we have to replenish our troops every time we finish a battle. No matter how strong an army is, if it suffers all casualties in every battle, and the quality of the newly recruited soldiers cannot compare with the original veterans, it will inevitably dilute the army's combat effectiveness. As long as there are more such battles, even if The most elite army may also become a garbage army with extremely poor combat effectiveness."

If other commanders said such things, they would have been reprimanded by Shtemenko, but for Sokov, who has repeatedly performed miracles, he was very tolerant, and he even thought in his heart: Could it be that we It was wrong to criticize the idea of ​​less bloodshed in the first place. If this is the case, when I return to Moscow, should I talk to Antonov to see if I can correct this mistake.

The commanders and fighters of the airborne division wiped out the remnants of the enemy and occupied the first line of defense of the German army in just over 20 minutes. When Afunin called to announce the good news to him, Sokov said to the microphone with a straight face: "General Afunin, please tell Colonel Konev immediately that it is because the first line of defense cannot be stopped." Come down and rest, continue to pursue the victory, and continue to advance deep into their defenses before the enemy recovers!"

Faced with Sokov's stern order, Afunin did not dare to refute, so he could only bite the bullet and replied: "Understood, Comrade Commander, I will immediately notify Colonel Konev to let the 3rd Airborne Division continue to attack the enemy's defense. Push in depth."

"Comrade Sokov," Seeing Sokov put down the phone, Shtemenko asked the question in his heart: "The army has just occupied the enemy's first line of defense. What we need to do now should not be to wipe out the remnants of the enemy. , and fortify against possible enemy counterattacks?"

"Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff, this is how I think about it." Sokov explained to Shtemenko: "I have seen that many enemies have escaped from their positions. If our troops follow and pursue, continue to the second line. The defense line advances. The enemy who sticks to the second line of defense will definitely not shoot when they see that their own people are fleeing, but our troops can take advantage of the enemy's fear of accidentally injuring their own people and rush in behind the routed troops. enemy positions, thereby reducing unnecessary casualties."

After hearing this, Shtemenko laughed: "Comrade Sokov, it seems that I came to the front line this time, and I came to the right one. With you, I can have different surprises at any time. This is because I You can’t see it in other troops, if possible, I will promote your tactics in the whole army.”

"Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff, you've been honored." Hearing that his tactics would be promoted throughout the army, Sokov was taken aback. These tactics of his were incompatible with the conventional tactics used by the Soviet army. If you want to promote it, you may make yourself a target of public criticism. This promotion to admiral will lead to an unwarranted investigation, and when the tactics are promoted in the whole army, people will be even more jealous, so it is better not to be so pretentious: "The tactics I use on the battlefield are all elusive. Yes, if it is used by another person, it may not be easy to use, I think it is better not to promote it in the whole army."

Although Shtemenko felt strange about Sokov's attitude, he didn't insist on his point of view, and he just said a few perfunctory words, and the matter was considered over.

Seeing that the attack in the Safran area was going well, Sokov picked up the phone on the table and connected to the army headquarters, wanting to know the progress of the Velishanka area.

"Comrade Chief of Staff," he asked straight to the point as soon as he heard Smirnov's voice, "how is the progress of the 49th Army?"

"It's not going well, Comrade Commander." Smirnov said a little worriedly: "Although the artillery fire prepared to destroy most of the German fortifications, when our army attacked, they still encountered their tenacious resistance. The echelon paid a big price."

"How did this happen?" Sokov asked a little angrily: "The front army's artillery preparations lasted for three hours. Even if all the fortifications on the position were not destroyed, most of them could not be used. The Germans who relied on these fortifications to resist, Facing the powerful offensive of our army, it is simply irresistible."

"..." Hearing what Sokov said, Smirnov suddenly felt speechless.

Hearing that Smirnov did not speak, Sokov asked in a slow tone: "Which one is the first attacking force?"

"214th Infantry Division."

"The 214th Infantry Division?" Sokov thought for a moment, and felt that although the division had a large number of soldiers, its combat effectiveness was not the strongest in the 49th Army, so he said to Smirnov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, immediately send Shi Colonel Giritz's 116th Division was transferred up, and they took over the attack from the 214th Division."