Struggle in Soviet Russia

Southern Route, Sevsk, along the Sev River.

It was early in the morning, and in this starless night, there was not a trace of light on the German positions on the west bank of the river.

In this deadly darkness, tanks with canvas covering the turret approached one by one and assembled on the artillery position behind the second position, while the artillery unit originally deployed here retreated close. One kilometer, it was re-deployed to the outskirts of the Delxize Jungle.

The pontoon bridge unit responsible for erecting the pontoons is moving towards the banks of the river. Trucks are moving forward in the dark without their headlights on. They must deploy to the rear of the river-crossing units before they arrive at three o’clock in the morning to cross the river. After the troops launched an offensive and seized the landing field on the other side of the river, they quickly erected at least seven pontoon bridges on the Shef River.

The same preparatory work was operated simultaneously on the 60-kilometer front from Sevsk to Dmitrovsk. According to the order sent by Berlin, the general offensive will be officially launched at 4 o'clock in the morning.

On the other side of the river is the Soviet Central Front Army, which is the defensive position of the original Don Front Army. It belongs to the 65th Army and the 48th Army. The purpose of the German army is to tear apart the Soviet defense line and quickly turn in the direction of Ligov. , And strive to encircle the main forces of the Soviet Central Front Army.

At the same time, behind the Soviet position on the other side of the river, the artillery units under the Central Front had assembled two days ago. Thousands of artillery pieces were deployed between Sevsk and Dmitrovsk. Several important locations.

In the far rear, a large number of Soviet night fighters are already in a state of being ready to go, and the pilots are already in place in the cabin, ready to take off at any time.

Moscow, Kremlin, Office of Comrade Stalin.

Victor walked in from outside the office, smelling of cigarettes. The first thing he saw was the large conference table temporarily placed in the center of the office, and the military map that was hung on the wall before, was at this large conference. At the table, six or seven people, including Comrade Stalin, were gathered around the conference table looking at the map.

Among the people present, most of them were from the General Staff, such as Vasilievsky, Antonov, etc. Unexpectedly, Khrushchev, as a military commissar of the Southwest Front Army, actually Here too.

Seeing Victor coming in from the door, Comrade Stalin retracted his hand on the map and asked with a serious expression: "How about, Comrade Victor Viktorovich Tarasev, has the information been verified again?"

This is the first time that Victor's full name has been heard from Comrade Stalin's mouth. There is no doubt that this proves his prudence at the moment.

"Verified," Victor walked quickly to the side of the conference table, put the red folder in his hand on the table, and said with a serious expression, "Combined with the intelligence provided by my Berlin intelligence station and the intelligence agencies of the British and American allies. With the information provided, as well as the reconnaissance information provided by the frontline troops, we can determine that the time of the German general offensive is between four and six in the early hours of this morning."

"Are you sure?" Antonov asked again, the deputy chief of staff and chief of operations department was very nervous at the moment.

Antonov’s nervousness is justified, because the Central Front’s subordinate units captured a German pilot. From the pilot’s mouth, the Soviet army got an important piece of information, that is, the German army will be on the 6th to 13th. Between Japan, a large-scale offensive was launched on the southern line.

After the fierce battle in February, the frontline forces of the Soviet and German sides faced a problem of insufficient strength and unsupportable logistics. Therefore, according to the estimation of the General Staff, the new offensive of the German army is likely to be after the rainy season. launch.

In other words, the large-scale German offensive should be two months later, not now.

Today, the confrontation on the southern front battlefield is very delicate. After two months of sporadic fighting in March and April, the Soviets are currently moving along the North Donets River to Gostiševo, Bekovka, Dmitryevka and Red Yaruja went to Krasnopolis to build a solid line of defense.

This line of defense is an arc-shaped protrusion that penetrates into the German line of defense. The arc of the protrusion is relatively smooth, like the shape of an ear.

In the past two months of controversy, Comrade Stalin and the base camp, as well as the General Staff, finally approved Comrade Zhukov’s campaign plan. Therefore, in the previous redeployment, a large number of Soviet troops were deployed here. The position of the protrusion, and on the front of Moscow, the strength of the Soviet army is relatively weak.

It is precisely because of this that the General Staff is now very concerned about the accuracy of Victor's intelligence, because it is not only related to the Soviet army's next battle, but also to the direction of the frontal battle in Moscow.

In terms of the direction of this protrusion, the Soviet army had arranged five fronts in the redeployment of the previous two months: the central front was adapted from the Don front, and Rokosovsky served as the commander of the front. Voronezh Front Army, Vatutin served as the commander of the front army; Southwest Front Army, served as the commander of the front army by Malinowski; Southern Front Army, served as the commander of the front army by Torbusin. In addition, the reserve team of the nine group armies in the base camp, on Zhukov's suggestion, formed a brand-new front army, the steppe front army, whose commander was Lieutenant General Popov.

There is no doubt that the Soviet army deployed all its main forces in this direction. Therefore, this can be regarded as the Soviet army seeking a large-scale decisive battle with the German army. The success or failure of the Soviet army is related to a series of future wars. Who can be careless about the direction?

Faced with Antonov’s question, Victor once again emphasized: "I can be sure."

Although Victor's tone was very determined, everyone in the room was not relaxed, not for anything else, it was really the key to this battle.

"Then," said Comrade Stalin, turning around, walking to his desk, and reaching out to pick up the pipe from the table, "Give an order to Comrade Georgi."

What order? It was the order to launch artillery fire and air counter-preparation on the front line of Sevsk.

This is Zhukov’s proposal. Before the general German offensive as shown by intelligence, high-density artillery coverage and air strikes should be carried out on the areas where it may be the main attack, in order to cause the loss of personnel and weapons to the German offensive forces assembled in the area. .

"Yes, Comrade Stalin," Vasilevsky nodded, walked to the desk and picked up the yellow phone.

At three o'clock in the morning, it was the darkest time of the day. At the Soviet position on the east bank of the Shef River, with the harsh sound of the air defense sirens, countless flares and signal flares rose into the sky and would travel along the river for more than ten kilometers. The front is as bright as daylight.

Immediately afterwards, the deafening sound of cannons tore through the tranquility of the entire field. The whole earth trembles in the rumble of cannons. The rockets fired by the Katyusha Rocket Launcher outlines a shining parabola under the night. , The overwhelming whistling towards the opposite side of the river.

The hail-like rain of bullets fell on the German positions, and the flames of the explosion could be seen clearly even from more than ten kilometers away. Looking from the east of Sevsk to the front line more than ten kilometers away, It felt like a wildfire on the other side of the river, with rumbling thunder mixed in it.

Regrettably, because the artillery fire was prepared a bit early, most of the German infantry who were preparing to launch a cross-river operation were still hiding in bunkers and tunnels. Therefore, this large-scale artillery operation did not cause any damage to the German infantry. Major casualties.

But correspondingly, a large number of German vehicles, including tanks, were destroyed by covering Soviet artillery fire. What's more, the three pontoon bridge units deployed to the river bank encountered the Soviet army. With the fatal blow of artillery fire, the bridge-building equipment was almost completely destroyed, and it was impossible to provide any support for the main force preparing to cross the river within the scheduled time.

The Soviet artillery counter-preparations lasted for an hour, followed by more than half an hour of concentrated bombing by night aviation. Finally, when the sky was dark, looking from the east bank of the Shef River to the west bank, you could see the German positions. Thick billowing smoke.

At 7 o’clock in the morning, the German artillery on the other side of the Shev River began to fire in the direction of Sevsk. At the same time, German aircraft began to launch large-scale air strikes on the Soviet positions on the east bank of the river. Then, the Soviet troops gathered in the direction of Ligov. The aviation was put into battle-the Kursk Battle, which finally decided the battle of the Soviet-German War, started in an all-round way.

Moscow, Comrade Stalin's office.

Vasilevsky put down the phone and said to Comrade Stalin who was sitting at his desk and closed his mind: "Comrade Georgi called. He said that our judgment of the German offensive intention is accurate. The counter-preparations for artillery fire in the three directions of Orel and Belgorod caused a major blow to the German offensive forces. However, the German offensive was still launched. Now, the main battle is concentrated in the direction of Orel and Sevsk. In the direction of Belgorod, the German offensive is relatively weak..."

Comrade Stalin heard this, got up from his chair, with a pipe in his mouth, walked quickly to the big conference table in the middle of the office, and looked down at the map.

"What is clear now is," Vasilievsky walked over, pointed at the position of Shevsk, and said, "The German army has assembled at least three tanks on the line from Shevsk to Dmitrovsk. The division and five infantry divisions, and the situation in the direction of Orel and Belgorod is not yet clear."

Comrade Stalin raised his head and glanced at Victor, who was standing opposite, and said: "The intelligence department still needs to hurry up and try to figure out the German offensive deployment."