Chapter 968

Although the contents of the telegram are very simple, I understand that vatukin is trying to tell us that no matter what happened here, he will let bygones be bygones. With his telegram, I can finally deploy my troops safely.

While I ordered razumeyeva to call andeliushenke, the commander of the 171 division, and ask him to come to the division headquarters of the 308 division immediately, I called Romanov to the table. Pointing to the map, he asked, "Comrade deputy commander, tell me about the deployment of German forces around the city."

Romanov leaned down, picked up the red and blue pencils on the table, pointed to Alexandria's position and said: "according to our reconnaissance, the German troops left Alexandria one after another, one of them retreated northward along the road to the direction of the Dnieper River; The other retreated southward along the road to Patrick Hart. The enemy between us and znaankaduha has been completely eliminated. "

"What about the enemies in other directions?" After listening to Romanov's introduction, I pointed to the South and the West and asked, "won't the enemies in these places also retreat?"

"In the South and west of the city, there are only some small villages and residential areas, and the number of defenders is very limited. In some villages, there are only four or five German soldiers," Romanov said easily. "I plan to take some comrades who are familiar with the terrain from the guerrillas, and let them act as guides for the regular army to be responsible for eliminating the scattered scattered scattered soldiers."

"Our troops are limited," my eyes always fixed on the map. When Romanov finished speaking, I asked with some worry, "if we send troops to eliminate these sporadic German troops, then we will not be able to carry out large-scale fighting with the German troops who may invade."

"Don't worry, comrade commander." Romanov's reaction was quick. He immediately judged what I was worried about and explained to me: "I just said that the German forces in this area are not only small, but also scattered. We only need to draw out a few platoon level teams, which will be enough to eliminate them all. "

Romanov's proposal of using small units to eliminate the German stragglers immediately reminds me of the plot of a film in which a small unit goes to eliminate the bandits in the dangerous mountain stronghold. From this, I judged that his proposal was very appropriate, so I nodded and said with approval, "Comrade deputy commander, your plan is good. With a small number of troops, we should eliminate the scattered scattered scattered in the depth of our army. Although there are not many enemies to annihilate each time, all the results are no less than a small-scale battle. It's so decided. You can arrange it immediately. "

Just when Romanov called his men, andriyusenko, who received the order, came to the headquarters. I called him to the map. Before the official assignment, I first asked, "Comrade Colonel, how many people are there in your division now?"

"Report to the commander," andreushenko quickly straightened up after hearing my question and said, "our regiment had more than 1900 people. After arriving in Alexandria, we mobilized more than 800 workers and residents to join our team and equipped them with weapons."

Although I know from the report of andreushenko that the total strength of the 171 division is about 2800, if the war really starts, the new soldiers who have just joined will only be able to gather a number of people and will not form any combat effectiveness at all. Thinking of this, I continued to ask, "how do you distribute these recruits? To form a new barracks alone, or to disperse and replenish them among the regiments? "

To my simple question, andreushenko replied with a smile: "Comrade commander, we are fighting now. How can we put them into the new barracks and train them slowly. I have dispersed and added them to the regiments that had been seriously reduced in the early stage. I hope that under the leadership of the backbone of the fighting, the new recruits can form combat effectiveness as soon as possible. "

"Very well, comrade colonel." As for andrewshenko's arrangement, I gave him a thumbs up and praised him on my face: "your arrangement is very suitable. The reasonable combination of veterans and recruits is very conducive to the formation of combat effectiveness in the shortest time."

"Comrade commander, what are you talking about?" Romanov, who just came back from the phone call, just heard the two sentences behind us, and could not help asking curiously, "what's the reasonable match between veterans and recruits?"

"Yes, comrade deputy commander." Since Romanov asked about this, I also explained patiently to him: "because the 171st Division has just added more than 800 recruits, in order to improve the combat effectiveness as soon as possible, Colonel andreushenko scattered the recruits to each regiment and adopted the way of veterans leading recruits to rapidly improve the combat effectiveness of the troops. By the way, how many new recruits have you added to the 308th division? "

Hearing this question, Romanov and andriyusenko looked at each other, and then they laughed. Before I asked them what they were laughing at, andreushenko took the initiative to explain to me: "Comrade commander, you may not know. The first thing Comrade deputy commander did after he took over the division commander to drive away the German troops attacking the city is not to recruit a large number of new soldiers. As far as I know, he recruited more than 400 military trained workers from the Red Star Machinery Factory. In addition to the workers in several other factories and the residents who supported our army, the 308th division added nearly 2000 people. "

"What, two thousand?" To tell you the truth, this data really gives me a surprise. You know, we're going to fight a vicious battle next. When we add so many new recruits, we can see that the number is large, but the combat effectiveness of the troops is diluted. I grabbed Romanov's arm and asked nervously, "Comrade deputy commander, how do you arrange these recruits?"

"Comrade commander, what's the matter with you?" Romanov looked at me strangely and said, "after the new recruits are added to the army, they will naturally be directly scattered into the regiments like the 171st division. I told the following three commanders that the ratio of recruits to veterans in each company should be kept at two to one, that is to say, every two recruits should have one veterans in charge of them. This way of combining the old with the new is conducive to the new soldiers to quickly integrate into our collective, increase the cohesion of the troops, and at the same time, rapidly improve their technical and tactical level. "

"Very well, both of you have done well in this matter." After praising them, I went back to business: "OK, let's write down and discuss our next battle direction." I pointed to the map and said to them, "according to the deputy commander's report just now, the enemy forces that originally attacked the city have retreated to the Dnieper River and pikehart respectively. For the moment, we need not pay attention to the German troops in these two directions. We just need to send troops to monitor them. Then you gather the main force, take znaankaduha as the base, and move northwest. As long as we find out which city's defenders are weak, we will rush up and teach them a lesson. As long as we eliminate the small German forces in these cities, then we can get additional soldiers and weapons, which will be of great help to our next battle. "

Romanov's fingers glided slowly on the map, as if considering the feasibility of my proposal. All of a sudden, his fingers stopped moving and his brows wrinkled. Seeing his expression, I wondered if he had thought of something, so I quickly asked, "Comrade deputy commander, do you have any idea?"

"Comrade commander, I suddenly have a bold idea. Please have a look!" Romanov pointed to Alexandria, where we are, and then moved northwestward along the road. Then he said, "it's less than 300 kilometers from znaankaduha to Kiev, and there are only two or three small cities in the middle. I believe the German army will not have too many forces in the city, because the forces on the other side of the Dnieper River are tight, It is possible that all the troops in these cities will be drawn out. We can seize this gap and push forward to Kiev decisively to see if it is possible to take the city back from the hands of the German army. "

After listening to his ideas, I looked at the map noncommittally and said in my heart: "at the beginning, Zhukov saw that Kiev's troops were in danger of being surrounded by German troops. He proposed to Stalin to abandon Kiev and withdraw his troops from the Dnieper River. As a result, Stalin sent them to the reserve army. This shows how much Stalin valued Kiev. If I can lead the army and recapture Kiev from the German army, even if I only stick to it for a few days, it will be a wonderful achievement. Maybe Stalin will directly promote me to lieutenant general as soon as he is happy. " When I think about it, I can't help but feel excited about Romanov's plan, and I begin to think about the possibility of winning.

But after watching for a while, my reason finally overcame the impulse. I shook my head and said to Romanov, "Comrade deputy commander, your proposal is very good. However, our army is not only short of troops, but also lacks heavy equipment such as tanks and artillery, and has no air supremacy. If we want to capture Kiev, which is heavily defended by the enemy, it is simply an unfinished task."

Listen to me, Romanov's face showed the expression of regret, but he was still reluctant to say: "Comrade commander, I think this is a once-in-a-lifetime good opportunity, we should try."

I looked up at him and glanced at andreushenko standing beside him. Seeing that he was also disappointed, I specially explained to them: "two commanders, you can't just see that the German forces around us are weak. You can't imagine that the German guard forces in all the cities are weak. You can let us play. I tell you, if you hold this kind of thought, you will suffer greatly. Take a look at the terrain near Kiev. As long as we can't occupy Kiev within 12 hours, the German troops from Belarus will surround us from behind, cooperate with the defenders in the city and eat us all. "

When I said that, they were silent, just looking at the map and thinking about what I just said. After a while, Romanov raised his head and said to me, "Comrade commander, I admit that what you said is very reasonable, but it's a pity that such a good opportunity is placed in front of us to give up without trying..."

"Well, comrade deputy commander, you don't have to say any more." Without waiting for him to speak, I interrupted him decisively, but in order not to hurt his self-esteem, I put forward a compromise: "well, you can send a reconnaissance team as soon as possible to catch up with Kiev to reconnoiter the enemy's force distribution."

"Yes, I'll arrange it now." Hearing what I said, Romanov's worried face was swept away. As soon as he finished his words, he couldn't wait to run to the telephone beside him. He planned to immediately give the reconnaissance order to the division's reconnaissance company by telephone.

Seeing Romanov with a telephone in his hand, cheerfully giving orders, it suddenly occurred to me that yesterday I ordered wittkov to send troops to the vicinity of kilovgrad for reconnaissance. I don't know what the final reconnaissance result is. I must ask immediately. Thinking of this, I went to the back of razumeyeva and patted her on the shoulder. As soon as she turned her head, I immediately asked, "Lieutenant, can you contact the army headquarters in kilovgrad immediately? I have something to talk to the chief of staff. "“ Yes, comrade commander. " Razumeyeva said and pushed a phone in front of me, and reported to me: "this phone can directly communicate with the military headquarters. Do you need me to connect you?" Seeing that I nodded in agreement, she immediately dialed the number. Because these wired phones are much more secure than wireless calls, I heard wittkov's voice coming out of the receiver. Without going around the circle, I asked directly, "Hello, chief of staff, have the reconnaissance results of the reconnaissance battalion come out?" From the receiver came wittkov's excited voice: "Hello, comrade commander. The reports of several reconnaissance units of captain travkin are all in front of me. I was just about to take time to report them to you. I didn't expect you to call first From wittkov's voice, I judged that the reconnaissance effect of the reconnaissance battalion last night must be good, so I quickly asked, "tell me, comrade chief of staff, what's going on?"“ Comrade commander, you may not even dream of it. " Wittkov said mysteriously: "according to captain travkin's report, when he personally led a reconnaissance team to sneak into the German position, he found that except for two or three sentinels, there was no sign of the enemy. And the German soldiers we see in the trenches with telescopes during the day are just a group of dummies in military uniforms and helmets“ What, chief of staff When I heard that except for a few soldiers in the enemy's position, the rest were dummies, I immediately felt a sense of humiliation. I asked aloud, "since there are dummies in the trenches, where are the main forces of the German army?"“ According to our interrogation of the prisoners, the main force of the enemy has quietly bypassed our defensive area and moved towards the Dnieper River. " When witkov heard that I was angry, he immediately reported to me truthfully: "according to our analysis, they should be ready to cross the river to reinforce Manstein." Putting down the phone, I turned to Romanov and andreushenko, who were standing behind me, and said, "comrades commander, the German army is very cunning. Apart from leaving a few troops to watch us, the rest of them went to the Dnieper River. Now, I agree with the deputy commander that once the reconnaissance of Kiev is completed, the 171st and 308th divisions will immediately move to Kiev. " At this point, I stopped for a moment, biting my back teeth and said, "since the Germans want to play a conspiracy, we must teach them a lesson that will never be forgotten."