Chapter 1140

After the summary of the battle was reported to the headquarters of the front army, vatujing actually called in person. He asked curiously, "Comrade oshanina, from your report, I see a very strange thing. I want to ask you."

"General, if you have any questions, just ask." Although I don't know what watujing would ask me, I respectfully said, "as long as I know, I will give you a satisfactory answer."

From the receiver came the sound of turning the paper, and then I heard vatugin say: "Comrade oshanina, the original words are like this: when the soldiers rush into the village, they deliberately let the defecting German soldiers shout, so that the German soldiers disguised as our army can hear their authentic German. Many of the German soldiers who had aimed their guns at our army laid down their weapons one after another and willingly became our prisoners. That's what I want to ask. Why are the German soldiers willing to be captives

I can't laugh or cry about vatukin's problem. I thought he called in person and there must be some important task to assign to me. I didn't expect that it was such a boring problem. However, since he asked, I could only say truthfully: "Comrade General, the reason why the German army would voluntarily lay down their arms and become prisoners after hearing the authentic German is that they regarded our commanders and fighters as their own people, and were afraid that their excessive reaction would cause unnecessary misunderstanding."

"So it is." Watujing said thoughtfully, "then I'll ask you again, when formulating this task, have you considered that this operation will fail?"

"Thought about it." I didn't want to hide anything from watujing, so I answered honestly, "but I can't stop doing it because I'm afraid of failure. Besides, the reason why I want to send these defecting officers and men is that they are originally German troops. It is not easy for the enemy to find flaws when they take part in the operation. The formation of the German army is different from ours. No matter how well our commanders and fighters camouflage, they are easy to be seen through in front of the highly vigilant enemy. "

"Although you succeeded in this operation, you still took some risks." "I know a group of German officers and men who have defected to me, but I can't trust them too much. Maybe one day, when they see that our army is at a disadvantage, they will turn around and hit us. "

"No, Comrade General." When I heard that vatukin doubted the loyalty of gramus, I quickly explained: "they have been under my command since they defected. They have participated in the battle of mamayev post and the battle of seizing Kiev. After the fall of Kiev, they followed Comrade kirilov to fight for thousands of kilometers and went through all kinds of hardships to come back to us. They didn't betray us under such bad conditions. Will they run back to the Germans when the war is more and more favorable to us? "

"Comrade oshanina, you are a little too optimistic." When vatukin heard that I actually defended the defected German officers and soldiers, he said with some displeasure: "according to the information we have, Manstein will launch a more violent attack on the defense areas of your group army, the seventh group army and the 40th group army today. What you have to think about now is how to repel the German attack, rather than defending a few unreliable subordinates. You can do it yourself. " With that, he hung up abruptly.

Although watujing was angry with me, I didn't care at all, because under the current situation, even if he was no longer satisfied with me, he would not be able to remove my post and change my general. In that case, the defense line to the south of Kursk may be completely penetrated by the German army.

After I put down the phone, kirilov looked at me with a worried face and said, "Rita, how can you have an argument with the general? We need to know that there are a lot of demands for him at present. If he withdraws your post or does not send us a reserve team because he is angry, what can he do? "

As for kirilov's concern and worry, I said with a smile: "Comrade military commissar, don't worry. Under the current circumstances, commander watujing will not take any substantive action except to make a few angry remarks at me. That is to say, it is impossible for him to withdraw from my post or stop sending reinforcements to our group army defense area. "

"If that's true, that's good." Kirilov sighed and said, "this is the critical moment of fighting with the German army. Our command system can't go wrong at all."

I raised my hand and looked at my watch. Then I asked bzikov, "chief of staff, is there any new report on the frontier?"

Bezikov said with a sad face: "just received a telegram from the 67th division of the guards, the German army launched an attack on them. Commander shejerikov is directing the troops to retreat to the forest area in turn

"Is there any news from the mechanized third army?" Although the 67th division of the guards did not stay in butovo for three days, it still gained valuable preparation time for the mechanized third army behind them, because I first thought about this unit that has not yet been put into combat since I heard that the army under the command of shijerikov was retreating.

"Major general krivoschein called and said that a German tank unit was rushing along the road to their defense area." After taking a look at the telegram in his hand, bezikov replied, "they planted a large number of anti tank mines on the German road and arranged special anti tank men. They believe that they can block the enemy who rushed to oboyan."

After listening to his reply, I turned my eyes to akhromeyev, who was standing by the wall and had just made a phone call: "Comrade major, what's the situation over there?"

"Report to the commander." Akhromeyev put the microphone on the telephone, straightened his body and reported to me: "the 375TH division commander govorunanko reported that about one German regiment was assembled in front of the 1243 regiment position in Prokhorovka area. They have just launched an attack on our position under the cover of tanks. "

"Comrade major, what measures did Comrade govoruninenko take to deal with the German attack?" Next to Danilov suddenly asked: "can our troops hold the position?"

Akhromeyev quickly turned his body to Danilov and said, "deputy commander, I think the 1243 regiment should be able to hold the position, because the Fifth Army of the close guard tank sent the sixth motorized infantry regiment to reinforce. If they strike hard from the flank of the German army, the enemy's attack will collapse. "

When I heard this, I was about to speak when the telephone on my desk rang. I raised my hand, picked up the receiver, put it to my ear and asked, "Hello, where are you?"

"Report to Comrade commander." From the receiver came Nekrasov's voice: "our defense area has been attacked by the German army. At present, the three main positions are engaged in fierce fighting."

"Didn't the early morning shelling inflict heavy damage on the German troops being assembled?" I feel very strange about the report of nikolasov, because according to the artillery report, the early morning shelling has achieved great results. As I said this, I couldn't help glancing at povsky standing beside me.

Povsky noticed my eyes. He frowned and walked quickly to the phone beside the wall. He thought he wanted to call the forward artillery to verify the results they reported after the early morning shelling.

"Comrade commander, there are too many Germans." "Every main position has been attacked by at least one German division in turn. Although the enemy's attack has been repulsed, we have also paid huge casualties," he said

"Relying on the tunnels and fortifications to carry out tenacious defense." At this time, I can only say something to cheer him up, "let the 96th brigade assault and use their advanced tanks to defeat the German tank troops. As long as the German army loses the support of artillery and tanks, their attack will collapse. "

"The 96th brigade has entered the battle," said Nekrasov in a hurry. "The German army not only bombarded the assembly area of the tank brigade with artillery, but also took advantage of the opportunity of air supremacy to dive and drop bombs on our tanks. A lot of tanks were blown up before they got into the attack position. "

When I heard that our new tanks were constantly losing money in the German bombardment and bombing, I couldn't help but look at them anxiously and yelled at the microphone: "Colonel, you should contact the commander of the 96th brigade immediately and ask him to lead the remaining tanks towards the enemy. Only if you entangle with the enemy, their aircraft and artillery will lose their function, Then we will have a chance to turn the situation around. "

At the end of my conversation with nikolasov, I went on to call Colonel berey. As soon as I heard his voice, I asked directly, "Comrade Colonel, how many more tanks can your tank army use?"

"Comrade commander, although there are two tank brigades in my tank army, there are no more than 100 tanks that can be used at present." Colonel berey has not been dealing with me for a day or two. Knowing that I asked this question, there must be a reason. He immediately asked nervously, "which direction are you going to throw the tank?"

"This is the case, comrade colonel. The defense area of the 52nd division of the guards was suddenly attacked by three German divisions equipped with a large number of tanks. The current situation is very bad. Can you send tank troops to support them? " After I said this, I secretly regretted it, because the current position of the tank troops is not close to the area where they are fighting. If they are attacked by the German air force in the process of long-distance attack, they will not only fail to play the role of support, but also suffer unnecessary losses. Thinking of this, I hesitated and said, "is there any difficulty?"

After hesitating for a long time, Colonel berey finally replied with difficulty, "there is no difficulty. I will send the 82nd brigade of tanks to support immediately. After repelling the German attack, I will let the troops stay there."

Seeing that bere promised to send tank troops to reinforce the defense area of the 52nd division of the guards, I was deeply relieved. He put down the phone and asked povsky, "Captain, what's the situation there? Have you made it clear?"

Povsky straightened up and reported to me, "Comrade commander, I just called the artillery at the front. They assured me that the results reported to us were completely accurate."

"Comrade Colonel, if the information reported by the artillery is accurate, where do so many enemies come from?" Danilov listened to the report of povsky, still with a suspicious tone asked: "our artillery won't kill all the fake targets arranged by the German army?"

As soon as Danilov's words came out, the headquarters immediately became quiet. It had to be said that there was a certain truth in his words. This possibility existed completely. I saw povsky blush with shame, turned around and wanted to call the wall again. I quickly stopped him: "don't call again, Colonel. Even if you fight again, it is estimated that the artillery will still tell you that their reported results are accurate. "

"But, comrade commander." Danilov asked with an unhappy face: "can you explain where so many German troops came from?"“ It's very simple, comrade deputy commander. " I said lightly: "although the troops assembled in front of the 52nd division of the guards were defeated by us, the German army must have deployed a large number of troops on the second line. Seeing the loss of the troops in front of us, Manstein immediately transferred the troops on the second line and launched a new offensive against our position. " Kirilov looked at the map and said to himself, "the 51st and 67th divisions of the guards, and the 375TH division of the infantry, are fighting. But why didn't the 51st division of the guards get any information? What do the Germans want to do Kirilov's words reminded me. I immediately asked rasmishin, the director of intelligence who had just come in: "Comrade commander, do you have the latest intelligence of Yakovlev?"“ No, comrade commander. " Rasmishin replied hastily, "I have ordered the telegraph operator to report to me as soon as there is a telegram from the 51st division of the guards." Just after a few words, the director of communications, lophov, came in in a hurry, quickly came to me, handed me a telegram, and said, "Comrade commander, the telegram we just received says that a large number of German troops are moving towards Prokhorovka."“ What kind of troops are there, and how many troops are there? " I answered the phone, did not care to see, he asked in a hurry. Lophoff shook his head and replied, "comrades commander, the information was sent back by a reconnaissance team, and their telegrams were terminated half way through. I think they were discovered by the German army and all died. So we can't tell from their incomplete telegrams the size of the German army that rushed to Prokhorovka. "“ Comrade commander, what should we do? " Danilov asked anxiously when he heard this. After thinking for a moment, I said decisively, "call commander vatukin and ask him to send a reconnaissance plane from the air force to carry out reconnaissance and find out the size of this German army rushing to prohorovka."