Chapter 1267

What, the guerrillas formed a coalition and recaptured Corson overnight? When I heard this news, my first reaction was: Oh my God, it's impossible. Even if there are seven or eight hundred guerrillas, it's not so easy to clean up more than 100 German troops. It must be a mistake.

Thinking of this, I raised my voice and asked, "Comrade General, is captain shamrih with you? I want to ask him personally, "what's the matter?"

"All right, comrade commander, just a moment," Kravchenko said politely. "I'll let captain shamrih speak to you."

In the earphone soon came the respectful voice of shamrih: "Hello, comrade commander, this is shamrih."

"Hello, captain." After a polite greeting, I asked him directly, "is it true to hear that the guerrillas form a coalition?"

"Yes, comrade commander, a coalition of several guerrillas succeeded in liberating kosong from the enemy's hands early this morning." Perhaps for fear that I might get to the bottom of the matter, he went on to say, "they used to be guerrillas active along the Dnieper River, because some time ago the German army withdrew from the other side of the river. They are worried that they will be wiped out, so as soon as the commanders of several guerrilla units discuss, they will join forces and act together. "

When sharmlich finished speaking, I continued to ask a question in my heart: "Comrade captain, if I'm not mistaken, these guerrillas should be small in number. Where did they put together seven or eight hundred people to attack the German army of korson?" The reason why I ask this question is that at the beginning of the year, when I passed here with my troops, almost all the guerrillas with hundreds of people were incorporated, while the remaining guerrillas were no more than 40 or 50 people, and only a dozen less. When the seven or eight units are united, it's good to have two or three hundred people. Seven or eight hundred people are too many.

"Well, comrade commander." After hearing my doubts, shamrih explained to me again, "the original strength of the guerrillas was only 30 or 40 people on average. But some time ago, when the German army withdrew from the other side, it carried a large number of civilians. In the process of transferring, some young people quietly fled into the forest and joined the local guerrillas while the Germans didn't pay attention. As a result, the number of troops has multiplied. "

Hearing from shamrih that the increase in the number of guerrillas is due to the participation of a large number of fleeing civilians, I can not help but worry more and more. In the era of hot weapons, the number of people is not the key to victory or defeat, but depends on the level of equipment and technology and tactics. The fighting capacity of the guerrillas is not strong at all. They have added so many civilians who have not received military training. It's a headache to think about their fighting capacity now.

After a moment's silence, I asked tentatively, "Comrade captain, how are the casualties of the guerrillas in the battle of liberating Kesong?"

My question immediately silenced him. After a long time, he slowly replied, "the casualties are not small. Originally, the guerrillas sneaked into Kesong in the dark. Who knows, they were discovered by the enemy just after they solved several sentries. As a result, the sneak attack turned into a strong attack. Those civilians who had just joined the ranks, because they had no combat experience, ran about in panic on the streets of the city when they heard the sound of the gun. As a result, they became targets of the Germans for nothing. Still, the backbone of the guerrillas fought hard to reverse the final situation. "

When shamrih finished, I went on to say, "Captain, report to me the results and casualties of the guerrillas."

"The guerrillas wiped out 69 German troops, captured 15, and more than a dozen enemies, and rushed out of the weakest defensive areas of the guerrillas." "If they can get in touch with us in advance and cooperate with us, I don't think an enemy can escape," he said with some regret

"What about the casualties of the guerrillas?" When I heard that he only talked about the results of the war, but avoided talking about the casualties of the guerrillas, I urged him to say, "Comrade captain, tell me quickly."

"357 people were killed, 239 injured and 32 missing."

I could not help frowning after hearing the report of shamrih. I did not expect that the German army was besieged by several times of forces, resulting in such heavy casualties. I stopped for a moment and then asked, "what's the matter with the missing person?"

"Maybe... Maybe... Maybe these new fighters saw that the situation was not good for the guerrillas, so they went on a little errand," he said

Although I feel extremely uncomfortable about this explanation, I can barely accept it. It's strange that so many civilians without military training don't panic in the face of a barrage of bullets that may take their lives at any time, so it's perfectly normal to have a few deserters. After thinking about it, I asked, "Comrade captain, according to your observation, with their existing forces, can they hold Kesong?"

"Comrade commander, I don't think so." Shamrih said solemnly: "the fighting backbone of the guerrillas suffered too many casualties in the battle. If the enemy does not attack, they can still hold the city. Once the enemy launches an attack above company level, it is estimated that the city will fall again. It was because of this that I rushed back to the military command post and wanted to ask the commander for help... "

"Let general Kravchenko send troops to Koson to take over the defense from the guerrillas?" After hearing his affirmative answer, I went on to say, "Comrade captain, give me the phone to your commander. I have an order to give to him."

When I heard Kravchenko's voice, I immediately gave him an order: "Comrade General, you will immediately send a motorized regiment to Kesong to take over the defense of the guerrillas. Remember to build the necessary fortifications around the city to prevent a possible German counterattack. " After I had said these words, I thought for a moment and said, "if the enemy recaptures Koson, they can cut off the road from cherkaser to kaniv at any time. Do you understand? "

"Fully understood, comrade commander." Kravchenko said with a deep understanding: "the German occupation of kosong is tantamount to inserting a wedge in our defense area, which is not allowed. You can rest assured that I will let the motorized regiment firmly guard Kesong and never let the enemy move forward. "

The guerrilla's sudden attack on Kesong made us connect cherkaser and kaniv as a whole, so that when we deploy our defense, we don't need to set aside special troops to ensure the safety of the road traffic between the two cities.

At the next group army meeting, chisgakov asked me curiously: "Comrade commander, since our group army has established a consolidated landing site on the left bank of the Dnieper River, which direction will our superiors let us take part in the next battle. Attack zaborosh to the South or Kiev to the north? "

When I heard chisgakov talking about Kiev, I was surprised to find that both kirilov, who was sitting opposite me, and akhromeyev, who was standing on one side, were surprised. I understand that their reaction is that they are very excited because they think that they will soon be able to return to the place where they made their contributions.

"According to my judgment, our group army may be used in the direction of Kiev." After giving my judgment, I went on to explain my analysis: "from the map, we are half closer to Kiev than to zaborosh. What's more, the main force of the southwest front army is approaching zaborosh from the south. Their next action is to attack the city, then cross the Dnieper River and advance to western Ukraine. "

"When do you think we can attack Kiev?" Asked chisgakov excitedly.

"Although we have occupied cherkaser and kaniv, our troops are limited, so there is no chance of winning if we want to attack Kiev, a conservative German army." In order to prevent our minds from overheating, I specially give them an alarm, "so our main task at present is to consolidate the occupied area and build a stable landing site here, so that our troops and energy sources of the front army can continuously cross over from the other side of the river. After the main force of the front army is in place, I believe that general watujing will take our place as the starting point to launch an attack on Kiev. "

"Comrade commander, I heard that you took Kiev from the German army in just one night with the 79th infantry." Chisgakov looked at me and said in an adoring tone, "I don't know how long it will take to put this group army into battle this time and win Kiev again?"

"My deputy commander," said chisgakov, with a bitter smile, I replied, "when we attacked Kiev, the main force of the German army was still on the right bank of the Dnieper River, fighting with our southwest army and Voronezh army. Kiev was almost an empty city, so we could easily seize it. Today, Kiev is not only heavily guarded by the German army, but also has built a large number of fortifications. If we want to capture this kind of city, the difficulty is no less than that of seizing Kharkov. "

What I said made everyone take a breath, because everyone had seen the cruelty of Kharkov's hard war. The 53rd army, which was the main attack force, suffered huge losses, so that they could only play the role of auxiliary attack in the period of cooperating with us.

However, chisgakov was still reluctant to say: "Comrade commander, although the German forces are strong in Kiev, there is a perfect defense system inside and outside the city. But in the face of the attack of Voronezh's front army with hundreds of thousands of us, they may still be unable to resist it? "

"Comrade deputy commander, although our troops are larger than those of the Germans and our equipment is on a par with them, we are bound to pay a heavy price to capture this fortified city from the enemy." When I think of the cruel battle, I feel afraid“ Even if we make a forced attack, not only everything in the city will be beaten to pieces, but our troops will also lose the ability to fight continuously. "

"Is the enemy really so tenacious?" As for what I said, chisgakov asked in disbelief, "but look at the enemies in kaniv and cherkaser. Almost all of them were defeated as soon as they exchanged fire with us. Are the defenders in Kiev stronger than these troops?"

"Comrade deputy commander, the reason why we can capture these two cities in such a short period of time is due to a lot of luck." I saw a puzzled expression on chisjakov's face, and then said, "because the enemy gave up a large number of defense areas on the right bank in the shortest time, they withdrew to the left bank of the river. In this case, there will inevitably be chaos in their troop establishment. For example, among the prisoners we captured, more than 100 belonged to a dozen companies that did not belong to each other. The enemy has so many names, and there is no unified command. It's strange that they won't be defeated. However, as time goes on, this kind of problem will soon be solved by the Germans. In the future, if we want to fight such an easy battle, it will not be so easy. "

As soon as I had finished, lophov came over with a telegram and reported to me, "Comrade commander, it's the reconnaissance report from captain travkin." After I quickly read the above, I handed the telegram to chisgakov, and then told bzikov to say, "Comrade chief of staff, Captain travkin is reporting that the enemy has only one infantry battalion and one tank company in smira. You immediately call Colonel shejerikov and ask him to move his troops around smira overnight and attack the city after daybreak. "“ Do you need the cooperation of artillery and tank troops? " After recording my orders, bzikov did not leave immediately, but looked at me and kindly reminded me, "you know, the enemy has a tank company in the city, which is the enemy of our infantry."“ There is no need for artillery in such a small city. " I thought about it for a moment, and then said, "you can call general Kravchenko again and ask him to send the 20th brigade of guard tanks to cooperate with the 51st division of guard." I had just issued a series of orders, and I saw lophoff appear in front of me again with several messages in my hand. I worried that something was wrong, so I frowned and asked, "Comrade major, is there anything else?" With a smile on his face, lophov handed me some telegrams in his hand, and said with a smile, "Comrade commander, this is the message just received. Two hours ago, the forces of the 40th group army successfully captured two cities downstream of us, klemenchug and svewodesk. The landing site they set up is connected with our defense area. " After listening to lophov, chisgakov immediately buried himself in the map. After watching for a moment, he slapped heavily on the map with his hand, and then said to me excitedly: "Comrade commander, this is really great. After the friendly forces occupied these two cities, they helped us block the enemy who might come from zaborosh. In this way, we can turn our defense focus to the north and be ready to attack Kiev at any time."