Chapter 1382

With the entry of artillery troops, the advance speed of the first and second echelons was greatly accelerated. By two o'clock in the afternoon, the troops of the second echelon had reached an area only ten kilometers away from svelogorsk. Here, even without a telescope, you can clearly see the German fortifications.

When Batov heard that our vanguard troops had reached the approach of svelogorsk, he could not sit still. He urged, "Comrade oshanina, maybe in an hour or two our troops will launch an attack on svelogorsk. As the commander of the army, we set our headquarters in zhelobin, which is tens of kilometers away from the battlefield. Do you think this is appropriate? "

Batov said this because rokosovsky once taught his subordinates that only when a commander is with his soldiers can he boost morale and make the troops more cohesive. I knew that if I didn't agree, he would move rokosovsky out and convince me.

After a brief weighing, I nodded and agreed, "well, general Batov, since you say so, let's go to the front."

After an hour's journey, our team came to the outskirts of svelogorsk. As I had contacted Xie Liujin before departure, when we arrived, the headquarters for us was ready.

It's a semi buried shelter. You can enter the newly built trench through the traffic trench, or go to an observation post built on a nearby hillside. When we walked into the spacious headquarters, we found that there were more than a dozen school level officers besides the staff.

When I saw some strange officers coming up to Batov and raising their hands to salute him, I guessed that they must be his men, the commanders of the third echelon.

After I asked everyone to sit down, I said to them, "comrades, in a little while, we will launch an attack on svelogorsk. Now major ahlomeyev, director of operations of the group army, will announce the order of attack to you."

Seeing that all eyes were focused on themselves, akhromeyev coughed softly, then took out a long prepared order and read it aloud: "after the artillery preparation, the second echelon first attacked svetlogersk from the north and East; The third echelon attacked from the south. "

After akhromeyev finished reading out the troops, I stood up from my seat, supported the edge of the table with both hands, leaned forward slightly, scanned all the people with my eyes, and said in a stable tone, "the order has been read out. Do you have any questions?"

"Comrade commander," the first one to stand up was major general nikolasov, commander of the 52nd division of Jinwei. He shrunk his mouth and asked, "what is the combat mission of our division?"

Hearing his question, I asked in surprise, "why, comrade general, didn't you just hear the order read out by the major?"

"I hear you." With an unnatural expression, nikolasov said, "you know, the combat effectiveness of our division is very good in the group army, but why should we be the reserve team in this battle?"

"Comrade General, I told you yesterday that the current position of your division is behind the second echelon." As for niekrasov's query, I said lightly: "if you are transferred to attack now, it will cause unnecessary confusion. So you'd better wait patiently for our army to break through the peripheral positions of the German army, and then you can take your troops to fight in the street with the German army. "

"Comrade General, may I ask you a question?" As soon as Nekrasov sat down, one of Batov's teachers stood up and asked respectfully, "I want to ask why we only attack from the north, the East and the south, and only leave the west?"

"Fool, it's called Wai San que Yi." After murmuring in my heart, I raised my head and explained to the elder division commander, "Comrade division commander, at present there are three German divisions in svelogorsk, two of which are outside the city and one in the city. If we encircle the city, when the enemy is attacked by us, they will cut off their retreat and fight us to the end. But if we deliberately leave a gap as a way for them to escape, then the enemy's will to resist our attack will be greatly reduced. If the situation is a little unfavorable to them, they may abandon the city and flee. "

"So it is." After hearing this, the old teacher nodded and said with a smile, "now I understand everything. Thank you, Comrade General!"

Batov raised his hand and looked at his watch. Then he stood up and announced: "since the tasks are clear, everyone should go back to the army and get ready for the battle as soon as possible. When our artillery preparation is over, we will immediately attack svelogorsk."

Looking at the commanders leaving the headquarters, I turned and asked povsky, who was sitting at the table, "Comrade artillery commander, I don't know when we can start shelling the enemy?"

"Four o'clock at the latest." Povsky replied: "at present, the artillery regiments are building shooting positions, which takes time."

"Four o'clock?" Batov could not help frowning. He murmured: "even if the shelling lasts for an hour, the army's attack will not start until around five o'clock."

"Yes, general Batov." If the troops really attack at five o'clock, even if they rush into the city within an hour, it will be dark by then. In this way, our troops had to fight the German army in the dark night“ Swetrogorsk is a small city. Our five divisions rush into the city at the same time. With the German division in the city, tens of thousands of people will rush into the city. Will it be too crowded then? "

After listening to me, Batov shrugged his shoulders and said helplessly: "it's hard to say whether so many troops will rush into the city and cause congestion. But I know that there are at least 30000 residents in the city. I don't know how many people will survive this battle. "

Batov's words made my heart sink. Although I've spent a lot of time in the past few months attacking cities and plundering land, the residents of those cities who have fought have long been moved to other places by Manstein, so I can't concentrate on fighting. Now there are more than 30000 residents in the small town, which makes me feel like a rat.

After thinking about it, I said decisively to Batov, "general Batov, since there are so many residents in the city, our five divisions will rush into the city to fight in the street, which is bound to cause or cause a large number of civilian casualties..."

"Well, comrade o'shanina." Batov said with a wry smile: "I also know that fighting like this will cause huge casualties to civilians, but there is no way. After all, this is war, and there are no undead people in war."

"But we have to find a way to minimize civilian casualties." As soon as my words came out, I immediately thought of a way and said to Batov, "general Batov, I have come up with a way to annihilate a large number of German forces and reduce the casualties of civilians in the city."

"Oh, comrade o'shanina, do you have a good idea?" Batov's eyes lit up when he heard what I said. He couldn't wait to ask, "come on, what's the best way?"

"It's very simple. We'll get the enemy out of the city." I said with a clear mind, "then we will wipe them out in large numbers on their peripheral positions."

Batov thought that I had a good way to break the sky. When I said this, he immediately said with interest: "Comrade oshanina, the enemy is not a fool. How can we obey our orders and transfer our troops to the defensive positions outside the city so that we can eliminate them?"

"To achieve this goal, the key is that we should take the initiative to fight a positional offensive and defensive war with the Germans."

"Positional offensive and defensive warfare?" As for what I said, Batov became more and more confused. He asked mistily, "Comrade oshanina, I am confused by you. Can you tell me what is positional offensive and defensive warfare?"

"General Batov, please listen to me." I think of an old movie that I saw a long time ago. In order not to destroy the city and cause civilian casualties, the attacking troops planned to send all the enemies outside the city to annihilate them. Now I plan to draw the same picture: "I plan not to attack the city for the time being after the troops break through the enemy's peripheral defense line. When the enemy in the city goes out of the city to counterattack, I will order the troops to withdraw from the position after resistance and bring the German counterattack troops into the position we let out. "

When I said this, Batov, who had rich combat experience, immediately understood. He said tentatively, "Comrade oshanina, if I am not wrong, you want to wipe out all the Germans with artillery fire and infantry attack after they re-enter these positions."

"That's right," I said with a nod. "As long as the enemy's forces are consumed in a large number of positions outside the city, the street fighting will be too fierce when our troops rush into the city."

"Well, let's pass on the latest orders to our teachers." Batov looked at the empty door and said with some regret, "if you had thought of this plan earlier, you could deploy it directly to the teachers. Unexpectedly, now we can only call them next to each other and re deploy them. "

Seeing Batov's words, I was ready to get up and make a phone call. I quickly stopped him. "General Batov, you see, I'm not familiar with your three teachers. I'm afraid that if I give them orders directly, they won't pay attention to it," he said in a deliberative tone

"No problem, leave it to me." "I'll explain to them why," Batov said voluntarily

I first called Xie Liujin. Unexpectedly, as soon as he heard the beginning, he immediately called out: "no, no, comrade commander, since we have broken through the German peripheral positions, how can we not continue to rush to the city? I assure you that if you let our division into the city, it will destroy all the German troops in the city by noon tomorrow at the latest. "

"General sherekin." I snorted coldly, and then said impolitely, "don't forget that there are 30000 ordinary people in the city. If they die for nothing because of the street fight between us and the Germans, will your conscience live well?"

"This... This..." hearing my rhetorical question, Xie Liujin hesitated. After a long time, he murmured: "in order to liberate our motherland, no matter how much we pay, we will think it is worth it."“ If we can find a way to minimize the casualties of urban residents, why not try this method? " Seeing that Xie Liujin's mind could not turn around, I patiently convinced him: "even saving one more person is a great victory. At least when your children and grandchildren are full in the future, when they ask you what you should be proud of during the Great Patriotic War. You can tell them with pride that you used special tactics to save the lives of countless civilians from the hands of the Germans. " My words, let Xie Liujin into meditation. However, he did not think for a long time, then decisively replied: "Comrade commander, I understand everything. As long as we do not attack the city immediately after breaking through the German peripheral positions, the enemy will have the illusion that we have no ability to win the city, so that they can boldly counter us. While we pretended to give up our positions during their counterattack. When they regrouped in these positions, we used artillery fire and ground attack to consume a lot of their living strength and relieve the pressure for us to liberate the city in the next step. "“ That's right, that's right. "Seeing that Xie Liujin guessed my whole plan before he listened to what I said, I couldn't help but say with joy," this is my plan. The more enemies we destroy outside the city, the weaker resistance we will encounter when our troops rush into the city and fight with the enemy in the future. "“ Comrade commander, "Xie Liujin said after I finished, he volunteered to me:" I'll be responsible for giving orders to Nekrasov. He is stubborn. As long as my old friend persuades me, he will probably be able to listen. As for Mr. chejerikov and Mr. Lukin, it's up to you to inform them. After all, they are your old subordinates, and they can listen to what you say. "“ Well, Comrade Xie Liujin, that's settled. " Since someone is willing to take the initiative to help me, I can't wait for it. In this way, I can spend less time explaining the task.