Chapter 1557

With the full cooperation of local transport vehicles, by daybreak, the artillery shells on each artillery position were piled up like a mountain, enough to cope with two days of high-density shelling.

After receiving the news, konev could not help but be overjoyed. He said to us with a smile, "comrades, since our artillery has sufficient ammunition, we can let the Germans taste the power of our artillery." Speaking of this, he turned his eyes to sokolovsky, "chief of staff, our main attack direction today is koweli in the north. We ordered the artillery of the second echelon to move forward, and the artillery of the first echelon deployed in the front to bombard the German defensive positions at the same time."

"Marshal," as soon as konev's words were finished, military commissar kleinukov broke in and said, "at present, the artillery density of our army in the direction of keweli has reached about 100 guns per kilometer. I don't think it's necessary to increase it any more."

"Comrade military commissar," konev said to him with a smile, "Comrade Stalin once said: artillery is the God of war. Although the artillery density of our army in the direction of kewali has reached 100 guns per kilometer, I think it is far from enough. Now that we have enough shells, we should send more artillery troops up to beat up the German defense. "

After konev finished speaking, I echoed: "Comrade military commissar, marshal konev is right. Since we have enough shells, it is absolutely necessary to increase the density of forward artillery. The great success of the battle of Belarus was due to the large and concentrated use of artillery. As far as I know, the average density of artillery is 150-200 guns and mortars per kilometer in front of each breakthrough area of the front army. "

"Chief of staff, give orders to the troops below." Konev raised his hand and looked at his watch, adding: "it's four o'clock in the morning, and our artillery should carry out intensive shelling on the German defensive positions at eight o'clock in the morning."

As soon as sokolovsky walked away, the phone in front of konev rang. I thought it was Stalin. I was afraid that I could not listen to the conversation between him and konev, so I went to the conference table not far away. As a result, just after two steps, he was stopped by konev at the back: "Rita, you don't have to avoid. The phone is from Khrushchev."

After that, he said with a smile to the microphone, "Comrade Khrushchev, on behalf of me, please express my sincere thanks to the drivers who participated in the transportation last night. Without their help, our artillery would not be able to hoard so much ammunition overnight. "

"Comrade konev, you are very kind." Khrushchev also said with a relaxed mood: "in order to defeat the Communist aggressors and completely drive them out of our land, we have only done what we can. By the way, I would like to ask, "what is the current situation on the battlefield and what achievements have been made?"

Because of Khrushchev's special identity, konev did not hide this question from him, but truthfully replied: "the situation is not very good. In yesterday's battle, our army broke through the German first line of defense in the direction of koweli and pushed forward eight kilometers; In the direction of Lvov, no progress has been made. "

"What about the direction of the Carpathians?" Khrushchev asked, "as far as I know, your front army and the second front army have deployed several army groups there. Have they exchanged fire with the Germans?"

"Not yet." Konev looked at me and then said, "because Rita feigned in the area in the early stage, misleading the German army's judgment and making them think that our army's primary attack direction was there, they deployed the campaign reserve - the third armored force in that direction."

Hearing what konev said, Khrushchev said in an appreciative tone: "it seems that the deception tactics carried out by Rita are quite effective. They have confused the excellent German commanders like model. Did you exchange fire with the German armored forces in yesterday's battle? "

"The German armored division is deployed in the direction where our army may carry out assault, 15-20 km away from the front, as long as it is used to compete with our army for tactical defense range. They built 2-3 positions in the main defense zone with a depth of 4-6 km. Our army successfully occupied this area after a day of fierce fighting yesterday. " Konev carefully introduced the situation on the battlefield to Khrushchev: "the enemy's second defense zone is set at a distance of 10-15 kilometers from the front, which will be the focus of our attack today. Only by seizing this place can we advance to their third defensive zone along the West Bank of the sibug and gnirayalipa rivers. "

Long after konev and Khrushchev's phone call, sokolovsky came back and reported to him, "Comrade marshal, I have given your order to the artillery commander in the direction of koweli. He said that the artillery of the second echelon could reach the designated position before eight o'clock. In this way, our artillery density in the direction of kewali can reach 200 gates per kilometer. "

"Two hundred guns per kilometer?" Kraineukov was shocked by sokolovsky's words. He said to konev in an unbelievable tone: "marshal, just a few months ago, we had less than 200 guns in a defensive area. Now, we can easily make the density of artillery reach 200 guns per kilometer in a certain attack area, which is just incredible. "

"Comrade military commissar, this is because our army has become stronger." Konev confidently said: "I believe that under such intensive artillery fire, we will tear open the gap in the German defense position."

As the time approached eight o'clock, sokolovsky, standing not far away, holding a microphone in his hand, respectfully asked konev, "Comrade marshal, the artillery commander called to ask if he could make preparations on time?"

"Are the artillery in place?" Asked konev.

Sokolovsky rushed to the microphone and asked, "have all the artillery units entered the designated positions?" After listening to the other party's reply, he reported to konev, "there are about four artillery regiments and two rocket barracks still on the way."

"The artillery is ready to go on time. As for those artillery units that have not yet reached the designated position, we will not wait for them for the time being." After konev finished this sentence, he stopped for a moment. In order not to let sokolovsky misunderstand his meaning, he added: "when they arrive at their destination, they should also quickly start to participate in the artillery preparation."

Sokolovsky, after konev finished, rushed to the microphone and repeated konev's words to the artillery commander at the other end of the phone.

Due to the abundance of shells, the preparation for the artillery fire lasted for one and a half hours. More than 2000 guns bombarded the German second defense zone at the same time, and the firepower density was as high as six rounds per second. Not only were the German anti tank obstacles in front of the positions removed, but also the fortifications on their main positions were seriously damaged.

As soon as the shelling of howitzers and cannons was over, there were more than a dozen close guard rocket barracks covering the German positions with thousands of rockets. When the artillery began to extend their firepower to suppress the targets in depth, three red signal bombs rose above our position, which were signals of attack.

Seeing the signal of the attack, the 76th infantry of the 3rd group army of the close guard first launched the attack. Guided by the tanks of the 1st Brigade of the close guard tanks, they bravely rushed to the German position, shouting slogans.

Two lines of defense were set up in the second defensive zone of the German army. However, due to our intensive artillery attack, when the enemy came out of the hidden bunker, it was found that not only the fire points were completely destroyed, but even the trenches were blown down. They can only seize the time to dig out one individual bunker after another with an engineering shovel, and then hide in it and shoot at our charge troops.

However, today's situation is different from yesterday's. those anti tank obstacles in front of the fortifications were destroyed by artillery fire. Even the insurmountable anti tank trench was filled with floating soil and debris in the artillery fire. Our army's tanks can easily pass through this area. The infantry in charge were hiding behind the tanks, and the damage from the sparse firepower of the German positions was very limited. Occasionally, two firepower points are revived, but the machine gun inside is often destroyed by the tank gun before even one shuttle is finished.

The infantry of our army launched a charge at 9:30. At 10:00, there was a battle report in the front, saying that our army had already broken into the first line of defense, was cleaning up the remaining German troops in the area, and was preparing to attack the second line of defense.

"That's great. That's... that's great." Seeing such war reports, everyone in the headquarters was happy and full of confidence in the next battle. Konev kept the telegram in his hand and said to sokolovsky: "chief of staff, immediately forward this telegram to the headquarters of the staff, so that Moscow can see what we have achieved."

Compared with konev, I was more calm. After all, I already knew the outcome of the ongoing campaign. What I can do now is to speed up the destruction of the German army according to my own historical knowledge. Therefore, when konev's mood was a little more stable, I said to him, "marshal, although our main attack direction today is in koweli, we should also take the same violent action in the direction of Lvov and the Carpathian Mountains, so that the enemy can't figure out which direction our main attack is and where it is, it's just a containment action."

"Rita, you have a point. I'll call the artillery commanders in these two directions and ask them to fire on the German artillery positions, so that the enemy can't tell where our main attack direction is." With that, he grabbed the phone in front of him and began to call the other two artillery commanders.

When I watched konev give orders to the microphone, I thought to myself: if there is no plan I put forward, let civilian vehicles help us transport shells, then konev will command several directions at the same time, to bombard the German defensive positions? Certainly not, because there were not enough shells, he could only command the tanks to cover the infantry and attack the German defensive positions after a short period of artillery preparation.

At noon, our army made great progress in the attack in the direction of kewali. After clearing the German army of the first line of defense, the troops of the third group army of the close guard launched an attack on the second line of defense.

After reading the war report, I suggested to konev: "marshal, since we have made great progress in the direction of koweli, I suggest that the first group army of general katukov's close guard tanks should be put into combat to prevent the German army from using armored forces to counter attack the breakthrough controlled by our army."

"You are very considerate." After listening to me, konev immediately nodded his head and said, "so far, the German army has not used their armored division. I feel that modle will immediately send an armored division to counterattack the troops of the 3rd group army of the guards, so as to close the breach opened by our army. " Fortunately, my proposal to konev was timely. After receiving the order to attack, katukov immediately commanded his large army and rushed to the breach opened by our army. As soon as the front tank brigade arrived at the breach, it encountered the approaching German armored division. This is a tank war of equal strength. The German army has the advantage in quantity, while our army has the advantage in equipment. Although a small number of t-5455 caused huge casualties to German tanks, the rest of T-34 suffered heavy losses under the attack of German Tiger and enhanced version of No. 4 tank. However, the tank battle lasted only half an hour. As more and more Chinese tanks joined the battlefield, German tanks immediately fell below. Most of the more than 130 German tanks involved in the assault were destroyed by our army. The rest quickly opened the hatch and waved the white flag to surrender to our army. In order to show their sincerity, they also tilted the turret to one side. Only four or five tanks escaped. This kind of war report, immediately let us be jubilant. After reading the war report, sokolovsky said excitedly to konev, "Comrade marshal, I didn't expect that an armored division of the German army would be destroyed without even holding on for an hour under our attack." Although konev was very happy, he was not dazzled by the victory. He calmly issued the latest combat order: "order the troops to speed up the attack and completely seize the German defense zone before dark."“ Don't worry, comrade marshal. " Sokolovsky said with some elation: "according to this method of play, there is no problem for our troops to seize the German second defensive zone before dark. If we are lucky, we may be able to attack the enemy's third defensive zone. "