Chapter 2005: The Beginning of Operation Bagration

  Chapter 2005 Beginning of Operation Bagration

  The day of attack has arrived.

  Before the offensive began, the troops completed the establishment of the observation post in strict accordance with Rokossovsky's regulations.

  According to the regulations, the observation post of the division commander is 500-1,000 meters away from the attack starting position of the troops, the observation post of the army commander is 2 kilometers away from the starting position of the attacking troops, and the observation post of the group army commander is 3 kilometers away from the starting position of the troops attacking.

   An hour before the start of the offensive, Sokov arrived at his observation post early, where he was going to observe how the troops passed through the swamp.

Colonel Belkin was staying with Sokov at the observation post. As the time for the attack approached, he couldn't help feeling nervous. He tentatively asked Sokov: "Misha, what do you think of our attack today? Will it work?"

"Belkin, didn't I tell you?" Sokov turned to look at Belkin and said, "The troops of the front army occupied the starting position as early as mid-June. The two breakthrough directions ensured the enemy's The superiority of the enemy - the strength of the enemy is 3 to 4 times, and the artillery and tanks are 4 to 6 times that of the enemy. In addition to having a powerful and fast group that can encircle the enemy's troops, there are more than 2,000 aircraft to provide cover and support for our attack .”

  In various materials of later generations, the time Bagration initiated is recorded as June 22, which is the third anniversary of Operation Barbarossa. But Sokov, who was personally on the scene, knew that this time was not accurate.

   The guerrillas in the rear of the German army were the first to attack. From the night of June 19 to the morning of the 20th, they mobilized 143,000 people, including 150 guerrilla brigades and 49 independent guerrilla battalions. They attacked various usual targets in the area behind Army Group Center: railway junctions, bridges, repair stations, warehouses, and communications facilities, among others.

  On the first night alone, they carried out at least 9,600 attacks with improvised explosive devices, paralyzing the entire railway network from the front line to Minsk and other western locations, and destroying more than 1,000 transportation nodes.

  In the second night, they expanded the results with 2,500 blasts, cutting off the logistics traffic of the German Army Group Central for more than 24 hours.

The second phase of the offensive began from the night of June 21 to the morning of June 22. The Soviet air force carried out heavy bombing of targets in the rear of the German army, focusing on the weak links in its transportation and logistics network. attack.

   It was precisely because the Soviet army invested in aviation and elite reconnaissance troops, coupled with the fierce fighting, that the German defenders believed that this marked the beginning of the Soviet army's general offensive. Therefore, traditionally, German historical materials and almost all English-language historical books based on German narratives have set June 22 as the beginning of "Operation Bagration".

  In fact, the Soviet army's official offensive did not start until the morning of June 23, because until then, the main force of the Soviet army did not officially join the battle.

In order to relieve Belkin's tension while waiting, Sokov began to chat with him: "Belkin, you know, this time we are using troops from the four front armies to deal with the four German armies. On paper, we have the military advantage."

   "Four front armies against four group armies?" Belkin asked curiously, "Which four front armies are against which four group armies?"

  "The First Belarusian Front Army commanded by General Rokossovsky, against the German Second Army commanded by General Varta Weiss."

   "The 2nd Belarusian Front under the command of General Zakharov against the 9th Army under the command of General Hans Jordan."

   "Third Belarusian Front under General Cherniakhovsky against General Kurt von Tippelskich's Fourth Army."

   "The 1st Baltic Front under General Baghramyan against the 3rd Panzer Army under General Georg Hans Reinhardt."

  "This "Operation Bagration" is different from the past. It will no longer be a series of independent frontal attacks, but will concentrate multiple fronts to attack specific important targets.

In the north, for example, Baghramyan's troops and Chernyakhovsky's troops would cooperate in a concentric attack against the German 3rd Panzer Army, while Chernyakhovsky and Zakharo The husband will do the same to the German 4th Army.

  On the other hand, at the southernmost tip, our Belarusian First Front Army, under the command of General Rokossovsky, will undertake multiple tasks. First, use two armies to contain the German 2nd Army, then concentrate on the right wing of the Front Army to attack the German 9th Army, and finally prepare the left wing for the second phase of the assault on the Northern Ukrainian Army Group in Eastern Galicia . "

"Misha," Belgin said after Sokov's words came to an end, "Although I think General Rokossovsky is the most talented commander, he has to take care of three directions at the same time. Still very concerned about his ability to achieve the envisaged goals."

Sokov raised his hand to check the time, and saw that there was still some time before the artillery preparations, so he took out a pen and paper, and drew a schematic diagram on it to show Belkin: "Belkin, for your further consideration of Bagration's actions." For intuitive understanding, let me draw a schematic diagram for you.”

   "Look, after the battle starts, it will be the right flanks of the 1st Baltic Front and the 3rd Belarusian Front against the German 3rd Panzer Army."

   "The left wing of the 3rd Belarusian Front and the 2nd Belarusian Front against the 4th German Army."

  "The right wing of the 1st Belarusian Front against the 9th German Army."

  "The Central Group of the First Belarusian Front Army against the Second Army of the German Army."

   "The left wing of the 1st Belarusian Front, in the follow-up campaign, confronted the German North Ukrainian Group."

   "Misha, I understand what you're saying." Belkin said with some trepidation, "But how about the deployment of the key German troops, have you all figured it out?"

Since the Bagration operation is about to start soon, there is no question of leaking or not. Sokov simply told Belkin all the information he had learned during this period: "In our main attack In terms of direction, the 38 divisions under the German 3rd Panzer Army, 4th Army, and 9th Army were scattered on the frontal defense line of nearly 1,000 kilometers, and the average defensive front of each division exceeded 27 kilometers.

  The problem of overstretched fronts is serious enough, but to make matters worse, the German army basically has no decent combat reserves. For example, Jordan's Ninth Army had only one 707th Security Division in reserve. Similarly, the 3rd Panzer Army could only mobilize one 95th Infantry Division in an emergency. Tipperskirch's 4th Army had no reserves at all, and Weiss' 2nd Army had only the 4th Cavalry Brigade and the Hungarian 1st Cavalry Division as reserves.

And their Central Army Group, which is responsible for assisting in the defense of this entire vast area, only includes a 20th Armored Division that has suffered heavy losses in the previous spring operations and is still resting, a 14th Infantry Division, and a 14th Infantry Division that has not yet been completed. Formation of the 60th Panzergrenadier Division. "

"Misha, if the Germans really do not have any strategic reserves as you said, then their follow-up combat capabilities will not be strong, and our Operation Bagration will have a high chance of success." Biel After Jin heaved a sigh of relief, he tentatively asked Sokov: "By the way, how long is your army planning to carry out artillery preparations before launching an attack on the enemy's position?"

"Belkin, you have been working with me for a long time, and you should know my style." Sokov said: "Every time the Germans are bombarded in their positions, they will temporarily withdraw their troops to the second line, causing the enemy's front line to attack. The artillery fire preparations of the position fell on the unmanned trenches, resulting in an astonishing waste of ammunition. In order to avoid wasting a large amount of artillery shells without causing any casualties to the enemy, my troops prepared the artillery fire very well before attacking. short."

"In the past two days, General Baghramyan's troops have adopted a new tactic." Sokov went on to say: "He carried out bold tentative attacks on a battalion-level scale. If the Germans have abandoned their positions, That's great, and the main battle can start immediately; if the scouts find that the Germans are still in position, then they can use the radio to indicate the direction for the artillery, and use intensive artillery fire to destroy the enemy."

  Belkin suddenly laughed when he heard this. Seeing Sokov looking at him blankly, he took the initiative to say: "Misha, no matter how well you study in the military academy, what you master is just what is in the books. You must go through the baptism of war and personally command It is only by fighting with troops that it is possible to become an excellent commander. You see, the tactic of friendly troops using reconnaissance battalions to fight is not found in books. This is a new type of tactic that has been explored through repeated practice. "

   "By the way, the offensive is about to start. I wonder where General Rokossovsky is now?"

"He was in the 28th Army in Luchinsky," Sokov said. Went to the 28th Army."

   "Also, Marshal Zhukov, the representative of the base camp, strongly advocated carrying out the main assault from the Dnieper River landing field of the 3rd Army, so he went there."

Belgin fell silent after listening, and then said to Sokov: "I think there seems to be a private rivalry between Marshal Zhukov and General Rokossovsky. They each went to a unit. Make it clear to the opponent that the troops you are looking for will be the first to break through the enemy's defenses."

Hearing what Belkin said, Sokov couldn't help but smiled wryly: "Belkin, according to what you said, neither Marshal Zhukov nor General Rokossovsky are optimistic about me, so neither of them can do it. Show up at my headquarters."

  At four o'clock in the morning, the artillery preparations before the attack began.

  Belkin raised his hand to check the time, and then asked Sokov, "Misha, how long will the artillery preparations last?"

"According to the plan of the Front Army Command, the artillery preparations for the offensive front of the 3rd and 28th Army lasted for two hours." Sokov said: "As for the artillery preparation time here, General Rokossovsky It was once authorized to me to decide the time of shelling according to the specific situation."

"Actually, I don't think your shelling makes much sense anymore." Belkin said, "Look, the enemies on the high ground opposite the swamp were basically frightened by your engineers with mines, and then bombarded those enemies with artillery fire." High ground is simply a waste of shells, it is better to directly order the hovercraft carrying infantry to attack."

"The bombardment is absolutely necessary, Belkin." Sokov said to Belkin with a smile: "One is to give the enemy an illusion that we will conduct bombardment in this direction for a long time, so that they can The second line of defense is safe and bold to stay longer. As for the second point, the engineers planted mines everywhere to deal with the Germans a few days ago, so that they couldn't figure out where there were mines. Part of the landmines can be cleared and the possible losses to our army can be reduced.”

When Sokov and Belkin were chatting and laughing in the observation post, Marshal Zhukov was also on the phone with Rokossovsky: "Koschka, I heard the sound of artillery from the direction of the 48th Army, which seemed to be relatively sparse. What did Misha do?"

"Comrade Marshal, there is something I forgot to tell you." Rokossovsky waited for Zhukov to finish speaking, and said with a smile: "A few days ago, Misha launched a large-scale landmine removal operation and ordered the engineers to mobilize The landmines laid by the enemy came out and were buried near the enemy's high ground. The landmines blocked the way for the German army to go up and down the mountain, and they also cut off other people's telephone lines. Those communication soldiers who came to overhaul the lines were buried in the The landmines under the poles were blown to pieces. In this way, the Germans were overwhelmed by Sokov's mine tactics, and they voluntarily gave up some high ground."

   "This Misha has a lot of tricks." Zhukov continued to ask: "Then their front and the high ground are occupied by the German army?"

   "The German army originally occupied 17 highlands on the edge of the swamp. After being squeezed by Misha's landmine tactics, there are now 5 left, and there are not many defenders on them, probably only one platoon."

   Zhukov heard this, his eyeballs almost fell to the ground: "Koschka, what are you talking about, the German army in front of Misha's army actually has five platoons of troops?"

"That's the theory, Comrade Marshal." Rokossovsky said with a smile, "With the Germans' strength, it would be a waste to shell them. Misha only needs to send a regiment of troops across the swamp. can easily capture the German defensive positions and command troops to push quickly into the depths of the enemy's defenses."

   "Oh, why didn't I ask you about the specific situation in advance." Zhukov said with some annoyance, "If I knew that the situation on the other side of the Druj swamp was like this, I would definitely go directly to Misha's headquarters."

Rokossovsky laughed loudly after hearing this: "Comrade Marshal, actually I also want to go to Misha's army, but considering that you have a good relationship with him, I thought you would go there, so I can only choose to come to the second place." 28th Army. I didn’t expect to know that you chose the 3rd Army after I notified General Luchinsky. Alas, what a pity, an honor of breaking through the enemy’s defense line was just missed.”

Not only Rokossovsky regretted it, but Zhukov was also very annoyed. He originally thought that the area where Sokov's troops were located, because there were a large number of swampy areas including the Druj River, if an attack was launched, the terrain would be severely damaged. The crossing of delayed infantry, especially tanks, may be the last force to break through. So he chose the 3rd Army, which had the highest chance of breaking through, but unexpectedly, he was mistaken.

  (end of this chapter)