Chapter 2078:

  Chapter 2078

  The commanders of the divisions and brigades who received the notification all rushed to the headquarters of the group army within an hour.

   The last to arrive was Tolstikov, the commander of the 1st Guards Division, because his division was the farthest from the headquarters. When he entered the door, he cast a questioning look at Ismailov, the commander of the 284th Division who was sitting not far from the door, and wanted to know from him what the topic of the meeting was.

  But Ismailov shrugged his shoulders, spread his hands, and tilted his head, indicating that he, like Tolstikov, knew nothing about the subject of the meeting.

   Seeing that everyone was present, Sidolin stood up and said, "Commanders, please be quiet, we are now in a meeting."

After the conference room quieted down, Sidolin continued: "I called everyone here today to announce something to you. Our rest is coming to an end, and we will start a new round of fighting with the German army. "

Knowing that the war with the German army was about to start, the commanders in the conference room began to discuss. Everyone seemed very excited. After resting for more than a month, they watched the friendly troops fighting the enemy desperately on the battlefield, while their own troops were fighting. Resting on the sidelines, everyone's heart has been suffocating for a long time, and now the clouds are finally open to see the moonlight, and they can once again compete with the German army with real swords and guns.

  Sidorin obviously expected this kind of reaction from everyone. He did not interrupt the discussion of the commanders below, but watched them quietly. After everyone's discussion came to an end, they began to get straight to the topic: "Commanders, comrades, let's start assigning tasks."

   "1st Guards Division, 6th Guards Division!"

  Hearing Sidolin read the number of their unit, Tolstikov and Onuprienko hurriedly stood up and replied loudly: "Here!"

Sidolin glanced at the two, and then continued to announce: "The troops of the 1st and 6th Guards Division will launch an attack on the German troops between Praga and Siedlce tomorrow morning to reduce the pressure on the 2nd Tank Army. .”

  Tolstikov and Onupriyenko stayed in their defense zone during this time, listening to the gunfire from the friendly defense zone, their palms were already itchy, and they wanted to command their troops to help the battle. Having received the official order from Sidolin at this moment, the two couldn't help being overjoyed, and hurriedly and loudly agreed: "Yes!"

Just when everyone thought that they would soon assign combat missions to themselves, they heard Sidolin say: "After our military committee's research, we decided to send Colonel Ismailov's 284th Infantry Division to the Belovizh Forest... "

Before Sidolin finished speaking, Ismailov stood up and said to Sidolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the German army is between Praga and Siedlce, why did you send our division to Belo?" What about Viri Forest?"

"Comrade Colonel." Without waiting for Sidolin to speak, Pornegerin said in a reproachful tone: "Before the superior has given the order, please do not interrupt with your words, this is a very impolite behavior. do you understand?"

   "Understood, Comrade Deputy Commander." After Ismailov finished speaking, he sat down again with a blushing face, and continued to listen to Sidolin's assignment of subsequent tasks.

"Colonel Ismailov," Sokov explained to Ismailov with a smile, "I think you must be wondering why the Germans are in the west of us, but why did they let our division go to the army defense zone?" north of? Right?"

   "Yes, Comrade Commander." Ismailov nodded and said, "That's how I think about it."

  Sokov got up and walked to the wall, picked up the explaining stick on the wall, pointed to the map hanging on the wall and said to the commanders present: "comrades commanders, please look at the map."

After everyone's eyes were focused on the map, Sokov continued: "Everyone should not only see the enemies inside and outside Warsaw to the west, but also see the north of our army defense area, as well as the German 2nd and Ninth Army. If we concentrate our forces to attack Warsaw, the German army in the north will definitely attack our right flank, forcing us to deploy troops to strengthen the flank defense. Are you right?"

   "That's right!" "Exactly right!" "The enemy in the north is indeed a big threat to us." Everyone responded in a hurry.

"If we want to concentrate our efforts on destroying the enemies entrenched in the Praga and Siedlce areas, we must first deal with the enemies on the right wing of the army group." Sokov said: "But how should we deal with them? Attack them directly? Our troops and equipment are far inferior to the enemy's. Once the war begins, the war may fall into a stalemate. Let alone deploying troops to strengthen the 1st and 6th Guards Divisions at that time, don't draw troops from them to consolidate the right-wing defense line It's not bad."

  The commanders present all stared at Sokov intently, wanting to hear how he planned to resolve the current predicament.

"Look here again, everyone." Sokov pointed to the location of the Belovizh Forest with his explaining stick, and said to everyone: "General Batov's 65th Army is now trapped in the Belovizh Forest. If We send troops to help them get out of the forest and bring their lines parallel to ours, so that the threat to our right wing is removed, so that we can move more troops to the Praga and Siedlce areas , launched a more violent offensive against the German army."

  The division commanders and brigade commanders present here usually stare at their own one-acre three-point land, and don't understand the overall battle situation at all. After listening to Sokov's analysis at this moment, he couldn't help but secretly nodded, feeling that the commander's consideration was correct. As long as a unit is sent to help the 65th Army trapped in the Belovizh Forest to leave the forest, then the threat to the right wing of the Army Group will be eliminated, so that more troops can be concentrated to fight the Germans in the main area.

After Sokov's explanation, all the commanders participating in the meeting understood the next combat intention. When Sidolin assigned the task next, no one raised any objections, but gladly accepted the task assigned to him .

  After the meeting, Sokov specially left Ismailov behind and said to him, "Comrade Colonel, the task of your division is very difficult. How is it? Do you have the confidence to complete the task?"

   "Comrade commander, please rest assured." Hearing Sokov's question, Ismailov quickly stated: "Even if our entire division is sacrificed, we will try our best to complete the task."

"It's not doing your best, but doing your best to complete the task." Sokov said to him with a straight face: "Also, I don't want all of you to sacrifice, but to survive as much as possible until the day of victory, understand? "

"clear."

   "Now that I understand, let me ask you, how are you going to carry out the rescue mission?"

Hearing Sokov's question, Ismailov thought for a while, and then said: "I want to find the headquarters of the 65th Army Group first, then lead the troops to join them, and then help them get out of the forest first. The headquarters has left the forest area, so other troops will come out one after another."

"That's right." Sokov nodded and said, "First find a way to find General Batov's headquarters and lead them out of the forest. As long as his headquarters is outside, the rest of the troops will leave the forest one after another. But relying on your infantry division alone, it is still difficult to break through the enemy's defense and rescue the 65th Army, so I plan to transfer another artillery regiment and a tank brigade to accompany your division."

   Batov, who was trapped in the Belovizh forest, asked his chief of staff Glebov anxiously: "How is it, Comrade Chief of Staff, have you contacted your subordinate troops?"

"Not yet, Comrade Commander." Unable to get in touch with the subordinate troops, Glebov was also anxious. He said to Batov: "According to the report of the scouts, there are traces of the enemy in our vicinity. If Without being able to get in touch with subordinate units, our headquarters is in danger."

"Yes, Comrade Commander." Military Commissar Rajecki said: "The troops with the headquarters now have only one guard regiment. If we are attacked by the enemy, it may be difficult for them to cover us and evacuate to a safe place." The place."

As soon as his words fell, there was a rumbling sound of artillery shells outside the command headquarters. The shells flew from nowhere and landed in the area where the group army headquarters was located and exploded, setting off a **** storm. The troops were bombed to pieces.

  The commanders in the headquarters are experienced in many battles. When they heard the dense artillery sound outside, they immediately realized that something was wrong. For such a large-scale bombardment, the German army used at least two or three artillery regiments. Glebov anxiously said to Batov: "Comrade Commander, the situation is not good. The enemy discovered the location of our headquarters and began to shell us violently. We need to move immediately, otherwise the consequences will be disastrous."

   Then Glebov commanded the members of the headquarters to cover the retreat of Batov and Rajecki. They walked less than 200 meters when a shell fell from the sky and accurately hit the wooden house where the headquarters was located, blowing up the wooden house to pieces, and all the staff officers and communication personnel inside who had not had time to retreat died.

   Rajecki couldn't help being stunned when he saw this. After a while, he said to Batov: "Comrade Commander, it's really dangerous. If we come out a little later, I'm afraid we will all die at this moment."

"Damn German." Batov looked at the burning wreckage of the wooden house and said through gritted teeth, "In order to deal with my headquarters, heavy artillery was used. Look, this shell is at least 150 caliber artillery. emitted."

   From the shelling of the German army, Glebov guessed that the German army was just a prelude to the offensive, and that the infantry attack would be used next to completely solve the army headquarters. Thinking of this, he said to Batov and Rajecki: "Commander, Comrade Military Commissar, it is not appropriate to stay here for a long time. Let's move to the depths of the forest immediately. I am worried that if we wait any longer, the enemy will come up."

Seemingly confirming Glebov's conjecture, there seemed to be many people approaching in the direction of the two wings, "No, the enemy is coming up." Seeing this, Batov secretly yelled that he was not good, and then arranged for the troops to find a suitable place to set up In the blocking position, he took the remaining personnel of the headquarters and retreated deeper into the forest.

  The German army dispatched two regiments. Their intention was obvious. They drove Batov's headquarters to the center from the two wings, and then wiped them out with artillery fire. As they moved forward, the artillery in the rear stopped their shelling in order to prevent accidental injury to their own people, so as to facilitate the maneuvering of the infantry.

  The German troops who entered the headquarters of the 65th Army did not see a living person except for burning trees, bombed wooden houses, and corpses scattered everywhere. Seeing this situation, the German commander felt that the Soviet army must have fled deeper into the forest. In order to prevent the opponent from getting away, he ordered his subordinates to speed up the pursuit.

  The head of the guard regiment, who was in charge of the cover task, saw the enemy rushing up in groups, and immediately ordered the engineers to detonate the pre-buried landmines. The huge explosion set off waves of air, which threw the German assault team high and then fell down heavily. What is thrown up is a complete person, but what falls is a stump.

  Seeing that the pursuers had been severely damaged by landmines, the regiment commander ordered the light and heavy machine guns on the blocking position to fire at the same time, knocking the dizzy German troops back and forth. Although the German army suffered heavy casualties from mine explosions and machine gun fire one after another, the commander was worried that the Soviet army's army headquarters would take the opportunity to slip away, so he ordered his subordinates to rush forward one after another.

  When the German army rushed to the blocking position of the Soviet army, the soldiers of the guard regiment who were responsible for the blocking mission raised their bayonets and fought with the German officers and soldiers, and fierce hand-to-hand combat began in front of the position.

  The German commander who followed closely saw that this was the blocking force left by the Soviet Army Group Command. As long as they broke through the line of defense established by them, they would have a chance to catch up with the Soviet commander. The German commander who was eager to do meritorious service would not hesitate at all. He picked up his submachine gun and immediately ordered the soldiers around him to shoot. own soldiers. In this way, with their powerful firepower, they forcibly tore a hole in the guard regiment's defense line, and they could continue to chase the retreating army headquarters.

   Seeing that the line of defense was about to be breached, the head of the guard yelled to suppress the enemy, picked up a submachine gun, stood up and swept the enemy wildly. He had just fired a magazine, and before he had time to replace it, a bullet flew in and hit his right shoulder. As soon as he let go, the submachine gun fell to the ground.

   At this moment, the roar of shells came from the air. However, the flying shells did not bombard the Soviet army, but fell into the German army's queue and exploded. The German commander realized that the reinforcements from the Soviet army might have arrived. Seeing that his victory was on the verge of failure, if he continued to fight, he might be flanked by the Soviet army. Faced with this situation, he could only sigh, and ordered the troops to retreat to favorable areas and organize defenses on the spot.

The head of the guard looked at the retreating German troops, asked the health worker to bandage his wounds, and at the same time called a soldier, and told the other party: "Go and check, which troops are here, send their command Please come to me."

  The soldier agreed, climbed out of the trench with hands and feet, and ran towards the direction where the friendly army came.

   "Comrade Commander," the hygienist who bandaged the wound of the Commander, asked curiously, "Which army will come to rescue us?"

"I don't know." The head of the regiment shook his head and said, "We can only find out which army it is when the soldiers we sent come back." After finishing speaking, he called another soldier and told him to say, "You Immediately rushed to the depths of the forest to find the commander and the others, saying that when our regiment's defense line was about to break through, we suddenly received artillery support from friendly troops, and the attacking enemy had already retreated."

  (end of this chapter)