Chapter 2104: Rescue Allied Airmen (Part 1)

An hour later, an artillery captain appeared in front of Denis, straightened his back and reported to him: "Comrade lieutenant colonel, I am Captain Anwar of the artillery regiment of the division, and I am ordered to come to accept your command, please instruct! "

"Comrade Captain, you came in time." Denis and Anwar shook hands, then pointed to the Lazienki Palace in the distance and said: "The enemy is in the palace, and comrades from our regiment and the Polish Army have launched attacks one after another. , but none of the attacks were successful because of the heavy enemy fire."

  Anwar heard what Denis said, and immediately understood his intention: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, what do you mean, let us use direct artillery fire to destroy those exposed firepower points?"

   As soon as the other party understood his intention, Denis nodded with a smile and said, "That's right, Comrade Captain, that's what I meant. I wonder if you can do it?"

   Anwar squinted to look in that direction, and then said: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, to use direct-point fire to destroy the enemy's firepower point, you must first know the location of the enemy's firepower point."

   "This is easy," knowing that Anwar wanted to know the location of his firepower, he called a staff officer and told him, "You just saw where the enemy's firepower is. You can point it to Captain Anwar."

   When the staff officer took Anwar to the side to confirm the enemy's firepower point, Petrie asked with some concern: "Lieutenant Colonel Denis, can your artillery really destroy the enemy's firepower point?"

   "Don't worry, Comrade Petrie." Denis said with a smile: "You can watch the show with peace of mind."

  Anwar crossed the river this time and brought four 76.2mm cannons. At a position of one or two kilometers, he directly aimed at the firepower point in the Lazienki Palace, and the effect was very obvious. After two rounds of shooting, the marked firepower points were hit without exception.

  Seeing that all the firepower points of the German army were hit by artillery fire, the Soviet army launched an offensive again.

  When they rushed to the wooden fence again, they were blocked again without exception. But this time the officers and fighters learned to be smart. Instead of rushing to move the wooden fence, they squatted down and threw grenades behind the sandbags. When the enemies behind the sandbags were blown up, they moved forward to remove the wooden fence blocking the way, crossed the sandbags with their weapons in hand, and engaged in melee and hand-to-hand combat with the surviving enemies behind them.

  The position of the German army outside the palace was quickly occupied by the Soviet army, and the battle turned from outdoors to indoors. Most of the commanders and fighters of the 772 regiment have experience in street fighting, especially in the battle with the German army for the room.

  When they seized a room, instead of rushing to the door and firing submachine guns into it, they threw a grenade inside first, and then they hid in a safe place. After the explosion, they went in and shot at the wounded and struggling German soldiers one by one.

  The battle lasted for about an hour. The Soviet and Polish coalition forces finally captured the Lazienki Palace and captured more than 30 prisoners. On the issue of how to deal with these prisoners, Denis and Petrie had different opinions. The former believed that these Germans had committed unspeakable crimes against the Polish people and should be shot immediately; while Petrie felt that these prisoners should be temporarily imprisoned. After the liberation of Warsaw, they will be sent to the prisoner-of-war camp in the rear.

  The two were arguing over this issue. In the end, they could only hand over the conflict. What should they do if they asked their respective divisions for instructions? Both Derevyanko and Galitsky did not dare to make decisions without authorization, and reported this issue to their respective commanders.

  After Bellinger received the report from Colonel Galicki, he wanted to immediately ask them to temporarily detain these prisoners and wait until Warsaw was liberated before sending them to a prisoner-of-war camp. But the Chief of Staff Korcica reminded him: "Comrade Commander, I think it is better to ask the Front Army Command for instructions on this matter. Comrade Marshal should decide how to deal with these prisoners."

   Bellinger thought for a moment about the proposal of the chief of staff, and then decisively agreed. He picked up the phone, let the operator connect to the headquarters of the Front Army, and when the call was connected, he reported to Rokossovsky: "Hello, Comrade Field Marshal, I have the honor to report to you that my troops have successfully Occupied Lazienki Palace."

"Well done, General Bellinger, you did a great job!" Rokossovsky was overjoyed when he heard that the river crossing troops sent by Bellinger had taken the Lazienki Palace, he said to Bellinger : "Please express my gratitude to Colonel Galicki for successfully occupying important buildings in Warsaw."

Bellinger waited for Rokossovsky to finish speaking, and said carefully: "Comrade Marshal, in the battle to seize the Lazienki Palace, we captured some German prisoners. At present, the commanders and fighters of our army and the commanders and fighters of the Soviet army There are some disagreements on how to deal with the captives, so I would like to ask you for some instructions, how should we deal with these captives?"

"It's very simple." Rokossovsky didn't want to waste time on these trivial matters, so he said casually: "All members of the SS will be shot on the spot; as for the officers and soldiers of the Wehrmacht, they will be locked up temporarily until Warsaw is liberated." Then, send them to a prisoner-of-war camp."

Bellinger did not expect that Rokossovsky would solve the difficult problem lightly, and quickly replied: "Understood, Comrade Marshal, I will immediately convey your meaning to the commanders at the front. .”

As soon as the phone was put down here, Zakharkin, the deputy commander of the front army who had just taken office not long ago, walked in from the outside and put a piece of paper in front of Rokossovsky: "Comrade commander, I just received Telegram."

Rokossovsky took the telegram in Zaharkin's hand, only glanced at it twice, and couldn't help frowning: "What, the transport fleet of the Allied forces airdropping supplies for the Warsaw Uprising was hit by ground artillery fire, Several transport planes were shot down, and the pilots parachuted and fell into the German-occupied area, and the Allied forces asked us to help rescue the pilots in distress?"

"Comrade Commander, this is not easy." Zakhalkin sighed and said to Rokossovsky: "The area where the Allied pilots parachuted is west of Warsaw on the other side of the Vistula River. The troops are all staying on the right bank of the Vistula, how to rescue them?"

   "Comrade Deputy Commander." Ma Linin just came over at this time, and after hearing what Zakhalkin said, he quickly said: "We have troops in the left bank area."

   "What, we have troops in the left bank area?" Zakhalkin showed a shocked expression on his face: "When did they cross the river, where are they now, and how many troops are there?"

  When the news came that the Polish army had occupied the Lazienki Palace, Zakharkin was not in the headquarters, so he was naturally not aware of it. Ma Linin explained to him: "Comrade Deputy Commander, not long ago, the Seventh Regiment of the Polish 3rd Division and the 772nd Regiment under the 47th Army successfully captured the Lazienki Palace on the left bank and established a small army. landing ground."

Knowing that there are two regiments of the Soviet Army and the Polish Army on the left bank, Zakhalkin immediately became interested. He turned his head and said to Rokossovsky: "Comrade Commander, since we have troops on the left bank, Then let them search west of Warsaw for the parachuted pilot,"

Hearing what Zakhalkin said, Rokossovsky seemed a little hesitant: "Now our two regiments on the left bank are shouldering the arduous task of establishing a landing field. Let them go to the area occupied by the German army at this time to search and rescue those who were parachuted. Allied pilots, I think this matter may not be easy to handle."

Ma Linin heard Rokossovsky's true thoughts, and said to Zakhalkin: "Comrade deputy commander, what the commander means, if we send people to the city to carry out search and rescue, then the forces will become scattered." If the Germans launch an attack at this time, I am afraid that our landing field on the left bank will not be able to be kept."

"But the order to rescue the pilots was given to us by the Supreme Command." Seeing that Rokossovsky was not very willing to send people to the city to search and rescue the parachuting pilots, Zakharov couldn't help being a little anxious: "If the superior We can't afford to blame it."

   Just as Rokossowski and others were arguing fiercely about whether the Allied pilots should be rescued, the Polish army occupying the Lazienki Palace found some airdrop boxes nearby. They moved the boxes back to the Lazienki Palace, opened them, and found that, except for one box which contained food and a small amount of medicine, the rest of the boxes were filled with bullets.

   Seeing the full box of bullets, Denis and Petrie felt ecstasy in their hearts, thinking that these airdrops were just used to supplement the ammunition they had consumed. But after a while, they couldn't laugh at all, because these bullets were used by the US military's M1 carbines, and Soviet weapons could not be used.

   "Damn," Petrie said with some annoyance, "how could the bullets in these airdrop boxes be used by American guns? What is the purpose of the Allied airdrops of these materials?"

But Denis remembered that when he entered the palace, he saw that in one of the rooms, the weapons of the rebels killed by the German army were piled up, so he called a company commander and told the other party: "Comrade captain, you go to the room just now." , bring two of the guns inside."

Soon, the company commander came over with two American carbines and reported to Denis: "Comrade commander, I took a general look. All the Liudov army uses are American weapons and equipment. These ammunition should be It was given to them."

Petrie took the weapon in the company commander's hand, cursed in a low voice, and said to Denis: "Lieutenant Colonel Denis, since we can't use this batch of ammunition, we should find a way to hand it over to the Liudov army. Comrades, they should be able to use these ammunition."

After hearing this, Denis smiled wryly and said: "Comrade Petrie, even if we give this batch of ammunition to the rebels first, we still need them to contact us. We have occupied the Lazienki Palace for so long, whether it is We haven't seen any of the Liudov army or the Krajov army."

"Yes, when we captured the Lazienki Palace just now, there was a lot of commotion." Petrie said with emotion: "It stands to reason that the rebels knew that we captured the Lazienki Palace, and they would definitely send someone to contact us. Yes. But so far, two hours have passed without a single contact.”

   "Comrade Commander," a staff officer ran over and reported to Denis, "I see a general coming towards us."

   "What?" Denis couldn't help being taken aback after hearing this, and asked, "Which general is it, our general, or the general of the Polish army?"

   After a quick glance at Petrie, the staff officer replied: "It's our general. I think it looks like a lieutenant general."

   Knowing that the person who came was a lieutenant general, Denis tentatively asked: "Is it our commander?"

  The staff officer shook his head and said with a puzzled expression on his face: "It should not be our commander, but this general looks very unfamiliar, so he should belong to another army group."

   But no matter which unit the general belongs to, since he is a commander of the Soviet Army, Denis must go out to greet him, so he brought a group of his regiment headquarters to the gate of the palace to greet him.

   After waiting for a while, I saw a lieutenant general coming to the palace under the protection of more than 20 soldiers with live ammunition. Denis hurriedly trotted to the front of the opponent, straightened his back and reported to the opponent: "Comrade General, Lieutenant Colonel Denis, head of the 772nd Regiment of the 324th Infantry Division, reports to you that our regiment is performing the combat mission of the superior, please instruct !"

   "Please take a break!" The general said politely: "I am Lieutenant General Zaharkin, the deputy commander of the front army, and I am here to see you on the order of Marshal Rokossovsky."

  Knowing that the person who came was actually the deputy commander of the front army, Denis couldn't help being secretly surprised, and quickly greeted the other party: "Comrade deputy commander, this is not a place to talk, please go inside."

When he came to the temporary headquarters, Denis pointed to Petrie and introduced to Zakhalkin: "Comrade Deputy Commander, this is Lieutenant Colonel Petrie, commander of the 7th Regiment of the 3rd Division of the Polish Army. Lieutenant Colonel Petrie, this This is General Zakharov, deputy commander of the Front Army!"

The Polish 1st Army, where Petrie is located, is also under the leadership of the Belarusian 1st Front Army. The person who saw him at this moment was actually the Deputy Commander of the Front Army. He hurriedly raised his hand and saluted: "Hello, Comrade Deputy Commander, I am the Polish Army Lieutenant Colonel Petrie, willing to obey your orders, please instruct!"

   "Comrades, two lieutenant colonels, please sit down." After Zaharkin greeted the two to sit down, he explained his purpose to them: "I have ventured here because I have an important task to entrust to you."

  Hearing that there was an important mission, Denis and Petrie stood up from their seats in a panic, waiting for Zakharkin to give him a combat mission.

Seeing the two lieutenant colonels standing up, Zakharov hurriedly told them to sit down, and then said: "The situation is like this. Not long ago, the Allied transport aircraft formation flew over Warsaw to drop supplies to the rebels in the city. But unfortunately, when they were about to return, they were hit by the German ground anti-aircraft fire, and several transport planes were shot down. Your task is to search for the parachuted Allied pilots in the city and send them safely to to the other side."

  After Zaharkin finished speaking, Denis asked tentatively: "Comrade Deputy Commander, I would like to ask, in what area did these Allied pilots parachute?"

"I don't know." Zakhalkin shook his head and said, "In the order we received, it only mentioned that allied pilots parachuted in Warsaw, but it didn't mention the specific area. So you After accepting this mission, I can only find my own way to find the whereabouts of these Allied pilots. Do you understand?"

   The two lieutenant colonels looked at each other, and then replied in unison: "Understood!"