Chapter 2233:

  Chapter 2233

Coming out of the Front Army Command, Ozerov apologized to Ponedelin and said: "Comrade Commander, I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have doubted General Sokov. I really didn't expect his analysis to be so accurate. Marshal Zhukov Sure enough, he sent troops on his right wing to fight with us."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, this time Marshal Zhukov sent the 1st Polish Army." But Ponejielin's face was not happy, and he reminded Ozerov: "I have dealt with this army before. The fighting power is not as strong as we imagined. Even if our two armies fight together, they can at best only play a containment role against the Germans, and we are the ones who are really fighting the Germans."

"Yes, Comrade Commander." Ozerov nodded and said, "This is indeed a headache. But now it is impossible for the superiors to send us more troops. If we want to defeat the Germans, we must The help of the Polish Army Group is indispensable."

The two had just returned to the Army Group Headquarters, and were about to convene a meeting of division commanders to convey the instructions of the Front Army Headquarters, but unexpectedly received a call from Bogolyubov, Chief of Staff of the Front Army: "General Ponejielin, I have something important to inform you now."

  Pornegelin couldn't help but thumped when he heard the other party speak to him in such a serious tone, and secretly said that something unexpected happened. Isn't Marshal Rokossovsky planning to let the Polish 1st Army cooperate with us? But he still managed to squeeze a smile on his face, and asked politely: "General Bogolyubov, what new instructions do you have from Comrade Marshal?"

"That's it." Bogolyubov said: "We have just received a notice from our superiors, saying that we plan to place the 19th Army of Lieutenant General Kozlov and the 3rd Guards Tank Army under the command of our front army. I and Comrade Marshal, after research, decided to strengthen these two troops in the direction of your attack."

"General Bogolyubov, is this true?" After getting Bogolyubov's confirmation, Ponejielin said excitedly: "Great, it's just great. An army group has been added to the main attack direction With a tank army, our assault force has been greatly strengthened. And even if we capture the enemy's position again, we still have enough troops to consolidate the occupied area."

"It may take two days for the new troops to arrive." Bogolyubov told Ponedelin on the phone: "The task of your army group is to resolutely defend the existing area so that the enemy cannot advance a single step. Understand? ?”

   "Understood, General Bogolyubov." Ponedelin said confidently: "As long as the organizational structure of our 50th Army is still there, the Germans will never want to pass through our defense zone."

After putting down the phone, Ponedelin excitedly said to Ozerov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I have some good news for you. The Chief of Staff of the Front Army, General Bogolyubov, just called and said that the headquarters is preparing to transfer the 19th Army and The 3rd Guards Tank Army strengthened our 2nd Front Army. Comrade Field Marshal and the Chief of Staff, after discussion, decided to strengthen the newly added troops to our main attack direction.”

   "Comrade Commander, this is really great." Ozerov raised his eyebrows and said excitedly, "With the addition of new troops, we will have greater confidence in defeating the enemy."

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Ponedelin said to Ozerov, pointing to the map, "look, there is a German fortress on our way forward, and the attack we launched yesterday on this place was met with failure." Failure. If we are to press further into the depths of the German defenses, we need to capture this fort first."

Hearing what Ponedelin said, Ozerov had a troubled expression on his face: "Comrade Commander, it's hard to handle. This fort has only two entrances and exits, one facing the direction of our attack, and connecting the fort and The bridge outside has been blown up by the Germans. The troops we rushed up were blocked by the wide trenches. When we tried to build the bridge, the German troops in the fortress blocked our bridge with intensive firepower through the firing port area, causing heavy casualties to our bridge-building engineers.”

   "Yeah, this **** trench is blocking our way forward." Although there is an entrance and exit behind the fortress, Ponegerin is unwilling to try it. Not to mention whether the Germans blew up the bridge connecting the fortress to the outside after the troops arrived at the back of the fort. Therefore, the best direction of attack is still on the front of the fortress: "We must find a way to suppress the firepower of the German army, cover our engineers and build bridges for tanks and other combat vehicles to pass through."

"This fortress has been repeatedly reinforced by the Germans, so it is extremely strong. The thickness of the top alone exceeds five meters. Even if it is bombed by planes, it cannot blow through their fortress." Ozerov said: "We are now The guns we have have a maximum caliber of only 122 mm, and they can’t penetrate the top of the fortress at all. Unless our superiors can adjust the 203 mm guns for us and use condensate bombs, it is possible to destroy the German fortifications.”

"Comrade Chief of Staff, you should be clear that this request of yours will not be approved." Ponegerin remembered that in order to take down the Brest Fortress, Sokovto had found a 280mm super heavy artillery, but After completing the fortified task, the artillery was immediately transferred away. He can't think that he has the ability of Sokov to obtain such heavy artillery from his superiors. The only thing they can do is to use the existing artillery to find a way to destroy the German fortress: "We can only think of it ourselves." way to solve this problem.”

Ozerov thought for a long time, and finally proposed to Ponejielin: "Comrade Commander, since you came, I have often heard you mention General Sokov. He must be a resourceful person. We might as well go to him. Ask, see if there is any good way to destroy the powerful firepower of the German fortress."

  After receiving a call from Ponegerin, Sokov drew a sketch of the fortress on the paper in front of him, and began to think about how to deal with the strong German fortress. On the other end of the phone, Bonejelin was afraid of disturbing his train of thought, so he didn't dare to speak casually, and just waited quietly.

  Sokov stared at the sketch he had drawn, and after thinking about it for five or six minutes, he thought of a way to deal with the German fortress, and said into the microphone: "General Ponegerin, are you still there?"

   "Yes, Comrade Commander, I'm still here." Ponegerin asked hastily, "Did you come up with a good solution?"

"According to your description," Sokov said: "The firepower network in the fortifications is divided into upper and lower layers. The upper layer is higher than the ground of the fortress, which can condescendingly shoot at our troops rushing towards the fortress; while their lower layer As for the firepower, it refers to the ground of the regional fortress. That is to say, when you build a bridge and the troops pass through the bridge, they can shoot from the bottom, attacking the weak belly of the tank, and the infantry following the tank and charging, causing you damage. Huge casualties."

   "That's right, that's right, you're right." After listening to Sokov, Ponegerin nodded repeatedly and said, "Is there any way to deal with the German double-layer firepower network?"

"This is actually easy to handle." Sokov said with a smile: "General Ponejielin, you have been my deputy commander for a long time. You should know that when I use artillery on the battlefield, my favorite It's "bayonet on the cannon", that is to say, the artillery is pushed close to the enemy's fortifications to shoot. You can prepare a batch of large-caliber artillery and deploy them at a distance of four to five hundred meters from the fortress to destroy the German army with direct fire. The upper firepower network."

"Yes, I remember that your favorite artillery tactic is this 'bayonet-on-cannon' tactic. It works well every time. I will let the artillery use this tactic to destroy the upper firepower network of the German army." Boneje Lin continued to ask humbly: "How should we deal with the firepower network at the lower level?"

"To deal with the lower firepower network of the German fortress, you can no longer use direct-point shooting tactics." Sokov patiently explained to Ponejerin: "You can let the soldiers fill the oil drums with explosives and ignite them." After that, push into the trench. Even if the huge explosion shock wave cannot collapse the bottom of the fortress, it can kill more than half of the German soldiers hiding inside. When the enemy's resistance stops, you can seize the time to build a bridge and quickly Rush into the fort."

After Sokov explained his idea, he reminded Ponegerin specifically: "General Ponegerin, this is just an attack plan I imagined. Whether it is true and effective in actual combat needs to be verified by your troops. If If it doesn’t work, you have to find something else.”

"I don't think it's a big problem." Possibly out of his trust in Sokov, Ponegerin nodded and said, "I believe that with your tactic, my troops will be able to successfully break through the German defenses. rushed into the fort."

Sokov waited for Ponedelin to finish speaking, eager to know what he was going to do with Rokossovsky tonight, so he tentatively asked: "By the way, Comrade Marshal is looking for you, is there anything important? "

"As you analyzed." Ponejielin said: "Marshal Zhukov sent the Polish 1st Army to assist us in our offensive. I was recruited to the Front Army Command tonight to contact the commander of the Polish Army and discuss how to take over. The combat matters that come down."

"Oh, the Polish 1st Army has been sent to you." Sokov worried that Ponegerin would look down on the Polish 1st Army, and specifically reminded him: "General Pornegerin, the Polish 1st Army cooperated with us back then. In combat, their performance was indeed too poor. But after more than half a year of blood and fire, I believe that their combat effectiveness must have been greatly improved, and they will definitely be your good helpers in the next battle."

   "I hope so."

   "When will you attack the German army again?" Sokov asked.

"The exact time of the attack is still unclear." Ponejielin said: "As soon as we returned to the headquarters of the Army Group, we received a call from Chief of Staff Bogolyubov, saying that the headquarters would send the 19th Army and Guards tanks to the headquarters. The 3rd Army was supplemented by the 2nd Front Army, and he and the Marshal planned to deploy these two troops in our combat area after discussion. Launch a new round of attack."

"Oh, three group armies plus one tank army." Sokov said with some surprise: "This lineup is not bad, it must be able to easily break through the German defenses. And every time an area is occupied, there will be enough troops to consolidate Occupied areas so as not to be lost to German counterattacks."

  When Sokov and Ponederin were on the phone, Lunev and Sidolin sat and listened. Most of the conversations were heard clearly by both of them.

  After Sokov put down the phone, Lunev said, "Misha, if General Ponederin adds two army groups and one tank army at once, the original enemy will be nothing to worry about."

   "Comrade Military Commissioner is right." Sidolin said excitedly: "In this way, you don't have to worry about putting our army into combat before attacking Berlin."

   Regarding Sidolin's obsession, Sokov didn't say anything, just smiled lightly, thinking in his heart, if the troops of the Second Front Army enter Berlin, whether they can win the opportunity to attack the Reichstag is still a problem. Maybe, like the real history, the 150th and 171st Divisions under the 79th Infantry Army of the Assault 3rd Army will be responsible for the attack on the Capitol.

However, in order not to dampen the enthusiasm of the opponent, Sokov paused for a moment, and then said: "Comrade Chief of Staff, take advantage of the favorable opportunity when the troops are not in combat for the time being, hurry up to replenish, not only the ammunition and supplies, but also the Soldiers. If we are not prepared enough, we may suffer losses when our army enters Berlin and launches an attack on the enemy."

"Comrade commander, you can rest assured about this." Sidolin said confidently: "I will definitely supervise the replenishment of weapons and ammunition, supplies and soldiers, and there will be absolutely no mistakes. I assure you, By the time the troops enter Berlin, at least 80% of the troops in the various units of the army group can be ensured."

Regarding Sidolin's statement, Sokov nodded slightly. He remembered that when Rokossovsky's troops reached the outskirts of Berlin, they all suffered losses to varying degrees. The division with the largest number of troops had only 80% of its strength, while A small division has only about 50% of its troops.

In order to allow the troops to have more soldiers, Sokov said to Sidolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, please inform the commanders of the divisions so that they can continue to search for possible prisoner-of-war camps and liberate our officers and fighters who are detained inside." Come out and add as many troops as you can."

   "Comrade Commander, we have roughly inspected the combat area and found no prisoner-of-war camps." Sidolin reminded Sokov: "So the idea of ​​supplementing soldiers from prisoner-of-war camps is unrealistic to me."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, let me remind you that although there are no prisoner-of-war camps found in the combat area of ​​our army group, it does not mean that there are no camps in the combat area of ​​the friendly army." Sukov told Sidolin: "You can let all The commander of the division sends his men to go deep into the area controlled by the friendly army to search, and there may be unexpected gains."

  (end of this chapter)