December 16, in an unnamed village on the outskirts of suvarovo.
In the headquarters set up in the village chapel, the sound of telegrams, telephone calls and the shouts of signalmen came one after another.
On the huge wooden table, there is a map of suvarovo''s city defense. Vlasov is pointing around on the map, as if he is studying where to open a breakthrough. Mr. Lin sat beside him, but he didn''t say a word. From time to time, he just twisted a soybean out of a small cloth bag in front of him and put it into his mouth to chew it slowly. Shi Zhe, who acted as a translator, stood upright behind President Lin.
I stood at the table, holding two battle reports I had just received. I was considering whether to report to the two commanders immediately, because the Far East independent division and the close guard seventh division''s attack on suvorovo had failed again.
A week ago, when we left klin for botovo, political commissar bakanize of the seventh division of the guards was killed. I immediately reported the bad news to Zhukov. Perhaps Zhukov knew about bakanize''s friendship with Stalin. After learning the news, he kept silent for a long time and then said leisurely, "I know. I will report this to Comrade Stalin at an appropriate time."
At 10 a.m. that day, the battle against botovo started. After one hour''s shelling, the officers and men of the seventh division of the close guard, shouting the slogan of revenge for the political commissar, followed the tank brigade and cavalry regiment and launched a heroic attack on botovo, which was occupied by the German army. After two hours of fierce fighting, they successfully captured this important German supply base and captured nearly 60 tanks and soldiers 120 cars, a lot of artillery, ammunition and other military supplies.
After leaving the necessary garrison troops, I led the troops to suvorovo. In the afternoon of the same day, I joined the main forces of the group army led by Vlasov and President Lin, and surrounded a German armored division and several infantry divisions with serious losses in suvorovo area.
Although the battle I commanded in the early stage was very smooth, my good luck seemed to have been exhausted from the moment I came to suvarovo. In the early stage of the battle, the ammunition consumption was so large that the ammunition stock of each artillery regiment was less than a base. In particular, the Katyusha artillery regiment only fired three volleys, and the ammunition was exhausted. As our artillery fire failed to cause effective damage to the enemy''s living forces, the attack launched that day was defeated without any doubt.
The next day, without artillery preparation, Vlasov mobilized three tank brigades, one cavalry division, two skiing brigades and two infantry divisions to launch a fierce attack on the besieged enemy from all sides at the same time. As a result, they were repulsed one by one by the counter attacking tank troops.
On the third day, at the suggestion of general manager Lin, the troops stopped attacking the encircled enemy troops in suwolovo area and adopted the tactics of encircling but not attacking. At the same time, they took advantage of the opportunity of waiting for ammunition supply from the rear to let the fighting troops rest.
Zhukov was furious at the sudden stop of our group army''s attack. He gave a death order to general manager Vlasov and general manager Lin. if he could not win suvorovo before the 17th, he would send them to the military court for trial.
In the face of Zhukov''s strict order, Vlasov had to order the troops with serious casualties and insufficient ammunition to re-enter the attack. It is conceivable that the result of such an attack was negligible, except for the increase of many unnecessary casualties.
Yesterday Zhukov promised to send us planes to cover the attack. However, major general dovator, the commander of the 2nd cavalry of the guards, was killed in the enemy''s counterattack when he led his troops to attack the enemy in luzhahe. His cavalry was also severely damaged. In order to prevent the attack sequence of the 16th group army from collapsing, the air force turned to the area and bombed the German troops on the ground. Finally, the enemy''s counter attack was contained and the 16th group army was saved.
Today, starting from dawn, all the troops launched attacks against the encircled German troops regardless of casualties, but with little success. The two telegrams I have just received are reports of the failure of the attack.
Vlasov, who was looking at the map, suddenly raised his head and saw me standing rigidly by. He could not help frowning slightly and asked, "our attack failed again?"
"Yes, comrade commander." I stepped forward, handed the telegram in my hand, and said in a deep tone: "the attack of the independent division and the 7th guard division was repulsed by the German tanks. In the battle, the division commander, Colonel hapsaffo, was wounded and had withdrawn from the battle. At present, the deputy division commander has taken over the command, and is blocking the German troops in the counter attack. "
"Comrade commander," President Lin suddenly said in his low voice, "we can''t fight like this any more. The troops should be stopped immediately. "
After listening to Shi Zhe''s translation, Vlasov was a little surprised and said, "but Comrade Zhukov''s deadline for us is tomorrow. If we can''t win suvorovo, the consequence will be..." although he only said half of what he said, we all know that he was afraid that he would not complete the task and therefore went to the military court.
"Deputy commander Lin, do you have any good ideas?" I know Mr. Lin must have some new ideas, so I asked first.
Mr. Lin put a bean into his mouth, and then said, "there is a lack of one in three."
"There''s a shortage of one in three." After listening to the translation, Vlasov asked blankly, "what do you mean, I don''t quite understand."
"Withdraw troops from one direction, and then attack the enemy from the other three directions at the same time."“ What? " As soon as Vlasov sat down and listened to President Lin''s words, he immediately jumped up again and cried out, "no, if one aspect of the army is removed, the enemy will run away."“ Comrade commander, don''t worry. Let me explain in detail. " President Lin also stood up, pointed to the map in front of him and said to Vlasov, "you see, there are perfect defense systems on all sides of suvorovo, including the defense fortifications built by our army and many firepower points reinforced by the German army after occupying the city. In our deceptive operation, the enemy''s armored forces transferred from chismena due to deception are now in the city. Summing up the lessons from the failure of the attack in recent days, we can see that this armored force is a fatal threat to our attack. In the absence of sufficient artillery firepower and air force support, if we want to forcibly seize the city, we will not only pay a huge price, but also take a long time. " At this point, he stopped for a moment. After Shi Zhe translated his words completely to Vlasov, he continued: "all the retreats of the German army have been cut off by us. In order not to be annihilated by us, they are bound to fight to the death. However, if we open up one side of the net, the German army will think that they have a chance to get out of danger safely, and only think about how to leave quickly from the channel we gave way. Then, in the face of our three side offensive, their resistance will be much weaker. Using the tactics of encircling three and missing one, I don''t care how much the German army will escape, but only hope that our army can capture suvorovo as soon as possible. Taking suvarovo is victory for us. As for the fleeing German troops, they can send highly mobile troops to follow them and attack them severely. " After listening to Mr. Lin''s explanation, Vlasov suddenly realized. He nodded thoughtfully and said, "deputy commander Lin, you are right. I''m going to adjust my operational deployment and launch a general attack on the whole line at nine o''clock tomorrow morning to ensure that suvarovo can be won before dark. " President Lin also nodded and said, "yes." Vlasov looked at me again and asked, "what do you think, Rita?" Looking at the map in front of me, I said with a clear mind: "I suggest that before the general attack tomorrow, we should first hit all the artillery and launch a heavy shelling on the defensive position south of suvorovo. At the same time, we asked the headquarters of the front army to send planes to bombard the military targets inside and outside the city in turn, so as to speed up the determination of the German army to flee. They also arranged mobile troops to pursue the German troops who fled to the West. " As soon as Vlasov patted the table, he said excitedly, "OK, that''s settled. I will report this plan to the front command immediately. "