Sokov received a telegram from Popov. He learned that they would break through to Lugansk where he was in after dark, and ordered Vitkov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, General Popov has made up his mind to break through. We must be prepared to respond. Immediately deploy a tank brigade to the west of the city and be ready to respond at any time."
"Comrade Commander," Vitkov raised his own doubts about Sokov's arrangement: "We are now two hundred kilometers away from General Popov's rapid cluster, and there are many German defense lines in the middle. Are you just sitting here and waiting?"
"Chief of Staff, do you have any disagreements?" Sokov asked without moving.
"I think we should take the initiative," said Witkov. "If we remain unmoved, those enemies will concentrate their efforts to block General Popov's troops. But if we attack each other at the same time, we can break through the enemy's defense at the fastest speed and achieve a meeting."
"I think Comrade Chief of Staff is right." After Weitkov finished speaking, Bere echoed: "The German army between our two armies now does not have any decent fortifications. As long as we carry out opposite attacks, it is easy to break their siege and join General Popov."
"It's not that we don't support General Popov, but the time is not yet ripe." Seeing everyone's confusion, Sokov explained to them: "Although General Popov has made up his mind to break through, he has not started to implement it yet, which has led to the whole operation full of variables. If our troops have just been sent out and General Vatujing forcibly ordered him to give up the breakthrough, then the troops we rushed to cooperate with may plunge into the middle of the enemy."
Speaking of this, Sokov turned to Bere and Cidolin: "I think you should still remember that in the counterattack operation carried out in early September last year, a tank brigade of the Don Front successfully broke through the German encirclement after fierce battle and rushed to Orlovka bravely. However, because the follow-up troops did not keep up, and the troops in the city were unable to send troops to respond, resulting in their entire army being destroyed."
After Sokov reminded him, both Bere and Sidolin remembered this. Bere nodded and said, "Misha, what you said makes sense. If our tank brigade attacks and General Popov's breakthrough is cancelled, then this tank brigade will become a lonely army and may be annihilated by the German army at any time."
As the deputy chief of staff of the 62nd Army, Vitkov naturally had an impression of what Sokov said. After hesitating for a long time, he finally expressed his attitude: "Okay, I agree with the commander's opinion, so I deploy the tank brigade to the west first and wait until the time is right before attacking."
"Misha, I think you should hand over the tasks of the friendly forces to my tank brigade for execution." Bere took the initiative to ask Sokov: "The two new tank brigades have just been deployed. If they want to transfer from the existing defense zone to the west of the city, it may cause unnecessary chaos. My tank brigade has been deployed in the west, so if they want to attack, it will be very advantageous."
Sokov stared at the map and found that it would indeed cause some confusion to be caused by the two tank brigades in the city to the west. After repeated thinking, he agreed to Beret's proposal: "Okay, I won't mobilize the tank brigade in the city for the time being. It's better for your tank brigade to be ready to pick up friendly troops."
"It's two hundred kilometers from the Red Army Village to here. If you walk, it will take as long as three to four days." Sidolin reminded Sokov: "Comrade Commander, do you see if you should arrange some vehicles to let these troops move out quickly?"
"Lieutenant Colonel Sidolin is right," said Witkov. "After such a long battle, there must be a large number of wounded people in General Popov's troops. The existence of wounded people will inevitably slow down the marching speed of the troops. If there are vehicles to travel, they will be able to get rid of the enemy faster."
"Chief of Staff, you're very reasonable." Sokov also understood this truth, but he is now a clever woman who can't cook without rice. He has no means of transportation in his hands. How can he help friendly forces quickly transfer? "But there are no transportation vehicles in our combat cluster. How can we help General Popov?"
"Comrade Commander," just as Vitkov was also in a dilemma, Cidolin suddenly spoke, "Do you remember the 379th Infantry Division that we came to support while fighting the German army in the town of Bile?"
"Remember." Sokov said with some amusement and cry: "When they arrived, the battle in Bile town was over. Why, Lieutenant Colonel Cidolin, why did you remember to mention this?"
"I remember that their troops came to reinforce the trucks at that time." Sidolin reminded Sokov: "Although we don't have trucks, we can borrow them from friendly forces."
"That's right, right." Sokov woke up the dreamer. He thought that he had no means of transportation in his hands, but forgot to deploy in the 21st Army on his left wing, with a large number of transportation vehicles. He quickly turned to Witkov and said, "Comrade Chief of Staff, you have worked with General Krelov for the longest time. You can come forward to borrow a truck from him. I believe he will not refuse you."
"There is no problem with borrowing a truck." After Witkov agreed to accept the task, he asked Sokov tentatively: "But if he asked me what to do for borrowing this truck, how should I answer him?"
"In order to avoid letting the enemy notice our intentions, I think we should control those who know this." Sokov emphasized to Vetkov: "If General Krelov asks about the purpose of these vehicles, you must find a suitable reason to make excuses. You must not let him know the true purpose of the vehicle."
"There will be a big war soon," Vetkov suggested to Sokov: "Do you see if the commanders of each division are gathered to hold a meeting so that everyone can be mentally prepared."
"Chief of Staff, you are right. You should hold a combat meeting so that everyone can be fully prepared for the upcoming war." Sokov said to Vetkov: "Then call the commanders of each division immediately and inform them to come here for a meeting."
"Do you need to call together the brigade commander of the Tank Brigade and the Artillery Division?"
"You can let the artillery division commander Colonel Miakojing come over, and forget about the brigade commander of the Tank Brigade."
…………
Half an hour later, the three guard divisions and artillery division commanders, political commissar, and chief of staff all came to Sokov's command center.
Seeing the commanders in front of him, Sokov stood up and said to them: "Comrades Commanders, there is an important thing to announce to you today. Soon, a big battle will be launched here. I wonder if you are ready?"
After Sokov finished speaking, no one of the commanders present spoke, but looked at each other and asked each other with their eyes what was going on and why they suddenly mentioned the big war? But no one of the division-level leaders who came one after another had an answer. In the end, Miakojing asked, "Comrade Commander, can you tell us why a big war happened?"
"Analysis from the intelligence we have obtained so far, the Sixth Army and Popov rapid cluster, which are closest to us, are being devastatingly hit by the German army, and they should not last long."
Everyone was stunned by Sokov's words. After a while, Colonel Gorishne asked tentatively: "But, I heard from the Intelligence Bureau that our army had successfully captured Zaporozer. If the German Marshal Manstein had not run fast, he would have become a prisoner of our army."
Sokov didn't want to refute this obviously beautified report. After reorganizing the words in his mind, he spoke: "Comrades Commander, you have been in Lugansk for a while. I think everyone should know what the situation is here. And the two troops I just mentioned are now surrounded by the German army, and their situation is very difficult.
The Sixth Army is too far away from us, and even if we want to rescue, we are unable to do so. The only thing we can help now is General Popov, whose troops are now staying near the Red Army village, only two hundred kilometers away from us. Not long ago, he sent me a telegram, intending to lead the troops to break through in the direction of Luhansk, and requested that I send troops to rescue them."
"Two hundred kilometers, the distance is not close." Shivakov said with emotion: "Under the current road conditions, my troops can only advance for up to 40 kilometers a day. In other words, even if the breakthrough operation carried out by General Popov is smooth, it will take at least four or five days to enter Lugansk."
"It's good to enter Lugansk in four or five days." As soon as Shivakov finished speaking, his political commissar Yegorov added: "If you want to get here from the Red Army Village, you don't know how many lines of defense you have to break through the German army in the middle. If you encounter a tenacious German area where the German army resists, you may not be able to break through in two or three days. In this way, it may take ten days before they can reach Lugansk."
Sokov did not speak, but sat in his own position and listened quietly to his subordinates expressing their opinions. When the room calmed down again, he stood up and said, "Comrades Commander, we cannot watch General Popov's troops be destroyed by the enemy, so we will go and rescue them if necessary."
"Comrade Commander," Merkulov stood up and asked, "I want to ask, when do you plan to send to rescue General Popov?"
"Although General Popov has notified me that he plans to start a breakout operation tonight," Sokov said to everyone: "But I am not sure whether there will be uncertain variables. Therefore, all we can do is to keep our troops in motion. After we have determined the direction of General Popov's breakthrough, we will send troops to rescue. I plan to send Colonel Lei's tank brigade and a regiment of the 41st Guards Division to carry out this rescue mission."
"Comrade Commander, I ask you to let my troops participate in this rescue operation," Merkulov said with confidence: "At present, my division is full of people and has high morale. If the soldiers can be allowed to participate in the rescue mission, I believe everyone will be very happy."
Seeing that Merkulov volunteered, Sokov did not immediately agree to him, but instead whispered to Vetkov beside him to see if he agreed to Metkulov's request. "Comrade General," Vetkov stood up and said, "I have contacted General Krelov, the commander of the 21st Army. He agreed to lend us a hundred trucks. If your division wants to participate in the rescue operation, take the truck first and rush to join General Popov."
"Okay, I will receive this batch of vehicles as soon as possible." Merkulov said happily: "With this batch of trucks, our division's movement speed can be greatly improved. We originally had to walk four or five days, and we could complete it in one day at most."
"Comrade General," Sokov reminded Merkulov: "The trucks I borrowed from friendly forces are mainly to transport the wounded in General Popov's troops. Once you meet with friendly forces, you will immediately send the wounded to Lugansk as quickly as possible."
After arranging the rescue troops, Sokov continued: "Once we retreated to Lugansk by General Popov's troops, the main forces of the German army will definitely flock to, and there will be a fierce battle at that time. I hope that during this period, everyone will seize the time to repair fortifications, consolidate their defense areas, and ensure that we can block them when attacked by the enemy."
"Don't worry, comrade commander." The first person to respond to Sokov was Sivakov, the commander of the 71st Division of the Guards. His troops suffered the loss of no solid fortifications in the battle a few days ago. Therefore, when he heard Sokov say this, he immediately stood up and said, "I promise you that when the enemy attacks the defense zone of our division, we will definitely be able to block them firmly."
Seeing that the meeting was almost over, Sokov glanced over everyone and asked, "Who has any questions?"
"Comrade Commander, I have a problem." Colonel Miakotin, the commander of the 11th Artillery Division, saw that Sokov had arranged a task for half a day, and seemed to have nothing to do with his own troops, half a Kobe, so he couldn't help but get up and ask, "What is the task of our division?"
"Comrade Colonel," Sokov replied, looking at the other party, "Didn't I tell you a few days ago that your division's mission is to establish artillery positions as soon as possible, and provide artillery cover for defenders when they are attacked by the enemy?"
"But our division can do more work." Miakokin said dissatisfiedly: "I think we can also participate in this rescue. If the troops can get the support of artillery fire when attacking, they can break through the enemy's defense faster."
Miakotin's words reminded Vitkov, and he said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, I think Colonel Miakotin is right. If the offensive troops can get artillery support, the speed of breaking through the enemy's defense line can be faster."
Chapter completed!