In fact, Sokov didn't care at all about ordering the destruction of the Belgorod State Museum, causing damage to the cultural relics stored there. For him, no matter how precious those cultural relics were, could they be compared to the lives of the commanders and soldiers? As long as
It can reduce the casualties of the troops during the battle, even if the precious cultural relics are destroyed, it is completely worth it.
What he is most concerned about now is to quickly occupy the south of the city and completely cut off the southward retreat of the German troops in the city, creating a situation of closing the door and beating the dogs. Therefore, when Runev called Beria, he contacted Beria by phone and radio.
The division commanders in the city contacted each other and assigned them new combat tasks.
At dawn, almost all the streets in the south of the city were occupied by Sokov's troops.
Seeing the battle reports sent from the city, Sokov couldn't help but smile. It seemed that the division commanders and brigade commanders under him were very good at commanding operations, and they did not disappoint him.
Sokov put the battle report on the table, patted it lightly with his palm a few times, and said to Samyko with a smile: "Comrade Chief of Staff, it seems that by capturing Belgorod, our group army has taken a step forward.
achievement."
"Yes, Comrade Commander." After listening to what Sokov said, Samyko replied with a red face: "No, I thought it would take at least half a month to capture a city like Belgorod.
Time. But I didn’t expect that the enemy would be so vulnerable. Judging from the current progress, we will be able to completely eliminate the enemies in the city by tomorrow, August 5th.”
Sokov knew very well in his heart that without his own history, the Soviet army had liberated Belgorod on August 5. Now that he was born, the troops he led achieved great results, so the liberation
The time in the city was bound to advance, so he smiled and said to Sameko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, don't you have confidence in our troops and think they can't liberate this city today?"
Hearing what Sokov said, Samyko laughed twice, and then said: "Comrade Commander, of course I hope that the entire city can be liberated today, but the city is so large. When a group of our army enters the city, the strength is very large.
They will soon become dispersed. In this case, it will definitely take a lot of time to clear out the remaining enemies in the city."
"Have you forgotten the friendly forces attacking from the northwest and north?" In response to Samyko's concerns, Sokov said confidently: "As long as the day breaks and these friendly forces enter the city in large numbers, they will be the enemy.
The end is coming."
"Comrade Commander, do you really think we can liberate Belgorod today?"
"Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff, I am absolutely sure." Sokov said with a smile: "Don't forget, the future commanders and fighters of the 98th Guards Division planted their flags on the top of the municipal building yesterday to express their gratitude.
We have occupied the city and are now in the stage of clearing out the remaining enemies."
"The 98th Guards Division?!" After Samyko repeated the unit number Sokov said, he suddenly remembered that the other party had heard about it yesterday, which was to merge two marine brigades and an infantry brigade to form
The new 98th Guards Division nodded quickly and replied: "Yes, Colonel Chuvashov's troops have already planted the flag on the top of the municipal building. According to the tradition in the Russian army, from the moment the red flag is raised,
The beginning means that the city has been occupied by us."
After a short pause, Sameko continued to ask: "Then what is our next move?"
"After occupying Belgorod, our army's next move is to launch a new attack on Kharkov and drive the enemy away from the city." Sokov picked up the red and blue pencils and began to paint in Kharkov.
Cove drew a circle to the west and said to Samek: "I estimate that the superiors will order our army group to attack from the west of the city again."
After Samek stared at the map for a while, he nodded in agreement with Sokov's statement: "Comrade Commander, you are right. I also think the superiors will order us to attack from the west of the city."
"Why?" Lunev heard both of them saying this and couldn't help but asked curiously. "Why are you so sure that the superiors will order us to attack the west of the city again?"
"The reason is very simple." Samyko explained to Lunev with a smile: "Because we have a hovercraft." In order to let Lunev understand what he meant, he pointed to the west of Kharkov and added, "
To the west of the city is the Oud River, and the width of the river is much wider than the river outside Belgorod. If we want to choose to launch an attack from this direction, it must be our army group."
"The chief of staff is right," Sokov nodded in agreement: "Yesterday's attack made the superiors realize that only the new river-crossing equipment we have can break through the enemy's water blockade in the shortest time to reduce the number of troops.
Possible casualties during forced crossing."
"Oh, that's it." After listening to the two people's words, Lunev nodded slightly, and then asked: "Didn't Colonel Yakov say yesterday that most hovercrafts have malfunctioned to varying degrees due to overload use?
, it needs to be repaired before it can be put back into use. Please tell me whether they can complete all the repair work before the offensive battle begins."
Lunev's words stopped Sokov. He had never asked Yakov whether those overloaded hovercrafts could be reused in a short time, so he could not answer Lunev's question.
However, he changed the subject in time: "Comrade Military Commissar, didn't you say you wanted to call Comrade Beria and report to him the situation here? I wonder how he responded to you?"
"Comrade Commander, I made many calls today and finally contacted Comrade Beria." Lunev replied: "After listening to my report, he told me that he would contact the relevant parties about this matter.
, don’t worry.”
As soon as the three men mentioned the state museum being destroyed by artillery fire, the phone on the table rang. Sokov saw clearly that the ringing phone was actually a high-frequency phone that could make outside calls. He guessed that it must be a call from a superior.
He quickly grabbed the microphone and put it to his ear: "Hello, I am Major General Sokov. What can I do?"
"I'm Zhukov." Zhukov's voice came from the receiver: "Misha, did you get into trouble again?"
"Causing trouble?" Zhukov's words made Sokov stunned for a moment, but then he figured out what the other party meant: "Comrade Marshal, you are talking about the fact that I ordered the artillery to fire at the state museum and destroy the museum, right?"
"Is there such a thing?" After Zhukov asked this question, without waiting for Sokov's answer, he said to himself: "I just received two calls, both from the base camp. Someone said you are
Unorganized and undisciplined, they used their troops to attack the enemy without asking for instructions."
"Two phone calls?" Sokov was a little dumbfounded. He didn't seem to have done anything harmful or bad recently. How could two leaders of the base camp want to make trouble in front of Zhukov at the same time? He asked instinctively: "Marshal
Comrade, I wonder what those two phone calls said about me?"
"A phone call said that you acted without permission and ordered your troops to fire at the Belgorod Museum, causing serious damage to the cultural relics about the Battle of Poltava. Such acts of destroying civil and military affairs should be severely punished," Zhukov said.
Said: "The other phone call was to put in a good word for you, saying that although you issued the order to bombard the state museum, it was to eliminate the enemies hidden inside. This behavior is forgivable."
Although Zhukov did not tell Sokov that it was those two people who called him, Sokov still guessed that the person who spoke well for him must be Beria. After all, Lunev had just called him not long ago.
After calling him, maybe he was thinking about his old relationship with Lunev and helped him out.
After Zhukov finished speaking, Sokov asked slowly: "Comrade Marshal, I wonder what you plan to do with me?"
"Misha, don't worry." Seeing that Sokov had misunderstood, Zhukov quickly explained: "I'm not calling you to punish you, but to find out what your intention is."
"Comrade Marshal," since Zhukov asked, Sokov simply hid the enemy in the state museum and resisted. His own troops were damaged many times in the attack, so he had to resort to this strategy and ordered the artillery to immediately destroy the state museum, making the Germans
There was no hiding place. After briefly introducing the cause and effect, he continued to say to Zhukov: "Only by destroying the building so that the enemy has no hiding place, our troops can successfully capture the state museum."
"I understand." Zhukov replied: "If anyone brings this up, I know how to defend you."
"Thank you, thank you Comrade Marshal."
"You're welcome, this is just a trivial matter to me." After Zhukov said this, the topic changed: "By the way, what is the current result of the attack you launched at night?"
Although Sokov reported the results to Konev in a timely manner, as for Vatutin, since he was no longer his immediate superior, whether to report to him or not was so insignificant. Because of this, Zhukov
It is impossible to keep abreast of the progress of the battle here.
Seeing that Zhukov was eager to know the situation of the battle, Sokov quickly reported to Zhukov in detail a series of results obtained in the night battle. He finally said: "Comrade Marshal, if after daybreak, our friendly forces can simultaneously attack from the northwest and
If we launch an attack from the north, I believe our troops will be able to liberate the entire city by this evening at the latest."
Zhukov didn't want to capture the city as soon as possible. He knew the enemy was retreating last night, but he didn't order the troops to attack. He was worried that in night battles, the troops with little combat experience would fall into chaos, which would give the Germans a chance.
An opportunity to take advantage of. It is now seen that most areas in the city have been controlled by Sokov's troops, especially in the south direction of the city. Both roads and railways have been completely cut off. The remaining enemies in the city cannot pass through these two roads.
Road retreat.
"Don't worry, Misha." Zhukov felt that the time was ripe to annihilate the defenders in the city, so he smiled and said to Sokov: "When daybreak, both the Voronezh Front Army and the Steppe Front Army will attack the enemy.
, strive to liberate this city before dark."
After dawn, Sokov did not wait for the good news of the friendly attack. However, a staff officer hurried over and reported to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, it's bad. According to the air defense sentry report, there are a large number of enemy planes now.
It's flying towards our location and seems to be preparing to bomb us."
"Comrade Commander," Lunev immediately reminded Sokov after hearing what the staff officer said: "Give the members of the headquarters an air defense order and ask everyone to evacuate to a safe place."
"Comrade Military Commissar, if we move now, the troops fighting in the city will lose their unified command and fall into unnecessary chaos. At that time, the enemy trapped by us will take advantage of it and try every means to break through our
Defend and flee outside the city."
After Sokov said these words, he ordered Sameko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, immediately call Captain Lida of the Women's Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion and ask them to prepare for air defense to ensure the safety of the headquarters."
A few minutes later, sixteen German bombers flew over the Sokov headquarters and began to dive and drop bombs on the ground. Anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns on the ground opened fire at the same time, trying to shoot down these raging enemy planes.
However, in air defense operations, it is always the ground air defense forces that suffer. The opening fire of the women's anti-aircraft artillery battalion made them targets of enemy aircraft. In less than five minutes of the battle, there were three 37mm twin anti-aircraft guns and two 14.5mm four-guns.
The joint anti-aircraft machine guns were destroyed by the fighting dropped by enemy planes. At the same time, more than 20 female soldiers died heroically and more than 30 people were injured.
But despite this, the women's anti-aircraft artillery battalion still fired tenaciously at the enemy planes in the sky, trying its best to attract their attention and prevent them from bombing Sokov's headquarters.
The battle lasted for almost another quarter of an hour, until more than a dozen Soviet fighter planes arrived on the battlefield and started a dogfight with the enemy planes that were bombing the air defense positions, preventing the enemy from continuing to attack the ground.
Fighters dealt with bombers without fighter escorts, and the situation in the air soon became one-sided. The enemy planes that were still showing off their power were hit by Soviet fighters from time to time, trailing long smoke tails, and then fell to the ground and exploded.
Soldiers of the women's anti-aircraft artillery battalion on the ground will cheer for joy every time they see an enemy plane being shot down. The heroic air force pilots personally shot down the enemy plane. At the same time, they will shoot harder in the air, trying to kill those who are still there.
Shoot down German bombers loitering in the sky.
Hard work paid off. When the German bomber formation could no longer hold up and was about to flee the battlefield, an unlucky bomber was hit by artillery fire from the ground and exploded in the air. The German pilots did not even have time to parachute and followed the plane.
It was blown to pieces and fell from the sky together with the burning airplane fragments.
Not only was Sokov's headquarters nearby bombed by enemy planes, but also the Steppe Front troops attacking from the northwest and the Voronezh Front troops attacking from the north were also bombed by enemy planes.
The enemy planes formed a double formation, preparing to attack the moving Soviet tanks or the crowded infantry formations. However, the attack of the enemy planes did not last long before they were attacked by the approaching Soviet fighter planes. The German bombers were not at all
After a melee in the air, the opponents of the Soviet fighter planes fled back to their own airports.