Half an hour later, the division commanders and brigade commanders who received the notification came to Sokov's headquarters one after another.
Every time he saw a commander coming in, before they could ask, Samek would point to the bench next to the wall: "Please sit down. We will answer your questions when the meeting starts."
When General Polubyarov, commander of the 4th Guards Tank Corps, appeared, the commanders sitting on the benches stood up one after another and raised their hands to salute him. After Polubyarov returned the salute, he walked straight to Sokov
In front of him, he asked in a low voice: "Comrade Commander, you are so eager to invite us over for a meeting. Do you have any new combat tasks?"
Shortly after the Battle of Kharkov began, Polubyarov was injured when the tank he was riding struck a mine, so that his chief of staff was in command of the troops throughout the battle. I just returned to the army today and heard that Sol
Cove held an emergency military meeting and hurried over.
Upon hearing Polubyarov's inquiry, Sokov did not answer immediately, but asked with concern: "Comrade General, have all your injuries recovered?"
"Okay, everything is okay." Polubyarov waved his right arm and said to Sokov, Lunev, Samyko and others: "This arm was injured at that time. Look, now
I can move freely now.”
"Comrade General," Lunev said to Polubyarov with a smile: "Your injury is just right and you should rest more. I think your chief of staff should be in charge of this battle."
"How can this be done?" Polubyarov shouted: "During the Battle of Kharkov, I was injured and unable to command the battle. Now that I have finally been discharged from the hospital, how can I miss this opportunity to make contributions?"
"Comrade General, I think the Military Commissioner is right, you should rest for some time." Sameko interrupted: "You know, the tank you were riding in hit a mine, and it was not just your arms that were injured, but also your abdomen.
shrapnel."
"General Polubyarov," Samyko's words reminded Sokov of the fact that Polubyarov's injury seemed serious at that time, and the field hospital had concentrated elite troops to rescue him, so he added:
"Can you show me your discharge certificate?"
Hearing Sokov's question, Polubyarov's old face turned red. He murmured: "Comrade Commander, since my injuries have healed, it is natural that I should be discharged from the hospital. As for being discharged from the hospital,
There’s no need to read the proof or anything.”
Sokov heard the implication from Polubyarov's words. The general's injury had not recovered to the point where he could be discharged from the hospital, so he ran out of the hospital without authorization. If it were an ordinary commander and soldier, he would not recover from his injuries.
Before, it was not easy to leave the hospital. But as a general, it was not difficult for Polubyarov to leave the hospital. He mainly said that the army had work to deal with, and no one in the hospital dared to stop him.
He? Not even the director or the political commissar of the hospital.
Polubyarov's twisted expression made Lunev and Samyko understand what was going on. Lunev suppressed the smile on his face and said seriously: "General Polubyarov, since your injury
If you haven't recovered yet, you should continue to recuperate in the hospital instead of violating the hospital's regulations and leaving the hospital without permission to return to the army."
In the army group, the person Polubyarov feared the most was Lunev. In any case, this military commissar from the Ministry of Internal Affairs could put pressure on people even if he sat there and said nothing.
He replied sheepishly: "Comrade Military Commissar, my men are fighting to the death with the Germans on the battlefield, but I, the military commander, am lying in the hospital recovering from my injuries. I am worried. I have already missed the liberation."
I don’t want to miss any more battles in Erkov. Please let me come back and command the troops as soon as possible.”
Seeing Polubyarov's sincere attitude, Lunev turned to look at Sokov and asked with a wry smile: "Comrade Commander, what do you think? Let General Polubyarov go back to command the troops?"
?”
In the battle to liberate Kharkov, although Sokov did not have much time to use tank troops, he also deeply realized that the command ability of the army chief of staff was simply not comparable to that of Polubyarov. Give him
It was difficult for him to execute the orders he gave vigorously and resolutely. Every time he ordered the tank brigade to attack in a certain direction, the tank troops arrived belatedly on the battlefield only after the infantry had completed their breakthrough.
It was based on this consideration that after thinking for a while, Sokov nodded and said: "Okay, General Polubyarov, I agree that you can come back and continue to command the troops. But I have a condition!"
Polubyarov couldn't help but smile when he heard Sokov agreed to return to command the troops. When Sokov said there was one condition, he immediately patted his chest and said: "Comrade Commander, as long as you agree to my return to the troops, don't say
One condition, even ten conditions, I will agree to you."
"We will launch an attack on the enemy tomorrow." Sokov felt that it was necessary to inoculate Polubyarov to prevent him from always sitting on the tank and running to the front line: "I ask you, in this battle
You must stay at your headquarters until the end of the mission, and you are absolutely not allowed to go to the front in a tank again."
"Comrade Commander, you can rest assured about this." Polubyarov covered his abdomen with both hands and sat opposite Sokov, and replied: "My abdominal injury has not healed yet. If I want to get into the tank,
That small space will definitely cause the wound to burst, and I will not do such a stupid thing."
While several people were chatting, a staff officer came over and reported to Sameko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, all the commanders coming to the meeting have arrived. Can the meeting begin?"
"Comrade Commander," Samyko asked Sokov, who was sitting aside, after waiting for the staff to finish speaking, "Can the meeting begin?"
"Okay." Sokov nodded and said, "Let's get started."
Samek agreed, then stood up and said loudly to the commanders sitting on the benches by the wall: "Comrade commanders, move the benches to the middle of the room, we are going to have a meeting soon.
"
Upon hearing Sameko's greeting, the commanders stood up, moved hurriedly to the middle of the room, and sat down again.
"Comrade commanders," Samyko said after everyone sat down again: "A few days ago, with the liberation of Kharkov, we launched the Kharkov-Belgorod
The battle ended victoriously.
Just after the battle, the base camp issued new instructions to the Steppe Front, Voronezh Front and South-Western Front troops, and assigned new offensive tasks to the three fronts: the planned direction of the Steppe Front was to Krasnograd, Upper Dnipro.
To attack Kremenchug, the rapid troops should move forward to the Dnieper River and occupy the ferries. The task of the Voronezh Front is to attack Kremenchug. The troops of the Southwest Front should move in the general direction of Barvinkovo and Pavlograd, and move forward to
The Zaporozhye and Pologi lines cut off the enemy Donbas group's retreat to the west.
The task accepted by our group army now is to seize the Merefa Fortress south of Kharkov and across the Muzha River, as well as the railway terminal next to it, destroy the German railway transportation system on the left bank of the Dnieper River, and open the way for friendly forces to
The road to Poltava enabled them to smoothly advance to the Dnieper River and carry out the campaign to liberate Left Bank Ukraine from the German invaders."
Among the commanders present, except for Polubyarov, all knew that the army's two infantry divisions and one infantry brigade, as well as the artillery division and tank brigade, had reached the outskirts of the Merefa Fortress. Therefore, they heard
When Sameko introduced the situation, he acted very calmly.
Polubyarov did not know what everyone else knew. Seeing that everyone was calm, he was full of curiosity and couldn't help but interjected and asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I would like to ask when can we ask
Merefa Fortress advances?"
Samyko suddenly heard this question and couldn't help but frowned. When he saw clearly that the person asking the question was Polubyarov, his brows suddenly widened. He knew that the other party was hospitalized and did not know about the military measures taken today.
Action, he explained to him: "General Polubyarov, you have just come out of the hospital, you may not know the current situation. The 84th and 182nd Infantry Divisions, the 73rd Infantry Brigade, the Tank Division of our group army
The troops of the 37th Brigade and the 1st Artillery Division had broken through the German defenses on the Muzha River during the day, and now they have arrived and stationed themselves outside the Merefa Fortress."
"What, our army has broken through the Muzha River?" Polubyarov asked in surprise: "The river embankment on the other side is steep. I wonder if our army made huge sacrifices when carrying out the forced crossing?"
"That's not true." Samyko turned to look at Sokov, shook his head and replied: "Thanks to the river-crossing tactics formulated by Comrade Commander, our army successfully crossed the Mujiang River without paying much price.
Stretch the river and build a pontoon bridge on the river for tanks or artillery to pass through."
After introducing the situation to Polubyarov, Samyko said to the commanders present: "Everyone understands the situation. Next, we will assign new combat tasks to the troops that have not yet entered the battle."
"Colonel Chuvashov!"
"Here!" Colonel Chuvashov, commander of the 98th Guards Division, stood up when his name was called. He stood out among a group of seated commanders.
"The mission of your division is to accompany the 37th Tank Brigade and the two tank battalions directly under the group army to detour to the south of Merefa Fortress and cut off the southward escape route of the fortress defenders."
"Yes!" Chuvasov agreed loudly and sat down again.
"The 254th and 384th Infantry Divisions!"
Hearing Samek call out the number of his unit, the two division commanders quickly stood up and replied loudly: "Here we are!"
"The mission of your two divisions is to launch an attack from the east of Merefa Fortress. The 254th Division should give priority to attacking the railway terminal and destroying the German railway transportation..."
Then Samyko assigned Fomenko, Shechtman and Guchakov the offensive tasks for tomorrow.
After assigning the task, Sameko picked up the cup on the table, took a sip of tea, and asked casually: "Any questions?"
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Colonel Koida, commander of the 188th Division, stood up and said aggrievedly: "The rest of the troops have assigned combat missions, why didn't our division receive any missions?"
After Samek and Sokov looked at each other, they looked at Koida again and said with a smile: "Colonel Koida, it's impossible for us to put all our troops into the attack without leaving any reserves, right?
If the attack in any direction goes wrong and reinforcements are needed, if we don't have a reserve team, we can only stare blankly."
"The chief of staff is right," Sokov added beside him: "We have carefully considered using your division as the reserve force of the group army. Since the Battle of Kursk, your division has been responsible for combat missions in important areas.
, has more combat experience than other divisions. You will serve as the reserve team. Once the battle situation is unfavorable to us, we can put you into battle to change the unfavorable situation."
Sokov's words simply put gold in the face of the 188th Division. If Koida couldn't hear the other side's implication, he would be too unqualified as a division commander. He waited for Sokov to finish speaking.
, after a brief thought, he understood Sokov's true intention, and quickly expressed his position: "Comrade Commander, please rest assured that our division will definitely serve as this reserve force."
After comforting Koida, Sokov stood up and said to the commanders present: "Comrade commanders, tomorrow's offensive battle will be different from everyone's understanding. We will not conduct any artillery fire before the attack.
Be prepared, because we do not have heavy artillery exceeding 152 mm, it is difficult to destroy strong fortifications. And every time our army's shelling starts, the enemy will retreat to a safe area along the communication trench, but avoid our army's shelling, thus making us
The army's precious artillery shells fell in undefended areas. As soon as our shelling ended, the enemy returned to their positions to block us..."
After Sokov's words came to an end, Commander Terenga of the 1st Artillery Division also stood up and said to everyone: "Comrade commander, although our division has 38 artillery pieces of 122 mm or above, there are only 4 152 mm artillery pieces. If
Using such an artillery configuration to deal with strong fortresses will not be of much use."
Fomenko, who had commanded the attack on the fortress area during the day, stood up and said to everyone with solemn expressions: "Comrade commanders, although there is no artillery preparation for the attack, don't worry, we can still take the fortress." In everyone's doubts.
In his eyes, he continued, "To be honest, my troops paid a heavy price in order to seize the fortress area with dozens of reinforced concrete bunkers during the daytime attack. Facing Houda
One or two meters of reinforced concrete, and the rockets fired by our soldiers with rocket launchers could not penetrate the wall of the bunker. It was not until later that a new tactic was explored, which was to directly drive the rockets into the bunker through the shooting holes, so that
Easily destroy enemy fortifications."
Sokov was originally considering what tactics to use for each division. When fighting in the fortress, he heard Fomenko's words and quickly added: "General Fomenko is right. Since the enemy's bunker walls
If it is thick and solid, then we will fire the rockets through the firing holes of the bunker. I don’t believe that we can’t deal with the enemy in this way?
The terrain in the fortress should be similar to what General Fomenko and the others encountered today. If you find the enemy's firepower point, use a rocket launcher to deal with it first. If it cannot be defeated, ask for artillery support and use the tactic of attaching a bayonet to the cannon.
Directly use cannons to destroy the enemy's firepower points at close range."