As soon as Shapkin put down the phone, he shouted to his chief of staff: "Comrade chief of staff, call the three division commanders immediately and ask them to come to my headquarters immediately."
"Comrade Commander," the Chief of Staff waited for him to finish and then replied with a smile: "The three division commanders saw that you never assigned them combat tasks, and they were more anxious than you." He pursed his lips toward the door, "
Well, they are all chatting outside the door."
"Nonsense, it's just nonsense." Shapkin said to the Chief of Staff with some displeasure: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the three division commanders are here, why don't you let them in? It's such a cold day, let them stay outside, if
I'm suffering from frostbite, who will direct the battle? Call them all in quickly."
The chief of staff nodded, walked to the door, opened the curtain, and said to the outside: "Comrade division commanders, the army commander invites you to come in!"
Within a moment, three officers wearing fur caps walked in from outside the headquarters. As they came in, there was a biting cold air, which made the chief of staff shiver and hurriedly lowered the curtain.
The three division commanders came to Shapkin, stood at attention, raised their hands in salute, and said: "Report to Comrade Commander,..."
"Okay, okay, no need to report." Shapkin interrupted them, turned around and ordered a staff officer next to him: "The three division commanders have been outside for so long, they must be freezing, let one of them come here
A cup of hot tea."
"Comrade Commander, there is no time for tea." Major General Yakunin, commander of the 21st Cavalry Division, stepped forward and said loudly: "Please give us a combat order for the 21st Cavalry Division."
Seeing Yakunin requesting a mission from Shapkin first, the other two division commanders also took a step forward and said in unison: "Comrade Commander, please give us a combat order for the 32nd Cavalry Division (55th Cavalry Division).
"
Seeing the three division commanders competing for tasks in front of him, Shapkin quickly raised his hand and pressed down on them, saying to them: "Comrade division commanders, don't worry, I will arrange tasks for you all. Come with me."
"Shapkin took the three division commanders to the lookout point, pointed outside and said to them, "Have you seen the retreating enemies?"
Although the battlefield was one or two kilometers away, the three division commanders could see the retreating enemy clearly even without binoculars. They nodded in unison and replied in unison: "I see it."
"Because there are too many hills and ravines ahead, which is not conducive to the deployment of armored forces, the Army Group Headquarters decided to let our cavalry troops attack. Now I will start assigning tasks to you." Shapkin led three division commanders to the map.
At the table, he pointed to Yakunin and said: "General Yakunin, your 21st Cavalry Division will serve as the first echelon to pursue the fleeing enemies and seize the enemy's position ahead of the infantry brothers.
.”
"Yes!" Yakunin agreed excitedly after receiving the combat mission.
Shapkin nodded and continued to assign tasks to the other two division commanders: "Colonel Chudeshov, your 32nd Cavalry Division serves as the second echelon, following the first echelon to move in to consolidate the positions captured."
"What about me, Comrade Commander?" Seeing that Shapkin assigned combat tasks to the two division commanders, the remaining commander of the 55th Cavalry Division, Colonel Charenko, became a little anxious: "What is the task of our division?"
Shapkin stared at the opponent for a while and then said: "Your division will serve as the reserve force of the entire army."
"What, the reserve team for the army?!" When Chalenko saw Shapkin assigning the other two divisions to serve as the first and second echelons respectively, he had an ominous premonition in his heart. At this moment, he heard that Shapkin actually arranged for himself
Being in the reserve team, I feel unhappy: "Comrade Commander, the commanders and fighters of our division have traveled a long way from distant Central Asia to come here to fight the Germans, not to be a reserve team. Please give us a new
Assign a task?"
Seeing that Charenko was dissatisfied with his arrangements, Shapkin did not talk nonsense with him, but said to Yakunin and Chudeshov: "You should rush back to the troops immediately and start attacking the enemy."
After the two division commanders gave a resounding agreement, they turned and left the headquarters. After the two left, Shapkin turned to face Charenko and said: "Comrade Colonel, don't you know that you can only obey the orders of your superiors, but you cannot
Bargain?"
"However, seeing other troops fighting the enemy while our division was doing nothing, I was worried that the commanders and soldiers would be emotional." Chalenko said reluctantly after being criticized: "After I return, I don't know how to tell the soldiers
Let us explain."
"I think you are the one with the emotions." Shapkin unceremoniously exposed the truth: "You think it's too embarrassing for you to be in the reserve team, so you use the soldiers in the division as shields."
"Colonel Chalenko! I understand your mood at the moment, and I sympathize with you, but orders from superiors must always be implemented." Seeing Chalenko's face flushed, the chief of staff walked to him and put a hand on his face.
He put his arm on his shoulder and said with a smile: "This battle won't be finished in a day or two. There are plenty of opportunities for the enemy to compete, so don't worry."
"The chief of staff is right." Shapkin sat down at the table, looked up at the unconvinced Charenko, and continued: "If we put all our troops into battle, if the attack does not go smoothly, then we will
Where should troops be mobilized to support the first and second echelons?"
After listening to the words of the Chief of Staff and Shapkin, Charenko felt that he seemed to have misunderstood the other party's meaning. The reason why he made his division serve as a reserve was not because he looked down on himself, but for the sake of the next battle. Now that he knew he was wrong,
Charenko quickly admitted his mistake to Shapkin: "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I was wrong. I wrongly blamed you."
The commanders and fighters of the 21st Cavalry Division attacked very quickly. The galloping horses quickly passed over the infantry advancing in the snow, and rushed towards the fleeing German troops in the distance. Thousands of horses ran wildly at the same time, their iron hooves beating on the snow.
The movement on the ground was like rolling thunder, causing the ground to tremble.
When the German commander hiding in the fortification saw the Soviet cavalry rolling in behind his soldiers, he suddenly felt chilled and terrified, and he quickly shouted at the top of his lungs:
"Machine gun, fire immediately at the Russian cavalry. Machine gun, immediately fire at..."
While he was shouting over and over again, a soldier next to him pointed at the soldiers who were heading towards the position and reminded him: "Mr. Captain, if you fire now, you will hit our own people."
"We can't worry about that anymore." The commander shouted at the soldiers: "Once our position is broken through by the Russian cavalry, the entire defense line will inevitably be shaken. Fire, fire immediately!"
As the order was issued, more than a dozen machine guns on the German position began firing indiscriminately. The dense bullets immediately knocked down a large number of German soldiers who were fleeing to the position. The remaining German soldiers hurriedly lay on the ground.
He fell to the ground to avoid being killed by his own bullets and becoming an unjust ghost who died inexplicably.
Under the interception of German machine gun fire, some of the charging cavalrymen were constantly being knocked off their horses. From time to time, a war horse was shot and fell over while running, and then tripped other war horses, and at the same time, his owner was involved in the surrounding iron hoofs.
Next. But even so, the Soviet cavalry did not slow down during the high-speed impact. They quickly approached the enemy's position.
Facing thousands of horses rushing at high speed, the German army's dozen machine guns were obviously not enough. In just a minute or two, many cavalry jumped over the trenches and continued to rush forward. For those who
When German soldiers appeared within their reach, they would chop them down with their swords and knock them to the ground. Some cavalrymen who had lost their horses rushed toward the enemy's trenches with their carbines. They first headed toward the trenches.
Throwing grenades inside, after hearing the explosion, he jumped into the trench before the smoke cleared, and started close combat and hand-to-hand combat with the German soldiers inside.
The German commanders in the rear position saw that the position was broken through by the Soviet cavalry. Worried about the collapse of the entire defense line, they quickly ordered the tank battalion to dispatch in an attempt to use tanks to deal with the cavalry with only light weapons. Unexpectedly, they forgot that the Soviet attack aircraft
Still wandering in the air, in addition to attacking ground fortifications, it also has another mission, which is to destroy German tanks and reduce the pressure on the ground troops' attack.
The dispatched tanks were attacked by attack aircraft not far from their positions. More than thirty attack aircraft surrounded a dozen tanks that left the position and an equal number of armored vehicles following them, bombing and strafing.
It took a few minutes to kill the armored force that left the defensive position without permission.
…………
"The 4th Mechanized Army broke through the enemy's defense line!"
"The 13th Tank Corps opened a breach in the enemy's defense line!"
"General Shapkin's 4th Cavalry Corps successfully broke through the two lines of German defense and is now continuing to advance north!"
"..."
Sidorin took the message forwarded to Golikov from the front army headquarters and read aloud a series of results achieved by the attacking troops on the south side of the city. Everyone present couldn't help but smile when they heard the battle report he read.
After Golikov waited for Sidorin to finish reading, he turned to Sokov and asked: "Colonel Sokov, do you think the enemy will realize that they are in danger after suffering a heavy blow from our army?"
"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army, I think the enemy may have realized this problem." Sokov asked Golikov, feeling that it was necessary to remind the other party that the enemy might want to escape, and he must find a way to hold the enemy back so that they can escape.
Unable to successfully withdraw from the city: "They may withdraw their troops from the city after dark."
"Withdraw the troops at night?" Regarding Sokov's statement, Golikov expressed doubts: "Comrade Colonel, have you ever thought about mobilizing troops at night, especially in areas where the fronts of both sides are intertwined?
It is not an easy task to withdraw so many troops."
"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army," seeing that Golikov seemed to disagree with his views, Sokov continued: "I think you should call Commander Chuikov and ask all units to closely monitor the enemy's movements.
trends, and at the same time be prepared to attack.”
"What, attack?" Golikov couldn't help but raise his eyebrows when he heard this, and then asked: "Do you think those troops who are sticking to the factory still have the ability to fight back against the enemy?"
"Yes, the troops who defended the factory have suffered serious attrition after a long period of fighting." Sokov explained: "The attack I am talking about is just to let these troops take advantage of the night to seize some forward positions and give them to
The enemy creates the illusion that we will launch an attack from the rear at any time. In this way, their retreat plan will change, and we will have the opportunity to leave a large number of enemies in the city so that the main force of the counterattack can surround them.
"
After listening to Sokov's suggestion, Golikov did not express his position, but walked back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back. Sokov knew that Golikov was considering his own plan, so he did not disturb him, but quietly
She watched him walking back and forth in front of her.
After an unknown amount of time, Golikov finally stopped, turned around and said to Sokov: "Colonel Sokov, I think what you said makes sense. However, I have no right to give orders to Chuikov. This matter needs to be reported to
Only the Front Army Headquarters will do."
While Golikov was on the phone to the front army headquarters, Sokov called Belkin on the side and asked straight to the point: "Comrade Political Commissar, how is the situation there? Is the enemy still attacking?"
"No, the enemies have all retreated to their positions after we repelled them two hours ago, and there has been no movement until now." Belkin reported on the phone: "I really don't know what happened.
"
"Comrade Political Commissar, let me tell you some good news first." Sokov considered that the news of the main force's successful counterattack on the south side of the city could boost the morale of the troops standing at the barricade factory, so he told him what he knew
Some good news was told to Belkin in detail.
After hearing this, Belkin couldn't help but be overjoyed and said repeatedly: "Great, this is really great. Misha, it seems that the enemy can't hold on for long."
"According to my judgment, the enemy may want to slip away." Sokov continued: "The task of your regiment is to send people to figure out the enemy's movements after dark, and then appropriately seize some forward positions to contain the enemy.
, making them afraid to withdraw from the factory boldly."
"Don't worry, Misha." In response to Sokov's order, Belkin said easily: "The commanders and fighters of the first battalion did this last night. They successfully captured several positions from the enemy. Although
These positions were recaptured by the Germans during the daytime battle, but I believe that since they can complete such a mission once, they will have no problem completing it a second or third time."
"Comrade Political Commissar, I want to remind you one thing." Sokov quickly glanced at Golikov who was on the phone with Yeremenko, lowered his voice and said into the phone: "This major counterattack, and
Different from the previous counterattacks with a diversionary nature, the Germans could not stop our offensive at all. Therefore, in the battle, there is no need to think about preserving strength, and we can fight as we want. If the troops are insufficient,
Our superiors will give us additional information."