Chapter 101: 328th Division
It was past three in the morning and candles were lit in the army headquarters - the city's power supply had not yet been restored, and in order to ensure safety, the army issued a blackout order.
"We are facing a very bad situation now. We are in a very passive situation," said Rokossovsky, with bloodshot eyes and elbows on the edge of the table. He scanned everyone present and said, "The troops are too scattered, and the front we need to defend is too large. The 60-kilometer front means that even if we push all our troops forward, we can only deploy one division every 15 kilometers."
Someone laughed in the darkness. After all, war is not like piling up mud, and troops cannot be arranged like laying bricks and distributed evenly across the entire battlefield. Statements like Rokossovsky's are usually used when requesting support from higher authorities.
"This afternoon, through the efforts of the signalmen, we have contacted all the troops. The general situation now is that the 323rd Division is still stranded in the area south of Kaluga. They were severely damaged in the previous battle and may not be able to fight again in the short term." Rokossovsky continued, "The 322nd Division is in Mekhovaya, which is also the location of the 10th Army's previous headquarters. The 324th Division is in the direction of Sukhinichi. Comrade Golikov said that this division has surrounded Sukhinichi. They may launch an offensive towards the city in the next two days."
"How many German troops are there stationed in Suhinichi?" A staff officer felt a little strange and couldn't help asking.
This was indeed a strange thing, because according to the previous order of the Western Front Command, their 16th Army Division was transferred here because Sukhinich was captured by the Germans and there might be problems with the left wing defense line. As a result, when the command arrived here, they heard the news that the German troops in Sukhinich had been surrounded. Is this a joke? If so, what are they doing here? To see the snow?
"It's not clear yet, but we'll know soon," Rokossovsky waved his hands irritably and said, "Right now, the worst situation is the 328th Division. They were defeated in the previous German counterattack, and the division headquarters has been dispersed. We have contacted the division's chief of staff, Comrade Naryansky, who is currently staying near the village of Zherdevo with the surviving personnel of the division headquarters, preparing to reorganize the troops."
Many staff officers, including Yuri, looked at each other in bewilderment. Most of them were confused about the situation.
It can be seen from the battle map that the village of Zherjevo is less than 20 kilometers away from the city of Sukhinichi. It was mentioned earlier that the German troops in Sukhinichi had been surrounded by the 324th Division, and later it was said that the 328th Division suffered heavy losses in Sukhinichi, not only was the entire division dispersed, but even the division headquarters was destroyed. What on earth is going on?
"In view of the current situation, I am going to change the original plan and move the headquarters from Meshevsk to Mekhovaya," Rokossovsky ignored everyone's questions and continued, "In addition, I am going to send a capable comrade to Zherdevo to assemble the troops of the 328th Division and temporarily take over the position of division commander to organize an offensive to the area south of Sukhinich and along the Oka River."
Hearing him say this, everyone's attention was immediately focused on Yuri. Needless to say, this task would most likely be completed by him, because in everyone's resume, he was the only one who had commanded an independent division-level unit in combat since the outbreak of the war. At the same time, he also had experience in organizing and reorganizing troops on the front line.
Don't underestimate these resumes, because they themselves mean experience, ability, and that the person is trustworthy.
Sure enough, Yuri was the candidate that Rokossovsky preferred. He quickly turned his gaze to Yuri and said, "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel Yuri Arkhipovich, I hope you can go to Zherdevo as soon as possible, recruit the scattered troops there, regroup them into combat power, and launch an offensive in the direction of the Oka River. If conditions permit, I hope you can make some assaults in the direction of the Bryansk-Orel highway, so as to create some pressure on the German troops in the Sukhnichi area."
"I accept the order, Comrade Commander," Yuri said, straightening himself.
Today, Yuri likes to accept such challenges. Of course, more importantly, this mission means that he can once again gain the power to command an army, and he likes to command the troops to fight directly.
"Also, I plan to increase the frequency of radio communications in the near future," Rokossovsky continued, "in order to provide the German army with some false information. We will continue to use the numbers of all levels of the 16th Army Headquarters. Comrade Lieutenant Colonel Yuri Arkhipovich, after your troops are integrated , the number used in radio communications will still be the 133rd Infantry Division. I hope you can remember this."
"I will, Comrade Commander," Yuri said.
The Soviet army rarely used radio directly on the front line battlefield. The reason was simple. The Soviet army was good at stealing German intelligence through radio decryption. The Supreme Command also stipulated that front-line troops were not allowed to use radio to transmit secret intelligence. Now, Rokossovsky was preparing to use radio communications at a high frequency, which was undoubtedly to confuse the German army and make them mistakenly believe that the Soviet army had made adjustments to the battle line. The 16th Army, which was originally fighting on the front, had moved to the left wing, thereby creating psychological pressure on them.
The impromptu combat meeting ended at four in the morning. Yuri did not return to the temporary residence where he had only lived for a few hours, but chose to set off directly to Zherdevo, nearly 60 kilometers away from Meshevsk.
In order to strengthen the combat capability of the 328th Division, Rokossovsky assigned Yuri a reinforced artillery battalion and a team specifically responsible for communications. However, considering the road conditions, the artillery battalion would not be officially in place until two days later. During this time, Yuri had to assemble as many troops as possible.
After having a quick bite at the headquarters, Yuri left Meshchevsk by sled before five in the morning and headed straight for Zherdevo with his guards and communications team.
The closer he got to Zherdevo, the more Yuri felt the seriousness of the problem, because when he passed the village of Hatansalya, he encountered a defeated Soviet army. This retreating force of nearly sixty people was stumbling eastward in waist-deep snow. There was not even a second lieutenant among them, and the highest rank was only a sergeant.
Yuri gathered the troops and appointed the sergeant as the company commander on the spot, asking him to lead his men back to Zherdevo and continue to gather troops along the way. No soldier should be missed.
The journey after that was extremely slow. Yuri encountered defeated soldiers from time to time, and he recruited them on the spot and integrated them together, which slowed down the formation. When he finally arrived in Gerdevo, it was already two o'clock in the afternoon, and the troops he had recruited behind him had reached a size of thousands of people.
In Zherdevo, Yuri finally met Naryansky, the former chief of staff of the 328th Division. This comrade who was less than 30 years old was also injured. He had a bandage on his arm, but he was in good spirits.
Naryansky was relieved to learn that Yuri was here to temporarily take over the position of division commander. According to him, there were only four people left in the division headquarters, including him, the artillery chief Borishevich who had lost all his artillery, and two staff members . So far, they have gathered about two regiments of troops, and ammunition and supplies are sufficient.
"The German counterattack came very suddenly," Naryansky said to Yuri as he watched the soldiers build wooden houses to avoid the cold in the woods outside the village. "We were not prepared at all. The Germans appeared in front of us almost as soon as the first shell landed in front of the headquarters barracks. Comrade Borishevich and I left the camp and retreated to the woods. We lost contact with other comrades. According to my estimation, they were probably captured by the Germans."
Yuri asked Arseni to record what Naryansky said, and most importantly, the list of missing persons from the 328th Division headquarters. He would then make a copy of these things because one copy would be sent to the Western Front Command, and the other would involve his secret identity.
As the main person in charge of the Western Front of the Special Operations Department, Yuri can be said to be extremely incompetent in this position. During this period of time, the information he reported was very limited. The few reports he had submitted mainly recorded the names of generals and commanders, and then submitted them to the intelligence personnel of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs to verify the situation, mainly to verify whether these people surrendered to the German army after being captured.
"Why not move towards Sukhinichi?" Yuri asked. "Comrade Kiryuhin's troops are fighting there. They have also surrounded the German troops in Sukhinichi."
Naryansky blinked his eyes comically and looked closely at the expression on Yuri's face, as if he suspected that Yuri was joking.
"The 324th Division surrounded the German troops in Sukhinich?" Perhaps because he saw that Yuri didn't seem to be joking, he asked again.
"Isn't it?" Yuri asked back.
"Although I'm not sure about the combat situation of the 324th Division, as far as I know, there is a division of German troops in Sukhinich," Naryansky said this and then shut up. Obviously, he didn't want to say directly that the news was false.
Although he didn't say it, Yuri understood the truth. If there was really a German division stationed in Sukhinich, then the 324th Division would be surrounded . As for encircling the German army, there was no possibility at all.
The German army's troop allocation was different from that of the Soviet army. The Soviet army's division had a maximum of 5,000 to 6,000 people, while the German army's division had between 10,000 and 12,000 people, equivalent to two to three Soviet divisions. Using the strength of one division to surround three divisions? That was not fighting, but courting death.
