Chapter 104 Subsequent Operations
The sudden attack of the Soviet army obviously stunned the German troops in the villages and towns for a period of time at the beginning, but the good quality of the soldiers enabled these German troops to stabilize quickly, and they used the defensive positions established at the entrance of the village to counterattack the Soviet army that launched the surprise attack.
There was a burst of sound from powerful artillery fire in front of the village. From where Yuri was, he could see the tracer bullets fired from the two armies' crossfire zone densely and crisscrossed, like a layer of light net.
However, the tracer bullets soon lost their function of guiding the direction of shooting, because the tanks of the two armies were destroyed one after another. The flames that rose into the sky illuminated the surrounding areas of the villages and towns as bright as day. Even from Yuri's position, he could see that the German troops in the village were attacking the outer defensive positions.
What made Yuri somewhat dissatisfied was that the vanguard of the 328th Division that launched a sudden attack failed to occupy the German circular position in the first time. Two tanks that advanced to about thirty or forty meters in front of the position were destroyed by the anti-tank guns on the German position, and the coordinating infantry were suppressed by the German machine gun fire points at the bottom of the slope and could not raise their heads.
"Tell the artillery to destroy the German anti-tank positions," Yuri put down the telescope in his hand and shouted angrily to the communications soldier standing by.
The signalman ran away quickly, but three or five minutes later, dense artillery fire sounded again from above the woods. Yuri used a telescope to see a German anti-tank gun being hit. The barrel and the gun carriage were instantly blown into two parts. The thick barrel flew out, carrying a German artilleryman who was hit, and bounced into a residential house in the village. The heavy gun carriage was blown up six or seven meters high. Before it landed, another shell fell into a circular machine gun fire point not far away. Three German soldiers were blown out of the fire point by the explosion and fell on the snow not far away like a broken sack, and there was no movement anymore.
Yuri clenched his fists tightly. This round of artillery fire was very good. The shooting position was very accurate. However, it was not easy to achieve this at night.
The artillery fire coverage destroyed the German anti-tank forces on this line of defense. Soon, two more Soviet tanks rushed into the German positions with the cooperation of the infantry, and the two sides began to engage in close combat on this position.
The commander of a T-34 tank was obviously very experienced. The tank rushed to the position and first used artillery to destroy the German machine gun fire point on the second floor of a residential building. Then it rushed to the edge of a building ruin, using the ruins as cover to block the bombardment of flank anti-tank guns, and at the same time used machine guns to block the passages from the village streets leading to the outer positions.
Although the tank only held that position for less than five minutes before being blown up by German infantry rushing in from behind the ruins, it also bought ample time for the Soviet infantry to launch the attack.
Less than 25 minutes after the battle started, the vanguard of the 328th Division, with the cooperation of the 146th Tank Brigade, broke through the positions in front of the village of Popkov. The infantry combat units that followed consolidated the breakthrough and began to launch an offensive into the village.
After his troops consolidated the position at the breakthrough, Yuri ordered the artillery to move to the front of the village and began to bombard the front of the German troops defending the village in order to expand the breakthrough.
In the following half an hour, the soldiers of the 328th Division completely tore through the German positions outside the town of Popkov, and then began to launch an offensive towards the center of the town. When fighting for the first few streets, the German resistance was still quite tenacious. However, as the "Pidakov Activity Center" in the center of the town was captured by the Soviet army, the German resistance began to weaken rapidly.
At 2 a.m., the entire battle in the town of Popkov was declared over. The 328th Division occupied this important stronghold and drove the German artillery units out of this firepower point that could directly threaten Sukhinich.
Also later in the morning at 2 a.m., the 97th Infantry Division captured Maklaki. At this point, the German army's stubborn defense in the direction of Zhizdra was shattered, and its troops were cut into several parts, scattered in some villages and jungles around Suhinichi.
Most people in the army headquarters, including Yuri, were optimistic about the war situation in the future, because if nothing unexpected happened, the German army would not be able to stay in the Sukhnic area for long, and they had only two choices: retreat or be annihilated.
On the morning of the second day after the Popkov battle ended, Rokossovsky, on behalf of the army command, sent a notification to the front command, officially announcing that they had captured Sukhinich and consolidated the defense of its surrounding areas.
At first, the front command did not believe it when it received the report. Comrade Zhukov called personally and asked Rokossovsky to report the matter to him in person. Then he asked him to write a written document, which would be forwarded to the front command after being signed by the Military Commissar and the Chief of Staff.
Despite being doubted by the front command, no one in the army group was unhappy. On the contrary, everyone was excited, because the front command's doubts showed that their achievements had given their superiors a surprise, but the surprise was a little too big, so that the leaders couldn't believe it.
After the written materials were submitted, there was no feedback from the front command for the next two days. It was not until the third day that the front chief of staff, Comrade Sokolovsky, came to the army headquarters in person.
Comrade Sokolovsky did not come alone or empty-handed this time. He was accompanied by a delegation of representatives from all walks of life in Moscow, who brought a large amount of fresh fruit, cigarettes, vodka and meat products to the army. In addition, Sokolovsky handed Rokossovsky a copy Pravda, which was published only yesterday, and told him that he was required to return to Moscow before March 10, as the Supreme Command decided to award him a medal on that day, and he would be promoted from lieutenant general to general.
To be honest, Rokossovsky's promotion speed made all the members of the army headquarters envious. You know, he was just promoted to lieutenant general in mid-August, and it took less than four months to be promoted to general. Don't talk about Yuri's promotion speed. Although he rose to a higher rank, from captain to colonel in a few months, this speed still couldn't be compared with Rokossovsky's. After all, he was promoted to a senior military rank, not at the same level as him.
As for the Pravda, it greatly excited everyone in the army headquarters, because this issue of the newspaper introduced the deeds of the 16th Army in the form of a front-page headline, and even Yuri's name appeared several times in it.
However, Sokolovsky definitely brought not only good things, but also some annoying things.
As the chief of staff of the front, Sokolovsky gave a new combat order to the army headquarters, and this combat order was a bit depressing - the front headquarters required that the 16th Army, while consolidating its existing positions, launch an attack on the German troops on its western front in order to tire the enemy and consume its troops and supplies, making it impossible to completely consolidate the existing defense line.
This order sounds fucked up. Just think about it, in the past we have only heard of tiring and depleting the enemy forces in defense, but has anyone ever heard of depleting the enemy forces in attack?
What's more, what's the current situation of the 16th Army? Except for the 97th Infantry Division, which is a little more complete, the remaining divisions have suffered huge losses in the previous battles. To be frank, the 16th Army is already on the verge of a serious shortage of troops. At this time, the regular order should be to let them switch to defense, or transfer them to the reserve, regroup their strength, and then attack. But what about the current order? It requires them to continue the attack, and in the process of exhausting and consuming the German troops and supplies... Is this a joke?
With deep confusion, after receiving the order, Rokossovsky made a special call to Comrade Zhukov to confirm the authenticity of the order, but the answer he got was affirmative, and Comrade Zhukov was obviously not interested in listening to his difficulties and directly asked him to execute the order.
There is nothing you can do if the superior leader is unreasonable. Even if the order is unrealistic, the army headquarters has to carry it out.
Since the requirement was to exhaust and consume the German troops and supplies during the attack, the troops had to launch an attack. As for how to attack, the army group command, after a long discussion, finally decided to adopt the proposal of Chief of Staff Malinin.
Malinin's proposal was actually very simple, which was to draw out a part of the troops to launch successive attacks on several German defensive strongholds while ensuring that the existing defensive forces were not too weak.
To put it bluntly, it is to specially draw out a troop to fight here today and there tomorrow, without seeking to break through the enemy's defense line or capture many positions, just feinting again and again. This method is actually to dawdle and fool the front army command, so that when they see it, they will see that there is indeed fighting here, and it is very lively, and then the order is completed. As for the German army, although such fighting may not necessarily consume much of their troops and supplies, it should still be effective in creating fatigue for the German army, after all, the Germans cannot know that it is a feint.
The battle plan was drawn up, but who would carry it out? Yuri was unwilling to go, because in his opinion, such a battle was meaningless and was just a waste of time. He even thought that according to this battle plan, even the effect of exhausting the German army could not be achieved. Most importantly, carrying out such a battle mission was also a big test for the commander, and at least he would be exhausted.
Unfortunately, Comrade Rokossovsky seemed to have set his sights on him, and in the end, the combat plan was still carried out by his 328th Division.
