Chapter 109: Mechanized 28th Army
Moscow at dusk was shrouded in mist and drizzle. On Runway 6 of Sheremetyevo Airport, a military aircraft broke through the rain curtain and taxied and slowed down on the runway.
At the moment the plane landed, a military jeep appeared outside the runway and chased the plane for hundreds of meters until the plane finally stopped. Then the jeep drove onto the runway and headed towards the boarding gate.
When they arrived at the place, the jeep slowed down, and before it stopped, a Soviet captain in military uniform jumped out of the car quickly and ran towards the cabin entrance holding an umbrella.
When the elevator came down, Yuri in plain clothes appeared at the cabin door. He stepped down from the elevator, met the captain holding an umbrella, and said, "Gerlyosha will probably not be back until the day after tomorrow. Remember to pick her up at the station."
The captain was Arseny. He agreed and trotted after Yuri got into the car.
"Where's the battle report?" Yuri asked impatiently as soon as he got in the car .
He knew very well that the army headquarters had hurriedly recalled him this time because the situation on the southern front had completely deteriorated, and the evolution of history had not deviated from its track. It was estimated that Rokossovsky would be transferred, and perhaps he would also leave the 16th Army with him.
"Here," Arseni quickly picked up a briefcase, pulled out a document, handed it to Yuri, and said, "However, I received another notice at noon, saying that after you return to Moscow, you should report directly to the 28th Mechanized Army Headquarters in Novosili."
"Oh?" Yuri raised his eyebrows.
"Comrade Commander Rokossovsky has been transferred to the Bryansk Front. I heard that he is the commander of the front," Arseni said gossipingly. "I heard that he selected four people from the 16th Army Headquarters, including Chief of Staff Comrade Malinin, Artillery Director Comrade Kazakov, and Communications Director Comrade Maximenko. The remaining one is you."
After hearing this, Yuri couldn't help feeling a little complacent. After all, the person who was taken away by Rokossovsky must have left a deep impression on him, or at least was someone he thought was capable of standing on his own.
"I saw your new appointment," Arseni said with a cheeky grin, leaning sideways in the passenger seat, "It's the operations staff of the Bryansk Front and concurrently the chief of staff of the 28th Mechanized Army. I think you're going to be the army commander, right?"
Yuri glared at him and said nothing.
"I guess he is still commanding a combined arms force, hehe," Arseni added, then turned around with his neck shrunk.
Although Yuri looked cold on the surface, he was actually very happy in his heart. After all, this step of promotion was very important to him. To some extent, he also benefited from Rokossovsky.
After Lukin, Comrade Rokossovsky has the hope of becoming the second "Stalin's fire chief". Well, then let's be Comrade Rokossovsky's fire chief.
Feeling smug for a while, Yuri opened the battle report and read it with a frown.
After taking a quick look at the battle report, Yuri just wanted to curse. It seemed that being the fire captain was not an easy job.
From the end of May to the middle of June, in less than 20 days, the entire southwest and southern directions have been in chaos. Since the Battle of Kiev, the Southwestern Front, which had finally recovered some of its strength, was basically wiped out, and the main forces of the Southern Front were also reduced to 70% and completely crippled. The most fatal thing is that after this defeat, there are basically no large-scale Soviet corps east of Kharkov, all the way to Voronezh and Stalingrad. If nothing is done, the German troops will successfully cross the Don River. To the south, they can threaten Baku, the main oil producing area of the Soviet Union, and to the north, they can choose to outflank Moscow. The Soviet army has little room for resistance.
Well, perhaps the whole battle situation is far away from Yuri, but look at this unit, the 28th Mechanized Army, what a big name, but look at the actual situation of the unit, it previously participated in the Vyazma-Bryansk Campaign, during which it was surrounded by the German army. The current 28th Mechanized Army, to be precise, should be the remnants.
Taking a remnant of troops to participate in a battle called a endgame, well, both sides were damaged together, and the final result was that both commanders became disabled.
After reading the battle report, Yuri rummaged through his briefcase again and found the relevant appointment procedures. Well, the leader was really considerate. All the procedures were completed without him showing up in person. What he had to do now was to take these appointment documents to Novosili, the headquarters of the military, to take up his post.
Seeing the end of the appointment document, Yuri was happy again. He was not the only one who had bad luck in love. There was also the commander of the 48th Infantry Division, Khaliuzin. Yuri had met this man before. He was a very humorous guy, but he was foul-mouthed and loved to curse. In the previous Battle of Moscow, Khaliuzin's performance was remarkable. He had been promoted to major general, so he was sadly appointed as the commander of the 28th Mechanized Army.
So far, in addition to Khalyuzin, the commander of the military department also includes Military Commissar Baumenthev, a name that is unfamiliar to Yuri.
A corps commander, a chief of staff and a military commissioner, this three-person military group is the composition of the 28th Army's military headquarters, excluding the staff officers, of course. Candidates for positions such as the chief of communications, chief of artillery, chief of tank corps, etc. have not yet been determined. In other words, the command center of this unit is about to fall apart.
Let's look at the various units under the military, the 1st Guards Division and the 6th Guards Division, which were recently selected as Guards units. Being selected as a Guards unit means that they fought bravely before, and fighting bravely means that the battles were fierce, and fighting fiercely means that the troops suffered heavy casualties... In short, the two remnants. The 8th, 211th, and 284th Infantry Divisions are the three infantry divisions that have just been reorganized and replenished. Yuri dare not imagine how bad the situation is. There are still three infantry brigades, a tank brigade, and some independent guerrilla units. Among them, the 122nd Infantry Brigade currently has only two battalions of troops, and it is not fully staffed.
This is the current specific situation of the 28th Mechanized Army. To put it bluntly, this is a ragged army that escaped from the German encirclement and has not yet been reorganized or recovered. The order from the front command requires Yuri and his men to reorganize the troops in the shortest possible time, rebuild their combat effectiveness, and then organize defense along the Korobka River to resist the German attack towards Yeletsk.
In fact, after reading the appointment documents, Yuri understood the work he needed to do in the future. Needless to say, Comrade Rokossovsky arranged him to the 28th Army, not intending to let him command the battle there, but to let him reorganize the troops.
Looking back over the past year, Yuri felt that he seemed to be destined to be involved in the work of reorganizing troops. When he was in Lutsk, he had reorganized a group of defeated soldiers into his own troops, and within a short period of time, he put them into battle, and they fought quite well.
After that, he led a troop of new recruits to resist the German attack in the direction of Kiev. In fact, during the command process, there was also the work of reorganizing the troops. After all, in order to form combat effectiveness, the new recruits must go through a reorganization process.
After that, I was in Moscow, especially when I was commanding the 133rd Division in Klin City, I was also involved in the work of reorganizing the troops.
Then there was the 328th Division. When he was commanding that division, he recruited captured soldiers from German concentration camps. In fact, the reorganization of the 328th Division was the most troublesome and difficult.
Now it seems that Rokossovsky obviously saw his ability in this area, so he threw a crippled 28th Army to himself. However, the reorganization of an army is obviously different from the reorganization of a division, a brigade, and a regiment. Yuri needs to consider more issues, especially details. Didn't Rokossovsky consider these?
Fortunately, Yuri had memories of his past life. As far as he knew, the Germans would not choose Moscow as their main attack direction in the next battle. Their targets were Stalingrad and Baku. In this way, the 28th Mechanized Army could gain more time to reorganize its troops.
After training in the army for such a long time, Yuri no longer had the mentality of complaining. Therefore, although he was somewhat dissatisfied with the work of reorganizing the 28th Mechanized Army, he was still able to maintain a normal mind and devote himself to this work with peace of mind.
The jeep rushed in the rain for nearly an hour before finally entering Moscow. Yuri went back to his residence, changed into his military uniform, and took two spare clothes. Then he got back into the car and asked Arseny to drive him to the train station. He planned to take the train to Yeletsk first, and then take a bus to Novosibirsk from there.
As the German army suffered a disastrous defeat outside Moscow and retreated westward, daily life in Moscow was gradually restored, and the anti-aircraft balloons and sandbags built around the buildings were removed. However, in order to prevent surprise bombings by the German army, the entire city was still under a blackout.
When Yuri arrived in Moscow again by car, it was already completely dark. But when he looked back at the Moscow city from the car, it was still pitch black, like an uninhabited dead city.
But Yuri knew that Moscow would never become a dead city. The only city that would become a dead city was Stalingrad.
