Chapter 180 Air Raid
Such a sudden promotion made Yuri feel dazed. To be honest, he had been waiting for this promotion for too long. In fact, he had been waiting for the promotion order since the end of the Battle of Stalingrad.
Looking back at the Battle of Stalingrad, after the battle, within the 62nd Army alone, Commander Chuikov was promoted, Military Commissar Gurov was promoted, Krylov was promoted, Zholudev was promoted... The entire 62nd Army was commended, and its unit number was changed to the 9th Guards Army.
In this promotion and commendation that was almost universal across the entire army, Yuri was missed, and the "Defense of Stalingrad" medal was not issued to him until several months later.
Holding the promotion notice from the Military Commission in his hand, Yuri read the contents of the notice carefully from beginning to end.
According to the practice of the Soviet Red Army, when any commander is promoted, his personal resume and combat achievements will be written in detail in the promotion notice so that everyone who sees the notice can have an intuitive understanding of the appointment. Yuri's current promotion notice is naturally no exception.
After reading the report from beginning to end, Yuri found that the report had a detailed description of all his experiences from the Soviet-Finnish War to the Battle of Stalingrad, but did not mention his important role in formulating the Kursk Operation Plan. In other words, this promotion had nothing to do with the Battle of Kursk.
Moreover, looking at Yuri's path to promotion, it is not difficult to find a problem: he was promoted quite quickly in the process of being promoted from a middle and lower-level commander, from second lieutenant, first lieutenant... all the way to colonel. The promotion process was very smooth. The speed could be said to be outrageously fast. In more than a year, he had completed the transformation from a grassroots commander to a senior commander.
But after he was promoted to major general and entered the ranks of senior commanders, his path to promotion was blocked, and it could even be said that it was stagnant. In Stalingrad, he risked his life to survive the victory. For others, the end of that fierce battle was the time for glory, but for him, the end of the war... that was the end, there was no excitement and no follow-up.
It turns out that you are still too young. Youth is sometimes a tool for promotion, but sometimes it is an obstacle to promotion.
"General, I will go get your new uniform for you." Arseni did not understand the pain in Yuri's heart, but was only trying to make him happy. After such a long time, he finally waited for Yuri to make a further progress, and Yuri's further progress naturally meant that his promotion would also be on the agenda.
Yuri's mind was not here. After listening to Arseny's words, he just nodded silently. But when he came to his senses, the excited Comrade Arseny had already run away.
Putting down the report in his hand, Yuri shook his head. He thought that maybe it was time to let Arseni go and give him a real job.
Comrade Khrushchev's original judgment was not wrong. Yuri now deeply understands this. He is thinking, if he had not accepted Khrushchev's recommendation and had not taken the position of Chief of the Operations Department of the General Staff, then what would be the point of him on the front line?
Thinking about it more deeply, Yuri felt that if he was promoted too quickly, it might not be a good sign. What did he want? To be a general under 30? This might be a good thing during the war, but after the war, who would want to have a leader under 30 sitting above him? This was simply a hopeless age.
Throwing away the cigarette butt in his hand, Yuri took a deep breath, adjusted his mentality, and calmed the unrest and depression in his chest - after all, he was still young, so what? There was still a long way to go.
The popsicle that he had just taken two bites of was already showing signs of melting. Yuri sat back on his stool, picked up the popsicle, took a delicious bite, and continued reading his battle report.
“Woo…”
His eyes had just turned to the battle report, and he hadn't even read the contents clearly when a piercing air raid alarm suddenly rang out. The sound was so sharp that the glass on the ward window was buzzing.
Yuri looked up in astonishment and looked towards the window. He felt a little unbelievable.
After the Kuban air battle, the Soviet Red Army had gained absolute air superiority on the southern front. Since Yuri arrived in Krasnodar, no air defense alarm has been heard. What happened today?
The sun is shining brightly outside the window. Under the sunlight, the sky is blue, without even a cloud to be seen.
There were hurried footsteps outside the door. After a while, Arseni, who had left not long ago, ran back. As soon as he entered the ward, he said breathlessly: "General, please follow me to the air-raid shelter immediately. The German planes are coming!"
"What are you panicking about!" Yuri frowned, stood up from the stool, took his pants and put them on, then took the military jacket from Arseni and walked out while saying, "Are you sure it's not a false alarm? How could German planes rush here?"
"It's not a false alarm. The anti-aircraft troops have already entered the artillery positions." Arseni surrounded Yuri and walked out, speaking quickly.
Yuri didn't plan to enter any air-raid shelter. He planned to find a good observation position and carefully observe the incoming German planes.
The best observation point in the city is of course the rooftop. However, considering the current actual situation in Krasnodar city, Yuri gave up this plan - there are only a few well-preserved buildings in the entire city, and they are definitely the best reference objects for bombing. Going to the rooftop at this time is simply seeking death.
"Have the hospital's wounded been evacuated?" Yuri hurried out of the ward and saw that there were not many people in the corridor, so he couldn't help asking.
"I don't know," Arseni said hesitantly.
"Notify the hospital immediately to arrange the transfer," Yuri gave the order decisively. Although he had no command authority here, his rank was enough so the order was still effective.
"Well, General, you..." Arseni hesitated.
"Don't worry about me," Yuri rushed down the stairs quickly, and quickly ordered, "Notify everyone to leave the building immediately. It's very dangerous here."
When we reached the second floor, we saw wounded soldiers in the corridor preparing to hide from the bombing. Judging from their clothes, they were all soldiers. After all, soldiers had experienced wars, and they knew which places were more dangerous when the bombing came.
"Don't panic!" Seeing that the crowded crowd had blocked the stairs, Yuri shouted, "Let the doctors and the seriously injured be transferred first. The lightly injured will be responsible for maintaining order. Anyone who creates chaos will be shot on the spot!"
Although young, Yuri was wearing a military uniform after all, and his rank was also there. After shouting twice, the wounded nearby recognized his identity and began to take the initiative to help maintain order. With the order of "shoot on the spot" in front, the deterrent effect was very strong, and the order at the stairs quickly improved - it can be seen from here that after more than two years of war, the discipline and obedience of Soviet soldiers are no longer what they used to be.
With order, the evacuation speed became faster. The seriously injured and panicked medical staff crowded at the stairs quickly went downstairs. A young man in a major's uniform came over and urged Yuri to go downstairs quickly, and told him that there was an air-raid shelter in front of the building.
Yuri followed several soldiers downstairs. Before they found the location of the air-raid shelter, they heard the roar of planes coming from far away.
"General, General, the hospital has been evacuated," Arseni, panting, caught up at this time. He looked up at the northwest sky and said, "Let's go to the bunker quickly. The German planes have arrived."
“All of them…”
Almost at the same time, the sound of anti-aircraft artillery was heard in the distance. This should be the air defense force deployed outside the city, trying to drive the approaching German fighter planes to high altitudes to prevent them from launching low-altitude bombing on important facilities in the city.
"Telescope!" Yuri put his hands on the awning and looked towards the northwest for a while, but saw nothing. He turned around and said to Arseny.
Arseni quickly touched his lower back, found the box containing the telescope, took it off, took out the telescope and handed it to Yuri.
With the help of the telescope, Yuri looked northwest again, and this time, he finally found the target.
Within the field of view of the telescope, more than a dozen black spots were heading straight towards the urban area. The anti-aircraft guns' fire blasted clouds of black smoke in the air, but failed to force them back.
The black spots came very quickly, and they could be seen clearly in the telescope soon. There were 16 fighter planes in total, and from their formation, it could be seen that this should be a squadron, four groups of four planes.
Yuri was confused. According to the current Soviet deployment, there were air force commanders in almost every front-line unit. These people were responsible for designating bombing targets for the air force and providing early warnings to the rear. Now, German planes had already raided Krasnodar, but the Soviet air force had not yet appeared. What was going on?
Did Petrov's offensive fail? That was not right. After all, it was only a failure of the offensive, not a failure of the defense. How could the air force warning on the defense line not work?
Did the Germans launch a counterattack? This was even more impossible. The German troops in Novorossiysk were already stretched thin. They were lucky enough to be able to defend against the Soviet offensive. How could they have the strength to launch a counterattack?
