Chapter 193 Worry
On December 17, the first day of the Leningrad-Novgorod Campaign, the situation on the battlefield took an unexpected turn.
Five hours after the battle started, the landing operation on the west bank of the Mga River, which should have been the first breakthrough and was also the Soviet army's primary breakthrough point, did not succeed. On the contrary, although the German troops on the other side of the river were insufficient in strength, their tenacious resistance still caused heavy losses to the Soviet offensive forces.
The first Soviet unit to achieve a breakthrough was the 59th Army under the Volkhov Front. The 225th Infantry Division and the 58th Independent Infantry Brigade of the army crossed the frozen Lake Ilmen and captured the German defense line northwest of Lake Ilmen. Subsequently, the Soviet army quickly advanced into the heart of the German defense line and captured Lyublyad, 12 kilometers southeast of Novgorod, at noon that day.
In fact, according to the original combat plan, the 225th Infantry Division that launched the attack in the Lake Ilmen area was not the main offensive force of the Soviet Army. Their task was to assist the attack, mainly to contain the German 38th Army and create conditions for the 7th Army to launch an assault from Dubrovka to Dolgovo.
After two years of operation, the German defense line in the outer area of Leningrad was very solid. They used the trench system with permanent firepower points and civil structure firepower points to build a hierarchical deep defense belt. It was basically impossible to attack such a solid position with only the 225th Infantry Division, which had no heavy firepower equipment.
Precisely because it was an auxiliary attack, the 225th Division did not launch a large-scale offensive at the beginning. They only sent out two sled battalions, which slid across Lake Ilmen under the cover of night and harassed the German lakeshore defense line.
However, after the soldiers of the two sled battalions crossed the icy lake on sleds, they realized during their tentative attack that the German counterattack was not fierce and was even a little weak. So they took advantage of the situation and launched a fierce attack, and actually captured the German frontier defense line in one fell swoop.
When the news reached the division headquarters, the commander of the 225th Division, Major General Swicklin, could hardly believe it. He confirmed it several times before he finally believed this surprising result. So, on the one hand, he mobilized troops to quickly cross Lake Ilmen and continue to expand the victory in the depth and wings of the German army. On the other hand, he reported to the commander of the army, Lieutenant General Korovnikov, and requested reinforcements.
In the following hours, the 59th Army used the landing site at Lake Ilmen as its main attack point, completely tearing open the defense line of the German 38th Army and widening the gap to 6 kilometers, directly threatening the rear of Novgorod.
For the German army, the loss of the Lake Ilmen defense line was a very bad start to the battle. The loss of this defense line meant that the southern gate of Novgorod was open to the Soviet army. Once Novgorod fell into the hands of the Soviet army again, the entire 18th Army of the German Northern Army Group would be half surrounded.
Therefore, on the night of the 17th, the German army launched a counterattack against the Soviet army attacking the Novgorod direction, trying to repel the Soviet army that broke through the Ilmen Lake defense line and regain the lost front. But for the German army, the counterattack at this time was a little late. Since noon on the 17th, the Soviet army has been continuously dispatching troops to the west bank of Lake Ilmen. The Volkhov Front used its reserve forces to dispatch two mechanized divisions to this area. The two mechanized divisions arrived at the Ilmen Lake area in the evening of the same day, and then without repair, they poured into the 6-kilometer-wide breakthrough previously captured by the Soviet army and advanced into the depth of the German defense line.
Before the outbreak of the war, no one had expected that the Soviet army would be able to break through the German defense line in such a short time, and the breakthrough point was at the key part of the German defense line. Such a battle result made people sigh that the German army that once swept across Europe and was invincible three years ago had indeed been defeated by the Soviet Red Army, which they once looked down upon and regarded as country bumpkins. On the other hand, the Soviet Red Army, which once seemed vulnerable, also grew up in the baptism of these three years and became a formidable army.
The smooth progress of the Volkhov Front reassured Yuri. When the Soviet army broke through the defense line of Lake Ilmen South, he left the Volkhov Front and went to the Leningrad Front to supervise the battle.
Unlike the situation of the Volkhov Front, the Leningrad Front did not make very smooth progress in the first three days after the launch of the battle.
In the direction of Lopsha south of Leningrad, the Soviet Second Assault Army's attack was stubbornly blocked by the German 3rd SS Tank Army, and the offensive of the 42nd Army was also bogged down in the Volosovo area and was unable to make any progress.
Yuri was very dissatisfied with the progress of the battle, and what annoyed him most was the performance of the Second Assault Army. This unit, once commanded by Vlasov, seemed to have not recovered from the disastrous defeat more than a year ago. They fought timidly and made some low-level mistakes from time to time. For example, when attacking Gatchina, the tank unit responsible for the assault did not receive support from the trailing infantry for the next three hours after breaking through the German defense line. When investigating the cause, it turned out that the coordinated infantry had gone astray during the attack, which was ridiculous. If it were two years ago, when the Soviet army was completely passive on the front line, such a low-level mistake would have cost its commander his head.
When Yuri arrived at the Leningrad Front's offensive area, it was already early December. At this time, the Second Assault Army finally made a breakthrough in the direction of Lopsha and began to launch an offensive towards the Luga River. At the same time, the Baltic Fleet also made a breakthrough in Bostapalkino and began to use naval guns to bombard the German fortifications at the mouth of the Luga River.
…
Svirikul is a small village 12 kilometers south of Kotre. It is small, with only about 40 households. In the past three years of war, the German army has completely destroyed this small village in order to effectively control the area south of Leningrad . Today, most of the village is burnt ruins, and only the stone mill at the western end of the village is still intact, but the roof was blown off by a shell.
Two days ago, the 11th Ski Brigade of the Second Assault Army, which was temporarily stationed here, began to repair the relatively intact mill, mainly repairing the blown-off roof and simply renovating the inside. Comrade Stalin's representative is coming soon. There are reports that the representative is very dissatisfied with the previous operations of the Second Assault Army. General Fezuninsky has been summoned to the front headquarters for two days, and General Govorov may be considering changing his general.
The specific bad news is not only reflected in these rumors. In the past two days, the military commissioners of the various units under the group army have held two consecutive meetings of party representatives and party groups, requiring party members to open their eyes and identify those traitors and cowards who are passive and afraid of death.
Ordinary soldiers and grassroots officers had no idea what the bigwigs above were doing. They only knew that the atmosphere within the Second Assault Army was very tense. Even within the Ninth Army that cooperated with them in the battle, the atmosphere became strange.
Some people think that this is an exaggeration. Of course, some people are also worried that in the face of the defeat of the German army, a new round of purges will begin.
On the road from Kotre to Sverikul village, three military jeeps, escorted by two armored vehicles, were slowly moving forward on the snow on the road.
In the first jeep, Govorov closed his eyes and dozed off with his back against the chair, while next to him sat Fezuninsky, who was always feeling uneasy.
Speaking of which, Govorov and Fezuninsky had a very deep friendship, and the two seemed to look somewhat similar, especially the small mustache under their noses, which was the most prominent feature of their appearance.
"Comrade Commander..." After staring at Govorov, who was pretending to be asleep, for a while, Fezhuninsky couldn't help but speak. He said, "Do you know anything about this young representative of the headquarters?"
"Why, are you still worried?" Govorov opened his eyes, glanced at him, and said, "I don't know much about Comrade Yuri. I have only met him twice, and in total, I have spoken less than 10 sentences to him."
"Then do you think he will really accept Comrade Zhdanov's opinion and take action against the 2nd Assault Army?" Fezuninsky felt as if a needle was sitting on his butt. He twisted his body uneasily and asked carefully.
"Now, I'm eighty percent sure he won't accept it," Govorov snorted. "But if you keep adding the word 'young' to his name, I'll only be forty percent sure."
"Oh, I'll correct that, Comrade Commandant," Fezuninsky said hastily.
"One more thing, don't mention your past in front of him, especially the fact that you used to be Comrade Georgy Konstantinovich's deputy," Govorov warned again.
Georgy Konstantinovich naturally refers to Zhukov . Fezuninsky and Zhukov had a very close relationship. At the beginning, Zhukov regained Stalin's trust because of his successful command of the Battle of Yelnya and was sent to Leningrad to command the battle. At that time, Zhukov asked Stalin for three people, including Fezuninsky.
"I'll pay attention, Comrade Commander," Fezhuninsky nodded again and promised. Before that, he had also heard some news that Yuri and Zhukov did not have a good relationship in Moscow.
