Chapter 229
The misty snow and rain covered the entire Polesie swamp area. Mud has now become the main theme of the terrain in this area. In the gaps between the sparsely populated jungles, there are dense swamps with lush bushes. Under the swamps covered with a layer of ice and snow, there are countless dead bones of humans and animals buried.
“Buzz…”
Amid a huge roar, a German reconnaissance plane with a swastika logo on its fuselage flew almost close to the treetops above the jungle. Directly below the plane, in the dense jungle, a 1942 model 25mm anti-aircraft gun was rotating its barrel. From beginning to end, the muzzle hidden under the white canvas was chasing the German reconnaissance plane that was completely unaware of the danger.
The anti-aircraft gun did not fire until the reconnaissance plane flew away. The order the artillery received was not to expose their whereabouts unless it was absolutely necessary.
In the air, the sound of the plane's engine gradually faded away and finally disappeared. The originally snow-covered jungle seemed to come alive in an instant. On the ground, the thick white snow shook, and countless figures emerged from the snow. Then, the noise of diesel engines resounded throughout the forest, and dozens of tanks with white roofs began to move on the edge of the jungle.
These tanks look a little special. A thing similar to a bulldozer blade has been added to the front of their bodies, but these things are not bulldozers, but thick steel rollers with a diameter of nearly one meter.
Steel rollers are used to clear mines. They are installed on the body of the T-34 tank and pushed forward by the power of the tank. Whenever a mine is hit in a minefield along the way, it will explode directly, working on the same principle as a steamroller.
These tanks were modified in a factory rebuilt near Moscow and transported by rail. With the comprehensive counterattack on the battlefield and the recapture of large tracts of lost territory, the Soviet Union's industrial capacity has been fully recovered, and the energy it has unleashed is quite astonishing.
This is the 28th Army commanded by Alexander Alexandrovich Luchinsky. Along the jungle to the west at the edge of the swamp is the defense line set up by the German army outside Broza. In the previous confrontation, both the Soviet and German sides buried a large number of mines in the area outside the jungle. The minefields are dotted all over the place, like hell hidden underground.
In recent times, the engineers belonging to the 28th Army have been busy clearing mines. They cannot take action during the day and can only sneak into the minefields at night and remove the previously buried mines.
There is no doubt that this is a huge and secretive task, because anyone with normal thinking knows that if the enemy removes mines in front of their own defensive positions, it must be because they are about to launch an attack. There is no other possibility.
Therefore, in order to conceal the intention of attack, the Soviet army's mine clearance operations had to be carried out secretly. The engineers would not even remove the mines completely, but would only pull out the firing pins to prevent the mines from being fired.
On the Polesie front, the German defense line was 400 kilometers long. The Ninth Army of the German Army Group Center was responsible for the defense here. So far, the Soviet First Ukrainian Front had deployed the 3rd, 28th, 48th and 65th armies here. The Soviet army's strength was three times that of the German army.
However, the vast Polesie swamp lies across the front of this area, turning the terrain of this area into an "H" shape. On both sides of this H are passages for launching attacks in the direction of Bobruisk, and the horizontal line in the middle is the Polesie swamp.
The Soviet army could not cross this vast swamp to attack the German army, but if the 1st Ukrainian Front chose to launch an attack from one channel, the forces of the four armies would not be able to be deployed. Therefore, when Rokossovsky formulated a combat plan for the front, he arranged two main attack directions: the 3rd and 48th Armies launched an attack from the Rogachev area towards Osipovichi in Bobruisk, and the 28th and 65th Armies launched an attack from Ozarich towards Slutsk.
Although choosing two main attack directions seems more scientific and reasonable, it is not conducive to the concentrated use of artillery and armored forces, and the difficulty coefficient of the attack will also increase a lot. Therefore, this plan was discussed for a long time before it was finally approved by the headquarters.
By March 16, on the eve of the launch of the campaign, Yuri confirmed the locations of the headquarters of the four fronts for the last time: the 1st Baltic Front established its headquarters in Romanuji; the 3rd Belorussian Front established its headquarters in Krasnoye and an auxiliary headquarters in Rudnya; the 2nd Belorussian Front established its headquarters in Hodosy and auxiliary headquarters in Bayevo and Shelets-Kholopeyev; the 1st Belorussian Front established its basic headquarters in Ovruzy and two auxiliary headquarters in Duravichi and Sarny.
The so-called auxiliary command posts are generally set up according to the width of the battlefield. The purpose of setting up two auxiliary command posts is basically to command the battles on the left and right wings nearby.
With the cooperation of the full Soviet mobilization, the four fronts received sufficient logistical supplies during the months of battle preparation. At the same time, they were equipped with a large number of transport trucks in order to quickly transfer equipment and troops from one direction to another during the battle.
If we say that before the Battle of Kursk, the Soviet army had always been learning from the German army in the war, then during the Battle of Belarus, after experiencing countless baptisms of blood and fire, the Soviet army had truly matured, focusing on the coordination of arms, logistics support, the use of air force, and so on.
Rechitsa, the winding Dnieper River merges with the Berezina River a dozen kilometers north of the city. The headquarters of the Dnieper Fleet was temporarily set up in this place .
A fast-moving gunboat was moving slowly on the river with floating ice. At the bow, Yuri stood facing the wind, his eyes fixed on the gradually approaching riverside pier.
At this time, the small dock was already full of people, most of whom were wearing military uniforms, and some were in plain clothes. However, most of these people in plain clothes were holding cameras in their hands, and it was obvious that they were reporters.
This morning, Yuri flew from Roslavl to Gomel , and then took a boat from Gomel to Lechitsa. His only purpose was to put on a political show - Yuri hated to put on a show, but he had to do this political show because it was a special order issued by Comrade Stalin.
Just a few months ago, the Polish Workers' Party led by Boleslaw Beirut organized the left-wing forces of the Polish Socialist Party and various anti-fascist radical factions in Poland to hold a rally in Poland and announced the establishment of the Polish National People's Congress. At this meeting, representatives of all parties formulated the program of "unifying Poland and establishing a democratic and independent country" and declared the Polish government-in-exile in exile in the UK illegal.
This incident quickly aroused backlash from Britain and the United States. The Polish government-in-exile stranded in Britain immediately declared that the "National People's Congress" led by the Polish Workers' Party was illegal.
For a period of time afterwards, the two sides engaged in a series of verbal abuses, accusing each other of being illegal.
The Polish government-in-exile in the UK is indeed orthodox in some sense. They command the troops that fled from Poland. Now there is a Polish 2nd Army and a later formed 1st Armored Division. These two troops are currently fighting on the Italian peninsula. Liberating Poland is their established goal.
Unfortunately, even the Polish government in exile did not know that their interests had been betrayed by Britain and the United States at the Tehran Conference held just before. Poland would become the Soviet Union's sphere of influence after the war, and how the country would be built would be decided by Moscow.
In order to make the Polish Workers' Party in Beirut perform more brilliantly, the Polish Patriotic League applied for it and Stalin approved it himself. Based on the original Polish 1st Division, the Polish volunteers in the Soviet Union quickly formed an army, namely the Polish 9th Army commanded by Sigmund Berling.
This army group was formed in the newly liberated Kovel region. After being equipped with weapons and armored vehicles, it went to the Lechitsa region after a short training.
Initially, Moscow had no plans to have this unit directly participate in the battle, but only wanted them to stay in the reserve of the First Belorussian Front as a second-tier unit. However, both the officers and soldiers in the unit and the Polish Patriotic League hoped that this unit could join the war as soon as possible to fight the German fascists.
Just yesterday, their request was approved by Moscow. As a representative of the headquarters in the Belarusian Campaign, Yuri was arranged to do this political show to let the whole world see that the army commanded by the Polish Workers' Party was also fighting against the fascists.
The gunboat slowly approached the pier, and Yuri's serious face forced a smile as he watched the people coming to greet him. He boarded the pier under Arseni's protection and shook hands with the people who came to greet him one by one.
Among the crowd were all members of the Military Committee of the 1st Belorussian Front, commanders of the Dnieper Fleet, and, of course, commanders at all levels from the Polish 9th Army.
Yuri shook hands with everyone with a smile, even the reporters present. Afterwards, he shook hands, hugged, had cordial conversations and posed for photos with the commander of the Polish 9th Army, Berlinger, Military Commissar Zawarzki, Chief of Staff Kovacsca, Chief of Operations Strazewski and others.
He had been busy for nearly half an hour, but rejected the other party's invitation to have lunch and left directly on the gunboat - two days later, that is, the day after tomorrow, the Belarusian campaign will be launched in full swing, and Yuri is very busy now, so how can he have time to serve a group of Poles.
