Chapter 232
Kosevichi is an inconspicuous small village on the bank of the Dnieper River. Rogachev is only 15 kilometers to the north, and Zhlobin is less than 30 kilometers to the south.
The small village had been completely burned down when the Germans retreated. Even the stone mill had been demolished. Now, the small village had become a scorched earth with no place to live.
Yuri lived in a tent again, a pure white tent with an anti-aircraft net on the top. This place was only separated from the German defense line by a river and was very unsafe. As a representative of the base camp, it was actually very unwise for him to come to this place. What if a shell hit him from the other side of the river and sent him to see Comrade Marx? That would be a big deal - Comrade Stalin would probably use him to whip his corpse.
A gasoline barrel with its top removed was placed in the middle of the tent, with flammable pine wood burning inside. The blazing bonfire made the entire tent as warm as spring, but the flames would occasionally jump to the top of the tent, so someone had to be there to watch.
There are three people in the tent now. Arseny is the one in charge of watching the fire. Filia, who has been following Yuri for the past two days, is packing up her camera. She is going to take a picture of Yuri sitting at the simple desk. She thinks Comrade Yuri Arkhipovich is so handsome when he is working.
The crude desk was made by nailing together large pieces of logs. It was not only crude but also rough. Half an hour ago, a splinter had pierced Yuri's hand and he had to work hard to get it out.
At this time, Yuri was sitting at the table reading a battle report. A few minutes ago, the signalman sent it to him. It was sent by Baghramyan from the First Baltic Front Command. No wonder this guy was able to get along well with both the military and political parties in the Soviet Union after the war. Look at his work attitude? No matter what happened, he would send two battle reports at the first time, one to Moscow and one to him, and the time of sending would be specially noted on each battle report.
This battle report brought a surprise to Yuri. According to the previous combat plan, the entire Belarusian Campaign would be officially launched at five o'clock in the morning. Before that, each front could choose to launch a powerful reconnaissance on the German defense line in a specific area, that is, a firepower test to see whether the opponent's defense is solid and whether the counterattack is fierce.
This kind of powerful reconnaissance may or may not be carried out, and the decision lies in the hands of the front commander.
Comrade Baghramyan was a cautious commander, and he carefully arranged this powerful reconnaissance. The main direction of the attack was the long defense line of the entire German 9th Army. In order to do this, he arranged the 22nd and 23rd Guards Infantry Corps, the 1st, 60th, and 92nd Infantry Corps, in divisions, with 2-3 companies from each division, to launch a tentative attack on the entire German defense line. Of course, before the attack, a 20-minute artillery bombardment was arranged.
It was originally just a small-scale exploratory attack, but after the battle started, the attacking troops successfully broke through the German Oberli River defense line and seized several small-scale landing sites on the other side of the river.
No one had expected such a result beforehand, not even the slightest prediction. Who could have imagined that the Audley River Line, which the Germans had been operating for months, would be like paper and be punctured with just a slight poke?
In view of this completely unexpected situation, Baghramyan immediately issued two notifications, requesting that the time of the offensive in the Vitebsk direction be advanced and that the First Baltic Front would quickly switch from an exploratory offensive to a full-scale offensive.
After just a cursory glance at the notice, Yuri gave an approval reply. At the same time, he asked Arseny to notify the signalman to send a telegram to Moscow to express his opinion.
In fact, in Yuri's opinion, Baghramyan's report was a waste of time. If he was the commander of the 1st Baltic Front, the battle would have already started.
The situation on the battlefield changes rapidly , and sticking to the old rules over and over again will only result in missed opportunities. Therefore, as a senior commander, being too conservative or too submissive is not acceptable at all.
Watching the signalman run out of the tent quickly, Yuri took a deep breath, rubbed his sore eyes, stood up from the wooden table, and walked out of the tent.
It was nearly four o'clock. In another hour, the prelude to the Belarusian Campaign would begin in full swing. Yuri went over the entire battle plan in his mind again, then took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit one for himself.
Four o'clock was the darkest time of the night. Outside the tent, the night was as black as ink and not a single light could be seen.
Stepping on the snow in the forest, Yuri walked towards the river bank with one foot deep and one foot shallow. Only when he got closer could he see the trucks parked under the river bank.
These trucks were parked with their heads facing east and their tails pointing toward the German positions. According to the plan, before five o'clock, the front air force would take off from the airport and rush here. When the roar of the planes was heard, the trucks under the river bank would turn on their headlights and use the lights to guide the bombers in the direction of attack.
At the same time, the front artillery behind the position would launch a massive bombardment on the German positions, on the one hand to destroy the German positions, and on the other hand to lure the German artillery to fight back, thereby exposing their positions and guiding the direction of the air force bombing.
In the first wave of the front's air force offensive, the Il-2 ground attack aircraft was the main force. This type of attack aircraft, which has strong protection but poor flexibility, rarely went out alone to attack German targets in the past because air combat was not its strong point. But now, the Soviet army has fewer taboos, after all, the number of aircraft that the German army can mobilize in the entire Belarusian battlefield is pitifully small.
As the war approached, Yuri felt that every minute seemed to pass very slowly. He had an urge to leave this place and go to Vitebsk to see with his own eyes the battle going on there.
After standing on the river bank for more than ten minutes, Yuri felt a little cold and finally turned back to the tent and sat on the chair in front of the wooden table to rest for a while.
Originally, I had no sleepiness at all, and I felt that it was impossible for me to fall asleep at this sensitive time. But who would have thought that after sitting on the chair for a while, closing my eyes, I actually fell asleep in a daze.
"coax!"
A loud noise woke Yuri up from his sleep. He stood up suddenly from his chair and woke up, hearing the buzzing sound of an airplane in his ears.
I walked out of the tent quickly, and the moment I opened the tent curtain, a dazzling light shone from a distance, making my vision blurry.
Yuri took two steps forward, then turned around and faced the direction of the car lights. Just as he raised his head, he saw a black shadow whizzing past the lights above the treetops, followed by the buzzing sound of an airplane like thunder.
“Boom boom boom…”
The thunderous sound of artillery shells exploded behind the position, mixed with the roar of rocket launchers. The first wave of shells did not fall on the other side of the river, but directly hit the ice-covered river surface. It was early spring, and the ice on the river could not bear the weight of the soldiers, but became an obstacle for the assault boats, so the first wave of artillery fire would first break the ice on the river to create conditions for the infantry to cross the river.
The woods along the river were illuminated by the flames rising into the sky and the car lights. Countless figures swayed in the light and rushed towards the river bank.
"General, it's time for us to go," a military jeep stopped in the light. Arseny's face was pale in the light. He jumped out of the jeep, ran quickly to Yuri and said loudly.
Once the battle begins, this place will become even more unsafe. The river embankment opposite the defense line is generally the area that artillery focuses on.
Yuri was not crazy yet, and he did not want to die in this place, so he just nodded and asked: "Where is Comrade Filia?"
"In the car," Arseni answered loudly as he led the way.
The two got into the car one after the other. Almost at the moment the car started, they saw a ball of fire suddenly coming out of a truck with its headlights on on the river bank behind them. Then, with a loud bang, the whole car was blown into two sections. The front part of the car flew into the air several meters high and then fell heavily to the ground.
The German artillery launched a counterattack.
If you could look down from the sky at this time, you would see a spectacular scene: from Rogachev to Zhilobin, the dozens of kilometers of the Dnieper River bend has turned into a fire dragon, and above this fire dragon, there are countless "crows" circling.
This was a large-scale offensive that the Soviets had been planning for a long time, and the Germans, who were already at a disadvantage on the other side of the river, were caught off guard. They were really unprepared. Busch, the commander of the German Army Group Center, was on vacation when the battle was launched. German commanders seemed to love vacations. Busch was on vacation, Rommel was on vacation, but the commanders' vacations were not the main reason for the defeat.
The four Soviet fronts launched simultaneous attacks on a front of thousands of kilometers, and the fragile German defense line was full of loopholes.
In the direction of the Oboli River, the Soviet army broke through the fragile defense line of the German 252nd Infantry Division in a tentative attack. This infantry division defended a front line several kilometers long, but its front-line combat force was less than 4,000 people, without a single tank, and only a dozen artillery and anti-tank guns combined.
In the Vitebsk direction, Reinhardt commanded the so-called 3rd Panzer Group, which had few tanks, and sent the 95th Division, which was missing a regiment, to the front line three hours after the Soviet offensive began. This division was his last reserve. He had to send the guard battalion responsible for chasing the guerrillas to the front line in order to stop the Soviets' crazy offensive.
