Chapter 237
The tanks advanced towards the southwest on the muddy road. From time to time, German soldiers who appeared from nowhere voluntarily surrendered. These scattered German soldiers may have escaped from the city of Minsk or infiltrated from the other side of the Wolma River.
Southeast of Minsk, up to the Berezina River basin, there are dense jungles and swamps. Although the Soviets organized a solid encirclement, it is inevitable that small German troops will escape. However, the Germans who escaped into the jungles and swamps did not have an easy life. In this land, they were enemies everywhere. The Soviet guerrillas active in the jungles would hunt them down, the guerrillas of nationalists would hunt them, wild beasts would suddenly attack them, and the bottomless swamps would swallow them. In short, everything wanted their lives.
Of course, compared with the ubiquitous crisis, the biggest threat to these German deserters still came from cold and hunger. Therefore, with no other choice, many people chose to surrender to the Soviet army.
That night, the drizzle never stopped. The tank unit that Yuri was with rested in the town of Voljoy. This deserted town was less than 20 kilometers away from the city. The sound of artillery over the camp did not stop all night. Standing on the tank and looking southeast, you can see the flickering fire in the sky. That is the east bank of the Volma River. The Soviet army is launching artillery fire at the besieged German army group.
What was strange was that in the southwest direction of Minsk, there was deathly silence, without even a trace of fighting.
Yuri didn't even close his eyes that night. Using the military radio, he contacted the front command, learned the latest battle situation, summarized the achievements of the four major fronts in the past ten days, and drafted a battle report to be submitted to Moscow tomorrow. The night passed by unknowingly.
The next day, just as the sky was getting light, rumbling artillery sounds were heard from the direction of Minsk city. The drizzle had not stopped yet and the sky was covered with thick black clouds, but Soviet fighter planes could still be seen flying to the west in groups.
The gunfire lasted less than half an hour before it died down. Then, Yuri received a telegram from the 3rd Belorussian Front, saying that the 2nd Guards Tank Army had entered Minsk. At seven o'clock, he received another telegram from the 1st Belorussian Front, saying that the 1st Guards Tank Army had entered Minsk from the south. Half an hour later, the 1st Belorussian Front sent another telegram, saying that the 9th Army had entered Minsk from the southeast.
At eight o'clock, the tank troops accompanying Yuri left the camp and began to march towards Minsk. Compared with the previous time, the marching speed was obviously much faster. In the suburbs of Minsk, the tank troops encountered a cavalry brigade on the march. After asking, they learned that this was a reserve force belonging to the 31st Army. They were ordered to advance towards the Isiloch River and pursue the German troops retreating in that direction.
At 8:30, Yuri entered the city of Minsk. This city, which returned to the hands of the Soviet Union after three years, has now become a ruin. More than half of the city has been razed to the ground. At first glance, it looks like it has been bombed by a nuclear bomb. There is hardly any intact building to be seen.
At the shore of Lake Komsomol, Yuri, sitting on a tank, saw a large number of German soldiers' bodies on the lakeside embankment. These bodies were all tied up and were obviously mass-executed. A rough calculation showed that there were about three or four hundred such bodies.
After a brief inquiry, Yuri learned that these German soldiers were executed by a unit under the Ninth Army because they had blown up most of the city of Minsk.
Just in the early morning, when the Soviet troops rushed into the city, the city of Minsk was still relatively intact. But soon afterwards, the entrenched German troops detonated a large number of pre-buried mines and bombs. More than four thousand bombs were detonated, and the originally relatively intact city of Minsk became what it is now in an instant.
A part of the Ninth Army that entered the city from the southeast was almost driven crazy. This was a Belarusian brigade, and almost all of its soldiers were from Belarus, most of whom were from Minsk. The German army's insane behavior made them lose their minds, so executing prisoners became their only means of revenge.
In the former Youth Palace in the urban area, Yuri found the headquarters of the First Belorussian Front which had entered the urban area earlier. However, after asking, he learned that Rokossovsky and Malinin were not there. They went to Timkovichi, where the front had an auxiliary headquarters. The 28th Army and the 65th Army were continuing their offensive in that direction, preparing to capture Gorodeya.
At the front headquarters, Yuri had a simple breakfast. After the communications command was established, he immediately called the Moscow headquarters. He had to report the news of the liberation of Minsk to Stalin immediately. It can be imagined that Comrade Stalin should have been waiting for this good news.
The dedicated call line was quickly connected. When Yuri picked up the receiver, Stalin's deep voice came from the microphone: "I am Stalin."
Instead of using his surname or patronymic, Stalin used his first name.
"Comrade Stalin, I am Yuri Arkhipovich," Yuri said in a serious voice, "As a representative of the headquarters, I am honored to report to you that Minsk has been liberated half an hour ago. Our brave Red Army soldiers have completely saved it from the hands of the German fascists. But unfortunately, this glorious city has been destroyed by the German fascists. I only see large areas of ruins and broken walls."
There was silence on the phone for about ten seconds before Stalin asked, "How is the battle going in the area of the Volma and Berezina rivers?"
"I have verified the latest battle situation," Yuri said. "In the area you are concerned about, we have surrounded almost the entire German Ninth Army, and also part of the Ninth Army. Just last night, the 49th Army and the 33rd Army have cut the German army into two parts. We hope to end the battle there within two days."
"Very good," Stalin praised, "I am waiting for your good news."
The liberation of Minsk had extremely important political significance for the Soviet Union. It meant that the liberation of the entire Soviet territory was just around the corner. At the same time, the liberation of Minsk also meant that the Soviet army had opened up the first checkpoint to the German mainland. The next step was that the Soviet army would cross the disputed Soviet-Polish border and advance into Poland.
The Soviet-Polish border mentioned here refers to the border established when the Soviet Union and Germany divided Poland in 1939. Until now, the international community has not recognized the legitimacy of this border. Now, the Soviet army is about to push the front line to this position, and Moscow will definitely use this matter to test the positions of its allies.
"There is another piece of news I need to inform you of, Comrade Yuri Arisipovich Kulyokov." There was silence on the phone for a long time. Just when Yuri was wondering if the other party had hung up, Stalin's voice sounded again, "Just this morning, our allies, the Americans and the British, as well as the Canadians and the French, in short, many Western allies, formed a coalition force that launched a landing battle in Normandy, France. If all goes well, they will open up a second battlefield in Western Europe and then launch an attack on Germany."
"We have been fighting this war for three years," Stalin paused, as if waiting for Yuri to absorb the previous information, and then continued, "We have driven the Germans from the outskirts of Moscow to the border. The next step is to drive them out of Eastern Europe and into Germany. We paid a huge price for this war, so the honor of entering Berlin should belong to us and must belong to us. In the next stage, our overall strategic goal is to enter Berlin first before the Americans and the British."
"Please give your instructions, Comrade Stalin," Yuri felt his blood rushing and his eyes lit up. He had a premonition that Stalin on the phone was about to make a very important decision.
"I plan to divide the subsequent offensive into two parts, north and south, based on the current deployment, " Stalin continued. "George will be in charge of the overall command of the southern front, and you will be in charge of the overall command of the northern front. My opinion is that whoever reaches Berlin first will be the liberator of Berlin."
Yuri took a deep breath, not on purpose, but mainly because he felt breathing was a little difficult. If he didn't breathe in hard, his lungs would feel stuffy.
He could understand what Stalin meant. The so-called north-south lines were actually based on the Pripyat River, that is, the dividing line between Belarus and Ukraine. At present, there were four Ukrainian fronts to the south of this central axis, and three Belarusian fronts and three Baltic fronts to the north. The strength and weapons of both sides were roughly equivalent, and the straight-line distance to Berlin was slightly disadvantaged on the southern line. But then again, the northern line had just carried out the first phase of the Belarusian campaign, and the troops suffered heavy losses. In the Ukrainian direction, except for the losses suffered by the First Ukrainian Front, the remaining fronts had gone through a period of rest and recuperation.
After this integration, the conditions for both parties are similar, which is relatively fair.
Being the first to enter Berlin and being the liberator of Berlin, such an honor is probably what any Soviet commander would dream of, and Yuri is no exception.
