Chapter 252
Warsaw front, east bank of the Vistula River, Praga.
Several consecutive days of clear weather made the fields in front of Praga dry and the ground began to harden, providing the most favorable conditions for the armored forces to move, while the high visibility provided a stage for the Air Force to perform.
At this time, the 73rd Infantry Division, which had just rested and replenished its troops, was responsible for defending Praga. This infantry division had been defeated by the Soviet army twice before, and was almost wiped out once . Its combat effectiveness was not trustworthy. Originally, an important area like Praga was not suitable for this kind of troops to defend, but there was no other way. The German army currently had very limited troops available. At the critical moment, even untrustworthy troops had to be sent to the front line.
In the early morning, the fog over the Vistula River had just dissipated, and the golden sunlight had just emerged from the jungle in the east. Before it had time to cover the urban area of Praga, the shrill alarm sounded over the entire city.
Almost at the same time as the alarm sounded, a deafening explosion suddenly occurred on a tall building in the center of Praga.
The explosion occurred on the east wall of the building, close to the junction between the fourth and fifth floors. Amid a loud bang, dust rose into the sky and broken bricks and stones flew everywhere. The entire building and the ground trembled at the huge explosion.
At this time, the German troops in charge of defense were having breakfast. The shrill alarms and loud explosions turned their breakfast into nothing. Behind a street barrier less than 100 meters away from the building, the officer, who had not yet put down the kettle, had already blew the whistle hurriedly.
“Whoosh!”
Amid a sharp whistle, a ball of fire flashed on the wall in front of the officer, followed by a huge explosion. A huge gap was blown open in the sandbag wall, and the anti-aircraft gun inside was completely overturned. The whistling officer was swept by the blast and thrown several meters away. After falling heavily to the ground, he slid another three or four meters, and the path he slid on was covered with blood.
The overturned anti-aircraft gun hit a German soldier. The unfortunate soldier did not die for a while, but was just wailing while struggling. However, no one cared about him at this time. Everyone knew that these two shells should be used by the Soviet army to calibrate the artillery angle, and what will follow will be more intensive artillery coverage.
What's even more terrible is that just at the eastern horizon, where the sunlight seems to be shining, a large number of dense black spots are flying towards this side. They are Soviet planes.
At 7:15, the Soviet offensive against Warsaw began in Praga on the east bank of the Vistula River in Warsaw.
In Yuri's previous life, Praga was different from the main urban area of Warsaw, because the German army did not cause large-scale destruction to this place during World War II , and the Soviet army did not carry out large-scale artillery and bombing on this city when liberating Warsaw. Therefore, after the war, this was also the best-preserved urban area in the entire Warsaw. A large number of Polish-style buildings were preserved, becoming a famous scenic spot in later generations.
However, at this time, history has changed. Yuri does not think he has an obligation to preserve historical relics for the Poles. As a commander, he needs to consider how to defeat the enemy while preserving his own strength. Therefore, artillery preparation and aircraft bombing before the attack are necessary.
In order to defeat the German defense forces in Praga to the greatest extent, at Yuri's suggestion, the 1st Belorussian Front deployed 6 artillery brigades on the front of Praga. The artillery preparation half an hour before the official launch of the offensive was enough to destroy this small town and the German troops stationed in it.
On the Soviet side, there were three armies responsible for attacking Praga. Among them, the 47th Army was responsible for the main offensive mission. Taking political factors into consideration, the 1st and 2nd Polish Armies also attacked along with the 47th Army.
The combat mission assigned by the front to these three armies was to occupy Praga, cross the Vistula River, and establish 4 to 6 landing sites on the left bank of the river.
The offensive went very smoothly. After half an hour of artillery preparation, the 47th Army's first wave of offensive defeated the defending German army. The newly reorganized German 73rd Infantry Division was quickly disintegrated. The collapsed soldiers even shot and killed their own company and battalion commanders in order to escape. This would have been unimaginable a few years ago.
After half an hour of shelling and air strikes, when the Soviet soldiers entered the city, the entire city had turned into a ruined square. Destroyed tanks, buildings and the bodies of dead German soldiers could be seen almost everywhere.
The 47th Army encountered light resistance, and by two o'clock in the afternoon they had taken control of the entire Praga. Unfortunately, the Germans blew up the bridge over the Vistula River during their retreat.
After occupying Praga, the Soviet army did not stop the attack, but immediately launched a river crossing operation.
In the Vistula River crossing operation, the first to launch the attack was the Polish 9th Army, or more precisely, the Polish 3rd Division within the army.
In order to ensure the success of the river crossing and beachhead battle, the entire command of the 1st Belorussian Front, including Yuri, the representative of the headquarters, rushed to Praga. Rokossovsky assigned three engineering battalions and one amphibious motor battalion to the Polish 3rd Division. At the same time, the six artillery brigades deployed on the front of Praga were reinforced with one mortar regiment and six artillery battalions. Coupled with the support from the front air force, the attack of one division had the firepower of almost two armies.
With such powerful firepower support, the 9th Regiment of the Polish 3rd Division finally landed on the left bank of the Vistula River at nightfall and quickly established a small landing site. By the early morning of the next day, the regiment and the 6th Regiment of the Polish 2nd Division had successfully crossed the river and further expanded the landing site on the left bank.
At the same time that the Polish 9th Army was crossing the Vistula River, to the north of Warsaw, the 65th Army, with the cooperation of the 1st Guards Tank Army, launched an attack from Modlin towards the city of Warsaw. To the south of Warsaw, the 9th Guards Army commanded by Chuikov launched an attack from the direction of Grujec.
The coordinated attacks in three directions made the entire German Warsaw defense line shaky, and collapse was only a matter of time.
…
In the east of Praga, in the basement of a residential building with half of its roof blown off, Yuri was awakened from his sleep by a huge explosion.
He turned over and got up from the bed, shook off the dust on his head, put on his boots quickly, stood up and walked to the basin rack in the corner of the basement, scooped up the cold water in the basin, and simply wiped his face.
The shock of the ice-cold water suddenly awakened his groggy consciousness and he woke up instantly.
Looking at the watch, it was already four o'clock in the morning. Calculating the time, he realized that he had only slept for three hours. This was the first time he had fallen asleep in two consecutive days.
"coax!"
There was another muffled sound, and dust began to fall from the ceiling of the simple basement. Under the light, the entire basement appeared to have a pale yellow halo, just like in a mine.
In the main city of Warsaw, the German army's resistance was extremely tenacious. Of course, they had to play tough, because there were a large number of SS and "traitors" trapped in the city. These guys knew very well that they were different from ordinary German Wehrmacht troops. The Soviets would not treat them as prisoners of war, let alone give them any preferential treatment. Once they fell into the hands of the Soviet Red Army, only death would await them.
No matter from which aspect, these guys' ideas were not wrong, because when , Shelov came to him again. He had received an order from Comrade Beria, asking him to focus on dealing with the problems of the German SS and the "Russian traitor" troops after the Battle of Warsaw.
Shelov brought intelligence provided by the National Security Committee. At present, there were 12 SS police companies affiliated with the German SS in Warsaw. In addition, there were the "German Regiment" commanded by Dilewanger and the White Russian Brigade commanded by Kaminski.
In addition to this intelligence, Shelov also brought a list of up to 5,000 people, including Kaminsky and Dilewanger, their relatives, deputies, etc. In Shelov's words, his responsibility is to hang these traitors and criminals with the rope of Soviet justice.
This time when Shelov came to Poland, his responsibility was not only to deal with criminals like Kaminski and Dilewanger, his main target was still the Polish National Army.
In fact, as the Polish government-in-exile was abandoned by the international community, the Polish National Army not only did not disband, but stood firmly against the Soviet Union. In the Soviet-occupied area, that is, behind the Soviet offensive front, the Polish National Army squads hiding launched a climax against the Soviet Red Army. They not only attacked small Soviet troops, but also attacked the staff of the Polish National Liberation Committee, showing a posture of fighting the Soviet army to the death.
As a senior commander of the Soviet Army, Yuri was too lazy to pay attention to such things. After all, these small teams of the National Army were not a big deal. But what was annoying was that these guys not only attacked the troops, but also cut off the Soviet Army’s telephone lines and blew up the railways. They did what the Germans couldn’t do.
Therefore, Yuri was very willing to cooperate with Shelov's work.
Therefore, the relevant orders were implemented in several fronts in the Belarusian campaign direction, that is, all prisoners of war from the Polish National Army were handed over to the internal security forces. As for how Shelov was going to deal with these people, that was not something Yuri needed to worry about.
