Chapter 26: Cheers to the Past
Yuri wanted to find a way out of the swamp, naturally in order to move his troops in the future, so as to escape the German encirclement. To be frank, in the early days of the Soviet-German War, most of the Western Front and the Southwestern Front used the special terrain of the swamp to escape the German encirclement. Among them, the most representative one is Vasily Ivanovich Kuznetsov.
When the Ninth Army led by Kuznetsov was trapped in the German encirclement, it used the swampy terrain to escape. Among the Western Fronts at that time, the Western Front led by him was the least damaged. The most outrageous thing is that after breaking through the German encirclement and fighting for hundreds of kilometers, the Ninth Army led by Kuznetsov actually recovered its troops and improved its combat effectiveness on the way.
Now, Yuri has to take the same path as Kuznetsov did back then, but compared to Kuznetsov, he is well prepared for this path. In theory, once he chooses this path in the future, it should be executed more smoothly.
However, whether this road can be used in the future needs to meet two prerequisites: first, it can effectively block the German offensive in the battle of the narrow area of the Vistula River. Second, it can find a passage in the swamp. To achieve these two prerequisites, it will take Yuri's efforts in the future.
Yuri's plan was to arrange Uncle Peter as a guide to lead a platoon of soldiers into the swamp to explore the way. In addition, it was necessary to build standard anti-tank trenches in the narrow area of the Vistula River within the capabilities of the 209th Battalion. In Yuri's conception, these anti-tank trenches must be coordinated with anti-tank firepower points to form at least three lines of defense, so that when the Germans attacked, their offensive could be effectively delayed.
Of course, relevant training for soldiers is also essential . At present, the 209th Battalion is equipped with very few anti-tank weapons, with only six or seven anti-tank rifles in each company and only three anti-tank guns in the entire battalion. Such anti-tank firepower can pose very little threat to the Germans when they attack, so another close-range anti-tank weapon must be used, namely the Molotov incendiary bomb.
The Molotov cocktail is a very convenient weapon, but don't think it is very convenient to use. If you want to use it to effectively destroy enemy tanks, the first point is that the soldier's psychological quality must be strong enough. If an ordinary person or a soldier who has not received systematic training faces a tank that is coming at you at high speed, it is already very good if the whole person does not collapse mentally.
Therefore, if we want to use Molotov incendiary bombs to effectively block the attacks of the German armored forces in future wars, we also need to train the soldiers' psychological qualities in advance, so that the soldiers will not suffer a mental breakdown early when facing a tank attack.
How to improve the psychological strength of soldiers when facing tank charges? Yuri has his own way. His plan is to borrow the armored vehicle of the communication platoon of the Lutsk radar station and a wide-track tractor from the collective farm in Lutsk. During training, the soldiers under training hide in the trenches dug in advance, and then the tractors or armored vehicles run over the trenches. Although such training is clumsy, it is very effective.
In Yuri's entire plan, there would be no problem with the exploration plan in the swamps or the psychological strength training plan for the soldiers, and it was not difficult to implement them. The only difficulty was the plan to build anti-tank firepower points and dig anti-tank trenches in the narrow area of the Vistula River, because he could not find a reason to arrange this plan and use it to convince the superior regiment headquarters.
It is August and the long rainy season in western Ukraine is still going on. The 209th Battalion has been stationed in the Lutsk area for a month. As the battalion commander, Yuri has more or less gotten used to the humid and sultry weather here.
The wooden barracks were built on the edge of a fir forest. Because there had been no sunlight for several days, patches of moss had grown in the corners of the house.
At nightfall, the orderly fumigated the barracks with mugwort to drive out the mosquitoes hiding in the corners of the house.
When Yuri and his men returned from the swamp and entered the barracks, the bitter smell of mugwort in the house had not yet dissipated.
"Comrade Captain, your dinner is ready. Do you want it delivered to you right away?" Yuri was followed by a young orderly. This short, blond young man from Donbass was cheerful, polite, and most importantly, hardworking.
"Send it here," Yuri took off his soaked uniform and spread the map on the table. He said without turning his , "By the way, Arkasha, don't forget to prepare hot water for me. I need to take a good bath."
"Okay, Comrade Captain," the orderly's name was Arkady, and Yuri called him by his nickname.
"Also, has Comrade Lieutenant Vasily Romanovich returned?" Yuri asked again just as the orderly was about to leave.
Second Lieutenant Vasily Romanovich Rulsjian is the political commissar of the 209th Battalion. Thanks to the current Soviet military system, the system of military commissars supervising commanders was abolished a few years ago. Although the position of political commissar is still retained, the political commissar in the same unit is much lower than the commander in terms of rank. Therefore, in terms of leadership, the political commissar does not constitute any restraint on the commander. For example, in the 209th Battalion, Rulsjian's rank is only a second lieutenant, which is a big gap compared to Yuri. Therefore, all non-party affairs in the battalion are decided by Yuri.
There seemed to be some political activities on the army group side these two days. Yesterday afternoon, an order came from the regiment headquarters, summoning the political commissars of various units to a meeting at the army group headquarters. Rulsjian left the night before yesterday, and he had not returned until this morning when Yuri left the camp to explore the swamp.
"Not yet, Comrade Captain," answered Arkady.
"Oh, I understand. Go ahead." Yuri waved his hand and said casually.
Hearing the orderly turn around and leave, Yuri hesitated for a moment, took off , then sat down at his desk and carefully examined the map that he had spent nearly a month drawing with great difficulty.
The map was crudely drawn, just like his barracks, and it showed the route of the passage inside the Bolkarki Swamp.
For nearly a month, with Uncle Peter as the guide, Yuri arranged a platoon of soldiers to take turns to explore the swamp. In the initial period, the exploration was very smooth and progressed quickly, but as time went on, especially as the road was explored farther and farther, the progress of this work was greatly slowed down. As of today, it is roughly estimated that the exploration team has penetrated into the swamp to 4 or 5 kilometers northeast of Lutsk. Such a long distance requires a lot of time to go back and forth, and it is almost impossible to continue the progress.
Fortunately, during today's progress, Yuri led the team to find a forest. This forest is in the swamp, but the terrain is higher than the swamp. There are no muddy ponds on the ground except for the fallen leaves over the years. Next, Yuri plans to build a temporary supply station in this forest. In the future, the soldiers sent to explore the way will not have to go back and forth between the camp and the swamp every time. They only need to use the supply station as a foothold and continue to explore in the northeast direction.
After looking at the map for a while, someone knocked on the door of the barracks. The orderly Arkady came in with a tray and put it on the table in front of Yuri.
"Comrade Captain, your dinner," said Arkady, "and the mail that came today included two letters from you."
"Oh?" Yuri put away the hand-drawn map and looked at the two letters on the plate.
Both letters were mailed from Moscow. Looking at the names of the senders, Yuri smiled.
Of the two letters, one was mailed by Julia and the other by Olga. Looking at the mailing dates, both were more than ten days ago. Yuri couldn't help but complain that the postal service in the Soviet Union was too bad. A letter from Moscow to Lutsk actually took half a month on the road.
But after thinking about it again, Yuri felt relieved. This was a letter exchange within the army. Needless to say, the letter must have been opened during the mailing process, and it was probably opened by more than one person.
First, I took the letter from Julia and looked at the envelope carefully. Yes, there were obvious signs of re-gluing on the seal of the envelope.
Yuri opened the envelope, took out the letter, and read it hastily. Women like Julia and Olga, who came from rich peasant families, were much more vigilant, so there would be no outrageous words in the letter. Julia just talked about her recent situation: Just as Yuri expected, with the song "Hawthorn Tree" and the story behind the song, Julia was able to leave the ranks of the signal soldiers as she wished. When she wrote this letter, she had received a transfer order from her superiors and was transferred to the Moscow Military Region Art Corps.
Julia mentioned very vaguely in her heart that she would never forget Yuri and hoped that they would have the chance to meet again.
Let's look at Olga's letter. What this girl said in the letter was much more explicit than Julia's. She did not mention the "T-shaped wire clamp" incident, but mentioned that she was commended by the Leningrad Military District and received a bonus of 200 rubles.
After reading the two letters, Yuri threw them into the trash can beside him. He had no intention of replying. Looking back now, his initial thoughts were just an impulse of adolescence. Now, his restless heart has calmed down, and he needs to consider more important issues.
