Chapter 41 Thick Clouds
It was very strange. The expected battle did not come during the entire day of the 23rd. There was not even any attack from the air. Only occasionally one or two formations of German fighter planes could be seen flying by. And they were not flying eastward. Instead, they were flying from north to south, as if heading towards Lviv.
The only frequency in Yuri's phone book was for contacting the military district headquarters. The lack of information on the battlefield meant that he could only rely on guesswork to determine the general situation. In his opinion, since German fighter planes frequently flew in the direction of Lviv, it meant that a large-scale battle must have taken place in Lviv, and it was likely that the Soviet army launched an offensive against the German flank in that direction.
When trapped in a silent battlefield, time is the most difficult to endure, because no one knows when the enemy will appear, and everyone's nerves are tense and they dare not relax for a moment.
Yuri did not dare to disclose the news that the troops were likely to be surrounded by the German army, because that would likely cause morale to collapse. Instead, he could not disclose the news and had to lie to his soldiers: two lies. First, he told the soldiers that they only needed to hold on here for two more days. He received an order from his superiors that they could withdraw from the swamp in two days. Second, the heroic deeds of the 209th Battalion had been reported in the newspaper, and it was the Red Star, which was a newspaper that Comrade Stalin read every morning when he got up. In other words, even Comrade Stalin knew about the deeds of the 209th Battalion.
Such lies are ridiculous, but the soldiers are willing to believe them, and they do have a great effect on boosting morale. In order to more effectively block the German troops that may arrive at any time, the grassroots commanders and fighters began to make various suggestions to Yuri, some effective and some ineffective.
In order to more effectively prevent German tanks from attacking the positions, the 1st Company Captain Antip Borisovich proposed to set up a tree stump array in front of the position, that is, to bury tree stumps one by one in the ground. These stumps were collected from the forest, thigh-thick, about six or seven meters long, the buried part was more than four or five meters, and the above-ground part was about half a meter. These tree stumps were densely erected in front of the position at intervals of half a meter. Although one or two stumps could not stop the German tanks, a large number of them could always trap them. Most importantly, the 209th Battalion also buried some of the remaining mines near these stumps.
Yuri knew very well that things like this could not stop the German attack, but the soldiers were very enthusiastic and motivated, so he would not reject it rigidly. In any case, the existence of these tree stumps would always cause some trouble for the Germans.
On the 23rd, Yuri contacted the military district headquarters three times, trying to inquire about the battlefield situation and request the military district's instructions for the next battle of the 209th Battalion. Unfortunately, he only received one reply, which was to hold on and wait. Yuri even suspected that his small battalion was not taken seriously by the military district at all, and perhaps the so-called order to hold on and wait was issued by some insignificant staff officer.
The long day passed by little by little under the scorching sun. When night fell, the situation finally changed. The scouts who were sent out came back to report that a large German force appeared less than 8 kilometers ahead. The battle that was expected to come long ago was imminent.
…
At midnight on the 23rd, Kyiv Special Military District Command.
The dim light flickered unsteadily in the spacious room. Although there was a wall between them, the sounds of telegraph machines in the next room could still be clearly heard. The calls from the staff officers trying to contact the various troops via radios were mixed together, noisy and chaotic.
On the large long table, a battlefield situation map was spread out, with a broken glass lying on the lower right corner of the map. Water stains flowed along the map to the table, and then dripped from the edge of the table to the ground.
Zhukov, who had not slept for more than 30 hours, sat at the table with a serious expression. His right hand, which had just smashed the water glass, was still shaking. Opposite him, Khrushchev, Kirponos, Vashukin, Purkayev and others also had grim expressions.
From the early morning of the 23rd to now, the large-scale counterattack campaign implemented around Order No. 3 has been fought for nearly 20 hours, and during these 20 hours, the situation on the entire battlefield can only be described as a mess.
According to the combat plan formulated by the military district, this counterattack was divided into two directions, namely the southern direction with Lviv as the core, and the northern direction with Lutsk as the core. According to the military district's previous prediction, the Germans' main attack direction should be Lviv in the southern region. Therefore, the military district mobilized heavy troops in the Lviv direction. In addition to the 4th, 5th, and 8th three reorganized elite mechanized armies, there was also the mechanized 22nd Army that was put into battle early to carry out flank attacks behind the German army. Among these troops, there were more than 2,400 tanks alone. In the northern Lutsk direction, only the 9th and 19th mechanized armies were deployed.
However, what was unexpected was that the military district's prediction was completely opposite to the actual plan of the German army. The main direction of the German attack was not Lviv in the south, but Lutsk in the north. In that direction, the German army arranged two motorized armies, namely Mackensen's Motorized 3rd Army and Kempf's Motorized 48th Army.
That was not all. What was even more terrible was that the combat units arranged by the military district failed to arrive at their respective battlefields within the specified time: the mechanized 8th Army commanded by Ryabyshev had just arrived in the area west of Dasampol according to the order of the 26th Army Command before the outbreak of the war. Subsequently, as soon as the war broke out, the 8th Army was assigned to the 9th Army. According to the order of the 9th Army Command, it ran from Dasampol for a whole day, traversing a distance of 400 kilometers, and arrived in the area east of Lviv. As a result, when the 8th Army finally arrived in Lviv, before it could rest, it received an order from the Southwestern Front Command to run 80 kilometers to the assembly area in the Brod area. In this process, due to factors such as lack of fuel and malfunctions, this elite armored force was forced to abandon 50% of its tanks and artillery, and was directly destroyed.
Compared with the 8th Mechanized Army, the 22nd Army was in a worse situation. The 62nd and 18th Air Force Divisions, which were supposed to provide air support for this mechanized army, have not been contacted until now. As a result, the mechanized army fought under the ravages of the German Air Force all day on the 23rd. Its commander, Major General Kondrusev, was killed in the battle, and the 41st Division, one of the three motorized divisions under its command, also disappeared and has not been contacted until now.
The most successful advance was made by the 9th Mechanized Army led by Rokossovsky. This so-called mechanized army, which was fully equipped with 285 old T-26 and BT-5 tanks, launched an offensive from the Korki direction in the north towards Lutsk. After paying a heavy price, its main force pushed the front line to the western area 48 kilometers away from Lutsk.
The reason why the 9th Mechanized Army was able to make such rapid progress was entirely because the daring Rokossovsky robbed all 200 transport vehicles belonging to the military district after the outbreak of the war.
The problem is that the 9th Mechanized Army is advancing rapidly, while the 19th Mechanized Army, which is fighting with it, is far behind, which makes the right wing of the 9th Mechanized Army have no cover and become a completely isolated army. Just this afternoon, the 11th Armored Division, known as the "Ghost Division" under the German 48th Motorized Army, is moving rapidly to the right rear of the 9th Mechanized Army after defeating the 81st Division under the Mechanized 4th Army. On the front, the German 29th Army is moving towards Lutsk, intending to strengthen the troops on this front and cooperate with the 48th Army to encircle and annihilate Rokossovsky's 9th Mechanized Army.
No one expected that the situation would become so passive on the first day of the campaign. Comrade Vashukin, who adhered to principles, was completely silent at this time. He had insisted on arranging the battle according to the instructions of his superiors yesterday, but he had long lost his eloquent demeanor. From his face, one could see nothing but panic.
"Comrades, the current situation is very passive for us. I think what the Southwestern Front should do now is to expand the results of the battle as much as possible in the Lviv direction on the southern front and create pressure on the German army." After a long silence, Zhukov said, "And in the Lutsk direction on the northern front, we must first find a way to stabilize the front."
"The 9th Mechanized Army can be ordered to temporarily withdraw," Purkayev said, "to the Buoboshny area."
Buoboshnyi is a small town, 37 kilometers away from Korki, which actually means that Rokossovsky's troops will give up the results of the whole day's battle on the 23rd. No one in the command post said anything, although everyone knew that this strategy was the safest, but no one was willing to give the order to retreat.
"Why not order Konstantin to launch an offensive against Lutsk?" Khrushchev, who had just been appointed as the Military Commissar of the Southwestern Front, suddenly interrupted.
He stepped forward and gestured on the situation map, drawing a route in the direction of Lutsk at the location of the 9th Mechanized Army. This route bypassed the swamp water network and the vast jungle, and went directly to Lutsk via route "C".
Zhukov looked at the map and frowned.
Because according to this route, the 9th Mechanized Army had to pass through the narrow strip between the Bredev Forest, the swamp water network and the Stel River. The narrowest part of this narrow corridor was less than one kilometer wide. The German 29th Infantry Army was moving towards that position. At the same time, since Lutsk was still under German control, as long as they set up a defense line in this narrow strip, the 9th Mechanized Army would probably be trapped here.
But what Zhukov did not expect was that Khrushchev immediately said: "This narrow passage is still in our hands. As long as Constantine's 9th Mechanized Army can reach here, we can either launch an attack on Lutsk or turn north and join the 19th Mechanized Army."
