Chapter 44: A sharp turn for the worse
In Kushnitsa, Transcarpathia, the base of a part of the Soviet 12th Army, August, shirtless, sat quietly in the battalion command post. On the table in front of him was a propaganda document that had just been issued by the army command today.
The document was a circular, a propaganda circular, issued by the Supreme Military Committee in Moscow to all military and administrative units in the Soviet Union, including the army at all levels, local governments at all levels, collective farms, enterprises and even colleges and universities. The content of the circular was: Comrade Stalin called on the people of the Soviet Union to learn from the heroic Comrade Major Yuri Arkhipovich Kulyokov.
The notice was very long, taking up two large pages of 8-page format. The beginning part introduced Yuri's deeds in the border area. It was very detailed and specific, and of course, very touching and inspiring. Most importantly, it published a decision by Comrade Stalin and the Supreme Military Council, which was to award Comrade Yuri Arkhipovich Kulyokov the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union". In addition, the 209th Battalion under his command was awarded the collective honorary title of "Hero of the Battle of Bredev".
After seeing this notice and thinking back to Yuri whom he met in the Moscow training class, August couldn't help but feel many emotions. Who would have thought that after only being apart for nearly a year, this former good friend had achieved such an achievement, and the price he paid for it was also heavy.
The notice did not give the final news about Yuri, only saying that he chose to break out, and then the Kiev Special Military District lost contact with his 209th Battalion. However, in recent times, with the promotion of various propaganda campaigns in Moscow, the fate of this unit has concerned countless people.
After staring at the notice for a while, August was awakened by a hurried knock on the door.
"Please come in," August folded the notice and put it aside, turned his head to look at the door, and said loudly.
"Report, Comrade Captain," the man who came in was August's orderly, a very handsome Caucasian boy. He saluted August and said loudly, "Comrade Colonel Kalinov wants you to come over."
"I see," August nodded and said as he stood up.
Colonel Kalinov is the military commissar of the army group. August had received a call from his comrade before, saying that someone from the Moscow Supreme Military Committee would come today. Their main purpose was to find him to learn about Yuri's deeds in the training class.
After putting on his military jacket, August looked in the mirror again to make sure there was no problem with his makeup before quickly leaving the headquarters.
At the beginning of the war, the 12th Army was ordered to enter Hungary, but with the German attack in the southwest, the 12th Army was forced to withdraw to the country. At present, it is reorganizing and preparing to move to the northwest to join the war against Germany. Because of this, the subordinate units of the entire army are currently concentrated, and the distance from the battalion headquarters to the army headquarters is very close.
Ten minutes later, August arrived at the army headquarters and met Colonel Kalinov and a member of the Military Committee who had just arrived from Moscow.
Because he had received a notice before and knew that the military committee would ask about Yuri, August had prepared a lot of materials, such as his impression and understanding of Yuri, as well as the topics they often discussed when they were together. But he didn't expect that the military committee didn't give him time to talk too much, but just threw him a document and asked him to remember , and told him seriously that everything recorded in the document was true, and he had to say so at any time and in front of anyone.
August read the materials, which were all about Yuri's deeds, such as his outstanding performance in the Soviet-Finnish War and his winning of the Order of the Red Banner, his excellent performance in the training school, his outstanding performance in military simulations, etc. These were all facts, nothing to say. But in addition to these, there were a lot of deeds that did not exist at all, at least August did not know.
All in all, through this material, Yuri has become a nearly perfect revolutionary fighter without any flaws. He is broad-minded, determined, united with his comrades, optimistic, positive, brave and selfless... It seems that all the words of praise are suitable for him.
Although he knew that much of the content in the materials was fictitious, August still had to remember them as if they were true, otherwise, he knew that he would be in trouble.
Similar experiences are not limited to August. All the students in the Moscow training class will have similar experiences, regardless of whether they know Yuri or not, whether they are familiar with Yuri or not, and even Yuri’s neighbors at the time could not stay out of it.
This was a massive wave of propaganda. The Military Commission needed to create such a heroic figure to boost the morale of the troops at the front, strengthen the people's confidence in winning the fight against the German army, and thereby offset the adverse effects caused by the large-scale defeat on the front line.
Times create heroes, which is vividly reflected in this incident.
However, the creation of a hero could not save the Soviet army from a complete defeat in the border area. Throughout the end of June, although the Kiev Special Military District tried to stop the German offensive through a series of large-scale counterattacks, it not only had no effect, but all parties suffered heavy losses.
On the same day that Yuri was injured, the 34th Tank Division, which was responsible for covering the right wing of the 8th Mechanized Army, faced the German "Hermann Goering" Regiment without infantry cover. As a result, in less than two hours of fighting, the 34th Tank Division lost nearly 40 tanks and retreated from the battlefield in embarrassment. Not only that, in the battle that day, the commander of the 8th Mechanized Army, Ryabishev, was also seriously injured.
Next , a dramatic scene occurred.
The 8th Mechanized Army, which suffered heavy losses, sent a request to the front headquarters to withdraw from the battle and move to the rear, and was approved by the front headquarters. As a result, the main force of the 8th Mechanized Army began to retreat quickly in the direction of Kremenets. But just three hours later, the 8th Mechanized Army, which had moved in the direction of Kremenets, changed from the rear team to the front team, and headed back to the way it came, and was put into the battlefield again. The reason was that Comrade Vashukin, the military commissar of the front, arrived at the army headquarters. He asked the seriously injured Ryabishev to lead the troops back into battle, otherwise he would be shot.
In this way, the Mechanized 8th Army, which was already short of fuel, wasted fuel for a round trip of nearly 100 kilometers, and launched an attack on the heavily defended German area with only 180 tanks in the entire army.
On June 29, when Comrade Vashukin returned to the front headquarters, he learned that as early as the 27th, when he rushed to the 8th Mechanized Army, the front headquarters had issued a retreat order to three mechanized armies, including the 8th Mechanized Army. When the 8th Mechanized Army launched an attack on the German army, the 4th Mechanized Army and the 15th Mechanized Army, which were supposed to attack on its flank and provide cover, had already withdrawn from the battle. The offensive of the 8th Mechanized Army became a complete suicide attack.
On July 1, the 8th Mechanized Army, trapped in the German siege, ran out of fuel and ammunition. Its 12th Tank Division was completely wiped out, and its commander, Major General Mishanin, was killed. The tragic Major General Ryabshev had no choice but to break out, and soon lost contact with the front headquarters. At this point, the 8th Mechanized Army, which was powerful and equipped with a large number of KV heavy tanks, was basically wiped out.
In the first wave of Soviet counterattacks, it was not just the 8th Mechanized Army that suffered heavy losses, but also the 19th and 15th Mechanized Armies, as well as the 4th Army, which was known as an elite but actually played no role. In addition, the 27th and 31st Infantry Armies under the 9th Army, as well as the 22nd and 9th Mechanized Armies, also suffered heavy losses. The 27th Infantry Army even had only one division left.
In fact, just before entering July, the front command already knew that this large-scale counterattack had completely failed. At present, all the command could do was to withdraw all the participating troops in the border area to the old border behind the Dnieper River as much as possible to prevent the German army from further advancing towards Kiev.
Someone must be held accountable for the complete failure of the initial operations. In order to deal with this war and coordinate the overall deployment of the war, the "Presidential Headquarters" with Comrade Stalin as the core sent an investigation team to Kiev. Just like the Western Special Military District, they must find a few people to take the blame.
So, on the evening of June 30, after receiving the news that the 8th Mechanized Army was surrounded by the German army, the "angry" Comrade Khrushchev launched a fierce attack on Military Commissar Vashukin at the combat meeting of the front headquarters. Comrade Khrushchev believed that this failure was entirely caused by Vashukin's insistence on implementing an unrealistic combat plan. In addition, he must bear the most direct and primary responsibility for the losses of the 8th Mechanized Army. Comrade Khrushchev even believed that Vashukin was a German spy, a "fifth column" hidden in the Soviet army, and a traitor to the Soviet state...
The final result of this accusation was that Vashukin committed suicide by shooting himself in his barracks in the early morning of July 1, and in this way took the main responsibility for the failure of the Southwestern Front's border campaign.
Also on July 1, the Southwestern Front Command and its subordinate units issued orders to retreat, and Lviv, Dubno, Rivne and other places fell into the hands of the Germans one after another.
On the same day, at nightfall, after several days of rapid march, the remaining troops of the 209th Battalion crossed the Sluch River at night, 37 kilometers south of Sarnay, using simple rafts built with logs, and escaped the main German attack area.
