Chapter 50 Transfer Order
“Whoosh…Boom!”
With a shrill whistle, a shell fired from nowhere exploded right in front of the hidden lookout of the command post. The dust wave raised by the explosion poured into the command post through the lookout like a tide.
An enamel water cup placed on the long table was hit by something, flew up with a bang, hit the concrete wall opposite, and then bounced back violently. When it fell to the ground, it rolled over countless times with a clanging sound. When it stopped, the entire cup was deformed.
Pushing away Arseni who had fallen on him, Yuri stood up impatiently, returned to the observation post with the telescope in his hand, and looked towards the front line of the fortified area.
The battlefield in the entire fortified area was filled with smoke and dust, visibility was very poor, and one could only vaguely see the German army's attack at the front line.
Starting from yesterday morning, the battlefield, which had been quiet for more than ten days, became noisy again. The German 51st Army suddenly increased its offensive on the Peskovka fortified area, and the positions of the 239th Brigade were under tremendous pressure.
From the telescope, we can see that the German tanks are launching a strong attack on position No. 12 of the 239th Brigade's forward position. The covering formation consisting of 6 tanks provides support for the large number of German infantry in the rear.
The anti-tank artillery position in the rear that provided anti-tank support for position 12 began to counterattack. Two German tanks caught fire instantly, and the turret of one tank was blown away more than ten meters, probably because it was hit by the magazine. A German soldier hiding behind the tank and carrying a flamethrower suffered. The fuel tank on his back was hit by shrapnel and instantly exploded like a fireball, turning the space within a radius of several meters into a sea of fire. Several German soldiers affected by the fire turned into human torches and rolled and struggled in the sea of fire.
Seeing that the German army was showing signs of retreating in this wave of offensive, Yuri put down the telescope, took the wet towel handed to him by Arseni beside him, and wiped his dusty and muddy face.
"Where is Major Avilin?" Yuri handed the dirty towel back to Arseni, glanced at his water cup that had just been sacrificed, and asked casually.
"We went to the artillery position," Arseni replied. "The artillery company sent by the military district to reinforce has arrived. Comrade Major Avilin said that there are two big guys."
Major Avilin was the combat staff officer of the 239th Brigade. He had previously participated in border battles and fought against the German army in Lviv. In May before the war, he had just graduated from the First Infantry Command School in Kiev. He was two years younger than Yuri.
There was no other way. The Soviet Army was in great shortage of middle and low-level commanders. As long as they had not been defeated, captured, or escaped in the border battles, they would basically be promoted immediately. As long as they had a good performance, they could even be promoted above their level.
Yuri was somewhat dissatisfied with Averin's performance. This young man was not doing his job properly. The battle on the front line was so intense, but he, as a combat staff officer, was not at the command post to command, but went to the artillery position to pick up people. What was this? Could it be that he wanted to be the second Pavlov?
"Report!"
As soon as Arseni finished speaking, he heard someone shouting outside the command post.
"Come in," Yuri took the telescope and looked in the direction of the front line again. Sure enough, the German offensive had stopped and their remaining four tanks were retreating to the rear.
"Report, Comrade Major Yuri, Comrade Colonel Sava Kalistratovich Potekhin has arrived and is inspecting the artillery position. Comrade Commissioner Vitim asks you to come over." The visitor was a young communications soldier, and he shouted at the door.
Potekhin, the commander of the 147th Division and Yuri's immediate superior, why is he here instead of staying in Beshev?
Speaking of Potekhin, Yuri was also a little confused. Logically, this man is now a division commander. If he had not made any mistakes and had not died in battle, then he should have had a place in the post-war Soviet army. But in his previous life, Yuri had never heard of this person. It is estimated that this guy's future career will not be very ideal.
The division commander came to inspect the position, and Yuri, the brigade commander, had to go and receive him. Fortunately, the fighting on the front line had temporarily stopped.
After sending away the signalman, Yuri left the command post with the guard Arseni and rushed to the artillery position in the rear.
Although it is called an artillery position, in fact the main heavy artillery firepower of the 239th Brigade is distributed in various artillery fortifications. Only a part of the anti-aircraft guns are scattered on the artillery positions in the rear. The main reason for such an arrangement is to defend against German air raids.
When Yuri arrived at the artillery position in the jungle, he saw Avilin, the combat staff officer, leading a group of people standing at the edge of the forest, looking in the direction of the German position and talking about something. In front of this group of people, there was an artillery captain who was using a combined rangefinder to observe the distance to the German target.
Yuri didn't know how to use the coincident rangefinder until he came to this world. The horizontal cylinder is actually equivalent to two telescopes. The two telescopes are actually two points. They can form a right triangle with the enemy target by adjusting. In this way, the approximate distance between the gun position and the target can be calculated by using the trigonometric relationship through the angle, distance and other values.
Quickly approaching the group of people, Yuri first noticed not the division commander Potekhin, but the bald bearded man standing next to Potekhin, looking through a telescope at the front line. If he was not mistaken, this man should be the current deputy chief of staff and director of operations of the Southwestern Front, Ivan Hristoforovich Baghramyan.
Because Yuri was a grassroots commander who was quickly promoted after the border battle, he did not know most of the generals in the front command, and they did not know him either.
After meeting everyone, Avilin acted as an introducer, introducing Yuri to the people from the division headquarters and the front command.
Among these people, the highest-ranking one is undoubtedly Major General Baghramyan, Chief of Staff of the fortified area, Major General Martyanov, and Political Commissar of the fortified area Yevdokimov. Next are the commander of the 147th Division, Potekhin, the commander of the 175th Division, Grovatsky, the political commissar of the 147th Division, Babenko, the political commissar of the 175th Division, Shitanev, the director of artillery of the 37th Army, Stepanov, and the chief of artillery staff, Vasilyev.
There is no doubt that any of these people are higher in rank than Yuri. Introduced by Avilin, Yuri met them one by one, saluted, and after a brief greeting, Baghramyan asked about the combat situation of the 239th Brigade in the past few days. After hearing Yuri say that in the past two days, the German army has intensified its attack on the fortified area, but it was successfully repelled by the soldiers of the 239th Brigade, Baghramyan seemed very happy. He praised the bravery and tenacity of the 239th Brigade. Then, he praised the battlefield radio that the 239th Brigade took the lead in using, and said that this way of boosting the morale of the soldiers was highly valued by the Supreme Command. In the future, this method may be promoted throughout the army. However, the Supreme Command meant that battlefield radios like this should not only target Soviet soldiers, but also broadcasts specifically a role in undermining the morale of the German army.
Yuri naturally had no choice but to agree with the Supreme Command's proposal, but if it was to be assigned to the 239th Brigade, he did not have the conditions to broadcast it to Germany.
The group exchanged greetings for a while at the artillery position, and Baghramyan suggested going to the various permanent fortifications to take a look, mainly to understand the soldiers' mood. So Yuri led the way and led the group into the fortified passage.
It was impossible for Baghramyan to inspect all the positions of the 239th Brigade. He did not have enough time and strength. He could only visit one or two places such as the frontier positions, permanent artillery fortifications, and permanent machine gun fortifications. Even so, it took more than three hours to complete the inspection.
In general, Baghramyan is very satisfied with the current situation of the 239th Brigade. At least, the soldiers are in high spirits and morale is high. It is not easy to achieve this.
As it was getting dark, the inspection team, led by Yuri, returned to the headquarters of the 239th Brigade. Baghramyan, who had been praising Yuri's work all afternoon, suddenly gave Yuri a new order.
"Comrade Major Yuri Arkhipovich," said Baghramyan, who had just received a glass of water from Arseniy, standing in front of the long table with a map in the command post, "through today's inspection, I think you have done an excellent job in defending the fortified area. On behalf of the front command, I would like to thank you for your efforts."
"Comrade General, this is what I should do!" Yuri stood up straight, saluted the other party, and said loudly.
Baghramyan nodded, and then continued: "In fact, this time we came here, in addition to inspecting the defense situation of the 239th Brigade, we also want to issue you the latest mobilization order on behalf of the front command."
Having said this, he turned his head and looked at Potexin who was standing on the side.
"It's like this," Potekhin took over and continued, "Considering the German offensive on the northern front, the front command intends to further strengthen the defense in the Chernigov direction. At present, the Supreme Command has allocated some reserve troops to us and is transferring them to Chernigov. The front command has decided to appoint you to take over this part of the troops and organize them in the shortest possible time, station them in Berezna, and build a solid defense line there to resist the German attack that may come at any time."
