Chapter 51: Operational Plan
He found two vacant rooms in the design institute's building and arranged for Olga and the other two to stay there temporarily. He told Olga that he would treat the three of them to dinner in the evening and asked them to rest for a while. Then Yuri took Arseny away - the war was tense and he had to arrange a new combat plan as soon as possible.
The part of Berezna city on the north bank of the Desna River is mainly concentrated with factories and administrative units. The map of the entire city looks like a large ingot placed on the bank of the Desna River, with a protrusion on each side of the east and west. To be honest, such terrain conditions are actually not conducive to defense, because the defense part in the middle is destined to be relatively weak. Facing the German offensive, the troops stationed in the city can easily be cut into two parts.
However, for Yuri, his goal was not to defeat the German army or to defend the damned city. He only hoped to effectively stop the German offensive before the retreat order was issued. In other words, as long as his troops were still in Berezna and had not lost the entire city before the front command ordered a retreat, he would win, at least, he would not have to bear the responsibility for the defeat.
Considering such a combat goal, Yuri must effectively utilize every building in the city and try to turn every building, every floor, and even every room into a position. The main goal is to consume the German army's manpower while delaying their attack.
Since this kind of combat method is to be adopted, the method of arranging troops in the form of entire regiments or battalions is no longer feasible. Yuri plans to reorganize his troops in the form of small teams.
A combat squad is allocated 10 to 20 soldiers, and each squad is assigned 1 to 2 relatively good soldiers, who serve as the backbone to supervise the entire squad to fight and defend their positions. In addition to these squads responsible for guarding various buildings, several assault squads composed of backbone soldiers are established. They will get the best weapons, including machine guns, anti-tank rifles and a few flamethrowers . As for their role, they are responsible for launching offensives against the German army at night and retaking the positions lost by the Soviet army during the day.
In addition, Yuri also planned to coordinate his artillery and tanks, mainly to divide the urban area on the north bank of the Desna River into several artillery strike zones, and set up observation posts in major buildings in the city to determine the detailed data related to the artillery positions to each artillery strike zone in advance. In this way, when the German army attacks the city, the observation posts set up in the buildings can call for artillery support in time and carry out rapid artillery strikes on the areas where the German army is heavily concentrated, thereby achieving the purpose of consuming the German army's manpower and even disintegrating its offensive.
For Yuri, doing these tasks well is bound to be a very troublesome task. However, compared with saving his life, no matter how troublesome the task is, it is not a big deal.
He used the evening time to inspect the urban area on the north bank of the Desna River, and had a clearer impression of the general situation of this part of the city. After returning to the headquarters, Yuri did not even have time to eat, and quickly convened a meeting of all the commanders of the brigade to explain his opinions clearly.
Although he is the commander of the 34th Brigade, Yuri cannot act arbitrarily in the army . He needs to discuss many things with people including the chief of staff and the political commissar. In particular, he must obtain the approval of the political commissar before he can successfully implement the plan. Otherwise, he must apply to the higher authorities in the form of a report.
As a newly formed unit, all the staff of the 34th Brigade were newly transferred. The political commissar, Demel Andreevich Rustav, was a cautious old Bolshevik with a mild personality and was easy to talk to. The deputy brigade commander was Major Polynikov, who was transferred from Kharkov and was an instructor at the Kharkov Infantry Academy before the war broke out. The three combat staff officers had similar military experience to Polynikov, all of whom were instructors at military schools and did not have much actual combat experience.
The evening meeting lasted nearly three hours and was not announced to be over until the early hours of the morning. As for the result of the meeting, Yuri was very annoyed because his combat plan was rejected. Among all the commanders of the brigade, only Political Commissar Demel reserved his opinion, while others expressed clear opposition.
Finally, Yuri had no choice but to choose a solution. He spent nearly an hour compiling a report and sent it to the front headquarters overnight. At the same time, he personally called Tupikov, who had recently replaced Purkayev as the front chief of staff, and repeatedly emphasized that his battle plan was the most practical. Otherwise, relying only on a troop of more than 4,000 new recruits, he would not be able to stop the attack of the German armored forces in the field.
Fortunately, Yuri's statement attracted the attention of the front command. That night, Mazhilin, the commander of the 4th Division of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, who was accepting a mission at the front command, brought back the resolution of the front command from Kiev for Yuri. This resolution, signed by Military Commissioner Comrade Khrushchev, authorized Yuri to make full decisions on the combat plan of the 34th Brigade, but on the condition that Yuri needed to take full responsibility for this imminent blocking battle.
Colonel Mazhilin, who returned from Kiev, not only brought back the resolution of the front command to Yuri, but also brought him a very bad news: just yesterday at noon, the 51st German Army launched a powerful offensive in the Ivankov direction. With the support of assault guns, the German infantry broke through the fortified area of the Ivankov line. Afterwards, they bypassed the heavily defended Peskovka and Demel areas of the Soviet Army and turned to Chernigov. The front command estimated that this German army hoped to meet with the German armored forces of Guderian's army in Chernigov, thus making up for the lack of infantry coordination of Guderian's German army.
Colonel Mazhilin was a very talkative person, and Yuri learned a lot of information from him. For example, the request of the army headquarters to move eastward had been approved by the Supreme Command, but the Supreme Command also made a request that the army must avoid the recurrence of the "Uman tragedy" while moving - before that, in the battle in the Uman area, the retreating Soviet troops were completely collapsed because of the German surprise attack on both wings.
In addition, Marshal Budyonny, commander-in-chief of the Southwestern Theater, who disregarded the resolution of the Supreme Command and arbitrarily ordered the front troops to withdraw, has been removed from his post. In the past two days, Marshal Timoshenko will take over his position as the new commander-in-chief of the Southwestern Theater.
It was not until this time that Yuri understood why he had received two completely contradictory orders some time ago.
After seeing off Colonel Mazhilin, it was already three o'clock in the morning. Feeling extremely hungry, Yuri remembered that he had not even had dinner. Then he thought of Olga. He had arranged for her and her brother to stay at the headquarters, but forgot to arrange for someone to deliver dinner to them. At this time, he had no idea how they were going to have dinner.
Shaking his head helplessly, Yuri left his office, went down the stairs to the first floor, and then went down through the passage leading to the basement. Olga and her brother were arranged here - not out of disrespect, but for safety, after all, the Germans would bomb the city from time to time.
The basement corridor was lit, but no one was there, and it seemed very quiet. Yuri walked along the corridor to the bottom of the east side, and finally stopped in front of a mauve pine door. Olga was in this room.
He reached out and pushed the door, but it was tightly closed. Olga must have gone to bed. However, just as Yuri turned around and prepared to go back to his room, he heard the faint sound of music coming from the room. Listening carefully, it sounded like a phonograph.
After hesitating for a moment, Yuri reached out and knocked on the door. The sound was not loud, but the music in the room stopped abruptly. After a while, the door was opened a crack from the inside and Olga stuck her head out.
"Are you done with work?" Olga didn't seem surprised at all when she saw Yuri outside the door. She asked in surprise, then opened the door and said.
"Yeah, we just finished the meeting," Yuri said with a smile, "I suddenly remembered that I forgot to arrange dinner for you, so..."
"We have already eaten. Your guards helped arrange it," Olga stepped aside and said, "Come in and sit down. I haven't slept yet."
"Oh, okay," Yuri looked at her. Even though she was only wearing a large white shirt, with her long, white legs bare, Yuri didn't hesitate. After more than half a year of living like an ascetic, he had already grown lust in his heart. In addition, he had been under great psychological pressure recently, so he also wanted to have something happen with this outstanding woman in front of him.
There are all kinds of disciplines in the Soviet army, but this does not include such style issues. Rokossovsky committed adultery with many married women, but no department had ever troubled him for this. What was there for Yuri to be afraid of?
After letting Yuri in, Olga closed the door again. She hesitated for a moment at the door, and finally locked it. Then she took two quick steps to catch up with Yuri and asked, "I didn't expect that you were promoted to brigade commander in just a few months. If I'm not mistaken, you will be promoted to lieutenant colonel soon, right?"
"Maybe," Yuri said casually, looking around the room, "If I can survive this battle, I can almost be promoted."
