Chapter 63 A Decisive Accident
A light mist covered the Desna River in the morning light, and the temperature, less than 10 degrees, made this morning seem particularly cold.
Yuri, who had not slept all night, jogged towards the riverbank with bloodshot eyes, and behind , the commanders of the 34th Brigade, including Demel, followed closely. A moment ago, they received a report from the soldiers saying that the patrol team caught a "madman" wearing a German uniform but speaking Russian on the river bank.
In order to maintain secrecy, most officers and soldiers of the 34th Brigade were unaware when Yuri sent out two attack teams. However, after receiving reports from the soldiers, Yuri knew that the so-called "madman" was probably the soldier who went to carry out the attack mission.
Last night, the flames in the sky from the direction of Shaws could be seen very clearly from Berezk, but no one, including Yuri, dared to connect this with their raid plan. Later, the front command also called to inquire about the situation, but how could Yuri explain it clearly? He couldn't contact the two assault teams at all.
It was only three or four hours, but it felt like ten thousand years. Yuri finally learned that the raiding soldiers had returned. He couldn't sit still and rushed over immediately.
More than a dozen Soviet soldiers gathered on the riverbank. From a distance, four or five soldiers were pressing a man in German uniform to the ground. The man in German uniform was acting very crazy. He struggled and screamed desperately, and several soldiers were unable to hold him down.
Yuri and his team rushed over and found that the guy in the German uniform was in a very bad state. He looked like he had just escaped from a fire. There were extensive burns on his back from the waist up, and the scalp behind his head was burned off. Mud stuck to the red flesh wounds after the fire, which looked very disgusting. And when you get closer, you can smell a strong smell of oil.
"Rinse him clean," Demel said to a soldier on patrol, covering his nose.
"Yes!" the soldier responded, then called the two men and ran away.
Ignoring Demel's order, a burly captain beside Yuri walked up quickly. He squatted beside the guy in German uniform, raised his head with great effort, took a closer look, and said loudly: "It's Borodinov, Nikita? Ananievich? Sergeant Borodinov, the mortar gunner!"
The captain was a regimental commander under Yuri, Captain Tanuchko. He knew the raid plan formulated by Yuri, and the soldier was obviously transferred from him.
"Borodinov, tell me, what happened? Where are the other members of the squad?" After recognizing the soldier's identity, Captain Tanuchko immediately asked.
Perhaps he heard someone calling his name, Borodinov stopped struggling. He raised his head woodenly and stared at Tanuchko for a while, and suddenly fear appeared in his two cloudy eyes.
"It's not me, it's not me..." As if he had seen some monster, Borodinov began to struggle frantically again, crying and shouting, "I didn't do anything, I didn't do anything..."
"Tell me, what happened?" Captain Tanuchko was angry. He grabbed Borodinov by the collar, slapped him twice in the face, and asked loudly.
"Fire, such a big fire..." Borodinov was forced to his knees on the ground, shouting with a ferocious face, "Dead, all dead...It's hot, I'm so hot..."
After crying for a while, he suddenly laughed again, a very creepy laugh: "I did it, I fired the shot, hehe, everything is gone, the station is ours, hehe... I am a hero, I will have a medal..."
Yuri stopped Tanuzko from continuing to get angry. He knew very well that the soldier had gone mad and his mind had completely collapsed. It would be useless to ask him any more questions.
However, from his intermittent crazy talk, everyone present could deduce the situation at that time.
The squad that attacked the Lyubitenoye railway station should have successfully launched an offensive against the German troops stationed at the railway station. During the battle, Borodinov, as a gunner, used the mortar he carried to fire at the German positions at the railway station. As a result, for some reason, the shells hit the oil depot in the station, causing an explosion and a fire. The fire must have been very fierce at the time, otherwise it would not have been visible from dozens of kilometers away. This sudden fire engulfed the German positions and the attacking Soviet squad. Borodinov, who had a narrow escape, saw hundreds of people struggling and wailing in the fire, and coupled with the shock he suffered, he had a mental breakdown on the spot. To be honest, it was a miracle that he could walk back from Schorz alive.
"Send him to Kiev and arrange the best medical care for him. We must make sure he survives. He is a hero to all of us," Yuri said to Demel, taking off his hat and tucking it under his armpit. "Also, this matter must be reflected in the subsequent report. He deserves a medal."
Demel nodded, agreeing with Yuri's statement. Last night, the 34th Brigade sent out two small teams, more than 100 people, and now only one has returned . The small team that raided Lyubitenoye was all burned to death, and the other one has not returned yet, and it is estimated that it is in danger.
However, putting aside the tragic imagination, Demel was still very excited. Judging from the fire last night, the German losses at Lyubitenoye Railway Station must have been considerable. Regardless of whether the exploded objects were fuel or ammunition, they would inevitably have a major impact on the subsequent offensive of the German army on the northern front. For the 34th Brigade, this was a real achievement.
"Should we report to the front headquarters immediately?" Demel asked the soldiers to send Borodinov away, and then asked Yuri.
After hearing his words, the commanders nearby turned their eyes to Yuri. In their eyes, only the word "expectation" could be seen.
"You are responsible for drafting the report," Yuri said hesitantly, a little listless . "I want to go and rest for a while. If the German army suffered heavy losses last night, then they should not take any action in Berezna today."
"Okay, you really need to take a good rest," Demel was happy to take care of this matter. He said quickly, "Don't worry, if there is any situation, I will inform you as soon as possible."
Yuri didn't feel like continuing to walk by the river. He was indeed feeling tired, not only physically but also mentally.
As Yuri guessed, the Germans did not launch any offensive in Berezna that morning. Not only that, they even cancelled the sporadic bombardment that had never stopped in the past few days. In Chernigov, Sosnitsa, Semyonovka, and even Shostka and Yampol, the entire northern offensive direction of the German army, all the wars seemed to have come to a standstill in an instant.
The Soviet army mobilized all available forces to conduct a comprehensive investigation of what happened in the Shaws direction. The various uncertainties prevented the Bryansk Front and the Southwestern Front from taking any action. For the entire morning, the battle on the northern front entered a delicate state of silence.
The Soviet intelligence agency was large and efficient, and the Bryansk Front also sent reconnaissance planes to risk conducting reconnaissance in the Shaw area.
Throughout the morning, all kinds of intelligence information began to converge on the Soviet side.
According to the Air Force's reconnaissance, the area around Lyubitenoye Railway Station in the southwest suburbs of Shaws is still surrounded by fire. The area within a radius of two or three kilometers is all engulfed in flames, and the billowing smoke prevents reconnaissance aircraft from approaching.
By 10 a.m., news came from the Bryansk Front and the 40th Army that the German troops on the northern front, which had been on the offensive, had begun to build large-scale protective fortifications in their positions, and German soldiers were busy digging trenches and consolidating their positions.
On the southern front, the German troops that launched the offensive in the direction of Lubne and Lokhvitsa suddenly increased their attack intensity. The fighting on the Piriatin and Akhtyrka defense lines became tense, and the garrisoned Soviet troops suffered heavy losses.
On the front battlefield in Kiev, the German offensive against the second line of defense in the suburbs of Kiev suddenly intensified. At 11:05 am, the Okuninov Bridge was even occupied by the German army. The Soviet army was forced to use the armored train of the militia to recapture the bridge again.
At 11:18 a.m., a significant message came from Moscow: According to the information feedback from the intelligence network of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, at 7:44 a.m., Hitler ordered the removal of the supreme commanders of the three German 47th and 17th motorized armies and the 51st Infantry Army.
When receiving this news, the entire front command was in an uproar. Although it was not certain how much damage the German army had suffered, it could be seen from the fact that the German army dismissed three army-level commanders at one time that the losses they suffered were definitely not small. To a certain extent, it even affected the German army's battle situation in the Kiev direction.
At 1:00 p.m., the front command received a call from Marshal Timoshenko, in which he asked the front command to immediately send the combat heroes and outstanding commanders who planned and attacked the Lyubitenoye Railway Station to Moscow - this was an order issued personally by Comrade Stalin.
At the same time, Marshal Timoshenko also informed the German army of the general losses suffered at Lyubitenoye Railway Station: in the attack last night, 31 tank trucks filled with fuel prepared by the German army for a new wave of offensive were blown up, as well as 27 tanks, 14 armored vehicles and an unknown amount of ammunition temporarily parked at the railway station. As for the losses of various military vehicles and German troops stationed at the station, it is not possible to calculate them yet.
According to the theater command's estimates, due to this impact, the German troops on the northern front will not be able to launch an effective offensive in the next two to three days.
