Burning Moscow

Chapter 1699 Escape from the dead

I thought that the attack on Berlin started two months earlier, and Kuznetsov would not be able to take over from Simonyak as the commander of the 3rd Assault Army. But everything that happened before me made me just stand in place and smile again and again, feeling in my heart that this historical error correction ability is really too powerful.

After sending away the former commander of the 3rd Army, Zhukov told Malinin: “The chief of staff, immediately call Kuznetsov and ask him to come here to accept the new appointment.”

When Ma Linin returned from the call, Zhukov called us to the front of the map, pointed to the location of the landing site on the left bank and said to us: “Here, there is a small island formed by the alluvium of the Oder River, the Warta River and its tributaries. , A strong fortress of the German army was built here. At present, Cuikov is trying to cut off the connection between the fortress and Zerauf Highland. You must understand that if we do not seize this fortress, then Cuikov and Berzalin cannot be separated. The landing field created is one piece. So in the next time, we have to do everything possible to seize this fortress.”

After Cui Kefu said this, he focused his attention on me and said: “Lida, I plan to send you to Cui Kefu’s troops to supervise him in capturing this fortress. Is there a problem?”

“No problem,” I didn’t expect that soon after I came back from Cui Kefu’s troops, Zhukov would send me there again, but since he has given the order, I can only obey, so I replied simply, “Marshal Comrade, I resolutely obey your orders.”

In this way, I came back to Cui Kefu’s headquarters. Seeing my appearance, Cui Kefu’s face showed a surprised expression: “Lida, why are you here again?”

“General Cui Kefu, I am here today to bring you Marshal Zhukov’s order.” I said, and took out the combat order signed by Zhukov from the package and handed it to him. At the same time, he said: “He ordered you to be in the shortest time. Within time, seize the German fortress on the island in the river.”

After quickly reviewing Zhukov’s commands, Cui Kefu nodded and said to me: “Lida, you came here by a coincidence. We are discussing how to seize this fortress.” Then, he introduced me to the participants in the meeting. Division commander, “I intend to let the 35th and 82nd Guards Division’s troops participate in the battle to conquer the fortress.”

After I sat down, Trikov continued: “The gap between the two landing sites on the left bank of the Oder River is currently about three kilometers. The enemy uses this corridor to maintain contact with the Koschin core fort located on the island of the main riverbed of the Oder River. The core fort itself is the foundation of a wedge that divides my landing sites. Our current task is to cut this wedge on a weak link west of Koschin, and then make the flanks of the two armies meet. In this way, the enemy is here. The garrison of the fortress will be in a state of isolation.”

Although my rank and position are higher than those of Cui Koff, after the 8th Guards Army was deployed for combat, I consciously acted as an audience, so as not to interfere with Cui Koff’s command.

Although Cui Koff is assigning tasks to his subordinates, his gaze has been stuck on me, and he seems to have been worried that I will interfere with his combat deployment: “…We will carry out assaults against enemy defenses from the south, and we will move forward. To the Kitz-Duchlin railway. General Berzalin’s troops will launch an offensive from the north at the same time as us, hoping to meet us in the area of ​​the Golitsov railway station.”

After waiting patiently for him to explain the task to his subordinates, I finally asked: “General Cui Koff, I don’t know when you plan to attack the fortress?”

“At least two days later,” Cui Kefu explained to me with a blank look on my face, “We need the Air Force to bombard the German fortresses in a planned way, day and night, and destroy their defense system and command system. To clear the way for the offensive we are about to launch.”

Regarding Cui Koff’s proposal, I expressed my support: “Well, General Cui Koff. Anyway, the task given to you by the Front Command is to seize the fortress on the island in the near future. I will help you contact the air force to bomb the fortress day and night. .”

After learning about Trikov’s offensive plan, Zhukov immediately issued an order to the air force commander to attack. So overwhelming planes appeared over the German fortress and dropped tons of bombs on the fortress and the road to Zerau. On the passage of the Highland.

Two days later, the 8th Guards Army attacked from the south, while Berzalin’s 5th Assault Army attacked from the north. After more than half a day of fierce fighting, the two armies successfully joined forces and defeated the enemy in the corridor connecting the fortress and Zerauf Heights. Except for those killed or captured, the remaining remnants and defeated generals retreated. Entered the fortress on the island.

Now that the two armies have joined forces, when discussing the next action plan, I summoned General Berzalin to Cuikov’s headquarters to discuss together how to seize the fortress.

Cui Koff pointed to the map to introduce the situation to us and said: “The core fort itself is located on an island formed by the alluvium of the Oder River, the Warta River and its tributaries. The approach to the island has been submerged by the spring flood, and there are only dikes and embankments. Connecting the fortress to the land, the embankments and embankments fan out and point in different directions-Berlin, Frankfurt, Poznan, Szczecin. There is no doubt that the enemy will try to seal and lock these roads, and fill the embankments and embankments with field battles. Fortifications, bunkers, civil launching points, bullet shelters, bunkers, barbed wire, and mine barriers. However, we cannot deploy a large force here, because the Germans can completely block the road to the dam with a tank.”

Seeing everyone frowning, Cui Kefu went on to say: “Then how should we attack? I think the artillery should be the main and decisive role, as Comrade Stalin said, the artillery is The **** of war, it should destroy the bunkers, bomb shelters and civil launching points built on the **** road. At this time, our aviation troops are dispatched to destroy the core fort and the remaining fortifications around it.”

After listening to Trikov’s words, Berzalin raised his own question: “General Cuikov, if you want to destroy the German bomb shelters and civil firepower points, you can only use heavy artillery and large-caliber mortars, but we cannot follow the usual rules. To bombard the German fortresses in the same way that our offensive troops are too close to the enemy.”

“General Berzalin, what you said is very reasonable.” Cuikov agreed with Berzalin’s words. “In order to choose the right artillery position, I plan to personally meet with the artillery commander General Pozharski and the guards. The two commanders of the 35th and 82nd divisions went to the field together to conduct detailed surveys to work out a more reliable and safe method.”

After a day of field investigation, Cui Koff proposed to me that the task of capturing the fortress on the island could be handed over to his troops to complete it independently. Seeing that he was so confident, I greeted Berzalin and told him that he was only responsible for monitoring the enemies in the Zerauf Heights, and that the task of solving the island was entrusted to the Eighth Guards Army.

In the first two days of the attack, Cui Koff summoned all the commanders of the 35th and 82nd Guards Divisions and above to the headquarters for combat deployment. After a few simple greetings, he handed over the assignment of tasks to the staff. Long Vladimirov.

Vladimirov walked to the map, picked up an explanation stick, pointed to the map and said to everyone: “… Tomorrow morning, our army will send out assault aviation and bombing aviation to attack the island fortress and other permanent fortifications. Carrying out targeted bombing. The aviation forces used their assaults to force the enemy to withdraw from these fortifications to field fortifications. On this day, except for the artillery companies designated to directly target the fortress walls, other artillery will not fire.

In the early morning of the day after tomorrow, our aviation forces will conduct another assault on the same target, so that the enemy’s garrison cannot return to the core fort and have to stay in the field fortifications. But by doing so, they happened to be caught in our trap. Once the bombing stopped, our artillery, ready to go, would fire on the field fortifications together. The duration of the sudden attack was 30 minutes. After the shelling ended, the infantry involved in the landing took a boat and crossed the river to land on the island, and started the general attack after the assembly was completed.

The task of attacking the fort from the right bank of the Oder River was performed by the 82nd Guards Infantry Division; the task of attacking the fort from the left bank was performed by the 35th Guards Infantry Division. A regiment of the 35th Division is preparing to board the island from the south. …”

I can’t help but secretly nodded my head and wondered about Cui Koff’s plan. First, through bombing, I forced the Germans to escape from the fortifications and fortifications, and let them escape into the field fortifications calmly. The next day, they were drawn by the gourd again, and the fortresses and permanent fortifications were air-raided again. When the German troops entered the field fortifications again, they ordered the artillery to open fire suddenly and caught them by surprise.

After Vladimirov finished speaking, he looked at the commander sitting below and asked, “Who has any questions? You can ask me questions now.”

As soon as his voice fell, a colonel stood up. Through his self-reported name, I knew that he was the commander of the 102nd Guards Regiment. He looked at Vladimirov and asked: “Comrade Chief of Staff, in the first day of the bombing, you mentioned that the fortress wall Artillery companies that conduct direct-point shooting. I want to know what is going on with these artillery companies?”

Vladimirov did not answer his question immediately, but turned to look at Cui Koff, who was sitting aside, as if he was asking for his opinion. Cui Kefu nodded, then stood up, put his hands on the edge of the table, leaned forward slightly, and said to the commanders sitting below: “Comrade commanders, let me explain to you what these artillery companies are. What’s going on. In order to effectively destroy the German firepower, I deliberately deployed three heavy artillery batteries equipped with 203 mm caliber artillery.

An artillery company concealed in a dam on the left bank of the Oder River near Kitts in the suburbs and fired at the civil launching point on the right bank.

The second artillery company was concealed in the dam on the right bank of the Oder River 400 meters south of the island, and aimed at the civil launching point and the dam on the left bank. Such a configuration can ensure cross-fire on visible close-range targets. In order to avoid accidentally injuring one’s own people, clear signs were set up on the frontiers of our army on the dams on both sides of the river.

The third artillery company was deployed on the embankment near the Zabchin station. From this section, our artillery can clearly see the wall of the core fort and shoot it directly. ”

After the bombing on the first day, in order to observe the heavy artillery shells directly hitting the fortress wall, Cuikov and I drove to the vicinity of a water tower in the northwest of Zabqin Station. In front of where we are standing is a huge filter tank, which looks like a filter tank where chlorine, caustic soda and water glass are added to the water tower. Cui Kefu’s adjutant and a guard platoon leader stood side by side in front of the masonry wall of the filter tank.

While we were observing the damage to the fortress, there was a scream that pierced the air. A shell exploded on the right, and another exploded on the left after a while. It didn’t take long for us to hear explosions around us.

“No, we were found by the Germans.” Cui Kefu shouted and quickly pushed me to hide behind the brick wall.

The Germans shelled us with mortar shells. From the point of impact, they had locked our target. In this situation, no matter where we go, it is very dangerous. Because once you enter a concealed area, shrapnel flying horizontally is enough to claim our name. We can only hide behind the wall and stick our bodies tightly to the wall At this moment, I suddenly think of Chernyakhovsky, the commander of the Belarusian Third Front. To the German bombardment, and sacrificed heroically. If he did not sacrifice, the Soviet Union could have one more war marshal before the end of the war. Unexpectedly, I was also shelled by the German army today. I wonder if my final fate will be the same as Chernyakhovsky, who almost became the Soviet marshal.

At this moment, a violent explosion sounded beside us, and the air wave threw us to the ground and piled together. After the explosion, when I woke up, I felt that I was crushed underneath. Cui Kefu was pressed on his body, and his adjutant and the guard platoon leader were pressed on Cui Kefu’s body. The two of them blocked me and Cui Kefu’s officer with their bodies, and were lying motionless with blood at the moment.

Cui Koff held his adjutant in his arms and shouted desperately: “Fialdo, wake up, wake up, wake up, hurry up!”

I struggled to sit up, shook my groggy head, and reached out to touch the nape of the motionless guard platoon leader, and found that he had no heartbeat. I was taken aback and said a little flustered: “He’s dead!”

Trikov turned his head, looked at me blankly and said, “Lida, he is dead. My Feiordo and the guard platoon leader are dead.”