Burning Moscow

Chapter 1705 The Highland of Blood and Fire (Part 2)

Zhukov asked Malinin to draft an order to prepare for 30-40 minutes of artillery fire at a density of 250-270 artillery per kilometer in the area in the early morning of the 25th. He also emphasized that the artillery preparations were carried out independently by the armies of each group.

Regarding the order issued by Zhukov, Malinin asked in a puzzled manner: “Comrade Marshal, if you use the artillery intensively, isn’t the result greater?”

Zhukov glanced at him, and then said: “Comrade Chief of Staff, what you said is a certain road. The shelling power of tens of thousands of artillery pieces is definitely much stronger than thousands of artillery pieces. But have you ever thought about it? The time required for all artillery must be longer than the time it takes for a group army to gather artillery to set up positions.”

“It turned out to be so, I understand, Comrade Marshal.” After listening to Zhukov’s words, Malinin nodded his head hurriedly and said, “I’m going to prepare orders!”

After preparing for the artillery fire in the early morning of the next day, Cuikov’s troops had just launched an assault on the enemy’s defensive positions, and the German army put the elite Kuhlman divisions and Minhberg divisions, as well as a SS infantry division into battle. They concentrated their forces on the joint of the left wing of the 8th Guards Group and the 69th Army and launched an attack.

The defensive positions of the 79th Guards Division became the focus of the German offensive. After the fierce shelling ended, the German counterattacks under the cover of armored vehicles launched a charge on the 227th regiment of the division.

After the position of the second battalion of the regiment was breached by the Germans, the regimental commander Semikov personally took the guard company to support, preparing to adopt a counter-attack method to plug the gap opened by the Germans. Before leaving the command post, Semilov called a communications staff officer and ordered: “Report to the division immediately that the Germans have launched a rush to the defensive position of our regiment. We are making a tenacious resistance. Ask the division to send The troops provide support.”

When he took the people to the position, he saw that his troops and the Germans had started a hand-to-hand battle. And the number of German troops is more than that of our own, and there are armored vehicles support, our own troops can’t support it at first sight. He hurriedly instructed the communicator with a walkie-talkie behind him: “Order the first battalion to come and support immediately!” While the communicator was calling the first battalion, he raised his pistol over his head and shouted loudly, “Brothers Come with me!” After shouting, they took the lead and rushed towards the area where the melee was being fought. Dozens of soldiers in the guard company saw the captain behaved so bravely, and rushed up with shouts.

The commanders of the second battalion were already at a disadvantage, but seeing his regimental leader rushing over with a new force, his army’s spirits were immediately lifted, and he swung his weapon even more desperately to fight the Germans.

Before long, the commanders and fighters of the first battalion also rushed to the battlefield. Our army had an advantage in numbers, and the situation gradually developed in a direction that was beneficial to our army. Who knows that at this moment, four German dive bombers came to the sky above the battlefield. Seeing that the ground was in chaos, the German pilots didn’t know what to think, and they dropped bombs towards the densest place of the armed forces of the two warring parties. It fired with machine guns and machine guns irrespective of the enemy and us, ploughing wide alleys of flesh and blood among the crowd.

Cui Kefu, who was staying in the headquarters, quickly learned about the brutal battles carried out by the 227th Guards Regiment through the battle report returned from the front. He stared at the map for a while, then looked up and asked Vladimirov: “Chief of Staff, which unit is closest to the 227th Guards Regiment?”

Vladimirov took a look at the notebook, frowned and replied: “The main force of the 79th Guards Division is at least five kilometers away from the 227th Guards Regiment. It will take at least an hour for them to get to the battlefield. I am worried that Semikov’s troops will not be able to support that long.”

While the two were studying how to rescue the 227th Guards Regiment, I stared at the big map on the wall in a daze. I saw a unit of the 69th Army next to the red attack arrow formed by the 79th Guards Division, so I coughed vigorously, attracted the attention of both of them, and asked with my finger on the map. Said: “Two generals, I would like to ask, which unit is on the left wing of the 227th Guards Regiment?”

Cui Koff looked in the direction of my fingers, and when he saw the two red arrows next to it clearly, his eyes lit up, and he quickly told Vladimirov: “Chief of Staff, go find out which unit it is. On the left wing of the 227th Guards Regiment.”

After a while, Vladimirov, who was on the phone, returned and reported: “Comrade Commander, on the left flank of the 227th Guards Regiment, it is the 19th Brigade of General Dlymov’s Mechanized Guards Army. They are only two kilometers away from the Shemikov regiment.”

“The 19th Guards Mechanized Brigade?” After hearing this number, Cui Koff asked tentatively: “Is it the unit that won the honorary title of’Rhodes Brigade’?”

“Yes, Comrade Commander, it is them.” Vladimirov nodded and said, “Is it necessary to get in touch with General Dremov immediately to mobilize this mechanized brigade to support the 227th Guards Regiment?”

“Does this need to be said, my comrade chief of staff.” Seeing that Vladimirov was still standing still, Cuikov urged him: “Hurry up and call General Dremov and let him Send the Rhodes brigade out, every minute now is precious to us.”

With the support of the Rhodes Brigade, after two hours of fierce fighting, the 227th Guards Regiment finally successfully repelled the German attack. Two German aircraft were shot down, eight armored vehicles were destroyed, and hundreds of German soldiers were killed.

Although the results look very good, our army has also paid huge casualties. The second battalion of the 227th Guards Regiment was almost completely wiped out, and the first battalion suffered more than half of the casualties, and even the regimental commander was seriously injured. He was wounded by a bomb dropped by a German plane when he was fighting a bayonet with the German army.

The surviving soldiers of the guard company desperately lifted him from the battlefield and sent him to the camp health center for simple bandaging. When the Rhodes brigade arrived, the guards carried him on a stretcher and drove him to the field hospital of the division.

Trikov learned the news of Semikov’s serious injury from Vladimirov’s mouth. He couldn’t help being taken aback, and asked quickly: “How is his injury? Will it be life-threatening?”

“The military doctors are working on the rescue, but the situation is not very optimistic.” Vladimirov said with a serious expression: “The right hip of his forehead was shattered by shrapnel, one arm was blown off, and his body was full of wounds. Can you survive? Come down, you can only resign yourself to fate.”

By noon, the troops of the group army had occupied the Trebnitz and Youngsfield areas. The right-wing troops have also moved forward to the line of Maxward and Volkov. Regrettably, the performance of the 69th Army on the left was poor, and the distance for the troops to advance was limited, which led to the extension of the left wing of Cuikov’s troops. The Germans, who were aware of this situation, frequently carried out counter-attacks in this direction, trying to drive our troops to the south, as far as possible away from Berlin. In order to prevent the troops from being driven away by the enemy from the occupied area and to cover the left flank of the group army, Cuikov transferred the two divisions of the 28th Guards Infantry Corps.

The fighting was going on. Zhukov called me and told me bad news: “Lida, I called Comrade Stalin and asked him to allow our tank troops to bypass the Zerauf Heights and pass through Nev’s defense zone rushed straight to Berlin, but he refused.”

Although I knew Stalin would reject Zhukov’s request, I asked casually: “Comrade Marshal, I don’t know what the Supreme Commander himself said?”

“He said that if our Belarusian First Front cannot complete the breakthrough mission, then he will order the 3rd and 4th Guards Group Army under Konev’s command to attack Berlin from the south.” Zhukov simply told me. After introducing the situation, he said in a stern tone: “Konev’s troops have crossed the River Spree and are preparing to attack the southern suburbs of Berlin. To seize this huge spoil of war in Berlin, they are now in danger of losing it. To avoid this. In the worst case, you must speed up the attack and strive to capture the entire Zerauf Heights as soon as possible. Do you understand?”

“Understood, Comrade Marshal, I will convey your meaning to General Cui Kefu.”

I put down the phone, repeated Zhukov’s words to Cui Kefu, and finally said: “General Cui Kefu, the superiors think that our attack speed is too slow. It seems that we have to find a way to speed up.”

“How can we increase the speed?” Vladimirov said helplessly: “There are so many villages and settlements on the high ground. Every time we seize one, we not only spend a long time, but also pay huge casualties.”

“If this is the case, then use the blasting method.” The matter has reached this point. Although Zhukov has not been so furious as in the legend, threatening to remove his commanders from their positions and send them to the military court, but I am also in my heart. It is clear that it is urgent to seize the entire Zerlauf Highland, so I decisively said: “As long as you find German settlements and villages, you will use tanks or self-propelled artillery to destroy them, and open up a space for our infantry and armor the way.”

“Lida, if you really do this, it will make many civilians homeless.” Cui Kefu was frightened by my order and quickly reminded me: “It’s still winter, how do you let these people get through? What about the cold night?”

“I can’t take care of that much, General Cui Kefu.” At this moment, I understand the true meaning of not being merciful. In order to win the final victory, some radical methods should be used without hesitation when they should be used, so I am decisive. He said: “What we need now is time. It is our honor and our duty to be the first to rush into Berlin. No one is allowed to enter Berlin earlier than us, even if it is a friendly army. Understand?”

“If we really do this, the place our troops pass by will be in ruins.” The military commissioner Pronin, who has not spoken, suddenly said: “Lida, do you really stop thinking about it?”

“General Pronin, compared with these buildings, the most precious thing is the lives of our commanders and soldiers. If we destroy the settlements and villages of the Germans, it will save thousands of our commanders and soldiers from bloodshed and sacrifice. I am willing to bear this. Infamy.” I stared at Pronin and said with a strong attitude: “And the German People’s Stormtroopers are made up of old people and children. We can’t tell who are ordinary civilians and who are the people who worked for Hitler. Stormtroopers, so we can only try to drive them out of this area.”

“Comrade Military Commissioner, don’t say any more.” After I finished speaking, Cui Kefu raised his hand to stop Pronin, who was trying to refute me, and stood on my side to say good things for me: “Lida can do it. It’s a war now. To achieve the final victory, we must take some special measures. As for these destroyed houses, we can only rebuild them after the war is over. Anyway, we still have tens of thousands of prisoners of war in our hands. They will complete the work. It couldn’t be more appropriate.”

As the new combat order was issued, the attack speed of Cuikov’s troops was indeed greatly accelerated. In the evening, Hertagurov, commander of the 82nd Guards Division, reported that the 242nd Guards Regiment under the command of Colonel Sukhorukov had cleared out the enemy in Minkhberg and successfully occupied it. city.

“Oh, Minkhberg is occupied?” Hertagurov’s report surprised Trikov. He curiously asked: “Are the troop casualties large?”

“Report to Comrade Commander,” Khtagurov said in a cheerful tone: “With less than one company casualties, we succeeded in occupying the city.” Before Cui Koff asked again, he went straight down. “The troops under the command of Colonel Sukhorukov saw that the Germans had built a lot of fortifications in the east of the city, and they were heavily guarded, so they left a company on the front to contain the enemy, and led the main force of the regiment back to the north of the city. Then there was an assault. The enemy did not expect our army to emerge from behind them suddenly fell into chaos, after more than two hours of fighting, our army paid a very small price , Conquered Minhberg.”

When the battle to capture the high ground entered the fourth day, the situation became more favorable for our army.

The 2nd Guards Tank Army, commanded by General Bogdanov, broke into the Bernau area on the offensive area of ​​the 3rd Assault Army commanded by General Kuznetsov; the 3rd and 5th Assault Army and the Guards The troops of the 8th Army successfully broke through the enemy’s last defensive zone on the high ground; the troops of the 1st Guards Army marched out to the Kagel, Firstenwalge, and Anikendorf areas, here Joined with the troops of the 28th Guard Infantry Corps.

Although there are still scattered remnants of the German army on the high ground, there is no threat to our army anymore. It only takes a few small company-sized units to wipe them out.

Berlin is right in front of us!

Please remember the domain name of the book’s first publication:. Mobile version reading URL: