More than four thousand captured commanders and fighters were brutally killed by the German army. These words aroused the common hatred of Sokov and others. He temporarily forgot about the non-dealing between himself and Apanashenko, but asked solemnly: "
What happened to the SS cavalry that massacred our prisoners of war?"
"What else could they do? Of course they were wiped out by our army." Apanashenko continued: "After massacring one prisoner of war camp, they were on their way to another prisoner of war camp. They met with Colonel Inov of the 31st Tank Corps.
The 100th Tank Brigade encountered the enemy, and after a fierce battle, all these executioners were wiped out."
"It's so easy for them." After Sokov gritted his teeth and said this, he turned to Sameko next to him and said: "Chief of Staff, when you meet with the commanders of each division, remember to tell them about this.
.Please convey my message to them: from now on, all captured SS officers and soldiers will be shot on the spot, and we will not accept their surrender."
"Comrade Commander," Sameko said with some embarrassment: "If the SS surrenders in an organic form and we shoot them again, I'm afraid there will be bad consequences."
"Blood debts must be repaid with blood," Sokov said with a straight face: "I will let them repay the crimes committed by the SS ten times or a hundred times to avenge our dead commanders and soldiers!"
Hearing Sokov's order, Apanashenko's frosty face once again showed a smile. He felt that he should treat the enemy as ruthlessly as in the harsh winter, but Sokov's order came as a surprise.
It was somewhat to his liking. He nodded and said: "Major General Sokov, you are right. You can only use beasts' methods to deal with beasts."
Sokov was not blindly complacent because of Apanaschenko's compliment. He knew very well that Apanaschenko had always had a prejudice against him. If he wanted to change his view of himself, it would definitely not be possible overnight.
Did it.
However, out of politeness, Sokov winked at Samoylov who was standing aside and motioned him to pour tea for Apanashenko. After seeing Sokov's eyes, the latter nodded slightly.
, and then quietly exited the command post.
Not long after, Samoylov appeared in the headquarters again. He placed teacups, teapots, plates with sugar cubes, plates with slices of bread and biscuits, and canned braised pork from the United States.
On the table.
After Sokov waited for him to finish all this, he smiled and said to Apanashenko: "Comrade General, you must have been tired after traveling for so long. Please have something to eat." After that, he picked up the food.
The teapot poured the other party a cup of hot tea.
When Apanashenko saw what was placed on the table, he did not show any politeness. He walked directly to the table and sat down, and started to eat. As he ate, he said: "Major General Sokov, I thought you were on the front line."
The food there is terrible, I didn’t expect it to be similar to ours.”
Sokov wanted to tell him that the black bread eaten by the commanders and soldiers fighting on the front line was mixed with sawdust, which would kill the throat. But when the words came to his lips, he swallowed them back. After all, he and Apa
The relationship between Nashchenko and Nashchenko has just eased, so there is no need to make each other unhappy over such a trivial matter.
Lunev, who was sitting aside, saw that Apanashenko seemed to be in a good mood at the moment, so he asked tentatively: "Comrade General, I would like to ask when can we launch the attack on Belgorod?"
?”
"Almost." Apanashchenko had just stuffed a piece of bread into his mouth. Hearing Lunev's question, he said vaguely: "The base camp has formulated a new combat plan aimed at capturing Kharko.
Husband and Belgorod, I estimate that in a few days, the front headquarters will hold a pre-war military meeting. You will know the specific content after attending the meeting."
As the deputy commander of the front army, Apanaxian not only knew the offensive plan code-named "Rumyantsev" formulated by Zhukov and Vasilevsky, but even the details of the plan were clear. But now the new battle is far away
At first, and for a while, for the sake of confidentiality, he chose to keep it secret from Sokov and others without hesitation.
Sokov understood Apanashchenko's thoughts and did not ask any more questions about the offensive plan. He asked curiously about the battle in the direction of Oboyan: "Comrade General, I don't know about the 11th and 17th German troops stranded in the Oboyan area.
Has the armored division been eliminated now?"
Hearing Sokov's question, Apanashenko showed an embarrassed expression on his face. After a long time, he said with some embarrassment: "The battle is still going on. I believe it won't be long before we
Our troops can completely destroy these two German troops."
Sameko couldn't help but curled his lips and thought to himself: With a few incomplete infantry divisions, plus two artillery divisions and a tank corps, we defeated the main force of the Huth Armored Group Army. And there were two troops in the direction of Oboyan.
It is really disappointing that even a group army has been unable to resolve the battle against two German divisions.
Sameko felt somewhat disappointed when he learned that the fighting in the Oboyan area was still going on. This meant that the more than 20,000 rescued commanders and fighters would not be able to reach here before the battle was over.
Lunev seemed to have thought of this, and he tentatively asked Apanashenko: "Comrade General, after the battle in the Oboyan area is over, can those rescued prisoners of war be sent over?"
When Runev asked this, he didn't have much hope at first. But after hearing this, Apanashenko unexpectedly said: "Of course you can come over! Didn't you occupy Kochetovka?
Those rescued commanders and fighters bypassed the fighting area and came from Kochetovka to accept your adaptation."
Apanashenko raised his hand and looked at his watch and said: "According to the plan, they will arrive at your place around ten o'clock in the morning." He raised his head, looked at Sokov and others and asked, "Which one of you will accompany you?"
Shall I go and pick up the soldiers?"
"Comrade Military Commissar," Sokov turned to Lunev and said: "The main task after receiving prisoners of war is to screen and review them. Why don't you and Comrade General accept the prisoners of war."
"Okay, Comrade Commander." Lunev did not raise any objections to Sokov's arrangement, "Then I will accompany Comrade General to receive the prisoners of war and start their screening and review in the shortest possible time.
Work."
"To screen and review more than 20,000 people, the workload is not small." Sokov asked with concern: "Comrade Military Commissar, do you have enough manpower?"
"That's enough." Lunev nodded and said, "I've already thought about it. It's definitely not enough to just rely on the political workers from the headquarters, but if you add the political workers from each division, then the manpower will be more than enough.
.And the political staff of each division will screen and review, and those qualified commanders and fighters can be directly incorporated into the troops, which can greatly shorten the time to replenish the troops."
When Sokov heard this, he couldn't help but glance at Apanashenko, fearing that he would express any objections. But Apanashenko's expression seemed to agree with Lunev's statement.
Apanashenko waited for Lunev to finish speaking, then stood up and said: "Comrade Lunev, it's getting late, let's set off now. If the screening work is completed early, I can return to the front headquarters earlier."
After sending Apanashenko and Lunev away, Samyko asked Sokov with some surprise: "Comrade Commander, tell me, Comrade General was still trying to find fault at first, but Lunev proposed to complete the screening.
When the commanders and fighters who had completed the review could be directly incorporated into the army, why didn't he express any different opinions? Isn't this a bit strange?"
"I don't know very well." Sokov is not clairvoyant and has no one at the front headquarters to inform him. Naturally, he doesn't know that before Apanashenko came to the 27th Group Army, he had promised Zhukov that he would never act as a substitute.
, something that interfered with Sokov’s command. That’s why Sameko had this strange feeling.
The battle in the Oboyan area continued. The troops attacking the 17th Armored Division were the First Tank Army commanded by Katukov. They used tank assault tactics to launch a fierce attack on the 17th Armored Division. The battle lasted until one o'clock at noon.
Except for a few tanks that had to be abandoned on the battlefield because they ran out of fuel, the rest of the tanks were destroyed.
Many tank soldiers who escaped from the destroyed tanks fled into the forest with the infantry, trying to return to Kharkov or Belgorod through the forests and swamps. Division Commander Etlin, with a dozen staff officers and guards, lost
He got his barrel truck, mixed in with the fleeing soldiers, and fled towards the forest.
However, just as he was about to run into the forest, he was spotted by a T-34 tank, which immediately attracted artillery fire. A shell landed five or six meters away from him and exploded, sending shrapnel flying across him and those around him.
Several staff officers swept him down together. Fortunately, a few loyal guards swarmed him, carried him and fled into the forest.
However, Chistyakov's 6th Guards Army's battle to besiege the 11th Armored Division did not go so smoothly. After receiving the telegram from Manstein ordering him to break out to the west, the German division commander Balck immediately sent people to conduct reconnaissance.
.
The scouts reported to him that the Russians had deployed heavy troops on the east, west, and south sides. Only the north side was defended by the 52nd and 67th Guards Divisions, which had suffered heavy losses. After receiving this information, Balck decisively ordered a breakout to the north.
The command.
Balke's order made the German officers and soldiers feel a little confused. Didn't they want to retreat south to Belgorod? Then why did they want to break out to the north? Although they were full of doubts, the German officers and soldiers still followed Balke's order.
Ordered to break through to the north where the Soviet army was weakly defended.
The 52nd and 67th Guards Divisions responsible for the defense in the north never expected that Balck would counterattack, and were caught off guard. The defense line they established was quickly broken through by Balck's 11th Armored Division.
Balke knew very well that after a long battle, his armored division did not have much ammunition and fuel left. Not to mention that it had to pass through many areas defended by the Soviet army. Even if the Soviet army made way for them, with the tanks remaining
He could not drive back to Belgorod even though he was running out of fuel, so he decided to take the risk and command the troops to continue rushing north until they reached Bogodukhov.
This was originally a logistics supply base for the Germans. During yesterday's battle, it was occupied by the 6th Guards Army, cutting off supplies to both the 11th and 17th Armored Divisions.
When Chistyakov commanded the main force to move south, he felt that the destruction of the Germans was only a matter of time. It was impossible for anyone to launch an attack on this logistics base, so he did not set up a decent guard at all, leaving only a force of less than 80 people.
company, guarding the huge base.
When the defenders guarding the base discovered that a large number of German tanks were rushing towards their location, they immediately became panicked and began to fire various light and heavy firepowers from a long distance away in an attempt to block the advance of the German tanks.
.
But infantry without heavy weapons could not withstand the German steel torrent. After several exposed firepower points were destroyed by German tank fire, the Soviet resistance collapsed. The dozens of surviving Soviet soldiers immediately did
The birds and animals dispersed, throwing down the weapons in their hands and escaping from the logistics base.
Balck personally drove a Panther tank and entered the logistics base. After seeing that the facilities here were basically complete, he couldn't help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief and immediately issued an order to the officers and soldiers: "Attention, everyone, replenish the tank with fuel immediately."
and ammunition, there is a more difficult battle waiting for us."
The German officers and soldiers who had just escaped from the Soviet encirclement did not dare to neglect Balke's order. The tank crews were replenishing fuel and ammunition for the tanks, and the infantry were also replenishing the ammunition, food, and medicine they needed to prepare for the attack.
It will come in handy in the next battle.
When Chistyakov learned that the logistics base in Bogodukhov had been captured by the Germans, he was suddenly startled into a cold sweat. He knew what it meant for the Germans to reoccupy the logistics base, and quickly began to gather his troops, preparing to attack Bogodukhov.
Hough launches new attack.
The chief of staff of the group army reminded Chistyakov: "Comrade Commander, the enemy has occupied Bogodukhov. With our strength, it is very difficult to capture it again. Do you think we should report this matter to the front army immediately?"
The headquarters is reporting and at the same time requesting assistance from the First Tank Army on the left?"
"You're right." Chistyakov was not a headstrong person. He responded to the chief of staff's suggestion and immediately reported the emergency to Vatutin and asked Katukov for help.
Vatutin was really angry when he saw Chistyakov's telegram. He slapped the telegram on the table and said angrily: "Seeing that the enemy's ammunition and fuel are about to be exhausted, who can
Unexpectedly, he allowed the enemy to break out of the encirclement and reoccupy the logistics base in Bogodukhov. This was tantamount to allowing the enemy to regain its original combat effectiveness."
After hearing this, Vasilevsky, who was sitting next to him, immediately asked Zhukov: "Comrade Marshal, tell me, what should we do next?"
"Send a telegram to Katukov and order him to immediately send troops for reinforcements." Zhukov said with an indifferent expression: "The 11th Armored Division's path south has been completely cut off by us. As long as they are separated from Bogodukhov's logistics
If they are driven out of the base, they won't be able to hold on for long."
This chapter has been completed!