"Comrade Commander, thank you!" After Sokov finished speaking, Ponedelin unexpectedly said: "Thank you for your kindness. I think the position of division commander is already very difficult for me. If
If you let me serve as military commander, I'm worried that I will live up to your expectations."
Seeing the confusion written on Sokov's face, he added: "Although I served as the commander of the group army long before the war, I stayed in a German prisoner of war camp for more than two years.
, the tactical ideas I have mastered before are somewhat outdated. If I stay at the headquarters to serve as your advisor, you can correct me if I make any mistakes. But if you assume the position of military commander, once you make a command mistake, you will be punished.
The troops suffered huge losses."
When Sokov heard that Ponedelin rejected his kindness, he originally wanted to persuade him a few more words, but after hearing what he added later, he changed his mind. Since the other party was unwilling to assume the position of army commander, then this matter
It would be a matter of course to put it aside for the time being, and then appoint him as army commander after he has established meritorious service in the battle to liberate Uman, and no one would raise any objections.
On the way to the headquarters, Smirnov asked Sokov: "Comrade Commander, do you really intend to let Ponedelin serve as military commander?"
"Yes, I do have such an idea." Sokov replied truthfully: "Anyway, he served as the commander of the group army before the war. Now let him stay in the headquarters to serve as an advisor to us.
, it would be too unfair to him."
"But he said it himself. Although he was the commander of the group army before the war, after two years in the German prisoner of war camp, the tactics he mastered were outdated." Smirnov guessed Sokov's intention.
Thoughts, he asked tentatively: "Are you planning to wait until he has established new achievements in the battle to liberate Uman before suggesting to your superiors that he be appointed as the commander of the army?"
Seeing that Smirnov actually guessed what he was thinking, Sokov was somewhat surprised. He nodded: "Yes, that's what I thought. If he can perform outstandingly in the battle to liberate Uman, I suggest
I'm afraid there won't be any objections to his superiors appointing him as army commander."
"Do you think we will take action in the Uman region in the near future?" As a chief of staff, Smirnov's perspective on the problem is different from Sokov: "Compared with us, Uman is far away from Ukraine.
The defense area of the 1st Ukrainian Front is closer, and I feel that even if the Uman Battle is launched, I am afraid that the Supreme Command will hand over this task to the comrades of the 1st Ukrainian Front."
"The First Ukrainian Front has other combat tasks," Sokov said confidently: "I think the superiors will definitely leave the task of liberating Uman to our front army to complete. Otherwise Marshal Konev will not
He called us personally and informed us of the meeting.”
After hearing this, Smirnov did not argue with Sokov, but nodded and said: "When we arrive at the front headquarters, we will know what tasks our superiors are going to assign to us."
Arriving at the conference room of the front army headquarters, Sokov saw that the commanders and chiefs of staff of other army groups had arrived, but he and Smirnov arrived relatively late.
Seeing Sokov come in, Zakharov nodded to him, then pointed to the two empty seats next to the conference table and said: "Comrade Sokov, you and General Smirnov can sit there."
As soon as Sokov and Smirnov sat down, a military meeting at the army chief level began.
The first person to speak was Chief of Staff Zakharov: "Comrade commanders, I have summoned you here today to announce two important things.
The first thing is that at three o'clock this morning, the German army launched 24 V1 missiles from the Uman area towards Cherkasy..."
As soon as he said this, there was a buzz of discussion in the conference room. Except for a few people such as Sokov, Smirnov and Konev, the other commanders participating in the meeting had no idea about V1.
What is a missile? So we are asking each other, trying to figure out what kind of new weapon this is from the Germans. It can actually carry out long-range attacks on Cherkasy directly from Uman, which is one or two hundred kilometers away.
"Quiet, comrades commanders, please be quiet!" Seeing the chaos in the conference room, Zakharov showed an unhappy expression on his face. He slapped the table twice with the palm of his hand, letting everyone in the conference room
He became quiet again: "Commanders here, I'm afraid most of you don't know what a V1 missile is. I will explain it to you soon."
When Zakharov said this, he raised his hands above his shoulders and clapped them twice hard. Following his applause, the door of the conference room that was originally closed was pushed open from the outside, and then several people
A soldier came in carrying a blackboard. They placed the blackboard on the open space next to the conference table, raised their hands in salute, and then turned and left the conference room.
The commanders who attended the meeting saw several photos posted on the blackboard and gathered around them curiously. Sokov saw clearly that the photos posted on the blackboard were the photos he had given to Konev, so he sat down.
The ground did not move. But Smirnov stood up, took a look, turned to Sokov and said: "Comrade Commander, isn't this the photo we gave to the headquarters?"
Sokov nodded slightly and said: "Yes, it's those photos. Next, Chief of Staff Zakharov will introduce the V1 missile to everyone."
After hearing what Sokov said, Smirnov felt that there was no need to join in the fun, so he sat down instead of pushing forward.
"Comrade commanders!" Zakharov, who was standing next to the blackboard, said to everyone: "The aircraft you see in the photos is the V1 missile newly developed by the Germans. Although we have not yet mastered it,
The specific data of this kind of missile, but from their two launches, it can be judged that the range of this attack weapon is at least more than 100 kilometers."
When the commanders heard this, they couldn't help but exclaimed: "Oh my God, the range is more than 100 kilometers, it's incredible."
"Yes, the farthest naval gun of our army has a range of only more than 20 kilometers. This humble aircraft has a range of more than 100 kilometers, which is equivalent to four or five times the range of our naval guns."
"Such a long range means that he can hit us, but we have nothing to do against them."
When the commanders were discussing this time, Zakharov did not interrupt them, but stood quietly aside. After everyone's discussion came to an end, he continued: "Two days ago, the German army used a V1 missile to
It attacked the former site of the front army headquarters, causing more than 200 casualties in the village of Morianqi."
Amid gasps of air, he said directly: "At three o'clock this morning, the enemy launched another 24 V1 missiles from the Uman area, and their attack target was Cherkasy." At this point, his eyes changed.
Glancing at Sokov, who was still sitting at the table, he said, "Fortunately, we got an early warning from General Sokov and notified the defenders of Cherkasy to be prepared, so the damage to the city was minimized."
Lieutenant General Sha Luoxin, commander of the 37th Group Army, asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, can you tell us how to reduce casualties in the city?"
"Although the German V1 missile flies at the same speed as an airplane, it has a fatal weakness, that is, it can only fly along a fixed route." Zakharov said: "In this way, we have two methods that can be used.
To deal with it. One is to use fighter planes to intercept them and destroy them all in the air; the other is to establish air defense positions on the flight route of the V1 missiles and use anti-aircraft artillery fire to shoot them down.
Since the German missiles attack at night, even if we dispatch Air Force fighter planes, the pilots may not be able to detect traces of the German missiles in the dark, so we leave the heavy responsibility of defense to the anti-aircraft artillery."
"Then what's our record?" Shaluoxin asked impatiently.
"According to statistics after dawn, 17 of the 24 missiles launched by the German army deflected and landed near the city and exploded; the remaining missiles were intercepted by our anti-aircraft guns when they flew over our air defense positions.
Three were destroyed, and only four landed in the city and exploded."
Sokov learned that of the 24 V1 missiles launched by the German army, only 4 landed in the city and exploded, and he suddenly felt much more at ease. As long as the commander of the Cherkasy garrison resolutely carried out Konev's order,
If urban residents were allowed to hide in air-raid shelters in advance to avoid German missiles, the number of casualties would be very, very few.
This time it was the turn of Koroterev, commander of the 52nd Army, to speak: "Are there many casualties in the city?"
"Since we issued a combat warning to the city's defenders in advance, in addition to arranging air defense positions in the west and southwest of the city, we also urgently mobilized the city's residents to enter air-raid shelters to avoid the German attack." Zakharov said: "The German army
The four missiles that fell into the city destroyed one two-story and three-story building, and caused the casualties of more than a dozen patrol militiamen. In short, although the enemy launched a large number of missiles, they gave us
The damage caused was not huge.”
After all the commanders sat down again, Zaharov continued: "We have just discussed the first agenda of the meeting, which is to introduce to you the German army's new weapon-V1 missile. I believe that everyone is already familiar with this missile at this moment.
I have a perceptual understanding and know how to deal with it."
After saying this, Zakharov deliberately paused for a moment to observe the reactions of many commanders. Seeing that no one spoke, he continued: "Now let's talk about the second topic: launching a Uprising at the right time.
Battle of Mann, completely annihilating or severely damaging the German Uman Group."
When Smirnov heard this, he touched Sokov with his elbow and said excitedly: "Comrade Commander, you really guessed it right. Our army is really going to attack Uman."
In order not to interfere with Zakharov's assignment of tasks, Sokov did not speak and just nodded to show that he knew about the matter.
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Kalanin, commander of the 4th Guards Army, interjected and asked, "I would like to ask, is our Second Front Army responsible for this Battle of Uman, or is it a coordinated operation with the First Front Army?
"
"General Galanin," Zakharov said, looking at Galanin: "Although we caused huge losses to the German army in the just-concluded Battle of Cherkasy, their strength is still strong. If only
If one of our front armies takes an offensive action, the Germans will leave a small number of troops on that side of the ground to monitor, and then concentrate their superior forces to resist our attack. Therefore, after consultation between the commanders of the two front armies, it was decided to take joint action
, and at the same time launched an attack on the German Uman Group."
After learning that they would once again cooperate with the First Front Army, the expressions on the faces of the commanders varied, some were happy, and some were frowning, and Koroterev was one of them.
Seeing Koroterev's dejected expression, Zakharov asked curiously: "General Koroterev, you seem a little unhappy when you heard that we were talking about fighting together with the First Front again?"
"
"Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff." Koroterev said with a gloomy face: "During the Battle of Cherkasy, the friendly forces we were cooperating with were defeated by the Germans, which resulted in the flanks of our group army being exposed in front of the enemy. In order to block the enemy from
Our flank attack almost wiped out one of my divisions."
When Sokov heard what Koroterev said, he felt full of sympathy for him. This was what he feared most in joint operations. In order to increase the frontal offensive power, it was necessary to weaken the forces on the flanks and strengthen them in the main direction.
As a result, the safety of the flanks can only rely on friendly forces to protect them. But if they encounter a pig teammate who is easily defeated by the enemy, it will be a disaster for the army.
"Don't worry, General Koroterev, something similar won't happen again this time." While expressing sympathy, Zakharov comforted the other party and said: "You should know that the current commander of the First Front
It's not General Vatutin, but Marshal Zhukov who is acting on his behalf. Don't you even believe in Marshal Zhukov's commanding ability?"
As soon as Zakharov moved Zhukov out, he blocked everyone's mouths. Yes, Zhukov was the recognized commander-in-chief of the Soviet army. How could he lose a battle personally commanded by him? So Koroterev, who was originally looking sad,
A happy smile bloomed on his face again.
Next, Zakharov began to explain the time for the start of the battle: "After our negotiation with Marshal Zhukov, the attack on the Uman area will officially start at 3:55 in the morning on March 9..."
Zakharov's words were like a handful of salt sprinkled into a red-hot iron pot, and it suddenly exploded: "What, the attack on Uman will be launched on the 9th? This time is too hasty, we haven't had time to add anything.
Where are the troops and ammunition?"
"Yes, our troops are almost two hundred kilometers away from Uman, and the march alone takes three or four days. After the soldiers arrived at the designated location, they became exhausted long ago. How could they still have the physical strength to attack the enemy?
What about the attack?”
Amidst the doubts from everyone, Konev, who had never spoken, stood up.
Seeing Konev getting up, everyone knew that he must have something to say, and they all immediately fell silent.
"Comrades, commanders," Konev said after the silence returned in the conference room: "I know that in the Cherkasy Battle that ended not long ago, the troops and ammunition consumption of each unit were very large, and they were not ready in time.
After being replenished, it is not yet ready for combat."
"Yes, Comrade Marshal is right." As soon as Konev finished speaking, someone immediately echoed: "This is the current situation of the troops."
This chapter has been completed!