"Comrade Military Commissar, don't say such nonsense." Although Sokov also wanted to be the commander of the front army, he knew very well that his ability was not qualified for such a position. Even if Lunev said
It is true, but I cannot take it seriously, lest others use it as a problem: "If someone hears it and spreads it outside, I'm afraid it will cause unnecessary trouble for me."
"We are all our own people here, that's what I said." Lunev said: "If it were any other place, I would never mention this matter."
"Comrade Military Commissar, is this true?"
"Of course it is true, my comrade chief of staff." Lunev nodded and said, "The source of my information is absolutely reliable."
"Okay, Comrade Military Commissar. Don't talk about this anymore." Sokov suddenly thought of a person in his mind: "Do you remember Bolkin, the commander of the 50th Group Army?"
"Remember, of course I remember." Sidorin nodded and said: "After he was dismissed as commander of the 50th Army, he was sent to Moscow by Comrade Marshal. It is estimated that even if he does not go to a military court, he will probably
Dismissed from military service."
After hearing this, Sokov smiled lightly and said: "Although he was dismissed from the position of commander of the 50th Group Army and sent to Moscow, as far as I know, he will not be punished at all. After all, he is a soldier.
As a senior commander, his superiors may even entrust him with important responsibilities."
"This is impossible." Sidorin said: "In any case, due to his negligence and inaction, the German army escaped for a whole day, but our troops still knew nothing about it. If so
If you don't get punished, then everything will be chaotic in the future."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, I think Misha is right." Lunev interrupted: "Bolkin's identity is different, and his superiors will definitely be cautious in how to deal with him. According to my analysis,
The reason why he missed the opportunity to fight is probably related to his experience in the past few years."
"Is it related to his experience?" Sidorin asked curiously: "Comrade Military Commissar, can you tell me what is going on?"
"In the early days of the Great Patriotic War, Bolkin was the deputy commander of the Western Front. Even though the original commander, chief of staff, director of communications, etc. were sentenced to death by the military court, he still performed well in that position.
Good. Later, when Konev served as the commander of the Western Front, he ordered him to lead a combat group to launch a counterattack against Hoth's armored forces. But unfortunately, this counterattack ended in failure. Bolkin
After returning to the front army headquarters, he did not continue to serve as deputy commander, but was appointed by his superiors as the commander of the 50th Group Army, which he held for several years."
Listening to what Luniev said, Sokov guessed the reason for Bolkin's abnormality and added: "The military commissar is right. Bolkin was the deputy commander of the front army in the early days of the war, but a few years later, the war has already
Towards the end, all the commanders who were lower than him in the past surpassed him, and even served as front commanders, such as Marshal Rokossovsky, General Chernyakhovsky and General Bagramyan, etc.
etc. But he was still standing still. This huge contrast made him feel lost, so he gradually became passive in commanding operations."
"That's right." Lunev said: "Normally, for such a big event as the German retreat, he only needs to send a few scouts to conduct reconnaissance to find out what happened. But after receiving the report, he actually took various measures
He had an indifferent attitude, and even when Marshal Rokossovsky personally rushed to the headquarters of the 50th Army to learn about the battlefield situation from him, he had not even woken up from his hangover."
"Okay, let's not talk about the friendly forces." Seeing that the two of them were still unfinished, Sokov was afraid that they would never finish the conversation, so he said to Sidorin: "Our attack on the enemy will soon be over.
It’s about to begin. I wonder if the reconnaissance troops have figured out the German troop deployment and the location of their firepower points?”
"Most of the firepower points have been clarified, and a few are still being verified." Sidorin said: "My idea is to order the artillery to destroy all these firepower points during the artillery preparations before the attack to reduce our army's attack.
casualties suffered.”
"The enemy's firepower points must be destroyed as much as possible during the preparation of artillery fire, so as to reduce the resistance during our attack." Sokov stared at the map and said: "But now there is a problem. After suffering from us countless times,
After the heavy blow, the Germans also learned to be smart. They knew that after the first round of shelling, we might take advantage of their return to cover them with another round of artillery fire to inflict maximum damage on them."
"Yes, Comrade Commander, I have also noticed this problem." As Sokov's chief of staff, Sidorin naturally knew that the other party would not mention this matter out of nowhere. He must have a comprehensive countermeasure before specifically bringing it up.
Regarding this matter, I asked tentatively: "I wonder if you have any good ideas?"
"The best way is to block the German army's sight so that even their observation posts cannot figure out the movements of our army."
"What are you going to do?" Sidorin asked.
"The method is very simple." Sokov drew a dotted line with his finger between his own defense area and the German defense area: "As long as we release a large amount of smoke in this area, we can block the Germans' sight.
It makes them confused about what we want to do.”
Sidorin stared at the position where Sokov drew the dotted line, thought carefully for a moment, and then nodded and said: "Comrade Commander, your idea is good. If we carry out artillery bombardment, we release smoke in the middle of the enemy's and our defense lines, so that the enemy
The observation posts cannot clearly see our movements. After our artillery preparations are completed, the enemy who retreats to the second line of defense to avoid the artillery fire will definitely have to quickly return to the front line to avoid being attacked by us."
"But how should the smoke be released?" Lunev, who had been silent, raised his own question: "If the soldiers release the smoke, the area covered by the smoke must be limited. But if artillery is used to release the smoke, it will affect
to prepare artillery fire on the German positions."
"You are right, Comrade Military Commissar." Sidorin agreed with Lunev's statement: "Whether it is using artillery to release smoke or soldiers releasing smoke manually, it is difficult to achieve the ideal result.
state."
"Is there no other way besides artillery and artificial release of smoke?" Sokov tapped his forehead lightly with his fingers and said, "Use your brain more, and maybe you can come up with a good solution.
.”
Hearing what Sokov said, Sidorin and Lunev began to think about any good way to release a large amount of smoke in the middle of the enemy's and our defense lines, thus blocking the view of the German observation posts and ensuring offensive combat.
Achieve victory.
After the two of them thought for a long time, they both shook their heads, saying that they could not think of a good solution.
Lunev said to Sokov: "I'm talking to Misha, please stop being so secretive. If you have any good ideas, tell us."
"Air Force." Sokov said with a smile: "Why, you two have forgotten the Air Force?"
While Lunev was still looking stunned, Sidorin had already slapped the table hard and said: "Hey, why did I forget about the Air Force? Comrade Commander, you are right, the Air Force can be
Using bombing methods, a smoke strip was arranged between the enemy's and our defense lines to block the view of the German observation posts, forcing the Germans to return to the front line to prepare for war immediately after our army's artillery preparations were completed."
At this time, Lunev also figured out Sokov's intention. He nodded and said: "Misha, you really have a genius idea. Use bombers to drop smoke bombs to create a lot of smoke between the enemy and ourselves.
The enemy's observation posts cannot detect the movements of our army. However, our army can use this smoke to sneakily approach the German positions, choose the right moment, attack them unexpectedly, and seize the position in their hands."
"Well, this is what I think." After Sokov said this, he stared at Sidorin and said: "But before that, we must find out the specific location of the German firepower point and map it on the artillery attack map.
Mark it. You must know that if the smoke is really released by the bomber, it will not only block the enemy's vision, but also affect us. The artillery cannot clearly see the target to be bombarded. Therefore, the enemy's firepower must be focused before the battle begins.
The location of the target is reported to the artillery and asked to mark it on the map to improve the accuracy of destroying the target."
"Comrade Commander, if you want bombers to drop a large number of smoke grenades between the enemy and our defense lines before attacking, you must contact the air force in advance." Sidorin reminded Sokov: "Look, do you want to send your bombs immediately?
Please report this idea to Comrade Marshal?"
"Yes, this operation requires the cooperation of the Air Force." Sokov said with a smile: "With my face, I will definitely not be able to command the Air Force, so I need to ask Comrade Marshal to come forward and coordinate between us and the Air Force.
coordination issues.”
When Rokossovsky received the call from Sokov, he thought it was something wrong with Yakov again, so he couldn't help but nervously asked: "Misha, has something happened?"
Victor heard a tremor in Rokossovsky's voice, as if he was worried about something. He was startled for a moment, but then he guessed the reason and quickly explained: "Comrade Marshal, you have misunderstood. This time I
Calling you has nothing to do with Yasha, I just want to talk to you about some combat matters."
Knowing that it was not Yakov's fault, Rokossovsky calmed down again. He asked tentatively: "Misha, what's the matter? Let's talk about it."
"Comrade Marshal, this is it." Sokov repeated what he had just said to Lunev and Sidorin to Rokossovsky, and finally emphasized: "Because the Commander of the Air Force and I
Not familiar with it, I hope you can come forward and help us coordinate with the Air Force."
"No problem, it's a trivial matter." Although Rokossovsky thinks Sokov's tactics are relatively innovative, the effectiveness is unknown for the time being. Therefore, he will not promote them within the entire front army, but only
Planning to pilot it in Sokov's army group: "When the day of the attack begins, I will give priority to sending the air force to assist you."
"Great, this is really great." Sokov said repeatedly: "In this way, we may be able to seize a heavily guarded and well-defended position from the German army with minimal casualties."
"Misha, to be honest, your new tactic sounds very good, but its effectiveness needs to be tested in actual combat." Rokossovsky felt that he needed to give Sokov a warning to avoid waiting for a new one.
After the offensive battle began, the opponent felt a little confused when he saw that the friendly forces on the left and right wings did not adopt the same tactics, so he specifically explained to him: "This time, we will test it within your group army first. If the effect is good, we will then apply it to the entire front army."
It’s not too late to promote it here.”
Regarding Rokossovsky's caution, Sokov agreed: "It doesn't matter, I just figured out this tactic, and I don't know how effective it will be. I'll try it on me first in the next battle. If
It’s really effective, so it’s not too late to promote it.”
After Sokov put down the phone, Sidorin asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, does the Marshal agree?"
"Yes, he agreed that in the next offensive battle, before our army's artillery preparations begin, the Air Force's bombers will first throw smoke bombs behind the enemy's and our defense lines to create a smoke zone to block the view of the German observation posts and provide our army with
Create favorable conditions for a smooth attack."
"Just agree." Lunev said: "Misha, I have a hunch. If we use your tactics in the next offensive battle, we will definitely be able to catch the Germans by surprise and capture the enemy with minimal casualties.
Enemy position."
"Comrade Military Commissar, in fact, there are still many problems with the tactics I am thinking of." Sokov continued: "Before the smoke dissipated, the Germans' view was indeed blocked, but the view of our attacking troops was also blocked.
will be affected. I remember that when a certain town was liberated last year, the German army released a large amount of smoke. As a result, our troops entering the town became blind. Before the smoke dispersed, they could only fumble little by little, thus wasting a lot of money.
plenty of time."
"Yes, if the smoke does not dissipate, our troops will launch a charge, and the vision of the commanders and soldiers entering the smoke will be blocked." Sidorin said: "Maybe they will get lost in the process of advancing, or they will break into
into the German minefields, or directly reached the second line of defense, and suffered unnecessary casualties."
"Is there any good solution?" Lunev asked.
"There is a way, but the effect is not very good." Sidorin shook his head and said: "For example, give a compass to every commander above the company level and ask them to follow the direction of the compass and head towards the enemy.
launch an attack on the defensive positions.”
"No, the efficiency of these things is too low." Sokov shook his head and said: "Even if each company commander is equipped with a compass, but attacking in the smoke is nothing more than these company commanders and a few commanders and fighters around them.
, can move in the right direction; the rest of the commanders and fighters will still be in a mess because they can't see the direction clearly."
"What should we do?" Seeing that Sidorin's plan was rejected by Sokov, Lunev became anxious: "If the smoke will really have an adverse effect on our attack, then what will happen if we release the smoke?
