The temporary pass was sent by an unknown lieutenant the next morning. After confirming Sokov's identity, he handed him the temporary pass in his hand and said to him: "Comrade Major, please hurry up and clean up. I am ordered to take you to Fulongzhi Street."
Sokov took the pass and asked in confusion: "What are you doing on Fulongzhi Street?"
Hearing Sokov's question, the lieutenant immediately replied respectfully: "At 9 o'clock this morning, the General Staff on the Gogol Boulevard on Fulongzhi Street will hold a military meeting, and you will attend this meeting."
Although Sokov learned from Ustinov that Temuxingo would hold a meeting to deploy Kharkov's comrades, he did not expect it to be so fast that he was not prepared at all. But since the person who picked him up had arrived at the door, he would definitely not let the other party wait for a long time. He still packed everything in five minutes like yesterday and then set off with the other party.
The lieutenant drove Sokov to the General Staff on Fulongzhi Street. Under the guidance of the lieutenant, Sokov came to the conference room on the first floor. When he entered the door, he found that there were already many officers in the room. Except for a few colonels, almost all generals. According to the rank marks on their seal, Sokov found that in addition to infantry, there were also commanders of artillery, tank soldiers and even air force.
The meeting was officially held at 9 o'clock. Marshal Temushingo was chaired. On his left were Khrushchev, a member of the military committee of the Front Army, Bojin, Chief of Staff, and Minister of Operations Bagramiyan; on the right were Chief of General Staff Shaboshnikov, Deputy Chief of General Staff and Minister of Operations Huasilevsky.
Shaposhnikov, who was sitting on the stage, seemed to be in a bad state. He coughed a few times from time to time, and his pale face made Sokov, who was sitting in the stage, worried that he might leave the stage due to physical discomfort at any time.
Sokov looked at Shaposhnikov and Wasseylevsky on the stage and thought to himself: When Stalin deployed the Summer Battle of 1942 at the Supreme Command, he sought the opinions of the two chiefs of staff. After analyzing the situation on the battlefield, he thought Stalin proposed that cautious strategic defense should be implemented along the Moscow axis and then launched an offensive after weakening the German army. For their view, the commander of the Western Front, Zhukov, also expressed his agreement with them.
Although his three important subordinates all proposed to take a cautious attitude to defend, Stalin was stunned by the large counterattack under Moscow City. Coupled with the influence of some frontline generals, he made an overly optimistic decision, namely to launch a large-scale attack on the south of Moscow.
When Brother Temuxin began to speak, the entire conference room became silent, and all the commanders attending the meeting focused on listening to his next speech.
"Comrades, our army won a huge victory in the just-concluded winter battle." Timuxinge said as usual: "While the Supreme Command ordered us to carry out strategic defense, we should launch an offensive in some areas to consolidate our army's victory in the winter battle, so as to improve the campaign situation, seize strategic initiative, and disrupt the goal of the possible summer offensive by the German army...."
After the speech of Temuxinge, the spokesperson was Bojin, the Chief of Staff of the Front Army. He pointed to a huge map hanging on the wall and introduced the situation to the commander present. Sokov, who was sitting in the last row, could not see the ground on the map clearly, and could only listen carefully to the information spoken by the other party with his ears.
According to Bojin's story, Sokov learned that General Moskarenko's 38th Army launched a tentative attack on the German positions set up along the North Donets River in the area east of Kharkov on March 7. After a fierce battle, they successfully established a landing ground on the other side. After four days of fierce fighting, the depth of the landing ground was successfully expanded to eight kilometers.
Bojin finally said: "...While the 38th Army was building its merits, the troops of the Southern Front also launched an attack on the German positions on the east bank of the North Donets River. Although their attacks did not achieve any results, they made us realize that if our army could invest more powerful forces in this area, we could achieve more brilliant victory."
The Minister of Operations, Bagramiyan, who stood up at the edge of the table, looked at the officers attending the meeting below and said, "Comrade Commander, there are still many imperfections in this plan. If you have any opinions, please put it forward so that we can formulate further detailed plans."
The first lieutenant general who stood up to ask questions not only did not agree with the combat plan, but instead raised questions: "Comrade Baglamyan, I would like to ask, if the offensive was launched in the Kharkov area, can our troops have an advantage compared to the enemy?"
"General Moskarenko," Sokov learned that the first person to attack was Moskarenko who had just been praised by Chief of Staff Bojin. Sokov thought to himself that among so many commanders attending the meeting, he should have the most say. Regarding Moskarenko's doubts, Baglamyan explained with a smile: "I will answer the questions in your hearts and some of the commanders here."
After the winter battle, the German Sixth Army was greatly weakened. Among the 10 German divisions opposite our Southwest Front, at least eight had lost their ability to attack. They could only participate in defensive tasks in the existing areas in the form of regiments or battalions. For example, the 169th and 79th Infantry Divisions of the German Army, the officers and soldiers of both divisions were dismantled into battle groups and scattered in several defensive strongholds such as Belgorod and Kharkov.
According to our analysis, the German Kharkov cluster was unable to attack our army before being supplemented by personnel and weapons. Not only did their officers and soldiers need rest, but it would take a long time even if the German Command intends to deploy new combat reserves in this area."
While the two were arguing with each other on the stage, Sokov also recalled the reasons for the failure of this offensive battle: the leaders in the strategic direction of the southwest and the leaders of the army in the south misjudged the strategic situation of the battle and lacked careful coordinated actions. The tank army entered the battle too late; the battle was insufficient; the army command was incorrect.
The Kharkov offensive campaign launched at the wrong time caused great losses to the Southwest Front and the South Front Army's vital forces and technical weapons, and lost the important battle landing ground of the North Donets River, so it was impossible to carry out the offensive campaign originally scheduled to be held in the summer. All of this further complicated the overall situation in the southwest direction.
Seeing that the two were arguing, Shaposhnikov stood up and announced: "Now, rest for half an hour, everyone can move freely. We will continue the meeting at eleven o'clock."
Seeing that the two marshals on the rostrum had left first, the officers sitting below also stood up, walked out of the conference room, and went outside to chat and smoke.
Sokov walked to the rostrum. Seeing that there was no one on the rostrum, he plucked up the small staircase next to him. He came to the wall where the map was hung, and looked up at the red and blue arrows representing both the enemy and us on the map.
He remembered that the Soviet army was very smooth at the beginning of the battle, but because the German army suddenly invested a large amount of troops in the Balvinkovo ​​area, the 9th and 57th armies deployed in this area were defeated, resulting in the Soviet army's disastrous defeat.
Judging from the map signs, the 9th Army of the Southern Front was near the Balvinkovo ​​area, but for some reason, they did not take the lead in taking the area after the battle began, resulting in disastrous consequences.
"Comrade Major, what are you looking at?" Just as Sokov saw the trance, a stern voice suddenly came from behind him, which scared him. He turned around in a hurry and saw the burly Vasilevsky standing behind him with an angry face. Seeing him turn around, Vasilevsky continued, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
"Report to the Deputy Chief of Staff," Sokov quickly raised his hand to his forehead and replied in a panic: "I am Major Sokov, the commander of the Istrian Battalion. I am looking at the schematic diagram of the upcoming battle."
"Are you Major Sokov?" Huasilevsky seemed to have heard Sokov's name, so after hearing his own report, the expression on his face became much softer: "I see you have been here for a long time, have you seen something?"
Sokov turned his head and looked at the map, and said hesitantly: "Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff, can I tell the truth?"
When Vasilevsky heard what he said, he immediately turned his face and said, "There is nothing to hear about lies, and you can say whatever you think."
After obtaining the permission of Huasilevsky, Sokov walked to the map, picked up an explanation stick leaning against the wall, pointed to the map and said, "Comrade Vice Chief of Staff, I want to ask, why our army has not yet taken over Balvinkovo, so that it has become a prominent part of this place?"
"Martyr Timxin's troops have launched an attack on this place." Huasilevsky shrugged, spread his hands, and said helplessly: "But their attack was finally shattered by the Germans."
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov saw that he was the only one on the rostrum and Wasseylevsky was the only one on the rostrum, and the people sitting below were too far apart to hear his conversation, so he said without hesitation: "If the enemies in the Balvinkovo ​​area are not eliminated in the early stages of the battle, it will bring us devastating disaster."
Although Sokov's words sounded a bit alarmist, Vasilevsky did not get angry. Instead, he also encouraged: "Comrade Major, tell me what you think."
"When our army advances from the Balvinkovo ​​protrusion, the flanks will be exposed to the German army." Sokov pointed to the map with an explanation stick and said to Huasilevsky: "Although the 9th Army of the Southern Front is covering the flanks for our army, their cover is limited. Once the German army establishes a powerful assault group in the Balvinkovo ​​area, the 9th Army will not be able to stop their assault at all. At the same time, the 57th Army deployed at a later point will also be impacted.
You can imagine that if the troops of the 9th and 57th Army were defeated by the enemy, the troops that the Southwest Front were attacking forward would be completely exposed to the enemy. If the enemy carried out assaults from the flanks at this moment, then our Southwest Front troops would be in danger of being surrounded..."
"Nonsense! It's simply nonsense!" Before Sokov finished speaking, he heard a roar from behind. He turned his head and saw Baglamyan, who was shaved with a big bald head, staring at him with his fire-breathing eyes, and said angrily: "Major, who gave you the power to talk nonsense here? We have gathered such a powerful offensive force, how could it be impossible to defeat several broken German advisors..."
"Comrade Baglamyan, don't get angry." Seeing Baglamyan's appearance as if he wanted to eat people, Huasilevsky hurried out to smooth things over: "I think Major Sokov's words are reasonable. You should listen to his opinions carefully and give them some uses when formulating detailed combat plans."
"Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff, who did you just say he is?" Baglamyan felt that Sokov's name seemed very familiar, so he hurriedly asked, "Is the last name Sokov or something else?"
"Sokov!" Huasilevsky said in a positive tone: "I think you should be very familiar with this surname."
"Sokov?" Bagramiyan repeated the name again, and suddenly a surprised expression appeared on his face: "Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff, do you say he is a relative of Mikhail?"
"Not a relative," Vasilevsky said with a smile, shaking his head, "the Major Sokov in front of you is the son of the cavalry commander you know."
Sokov was stunned when he heard the conversation between the two. He really didn't know how awesome Sokov's father was. There were so many senior commanders who knew him, and he might even be his former comrade. He began to think in his heart whether he should change his words to the two general uncles in front of him.
Just as Sokov was thinking about it, Baglamyan had already grabbed his arm with both hands, straightened his body, and looked at him carefully. After looking for a while, he turned his head to Huasilevsky and said, "That's right, Comrade General Staff, nothing is wrong at all. It's Misha's son, and this kid looks really similar to his father."
Chapter completed!