One day in early June, Sokov, who was staying in his command, suddenly received a call from Malining. The Chief of Staff of the Army conveyed Rokosovsky's order: Before 11:00 noon today, Sokov and Portukin must rush to the Army Command to attend an important military meeting.
At this moment, the Kharkov battle commanded by Marshal Temuxingo had ended in failure. In this battle, the Soviet army lost 75,000 people, 239,000 captured, 1,249 tanks, 2026 artillery and mortars. Sokov heard Malining and Portukin go to the Army Command, and guessed that a new round of attack in the direction of Bryansk was about to begin.
On the way to the headquarters, Portukin asked curiously: "Comrade Commander, our troops have been resting for nearly half a month. Do you think Chief Malining notified us to go to the meeting? Is there any important combat mission?"
"This is for sure, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov looked at the driver and said cautiously: "Our army suffered setbacks in the direction of Kharkov. We must launch new offensives in other directions to restrain the German army, so as not to take the opportunity to expand the results and cause our army to suffer greater losses."
The Army Command is located in a forest and is a semi-underground shelter. At the entrance, there are more than a dozen soldiers, led by a second lieutenant, responsible for checking the identity of the commander attending the meeting.
Seeing the arrival of Sokov and Potukin, the second lieutenant looked up and down and asked tentatively: "Are you from the 31st Guard Division?"
"That's right." Hearing the lieutenant's question, Sokov nodded quickly and replied: "I am Major Sokov, the acting commander of the 31st Division of the Guards. This is my chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Potukin."
After verifying the identities of the two, the lieutenant raised his hand and saluted them, and then said, "Please come in. The conference room is at the end of the corridor."
The two walked into the headquarters along the simple wooden steps. In the corridor outside the conference room, Sokov saw that there were more than a dozen officers waiting outside the door, including school-level officers and generals. Some of them stood, and some were sitting on benches against the wall chatting. When they saw Sokov and Potukin coming, they only glanced at them and continued to chat.
When more than thirty people were waiting in the corridor, the closed wooden door of the conference room suddenly opened. Malining walked out of the inside and said to the officers standing in the corridor: "Comrades Commanders, please come in, the meeting is about to begin." After saying this, he put his body on one side and leaned against the wall to make a passage for the commanders attending the meeting.
When Sokov walked into the conference room, he saw several people sitting at the other end of the long conference table. He recognized at a glance that General Zhukov, the commander of the Front Army, and the commander of the Army Rokosovsky, were sitting on his right head, while the military committee member of the Army Lobachev and the director of the Political Department of the Army Romanov, were sitting on his left head.
There were not many positions around the conference table, so almost all general-level officers walked to the table to sit down. Sokov, who had the lowest rank, found a position against the wall to sit down. Who knew that as soon as he sat down, he heard Rokosovsky knocking on the table twice, and then said, "Major Sokov, don't sit in the corner, come and sit in front!"
The officers who were looking for a seat, when they heard Rokosovsky say this, they couldn't help but turn their eyes to Sokov sitting in the corner. Sokov stood up embarrassedly in front of everyone, walked to the table and sat down, thinking to himself: What's going on? Why did the commander let me sit in front?
After everyone sat down, Malining walked to the map hanging on the wall and said to everyone: "Comrades, today we have called everyone here for a meeting to deploy the next combat mission. Everyone is very clear that the attack launched by our army in the direction of Kharkov has not achieved ideal results, so it is necessary for us to launch an attack in a new direction..."
When Malining introduced the battlefield, Sokov thought to himself: "It seems that my guess is correct. After the Soviet army suffered a crushing defeat in the direction of Kharkov, it must launch an attack from other directions to restrain the German troops so as not to expand the results of the battle during the victory. Today, Zhukov came to the venue in person to show that our next attack will be targeted in the direction of Bryansk."
What happened next was indeed the same as Sokov expected. The troops would attack the German Bryansk defense line tomorrow Foxiao, and his 31st Guard Division was in the starting lineup. The only difference was that last time, as the vanguard of the entire army, his troops attacked in the direction of Bryansk, and Orlov's infantry army followed up as the second echelon. This time, Orlov's troops were deployed on his right wing, and the two troops advanced in a row to attack the enemy's defensive positions.
After introducing the combat deployment, Rokosovsky stood up, glanced at the commanders present one by one, and said, "Comrades Commanders, this attack did not give us much preparation time, so there must be many unexpected problems. If you have any ideas, you can raise them now."
As soon as Rokosovsky finished speaking, Orlov stood up and asked without hesitation: "Comrade Commander, I would like to ask how long can the artillery prepare for us before this attack?"
Rokosovsky heard Orlov's question and said with a wry smile: "Comrade General, I think you may be disappointed. As the front of this attack became even more exaggerated, the density of artillery fire you have obtained is much smaller than in May. At the same time, the number of tanks that can cooperate with you will also be greatly reduced."
After hearing this, Orlov asked in surprise: "Comrade Commander, you should remember that my troops did not receive enough artillery support during the attack in May, which resulted in heavy casualties. If the artillery support we received during this attack on Bryansk would be much smaller than in May, then it would be difficult for me to guarantee that the German defense would be broken through within the prescribed time."
Chapter completed!