As soon as Shapkin put down the phone, he shouted at his chief of staff: "Comrade Chief of Staff, call the three division commanders immediately and ask them to come to my command immediately."
"Comrade Commander," the chief of staff replied with a smile after he finished speaking, "The three division commanders were more anxious than you when they saw that you had not assigned them combat tasks." He whispered outside the door, "Here, they are all chatting outside the door."
"Nonsense, it's simply nonsense." Shapkin said to the Chief of Staff with some displeasure: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the three division commanders are here, why don't you let them in? It's such a cold day, let them stay outside. If they are freezing sick, who will command the battle? Call them all in quickly."
The chief of staff nodded, walked to the door, lifted the curtain, and said to the outside: "Three division commanders, the commander, invite you in!"
In a moment, three officers with fur caps came in from outside the command center. As they came in, there was still a biting cold air, which made the Chief of Staff tremble and hurriedly put down the curtain.
The three division commanders came to Shapukin, stood attentively and raised their hands to salute, and said, "Report to the commander of the army,..."
"Okay, okay, no need to report." Shapkin interrupted them and turned around to instruct one of the staff officers beside him: "The three division commanders have been outside for so long, and they must be frozen. Give them a cup of hot tea."
"Comrade Commander, there is no time to have tea." Major General Yakunin, the commander of the 21st Cavalry Division, stepped forward and said loudly: "Please issue combat orders to our 21st Cavalry Division."
Seeing that Yakunin asked Shapkin for a task first, the other two division commanders also took a step forward and said in unison: "Comrade Commander, please issue combat orders to our 32nd Cavalry Division (55th Cavalry Division)."
Seeing that the three division commanders were fighting for tasks in front of him, Shapukin quickly raised his hand and pressed down, saying to them: "Comrades in the division commander, don't worry, I will arrange tasks for you all. Come with me." Shapukin took the three division commanders to the lookout, pointed his fingers outside and said to them, "Did you see those retreating enemies?"
Although the battlefield was one or two kilometers away, the three division commanders could see the retreating enemy without using a telescope. They nodded neatly and replied in unison: "I saw it."
"Because there are too many hills and gullies in front, which is not conducive to the development of the armored forces, the Army Command decided to let our cavalry attack. Now I will start to assign tasks for you." Shapukin brought three division commanders to the table with the map, pointed at it and said to Yakunin, "General Yakunin, your 21st Cavalry Division is the first echelon, to pursue those fleeing enemies, and rob the infantry brothers and occupy the enemy's positions."
"Yes!" Yakunin, who received the combat mission, agreed excitedly.
Shapukin nodded and continued to assign tasks to the other two division commanders: "Col. Chujsov, your 32nd Cavalry Division will follow the first echelon to consolidate the position to occupy."
"What about me, Comrade Commander." Seeing that Shapukin had assigned combat missions to the two division commanders, the remaining commander of the 55th Cavalry Division, Colonel Chalianko, was a little anxious: "What is the mission of our division?"
Shapkin stared at the other party for a while and said, "Your division is the reserve for the entire army."
"What, to be the reserve team of the army?!" When Chalianko saw Shapkin letting the other two divisions serve as the first and second echelons, he felt an ominous premonition in his heart. He heard that Shapkin had arranged for himself to be the reserve team, and he was unhappy in his heart: "Comrade Commander, our division commanders and soldiers came here from a long distance from the distant Central Asia to fight with the Germans, not to be in the reserve team. Please arrange tasks for us again?"
Seeing that Chalenko was not satisfied with his arrangements, Shapkin did not talk nonsense to him, but said to Yakunin and Chujsov: "You should immediately return to the troops and start an attack on the enemy."
After the two division commanders agreed loudly, they turned around and left the command center. After the two left, Shapkin turned around and faced Chalianko and said, "Comrade Colonel, don't you know that your superiors can only obey the orders, and cannot bargain?"
"But, seeing other troops fighting against the enemy and our division is doing nothing, I worry that the commanders and fighters will be emotional." Cialenko, who was criticized, said unwillingly: "After I go back, I don't know how to explain to the soldiers."
"I think you are the ones who are emotional." Shapkin unceremoniously revealed the truth: "You think it's too embarrassing to let you be the reserve team, so you will carry the soldiers in the division as a shield."
"Col. Chalianke! I understand your mood at this moment and I feel very sympathetic to you, but the orders from superiors are always required." Seeing Chalianke's face flushed, the Chief of Staff walked to him, put a hand on his shoulder, and smiled and said, "This battle cannot be completed in one or two days. There are opportunities for the enemy to compete, so don't worry."
"The Chief of Staff is right." Shapkin sat down at the table, looked up at the dissatisfied Chalenko, and continued: "If we put all our troops into battle and once the attack is not going well, where should we transfer troops to support the first and second echelons?"
After listening to the words of the Chief of Staff and Shapkin, Chalianko felt that he had misunderstood the other party's meaning. The reason why he let his division serve as the reserve team was not to look down on him, but to the next battle. Since he knew that he was wrong, Chalianko quickly admitted his mistake to Shapkin: "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I was wrong, I blamed you wrongly."
The commanders and soldiers of the 21st Division attacked very quickly. The speeding horses quickly passed the infantry that were advancing deep and shallow in the snow, and rushed towards the Germans fleeing in the distance. Thousands of war horses ran wildly at the same time, and the movement of iron hooves trampling on the snow was like rolling thunder, which made the ground tremble.
The German commander hiding in the fortification saw the Soviet cavalry rolling behind his soldiers, and suddenly felt cold and dead souls rising from the extreme fear. He quickly shouted at the top of his lungs: "Machine gun, immediately fire at the Russian cavalry. Machine gun, immediately..."
As he shouted over and over again, soldiers next to him pointed at the soldiers who were originally heading to the position and reminded him: "Sir Captain, now the fire will be fired, and it will hit our own people."
"I can't care about that much." The commander shouted at the soldiers: "Once our position is broken through by the Russian cavalry, it will inevitably shake the entire line of defense. Open fire, open fire immediately!"
With the order issued, more than a dozen machine guns on the German positions began to shoot indiscriminately. The dense bullets immediately knocked down a large area of ​​German soldiers who were fleeing to the position. The remaining German soldiers hurriedly lay on the ground to avoid being killed by their own bullets and becoming unknown deadly dead.
Under the interception of German machine gun fire, the cavalry that was charging continued to fall off their horses, and war horses were running, shot and overturned, and tripped over other war horses, and were swept under the surrounding iron hooves together with his master. But even so, the Soviet cavalry that hit the high-speed attack did not slow down, and they quickly approached the enemy's position.
Faced with thousands of war horses rushing over at high speed, the German army's dozen machine guns were obviously not enough. In just one or two minutes, many cavalry jumped over the trenches and continued to rush forward. For those German soldiers who appeared within their reach, they all slashed down with one knife and chopped the opponent to the ground. Some cavalrymen who had lost their war horses rushed towards the enemy's trenches with carriage guns. They first threw grenades into the trenches. After hearing the explosion, they jumped into the trenches without waiting for the smoke to dissipate, and engaged in close combat and hand-to-hand combat with the German soldiers inside.
The German commander on the rear position saw that the position was broken through by Soviet cavalry and was worried that the entire defense line would collapse, so he quickly ordered the tank battalion to dispatch, attempting to use tanks to deal with those cavalry with only light weapons. Unexpectedly, they forgot that the Soviet attack aircraft were still wandering in the air. In addition to attacking the fortifications on the ground, there was another task, which was to eliminate German tanks and reduce the pressure on the offensive of the ground troops.
The tanks deployed were not far from the position and were besieged by attackers. More than thirty attackers surrounded the dozen tanks leaving the position and the same number of armored vehicles behind them, bombed and strafed. In just a few minutes, they killed the armored force that left the defensive position without authorization.
…………
"The 4th Army of the Mechanized Breakthrough the enemy's defense line!"
"The 13th Tank Army tore a breakthrough on the enemy's defense line!"
"General Shapkin's 4th cavalry army successfully broke through the two lines of defense of the German army and is now continuing to advance north!"
“…”
Sidorin took the telegram forwarded by the Front Command to Golikov, and read loudly the series of achievements achieved by the offensive troops on the south side of the city. When the people present heard the war report he read, they were filled with joy.
After Sidolin finished reading, Golikov asked Sokov: "Col. Sokov, do you think the enemy is in danger after suffering a heavy blow from our army?"
"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army, I think the enemy is probably aware of this problem." Sokov saw Golikov ask himself, feeling the need to remind the other party that the enemy might escape and must find a way to hold the enemy back so that they cannot withdraw from the city smoothly: "They may withdraw their troops from the city after dark."
"Removing the troops at night?" Golikov expressed doubts about Sokov's statement: "Comrade Colonel, have you ever thought that it would be difficult to withdraw so many troops at night, especially in areas where the two sides had intertwined fronts."
"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army," Seeing that Golikov seemed to disagree with his opinion, Sokov continued: "I think you should call Commander Cuikov so that all troops can closely monitor the enemy's movements and prepare for attacking."
"What, attack?" Golikov couldn't help but raise his eyebrows when he heard this, and then asked back: "Do you think those troops that are sticking to the factory still have the ability to counterattack the enemy?"
"Yes, the troops that hold the factory have suffered serious losses after a long battle." Sokov explained: "What I said about attack is to let these troops seize some forward positions while the night is dark, giving the enemy an illusion that we will attack from the rear at any time. In this way, their retreat plan will change, and we will have the opportunity to leave a large number of enemies in the city so that the main force of the counterattack will encircle them."
After listening to Sokov's suggestion, Golikov did not express his opinion, but walked back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back. Sokov knew that Golikov was considering his plan, so he did not disturb him, but watched him quietly walking back and forth in front of him.
After a while, Golikov finally stopped and turned to Sokov and said, "Col. Sokov, I think you are very reasonable. But I have no right to give orders to Cuikov. This matter needs to be reported to the Front Command."
While Golikov was calling the Front Command, Sokov called Belkin from the side and asked straight to the point: "Comrade Political Commissar, how is the situation there? Is the enemy still attacking?"
"No, after we were repelled two hours ago, the enemy retracted all their positions, and there has been no movement yet." Belkin reported on the phone: "I really don't know what's going on."
"Comrade Political Commissar, I will tell you a good news first." Sokov considered that the main force's successful counterattack on the south side of the city could boost morale for the troops who were stuck in the barricade factory, so he told Belkin in detail some of the good news he knew.
After hearing this, Belkin couldn't help but be overjoyed and said repeatedly: "That's great, this is really great. Misha, it seems that the enemy can't last long."
"According to my judgment, the enemy may have to slip away." Sokov continued: "The mission of your regiment is to send people to figure out the enemy's movements after dark, and then appropriately seize some front positions to restrain the enemy, so that they dare not withdraw from the factory with confidence."
"Don't worry, Misha." Berkin said easily to Sokov's order: "The commanders and soldiers of the first battalion did this last night. They successfully seized several positions from the enemy. Although these positions were retaken by the Germans during the daytime battle, I believe that since they can complete such a task once, there will be no problem in completing the second and third time."
Chapter completed!