Chapter 1119 Annihilation of the enemy in the movement (2)
In order to make the enemy misjudgment, Sokov designated the attack target for the troops, Balvinkovo, south of Ijum. At that time, Popov quickly gathered because he was unable to eat the enemies stationed here for a long time, which led to Popov having to leave behind a considerable number of troops after receiving the order to rush towards Zaporozhe and continuing to siege the enemy, so that his strength was weak after division and he was defeated by the German army.
With Popov's past lessons, Sidolin and Anisimov were both shocked after hearing Sokov's order. The two tried their best to persuade Sokov: "Comrade Commander, we only have infantry, even with the support of cannons and tanks, it will be very difficult to take down Baldwinkovo. Once we delay too long here, we may fall into the siege of the German army."
"Chief of staff, political commissar, I understand what you mean." Faced with the two of them, Sokov said to them: "Balvinkovo is the only way to Ijium. Although we can also make this place and rush directly to Ijium, in this way, the enemy will doubt our intention to attack Ijium.
As long as we attack Balvinkovo, coupled with the feints of friendly forces in the northeast of Ijum, the Germans can have the illusion that we intend to take Ijum, join forces with the Voronezh Front, and reconnect from Donetsk to Kharkov.
In order to prevent us from realizing this intention, the Germans will definitely mobilize troops from other people to strengthen Ijium's defense and send troops to reinforce Balvinkovo. In this way, the pressure on Kharkov's direction will be greatly reduced, and our friendly forces can take this opportunity to take a breath and redeploy the defense."
"Comrade Commander, your idea is indeed good." After agreeing with Sokov, Sidolin expressed his concerns: "But if you do this, it may lead to the destruction of our entire army. Under the current circumstances, even if our entire army is destroyed, the time it can buy for friendly forces is very limited. Is it worth it for us to do this?"
Sokov did not comment on Sidolin's statement, but asked Anisimov: "Comrade Political Commissar, tell me your opinion."
"From the overall situation, in order to buy valuable time for the Voronezh Front in the Kharkov region, even if our division fights all, it is completely worth it." After saying these righteous words, Anisimov lowered his head and said, "But if I can't see a day of victory and sacrifice, I will be unwilling to accept it."
"Comrade Political Commissar, don't worry." Sokov raised his hand and patted Anisimov's shoulder twice, comforting him and said, "I believe we can all see the day of victory."
"Comrade Commander," Cydollin felt that as the chief of staff, he had the obligation to remind Sokov, so he said again: "You really don't think about it anymore. With the current strength of our division, we can't defeat Balvinkovo at all."
"Chief of Staff, don't you understand what I mean yet?" Sokov said with a smile: "I never thought of taking Balvinkovo. We were just feinting the city."
"Feed attack?!" When Sokov said this, Sidorin's eyes suddenly shone. According to his thoughts, a strong attack on Balvinkovo was a death-slaying act; and launching a feint is another matter. However, for the sake of safety, he still asked tentatively: "Is it really just a feint attack?"
"Of course." After Sokov gave the other party a positive answer, he was afraid that he would not care about the matter, so he specifically emphasized: "But we must act like a real attack, otherwise how can we confuse the enemy."
"But the number of rockets we carry is limited. Once we use it up, I'm afraid the next battle will be difficult to fight." Sidorin asked Sokov tentatively: "Look, can you send a truck back and transport another batch?"
"Chief of Staff, your statement is very unrealistic." Sokov shook his head and rejected Cidolin's proposal: "Think about it, now the enemy is surrounding us from all directions. Even if the convoy sent out can barely break out of the enemy's encirclement, can they transport the rockets in again?"
When Cidolin thought, it seemed that this was the case. If the truck transporting rockets was captured by the German army, it would be a catastrophic consequence for his troops. The launch of rockets is very simple. The enemy only needs a very short time to master the launch of rockets, and then use these rockets to attack his troops.
"Since you can't send trucks to transport them." Sidolin stopped talking, and Anisimov expressed his thoughts again: "Why let the Air Force drop us airdrops? I think the more rockets we have in our hands, the greater the chance of us successfully jumping out of the German encirclement in the end."
"Airdrop is impossible," Sokov shook his head and said, "A rocket is prone to explosion when it falls to the ground, and we will not get the same one."
"Comrade Commander, I have a bold idea." Samoilov, who stood aside as a guard, suddenly spoke: "It can enable the troops to get the rocket supplies they need."
"Hurry up and tell me what you think."
"Comrade Commander, look." Samoilov pointed to Sokov and his map spread on the hood of the jeep and said to Sokov: "I know the terrain here very well. There is an open land ten kilometers east of Balvinkovo, which is conducive to the take-off and landing of transport aircraft. We can let the superiors use transport aircraft to transport rockets here."
"Comrade Lieutenant," Sokov looked up at Samoilov and said to him: "It's too dangerous to land the transport plane?"
"Comrade Commander, in order to get enough ammunition supplies, I think I should take a risk." Samoilov insisted on his opinion: "If you think the snow in this area is too deep, we can send someone to clear it. It only takes a day and a night to clear a 30-meter-wide and 300-meter-long runway."
"Comrade of the division commander," Sidolin felt that Samoilov's statement still made some sense, so he said to Sokov: "I think Lieutenant Samoilov's plan is feasible, so we might as well give it a try."
"Political Commissar, what about your opinion?"
"Since the Chief of Staff said this plan was feasible, I think I should give it a try."
"Well, since you all think this plan is feasible, then Lieutenant Samoilov is responsible for this matter, and you take people there to clean up a piece of vacant land for transport planes to land."
Since he had thought of the method of replenishing ammunition, Sokov quickly sent a telegram to Rokosovsky and reported his plan to him. Not only did he express his hope that he would receive the necessary air support when the troops attacked Balvinkovo during the day. At the same time, he proposed to let the transport planes replenish ammunition for the troops.
After reading Sokov's telegram, Rokosovsky looked at Malining and asked, "Chief of Staff, do you think we can satisfy Sokov's conditions?"
"Comrade Commander," said Malinin with a serious expression: "If Major General Sokov had not lie, he really planned to make some big moves in the direction of Balvinkovo. If there was no sufficient ammunition and necessary air cover, it would be completely impossible. Therefore, it is necessary for us to provide him with help to make a new plan."
"Chief of Staff, you make sense." Rokosovsky nodded slightly after hearing this, "If other troops made such a request, I might refuse. But since it was Sokov, then as he said, provide him with air cover tomorrow during the day, and send transport planes to transport them ammunition."
After receiving Rokosovsky's reply and knowing that all the requests he made were met, Sokov suddenly became confident. When he issued an order to the 122nd Regiment, he specifically emphasized: "Comrade Colonel, your regiment's mission is to launch a feint attack on Balvinkovo. But in order to reduce the casualties of the troops, the attacks you launched will be mainly rocket attacks."
"What, use rockets to attack?" Before this departure, Papchinko knew how many rockets were carried and how much they had consumed during this period. Hearing Sokov's order, he hesitated: "Comrade, I wonder how many rockets do you plan to let us use?"
According to Pupchinko's idea, it would be great that Sokov could give them the right to use two hundred rockets. Unexpectedly, when Sokov heard his problem, he said carelessly: "As long as you can destroy the enemy, it will be fine to use up all the rockets we carry."
"Use all?" Papchinko was shocked. He didn't expect Sokov to be so generous and hand over the remaining 300 rockets to himself. He asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, if we use up all the rockets on Balvinkovo, we will use up all the rockets. What should we do in the future?"
Papchinko knew the power of rockets. Even if a group of enemies hid in the trenches, as long as a rocket flew over, the enemies there would basically end up in ashes. But if they were all used up, they would have to use their lives to fill in the attack on the enemy's positions in the future.
"This is not a problem you are worried about." Sokov did not tell him how to replenish ammunition. Instead, he said in a stern tone: "I hand over the remaining rockets to you, which does not mean that you can use them casually. You must figure out where the enemy is hiding before attacking, and then use rockets to attack these places so that you can achieve greater results. Do you understand?"
"I understand, comrade of the division commander." Papchinko quickly assured Sokov: "My scouts have basically figured out the position where the enemy is hiding on the position. I promise you that our rockets can make the enemy doubt their lives."
Half an hour before dawn, the rocket launchers in the Papchinko regiment fired rockets at the targets selected in the city of Balvinkovo. Rockets roared out of the launch tubes, dragged their long flame tails, and flew towards the targets selected by the soldiers.
As soon as they landed, a shocking explosion occurred, and a dazzling ball of fire broke out. There were also many houses, shelters and tents where the enemies were sleeping, and they were immediately blown into a sea of fire.
The troops stationed in Balvinkovo are the German Skeleton Division. Theodore Ike, the division commander, had been killed in real history due to a plane crash on February 26, but in this time and space, he survived for some reason. His division headquarters was located in the city of Balvinkovo. When he learned that the area to the south was bombarded by the Soviet army, he didn't believe it and quickly called forward to inquire.
But the communication line ahead had been completely destroyed under the attack of rockets, so that Ike could not contact his subordinates at all. In order to figure out what was going on ahead, he took his adjutant and more than a dozen guards to the south side of the city to figure out what was going on.
But he was not lucky. As soon as he arrived in the south of the city, another round of rocket attacks from the Soviet army followed one after another. Originally, the hit rate of the new rocket was not high, and it was not easy to hit the moving vehicles. Unexpectedly, in order to avoid shelling, Ike's driver drove the car into a nearby building.
Unexpectedly, a rocket that deviated from its position hit the place where they were hiding. After a loud "boom", the house collapsed in the explosion, and Ike, his adjutant and the driver were buried in the ruins. However, the dust raised all over the sky covered all this, so that the German troops stationed nearby did not know that their division commander had been crushed into meat sauce after a explosion just now.
Papuchinko ordered the troops to fire two hundred rockets in one breath, turning the south of the city into a sea of fire, and the enemies on the defensive positions were left after such bombardment. Seeing this, Papuchinko immediately ordered the infantry to attack and occupy the positions that seemed empty.
However, when the commanders and fighters of the 122nd Regiment rushed into the enemy's position, some soldiers who survived the bombing emerged from the ruins, rushed towards the Soviet army with weapons, and tried to drive the Soviet army out of their positions. However, they had not yet completely awakened from the bombardment just now. They were not the opponents of these wolves and tigers. After just a few rounds of battle, they fell to the ground one after another and became a corpse that was gradually getting colder.
When Sokov learned that Papchinko's troops had successfully occupied the south of the city, he was happy and quickly issued an order to him, asking him to stop the attack, build fortifications on the spot, prepare to fight against the German counterattack.
Although Papuqinko saw his troops easily occupying the south of the city, he knew very well that it was impossible to destroy the defenders in the city and occupy the entire city with his thousands of troops. As soon as he received the order of Sokov to transfer to defense on the spot, he immediately sent a correspondent to notify the battalion commanders of the battalion and immediately stopped moving forward, but seized the time to repair the fortifications to prevent the enemy from launching a possible counterattack.