After hearing that Stalin and reinforcements were not far away from him, Yegorov immediately became energetic. He loudly said to the officer: "Inform everyone of the good news immediately. Let everyone speed up, we are saved."
"
The news that reinforcements were ahead greatly encouraged the soldiers of the Western Front. Everyone's face was filled with an expression of hope, and their steps became much faster. After suffering a disastrous defeat, reinforcements arrived.
Anyone can feel better if they help themselves.
When the pursuing Romanian army on the northern front reached Vadri, they encountered a Soviet Russian army with a strength of more than 300,000.
Lieutenant General Mandif looked at the Soviet Russian troops who were well prepared and had an absolute numerical advantage. He cursed secretly: "Damn it, let these Soviet troops escape."
Concerned about the large disparity in strength and the increasing uncertainties in the field, Lieutenant General Mandif felt a little withdrawn. For the sake of stability, he could only order a retreat first.
Seeing the Romanian soldiers slowly retreating into the night, the Soviet soldiers present cheered as if they had won a battle. Stalin and Egorov, who were observing the Romanian army on the front line, also relieved their inner worries.
"Fortunately, the commander on the other side was cautious and did not attack."
When Stalin saw the retreating Romanian army, most of the tension in his heart was relieved. If he launched an attack on the opposite side, he would find that his side was full of Xibei people, the kind that would collapse in a single attack. A unit composed of new soldiers and defeated troops could have
How much fighting power only God knows.
As the pursuers behind him retreated and his heavy burden fell, Yegorov immediately thought of the Soviet soldiers who had been sacrificed because of his wrong decision, especially the abandoned 14th Army. He could no longer bear the grief in his heart and faced the political commissar Stalin.
Tears were shed.
"Comrade Political Commissar, I have failed the expectations of the motherland and the Central Committee, and I am sorry to the party and the people. I am entirely responsible for this defeat because I failed to discover the other party's intentions."
The commander, who was in his thirties, cried sadly like a child in front of the political commissar.
Seeing his partner burst into tears, Stalin certainly would not let him cry like this, and quickly comforted him: "Comrade Commander, the responsibility for the defeat is not just yours alone, our entire Western Front is responsible. At present, our first priority
The mission is to return to Kiev first to ensure that the enemy does not take the opportunity to seize the most important city in Ukraine. As for future responsibility issues, we will wait until the future."
Stalin said something to comfort Yegorov. In his opinion, the two leaders of the Western Front were not the biggest responsible parties. The biggest problem was the orders given to them by the central government, or an overestimation of their own strength.
They were just the victims of the wrong instructions that were issued. Of course, he could only keep these words in his mind, blaming the central government for its decision, which not everyone has the courage to do.
Under Stalin's persuasion, Yegorov regrouped his mentality. After confirming that the Romanian army had retreated, they led the army to retreat hurriedly overnight to Zhytomyr, Kiev and other cities along the Dnieper River.
The retreating Romanian army on the northern front encountered and eliminated the central army commanded by the 14th Army at the Carlotz Bridge in pursuit of General Freit.
After hearing the news that a large number of enemy reinforcements had arrived to evacuate the pursuit target, General Freit threw the military cap in his hand on the ground angrily.
"Damn it, you let this guy run away in vain. Lieutenant General Mandif was too cautious, why didn't he entangle him?"
The admiral, who was a little irritable in his heart, couldn't help but complain. Seeing that he was about to get full merit, he didn't expect that half of the duck he got flew away. Who else would not complain?
Hearing Freit's complaint, Chief of Staff Andrew stepped forward to explain: "It may be that Lieutenant General Mandif wanted to avoid suffering too many casualties. As you just heard from him, the enemy numbered about 300,000 people at that time.
Moreover, fighting at night is not conducive to combat. Moreover, when he pursued, he did not bring many equipment with him, and he did not know when we would arrive."
Andrew's explanation made Freit feel better. Indeed, he was also responsible for the failure to completely wipe out the enemy. The damn enemy 14th Army held him back for too long, causing them to miss the time to pursue.
Seeing that Ferreit's expression improved a lot, Andrew asked again: "Are we still pursuing him now?"
Hearing Andrew's inquiry, Ferreit said angrily: "What are you still chasing? After one night's delay, the enemy has already retreated. Since there is only half a duck left, we cannot let them fly away."
"
The remaining half duck that General Freit mentioned was obviously referring to the 6th and 9th Army in Nemilov. And what is happening with this army that sneaked into Nemilov?
When Yegorov sent a telegram to Sklev saying that the plan failed and that he needed to evacuate, the 6th and 9th Army had already attacked the second line of defense of the Romanian army on the southern front. When his telegram arrived here, it triggered
There was a fierce quarrel at the headquarters.
At that time, one side believed that since the plan failed, it needed to retreat immediately and could not wait for the other two lines of Romanian troops to encircle them.
The other side said that if they retreat now, the rolling mountains and forests will become their biggest obstacle, and there cannot be too many soldiers who can return to the motherland. Because Romania is likely to set up a blockade outside this mountain forest, as long as they go out
It's like throwing yourself into a trap. It's better to take a gamble and immediately turn southeast after capturing Nemirov, pass through Uman where the enemy has fewer troops, and return to Cherkasy under Ukrainian rule.
Each of these two options has its own advantages. As long as the first option runs fast, there is a high chance that part of the army can escape. After all, it will take time for the other two lines of Romanian troops to surround them. But the difficulty is that a considerable part of the army will be captured.
Enemy troops were annihilated.
The second option is that as long as they can quickly defeat the enemy in front of them, they can escape before the other two enemy armies surround them. But the difficulty is that if they cannot defeat Nemilov's enemies, they will face being defeated.
The outcome of total annihilation.
Moreover, one of these two options must be chosen as soon as possible. They cannot afford to waste time, otherwise they will just wait for the enemy to encircle and annihilate them.
Sklev, who served as their commander, was in a dilemma at this time. Both options were so difficult to choose. In the end, out of safety considerations, Sklev chose the first option and retreated through the mountains and forests to the rear.
.
Just do it. After making up his mind, Sklev immediately ordered the troops to withdraw. Each person only took their weapons, food and other daily necessities. As for the artillery, machine guns and other equipment that had been carried by the people on their shoulders, all of them were thrown away.
Within two hours, the Soviet 6th and 9th Army entered the nearby mountains and forests again.
This made the First Guards Division and the First Division of the 28th Division, which came a step later, sigh in vain.
Lieutenant General Ankodar immediately sent the enemy back to the mountains and planned to retreat, and informed General Freit who was still encircling and annihilating the 14th Group Army at that time. That's why the general himself said that the remaining half of the duck should not be allowed to escape.
If it flies.
Therefore, when the other two lines of Romania came around, the 6th and 9th Army was already doomed to lose most of its fate. Sure enough, at the beginning, when the encirclement was not completed, the 6th and 9th Army broke out of more than 50,000 people.
, nothing behind them ran away.
When these cold and hungry Soviet soldiers appeared in the wilderness, they were faced with Romanian soldiers who had been waiting for a long time. Most of the Soviet soldiers wisely chose to surrender after facing this desperate situation. A small number of die-hards
They were wiped out on the spot. In the following ten days, 110,000 Soviet troops were captured by Romania one after another.
Let me say here that during this siege, a young Soviet soldier named Dofusko stayed in the mountains and forests for three months. After the border between Romania and Soviet Russia finally calmed down, he returned to his country. At that time
Soviet Russian newspapers reported extensively on this soldier who persisted in desperate situations and pushed his reputation to an extremely high level.
In the battle of Vinnitsa, the final official statistics showed that the two sides sent a total of one million troops to fight for the ownership of Western Ukraine, and Romania ultimately won.
However, as the price of victory, the Romanian army suffered more than 65,000 casualties. Among them, 21,573 were killed, 43,872 were injured, and 1,876 were missing. It was considered a high price to pay.
As the defeated side, the Soviet Russian army lost a total of 265,401 people this time. Among them, 67,341 were killed, 46,243 were injured, 134,516 were captured, and the remaining more than 10,000 people were all missing.
