Red Moscow

  Chapter 1805

"Thank you, Comrade Commander!" After Sukov finished speaking, Ponejielin unexpectedly said: "Thank you for your kindness, I think the position of division commander is already very reluctant for me. If you let me be the commander of the army, I am worried that I will fail your expectations."

Seeing the doubts written on Sokov's face, he added: "Although I served as the commander of the group army long before the war, I spent more than two years in a German prisoner-of-war camp. , The tactical ideas I have mastered before are somewhat outdated. If you stay at the headquarters as an advisor, you can correct me if there is anything wrong. But if you serve as the commander of the army, if you make a mistake in command, you will be given The troops took a huge toll."

When Sokov heard that Ponegerin rejected his offer, he wanted to persuade him a few more words, but he changed his mind when he heard what he added later. Put it aside for the time being, and wait for him to establish meritorious service in the battle of liberating Uman, and then appoint him as the army commander, it is a matter of course, and no one will raise objections.

   On the way to the headquarters, Smirnov asked Sokov: "Comrade Commander, do you really intend to let Pornedelin take the post of army commander?"

"Yes, I do have such an idea." Sokov replied truthfully: "Anyway, he served as the commander of the Army Group before the war. Now let him stay in the headquarters as an advisor to us , it would be too wronged him."

"But he himself said that although he was the commander of the group army before the war, after spending two years in a German prisoner-of-war camp, the tactics he mastered are outdated." Smirnov guessed Sokov's words He asked tentatively, "Are you planning to wait for him to establish new meritorious service in the battle to liberate Uman before suggesting to his superiors that he be appointed as the army commander?"

Seeing that Smirnov had guessed what was on his mind, Sokov was somewhat surprised. He nodded: "Yes, that's what I thought. If he can perform well in the battle to liberate Uman, I suggest I am afraid there will be no objections to the appointment of him as the commander by the superior."

"Do you think we will take action in the Uman region in the near future?" Smirnov, as a chief of staff, has a different perspective from Sokov: "Compared with us, Uman is farther away from the Ukrainian region." The defense zone of the First Front Army is closer, and I think that even if the Battle of Uman is to be launched, I am afraid that the Supreme Command will hand over this task to the comrades of the Ukrainian First Front Army.”

"The First Ukrainian Front Army has other combat missions," Sokov said confidently. "I think the superiors will definitely assign the task of liberating Uman to our Front Army. Otherwise, Marshal Konev will not Call us yourself and let us know that we are going to a meeting."

  After listening, Smirnov did not argue with Sokov, but nodded and said: "When we get to the Front Army Command, we will know what tasks our superiors are going to assign us."

   Came to the meeting room of the Front Army Command. Sokov saw that the commanders and chiefs of staff of the other armies had arrived, and he and Smirnov were the ones who arrived later.

   Seeing Sokov come in, Zakharov nodded at him, then pointed to the two vacant seats beside the conference table, and said, "Comrade Sokov, you and General Smirnov should sit there."

  As soon as Sokov and Smirnov sat down, the military meeting at the army chief level began.

   Chief of Staff Zakharov was the first to speak: "Commanders, comrades, I have called you here today, and there are two important things to announce.

  The first thing, the German army launched 24 V1 missiles from the Uman area to Cherkasy at 3 o'clock in the morning today..."

As soon as he said this, there was a buzz of discussion in the conference room. Except for a few people such as Sokov, Smirnov, and Konev, the other commanders who participated in the meeting did not know V1 at all. What is a missile. Therefore, after asking each other, trying to figure out what kind of new German weapon this is, it is actually possible to directly launch a long-range attack on Cherkasy from Uman, one or two hundred kilometers away.

"Quiet, commanders, please be quiet!" Seeing the chaos in the meeting room, Zakharov showed a displeased expression on his face. It became quiet again: "Commanders here, I'm afraid most of you don't know what a V1 missile is, and I'll explain it to you right away."

   Having said this, Zakharov raised his hands above his shoulders and clapped them hard twice. Following his applause, the door of the meeting room, which was closed, was pushed open from the outside, and then several soldiers walked in carrying a blackboard. They put the blackboard on the open space beside the conference table, raised their hands in salute, and turned to leave the conference room.

  The commanders who participated in the meeting gathered around curiously when they saw a few photos posted on the blackboard. Sokov saw clearly that the photo posted on the blackboard was the one he had given to Konev, so he sat there without moving. And Smirnov got up and took a look, then turned to Sokov and said, "Comrade Commander, isn't this the photo we gave to the headquarters?"

  Sokov nodded slightly, and said, "That's right, those are the photos. Next, it's time for Chief of Staff Zakharov to introduce the V1 missile to everyone."

   Hearing what Sokov said, Smirnov felt that there was no need to join in the fun, so he sat down instead of pushing forward.

"Commanders!" Zakharov, who was standing by the blackboard, said to everyone: "The aircraft you see in the photo is the V1 missile newly developed by the Germans. Although we have not mastered it yet The specific data of this missile, but from their two launches, it can be judged that the range of this attack weapon is at least more than 100 kilometers."

  When all the commanders heard this, they couldn't help exclaiming: "My God, it's incredible that the range is more than 100 kilometers."

   "Yes, the farthest naval gun of our army has a range of only more than 20 kilometers. This humble aircraft has a range of more than 100 kilometers, which is equivalent to four or five times the range of our naval gun."

   “That range means he can hit us and we can’t do anything about them.”

  When the commanders were discussing this time, Zakharov did not interrupt them, but stood quietly aside. After everyone's discussion came to an end, he continued: "Two days ago, the German army used a V1 missile to attack the former headquarters of the Front Army, causing more than 200 casualties in Morianqi Village."

In a breathless voice, he said directly: "At three o'clock in the morning today, the enemy launched another 24 V1 missiles from the Uman area, and their attack target was Cherkasy." Glancing at Sokov, who was still sitting at the table, "Fortunately, we received an early warning from General Sokov and informed the defenders of Cherkasy to make preparations, which minimized the city's losses."

   Lieutenant General Sa Luoxin, commander of the 37th Army, asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, can you tell us how to reduce urban casualties?"

"Although the German V1 missile flies at the same speed as an airplane, it has a fatal weakness, that is, it can only fly along a fixed route." Zakharov said: "In this way, we have two ways to use it. To deal with it. One is to use fighter jets to intercept and destroy them all in the air;

  Because the German missiles came at night, even if we dispatched the Air Force fighter planes, the pilots might not be able to find the German missiles in the night, so we handed over the heavy responsibility of defense to the anti-aircraft artillery. "

   "Then how about our record?" Saluoxin asked impatiently.

"According to the statistics after dawn, 17 of the 24 missiles launched by the German army deviated from the direction and landed near the city and exploded; Three of them were destroyed, and only four of them landed in the city and exploded."

  Sokov learned that of the 24 V1 missiles launched by the German army, only 4 landed and exploded in the city, and he immediately felt more at ease. As long as the commander of the Cherkasy garrison resolutely carried out Konev's order and asked the city residents to hide in air-raid shelters in advance to avoid German missiles, the number of casualties would be very, very small.

  This time it was the turn of the 52nd Army Commander Korotelev to speak: "Are there many casualties in the city?"

"Because we issued a battle warning to the city defenders in advance, in addition to setting up air defense positions in the west and southwest of the city, we also urgently mobilized the city's residents to enter the air-raid shelters to avoid German attacks." Zakharov said: "The German army The 4 missiles that fell into the city destroyed a two-story building and a three-story building, and caused more than a dozen casualties of patrolling militiamen. In a word, although the enemy launched a large number of missiles, they gave us The damage was not that great."

After all the commanders were seated again, Zakharov continued: "Just now we have talked about the first agenda of the meeting, introducing to you the new weapon of the German army - the V1 missile. I believe everyone has already heard about this missile. I have a perceptual understanding and know what method to use to deal with it."

   After saying this, Zakharov deliberately paused for a moment to observe the reactions of many commanders. Seeing that no one spoke, he continued: "Now let's talk about the second topic: at the right time, launch the Uman campaign to wipe out or severely damage the Uman group of the German army."

  Smirnov heard this, touched Sokov with his elbow, and said a little excitedly: "Comrade Commander, you really guessed it right. Our army is really going to attack Uman."

   In order not to affect Zakharov's assignment, Sokov did not speak, but nodded, indicating that he knew about it.

"Comrade Chief of Staff," Garanin, the commander of the 4th Guards Army, interrupted and asked, "I would like to ask, is our Second Front Army responsible for this battle of Uman, or is it fighting with the First Front Army? "

"General Galanin," Zakharov looked at Galanin and said, "Although we caused huge losses to the German army in the just-concluded Battle of Cherkasy, their strength is still strong. If only If one of our front forces takes offensive action, the Germans will leave a small force on the other side of the ground to monitor, and then concentrate superior forces to resist our attack. Therefore, after consultation between the commanders of the two front forces, it was decided to take joint action , and at the same time launched an attack on the Uman group of the German army."

   Knowing that they will cooperate with the First Front Army again, the expressions on the faces of the commanders are different, some are happy, some are frowning, and Korotelev is one of them.

Seeing Korotelev's dejected expression, Zakharov asked curiously: "General Korotelev, you seem a little unhappy to hear that we are talking about joining forces with the First Front Army again? "

"Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff." Korotelev said with a sad face: "During the Battle of Cherkasy, the friendly forces that cooperated with us were defeated by the Germans, which caused the flanks of our army to be exposed to the enemy. In order to block the enemy from One of my divisions was nearly wiped out by our attack on the flank."

  Sokov heard Korotelev say this, and he was full of sympathy for him. This is the most feared situation in joint operations. In order to increase the frontal offensive force, it is necessary to weaken the forces on the flanks and strengthen them in the main direction. In this way, the safety of the flanks can only be protected by friendly forces. But if you encounter a pig teammate who is easily defeated by the enemy, it will be a disaster for the army.

"Don't worry, General Korotelev, similar things won't happen again this time." While expressing sympathy, Zakharov comforted the other party and said, "You should know that today's commander of the First Front Army It's not General Vatutin, but Marshal Zhukov who is acting for him. Don't you even trust Marshal Zhukov's command ability?"

  As soon as Zakharov moved out of Zhukov, he blocked everyone's mouths. Yes, Zhukov is the recognized commander in the Soviet army. How could he lose the battle he personally commanded? So Korotelev, who was originally frowning, had a gratified smile on his face again.

  Next, Zakharov began to explain the start time of the battle: "After our consultation with Marshal Zhukov, the attack on the Uman area will officially start at 3:55 in the morning on March 9th..."

Zakharov's words were like sprinkling a handful of salt into a red-hot iron pot, and it exploded immediately: "What, we will launch an attack on Uman on the 9th? This time is too hasty, we haven't had time to add What about soldiers and ammunition?"

"Yes, our troops are about 200 kilometers away from Uman, and it will take three or four days just to march. After the soldiers arrived at the designated location, they had already become exhausted. How could they physically attack the enemy? What about attacking?"

  Amidst the doubts of the crowd, Konev, who had never spoken, stood up.

   Seeing Konev get up, everyone knew that he must have something to say, so they all fell silent.

"Commanders, commanders," Konev said when silence returned to the meeting room, "I know that during the Battle of Cherkassy that ended not long ago, the troops and ammunition of each unit were consumed a lot, and they have not been released in time. It has been supplemented, but it is not yet ready for combat."

   "That's right, Comrade Marshal is right." As soon as Konev finished speaking, someone immediately echoed: "This is the current status of the various troops."

  (end of this chapter)