Chapter 1051 The final battle of the tank soldiers (Part 1)

   When Popov passed the defense area of ​​the 61st Motorcycle Battalion of the German Army, he ordered someone to send a telegram to the Front Army Command and Sokov to inform him of his breakthrough and the progress.

  Seeing that Popov couldn't help asking for instructions, Vatutin ordered the troops to break through without authorization, and couldn't help being furious. He yelled at Bo Jin, chief of staff: "Popov led his troops to break through the encirclement without an order. This is a cowardly act. He is greedy for life and afraid of death. I will report this matter to the headquarters immediately and send him to a court-martial." .”

   "Comrade Commander," Bojin asked tentatively after Vatutin's attack ended, "Then what should we do, order them to stop breaking out?"

   "What breakout is escape, it is escape." Vatutin said angrily: "Immediately send a telegram to Popov, ordering him to stop such wrong actions, and immediately lead the troops back to the original station, waiting for our disposal."

"Comrade Commander, since the breakout operation has already begun, you can see if you want them to continue." Bo Jin said cautiously: "There are many troops that are engaged in the breakout operation, and communication cannot be guaranteed. If you give Bo Jin General Bove issued such an order, and I am worried that the troops who received the order will retreat, and those who have not received the order will continue to attack the German army, which will cause unnecessary confusion.”

Regarding what Bokin said, Vatutin thought about it for a while, and it seemed to make sense, so he nodded and said: "Chief of Staff, you are right, Popov's troops are breaking through now, if they are now ordered to stop The order to break out of the encirclement may cause his troops to fall into chaos. Then this order will not be issued for the time being, but the matter of Popov must be reported to the General Staff as soon as possible to see what they mean."

Hearing Vatutin's order, Bokin asked cautiously and reminded him: "The chief of the general staff, Comrade Vasilevsky, does not seem to be in Moscow. Now the person in charge of the work of the general staff is the first deputy chief of staff. Commander-in-Chief and Chief of Operations Comrade Antonov. According to what I know of him, he will definitely approve of General Popov’s breakout.”

"If Popov's fast group jumps out of the enemy's encirclement, then the encircled Sixth Army will face the danger of annihilation." Vatutin said with a serious expression: "I absolutely cannot tolerate such a thing If it happens, you still find a way to contact Comrade Vasilevsky and report the matter to him.”

"I heard that Comrade Vasilevsky went to the Voronezh Front two days ago. I immediately contacted the Chief of Staff of the Front, General Pilipenko, to find out where Comrade Chief of Staff is going." Bokin assured Vatutin. : "I will report to the Chief of Staff as soon as possible about Popov leading his troops to break out of the encirclement."

  ...

After receiving the telegram from Popov, Sokov carefully checked the location of the unit, raised his head and asked Vitkov who was standing aside: "Comrade Chief of Staff, what do you think of General Popov's breakout operation?" , can it succeed?"

Vitkov pointed to the location of Popov's troops, shook his head and said, "It is already ten o'clock in the morning, but his troops are only wedged six kilometers into the German defense line. How long does it take to move so slowly? Only two hundred kilometers can be covered."

"Yeah, their speed of action is really too slow." Sokov stared at the map and said rather puzzled: "It stands to reason that at their current position, there are only some company-level units of the German army, and they cannot stop them at all." They broke through, how did they walk for more than ten hours, and they only advanced so far."

"I'll send a telegram to General Popov and ask what's going on." Regarding Popov's snail-like speed, Witkov also had a headache: "If they keep marching at this speed, then When will we be able to send troops for reinforcements?"

As soon as Witkov left, Sokov received a call from the Front Army Command. Rokossovsky asked straight to the point: "Colonel Sokov, Lieutenant General Popov's troops have begun to break out of the city where you are located. Yes. Did you know about it?"

"Yes, Comrade Front Army Commander, I know about this." Since Rokossovsky called to ask about this, Sokov took the opportunity to report: "But judging from the report of the breakout battle they provided us, , Their actions are too slow. At present, their breakout force has only advanced six kilometers to the east, and we are temporarily unable to provide them with any help."

   "Popov's situation is very bad." Rokossovsky frowned when he learned that Popov's troops were making slow progress. He knew how far Sokov's troops were from Popov, so he didn't blindly issue a response task. After some consideration, he told Sokov: "I will send a telegram to Popov, urging him to speed up. And you, you must be ready to respond and be ready to attack at any time."

"You can rest assured that I have already arranged it." Sokov reported to Rokossovsky: "I ordered all divisions to send German-speaking sabotage teams to the enemy's rear. They will wear The uniforms of the German army, sabotage and assassination operations everywhere, made the enemy panic. In this way, even if the enemy wants to attack us, I am afraid that they will not be able to concentrate all their forces."

"Oh, you let the sabotage team that went deep behind the enemy line wear the uniform of the German army?" Rokossovsky said with some surprise: "The enemy used this kind of tactics in the past, which made us burnt out, and now we can use the same tactics. There are ways to deal with them. Yes, yes, if it proves to be effective, I will order it to be promoted throughout the entire army.”

After Sokov ended the conversation with Rokossovsky, Witkov reappeared in front of him and reported to him with a bitter face: "Comrade Commander, General Popov's call back has arrived. In the telegram, he mentioned in detail the reasons for the slow movement of the troops."

"what reason?"

   "First, there are a large number of wounded. The field hospital son slowed down the marching speed of the troops during the process of transferring the wounded."

   "In addition to this reason, is there any other reason?"

   "They still have more than 100 tanks left. In order not to leave these technical equipment to the enemy, General Popov ordered to use the tanks that still have fuel to pull the tanks that have run out of fuel."

"What, use a tank that still has fuel to tow a tank that has run out of fuel?" Sokov couldn't help raising his hands and forehead when he heard this, not knowing what to say: "Didn't General Popov think about it?" , the tank responsible for the towing task has basically become the role of a trailer, if you encounter enemy tanks or anti-tank fighters on the road, will you have no power to fight back?"

   "Comrade commander, please tell me." Witkov asked tentatively: "Should we give General Popov a piece of advice to prevent him from making such a low-level mistake?"

"Send a telegram to General Popov again, asking him to order to blow up those tanks that have no fuel and ammunition." Sokov made a lot of determination, and finally said these words: "Although so many tanks are blown up, It's a very distressing thing, but it's better than leaving it to the enemy and letting them hit us with these tanks."

  (end of this chapter)