Chapter 1266 Reconnaissance behind enemy lines

  Sokov was sitting on a camp bed and was taking off his boots. Lunev, who was sitting not far away, asked with concern: "Comrade Commander, did Asya come back with you?"

"No." Sokov, who was taking off his boots, heard Lunev's question, quickly put his feet back on the ground, shook his head and said, "Although she came to the defense zone with the troops of the 182nd Division, because of the fierce fighting , I never had a chance to see her."

Knowing that Sokov had no time to meet with Asiya because of the fierce fighting, Lunev couldn't help feeling worried: "Comrade Commander, since this is the case, why don't you let her come back with you? Let her grow up." Is it appropriate to spend time in dangerous places?"

   "Don't worry, Comrade Military Commissioner." Sokov smiled and said to Lunev: "It is very difficult to have any large-scale battles in our defense zone, otherwise I would not return to the headquarters at this time."

  Hearing what Sokov said, Lunev couldn't help raising his eyebrows, and asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, do you know any gossip?"

  Since Lunev took the initiative to ask, and there were no idlers in the headquarters, Sokov planned to tell his two deputies about the current situation, so that they could also be aware of it. He got up, walked to the table and sat down, calling the two of them to come and sit together: "Come here, I will introduce the current situation to you."

  Sameko and Lunev knew that Sokov would definitely tell him something inside, so they couldn't wait to sit down at the table. "Comrade commander, tell me quickly," Sameko urged as soon as he sat down, "How will the situation develop next?"

After briefly introducing the information he got from Zhukov to the two, Sokov pointed to the map on the table and continued: "The northern line of Kursk, due to the fact that General Rokossovsky's troops The active attack launched has seriously threatened the retreat of Model's 9th Army. If the Germans don't want another Stalingrad to appear again, they will definitely stop their offensive on the northern front and turn to defense on the spot. Block our attack on the Orel salient.

   As for the southern front, according to my analysis, there is a high probability that the reserve team in Manstein's hands will be transferred to other battlefields. In other words, even if the enemy continued to maintain an offensive on the southern front, all they could rely on was the original strength. "

"If the enemies on the southern front can only rely on their existing forces to fight, then the pressure on the area defended by our army group will be greatly reduced." Hearing what Sokov said, Sameko's face showed a smile. Surprised expression: "In other words, we can even take the initiative to launch a counterattack against the enemy in some areas."

"That's right, analyzing the current situation, Manstein will concentrate his main force outside Prokhorovka and try to annihilate our troops there." Sukov introduced to the two: "So As soon as he was in our defense zone, there were only the 6th and 19th Armored Divisions with incomplete organizational structures. As long as General Marankin's guard division can help us contain the 19th Armored Division, then we can choose any Lot, counterattack the Germans."

After hearing this, Kronev said with a worried face: "Comrade commander, if we launch a counterattack against the enemy at this moment, will Manstein draw troops from outside Prokhorovka to attack our defense zone?" Woolen cloth?"

"Comrade Military Commissar, you don't have to worry about this." In response to Lunev's concerns, Sameko explained to him: "Now Manstein's main force is fighting fiercely with our army outside Prokhorovka. Dare to easily transfer troops to leave, otherwise the remaining troops may not be able to stop our army's counterattack."

After listening to Sameko's explanation, Lunev had a relaxed expression on his face. After staring at the map for a while, he looked up at Sokov and asked, "Comrade Commander, where are you planning to be? What about the enemy's active attack?"

"The enemy's strength is still very strong today, which can be seen from the fierce battle outside the city of Prokhorovka." Sokov stared at the map in front of him and said, "If we gather outside the city of Prokhorovka Even if the enemy launches an attack, even if they win, they will probably pay a huge price. And when they launch a counterattack in the defense zone of the 188th Division, since the German troops in front of them have already turned to the defense, they may not be able to eat them in a short time. Once Manstein Seeing that the back road was threatened, they would definitely deploy troops from other places desperately and launch a joint attack on us. Maybe in the end, the enemy was not wiped out, and we paid a lot of casualties instead. This kind of equipment We can't do business."

   "Then we can't just do nothing." Lunev asked cautiously: "If the superior sees that we have so many troops but stay near the enemy and do nothing, they will definitely blame us."

"I'm just saying, don't take the initiative to attack the enemy for the time being." Sokov said with a smile: "We don't attack the enemy, but we can cut off their transportation lines, as long as the enemy's fuel and ammunition cannot be transported to the city of Prokhorovka In addition, the main force of the German army attacking there will soon turn the tanks and artillery in their hands into a pile of scrap metal due to lack of ammunition and fuel. In this case, all they can do is blow up or After throwing away these equipment, I chose to retreat without hesitation."

  ...

  When Sokov briefed his two deputies on the next developments in the Kursk region at his headquarters, the reconnaissance force sent by Vatutin also obtained useful information.

  Lieutenant Eskel, the captain of the reconnaissance unit, brought a dozen scouts to the vicinity of the German reserve camp, and unexpectedly found that the camp in the distance was brightly lit, and the troops inside seemed to be undergoing tense mobilization.

   Lieutenant Eskel's first thought was that the enemy must be preparing to move in the direction of Prokhorovka. He hurriedly called the radio operator and told the other party: "Get in touch with the reconnaissance office of the Front Army Command immediately, and say that we found that the troops in the 24th Armored Army's garrison are being mobilized. The roar of self-propelled artillery engines."

  Five minutes after the telegram was sent, the operator received a call back from the Intelligence Department: "Quickly find out where the enemy is going."

After Lieutenant Eskel received the reply, he immediately called a sergeant and told him: "Sergeant, you take two soldiers and approach the enemy's camp quietly, try to capture a prisoner, and find out their identity. trend."

  The sergeant agreed, and led the two soldiers out of the hiding place, and quietly headed towards the enemy's camp, preparing to capture a prisoner and find out the enemy's movements.

   After waiting for almost an hour, the sergeant and two soldiers carried an officer whose hands and feet were tied back to the hiding place of Eskel and others. The sergeant excitedly reported to Eskel: "Comrade lieutenant, a German second lieutenant was captured and a large briefcase he was carrying with him was seized."

  When the sergeant said that a briefcase had been seized, Eskel couldn't help but his eyes lit up. He knew that the German officer carrying the briefcase, no matter how low his rank was, still possessed a lot of important information. He hurriedly called for an interpreter, and told the other party: "Translate my words to this German, and ask him his name, military rank, and position!"

   After translating what Eskel said to the German officer in this way, the translator pulled out the rag that was stuffed in the officer's mouth. After the officer coughed violently a few times, he began to reply, "My name is Gold, with the rank of second lieutenant, and I am the combat staff officer of the 23rd Armored Division."

"It turned out to be a combat staff officer." Eskel took out a stack of documents from his briefcase, and after looking through them for a while, he found that they were all in Russian, and he couldn't understand them at all, so he asked Gold: "What is this?" What is written on the document?"

   Seeing those documents, which were held by the translator, Gold hesitated for a moment, and then replied: "This is a transfer order from Marshal Manstein."

   "The transfer order issued by Manstein?" Eskel asked curiously, "What is written on it?"

"Order us to load the car overnight and prepare to transfer to the west." Although Gold is a combat staff officer, because his rank is too low, he has no access to many top-secret contents, so the question he answered, It also appears vague.

   "West?" Eskel continued to ask, "Where are you going to be transferred to the west?"

   "I don't know, Mr. Lieutenant." Gold replied neither humble nor overbearing: "The superior's order didn't say anything, and I don't know what the final destination is."

   "Did you see anything?" Seeing that Gold was unwilling to say anything, Eskel turned and asked the translator who was flipping through the documents: "Did the above say where to transfer them?"

   "Comrade Lieutenant," the interpreter quickly raised his head and said, "The order says, let them board the train at the train station in the west, and then transport it to the west."

   "It seems that we have to go to the train station to the west to see if the enemy is really gathering in that direction."

   In this way, in order to find out the real movement of the German army, Eskel led his reconnaissance team and quietly came to the railway station in the west. In order to prevent being discovered by the enemy, they hid on a small hill two or three kilometers away from the station. Eskel found a position with a good view and raised his binoculars to look towards the station.

  Through the binoculars, he could clearly see groups of tanks and armored vehicles driving to the railway outside the station to stop. And some of the tanks that arrived earlier are driving onto the flatbed one after another. After looking through the binoculars for a while, he found that more and more enemies were gathering in this direction. It seemed that what the captives said was true, and the troops of the 24th Armored Army were indeed preparing to move westward.

With the captive’s confession, and seeing the enemy’s tanks and armored vehicles being loaded one after another, Eskel realized that the enemy might really move to the west, so he ordered the operator again: “Send a report to the intelligence office, and then It is said that after our reconnaissance, a large number of enemy tanks and armored vehicles are being loaded at the railway station west of the original station. According to the statements of the captured prisoners, the enemy’s 24th Armored Army is about to move west.”

  Vatutin, who was staying at the headquarters, soon received a telegram from Lieutenant Eskel. After reading the above content, he quickly handed the telegram to Zhukov, and said respectfully: "Comrade Marshal, look, this is a telegram just sent by our scouts. It seems that the situation analyzed by General Sokov is Quite accurately, units of the enemy's 24th Panzer Corps are boarding their vehicles and preparing to move west."

However, after Zhukov read the telegram, he said expressionlessly: "Comrade Vatutin, you should understand that the exact whereabouts of the German 24th Panzer Corps is related to the outcome of the Battle of Kursk. You immediately give the scouts Call back and let them verify again, we must find out the real whereabouts of the enemy."

   Regarding Zhukov's order, Vatutin did not dare to disobey it. He quickly ordered his chief of staff to send a telegram to Lieutenant Eskel, asking the reconnaissance team to continue to verify the information, and it must be accurate.

   After receiving the call back from the headquarters, Eskel specially sent someone to check nearby, and finally found that this railway line had been destroyed by guerrillas. There are many sections of the railway line leading to the east that do not even have rails and cannot be opened to traffic at all. On the contrary, the railway leading to the west was intact, and the Germans also sent a lot of patrols to patrol along the railway, just to avoid being destroyed by the guerrillas.

After figuring out what happened here, Eskel sent a telegram to the intelligence department of the headquarters for the third time, introducing the situation here in detail, and stating in a positive tone that the enemy is indeed going to move west, absolutely Didn't do any shit.

After Vatutin received the telegram again, after repeated inspections, he confirmed that the situation reported by Eskel did not contain any false elements, and then said to Zhukov: "Comrade Marshal, according to the latest report of the scouts, The railway line leading to the east from that train station has long been destroyed by guerrillas, and even some sections of the tracks have been stripped. On the contrary, the railway leading to the west is intact, and there are enemy patrols along the way .

   It seems that Major General Sokov's analysis is correct, the enemy was indeed transferred to the west by the German High Command. We can concentrate all our forces against the enemies outside Prokhorovka. "

  Since the scouts have repeatedly verified the information, the chance of making mistakes should be extremely low. But even so, Zhukov stared at the map for a long time, and made sure that there was no fork on the railway heading west, allowing trains carrying tanks, artillery and armored vehicles to pass outside Prokhorovka from other lines. The boulder in my heart has finally fallen to the ground.

Zhukov stood up straight, exhaled softly, tapped the map on the table with his fingers and said: "In the next battle, our leading troops will be Rotmistrov's guard tanks. Fifth Army, as long as they can defeat the German army outside the city, we can win the final victory of the Battle of Kursk."

  (end of this chapter)