Chapter 1328 Carbine

  More than 4,000 captured commanders and fighters were brutally killed by the German army. These words aroused the same hatred among Sukov and others. He temporarily forgot the confrontation between himself and Apanashenko, but asked solemnly: "What happened to the SS cavalry who slaughtered our prisoners of war?"

"What else? Of course they were wiped out by our army." Apanashenko continued: "After slaughtering one prisoner-of-war camp, they were on their way to another prisoner-of-war camp. The 100th tank brigade encountered, and after a fierce battle, all the executioners were wiped out."

"It's really cheap for them." Sokov gritted his teeth and said this, then turned his head and said to Sameko next to him: "Chief of Staff, when you meet with the division commanders, remember to tell them about this. Please convey to them what I mean: From now on, all captured SS officers and soldiers will be shot on the spot, and we will not accept their surrender."

   "Comrade Commander," Sameko said with some embarrassment: "If the SS surrendered as an organization, if we shoot them again, I'm afraid it will cause bad consequences."

   "The debt of blood must be repaid with blood," Sokov said with a straight face, "I will make them repay ten times or a hundred times the crimes committed by the SS, and avenge our dead commanders and fighters!"

Hearing this order from Sokov, Apanashenko once again showed a smile on his frosty face. He felt that treating the enemy would be as ruthless as the severe winter. Sokov's order was rather ruthless. It kind of suits him. He nodded and said, "Major General Sokov, you are right, the only way to deal with wild beasts is with wild beasts."

Sokov did not blindly be complacent just because of Apanashenko's praise. He knew very well in his heart that Apanashenko had always had a prejudice against himself, and it would definitely not happen overnight if he wanted to change his opinion of himself. did it.

   But out of politeness, Sokov winked at Samoilov who was standing aside, signaling him to pour tea for Apanashenko. Seeing Sokov's eyes, the latter nodded slightly, and then quietly exited the headquarters.

Not long after, Samoilov reappeared in the headquarters. He placed teacups, teapots, saucers with sugar cubes, plates with slices of bread and biscuits, and canned braised pork from the United States, one by one. on the table.

After waiting for him to finish all this, Sokov smiled and said to Apanashenko: "Comrade General, you must have been sick after driving for so long. Please eat something." The teapot poured a cup of hot tea for the other party.

   When Apanashenko saw the things on the table, he didn't show any politeness. He went directly to the table and sat down, and started to eat. While eating, he said, "Major General Sokov, I thought the food on your front line was terrible, but I didn't expect it to be similar to ours."

  Sokov wanted to tell him that the black bread eaten by the commanders and fighters in the front line was also mixed with sawdust, which killed the throat when eaten. But when the words came to his lips, he swallowed them back. After all, the relationship between himself and Apanashenko had just eased, and there was no need to make the other party unhappy for such a trivial matter.

Lunev, who was sitting by the side, saw that Apanashenko seemed to be in a good mood at the moment, so he asked tentatively: "Comrade General, I would like to ask, when can we start our attack on Belgorod?" ?”

"Soon." Apanashenko had just stuffed a piece of bread into his mouth, and when he heard Lunev's question, he said vaguely: "The base camp has drawn up a new battle plan aimed at capturing Kharko. Husband and Belgorod, I estimate that in a few days, the Front Army Command will hold a pre-war military meeting. You will know the specific content after attending the meeting."

   As the deputy commander of the front army, Aparna not only knew the offensive plan code-named "Rumantsev" formulated by Zhukov and Vasilevsky, but even the details of the plan were clear. But now there is still a period of time before the start of the new battle, for the sake of confidentiality, he chose to keep it secret from Sokov and others without hesitation.

Sokov understood Apanashenko's thoughts, and did not ask any more about the offensive plan, and curiously asked about the battle in the direction of Oboyan: "Comrade General, I don't know if the 11th and 17th German troops stranded in the Oboyan area Armored Division, have you been wiped out now?"

  Hearing Sokov's question, Apanashenko had an embarrassed expression on his face. After a long time, he said with some embarrassment: "The battle is still going on. I believe that our troops will be able to completely wipe out these two German troops in a short time."

  Sameko couldn't help curling his lips, thinking to himself: With a few infantry divisions with incomplete organizational structures, plus two artillery divisions and a tank army, we defeated the main force of the Hoth Armored Army. And there are two group armies in the direction of Oboyan, and the two divisions dealing with the German army have not been able to resolve the battle for a long time, which is too disappointing.

   Knowing that the battle in the Oboyan area is still going on, Sameko feels a little bit lost. This means that more than 20,000 rescued commanders and fighters will not be able to reach here before the battle is over.

   Lunev seemed to have thought of this too. He tentatively asked Apanashenko: "Comrade General, after the battle in the Oboyan area is over, can those rescued prisoners of war be sent over?"

  When Lunev asked this question, he didn't even have much hope. But I didn't expect that after listening to Apanashenko, he said unexpectedly: "Of course you can come here! Didn't you occupy Kochetovka? Come over to accept your adaptation."

Apanashenko looked at his watch and said, "According to the plan, they will arrive at your place around ten o'clock in the morning." He raised his head, looked at Sukov and the others and asked, "Which of you will accompany you?" I go to receive soldiers?"

   "Comrade Military Commissar," Sokov turned to Lunev and said, "The main job after accepting prisoners of war is to screen and examine them. Why don't you and Comrade General accept prisoners of war?"

"Okay, Comrade Commander." Regarding Sokov's arrangement, Lunev did not raise any objections, "Then I will accompany Comrade General to receive prisoners of war, and start their screening and review in the shortest possible time. Work."

   "It's a lot of work to screen and review more than 20,000 people." Sokov asked with concern: "Comrade Military Commissioner, do you have enough people?"

"It's enough." Lunev nodded and said, "I've already figured it out. It's definitely not enough to rely on the political workers at the headquarters alone, but if you add the political workers from each division, there will be more than enough manpower." .And the political personnel of each division will screen and review, and those qualified commanders and fighters can be directly incorporated into the troops, which can greatly shorten the time for replenishing troops."

  Hearing this, Sokov couldn't help but glanced at Apanashenko, fearing that he would express any objection. But Apanashenko has such an expression, and seems to agree with Lunev's statement very much.

  Apanashenko stood up as soon as Lunev finished speaking, and said: "Comrade Lunev, it's getting late, let's set off now. Finish the screening work early, so I can return to the Front Army Command earlier."

After sending Apanashenko and Lunev away, Sameko asked Sokov with some surprise: "Comrade commander, tell me, Comrade General was still desperately picking at the beginning, but Lunev proposed to complete the screening. Why didn’t he express any disagreement when the commanders and fighters who have been reviewed can be directly incorporated into the army? Isn’t this a bit too strange.”

"I'm not sure." Sokov was not clairvoyant, and no one from the Front Army Command informed him. Naturally, he didn't know that Apanashenko had promised Zhukov before coming to the 27th Army that he would never act as a proxy. , Interfering with Sokov's command. Because of this, Sameko had this strange feeling.

  The battle in the Oboyan area continued. The troops attacking the 17th Armored Division were the first tank army commanded by Katukov. They used tank assault tactics to launch a fierce attack on the 17th Armored Division. The battle lasted until one o'clock in the noon. Except for a few tanks that had to be discarded on the battlefield because of exhaustion of fuel, the rest of the tanks were destroyed.

   Many tank soldiers who escaped from the destroyed tanks fled into the forest with the infantry, trying to return to Kharkov or Belgorod through forests and swamps. Division Commander Etling led a dozen staff officers and guards, lost his barrel cart, mixed with the fleeing soldiers, and fled towards the forest.

  However, just as he was about to run into the forest, he was spotted by a T-34 tank and was immediately bombarded. A shell landed five or six meters away from him and exploded, and the flying shrapnel swept him down along with several staff officers around him. Fortunately, several loyal guards swarmed up, carried him and fled into the forest.

  The siege of the 11th Armored Division by Chistyakov's 6th Guards Army did not go so smoothly. After the German division commander Balck received a telegram from Manstein ordering him to break out to the west, he immediately sent people to conduct reconnaissance.

   The scouts reported to him that the Russians had deployed heavy troops on the east, west, south, and south sides. Only the north was defended by the heavily damaged 52nd and 67th Guards Divisions. After receiving this information, Balck decisively issued an order to break out to the north.

  Balke's order made the German officers and soldiers feel a little baffled. Didn't they want to retreat south to Belgorod? Then why breakout to the north? Although their hearts were full of doubts, the German officers and soldiers still followed Balck's order to break through to the north where the Soviet army's defenses were weak.

  The 52nd and 67th Guards Divisions, which were in charge of the defense to the north, never dreamed that Balck would turn back, and they were caught off guard. The line of defense they established was quickly broken by Balck's 11th Armored Division.

Balck knew very well that after a long period of fighting, his armored division did not have much ammunition and fuel left, let alone passing through many areas defended by the Soviet army. He could not drive back to Belgorod even with the fuel under his hands, so he decided to take a risk and commanded the troops to continue to rush north, all the way to Bogodukhov.

   This was originally the German logistics supply base. In yesterday's battle, it was occupied by the 6th Guards Army, which cut off the supply of both the 11th and 17th Armored Divisions.

When Chistyakov commanded the main force to go south, he felt that the destruction of the Germans was only a matter of time, and it was impossible for anyone to attack this logistics base, so no decent security was arranged at all, and only a group of less than 80 people was left behind. The company guards the huge base.

When the defenders guarding the base found that there were a large number of German tanks rushing towards where they were, they suddenly became panicked. They started firing from a long distance away, trying to stop the advance of the German tanks. .

  But infantry without heavy weapons, how can they stop the torrent of steel from the German army. After several exposed firepower points were destroyed by German tank fire, the Soviet resistance collapsed. The dozens of surviving Soviet soldiers scattered like birds and beasts, dropped their weapons and escaped from the logistics base.

Balck personally drove a Leopard tank and entered the logistics base. After seeing that the facilities here were basically complete, he couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief, and immediately issued an order to the officers and soldiers: "Attention everyone, refuel the tank immediately. and ammunition, and a tougher battle awaits us."

  The German officers and soldiers who had just escaped from the Soviet encirclement, after hearing Balck's order, did not dare to neglect at all. The tank soldiers are replenishing fuel and ammunition for the tank, and the infantry is also replenishing the ammunition, food, and medicine they need, ready to be used in the next battle.

   When Chistyakov learned that Bogodukhov's logistics base had been captured by the Germans again, he was shocked into a cold sweat. He knew what it meant for the German army to reoccupy the logistics base, and quickly began to gather troops, preparing to launch a new attack on Bogodukhov.

The Chief of Staff of the Army Group reminded Chistyakov: "Comrade Commander, the enemy has occupied Bogodukhov. With our forces, it will be very difficult to take it again. You see, whether to report this matter to the Front Army immediately Reporting from the headquarters, and at the same time requesting the assistance of the First Tank Army on the left?"

   "You're right." Chistyakov was not a self-willed person. Regarding the chief of staff's proposal, he followed suit and immediately reported the emergency to Vatutin and asked Katukov for help.

When Vatutin saw Chistyakov's telegram, he was really outraged. He slapped the telegram on the table and said angrily: "Seeing that the enemy's ammunition and fuel are about to be exhausted, who can help?" Knowing that he allowed the enemy to rush out of the encirclement and reoccupied Bogodukhov’s logistics base, this would allow the enemy to regain their original combat effectiveness.”

  Wasilevsky, who was sitting next to him, immediately asked Zhukov: "Comrade Marshal, tell me, what should we do next?"

"Send a telegram to Katukov, ordering him to send reinforcements immediately." Zhukov said indifferently: "The road to the south of the 11th Armored Division has been completely cut off by us. We just need to get them out of Bogodukhov's logistics If they are driven out of the base, they won't last long."

  (end of this chapter)