Chapter 1373 Enemy bombing

  In fact, Sokov didn't care at all about ordering the destruction of the Belgorod State Museum, which caused damage to the cultural relics stored inside. To him, no matter how precious those cultural relics are, can they be compared to the lives of commanders and fighters? As long as the casualties of troops can be reduced in battle, no matter how precious cultural relics are damaged, it is completely worthwhile.

   What he is most concerned about now is to quickly occupy the south of the city and completely cut off the way for the German army to retreat southward, forming a trend of closing the door and beating dogs. Therefore, when Lunev called Beria, he contacted the division commanders in the city by phone and radio, and assigned them new combat tasks.

  When it was dawn, almost all the streets in the south of the city were occupied by Sokov's troops.

   Seeing the battle reports sent from the city, Sokov couldn't help but smile. It seems that the division commanders and brigade commanders under him are very good at commanding operations, and they have not disappointed him.

Sokov put the battle report on the table, patted it lightly with his palm a few times, and said to Sameko with a smile: "Comrade Chief of Staff, it seems that our army has won Belgorod." achievement."

"Yes, Comrade Commander." Hearing what Sokov said, Sameko replied with a flushed face, "Isn't that right, I thought it would take at least half a month to capture a city like Belgorod. Time. But I didn’t expect the enemy to be so vulnerable. According to the current progress, we will be able to completely wipe out the enemy in the city tomorrow, that is, on August 5.”

Sokov knew very well in his heart that without his own history, the Soviet army liberated Belgorod on August 5th. Now that he was born, the troops he led achieved great results, so the liberation The city's time was bound to be advanced, so he smiled and said to Sameko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, don't you have confidence in our troops, don't you think they can't liberate the city today?"

Hearing what Sokov said, Sameko laughed dryly twice, and then said: "Comrade Commander, I certainly hope that the entire city can be liberated today, but the city is so large that our army's troops entered the city with a very large force." It will soon become scattered, and under such circumstances, it will definitely take a lot of time to clear out the remaining enemies in the city."

"Did you forget the friendly forces attacking from the northwest and north?" Concerned about Sameko's concerns, Sokov said confidently: "As long as these friendly forces enter the city on a large scale at dawn, they will be the enemy. The end is coming."

   "Comrade Commander, do you really think that we can liberate Belgorod today?"

"Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff, I'm absolutely sure." Sokov smiled and said, "Don't forget, the commanders and fighters of the future 98th Guards Division planted the flag on the top of the municipal building yesterday, indicating that We have captured the city and are now in the phase of clearing out the remaining enemies."

"The 98th Guards Division?!" After Sameko repeated the unit number that Sokov said, he suddenly remembered that the other party had heard about it yesterday, which was to merge two marine brigades with an infantry brigade to form The new 98th Guards Division. Quickly nodded and replied; "That's right, Colonel Chuvashov's troops have already planted the flag on the top of the municipal building. According to the tradition in the Russian army, from the moment the red flag is raised, it means that the city has been ruled." We occupy."

  After a short pause, Sameko continued to ask: "Then what is our next move?"

"After capturing Belgorod, our army's next move is to launch a new attack on Kharkov and drive the enemy out of the city." Sokov picked up the red and blue pencils, Draw a circle to the west of Corfu, and said to Sameko: "I guess the superiors will order my army to attack from the west of the city again."

   After staring at the map for a while, Sameko nodded in agreement with Sokov: "Comrade Commander, you are right. I also think that the superior will order us to attack from the west of the city."

   "Why?" Lunev couldn't help asking curiously when he heard both of them say that. "Why are you so sure that the superiors will order us to attack the west side of the city again?"

"The reason is very simple," Sameko explained to Lunev with a smile, "Because we have hovercraft." To make Lunev understand what he meant, he pointed to the west of Kharkov and added, " To the west of the city is the Ude River, and the width of the river is much wider than the river outside Belgorod. If you want to choose to attack from this direction, it must be our army."

"The chief of staff is right," Sokov nodded in agreement, "Yesterday's attack made the superiors realize that only the new river crossing equipment we have can break through the enemy's water blockade in the shortest possible time to reduce the number of troops. Casualties that may occur during the forced crossing."

"Oh, so that's the case." Lunev nodded slightly after listening to the two people's words, and then asked again: "Didn't Colonel Yakov say yesterday that most hovercraft have malfunctioned to varying degrees due to overloading?" , needs to be repaired before it can be put into use again. Tell me, can they complete all the repair work before the offensive battle begins."

   Lunev’s words stopped Sokov. He never asked Yakov whether the overloaded hovercraft could be reused in a short time, so he couldn’t answer Lunev’s question.

  However, he changed the subject in time: "Comrade Military Commissioner, didn't you say that you should call Comrade Beria and report the situation here to him? I don't know how he answered you?"

"Comrade Commander, I made many phone calls today and finally got in touch with Comrade Beria." Lunev replied: "After listening to my report, he told me that he will contact the relevant parties on this matter." , don't worry about it."

   As soon as the three of them mentioned the state museum was destroyed by artillery fire, the phone on the desk rang. Sokov saw clearly that the phone that was ringing was actually a high-frequency phone that could make outside calls. He guessed that it must be a call from a superior leader, so he quickly grabbed the microphone and put it to his ear: "Hello, I am Major General Sokov. What's the matter?"

   "I'm Zhukov." Zhukov's voice came from the receiver: "Misha, are you in trouble again?"

   "Creating trouble?" Zhukov's words made Sokov startled, but then he figured out what the other party meant: "Comrade Marshal, you mean that I ordered the artillery to fire at the State Museum to destroy it?"

"Is there such a thing?" After Zhukov asked this question, without waiting for Sokov to answer, he said to himself again: "I just received two calls, both from the base camp. Some people said that you are Unorganized and disciplined, without asking for instructions, they used troops to attack the enemy without permission."

   "Two phone calls?" Sokov was a little dumbfounded. He didn't seem to have done anything harmful recently. How could two leaders of the base camp want to make a fool of themselves in front of Zhukov at the same time? He asked instinctively, "Comrade Marshal, what was said about me in those two phone calls?"

"A phone call said that you made your own claims and ordered your troops to fire at the Belgorod Museum, causing serious damage to the cultural relics about the Battle of Poltava inside. Such acts of destroying civil and military affairs should be severely punished." Zhukov Said: "The other call was to say good things for you, saying that although you gave the order to bombard the state museum, it was to destroy the enemies hidden inside. This behavior is forgivable."

Although Zhukov did not tell Sokov that it was those two people who called him, Sokov still guessed that the person who said good things about him must be Beria. After making a phone call, maybe he was thinking about his old relationship with Lunev and helped himself.

  Sokov waited for Zhukov to finish speaking, and asked slowly: "Comrade Marshal, I wonder how you plan to deal with me?"

   "Misha, don't worry." Seeing that Sokov had misunderstood, Zhukov quickly explained, "I'm not calling you to punish you, but to find out what your intentions are."

"Comrade Marshal," since Zhukov asked, Sokov simply hid the enemy in the state museum and resisted. His troops were repeatedly damaged in the attack, so he had to make a bad move and ordered the artillery to immediately destroy the state museum, making the Germans There is no hiding place. After briefly introducing the cause and effect, he continued to say to Zhukov: "Only by destroying the buildings and leaving the enemy no place to hide can our troops successfully take down the State Museum."

   "I see." Zhukov replied: "If someone is bringing this up, I know how to defend you."

   "Thank you, Comrade Marshal."

   "You're welcome, this is a trivial matter to me." After Zhukov finished speaking, the topic changed: "By the way, what is the result of the attack you launched at night?"

   Although Sokov reported the results of the battle to Konev in a timely manner. But on Vatutin's side, since he was no longer his immediate boss, it seemed so insignificant whether he would report to him. Because of this, Zhukov was unable to keep abreast of the progress of the battle here.

   Seeing that Zhukov was eager to know the situation of the battle, Sokov quickly reported to Zhukov a series of results obtained in the night battle in detail. He finally said: "Comrade Marshal, if after dawn, our friendly forces can launch attacks from the northwest and north at the same time, I believe that our army will be able to liberate the entire city by this evening at the latest."

Zhukov didn't want to take this city as soon as possible. Last night he knew that the enemy was retreating, but he didn't order the troops to launch an attack. He was worried that the troops with little combat experience would fall into chaos in night battles, and the Germans would be defeated by then. An opportunity to take advantage of. Now most of the area in the city has been controlled by Sokov's troops, especially in the south of the city, whether it is roads or railways, have been completely cut off, and the remaining enemies in the city cannot retreat through these two roads.

"Don't worry, Misha." Zhukov felt that the time was ripe to annihilate the defenders in the city, so he said to Sokov with a smile: "When dawn dawns, no matter it is the troops of the Voronezh Front Army or the Steppe Front Army, they will attack the enemy. , and strive to liberate the city before dark."

After dawn, Sokov didn't wait for the good news of the friendly attack, but a staff officer hurried over to report to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, it's not good. According to the report from the air defense post, there are a large number of enemy planes now. Flying towards where we are, it seems that they are preparing to bomb us."

   "Comrade Commander," Lunev immediately reminded Sokov after hearing the staff's words: "Give the members of the headquarters an air defense order and let everyone evacuate to a safe place."

"Comrade Military Commissioner, if we move now, the troops fighting in the city will fall into unnecessary chaos because of the loss of unified command. At that time, the enemy trapped by us will take advantage of it and try every means to break through our Defense, flee outside the city."

   After Sokov finished speaking, he told Sameko: "Comrade Chief of Staff, immediately call Captain Lida of the Women's Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion and ask them to prepare for air defense and ensure the safety of the headquarters."

   A few minutes later, sixteen German bombers flew over the Sokov headquarters and began to dive and drop bombs on the ground. The anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns on the ground fired at the same time, trying to shoot down these raging enemy planes.

   But in air defense operations, it is always the ground air defense forces that suffer. The firing of the women's anti-aircraft artillery battalion made them the targets of enemy planes. Within five minutes of the battle, three 37mm double-linked anti-aircraft guns and two 14.5mm quadruple anti-aircraft machine guns were destroyed by the battle dropped by enemy planes. At the same time, more than 20 female soldiers died heroically, and more than 30 people were injured.

  However, the Women's Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion was still stubbornly firing at the enemy planes in the sky, trying to attract their attention so that they would not bomb Sokov's headquarters.

  The battle lasted for about a quarter of an hour, until more than a dozen fighter planes of the Soviet army rushed to the battlefield and started a dogfight with the enemy planes that were bombing the air defense positions, preventing the enemy from continuing to attack the ground.

   Fighter planes deal with bombers without fighter escorts, and the air situation quickly becomes one-sided. The enemy plane, which was still showing off its might, was hit by Soviet fighter planes from time to time, dragging a long smoke tail, and fell to the ground and exploded.

  The soldiers of the Women’s Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion on the ground cheered every time they saw an enemy plane shot down, and the heroic Air Force pilots shot down the enemy plane in person. At the same time, they will work harder to shoot into the air, trying to shoot down those German bombers that are still hovering in the air.

The hard work paid off. When the German bomber formation could not hold on and was about to flee the battlefield, an unlucky bomber was hit by the artillery fire on the ground and exploded in the air. The German pilots did not even have time to parachute, so they followed the plane It was blown to pieces, and together with the burning aircraft fragments, it floated down from the air.

  Not only was the vicinity of Sokov's headquarters bombed by enemy planes, but even the Steppe Front Army attacking from the northwest and the Voronezh Front Army troops attacking from the north were also bombed by enemy planes.

  Enemy planes formed in pairs, ready to attack advancing Soviet tanks, or crowded infantry formations. But the enemy plane's attack did not last long, and it was attacked by the Soviet fighter planes that rushed over. The German bombers were no match for the Soviet fighters at all. After a melee in the air, they fled back to their own airports.

  (end of this chapter)