Chapter 2173

  The main reason why the Soviet army's offensive originally scheduled to launch on January 20 was brought forward to the 12th was to rescue the Allied forces that were being attacked in the Ardennes area from danger. Therefore, the scale of troops invested in the attack this time is unprecedentedly strong.

  The first offensive force was Marshal Konev's Ukrainian First Front Army. Their battle started 180 kilometers south of Warsaw. With the support of powerful artillery firepower, the Soviet army at the Sandomierz landing field swarmed out and rushed towards the German defense line. At the end of the first day of fighting, a gap as wide as 50 kilometers appeared in the German defense line. General Walter Nehring, commander of the German 24th Panzer Corps, had to concentrate the remaining troops in the Kielce area, preparing to rely on the troops here. Fortifications against Soviet attacks.

  Konev's troops were going well, but on his right flank, the attack of the 1st Belorussian Front commanded by Marshal Zhukov was not so optimistic. The 8th Guards Army under the command of Chuikov launched an attack on the German army with the Magnusev landing field as the starting point of the attack. The German 173rd Infantry Division and the newly formed 337th People's Grenadier Division stubbornly blocked their attacks, defeating Zhukov's plan to quickly wedge into the German defense.

In Poland and East Prussia, the troops of the Belarusian Third Front under the command of Cherniakhovsky, after replacing the original Baltic Front, launched an attack on the Inster River Basin in accordance with the order of the Supreme Command. Rush towards Königsberg.

  But unexpectedly, just before Cherniakhovsky's troops were about to launch an attack on the German army, several soldiers defected, and they revealed the Soviet army's offensive plan to the Germans. The German commander was taken aback when he heard the news, and quickly ordered the 3rd Panzer Army and 4th Army at the front to leave a few observation posts on the first line of defense to monitor the movements of the Soviet army. Withdraw to the second line of defense.

The artillery of the Belarusian Third Front, who knew nothing about this, carried out fierce shelling towards the frontline positions of the German army according to the original plan when the attack time came, but they never dreamed that the shells fell into the empty space. The one-man position did not cause any substantial losses to the German army at all.

  After the artillery preparations were over, the troops of the Third Front charged towards the German positions. But as soon as they approached the German position, they were hit head-on with fierce firepower by the German officers and soldiers who returned to the position. Just when the attacking infantry was beaten up, the tanks of the German 5th Armored Division arrived and carried out a one-sided massacre of the Soviet commanders and fighters who were suppressed in front of the position.

  The task of the Belarusian Second Front Army commanded by Rokossovsky was to seize the Danzig area and separate East Prussia from the rest of Germany.

The troops responsible for the assault from the Puutusk landing site are the 48th Army under the command of Sokov. His left and right wings are the 3rd Army and the 2nd Assault Army. Is the enemy facing the front in the town of Puutusk? The 129th and 299th Infantry Divisions to the north, and part of the 5th Jäger Division. The main force of the 5th Jaeger Division, guarding the defense line south of the town of Pultusk, is bordered by the 35th Infantry Division, and behind them are the 232nd Infantry Division and the 592nd Volksgrenadier Division.

  In order to ensure the success of the assault, Rokossovsky used the 65th and 70th Army Groups and the 5th Guards Tank Army as the second echelon. It is planned that on the second day of the battle, two combined armies of various arms will be put into battle. The 5th Guards Tank Army will let it fight on the fifth day of the battle. By then, the main resistance force of the German army has basically been defeated. A chain of towns and, after capturing the Danzig region, reached the Baltic coast.

   As a wartime marshal, Rokossovsky knew very well that if he wanted to quickly break through the German defenses, he had to rely on powerful artillery firepower. In order to do this, he asked Sokolski, the artillery commander of the front army, to assign 240 cannons or mortars per kilometer.

   While Rokossovsky's troops were actively preparing for battle, the enemy on the opposite side suddenly launched an artillery attack on the Soviet artillery positions. After receiving this information, Bogolyubov realized the seriousness of the problem, and hurriedly reported to Rokossovsky himself: "Comrade Marshal, there seems to be something wrong."

  The battle was imminent, and the strings in Rokossovsky's mind were tense. Hearing what Bogolyubov said, he couldn't help but thumped in his heart, and then asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, what happened?"

   "I just received a call from the artillery commander, General Sokolski, saying that some of our artillery positions were suddenly shelled by the Germans."

   "How is the situation?" Rokossovsky frowned when he learned that the artillery position had been shelled: "Is our artillery loss a lot?"

   "Not big." Bogolyubov shook his head and said, "Only the artillery of a few small positions were destroyed, and most of the artillery positions were still intact."

Rokossovsky couldn't help heaving a sigh of relief when he learned that the artillery losses were not large, but he then raised his own doubts: "Comrade Chief of Staff, tell me why the Germans chose to submit to the artillery at such a time." What about the shelling of our artillery positions? Did they discover our offensive intentions?"

"Comrade Marshal, our large-scale massing of troops must not be concealed from the German scouts." Bogolyubov said: "I just think the German shelling is very strange. It happened to be a few hours before our offensive began, and They also directly shelled our artillery positions."

   "Yeah, this is really strange." Rokossovsky asked: "Any updates from our intelligence department?"

"No, Comrade Marshal." Bogolyubov shrugged, spread his hands, and said helplessly: "I guess they should have just found out about this, and they must be more confused than us. How could the enemy be at this moment?" Shelling our positions."

  Rokossovsky thought for a while, and then said to Bogolyubov: "Chief of Staff, call Misha. He has a lot of ghost ideas, and he may be able to figure out what happened."

  After receiving the call from Bogolyubov, Sokov quickly thought about why the German army took the initiative to shell, and even the target of the shelling was the Soviet artillery position. Could there be some mistakes in it?

After some thought, Sokov remembered a document he had read, which seemed to mention that before the start of the Soviet East Prussia Campaign, several deserters appeared in Cherniakhovsky’s Third Front Army, After they fled to the German defense zone, they reported the attack plan of the Soviet army to the German army, which alerted the unsuspecting German army. In order to prevent being attacked by the Soviet army, they withdrew their main force from the position. , so that the shells fired by the artillery of the Second Front Army fell on the uninhabited positions.

   "Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov said into the microphone: "I think you should remember the Battle of Kursk?"

   "Of course, of course I remember the Battle of Kursk." Bogolyubov nodded and said, "But what does that have to do with the Germans shelling our positions?"

"Of course it is related." Sokov said: "Before the German army launched an attack on our army in Kursk, our army knew nothing about the German attack plan. But a German engineer who was responsible for clearing the way in the minefield After being captured, they revealed their attack plan to our army, which led Marshal Zhukov and Marshal Rokossovsky to make a decision to use powerful artillery fire to carry out a violent attack on the German army's assembly point."

  Bogolyubov originally thought that what Sokov said had nothing to do with what happened tonight, but after hearing his words, he immediately understood. He tentatively asked: "General Sokov, if I understand correctly, you mean that our offensive plan has been leaked to the Germans?"

"Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov nodded, and said in a positive tone: "I can conclude that if someone was not captured, then there was a defection. Those who understand the attack plan, once they fall The Germans will know that we are about to attack them. The reason why they are shelling our artillery positions now is to divert our attention so as to cover the withdrawal of their troops and be attacked by our army area."

After listening to Sokov's narration, Bogolyubov felt that what he said was very reasonable, and quickly reported to Rokossovsky: "Comrade Marshal, I have already asked General Sokov. He thinks it should be our army Some soldiers were captured by the German army, or there were defections, which led to the leakage of our army's offensive plan."

After finishing speaking, Bogolyubov felt that his expression was not clear, and quickly added: "He also said that when you and Marshal Zhukov were in Kursk at the time, based on the confessions of the German prisoners, you concluded that the German army was going to attack. conclusion, and carried out shelling in advance of the area where the enemy was concentrating."

   Hearing Bogolyubov mention Kursk, Rokossovsky couldn't help but fell into contemplation. After interrogating the German prisoners with Zhukov, he learned that the enemy would launch an attack on his defense zone in a few hours. After some discussion, it was decided to launch intensive artillery strikes on areas where the German army might gather.

  It is a pity that because the specific area where the German army was assembled was not clear, the powerful artillery strikes carried out did not achieve the desired effect. Although it caused a lot of casualties to the German army, it only delayed their offensive for a few hours, and did not completely disrupt their offensive deployment.

Perhaps to confirm the correctness of Sokov's speculation, an intelligence staff officer came over and reported to Rokossovsky: "Comrade Marshal, we have just received reports that some scheduled assembly areas have also been shelled to varying degrees. Fortunately, our troops have not yet started to assemble, otherwise there will definitely be a lot of casualties."

"Comrade Chief of Staff," the staff report convinced Rokossovsky that Sokov's analysis was correct, and he quickly ordered Bogolyubov: "While our offensive is still a few hours away, immediately send Scouts, scout the German positions to see if they have withdrawn from the first line of defense."

   "Okay, Comrade Marshal, I will arrange it immediately."

Just as Bogolyubov was arranging manpower to conduct reconnaissance on the German positions, Sokov also called Sidolin to him and said to him: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the situation has changed, the Germans may have noticed our According to my calculation, they will withdraw the first-line troops to the second line, and when we start the artillery preparation, the shells will fall on the empty positions."

It has not been a year or two since Sidolin and Sokov partnered. Naturally, they understood what the other party meant, and quickly nodded and said, "Okay, Comrade Commander, I will immediately arrange manpower to conduct reconnaissance on the German positions and find out the details. Case."

  Two hours later, that is, one hour before the artillery preparations before the offensive began, Sidolin received intelligence from the front-line scouts.

After seeing the contents of the telegram, Sidolin said to Sokov: "Comrade commander, your judgment is correct. After verification by the scouts, the enemy in front of us has indeed withdrawn from the front line and is hiding in their camp. Second-line positions, prepare to avoid our shelling."

  Potapov, who just arrived not long ago, heard Sidolin say this, and immediately asked Sokov for instructions: "Comrade commander, what should our artillery do, please instruct?"

"If we continue to bombard the first-line positions according to the original plan, it will be a waste of shells." Sokov said thoughtfully: "I think it's okay, first bombard the German front-line positions for ten minutes, and then stop the shelling, so that our The infantry charged."

"What, let the infantry charge after ten minutes of shelling?" Potapov was shocked when he heard Sokov say this: "Comrade Commander, ten minutes of shelling will do nothing at all. We can’t destroy a few of them, and launching an attack hastily may cause the attacking troops to pay a lot of casualties.”

   "Misha!" Ponedelin said to Potapov with a smile: "Don't worry, just listen patiently to the commander. The tactics he used have completely subverted our old military common sense."

Hearing what Potapov said, Potapov could only remain silent, and patiently listened to Sokov continue to say: "The enemy will definitely transfer troops from the second line of defense back to the first line when they see our army launching an attack. The front line, to stop our attack. At this time, our artillery can carry out violent shelling on the moving enemy, which can cause huge casualties to the enemy. After a period of shelling, stop near the German positions Infantry, charging again, can easily break through the enemy's defenses."

  All that Sokov said was indeed a very strange theory for Potapov, who had just left the German prisoner-of-war camp for a short time. Seeing the expressions of the people around him like this, he seemed to be used to Sokov's tactics for a long time, so he said with a wry smile: "I really didn't expect that after staying in the prisoner-of-war camp for a few years, I couldn't keep up with the situation. Look If I have the opportunity, I still want to apply to study at the Frunze Military Academy."

"Misha, you don't have to be so inferior." Ponegerin explained to him: "Among so many army commanders, only our commander likes to be ingenious in combat. In fact, the tactics used by other commanders, It is still the same set that we are familiar with. Of course, using the old tactics to fight a war is peaceful and stable, and there is no need to worry about making mistakes, but the results that can be obtained are very limited. The commander's tactics are not only ingenious, but often can achieve Unexpected effects, after you stay for a long time, you will get used to it."

  (end of this chapter)